games that took over your life

few years ago i bought fallout 3  the game of the year edition . for six months it took over my life to such a degree i worked everything around me so i had time  to play on it . never before has  a game had me so captivated that i stop up 3 in the morning only to have to get up at seven for work  . it turned me from a jock to a nerd and i loved it . so what game effected your life that you just  couldn't stop

When I was younger Zelda: The Ocarina of Time was the one that did it for me

More recently I found Red Dead Redemption difficult to tear myself away from

both Fallout 3 and new vegas TBH and most of the zeldas! But especially Majoras mask

also FFX VII, X, XII

A PC game called Darklands was the first.

Sensible Soccer on the Mega Drive was the second.

Championship Manager 1995-'96 was the third.

NHL '04 was the fourth.

Since then, I'd probably only say Skyrim + XCOM. Games just don't grip me as much now that I'm a grown up.

Spyro the Dragon - the trilogy on PS1.
Football Manager 2007/08/09.
Europa Universalis 3.
GTA Vice City/GTA San Andreas/GTA IV.

Like Azzy though, games don't tend to grip me so much now I'm older.

agree with zelda . when i bought a N64 i did the two zelda games and goldeneye to death but nothing compared the amount of time fallout 3 occupied me

GTA 5

BamBam wrote:GTA 5

Not remotely amusing. And prepare for disappointment, it's not as good as the hype purports.

Its up to a viewer or game players tastes and likes, as to whether a tv show or video game is great, good or bad. It might be as good as the hype or it might not but I'd rather wait n judge for myself, rather than being told its not worthy of the hype, by a person working on the game. I know someone who works in the gaming industry in leamington spa, he becomes tired n bored of games he's working on, even the best games they've developed and not even released yet. As I said before, its like cooking a meal for someone for hours, you finally get round to sitting down and eating it and you don't actually then want it.

I've always loved the GTA games n see no reason why this won't be any different.  

I understand where you're coming from, my friend only works on the signs in the game, he designs their look then hands it over to the coders for actually coding them. His work on it is done now he just gets to play the thing. But I bet playing at the office isn't as fun as playing at home, you're right.

However, my point still stands, you can't say GTA V 'took over your life' when the game hasn't even been released yet

know what you mean Azzy, I'm looking forward to playing it but not that much

Forgot the Football Manager games as well but people have already listed these. I'veliterally gone without sleep some nights after saying 'just one more game' at the final whistle each time I play

I've started playing FM12 this last week, I forgot I had a save game where I had Bromley in the BSS playoff final. Since last Friday I've won that playoff final, and took them top of the conference with 6 games to go. I cannot stop myself.

Championship Manager and Football Manager basically ruled my life for about 3 years. The other one that totally dominated my time was Tomb Raider. I absolutely loved that game. I used to play it constantly with Oasis on repeat playing in the background!

My brother and I used to play a save game on CM when Middlesbrough had signed Emerson and Ravanelli. I was Boro, he was Newcastle, we got about 70 years into it just by playing it night and day for 2 years.

Ever incarnation of FF has made me lose a good few weeks (sadly I downloaded 1 thru to 9 on ps vita).

Also Populous: The Begining was a real bitch for making me lose track of time, as I spent ages just building tribes etc, and often had to force myself to go to bed as I had school in a few hours time.

Azzy Mahmood wrote:My brother and I used to play a save game on CM when Middlesbrough had signed Emerson and Ravanelli. I was Boro, he was Newcastle, we got about 70 years into it just by playing it night and day for 2 years.

Me and my 2 flat mates at uni used to play FM through the night and through the day. We used to get up to like 2085!! It used to have the Addictiveness Rating, i remember it saying "you need to go outside" or something of that nature!!

Yes, there was 'remember to take a shower', 'can you remember your girlfriend's name' and stuff like that. Touches that are lost in the huge expanse of game that FM has become.

As a kid StreetFighter 2 and Super Mario world.

The latter is still my favourite game of all time.

Azzy Mahmood wrote:

BamBam wrote:GTA 5

Not remotely amusing. And prepare for disappointment, it's not as good as the hype purports.

Ha, I legitimately meant GTA 4, fat fingers and not looking before I post!

BamBam wrote:

Azzy Mahmood wrote:

BamBam wrote:GTA 5

Not remotely amusing. And prepare for disappointment, it's not as good as the hype purports.

Ha, I legitimately meant GTA 4, fat fingers and not looking before I post!

Azzy doesn't take any prisoners  

Azzy Mahmood wrote:Yes, there was 'remember to take a shower', 'can you remember your girlfriend's name' and stuff like that. Touches that are lost in the huge expanse of game that FM has become.

It still has them, at least in FM12 it does.

Yep, no second chances with me

So many games would qualify for this, but off the top of my head:


World Of Warcraft
Super Mario Bros 1, 2 & 3
A Link To The Past
Resident Evil
Bioshock
Dark Souls

No regrets with any of them mind, well apart from WOW as I'm still letting them take out £10 a month for it.

Going to show my rapidly advancing years but here goes-

Dino Dini's Player Manager on the old Amega 500
Broken Sword (PS1)
Championship Manager (PC)
Mafia (PC)
GTA San Andreas (PC)
RDR (360)

Plenty more but these are the ones that spring to mind at the moment.

Yes mate, mentioning BrokenSword on here. Legend.

Absolutely loved the game, epic adventure. You still play the series? Fifth installment comes out in October on PC (Serpent`s Curse).

FF Vll, 1st game I had on ps. Man i loved that game. Also used to play Madden almost constantly throughout my summer holiday when I was younger.

I got Skyrim: Oblivion for Christmas a few years back. Decided to put it on when I had a day off. I was only playing for what felt like an hour but when I looked at the clock I realised I had been playing for 6 and a half hours straight!!

Then I did the same thing the very next day!!

John wrote:Yes mate, mentioning BrokenSword on here. Legend.

Absolutely loved the game, epic adventure. You still play the series? Fifth installment comes out in October on PC (Serpent`s Curse).

I played the 2nd one and had a go with the 3rd but it was round a friends so never got into it. Downloaded the first one last year for my Mrs who had never played it before.

Been keeping an eye on the new Serpents Curse. Hoping that by being 2D like the original it won't need too high a hardware spec as our laptop is a couple of years old and isn't a great gaming spec machine. Do you know if they are releasing it on any other platforms?

LMA 2007 - when I lived by myself for about 6 months, I would come home from work every lunchtime to play it and play it from the minute I got home til bedtime for months and months!

Don't think BS is coming out on platforms, only on PC because of Kick starter. Yeah, the first & second BS are the best and this fifth installment apparently is timed in between the second and the third, so you didn't need to play the fourth. My laptop is three or four years old, it handles a FM2013 just, so not too worried

[quote="B91212"]

John wrote:Been keeping an eye on the new Serpents Curse. Hoping that by being 2D like the original it won't need too high a hardware spec as our laptop is a couple of years old and isn't a great gaming spec machine. Do you know if they are releasing it on any other platforms?

The spec requirements shouldn't be to bad considering its 2.5D but as yet nothing has been announced. As for the platform side of things well its currently a PC/MAC/Linux?Apple and Android release though early on they did say they wanted to look at consoles if possible and they have recently announced it would be coming to PS Vita, so who knows.

B91212 wrote:Broken Sword (PS1)

Helloooooooooooooooooooooo George!

Soccer Double II (Commodore 64)

Striker (SNES)

International superstar soccer Deluxe (SNES)

Champ Manager Series

GTA Vice City/San Andreas

most of mine have already been mentioned  but:

zelda
goldeneye
pro evo 4,5 and 6
final fantasy 10
most champ man/football managers
medieval war
skyrim

Azzy Mahmood wrote:

B91212 wrote:Broken Sword (PS1)

Helloooooooooooooooooooooo George!

That the woman from Hotel Ubu?

Super Mario Bros 3 and Super Mario World on the SNES
Mario Kart 64 on the N64
Fifa 2000 on original Playstation
Fallout 2 on the PC (years before Fallout 3)

These days it's just Fifa, alternatively Fallout 2 again on my laptop.

I still have a Nintendo 64 set up in my living room purely so when I feel like it I can play Goldeneye and Mario Kart

Shot 21 LCFC wrote:I still have a Nintendo 64 set up in my living room purely so when I feel like it I can play Goldeneye and Mario Kart

I genuinely still have my SNES set up in my living room purely so when I feel like it I can play Mario All Stars and Mario Kart  

Dass wrote:

B91212 wrote:

John wrote:Been keeping an eye on the new Serpents Curse. Hoping that by being 2D like the original it won't need too high a hardware spec as our laptop is a couple of years old and isn't a great gaming spec machine. Do you know if they are releasing it on any other platforms?

The spec requirements shouldn't be to bad considering its 2.5D but as yet nothing has been announced. As for the platform side of things well its currently a PC/MAC/Linux?Apple and Android release though early on they did say they wanted to look at consoles if possible and they have recently announced it would be coming to PS Vita, so who knows.

Thanks John/Dass. Will get it on at least on platform (PC/iPad/Vita).

Azzy Mahmood wrote:

B91212 wrote:Broken Sword (PS1)

Helloooooooooooooooooooooo George!

My mate had the addiction worse than me. I remember meeting him one morning at work (student jobs in Produce at a local supermarket) and he looked shocking. Turned out he had been on BS1 until 4 in the morning and we started the shift at 6am! He had even called a premium 0898 50p per minute tip line when he was stuck (this was before the internet was used for anything other than porn).

haha classic

World of Warcraft.

Took you long enough Fists.

Going back to the old school my old man lost a fair amount of time to Myth, Jonny Reb and Wizball on the C64, even to the point he bought a C64 emulator on his PC.

Dass wrote:Took you long enough Fists.

Ha, certainly took over my life for long enough mate!!

When I was young I used to play International Cricket Captain on my PSP endlessly.

Now I get into FM every now and again, but not really into many at the moment. But when Madden 25 arrives on Friday...

Olly wrote:When I was young I used to play International Cricket Captain on my PSP endlessly.

Now I get into FM every now and again, but not really into many at the moment. But when Madden 25 arrives on Friday...

It's already waiting for me at home  

I'll set up a thread here later and we can exchange notes.

I've already set up one in the American Football section.

Tell me these cheats you find again

Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast. Spent an entire Easter Break on my own in the student house playing that. Think I went mad by the end of it.