The fact that I have the most hours on Earth does not automatically mean that I have the most hours in games. That’s how it is. I may be the editor’s old man, but my primary cultural work has not been in games, but rather film and TV. It is where I have spent the lion’s share of my life. Or it’s probably to be taken in so that you crack, but at least that’s where I’ve worked. Does that mean I haven’t played? No of course not. As I have written in various columns and articles on Gamereactor for almost two years now, games have also had an important and significant part in life with many memories, good and difficult.
However, I cannot boast of thousands of hours in various MMOs or multiplayer. With a few exceptions for party games with the pals back in the day, with Mario Kart and various sports games or co-op with a roommate, I always play by myself. Sitting solo and not letting anyone else into my game world. So it has always been and so it will remain. I’m a misanthrope to the core and want to control my own playtime, not plan the day after some impending raid and DPS party, maybe also down a small bottle of red at the same time. Enjoy being in full control and being an easy saloon. Of course, it doesn’t work in a life and death match in a Battle Royale, when the bullets whiz around the skull and you have to have reflexes like a mongoose. In addition, money is constantly spent to avoid the gate and there is also frequent cheating. I really can’t stand that kind of thing. Life is far too short for nonsense and purchased sovereignty. I’m a convenience gamer. That means I can probably boast a couple of hundred hours in the games that have taken up most of my time. Usually large open worlds, where the journey is the goal as the old cliché goes. Where the game is not over after the main story is completed. Sometimes I wish I had put more hours into some titles and less into others but it is what it is.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC, Playstation, PSVR)
The number of released versions of Skyrim is the sum of the root of the number of times per week that Editor-in-Chief Hegevall has wished the life of an innocent animal plus the number of times Conny has heated up in a comment field during the same period. That is, the root of 1,800 = 42. Now I haven’t tried them all but in total I’d say I still have well over 600 hours in Skyrim: Anniversary Edition and Skyrim VR and there’s no doubt there’s more magic to pour from this inexhaustible source. Skyrim is a game that never ends. There is no point where you can say that, no, now it actually has to be enough! Now I’ve seen it all, done it all, and now I’m so incredibly tired of this game world that I could puke. There’s always something new in Skyrim. Any NPC I haven’t killed yet. An area that is still unexplored or a bad choice in virtual life that has yet to be made. No game is the same as the other, and that’s probably also what makes Skyrim a game that can be re-released every year, without it feeling completely baroque.
This is an ad:
Red Dead Redemption 2 (Playstation 4)
Close behind at just over 400 hours comes Rockstar’s magnificent Western drama and I’ve been into it before, what therapy for the soul it is for me, riding alone across vast landscapes and just sitting by the campfire and drinking buckets of coffee. Or the adrenaline rush I get from stepping into a sleepy den and risking a bullet to the meniscus at any moment. Chasing some wanted rawhide through the desert and robbing an unsuspecting trader of everything he has. I want everything in Red Dead Redemption 2 on my bucket list, as I’m a cowboy at heart, through and through. But for the sake of good vibes, and for purely legal and moral reasons, I will never rob a train IRL, but in the make-believe world, where I really want to settle down for good, I can do whatever I want there. One of the reasons I play games in general and Red Dead Redemption 2 in particular.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Playstation 4)
It’s over seven years old now, but every now and then, when I’m sitting on a tram going somewhere, or pedaling around in the hamster wheel, I can long to go back to The Witcher 3 and places like Novigrad, Toussaint and Skellige. Unique areas that I’ve spent hundreds of, more precisely just under 300 hours in and that are so beautiful and mythical that I still want to jump right into the TV, straddle Roach and ride country and kingdom around. Stop to kill a couple of basilisks, a water hag, and a djinn. Before I sit down dirty and grumpy at the inn and down a cold one, hear the bard play a couple of nice tunes, take a bath, play a game of Gwent and maybe have a little sex with someone on a unicorn. All with consequences that could affect my entire stay on the continent. That I’ve enjoyed every minute of CD Projekt’s magnificent monster hunter simulator is not so strange. I’m hardly alone in that, after all, Wild Hunt is often referred to as the best lire of all time. Plus with DLCs that are just as sharp as the main game. And there I was hungry again!
Fire Ring (Playstation 4)
I sunk a little over 200 hours into the magnificent game world FromSoftware had created just for me. At least that’s how it felt. That it was my adventure and mine alone and it was mine to discover. There was nothing I hesitated to do, from killing an enervating mosquito in a swamp to badly underpowered falling right into the arms of a raging rune bear, which crushed me like a beetle under a boot. A fire burned inside me every time I started the Ring of Fire. There was an inner drive that compelled me to maraud every single enemy camp in hopes of finding riches, new abilities and runes that took me another step closer to my dream of becoming hegemonic and with it experiencing an Elysian existence where no boss ass felt too big to kick. If there was an NPC storyline that could be followed, it would be done. I was so meticulous that I despised myself and thought about nailing my body with a white-hot nail mallet but I have no regrets. It was 200 hours of pleasure, 200 hours of suffering, 200 hours of pure excellence.
This is an ad:
Ace Attorney (Nintendo DS, Switch)
This may include all the games as individually they are not quite that impressive, although the latest The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles actually clocked in at just under 80 hours but together I probably put in around 200 hours, split between six games and one couple of spin-offs. Hours that completely slipped away as I sat there and enjoyed intricate murder mysteries, twisted characters and sharp tosses between hope and despair. Game that swallowed me completely. Games that have been completely to my taste with humor, darkness, brains and heart. Unlike the other games in the article, with very little replayability, but once I sat there, for the first time and had to solve a case, then you felt like a prince. No objections!
Dungeon Master (Atari ST)
The only older lire that qualifies. Of course I wish other sweet old classics like Zelda: Ocarina of Time had been included, after all it is my very fondest childhood memory but it’s just being honest with yourself and stating that it’s not on this list to do. FTL Games’ monumental success, on the other hand, which came out of nowhere and would inspire scores of developers in the 3D cave crawler genre, must be included. I often spent several days at a stretch with Dungeon Master and sometimes I wondered if my Atari wouldn’t catch fire anyway. Playing a three-dimensional role-playing game in first-person perspective and with real-time battles, instead of turn-based, which was the usual setup, made it feel like I was actually there. It was me in person crawling through cramped vectorized corridors, chopping down screaming tree monsters and throwing fireballs at huge spiders and scorpions. For a long period Dungeon Master was the only thing I played and it’s been a long time now so the exact number of hours is hard to estimate but it was an awful lot. I’m going with around 200 here as well, as an educated guess.
PGA Tour (Playstation, Xbox)
So many times I’ve stood there, at the virtual tee, wearing bright pink pants and a cap and a driver in hand. A perfect tee that flies over both lakes and sand bunkers to land in the middle of the fairway, over 330 yards. Golf applause and a warm feeling inside. Is it pride? Of course it is. I want to be the best. My bad competitive spirit takes over and the opponent is myself, which becomes extremely strange, when the mood suddenly turns bad. But it’s so incredibly easy to forget that I’m sitting at home on the sofa when the hours fly by in the PGA Tour and thanks to the built-in course designer, the fun is almost endless. It’s been just over 190 hours, which in a strange way feels like a little, but that’s apparently how it is. Primarily, it comes on when the sun starts to peek out and the summer feeling starts to set in, but unlike golf in real life, it’s just as well to drive an 18-hole round when there’s a blizzard blowing outside the window.
Slay the Spire (Playstation 4, Switch)
I’m not a rotten roguelord, I’m not. Have the stamina to keep dying in the quarter and start over from the beginning with a wounded ego. The kids can do that, those who have time left. I’m too old for that myself. But there is one game that continues to drag me down into depravity. I am of course referring to the torture game Slay the Spire. I have sat glued hour after hour until I feel rigor mortis creeping in. I have died three thousand times in one night. Felt the frustration and the bottomless hopelessness shoot out of every bodily pore. I have noticed how the life slowly drained out of me. I gave up, lay in the fetal position for a while and felt sorry for myself. Also lipped a little. It’s Slay the Spire and wine tasting that can induce a couple of ambivalent tears a couple of times a year. It is joy and anxiety at the same time. It can look as good as it wants and then comes that round of bad cards (or wine) and then suddenly I’m sitting there, my ass in my fist. Again. An amazing lyre of course, which has taken about 180 hours of my life, with almost nothing but pain in return. In a good, slightly masochistic way.
Fallout 4 (Playstation 4)
The worst in the series, it is said, but no! For my own part, I’ve logged countless hours of feverish gameplay in the equally amazing and buggy game world that Bethesda still got away with without too many bans. But it’s clear that when the joy of playing was at this filthy high level, I could take a couple of beauty mistakes. Actually, surface is not everything. Love is always on the inside. And it was instant love. I’ve had such an insanely pleasant time here that I’ve had a hard time letting go of control. It must be said, however, that I cannot take all the credit for having maximized the time in dystopian Boston. I played with my partner during that time and together we explored every nook and cranny and slaughtered every service robot and giant shrimp. There is so much unclear in that relationship, but one thing we all agreed on, that Fallout 4 was lovely. For 178 hours.
