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

[Tattaglia]

Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines (what a ***** of a title) was an exciting and expertly written game. Once you start deciding whose side you really want to be on the story picks up, making you question if you're rooting for the good or bad guys, and the mystery surrounding the Ankaran Sarcophagus and the factions competing for its ownership is intriguing.

All in all, it's good.

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.

I tried that game but I wasn´t very good at it apparently. I died a LOT of times. I knew the game was tough, but it gets old if you die at nearly every mildly challenging encounter.

Same here. After a while I got sick of the constant failure, turned the difficulty down to Casual and stuck with it over every playthrough.

 

[sapphireofthesea]

I would have to say the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series. It is some of the best open world FPS gameplay I have ever had and the story is wonderful and immersive and fits the setting perfectly.

I will say this about them, I bough it thinking it was a 100% open world. Once I realised it was cut up to parts with transitions I was like for a little bit. So it isn't exactly what i was expecting but it has been a fun ride so far exploring.
Then the story really kicked in and I got to grips with getting around the place and I was like WOW, this place is big and all those wonderful bad guys to avoid (or I will start looking like swiss cheese), and later snipe from afar, and those little nooks to look at and radiation areas to get to later. Exploration did not open massive expanses but did give little treasures and their own rewards. And once the rollercoaster of the story kicked in I was caught hook line and sinker.
I have played it through 5 times on varying difficulties because the story and the events surrounding them are just that engaging to me. (That is the only game I have played through more than once right after beating it)

 

[Woodsey]

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.

Hey, Woodsey, I have not played the game in question, but I'd rather you didn't unfairly misrepresent the people who had their issues with the ending of the game.

It's a bit uncalled for.

People only ever talk about the game's ending to say how little it made sense, despite their being a monologue from a character that pretty much explains everything you'd need to know - like I said, you might need to connect a couple of dots yourself but it's fairly clear if you bother to pay attention.

No one who ever makes a thread about the ending does.

Maybe you should play the game and look at people's response to the ending before you call me up on something you don't know about.

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

Maybe you should play the game and look at people's response to the ending before you call me up on something you don't know about.

Maybe.

That doesn't stop me from resenting your portrayal of people who disagree you as people with a frontal lobotomy banging their head on the keyboard.

And I have seen people's comments on the ending.

 

[Woodsey]

Maybe you should play the game and look at people's response to the ending before you call me up on something you don't know about.

Maybe.

That doesn't stop me from resenting your portrayal of people who disagree you as people with a frontal lobotomy banging their head on the keyboard.

And I have seen people's comments on the ending.

It's not a portrayal of people who disagree with me. If you pay attention to the ending and can criticise it constructively then you can tear it apart in front of my eyes; I'd quite enjoy the intelligent discussion.

As it stands, the furthest most people get with it is, "lolwut aliens".

Maybe you need to learn to pay attention to what people have actually said before you start "resenting" their comments.

 

[mParadox]

After i finished Half Life i wanted to play Half Life 2 badly.

After i finished Bioshock, i wanted to play Bioshock 2.

Difference? HL2 was awesome. B2? Not so much.

 

[Captain Pirate]

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.

At your explanation and my re-watching in another thread, I understand the ending fully. But I still don't like it. I'm totally fine with it being a cliffhanger; we all knew AC wouldn't end in 2 games and a spinoff. But it just added so much needless plot points to me. Again, this is just me, but I just loved it when it was "Assassin's V Templars across time, Desmond is using Animus to become an Assassin himelf to do awesome shit in a later game."
I just wished it would've stayed that way...

Modern Warfare 2's campaign.

It was such a big adrenalin rush from start to finish... I didn't care that the story was silly as it was so much damn fun, with some really epic set pieces.

Pity it ended so quickly.

Good to see someone share's my opinion, I could not stop playing that game it was so epic. And I even understood the story, though not initially.
As you said, the set pieces...
"Shit's fallin' from the sky, we're screwed man!"
"My red dot sight's not working bro." I find it quote funny that Dunn says this, yet he uses a Thermal Scope, and not a RDS...

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

Uncharted 2. The characters and cinematic direction in that game are brilliant.

 

[Zhukov]

...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".

*sniff sniff*

I smell a straw man.

There is a difference between "LOL WTF MUST BE A DUMB ENDING... etc etc" and "I payed attention to that monologue and understood it just fine and I still think that ending shat itself inside out."

Just sayin'.

 

[Woodsey]

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.

At your explanation and my re-watching in another thread, I understand the ending fully. But I still don't like it. I'm totally fine with it being a cliffhanger; we all knew AC wouldn't end in 2 games and a spinoff. But it just added so much needless plot points to me. Again, this is just me, but I just loved it when it was "Assassin's V Templars across time, Desmond is using Animus to become an Assassin himelf to do awesome shit in a later game."
I just wished it would've stayed that way...

Now where's that other guy that started bitching at me?

This comment I have no problem with. I can understand that some people may find it too far-fetched, and the boundary of how far to push something vs. it being silly will be different for people other than me.

What I cannot stand is people calling the ending stupid because they have the attention span of a gnat.

Anyway, outside of the fact that I love stuff like this, I thought the ending reinforced just how inconsequential Altair and (albeit to a lesser extent I guess) Ezio really are. It could have been done another way, but going back to Lost as a comparison, the programme would have been far less interesting if it had stayed as a show about survivors of a plane crash dealing with island life.

Equally, I guess if they'd have jumped to something more akin to the goings on in the final series then people would have found it absolutely ridiculous. It's all a matter of pacing with these things, and to my mind they pushed it just far enough.

...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".

*sniff sniff*

I smell a straw man.

There is a difference between "LOL WTF MUST BE A DUMB ENDING... etc etc" and "I payed attention to that monologue and understood it just fine and I still think that ending shat itself inside out."

Just sayin'.

Except comments on the ending from most people rest at, "lolwut aliens - what a stupid ending!".

I wish you people would read what I've bloody said before you point out useless information; I never said I have a problem with people who disagree with me on the ending. I have a problem with most of the idiots who can't pay attention for more than 2 minutes without wanting to stab something, then trying to criticise the ending.

 

[McAster]

Enslaved is a wonderful little title for exactly this. It is so well put together as a narrative by what is happening and shown on screen that I wanted to take that next jump and get past the next group of enemies. They did such a good job using every part of the game, such as the characters very facial animations and body movements, to tell the tale that I just couldn't put it down until I had finished it.

I've played plenty of other games that were bigger in scope, deeper tales, stronger characters, but all of which I could put down and not play for plenty of time.

 

[ImprovizoR]

GTA3, GTA Vice City, GTA San Andreas, GTA Liberty City Stories, GTA Vice City Stories, Mafia 1, Mafia 2, Assassin's Creed 2, Mass Effect 1, Mass Effect 2, Bully, Dragon Age Origins+DLC stories, Red Dead Redemption, Batman: Arkham Asylum, GUN, Bioshock 1, Bioshock 2, Resident Evil 4, Splinter Cell series, Hitman series, DmC, God of War and of course Metal Gear Solid series.

The reason for a list as big as this is because I'm a single player kind of guy and I play games mainly because of the story. I get sucked in quite easy.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

"My red dot sight's not working bro." I find it quote funny that Dunn says this, yet he uses a Thermal Scope, and not a RDS...

I presumed he was using the Red Dot FAL from the multiplayer

 

[Fellwarden]

Both Mass Effects and Dragon Age: Origins are the games that have kept me most firmly glued to my couch until completion. Other notable mentions include my first playthrough of Half-Life 2 and subsequent episodes and Fable II.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Bayonetta. Once I got it, I hardly touched any other game. I only stopped once I beat normal, a few months later, I did Hard mode. I'm due to try Infinite Climax mode any week now...

It wasn't the story that kept me hanging on, I just wanted to see what crazy shit would happen next, and how many more references to SEGA/their own past games they could put in there. A lot, it seems.

 

[SuperSuperSuperGuy]

Let's see... Kingdom Hearts, The World Ends With You, Pokemon (all of them) and Fire Emblem (Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn) are all up there.

 

[evilartist]

Psychonauts. Every cutscene was comical and fun to watch, and really moved the story along.

I would also say Tales of Symphonia, but it doesn't become a "pageturner" until about 15-20 hours into the game. Before then, all it had to keep my interest was the addictive combat. But after that first third, shit gets pretty serious.

 

[Goldeneye103X2]

A fair amount of games kept me coming back for more.

Fallout 3 (until the save files got fucked)
Heavy Rain
Red Dead Redemption
Splinter Cell Conviction
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Modern Warfare series
inFAMOUS
Uncharted 2
The Another Code/Trace Memory series
Skies of Arcadia

The combination of an intruiguing story which makes you want to see each of the characters individual fates, along with the more than brilliant execution of solid gameplay provided some really memorable single-player campaigns.

And speaking of pageturners and uncharted 2, Enslaved looks quite good...

 

[radioactive lemur]

MSG4 story line was long but riveting, it kept me hooked until the very end.