1/11/2017

Playing video games is a very popular hobby, if you are reading this, there is a good chance we share this appreciation. Some games come along, however, and turn that hobby into an outright addiction. These games are the ones that could literally have you shaking while all you can think about is that game. These games can mess with your social life and end up becoming a part of you long after you turn it off. You can either see a doctor, or just give in to the madness. Here are my top 10 games that I gave in to.

Honorable Mentions go to Rocket League and WCW/nWo Revenge since those are 2 games that I put (and continue to put) hours upon hours into. Consider those games 11 and 12 respectively.

10. Fallout Shelter

I will say the Fallout flavor goes a long way here. The aesthetics and the humor REALLY help make this free-to-play mobile game (and PC game) easy to go back to time and time again. It’s really simple to get started and get a basic grasp on the concepts.  The learning curve is just right as the difficulty ramps up to an overwhelming level. Constant updates add more and more appeal and I know I have dropped everything when I get a notification on my phone.

9. Titanfall

Sure, Call of Duty revolutionized the online multiplayer shooter scene, but Titanfall injected the scene with Red Bull. From the outset of a match the action is ON! It was so addictive that the first game is STILL the only shooter I have “regenerated” in once I hit the level cap. Each round made me want to play the next one all that much more. This is also true in the recently released sequel. There is just something about the action in a round of Titanfall that you don’t get anywhere else and I need it injected into my veins.

8. Team Fortress 2

Loot! All of the LOOT! I was introduced to this game through The Orange Box on Xbox 360, but once I finally played it on PC (back when you had to pay for it) and all the systems were added like the loot and the crafting and whatnot, I was hooked. It’s a simple enough shooter and there are plenty of other shooters that are BETTER than this, but I just want to see what kind of loot I can get to drop and what kind of special events are coming. It’s a go-to game of mine for SURE!

7. Puzzle Quest

There was a point where if I owned a device that could run Puzzle Quest, I made sure to download it ASAP. I’ve always been a fan of “Match-3” games since they are great time wasters, but now there’s actually combat and a story to back it up with a level up system? I was sold right away and needed it on everything I could look at.

6. Hearthstone

I got HOOKED on this game last year. I would watch all the eSports, download companion apps, spend hours on YouTube watching guides, play for hours to make sure I had a good deck to play with and fall asleep with videos playing hoping to gain the knowledge via osmosis. At some point I fell off thanks to all the new cards that ultimately made the game change more than I had the time to commit to it, but for a long time there this game was the only thing on my mind.

5. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3

Oh man, the hours I put into this. The first two games were great, but it was the third entry (first on the PS2) where everything came together to create the perfect skateboarding game. Fluid controls, great graphics, awesome soundtrack and a ton of content. If my Playstation 2 was on, there’s a really good chance THIS was the game I was playing.

4. Lumines

The game that tested the battery life of my PSP. What seemed like a simple puzzle game ended up being a little marathon every time I booted it up. All you do is make boxes of 4 like-colored squares, but the fun gameplay combined with the stylistic backgrounds, as well as the great incorporation of the music made this game so easy to put hours into when you meant to put minutes.

3. Sid Meier’s Civilization (primarily V and VI)

You’ve heard it before, “One more turn, one more turn, one more turn” and it digs into your soul and will not leave you be. You get that itch to see what’s going to happen, because the entire world can change over the course of a few clicks. You can see alliances get formed and broken, empires can fall and rise, you could find a natural wonder behind the fog on the next turn, you just never know…but you HAVE to find out. This should legally be classified as a drug.

2. World of Warcraft

Millions of subscribers can’t be wrong here. What more do I need to say about the gold standard for MMO’s? I held off playing when this game came out because I was afraid I would get hooked and have no social life. Then I played it…and you know how that turned out…. FOR THE HORDE!

1. Tetris

The original addiction and nothing else like it. I played this first on my original Game Boy before getting it for the NES, and then everything ever after that, since there are about a bazillion different versions of Tetris for every device. Whether you are a gamer or not, you know what Tetris is, you know the mechanics and you can pick it up and play it well enough to start getting hooked all over again. Many games can be “addicting” but nothing will beat the first one.