What games do you keep going back to?

Indulge me - I like this kind of thread :)

We've all bought games that looked like fun but got boring quickly. What games do you go back to months or even years later? This is in my mind because I loaded up the Call of Duty 4 demo the other day and thought Wow! But by the time I'd finished the demo the initial impact of the eye candy had worn off and I had no interest in buying it.

Here are the games that spring to mind for me:

Angband (http://rephial.org/) - free, cross platform Roguelike
Kingdom of Loathing (www.kingdomofloathing.com) - free cartoonish browser-based MMORPG
FastCrawl (http://www.pawleyscape.com) shareware, quick dungeon crawler/card battle

And what is it keeps you playing?

Age of Empires 2 (mainly the Conquerors Expansion).

Football Manager 2006 : I really hate it as I *know* Iit always ends in frustration.
Wesnoth
Shogun : Total War (even before Medieval and Rome).

Colin McRae 2... It's not realistic, and not even all that pretty by today's standards, but it's fast, fun and silky smooth. Just a real shame it doesn't support wide screen aspect ratios

Tiger Woods Golf... Um 2000 and something... Dunno which one bought it on budget and it's just good fun... All the later ones look exactly the same as far as I can tell anyway.

It's funny how alot of games people will go back to, are 2d ones. There's just something about 2d games that i really like :o)

Age of Empires 2 - The Conquerors
Colonization
KingPin
AvP 1 & 2

Hmm .. yes .. the ones I mentioned are all 2D. They are also all turn-based I realise - I like to relax playing games, no frantic clickfests for me.

Angband/UMoria
Master of Magic
Galaga
Ms. Pac-Man
"Gold Box" series RPGs

Timeshock!
Super Mario World (ZSNES)
Killer Instinct (MAME)
Super Bubble Bobble (MAME)
Super Street Fight 2 Turbo (MAME)
Ikaruga (on the Cube): After 2 years I can nearly finish it.
Soul Calibur 2 (again on the cube, I need a new console)

I used to have a fad for Jetmoto, but I've completely played that game out, I really wish someone would do another PC iteration of that game though.

I also do like SSX 3 a lot but it's limitations annoy me too much now and the last 2 challenges seem just too hard.

Darkheart

Combat Mission (all of them)
Counterstrike (source version now)
Day of Defeat (source version now)

Tetris, Driller2, Nethack, UAE ;O), ...

Zelda: A link to the past (SNES)
Super Metroid (SNES)
Secret of Evermore (SNES) << Cracking game!
Final Fantasy VII (PSX) << Graphics look very dated but still enjoyable :D

The old ones are the best!

I assumed it was just PC Games but if we're including All games then I'd like to list my Snes games as my all time favs that I still play.

Zelda
Super Mario World
Mario Allstars
Mario World 2 - Yoshi's island
F-Zero
Cybernator
Pilotwings
Axelay
Super Street fighter 2 Turbo
Donkey kong Country 1,2,3
ActRaiser
Castlevania 4 - Has some brilliant music

and various others in my collection. :)

[edit] Heres some pics of my collection

Dam, forgot about F-Zero and Super Mario World. Need to see if i can pick up the ROM's for them. My old SNES doesn't worky any more :(

Don't forget Mario kart and Super Star Wars. :)

Paradroid (C64)
Wizball (C64)
Split Personalities (Spectrum)
Bomb Jack (Spectrum)

I have played each of these at least a few times a year, every year, since their release (1985/6).

@dynaman

Only have Beyond Overlord but, now you have reminded me, that's going back on for the weekend.

pc games are slim on the ground
(new pc has sucky gfx and old pc is too much of a dog to run older new stuff)

but startopia
hogs of war (wont run on XP unless someone knows how to get it going it just says "not for NT") ive got it on psone too

and my limited "clasic" xbox games although most are FPS (doom3 unreal something or other) or tatio/capcom comps and i only do a few games on those

Combat Mission - might have another go myself. Love the mechanics - set up your moves for the next 60 seconds and watch how it plays out, rewinding as much as you like.

@ avon - wow do ppl still use spectrums?! I have my old 48K (bought in 1984) in the loft but dumped most of my games years ago. BTW I noticed on their website recently that the Pickford Bros (Naked War) worked on Hyperbowl for the Speccy which was one of my faves.

Thanatos, JetSetWilly, Ghosts n' Goblins (Amstrad CPC)
TimeTunnel (C64)
Castle Quest (Beeb)
SilkWorm, Paradroid 90(Amiga)

Bioshock may join the list. I really like the atmosphere it generates.

mkg- Haven't you experienced the joy of a well-tuned emulator? Just like the old thing bar the rubber keys.

Medieval II is the only one. I used to come back to oblivion on occasion but not since finishing Witcher.

World of Warcraft

otherwise - command and conquer generals (although I did get C&C3 for christmas).

Last Ninja 2.

The Quest for Glory series and Monkey Island 2.

Diablo (1 or 2)
Rollercoaster Tycoon 2

Medal of Honor Allied Assault

PC - Red Alert 2 (skirmish mode)
Amiga - Pinball Dreams

System Shock 1 and 2
Nethack
FreeCiv
Diablo
Metroid Fusion
Chaos Engine

:P

Age of Empires 2 - The Conquerors
Wesnoth
N :D

Never Winter Nights 1. Did SoU on NWN1, but never got around to getting Hordes of the underdark for NWN1, got NWN2 for christmas 15 months ish ago, but never really played NWN 1 quests. Now that you can set up a home wireless LAN for sweeties (albeit the lacquer variety) the quests in NWN 1 are great LAN fun.

Got the BARGAIN platinum edition of NWN gives you:-

NWN1, SOU, HoU, (there is a healthy and resurging online community for these) & NWN2

But, if I was to go back some, jet set willy has some interesting incarnations these days via free emulators. tried a jetpac remake recently, but it didn't compare to the 1984(ish) version.

For me, KOTOR 1 and 2. That is a great game to go back to after a while, so youve forgotten the fun decisions to make.

Some of my others are...
Oblivion
Burnout 2 (Fun crash mode)
Turok Rage Wars for the N64

and of course any mario party. I have every mario party, and it is like a tradition for me and my sisters, when they come home from college, to play them. On top of that, they are just very very fun.

Worms Armageddon. Nearly a decade later, and I still have the bloody thing installed on my PC.

I heard worms was a great game, but cant seem to find it in any stores. maybe im not looking hard enough.

Quake 3 Arena : DM17 - The Longest Yard map.

Wii Tennis ...

Xybots on MAME
Menace on AMIGA 500
Starcraft
Half Life
Worms
Schorched earth (DOS version :))

Hello.

Larn;
SSX Tricky;
Nudey Prod Games.

Goodbye.

Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe
WC3 TD / DOTA / TW

@genexi2 i blame you for this! I've spent all night playing Worms Armageddon! Bought it months ago from a bargain bin but it didn't work on XP so I threw it aside. Now I looked again and find that the devs still support it with patches and it's a marvellous game. An addiction is born! If my game doesn't get finished I'll be sueing you! :)

Warcraft 3 - Frozen Throne.

I played through the full campaign twice since it was released, but I still play single levels against the computer at least once a week.

(Takes about ~45 minutes or so, so a nice distraction)

Seriously, has nobody mentioned Civilization?
And I'd make another vote for AoE 2, but I've lost the disc.

None.

I've played Age of Mythology for quite some time. I've enjoyed this one more than the others.

command and conquer games, red alert2

Heroes of Might and Magic II, Everquest, BF1942.

Civ 2 is great but it always takes eternities to finish ... Thought I tend to play it again from time to time as I used the possibility to create 3 own designed units ... and they are quite funny ... a flying air carrier fortress ^^ and a submarine air carrier fortress ... I think the 3rd was a nuke truck like C&C Red Alert expansion ^^

Arcade :Killer Instinct, Popeye, Gyrus, Ghost n Golblins, Dragons Lair
All FinalFantasy and Mario Games on each plattform
C64: Paradroid, Boulderdash and many others (and Blue Max..it was my first Game on the C64 ^^)
Amiga: At the moment i play "Push Over" (level 93 iaiaiai)
PC: Nothing....ok the first doom and some cool casual games.

bye

Although I was disappointed from its "story" when it was released, I always go back to Half-Life 2 and its sequels. (I just finished playing them on my christmas-Xbox 360.) And every two years or so I even play the original Half-Life and the They Hunger mods again.

I guess that the Half-Life games are my all-time favorites, and it's probably because I like Barney, Dr Kleiner and some of the other characters so much. Oh, and of course the zombies. ;-)

Warcraft III: Frozen Throne is also an "old friend", and Unreal Tournament 2004 and Midnight Mansion (the only Mac-only game in the list).

Duke Nukem 3D
Its a fast-paced lightweight "pick up and play" game which loads up in an instant thanks to JonoF's Duke Nukem 3D Port

Oh I forgot 'Blood' and 'The Dig' on the PC.

Another vote for Age of Empires II.

Super Metroid and Doom. Not a lot of games I like that much.

Blood rocks.

The game that I keep coming back are

C & C Zero Hour
Blood Bros (abit like cabel but better)
Space Harriers
Swos :)

check this game out

www.hurrican.de

It is turrican game with better graphics :)

Hitman: Blood Money

Bought it twice for PC (first copy got lost), and getting it for my 360 soon since my PC is giving in..

Severance:Blade of Darkness(Best 3rd Person 3D Hack'n'Slash Action ever IMO)
Ultima Online Mondain's Legacy(I know it sucks since EA bought and "digested" origin but can't quit it)
Broken Sword 2(Best adventure IMO)
Starcraft Brood Wars(Multiplayer with my bro)
Pro Evolution Soccer 6 and 2008

Metal Slug series in MAME

Halo 1(xbox)
Vandal Hearts(Ps1)
Galaga(pc)
Not really old, but the original Super smash bros.

Colonization
FF VI (SNES)
Daggerfall
UFO

I'm a fan of the roguelikes myself... Nethack is my favorite tho. And I'm writing my own right now (in dot net... screw the cross-compatibility. :) )

Advance Wars Dual Strike (new one it out now I think!!!) on the DS

Master of Orion (1 only)

Elite

Worms HD (360 version right now)

Battlefield series for it's excellent online play