Last game that cost you less than 1 dollar per hour to play?

Xanupox · Post by **Xanupox** » August 21, 2008, 7:00 pm

Is it me or does it seem like most games hardly pay out anymore or for that matter are even worth playing beyond the point of 1$ per hour of pure fun.

In the past couple decades I have come across some games that I put countless hours into, either for their random replay nature, epic character development or just online component that made it worth to play over and over again.

It has honestly been some time since I felt like I got something worth paying for, the last title for me must have been Company of Heroes and that was 2 years ago.

So the average game costs anywhere from 50-60$ now but when do you ever get 60+ hours of actual FUN and ENJOYABLE gameplay from these titles? Has anyone else found a game that breaks the ratio of 1$/hour of FUN anytime recently? If so, then what game was it?

Medieval 2 Total War w/expansion = probably 300-400 hours of fung gaming so far
Company of Heroes = 200-300 hours of gaming over the past 2 years
Rome Total War = 200-300 hours
Neverwinter Nights w/expansions 100-150 hours

Everything else seems to be over after 15-20 hours of play

Fash · Post by **Fash** » August 21, 2008, 7:37 pm

The Orange Box
Rock Band

Spang · Post by **Spang** » August 21, 2008, 7:55 pm

When I played Everquest, I think I purchased 2 other games during that 3 to 5 year span. Prior to Everquest, I probably purchased at least 1 game a month. I don't know if it's me getting older, or games just aren't what they used to be, but they rarely interest me, nor do they hold my interest if I decide to give them a try. I'd play another Hitman game if it came out, and that Spore game looks interesting.

To answer your question:
The Orange Box (Team Fortress 2)

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » August 21, 2008, 8:02 pm

Second Life!

-I don't think I played AoC for a full 60 hours.
-pretty sure I played CoV for 60+ but not much more
-Rappelz I played for more than 60 hours but I spent a hell of a lot more than $60 on it.
-Mass Effect was great but not 60 hours
-GTA IV potentially could be 60 hours but I quit in the 20's and haven't been back yet
-Bioshock was great but not 60 hours

Good question. Besides SL, not much makes it over 60 hours besides EQ which was a whopping ~9,450+ hours

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » August 21, 2008, 8:03 pm

A couple for me over the last few years. WoW, Shadowrun, Chromehounds, Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, Battlefield:Bad Company (I must've put in at least 60 on that one already)..

If a game has good SP and solid MP, then 60 hours of gameplay is quite easy to reach. For the rest, once I have the trade-in value factored in, they usually near the 1$/hr mark.

Xanupox · Post by **Xanupox** » August 21, 2008, 11:11 pm

Fash wrote:The Orange Box
Rock Band

I forgot about Team Fortress 2. I played that quite a bit for the first month but not much since. I'd guess 80-100 hours total maybe. That maybe worth going back and checking up on, probably lots of custom maps that could be fun.

Rock Band, I have for the 360 but I think I played it 2 nights. Paid/Downloaded extra songs for it too on the 360/Live. LOL. Oh well. Novelty game for me.

Truant · Post by **Truant** » August 22, 2008, 12:30 am

you guys adding in MMO's need to add in the cost of the monthly fee. 60+ hours in a MMO doesn't make it $1/hr if you paid a monthly fee to play it.

I have a set of old games I replay once a year, those have easily gone well past the $1/hr
LucasArts Monkey Island series
Sierra Quest for Glory series
I literally play the entire series once a year and still enjoy the heck out of them.

I had been logging some serious hours on NWN2 up until about a month ago. I'm really enjoying that game a lot. I just haven't had a spot of freetime in about a month.

I replayed the first KoToR several times. I've replayed the entire Final Fantasy series up through X at least once. The original Civ and Civ 2 got rediculous hours of play, as did the whole Total War series. Xou and I probably logged a bajillion hours on Quake multiplayer back in the day (CTF!). Star Craft and War Craft 3 have easily reached the $1/hr mark with multiplayer. GTA3 (edit: San Andreas) also reached that mark pretty easily.

So the short answer (you only asked for one game) is NWN2. I'm looking forward to logging some more hours into it too.

Fairweather Pure · Post by **Fairweather Pure** » August 22, 2008, 1:52 am

I think 1$ per hour is a decent gauge.

WoW and BC (I play at least 10 hours a week right now, been a lot more than that since Beta and will go up again with release)
Dawn of War and all 3 expansions (I still play these)
C&C3 and Expansion (I still play these)
TitanQuest (only 20$, HELL of a deal IMO) <----- currently playing this 2 nights a week with the wife, about 4 hours per night
Rock Band
CoD4

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I will be the first one to admit that I have dozens of games that I've bought that I don't play enough. Despite that fact, my pre Xmas list of 360 games is fucking huge.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » August 22, 2008, 2:40 am

Truant wrote:you guys adding in MMO's need to add in the cost of the monthly fee. 60+ hours in a MMO doesn't make it $1/hr if you paid a monthly fee to play it.

Start adding up my EQ fees and let me know when you get to $9,450.00! (over 4 years)

miir · Post by **miir** » August 22, 2008, 7:59 am

Winnow wrote:Second Life!

-I don't think I played AoC for a full 60 hours.
-pretty sure I played CoV for 60+ but not much more
-Rappelz I played for more than 60 hours but I spent a hell of a lot more than $60 on it.
-Mass Effect was great but not 60 hours
-GTA IV potentially could be 60 hours but I quit in the 20's and haven't been back yet
-Bioshock was great but not 60 hours

Good question. Besides SL, not much makes it over 60 hours besides EQ which was a whopping ~9,450+ hours

I have a hard time believing that you actually paid for any of those games except COV.

Kilmoll the Sexy · Post by **Kilmoll the Sexy** » August 22, 2008, 10:08 am

Call of Duty 4

150+ hours already on it.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » August 22, 2008, 10:25 am

miir wrote:
Winnow wrote:Second Life!

-I don't think I played AoC for a full 60 hours.
-pretty sure I played CoV for 60+ but not much more
-Rappelz I played for more than 60 hours but I spent a hell of a lot more than $60 on it.
-Mass Effect was great but not 60 hours
-GTA IV potentially could be 60 hours but I quit in the 20's and haven't been back yet
-Bioshock was great but not 60 hours

Good question. Besides SL, not much makes it over 60 hours besides EQ which was a whopping ~9,450+ hours
I have a hard time believing that you actually paid for any of those games except COV.

LRN2Read

Not paying for them helps lower the cost to less than $1/hr to play

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » August 22, 2008, 10:26 am

Xanupox wrote:So the average game costs anywhere from 50-60$ now but when do you ever get 60+ hours of actual FUN and ENJOYABLE gameplay from these titles? Has anyone else found a game that breaks the ratio of 1$/hour of FUN anytime recently? If so, then what game was it?

If you're paying $50 - $60 per game, you need to shop around more. I haven't paid over $40 for any game that wasn't a Collector's Edition.

Bubba Grizz · Post by **Bubba Grizz** » August 22, 2008, 10:30 am

I agree with all of the Total War series games being well worth the cost. I would also add to that list some other games such as:
Age of Empires and all expansions and remakes
Mechwarrior 4 with all expansions and addons
Civilization

I would add Madden to that list but since they stopped making it for the PC...Fuck EA Sports.

Ashur · Post by **Ashur** » August 22, 2008, 10:40 am

Nethack! (FREE!)
EQ (Duh)
EQ2
Mount&Blade

Conan might be a wash, not sure if I played it 50 hours

cadalano · Post by **cadalano** » August 22, 2008, 11:19 am

aside from what has already been mentioned...

Titan Quest
Diablo 2 (repurchased on the cheap, but even when i originally bought it I got my moneys worth)
Wii Sports (mentioned already?)

Sabek · Post by **Sabek** » August 22, 2008, 12:56 pm

Ashur wrote: Mount&Blade

This is supposed to go full release and no longer be beta in September.

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » August 22, 2008, 1:18 pm

Only thing I play now aside from the odd Madden or NHL console game is EQ2. I have put in some hours on that puppy...the 4-day raiding schedule attributes to that. ><

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » August 22, 2008, 1:31 pm

miir wrote:
I have a hard time believing that you actually paid for any of those games except COV.

I paid for those particular games.

Cost for a quality blank DL DVD = $2.25
Avg Playtime on Pirated 360 game: 30 minutes

I can't list any of those games per the $1/hour qualifier. It would really suck if I paid $60 for them. I can't even recoup the $1/hour for the blank media.

miir · Post by **miir** » August 22, 2008, 1:35 pm

Haha, touché.

lmnt9 · Post by **lmnt9** » August 22, 2008, 2:06 pm

WoW
EQ
(Easily played more hours per month than I paid per month)

Heroes III
Total Annihilation
Super Mario Bros
Wizardry
Gran Turismo

Hesten · Post by **Hesten** » August 22, 2008, 2:18 pm

WoW
EQ
GTA San Andreas
Mass Effect
Final Fantasy 12 (140 hours into it now)
God of War
Civ 4
Sam & Max season 1 and 2

Fairweather Pure · Post by **Fairweather Pure** » August 22, 2008, 2:25 pm

I've easily gotten 1$ per hour+ out of pretty much every Xbox Live game I have ever purchased, from Pac Man SE to Bejeweled 2. The only glaring exception being Braid.

Kwonryu DragonFist · Post by **Kwonryu DragonFist** » August 22, 2008, 5:55 pm

I played a lot of these (many hours)

Master of Magic (If they would make a new 2008 version of this i would play it even now)
Master of Orion 2
Heroes of Might and Magic 2-4 (Played Heroes 3 most)
Civilization 4
EQ (many hours)
WoW
Dawn of War
Diablo 2
Age of Empires
WarCraft 1-3
StarCraft (More hours than Warcraft 1-3 combined)

Clatis · Post by **Clatis** » August 22, 2008, 6:09 pm

sim city 2000

Nick · Post by **Nick** » August 22, 2008, 11:15 pm

A list of games that have given me over £1 an hour (that's 2$ for you lucky bastids!)

Sim City 3000
Goldeneye
Zelda:Ocarina of time
GTA San Andreas
Virtua Tennis 3
EQ
WoW
Guitar hero 3
Grim Fandango
Monkey Island games

Hmm, not that many actually that I can think of off the top of my head. GTA4 was a colossal disappointment after the first 10 hours. Talk about a game with no longevity/shit story - San andreas all the way tbh.

Xanupox · Post by **Xanupox** » August 24, 2008, 1:53 pm

Looking at this list, not many games from 2007-2008 on it.

I was hoping to discover a game that I missed over the past couple years, but it seems like no such luck.

I took a look at coming games, it seems like maybe Fallout 3 could have some promise. Empire Total War is due out early next year, maybe if they release a Battlefield 3 with fully destructable terrain/enviroment I would pick that up.

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » August 24, 2008, 2:11 pm

A new EQ expansion coming in October... Run out and pick that up!

Noysyrump · Post by **Noysyrump** » August 24, 2008, 7:50 pm

All 4 of the civ games combined easily blow passed any others for me. All 4 of them got so much play time it was near profit to buy them....

Europa Universalis III cost me 60+ bucks, and i had never heard of it when i bought it, however i have logged hundreds of hours starting at that map. Well worth the money i payed (was some collecters edition).

Nick · Post by **Nick** » August 24, 2008, 8:42 pm

Yes, Noysy is right. I forgot the Civ games, add them to the list.

Deward · Post by **Deward** » August 25, 2008, 3:56 pm

Xanupox wrote:Looking at this list, not many games from 2007-2008 on it.

I was hoping to discover a game that I missed over the past couple years, but it seems like no such luck.

I took a look at coming games, it seems like maybe Fallout 3 could have some promise. Empire Total War is due out early next year, maybe if they release a Battlefield 3 with fully destructable terrain/enviroment I would pick that up.

I am a huge fan of the Fallout series but I think the new developer will fuck it up. I didn't like their previous games all that much.

Only game I am really looking forward to at this point is Spore.

Gonzoie - Luclin · Post by **Gonzoie - Luclin** » August 27, 2008, 12:21 am

Final Fantasy 10. I got the most bang for my buck out of this game on ps2, because i decided to completely remake the sphere grid. 114 hours is the most i've ever spent on an offline game.

The rest would be your normal, starting with what opened the door to online gaming for me, Starcraft, Quake3, EQ, WOW, CoD4, Orange Box, and ill toss Diablo 2 in there because i only bought it for 8 bucks.

There are a lot of other games that i felt were worth my purchase, but still haven't and will probably never amass > 50-60 hours of gameplay on them.

cadalano · Post by **cadalano** » August 27, 2008, 2:01 am

Left 4 Dead will be awesome as long as you have friends to play with. you pussies probably dont even know what Left 4 Dead is because you arent hardcore, unlike me

Aslanna · Post by **Aslanna** » August 27, 2008, 2:02 am

Any game that uses a letter/number in place of a word sucks by default.

miir · Post by **miir** » August 27, 2008, 11:26 am

cadalano wrote:Left 4 Dead will be awesome as long as you have friends to play with. you pussies probably dont even know what Left 4 Dead is because you arent hardcore, unlike me

I'm so hardcore that I'll be getting Left 5 Dead.

Lynks · Post by **Lynks** » August 27, 2008, 11:31 am

I'll be getting Left 4: Dead

Kaldaur · Post by **Kaldaur** » August 27, 2008, 7:33 pm

The Myst-like sequel, "Left. 4 Dead?" will be released in six months.

Pherr the Dorf · Post by **Pherr the Dorf** » August 29, 2008, 12:41 pm

Zelda, Mario, GoW

I also just rebought Gothic !! for 7 dollars on amazon!

Nick · Post by **Nick** » August 30, 2008, 12:24 am

Is Gears of war worth buying? Or it's incoming sequel? Or is it worth buying GOW and then also GOW2?

I ask because I saw the ads and I thought that it looked like a cool sort of war related shoot'em'up, but it had really retarded steroid riddled characters (at least in the ads).

Is it a good game? I'm asking because I probably hold you guys opinions over the normal gaming websites, which seem to be more into games than I am, and will thus give any old piece of shit a good score.

Edit: Also, Max Payne. I know it didn't take 40 hours to complete, but Max Payne the first is a about as good as it gets.

*~*stragi*~* · Post by ***~*stragi*~*** » September 5, 2008, 2:13 pm

Kilmoll the Sexy wrote:Call of Duty 4

150+ hours already on it.

heck yes i am level 55 i have a gold deagle and all my custom classes have the word dong in them

*~*stragi*~* · Post by ***~*stragi*~*** » September 5, 2008, 2:14 pm

Nick wrote:Is Gears of war worth buying? Or it's incoming sequel? Or is it worth buying GOW and then also GOW2?

I ask because I saw the ads and I thought that it looked like a cool sort of war related shoot'em'up, but it had really retarded steroid riddled characters (at least in the ads).

Is it a good game? I'm asking because I probably hold you guys opinions over the normal gaming websites, which seem to be more into games than I am, and will thus give any old piece of shit a good score.

Edit: Also, Max Payne. I know it didn't take 40 hours to complete, but Max Payne the first is a about as good as it gets.

it's good but it's 1000x gooder if you have someone to play it with co-op.

*~*stragi*~* · Post by ***~*stragi*~*** » September 5, 2008, 2:15 pm

cadalano wrote:Left 4 Dead will be awesome as long as you have friends to play with. you pussies probably dont even know what Left 4 Dead is because you arent hardcore, unlike me

ive already got it FAG

Truant · Post by **Truant** » September 5, 2008, 2:41 pm

*~*stragi*~* wrote:
Nick wrote:Is Gears of war worth buying? Or it's incoming sequel? Or is it worth buying GOW and then also GOW2?

I ask because I saw the ads and I thought that it looked like a cool sort of war related shoot'em'up, but it had really retarded steroid riddled characters (at least in the ads).

Is it a good game? I'm asking because I probably hold you guys opinions over the normal gaming websites, which seem to be more into games than I am, and will thus give any old piece of shit a good score.

Edit: Also, Max Payne. I know it didn't take 40 hours to complete, but Max Payne the first is a about as good as it gets.
it's good but it's 1000x gooder if you have someone to play it with co-op.

Yeah, Gears was extra awesome in coop. Xou and I did some awesome stuff together.

Animalor · Post by **Animalor** » September 7, 2008, 1:26 pm

I reached this mark with Too Human yesterday.