The Big Gaming in the 2010s Discussion Thread (the 2010s-Defining Game currently being discussed)

Every year I would buy PES and sink hours into the Master League - even though it was only slightly different each year. This year is the first time I've not done that, and it feels like the end of an era. I owned a PES game every year since PES2 on the PS2, but PES2020 was the first game that just didn't grab me like the previous ones had. It may be that I have grown out of it, grown tired of the whole premise, or simply found other ways to occupy my time. I did sell my PS4, which didn't help! But I don't yearn for it like I used to - although if Konami announced PES2021 on Switch I'd be there day one! But it's the game each year I would play the most of. Other than that? I did plough through The Division and "level 30" my guy.

I've sank ungodly amounts of time into both Smash on 3DS and SSBU, so it's probably that. In recent times, Destiny 2 and the Monster Hunter games will rank highly for me. We're talking easily 100s of hours in each of them.

I'm mainly do the story single player sort of guy or one and done as the internet likes to say for certain games now as a negative but can find some stats using HLTB, Exophase and STEAM maybe I could turn the Wii U on as well but can't be assed.

Anyway games with over 50hrs

STEAM
Football Manager 2011 151hrs
Football Manager 2017 111hrs
Football Manager 2019 61hrs and I did also play the Windows 10 version as that was on Game Pass & had achievements

I'm sure I had FM13 as well but can't see it in my STEAM library.

Xbox One, most games track but not all of them even first party like Gears 5 don't for some reason that I might have played something over 50hrs but can't think of much
Forza Horizon 4 58hrs
Red Dead Redemption 2 52hrs

PS4, I think I'm really close to over 50hrs with Death Stranding
Persona 5 110hrs
Overwatch I feel is around 150hrs on PS4 play I did play on Xbox One & PC for bit that maybe closer to 200hrs between them all
Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain, I feel this was over 60hrs

I think earlier in the 2010's sport games like FIFA or PES would be high but now I rarely play those and if I do it's sort of win the league I'm done, also I'm not to sure on 3DS, VITA, PS3 and Xbox 360 got to be a Pokemon or Mass Effect type that is over the 50hrs

If we're talking games released in the 2010s, then it's Smash 4. And no it wasn't time well spent.

But for a time I was pretty eager to 100% Smash 3DS, but then I left it for a while and they started doing DLC for the game which added stuff and I lost motivation.

If I combine them all then it's easily the MH games for me which would be over two thousand hours if not 3K, not far behind that though is Rainbow Six Siege which is probably over one thousand by now. For me the main draw for both MH and Siege is you can see yourself improving at the game over time & how you won't have two matches/hunts that are the same.

If that sense of improvement wasn't there I probably wouldn't have played them half as much, so yep definitely time well spent.

I think the only 6 games I ended up playing in that decade were, in this order: Oblivion (I started late), FIFA 13, Animal Crossing New Leaf, Skyrim, FIFA 16, Breath of the Wild. Everything takes so long, man!

The_Jaster wrote:

If I combine them all then it's easily the MH games for me which would be over two thousand hours if not 3K, not far behind that though is Rainbow Six Siege which is probably over one thousand by now. For me the main draw for both MH and Siege is you can see yourself improving at the game over time & how you won't have two matches/hunts that are the same.

If that sense of improvement wasn't there I probably wouldn't have played them half as much, so yep definitely time well spent.  

Even though I don't play many games as service games, this is a good argument for them over the one and done as what are most 15hrs avg for a good Single Player game which would cost £40-50 where you've got 1000hr's out of Rainbow Six for the same cost (maybe a tad more if you bought stuff but still value for the amount of time).

And sort get why MS are trying to make all their games I believe in some way Games as Service because of this.

@ masofdas - I have bought some microtranactions in Siege but I don't think I've even went past what I paid for the game so yeah I have got crazy value out of it, also not keen on that "games as a service" term at all as it feels like it could be ripped away from you without warning. (Not to mention the game was a happy accident for Ubi who expected it to not last past it's first year)

Plus because of how fun I find that core gameplay to be I think I could've easily logged the same hours had there been no expansions every 3 months or so.

Sure but Ubisoft are the ones that had the pie chart about live service games

Oh of course it turned into that just saying I don't like the term is all.

I'll have to have a look but I'm fairly surely my most played game might be Pokémon Shuffle on the 3DS Without spending a penny I managed to do close to 1000 levels before I finally gave up on it, it's one of the examples of how the F2P model has managed to sink it's teeth in to me over the years.

If it's not that then it's probably Grand Theft Auto V which I've owned over 2 gens, the majority of that time has of course gone in to the online mode but I've still played through the story twice, getting to 100% on PS4.

JayMoyles wrote:

I've sank ungodly amounts of time into both Smash on 3DS and SSBU, so it's probably that.

I'd imagine this is the case for me too. If we group up 3DS and Wii U Smashes then it definitely is. Otherwise... not sure, probably Wii U rather than 3DS or Ultimate, simply because it was better than 3DS and played at a time when I had more time and fewer games than when Ultimate came along.

The only other game I can think might be up there would be Animal Crossing: New Leaf, which I played for months and then resented. Otherwise nothing's going to hold a candle to the Smashes, not even BotW.

My answer is probably New Leaf, but Cappa has already said plenty on that.

Some other big ones:

Monster Hunter Generations (Ultimate) I think I but around 200 hours into MHG on 3DS. Then 160 again in Japanese into MHXX on Switch. Then I bought it on Switch again when MHGU came out and moved over my 3FDS character before playing another 100 hours . . . And still going strong!

Breath of the Wild I just played it a lot because its a big game and its really good.

Mario Kart 8 (DX) Between drunkenly playing multiplayer with the lads in my flat, playing online with you lot and then obsessing over the singleplayer content on Switch, I reckon Im over 200 hours cumulative.

Dark Souls
Over 4 different machines, I just keep replaying it.

I don't think I've spent 200h on a game since Brawl. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

From what I can remember these are my hundreds of hours games from the last decade:

Fallout New Vegas
Skyrim
Civilization V
Mount and Blade: Warband
Monster Hunter 4U
Monster Hunter Generations (Ultimate)
Mario Kart 8 (DX)
Rainbow Six Siege
Steep
Breath of the Wild
Fallout 76
Super Mario Maker 2 (if you count me still playing it)

ACNH has leapt up already but that's entirely this new decade!

There might be more, it's hard to tell when not every game/console tracks playtime (and other games are split over multiple versions/ports)

Animal Crossing has now become my most played Switch game at 145 hours overtaking Breath of the Wild on 140.

OrangeRakoon wrote:

From what I can remember these are my hundreds of hours games from the last decade:

...
Mount and Blade: Warband
...

I never really got into super into Warband, although I have been playing it a fair bit recently on multiplayer with friends.

I've got access to Bannerlord 2 now though and oh boy!

I guess Crusader Kings 2 is my big single player game, with Mario Kart 8 being the game I've definitely played the most.

Treesmurf wrote:

Animal Crossing has now become my most played Switch game at 145 hours overtaking Breath of the Wild on 140.

I reckon I'm on the same track. BotW's on 90-100 I think. ACNH is on 80 already.

Oh my god I did not realise Bannerlord had finally come out!

Early access, but still!

Early access but it seems quite stable. Could do with better tutorials and the user interface is still poor but the game itself is very enjoyable.

I was a terrible shot on the previous game but perhaps the better graphics has made shooting a little easier this time around. I've found cavalry easier to use too, always used to run around on foot once the fighting started in the last game because I could never judge the distances properly haha.

I refuse to play with anything other than standard damage (so you're as easy to kill and do as much damage as any other unit). That basically forced me into being a horseback archer commander on Warband so I didn't die and screw up our battles!

How are the sieges in Bannerlord?

A work in progress. They get a bit choppy, frame rate wise, when there are a lot of characters on the screen. Some people have reported the ai doing daft things - like setting up ladders and then not using them, or defenders climbing down ladders! - I haven't seen much of that.

But I've only been playing around with the campaign and have just been joining my liege's sieges and so have not actually had any troops under my command. Been involved in about 5 sieges and they've all been fun, but would probably feel more epic if I was in control. Eventually they're going to patch in a replay feature too, which would be pretty cool!

I believe that addressing the ai and seige battles is one of the areas the developers want to address before the full release though, and they have been patching the game continuously. I don't think all the seige tower types have been implemented into the game yet either [we've got ladder ones at the moment, but there's ramp ones in their test versions apparently].

I got access to Bannerlord 2 for free via a steam family share, so I'm happy with it. I'm not 100% convinced it's worth getting at the current price whilst there's so much more for the developers to do. That being said, even though it's not finished yet there's definitely a lot of fun to be had with it!

Improvements to sieges are what I am most excited for from Warband. For now (and probably because my laptop, while good, won't quite be up to it any more) I think I'll wait out a later/the actual release

Let's start a new conversation. Last time I asked about the game you played the most in the 2010s. This time, it's a similar idea: what's the longest single play session you had on any game in the 2010s?


I want to know about that time you parked your arse in front of your 21" Grundig VHS/TV Combi and played a single game for hours on end. Shorts breaks and going for a slash are fair enough, but don't think about sessions where you went out to the shops midway through to go get a jar of Ovaltine, a Hidden Treasures scratchcard and eight hundred bags of Roysters T-Bone Steak. 

I remember mine. I'd had a bastard of a Friday at work, but looked forward to having FIFA 15 delivered. Knowing it was there for when I got home, I just said 'bugger it', and stocked up on shite food and cheap beer and set myself up for a mammoth session on my new XBox 360 game. I think I started at 630pm-ish, and I did an all-nighter. That was probably about thirteen hours in all. 

How about youse?

Dam as in the late 00's when I got Halo 3 which I remember my grandad driving me to get then coming home to play in one session where on the very last bit my Xbox 360 Red Ringed on me, I got it to turn back on to find I had the achievement for finishing the game but not the last level

Had to send it away, which in the meantime the Elite came out which I bought along with BioShock, Blue Dragon and matching black accessories.

In the 10's, likely would have a few long sessions on games especially things like a Halo 3 where campaign can be done in one go.

But some quick maths each of my Phantom Pain sessions must have been around 16hrs each and in this decade I'm sure I had a 13hr day on Death Stranding.