What's the biggest ''pageturner'' singleplayer game you've ever played?

[Ultress]

Kingdom Hearts 2, everytime I'd want to quit,the game dropped a bomb on me and I just had to continue

 

[Elfangorax]

The Longest Journey. Started playing it, got so engrossed in the excellent story and the fascinating characters that I could not stop until it was finished. Spent a while in some sections just 'standing in place' listening to the music as well because the soundtrack was so good.

Right there with ya! The sequel, Dreamfall, really sucked me in, too.

I also couldn't put Half-Life 2 and its episodes down until I'd finished them. And Metal Gear Solid 4 kept me up so many hours straight that I actually cried a bit at part of the ending from being so emotionally worn down with sleep deprivation. XD

 

[Truehare]

The latest example of a "page-turner" game for me was Risen. I just love how realistic and beautiful the open worlds of Piranha Bytes' games are, which is why I loved the first two Gothics so much (those were also page-turners for me, and Gothic 2 is my all-time favorite game).

And I couldn't forget to mention Sanitarium. I played it through four or five times, and everytime I just can't put it down. It's just so f***ed-up and strange!

Finally, there's Zeus: Master of Olympus. I sometimes have to restrain myself from firing it up because I just know it's gonna take me hours to stop playing.

 

[barash]

<-- avatar

Plenty more games which also have had me gaming through the night, but unravelling the mysteries of DE1 still reigns supreme in pure enjoyment.

 

[Dapper Ninja]

The ending did exactly what a series like this should do and pushed things towards the very edge of a new level before cutting itself off, much like Lost series finales did in a way. The new game/series then has something new - and frankly quite exciting - to build itself from.

Wait... ending on a cliffhanger that won't be resolved until a sequel or new season that may or may not exist is exactly what a series should do? I was always under the impression that a good ending is something that allows for the work to stand on its own, rather than a blatant and annoying "to be continued..."

If it's part of a planned series then yeah, although AC2 is capable of standing on it's own, just like Alan Wake (for example) does. Threads are left untied, but the story at hand is resolved in both (in AC2's case that's Ezio's).

If something is planned purely as a single experience then obviously there's not much point in leaving threads.

Even though Assassin's Creed II could, at least for the most part, stand on its own, its ending still bugged me because it was basically just saying "Don't forget to buy the sequel and any subsequent sequels we feel like needlessly drawing out this plot for, m'kay?"

Still, it was better than the first game just stopping everything with Altair immediately after the final boss and saying "What's that? You're interested in what happens next and how it all ends? Well, fuck you! You're going to sit there and watch what happens to this Shia Lebouf-looking guy that you never cared about in the slightest. He is the chosen one and you will love him!"

 

[Casual Shinji]

Half-Life 2 + episode 1 and 2

Playing that back to back was an amazing experience.

 

[Wolfram23]

Hmm... STALKER: Call of Pripyat, I guess.

As for Mass Effect... I just can't get into that game. I got control of the Normandy and went to a couple planets but I find the combat/squad thing sucks it's not intuitive at all and my squad is absolutely retarded and then on another planet it was all talk talk talk talk talk... bleh!

The last game tho that really really hooked me was certainly Fallout 3.

Did you know Mass Effect was an RPG before you started playing? While combat is big part of the game, it isn't combat driven. You may like Mass Effect 2 more though. It's a little more accesible and the action is far more streamlined.

Also, I thought STALKER was quite buggy? Is it? Because it does look interesting...

Yes, of course I knew that. I'm thinking I just don't like BioWare RPGs. DA:O I'm not fond of either.

STALKER has a few bugs but nothing major. The first 2 games have "complete" mods that fix them right up (so I hear) and STALKER: CoP I found was good except for one little glitch right at the end where I couldn't save a guy but it didn't matter much.

 

[Woodsey]

The ending did exactly what a series like this should do and pushed things towards the very edge of a new level before cutting itself off, much like Lost series finales did in a way. The new game/series then has something new - and frankly quite exciting - to build itself from.

Wait... ending on a cliffhanger that won't be resolved until a sequel or new season that may or may not exist is exactly what a series should do? I was always under the impression that a good ending is something that allows for the work to stand on its own, rather than a blatant and annoying "to be continued..."

If it's part of a planned series then yeah, although AC2 is capable of standing on it's own, just like Alan Wake (for example) does. Threads are left untied, but the story at hand is resolved in both (in AC2's case that's Ezio's).

If something is planned purely as a single experience then obviously there's not much point in leaving threads.

Even though Assassin's Creed II could, at least for the most part, stand on its own, its ending still bugged me because it was basically just saying "Don't forget to buy the sequel and any subsequent sequels we feel like needlessly drawing out this plot for, m'kay?"

Needlessly drawing out? AC2 is around 25 hours of game - they want more money, we want better games with more layered plots. Win/win.

Assassin's Creed 2 was the last thing (excluding ME2 and Mafia 2; although I don't feel like I sing AC2's thriller-Sci-fi-historical-fiction praises enough) like that for me.

Played it almost non-stop over an entire weekend; whereas other people's intepretation of the series' overall story rests at, "LOL WTF MUST BE A DUMB ENDING BECAUSE I CAN'T PAY ATTENTION TO A 2 MINUTE MONOLOGUE THAT EXPLAINS A HELL OF A LOT BUT ALSO REQUIRES SOME MILD BRAIN ACTIVITY ON MY BEHALF", I found it intriguing and I love how layered it all is.

The ending did exactly what a series like this should do and pushed things towards the very edge of a new level before cutting itself off, much like Lost series finales did in a way. The new game/series then has something new - and frankly quite exciting - to build itself from.

I completed that across two days

And I probably asked thirty people about the ending and not one of them understood it, and I had to explain it to all of them.

I feel your pain.

 

[rockyoumonkeys]

Mass Effect 2 is definitely one, I tore through that game within like a week after it came out.

Fallout 3 and Oblivion also kept me glued, though of course those both took considerably longer.

Batman:AA, Bioshock 1 and 2, and Dead Space are others. And definitely Saints Row 2.

This is just story-oriented games. There are of course other games, like Katamari Forever and all the Lego games that kept me glued as well, but it sure isn't for the story.

 

[Busdriver580]

STALKER maybe it was more the interesting environments and mechanics rather than story which caused me to play through all three games back to back, but god damn i couldn't put it down.

 

[The Ambrosian]

Assassin's Creed 2 was the last thing (excluding ME2 and Mafia 2; although I don't feel like I sing AC2's thriller-Sci-fi-historical-fiction praises enough) like that for me.

Played it almost non-stop over an entire weekend; whereas other people's intepretation of the series' overall story rests at, "LOL WTF MUST BE A DUMB ENDING BECAUSE I CAN'T PAY ATTENTION TO A 2 MINUTE MONOLOGUE THAT EXPLAINS A HELL OF A LOT BUT ALSO REQUIRES SOME MILD BRAIN ACTIVITY ON MY BEHALF", I found it intriguing and I love how layered it all is.

The ending did exactly what a series like this should do and pushed things towards the very edge of a new level before cutting itself off, much like Lost series finales did in a way. The new game/series then has something new - and frankly quite exciting - to build itself from.

I completed that across two days

And I probably asked thirty people about the ending and not one of them understood it, and I had to explain it to all of them.

I feel your pain.

But in fairness it was absolutely batshit insane. I know the series' story is a bit weird but they really didn't hold back with that ending.

 

[M4CE of Spades]

I, like so many others, personally loved the Mass Effect games. I can't understand why somebody would skip all that diologue (and yet so many people do!). But as far as plot goes, try Heavy Rain for the PS3. It's a completely plot-centric movie that has the most adaptive and, imo, one of the most immersive plots to date.

 

[LightspeedJack]

The first Kingdom Hearts. I couldn't wait to find out what the next world would be.

 

[SimplyTheWest]

I know I couldn't stop playing DA:O, just to see what the next challenge was going to be.
And Alistair's and Morrigan's fight made me laugh.

 

[hurfdurp]

Red Dead Redemption, so you can imagine how thrilled I was.

 

[Larkin99]

Heavy Rain and Heavenly Sword come to mind- both really gripped me.
Assassin's Creed comes to mind too.

 

[Rakun Man]

I know I couldn't stop playing DA:O, just to see what the next challenge was going to be.
And Alistair's and Morrigan's fight made me laugh.

Me too! I'm playing it for the first time now, and my only complaint is that I don't have enough time to play it!

 

[AlmostLikeLife]

Mass Effect 1 and 2 were like that for me. More recently though has been "Enslaved: Odyssey to the West", it's story and characters are so engaging that I didn't want to give it up. If you have the chance to play this game, DO NOT pass it up.

 

[Steam Colossus]

Mass Effect 1 and 2, Alen Wake, Red Dead Redemption, Fallout 3

 

[DJDarque]

Red Dead Redemption, Bioshock and surprisingly Bioshock 2.