Hey everyone! I’m back again for the depths of college to bring you a follow-up post to Shaun’s earlier blog (which was inspired by yet another blog…) Yeah, nothing on the internet is original these days. The sooner you accept that the better; you’ll live a much fuller life.

Anyway! Let’s get down to some specifics. For my list, I’m only going to count games I’ve completed more than once. For example on on my second play-through of Fire Emblem: Awakening (AKA my “bang a 12 year old girl to have half-dragon babies” play-through) but have yet to finish it a second time; so it won’t be on this list. I also count remakes as “second play-throughs”. Are remakes the same game as the original? No. But if all I wanted out of them was the newly added content, I’d probably have just looked it up on Youtube. So I count those as extra playthroughs with bonus content. That being said, here’s my list of games that, due to one reason or another, warranted some extra playthroughs from me. I doubt this is all of them, but it’s all the ones that come to mind…

Wolfentein 3d

Times Beaten: 2

This is a classic for me, and was the first “real” game I ever got to play (Math Blaster and such aside). I wasn’t even old enough to play it myself, as my mother used to navigate the levels for my brother and I while we’d man the “shoot” button to take down the bad guys. Some might accuse her of being a horrible parents for letting us play such a game while we were young, but those people can also go to hell. Wolfenstein 3d was not only a great way for my young brain to learn spacial relations and how to navigate a 3d environment (a skill everyone uses) but it was also a wonderful way to bond with my mother and learn to work as a team with her. If I had a certain direction I wanted to go, I had to communicate it with her; and if either one of us failed, we died. So you can understand why I was excited to learn the good old Wolfy was back and released on the iOS. Since the version we had for our old computer only had the original 3 chapters of the game, which concluded with killing Hilter in a Mech Suit, I more or less consider that the “whole game”. Even though technically Wolfenstein 3d also comes with three additional chapters from Spear of Destiny.

Conker’s Bad Fur Day

Times Beaten: 2

This is yet another classic for me, as I spent a great deal of my Jr. High/High School years playing it. For those of you who don’t know, it was Rare’s swansong for the N64, and featured a cute little squirrel named Conker who suddenly found himself thrust into one of the most ridiculous  vulgar and violent situations you can imagine. The game played homage to COUNTLESS other properties. Including Dracula, Alien, Terminator, Saving Private Ryan The Godfather and The Matrix, just to name a few. An entire mountain made out of poop with a giant singing poop monster in the middle of it? Yeah, Conker had that. A brutal war between cute little Squirrels and evil Teddy Bears? Yep, it had that too. The game was surprisingly meta, while still maintaining all the quality gameplay that you’d expect from a Rare game. The games multiplayer was also exceptionally fun, with me and my friends sinking hours into it in an eternal struggle to kill the “Einstein” level bots that could head-shot you with a pistol from across the map. Good times. The game was later remade an updated for the original Xbox. And while the single player was improved visually in a number of ways, they did drop the (in our opinion) stellar multiplayer from the original in an attempt to create a class-based multiplayer setting to mimic the other AAA titles. But such is life in the game industry sadly.

Mass Effect 1 & 2

Times Beaten: 3 for 1, 4 for 2.

I’m gonna lump these two together here, simply for the sake of saving space. I was not a Mass Effect fan when the first game came out. Indeed it wasn’t until the second game was on its way that I saw how interesting the universe looked and decided to give the game a try. As those of you who’ve played the series can more than likely attest too, Mass Effect has a way of drawing you in and keeping you coming back for more. And since I wanted to have completed every single little thing in each game before carrying my save profile over to the next one, I’ve had more than one “completionist” playthroughs as well as playthroughs on harder difficulties or with other classes. Oddly enough though, I’ve suck with the same character for every single playthrough; Zoey Shepard, a paragon Shepard who isn’t afraid to renegade people who deserve it or do what makes the most sense. I mean, lets be honest, who would sacrifice ships to try and help the Council who had otherwise refused to believe you at every turn? When you have to pick between stopping a galactic threat and saving 4 people who refuse to listen to you… the choice is obvious. Anyway… it wasn’t until recently that I even made a male Shepard, and even then I skipped Mass Effect 1 to do it. What can I say? I have a soft spot of Jack. 😦 Punk rock girls with hearts of gold are one of  my many weaknesses.

Left 4 Dead

Times Beaten: A Billion.

OK, so this one is a bit of a cheat. Left 4 Dead is one of those game where you’re supposed to play it over and over again. But I’m making a rare exception here on account of having invested a TON of hours into this game. According to my Steam profile, I’ve logged 105 hours of playtime into the first Left 4 Dead. Keep in mind, that’s ONLY the PC version of the game. If you were to add to that the hours I’ve invested into the Xbox version as well, I’m pretty sure I’d break about a week of game time. That’s one whole week STRAIGHT of my life that’s gone in L4D, 90% of which I’ve played as Zoey. There uh, might be a reason my Shepard was named Zoey Shepard and had the survivor background. I’m not always proud of my lack of creativity. lol.

Alice: Madness Returns

Times Beaten: 3.

It should come as now surprise that I’ve beaten Madness Returns more than once, I’ve done little to hide how much I love the game (despite some of its flaws). Most of my playthroughs have been to try to get achievements,  play the game on a harder difficulty, or simply to just show the game off to people who were watching me pay. No joke, I’ve played this game just to show it off. Does that make me a horrible friend? Probably. But somehow I’ll manage.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarana of Time

Time Beaten: 2.

What child growing up in the 90s didn’t play OoT? It was my first experience with the Zelda series and it was the one that finally showed me what all the hype was about. I fell in love with the creatures and settings, as well as the music. Now I wouldn’t go and say I’m a HUGE Zelda fan, as not all of the later games really drew me in enough to get me to play them (although I’ve considered playing Twilight Princess all the way through). There was just something about that original set up, with the sage and the temples, that really seemed to draw me in. Indeed, I’m still a firm believer that Saria is Link’s one true love, and that their tragic love is a story few people give the attention it deserves. Plus she clearly has the best song ever… And while I realize this may put me in the minority here, but the water temple was one of my favorite temples. Maybe it’s just because I like underwater stuff, which would probably explain why playing as a Zora in Majora’s Mask was so exciting for me. Anyway! I only got around to replaying this when they re-released it for the 3DS, which probably makes me a horrible Zelda fan, but whatever. I’ll live. Ocarana of Time will forever remain the definitive Zelda game to me. So I was especially glad when I saw that the game was the “breaking point” for the many Zelda timelines. Its position in the continuity is more important than any other, and its legacy will forever follow it. Which reminds me that I should probably finish up all that Master Quest stuff…

Well, there ya have it folks! Those are some of the biggest games from my long history as a gamer. Hopefully this’ll give you all a glimpse into my formative years and into the kind of taste I’ve got. I’d highly suggest playing any of these if you guys/gals haven’t already, as they are all more than worth it to go through at least once!