Let's Talk about REPLAY VALUE

[digitalpress]

So here we are, about a month after Christmas. A few games I got around that time, and just before are already boring. One or two I'm still playing with, one or two I haven't even started.

So think back to the games you got in the month of December and tell me: what games are you already bored with, what games are you still playing, and what games have you not even started yet!

Then... think back to a YEAR from now and answer again.

[Regus]

I did not buy it in December ( actually a few days before ), but I've just about lost all intrest in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. It only took me a week to beat it, and once I did, I put it down and have not touched it since. But I'm not saying it's a bad game, but this is in comparison to GTA3, a game which held my interest for more than six months.

[kainemaxwell]

I had gotten Vice City before Xmas and I still play it myself. My step-father's enjoying MK: DA now and I've gotten back into Castlevania Chronicles again too. Now I gotta show my DC some love.

heck I still need to get back into my other RPGs, and even start BoF3 since getting my PS2 and games last Summer!

[scooterb23]

I got the OddworldXBox game for Christmas...I don't think I got interested enough in it to even play it yet

I've stopped playing the Monkey Ball games...after beating every level of both games (FINALLY!!!) I just do not want to play anymore (until I get SMB Jr. for my GBA )

Other than that, I'm mostly just grooving on all my new sports games...those are keeping me plenty busy

[maxlords]

Then... think back to a YEAR from now and answer again.

How does one think back to a year from now? Damn it Joe, you sold your collection for a Delorean with anifty time travel device didn't you!

Honestly....I got a LOT of stuff in December (mostly older stuff though) and I haven't even made it thru half of it yet. I assume you're talking about new games tho.

Still playing: Suikoden 3, Robotech: Battlecry

Haven't gotten to: Wild Arms 3, Stretch Panic

Already set aside indefinitely: Luigi's Mansion, Metroid Prime (which I DO plan to play thru again), Gradius 3 & 4

I really haven't bought a lot of new games...I've found that more and more often I find less and less appealing about most of the new games out there, so I've significantly curbed my buying on new games. There are a few I don't have yet that I want though..most nootably: Fatal Frame, Vampire Night, Ninja Assault, Time Crisis 2, Rygar, and Panzer Dragoon Orta

[Arcade Antics]

December: got MKDA for Xmas and am still busy playing it, quite a nice surprise. Most other game acquisitions during December were mediocre old NES games that quickly grew tiresome.

A year ago? A year ago it was all about Dreamcast. A year later, it pretty much still is. THIS December I finally beat Mars Matrix, and for some reason am still going back to it over and over again. Samba de Amigo made a brief return in December, but the old standbys remain Power Stone 2, Tennis 2K2, House of the Dead2, Confidential Mission, Crazy Taxi 2, Mars Matrix Mr. Driller and Jet Grind. There are plenty of other DC games that make the rounds quite often, but these few stick out as being fairly universal in their appeal. I mean, who *doesn't* love jumping from skyscraper to skyscraper in a taxi?

[WiseSalesman]

I only received two game for Christmas (and through all of december, really, xmas drained me...no more money :-( ) But, I got Devil May Cry and Contra: SS for christmas...I finished devil may cry onabout the 8th or 9th of January, started playing through normal mode (and getting all the secret missions), got bored with all the leveling up and put it aside. Contra...blah, I don't know...I'm not sure why, but I just don't enjoy playing the game all that much. It's either the scrolling levels (like the motorbike one) or the graphics, but I just don't like it as much as I did the old one....I played it a couple of times and put it aside instantly.

[Chunky]

Juat started CronoCross.

Still playing: all the DDRs, Bust a move 2(saturn, only one i got), Activision anthology, gallop racer.

Down for the count: red fraction 2?, kingdom hearts, metropolis.

[Nature Boy]

Good question...

Well, this Xmas I got Splinter Cell, Tiger Woods 2003, and Legend of Zelda GBA.

Played a little SC and TW when I first got them, but put them aside until I finished with Munch's Oddysee and Eternal Darkness. Since MO and ED are done I've picked them up again. LoZ I played a lot at the inlaws, and for awhile back home, but it's been set aside until my next GBA gaming spree.

Games I bought and haven't played yet over the year:
Morrowind, FF X, Silpheed. Waiting until I finish SC before starting FF X/Morrowind. Won't play with Silpheed much until TW is out of the way.

The games I replay the most are the sports games. I still play World Series Baseball and Madden 2002 and NHL 2002. TW 2003 will be like that. Great when a buddy is over. The other types of games don't get much replay time at all. I'm all about trying as many games as possible, not replaying older ones. Unless of course I decide to halt vg spending totally. Then I'll go back and play ED again for sure.

[bargora]

In December I received Activision Anthology, Run Like Hell, and Virtua Fighter 4 as Christmas gifts. I also bought Steel Battalion and Gekioh Shooting King.

Run Like Hell: Not yet started
Virtua Fighter 4: Not yet started (because I'm still working on VF2)
Activision Anthology: Now playing semi-regularly.
Gekioh Shooting King: Played for a couple of sessions, filed away for mastering later.

It's been hard to get PS2 time in, because my wife always wants to drag it into the bedroom to watch movies on it (I know, I should buy a cheap DVD player). So I've been playing a lot of Steel Battalion, as well as Galactic Attack and Giga Wing, both bought earlier this year.

Last Christmas I got Red Faction, which still comes out to play once or twice a month. For some reason I can never get enough of chucking flamethrower fuel canister firebombs from the second floor of the deathmatch level "The Lobby" and cackling as my opponents burst into flames and run about shrieking. Take that, Lieberman. I wear a black trenchcoat when I do this.

Unreal Tournament (b-day gift in 2001) also still comes out to play a couple of times a month as well, mostly because it's so damn fast and still challenging when the bots are set to the highest difficulty (inhuman?). Bonus silly fun for after you've conquered Ice Station Zeto again: Slo-mo and lo-grav mutators, and grab yourself a sniper rifle in the Osiris domination level... For this I wear an orange tutu.

[Mayhem]

Hmmm... Zelda GC of course... though beat it... will be returning to it of course when the US version comes out

Still playing THPS4 and TS2 due to still more stuff to complete... that's being done gradually. From a year back, still playing Smash Brothers DX because it's just a great multiplayer romp

[kevincure]

The game I play the most is...still NBA2k1 on the Dreamcast. Recently, though, I've been working through a franchise on Madden 2003 and playing a lot of Rez. Intelligent Qube comes out quite a bit too - great game.

[YoshiM]

I got Timesplitters 2 and I'm still wading my way through that. That's really the only game I got for Christmas as a "gift" (my wife let me buy it when she got me the XBox).

The games I got from my Secret Santa are in the collection and the NES isn't on the playing table at this time.

Last year...hmmm...I don't think I really got games then. Got money, but I think that went to stuff my wife and I needed. I know I played the games Queen of Felines sent me for the first Secret Santa except for Dragon Quest IV, which sits nicely in its dusted box waiting for me to get an adapter. I know my group of friends chipped in on a GameCube and I played a lot of Luigi's Mansion, but that system went to a couple of my friends as the majority didn't like the system anymore and we got XBoxes instead.

[cerex]

i got metal gear solid 2 and tony hawk 4 for christmas managed to beat metal gear in about 3 days on and off playing it never really felt the need to replay it afterwords and tony hawk 4 always a fun game to play over and over again.