GRcade

Recently I have an urge to replay certain games, TLoU is one as I would like to go through it before the sequel. The Batman Arkham Trilogy is another as I really enjoyed the series.

Alas, in this day and age, I rarely get more than 8-10 hours a week to play a game. With top quality new releases coming out almost weekly these days it’s hard to justify replaying something old when I could experience something new.

The last few games I replayed were due to it being a different version (Like a Remastered Edition) so in a way this felt like a playing a new release as they were upgraded versions.

So GR, do you replay games often? How do you feel about replaying something old vs playing a brand new game?

No. I don’t give a flying about playing games I’ve already played and experienced when there’s so much that I still have to sample, and apart from for financial savings reasons I must admit that I find people’s fondness for the games of their youth compared to sampling new ones rather strange. Nostalgia I get, the reiteration of past experiences at the (time) expense of new ones not so much.

Basically I’m with you, Milner, and feel like I’m against most people I discuss games with.

Deus Ex, pretty much once a year, otherwise only occasionally. Replaying Doom II recently was a blast!

Almost never, there are a few exceptions but usually once I've finished a game I'm done with it.

I wish I had the time

It can feel a bit indulgent but sometimes I do like to get back to a game I know I'll enjoy. It might have some slow and boring parts, but I can stomach that more in games I've played before because I know good parts are coming up.

Sometimes I go back to games just to see how much better I can play through them, or to play them in a different way. Good level design, mechanics or branching choices will motivate me to do this.

Also some games just do things that no other game will, that makes them worth replaying.

I tend to replay games quite a lot, some games I have replayed a good 10, 20, 30+ times.

Recently replaying the Metal Gear games. MGS2 on the Vita (Followed by 3 once that's finished) finished 4 last week and working my way through The Phantom Pain (V) for the 2nd time on Steam after putting in over 200 hours into the PS4 version. Played through the Dead Space games and Mass Effect games plenty of times across different systems too.

Depends on the series, Pokémon and Zelda and some Mario games I have replayed a lot of times, other series not so much, especially these days as you’re quite right, there is generally so many new games coming out that you could quite easily not run short of new games to play, even if you mainly opt for indie games that you might only get 5 to 10 hours out of before you can move onto the next one.

I replay plenty of games that I enjoy - and might I add that replaying a game is not the same experience as one has when first playing it. It's wrong to frame it as a choice between a new experience and repeating an old one. My appreciation of Ocarina of Time is very different when I play it now to when I first played it as a child, for example.

Not often, but occasionally. Rarely, tbh. I have replayed games for streams, but normally I don't.

Yeah I replay loads of games, in the same way that there are plenty of books, TV shows and movies that I will return to. As OR says above the repeat experiences will often be framed differently and you get something unique from them.

There are plenty of games that I have replayed dozens of times and they always bring me enjoyment!

Some of these are "simpler" experiences like platformers and the like - the original Sonic games on the MD for example I played to death as a kid and have replayed many times since as well, similarly the original Doom games I have played countless times over the years, sometimes just dipping in for the odd level or two - they're just fun to play through. But there are plenty of heavier and longer games that I return to as well. I replay "The Classics" of the immersive sim genre on a pretty much constant rotation over the course of every few years - Thief, System Shock 2, Deus Ex - just incredible experiences that I love to return to. (in the case of these the fact that little else released since manages to quite scratch the same itch is a big factor!)

Speaking of games like Thief and Doom - the fan community around games is another big thing that can keep players interested and returning. These games have had people creating mods, levels, customisations etc. for them for 20+ years and there is such an incredible wealth of experiences out there for them that I feel even though the same game is at the base of it you could continue to play pretty much forever having new experiences!

I have replayed the new and old xcom a lot, knights of the old republic, fire emblem games and then a lot of SNES and megadrive games

OrangeRKN wrote:I replay plenty of games that I enjoy - and might I add that replaying a game is not the same experience as one has when first playing it. It's wrong to frame it as a choice between a new experience and repeating an old one. My appreciation of Ocarina of Time is very different when I play it now to when I first played it as a child, for example.

You’re right, it’s not the same - it’s a much worse experience. You know the twists, you know the moments. You know who Sheik is and you know you’ll have to go through the nonsense stealth section in the gardens. There are no surprises. All of that magic is old and dried up, and that’s before you get to how the game’s aged.

It is, regardless, a much more similar experience to playing a completely different game. Any differences in appreciation are minuscule in comparison to the relative similarities. It’s absolutely not wrong to frame it as such.

Apart from anything else, it’s not like I’ve never replayed games. Many of the Mario RPGs have been replayed by me to fill a gap in the schedule, and that has exactly been my experience of the... er, experience.

The mods point I do understand though.

There are some games that never end (Championship Manager - completed it mate) and so they will get replayed over and over.

Story driven games I am less likely to replay.

I used to a lot but as games have grown bigger I find myself doing so less and less.

The only times I've done so in the last few years have been remasters like The Last of Us, The Uncharted Collection, Bioshock, etc.

As others have said, I can barely keep up with the newer releases I'm interested in to somehow also find the time to revisit old favourites.

Balladeer wrote:You’re right, it’s not the same - it’s a much worse experience. You know the twists, you know the moments ... There are no surprises.

If you think this inherently makes a piece of entertainment worse you should watch Fight Club twice.

I haven’t watched Fight Club once.

My point really is that there are some games (or movies or whatever) that rely on being novel experiences, so I have no desire to go back to them. On the other end of the scale there are games that are better on subsequent playthroughs. Then on a whole different axis there are games that don't have a defined endpoint so you can just keep playing (games like Tetris, Civilization or online multiplayer games). Replaying games for nostalgia or as "comfort gaming" is another dimension too.

You're a Ghost Trick fan right Balla? I think that's even better on a second playthrough from a story perspective because your knowledge of the twist lets you notice all the intricacies around it you were previously unaware of.

I can see that there might be exceptions to my general rule, and I’m likely to end up replaying GT because The Lady wants to and it’s a class act. Whether my knowledge of those twists and the enhancement of the experience will make said experience better than that of playing a completely new game (depending on the quality of said new game), I’m deeply sceptical. And I still wouldn’t see the point of replaying it more than once.

I should say that The Lady replays games lots, primarily games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect where she role-plays different characters each time. I don’t really get that either, but then I never enjoyed The Sims when I was younger.