Games that gave you the most bang for your buck

Doom
Duke Nukem 3D
Warcraft II
Unreal Tournament ('99)
Quake1/2/3

I'd spend just as much time messing with the level editors for them as I did playing them. I still havethis bookfor editing Doom levels.

HoMM3
Baldur's Gate 2
Diablo 2
Civ 4
Demon's Souls

Counter Strike is easily #1.

Then probably Starcraft 1 & 2, League of Legends & WoW.

Recently it's been Skyrim though, been downloading mods for it and replaying the hell out of it.

Most bang for the buck?

Legend of Faerghail
Diablo 1 (and 2 but played D1 far more)
Starcraft
Baldurs Gate 1

Also Everquest (and WoW) I guess, although both have great hours (much more in EQ for me) they had monthly costs so the best bang for the buck pales compared to the offline games. I played D1 SO much for 1-2 years. Only bought EQ on a hunch because D2 was delayed yet again in early 2001.

Best bang for the buck gets muddy now with all the F2P titles. While I did put some money into LoL it was only for skins, nothing gameplay related like champs or boosts. I played it almost daily for about a year. Been playing alot of PS2 the last half year, too.

LoL has to be near the top of (money spent / hours played) for me.

MvC2
NHL 04,10-13
Chrono Trigger (get nostalgic and run through it at least once a year)
Skyrim
ME1/2
Mario Kart Double Dash

Zodiac_sl said:

LoL has to be near the top of (money spent / hours played) for me.

Click to expand...

This game proved to me that I'm actually not that responsible with money


Browser games:

Astroempires
Realm of the mad god

1. EQ
2. StarCraft series/WarCraft 3
3. Civ series

Nothing else even comes close to the hours enjoyed versus money spent.

For me it would all be strategy type games:

Civ (various)
SimCity (various, but not most recent!)
Total War: Medieval 2
Railroad Tycoon (various)
Just Cause 2 (if only cause I paid nothing for it, and got a good 30-40 hours)
Supreme Commander/Total Annihilation series

EQ
Chrono Trigger
Shining Force
Simon's Quest
Ultima series
The Bard's Tale series
Galaga

Terraria without a doubt. Picked it up on a weekend sale for $2.50. Steam says I have 212 hours spent playing, and it has a new content patch due out soon which will steal even more of my time.

Sutekh_sl said:

Pretty much, but being the evil masterminds that me and my brother were at 12 and 15, he sent me in to the local Electronics Boutique that has used games, where I took a picture of a used copy of Half-life box that had the CD key sitting out and got it for free.

Click to expand...

+1, I should've done that. I hated the fucks that worked at my local EB in those days.

Actual list;
1 : Half-Life I (Between CS, Natural Selection, TFC, and HLDM, I probably put somewhere between 8500-10k hours into the engine for multiplayer. Some really amazing single-player mods, like They Hunger, extended the life of single-player as well.)
2 : Warcraft III (Footmen Frenzy and EoTA > *)
3 : Deus Ex: Human Revolution. (I think I've put in like 400+ hours just playing around, setting up stupid kills and what not. I just have a hard-on for Adam Jensen, the biotech in the series, and the atmosphere.)

So many (in no order):

FF6 & FF:Tactics
EQ
Counter-Strike
Civ4
Demon/Dark Souls
Q3 (between map making and Rocket Arena.. so many hours)
Street Fighter 2 & 4 (honorable mention for Alpha 1-3) -- also MvC2
GTA4
Starcraft BW
Mass Effect 2 & 3
Tekken 3
Daggerfall
HoMM series
Golden Eye / Smash Bros / Starfox 64 / WCW vs. NWO (all the good good 64 party games + wrastlin')
and... motherfucking Bushido Blade 1 & 2.

Paradox titles; Europa Universalis 3, Crusader Kings 2 and Victoria 2, mostly. Theyre ridiculously addictive for strategy/history nerds.

Of course quite a few MMOs sucked way too much of my time too, but given their higher costs and monthly fees, its harder to call them absolutely best value.

Well, MMOs decisively win for me although it is tricky if I work in opportunity costs. EQ and even WoW were hundreds (or, fuck me, thousands) of hours of play for relatively little cost. Still, I did occasionally skip money-making opportunities back in the EQ days so that should count against!

Modern stuff? Most games to be honest. Almost anything I play for more than ten hours is much, much cheaper than other entertainment I'd spend my time on.

Specific nods to Dark/Demon Soulses, most FFs, Borderlands I/II, all the RTSes ever, CivIV, the HLs, M:TG and Plants v Zombies.

Recently Gnomoria wins. I've put nearly 100 hours into it so far. Not bad for $8.

Tie Fighter
X-Wing
X-Wing Alliance
Borderlands 1 & 2
Titan Quest: Immortal Throne
Deus Ex 1
Oblivion
Skyrim
Dungeons of Dredmor
Diablo 1 & 2