Games that gave you the most bang for your buck

As mentioned earlier the original Half Life. Having CounterStrike and Day of Defeat as my 2 main games for about 5 years will definitely put it in the best bang for my buck category. Not to mention when Steam came out, it transferred my Won ID so I was able to keep playing.... well once the whole "Steam updating" debacle got settled and I was actually able to play again.
A close second would be Battlefield 1942. I only played it for about 2 years but I really put my hours in for those 2 years.

Man BF1942 was fucking awesome. Back before the series tried competing with Call of Dootie.

Yeah, they've all been mentioned but I have to agree with the Civ(1,2,4), New Vegas, and Mount & Blade. You'd probably need to throw a few final fantasies in there tbh for completeness. Like FF3. Shit, I'd even put DA and DA:O on the list.

Didn't like Civ3 that much but it wasn't bad. Civ5 is a good effort and not a bad game but it's not a Civ game the way Civ1-4 were Civ games. Civ5 is really intended for one style of map and one style of play. For that map and for that style of play it's still a good game though.

Basically any decent core engine that attracts a vibrant and versatile modding community is going to be in the best bang for your buck category. You can see it from this thread too, regardless of genre. FPS, RTS, RPG. Most of these games listed sold as stable core engines with decent gameplay that werehighly moddableby amateur teams.

It's too bad that established, proven companies are moving away from that.

If you're a fan of space sims then I'd definately recommendX3. I've played it for nearly 150 hours this time round, and twice that over the years.

attog_sl said:

EQ we paid what, $30 for the box in '98 or '99 and what per month, $10? Played it for years and then sold the account for $1500 when I quit. I don't think any video game account will EVER again have the value that EQ did. I think I sold my FBSS alone for $150. Of course I camped that thing forever to get it too...

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Heh, Never sold my account, but then again I more faded out than decisively quit. Wonder what a mana stone or holgresh elder beads go for these days?

dassem_sl said:

SubSpace- didn't pay anything. Played for thousands of hours. A masterpiece of easy to learn hard to master game. SS is probably pretty obscure to most but the game is actually still alive. It had public beta start in 1996 and was released in 1997. Sure it's been "dying" for a decade. If it had good population I'd probably start playing some again. Some footage for the interested:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GzHQSGVkWc

World of Warcraft- Don't feel like totaling up the costs but again played for thousands of hours. Sold vanilla account for 1400 euros before tbc so costs got recouped with interest. Not much of a hourly wage thou.

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Wow, you are my hero for mentioning SubSpace. I LOVED that game. I had no idea it was still around in any form.

Civilization and Everquest

Final Fantasy Tactics- Cannot stress this enough. Was given to me in '99 as a present, played the everliving shit out of it when I initially got it. Have played it consistently over the course of 14 years. The soundtrack is incredible as well and I don't think I know any soundtrack as well as I know FFT's themes. This is one of the best entertainment values all across the board, hands down.
Demon's/Dark Souls
DMC series
Mass Effect 3 (MP)
Mortal Kombat/Street Fighter/Tekken of any version/platform/age

Shattered Galaxy
Total Annihilation
Uniball
Shattered Galaxy
Unreal Tournament - Strike Force Mod
Infantry - Warzone Alpha zone mainly
Dota 2
Shattered Galaxy
World of Warcraft
Shattered Galaxy
Shattered Galaxy
Shattered Galaxy
Shattered Galaxy

Nutron_sl said:

Shattered Galaxy
Total Annihilation
Uniball
Shattered Galaxy
Unreal Tournament - Strike Force Mod
Infantry - Warzone Alpha zone mainly
Dota 2
Shattered Galaxy
World of Warcraft
Shattered Galaxy
Shattered Galaxy
Shattered Galaxy
Shattered Galaxy

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Holy shit another SG player, what was your in game name? I was Atomix way back when.

I was killbot and killboticus! I still think making that game exactly as it was pre alien bullshit on a new engine would be the best game to play atm without a doubt :\

where did you play at? lvl caped nub planet or with the big boys? I was on argus for a couple of months where I ran a regiment called Dark Apocalypse. I then defected to Fiera cause my friend was the big bad overlord where I joined his regiment which i dont remember the name of. He quit shortly thereafter so I played with evil tofu the rest of my time in SG.