Fun factor: Thing of the past or wave of the future?

[Fatesealer]

Remember the last time a game was just hard to put down? One that was hard to put down after months, instead of weeks, or days? It;s like these days, most games have had shorter shelf life after beating them, in the middle of them, or simply getting started... my question: what was/is the last game that you have consistantly played for an enormous anount of time?

For me:
Katamari Damacy (for those stressful days)
Hot Shots Golf 3 (still trying to get over 15 under par on Mt Sakara)

[zionoverfire]

Freedom Fighters, every couple of months I find my way back to that thing.

[Scorch]

Halo 2 until I beat it, but not out of an addiction.. Fable caught my attention for a while.. Freedom Fighters on PC was great.. BG&E is great, and I'd love Prince of Persia if the puzzles weren't so hard.. well, not hard, but things just aren't fluid.. it makes you think! :(

[hiccupleftovers]

Chrono Trigger/Cross (but then again this has been always.)
BG&E
Katamari damci
Kingdom Hearts/Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories
Pokemon

[Mafia]

WWF No Mercy. I played that game just about every day for 2 years straight, for almost no reason. I just enjoyed beating the living piss out of the CPU. Got so good that it was almost impossible for my friends to beat me. Best finish was always when Monsta Mack would try to spear me, and I would counter into the guillotine choke for a tap out. Always pissed him off with that, and he still brings it up to this day.

[mtxbass1]

Disgaea...74 hours and still going.

Sonic Mega Collection...I can't get enough Sonic 1.

[peteloaf]

Mortal Kombat: Deception - I've unlocked everything about a month ago, but I'm still playin' it.

Quake - I haven't stopped playing it since I downloaded the shareware when it was first released.

Galaga - holy crap, I just can't stop playing it!!!

[dtcarson]

Heroes of Might and Magic III: Shadow of Death.
Still boot this one up on the PC sometimes.

[Wshakspear]

I just got Alien Hominid, and thats just plain old "I'm having fun! I'm throwing the controller at the wall!" Contra style gameplay. Katamari and Nights are the others for me.

[Birakon]

ninja gaiden is the only this gen keeping me coming back for more oh and halo 2 but its not very hard

[BigDirty]

Almost any music game, and I've got the gammut:

Amplitude
DDR (Any Mix)
Parappa/Lammy
Taiko Drum Master

The more polished and better sounding the game is has a lot to do with the fun factor. Like I would take Amplitude over Frequency any day just for the polish, and Parappa (PSX) over Parappa 2 (PS2) because of differences in music.

Other games I find to have a "fun factor" are those that can be played in short bursts, like THPS 1, 2/2x, and 3, where the 2-Minute drill is in effect, classic collections, and games that are social multiplayer (Poy Poy, Video Olympics).

[thegamer4787]

WWF No Mercy. I played that game just about every day for 2 years straight, for almost no reason. I just enjoyed beating the living piss out of the CPU. Got so good that it was almost impossible for my friends to beat me. Best finish was always when Monsta Mack would try to spear me, and I would counter into the guillotine choke for a tap out. Always pissed him off with that, and he still brings it up to this day.

I hear that, No mercy is one of my favorite games of all time, and definitely my favorite wrestling game ever.

[Journey]

Mine would have to be Katamari Damacy, Baulders Gate Dark Alliance, Champions of Norrath, and Beyond Good and Evil. The "fun factor" on games lately has been few and far between for me.

[Danimal]

I like seeing all these posts listing Katamari Damacy. Santa brought that one this year, but the kids and I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, so now I'm looking forward to it even more.

GTA: Vice City kept me occupied for about 6 months, and I'm nowhere near done with San Andreas yet. (My progress has been slow on those two because I only play them when my kids are at school)

[Eric467]

GTA SA and Kotor 2. I didn't want to complete them because I was enjoying myself so much.

[STATIC3D]

Simple...Burnout 3: Takedown

One of the BEST arcade style racing games with a great amount of control and Road Rage mode.

Even thou I picked BO3, Crash mode was better in Burnout 2, IMHO. You didn't "have" to hit the 2X or 4X icons to score high (or get Gold). In BO2 it was left up to the player to determine how and where to hit to cause the most damage. Plus, the scores/damage $ was higher...lol.

[javeryh]

This is an easy one... Super Monkey Ball. I spent months trying to do a perfect 9999 PP run and trying to top my best scores for each level. I still play it all the time and I don't think it will ever get old.

[AlbinoNinja]

GTASA, Timesplitters 2, and Dynasty Warriors 3

I spent months trying to unlock everything in TS2 and DW3. TS2 was perfect: not only did they have a rediculous number of unlockables, but the challenges were just so impossible... yet so fun. I would spend days trying to unlock duckman drake, or later the stone golem, but i never got ticked off at the game cuz everytime id get mad, i would just play a little Arcade Custom and my troubles would go away.

Anyone know of some PS2 games that are cheap and similar to Timesplitters (lots of unlockables)

*I would like to add the Ratchet and Clank series to my list, but once you finish getting all of the challenges (which took me a little over a month for 2&3, never got 1) its a shelf game.

[smalien1]

wario ware

[danny90044]

gta sa, vice city, 3, and even 2. i still play them all. part two just for the shocker, and the other three because i need to kill people in three diffrent virtual cities just to stay sane. final fantasy 7 and 9 because its like reading a good book over and over exept its not ass boring. everything else gets sold back to eb after i beat it.

[Hot Sizzle]

River city ransom, short and easy but sure is fun and brings back good memories

[gaelan]

ES3: Morrowind

I think it is just the nature of the beast that you be consumed by the Tamriel universe.

[lordxixor101]

Morrowind (or as I call it Morrowine since its been as addictive as heroine for me at times).

I think its very hard for a game now days to be addictive for over a month at a time. Back in the 16 bit days, I think 2 things were different that caused more addictiveness:
1) You were younger, you didn't have the money for a new game all the time. Now that your older, you can buy a new game every month, before, you were stuck playing your old games endlessly if you wanted to game.

2) Back before, all the good games came out in quarter 4. So, you had 9 months a year where there were few releases, and most were junk. So, you played your old games waiiting for other great games worth your time. The average game today is infinitely better than the average 16 bit game.

[Backlash]

2 player Rampart for the SNES. I played it every day my last semester of college.

[maxflight]

I gotta say warioware