Summing up your playing time in different games is a difficult thing. But when Petter kindly asks you to do it, you simply have to obey. Actually, I would have liked to summarize the hours I am innocently accused by Måns of being angry in the comment fields, but it was “apparently not relevant” so instead I have to dive deep into my game history and try to remember which games I played the most.
Now it’s very difficult to know exactly how many matches in the FIFA games I actually played, what the total number of hours was in multiplayer in Call of Duty, or if my months with Red Alert reached any larger sums in game time. But at the same time you have to go by what you remember, and believe, so here are the six games that took up the most of my time, and at the same time gave me so much joy.
Rainbow Six: Siege (Xbox/PC)
It’s just as well to dig the owl out of the bag straight away, as the old saying goes. 4000 hours in total on Xbox plus PC is of course not a world record, or even impressive if you compare it to a generation that jumped on the World of Warcraft bandwagon, but for me who manages between 40-60 games per year, it’s still a pretty juicy sum to the fact that this is not a game I have played for more than five years. Plus the fact that I then the game very much else.
But for me, Rainbow Six: Siege is in so many ways the perfect multiplayer game. Tactics and cooperation are really rewarded, and as with so many others who get stuck in the quagmire of online gaming, it’s of course all about the company. Someone I play with said it best; “I would never have played this if it wasn’t for you playing it.”
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Now I probably would have done it anyway because I love this tactical shooter, but I see what he means. Gathering a full squad of players in this and getting really nerve-wracking matches is close to perfection and everything I look for in a game of this type, especially because good cooperation really raises it several levels.
PUBG (PC)
This was a game I didn’t think I’d include, but according to Steam I have around 600 hours so it’s undeniably right up there with play time. As with the previously mentioned Rainbow 6 Siege, this is very much about the party. Because we had a lot of fun during the short, concise period we played this day and night.
After all, there is time for some deadly events during so many hours of play, and the best chicken dinner was served when we hid in one of the game’s high-rise buildings in the final stages of the game. All four lived, but none of us had a single guy. The ring collapsed and we took refuge on the roof, noticed that there was only one last team left and on the roof the ring began to kill us one by one. However, Joakim had a little life left and then the winning words appeared on the screen. So we had won a match without either of us having killed a single enemy. We called it a pacifist win.
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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Xbox)
Most of the time when I play, I’m pretty focused on the main mission of the game at hand. I wish I could do a bit more side quests, and while I’m really into open world exploration, it’s more about seeing all the locations rather than doing everything in them. A lot of it is that I want to be invested in what is the main story of the game, but also that I always want to move on to the next game. However, I am trying to get better at above all the latter in giving time to what I play. Not to rush through it too much.
With Skyrim, there was a lot that was different, however, regarding this very thing. I was on sick leave from my job and had a lot of time to kill. So I played Skyrim in a way that I might not have done if time hadn’t been the same
Every time I went to a place, I let the walks take time. I could have a clear goal but saw some small path or bridge that led to something exciting, and so I took that path. I don’t know exactly how many hours I put into Skyrim, but it’s enough to post here.
Wave Race 64 (Nintendo 64)
Sunny Beach, Sunset Bay, Drake Lake… these names evoke as nostalgic feelings in me as World 1-1 from Super Mario Bros. Because when a Nintendo 64 was to be bought for the household, I had already played out Super Mario 64 which would otherwise have been the given purchase. So when the console and the first game came home, the choice fell on Nintendo’s fantastic racing game.
First, of course, I played through the tournaments. Then I started grinding curves, hour in and hour out and if, against all odds, a friend or family member beat my time, I sat as long as it took to regain the place. It was above all the first course, Sunny Beach, that was played hundreds of times. It would be fun to remember how close (probably a long way) I was to the world record in the PAL version (which is 1 minute, 16 seconds and 850 hundredths) when I played the most and the patience to play as much today unfortunately does not exist . But the memory of being able to play again and again is absolutely wonderful.
Tetris (Multi)
I think many players have one or more games that we return to. I would make an educated guess that it is often about strategy games, or as in my case a number of online games. Starting with the Game Boy, puzzle games also started to become something that stole all my time and nothing more so than Tetris.
Because I really played it all the time. Between every grander experience like Super Mario Land or Zelda: Link’s Awakening, one of the best puzzle games of all time went hot. If you were to count only the hours on the Game Boy, they would be many, if you add versions on other formats, the sums would be staggering. My love for these blocks is immense, and even today total play time is added to any of the countless versions available.
Gears of War (Xbox)
I was never a big PC gamer in my youth, but mostly used the computer as a tool to try to realize my naive writer dreams. I did play a bit, but it was only with the Xbox 360 that I got hooked and understood how much fun it could be to play with and against others. So, when Cliff Bleszinski gave me a testosterone-oozing action game, I started eschewing sleep in favor of the familiar notion of “just one more game.”
With the new release for Xbox One, there was almost even more playing time. Now I also had friends to play with so every spare second we could gather a squad was about bloody executions with chainsaws. I started to realize that there was a huge allure in this thing of playing with others and Gears of War was intense and just, really wonderful.
