Recently I've been playing Chrono Trigger again for...I don't even know how many times this makes. It's one game that I see to come back to every now and again. There really isn't any other game that I do this with either. For some reason I just love this game. Do you all have a game that grabs your attention like this?
For me its the old school adventure games (Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, The Dig, Loom, Monkey Island 1 & 2, Kings Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest, Indiana Jones, Zak McKraken and the Alien Mindbenders etc.). Basically any of the old school Sierra or LucasArts Adventures. I grew up playing them and have gone back and played all of them MANY times. They just never get old. Some of the more modern games that I can play time and time again include the Baldur's Gate series, the Icewind Dale series, Warcraft III, Diablo II, etc. I go back and play Warcraft III every year or two. In fact, its actually about that time as I haven't played it in awhile. It just never gets old.
Whats really sad is that many gamers today have gotten so hooked on achievements and trophies that they no longer play any of the older games. If there aren't achievements or points to be had, they simply wont play it. One of my good friends is like this and an article was posted recently on Raptr that talked about addiction to achievements and many of the people that responded in the comments section openly admitted that they no longer play games that don't have achievements. Personally, I think its pretty sad as those people are no longer gaming for the sake of playing and enjoying the game, they are gaming for the sake of getting a higher gamerscore. For people like that, gaming has become synonymous with achievement hunting. They would rather play a Hannah Montana game and get an easy 1000 points than go back and play a classic that didn't have achievements. I couldn't imagine not being able to go back and enjoy some of the older games from my past. In all honesty, I would estimate that roughly 15-20% of my time spent gaming is spent playing older games.
Don't get me wrong, I think achievements add an interesting component to games and I myself enjoy going after them from time to time, as long as they are interesting achievements that add to the quality of the game. That being said, achievements for me are always secondary to enjoying the game itself and I would never let achievements dictate wether or not I will play a particular game.