Topic: Your Top 5 played games of the Gen (PS4) by playtime.

So I guess mine were quite predictable… apart from number 1… and it was WAY out in front. I guess there is a legitimate reason why I’m hesitant to start up another game in that genre:

1. Elder Scrolls Online: 759 hours
2. Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin: 256 hours
3. Dark Souls 3 & Bloodborne: both 209 hours
4. Fallout 4: 204 hours
5. Assassins Creed:Odyssey & MGSV: both 193 hours

@Ralizah Strange, you don't strike me a Far Cry player for some reason. Have you played any of other games in the series?

@colonelkilgore Our Fallout 4 times are similar. Is that including any of the DLC? Think I've yet to play the last one and the two settlement ones. Weird how a couple of your games are both on the same playtime.

@JohnnyShoulder Nope. Only got it because it was included with my PS4 as a free game. I think I have Far Cry 3 on my Steam account, but didn't bother playing it after Ubisoft wanted me to log into an account or something.

It was mindless fun. I played until I got the platinum trophy, and haven't touched it since. This was back in the beginning of 2015.

Interestingly, I spent more time with Bloodborne than I realized as well. Nearly 50 hours.

@JohnnyShoulder I think I started one of the dlc’s but by the time that I did I was kinda over the game and moved onto something else. I am planning on returning to it to mop up the plat though, so depending on how I enjoy it, I may end up playing through some more of them.

Yeah it is strange, particularly the Dark Souls 3 & Bloodborne one, what with them being From Soft games. Strangely, Dark Souls: Remastered and Sekiro we’re both well under those totals at ‘around’ (I’ll have to check again) 65 hours and 102 hours respectively.

I have Dragon Age: Inquisition but have never started it… am I missing out?

@Ralizah it scary how many hours you can sink into a game without realising.

@colonelkilgore It was ok, its been a few years since I played it. The side missions were really boring and all trekking back to the base after a mission wore me down eventually. The characters and combat were quite good I think but I don't remember much of the story. Personally I much preferred The Witcher 3 in every single department.

@JohnnyShoulder I’d sunk 149 hours into The Witcher 3… remember I liked it but wasn’t a fan of the combat. Still, I’m gonna go back to it and play it through on Death March at some point. Judging from my recent return to older games, I reckon I’ll really enjoy it.

@JohnnyShoulder Usually, my playtimes stay pretty conservative. But there's this one indie game on Steam called Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet that I have... 235 hours in. No idea why, since I don't recall playing it more than a few times over the years, and it's not an especially lengthy game. The only explanation I can think of is that I left it running in the background in my computer, but I ALWAYS close out of games when I step away from my PC. And I would have noticed if it was just running while I was doing something else, because before recently, my PC had a weak-ish processor in it, so I was pretty religious about closing programs running in the background to optimize performance.

@Ralizah How'd you get the decimal figures on your playtime stats, if you don't mind me asking?

@RogerRoger Used a third-party website that tracks playtime across multiple services (although not Nintendo Switch, sadly):

https://www.exophase.com/

1. Call of duty black ops 3 , approximately 100+...dollars in microtransactions
2. Dead by daylight
3. Blazblue
4. Mortal Kombat 11
5. Borderlands 3

All multiplayer games

@Ralizah Thank you for that link! Very cool!

My most played PS4 games:

1. MLB The Show 20 - 509.49 hours
2. Dragon Age: Inquisition - 420.01 hours
3. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - 370.66 hours
4. Skyrim Special Edition - 330.61 hours (this of course doesn't include all the time I spent with the PS3 version

Then a group of Madden and The Show titles

8. Assassins Creed: Odyssey - 179.94 hours
9. Fallout 4 - 162.32 hours
10. Assassins Creed: Valhalla - 159.64 hours and counting. I'm still on my first playthrough of this one, and its going to be #5 before I'm finished.

EDIT: However, the website doesn't seem to have all of my data, for whatever reason. It doesn't include a number of games that I know I played, and the data is very incomplete on others. Some games I know I put wall over 100 hours in, and it has me at less than 10. So, interesting, but missing a lot. It seems like anything that I last played more than a year ago and is now uninstalled from my PS4 is hit and miss.

Oh dear. You can tell that it’s more than just me playing the Playstation.

1. Overwatch - 645.11 hours
2. Rainbow Six: Siege - 506.01 hours
3. MLB The Show 20 - 269.23 hours
4. Payday 2 - 212.98 hours
5. Yakuza 0 - 188.65 hours
6. Hitman - 169.51 hours
7. Red Dead Redemption 2 - 156.35 hours
8. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey - 136.11 hours
9. Assassin’s Creed Origins - 124.85 hours
10. Persona 5 - 123.57 hours

Bear in mind that there can be 3 or even 4 of us all with files in the same game. And yes, I play way too many online games. Also, if you add both the PS4 and PS5 versions of Fifa 21 together then it’ll be in 5th place somehow. Not really sure how I played it that much.

@Ralizah I'll echo the thanks for the link, very interesting!

@colonelkilgore Sorry, I’m a bit late, but Dragon Age Inquisition is actually a pretty good game. However I ran into the same wall that @JohnnyShoulder did, although I think I still own my disc. I’ve always had in the back of my mind I should return and finish it, but all the side quests seemed to bloat things up a little much and I eventually got pulled away into other games and it quickly became forgotten. For the time of its release, it’s actually an impressive game. But it’s one of those age old dilemmas of “Just because we have the technology and resources to make this game 200 hours long, it doesn’t mean we should.”

To be fair, the side content is largely optional and the base story could probably be run in 40 hours or so. And I’ve heard that it’s a more enjoyable experience to just streamline it.

@Th3solution I have a few fantasy RPG's I've been meaning to get too and for whatever reason Dragon Age: Inquisition always ends up at the bottom of the list... think it's due to how bloody awful Dragon Age 2 was if I'm honest (loved Origins though).

My list of priorities for fantasy RPG's currently reads:

1. Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen
2. Kingdom of Amalur: Re-reckoning
3. The Witcher 3 (gonna start from the beginning and finish it this time)
4. Kingdom Come: Deliverance (okay its medieval rather than fantasy but... well, close enough)
5. Dragon Age: Inquisition

They're all massive too... which doesn't help.

@Th3solution It depends on what you like, of course. I personally WANT a very long experience, and I loved DAI. My first playthrough was about 150 hours, and then my second, with all of the DLC, was about 200 or so.

For me, not only was it a game that I had looked forward to and followed VERY closely for years, it was the reason I bought my PS4 when I did (about a year after release), and to this day has one of the best character creation systems of any game I've ever played. I'm stunned that other games coming out seven years later are FAR worse in that respect. Its also the only party based RPG I've played to this point where you can craft special gear for all of your companions and have that show up on screen in battle and cut scenes. Again, stunned that no one else has been able to do that.

So its a very special game to me that checks a lot of my boxes. I thought, with it being early in the PS4's lifecycle, that it would set a trend that other games from other developers would then follow. I'm heartbroken that it hasn't been that way.

@Unlucky13 Yes, very true that DA Inquisition is great to lose yourself in and put in a ton of hours. It’s a high quality game, for sure. And I have always wanted to go back and finish it. I don’t know how far in I am story-wise but I think my play timer showed something around 80 hours devoted to it. Definitely agree on the character creator. It’s brilliant. I also wonder why it’s not been bested yet either, although I’ve not played Cyberpunk and many others that might rival it.
I played the game shortly after doing the holy trinity of fantasy RPGs on PS3 — Skyrim, Dragon’s Dogma, and Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning. And it probably had me a wee bit burned out on the genre, now that I look back. So caution @colonelkilgore as you run that gauntlet. Probably best to spread those out because yes, they are all really long. Witcher 3 also was probably a victim of my waning interest for the same reason.

@Th3solution duly noted... think I'll play one per year (I'm gonna start the same annual schedule with the Yakuza games).