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Hussmir's Most
Addictive Games Ever

By Mubs Date:27/10/11
san andreas

Every now and then, a video game comes along that you just can't stop playing. Try as you might to call it a day, you keep muttering "just one more level..." and, before you know it, it's 4am. Here is a list of the most addictive games of all time.  

Farmville 

farville

Incredibly, one of the most popular games is Farmville: a free, browser-based jaunt played through your Facebook account and recently Microsoft's MSN Games, and has an app for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. There are no flashy graphics, amazing animation or intricate storyline. It's a game about farming. You can harvest crops, raise animals and other farmerly type things but that's about it. Yet it has over 80 million monthly active users and over 1% of the world's population plays it. FarmVille was the top game by daily active users on Facebook between August 2009 and December 2010, but now CityVille has claimed the top spot. 

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 

 modern warfare 2

Publishers Activision announced in June 2010 that this first-person shooter has now sold more than 20 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling games of all time. Just as good in single-player, multiplayer and cooperative modes, Modern Warfare 2 pitches you in a number of soldier roles, travelling across the globe taking out terrorists in an assortment of cunning ways. Once you get over the steep learning curve, the multiplayer options are insanely addictive. 

Starcraft 

starcraft

Credited with revolutionising the real-time strategy genre, Starcraft features an exquisite mix of combat and resource management, and casts you as the leader of a small group of humans fighting for survival on the edge of the galaxy. Akin to a national sport in South Korea, where it is played professionally and bouts are screened on the telly, Starcraft has sold more than 11 million copies as of February 2009, it is one of the best-selling games for the personal computer And was launched in March 1998. Its sequel (pictured) has just been released. 

Guitar Hero III 

guitar hero 3

Who hasn't longed to be a rock star at some point? What kid hasn't danced around the bedroom playing air guitar to their favourite track? The Guitar Hero series taps into that yearning for superstardom and decks you out with a guitar-shaped peripheral allowing you to belt out some hardcore tunes and wallow in the adulation of the virtual groupies. And if you're questioning the series' addictive credentials, then you've clearly never stayed up all night trying to clear Through the Fire and Flames on expert. 

Bejeweled 

bejeweled

Swap adjacent gems around a grid to line up three or more to make them disappear: it's the epitome of mindlessness, with little in the way of genuine strategy and scores that are more a matter of luck than skill. Yet it's brilliant. It was named Most Popular Puzzle Game Series of the Century by the Guinness World Records 2010 Gamer's Edition, and creator PopCap estimates that half a billion people have played Bejeweled in one form or another. 

Doom 

doom

The classic first-person shooter that brought the genre to the masses and spawned a trillion wannabes. Doom has you battling through hordes of aliens with whatever blood-letting weapons you can get your hands on (with the BFG9000 being the ultimate prize). Nine levels of the game were released as shareware which encouraged around 10 million people to have a go within two years of its release in 1993. 

Pacman 

pacman

Yellow gobby blob runs round a series of mazes eating keys to unlock doors while avoiding persistent ghosties (and occasionally turning the tables). Simples! Creakingly ancient graphics and audio, but sooooo much fun, as evidenced by its continuing popularity 30 years after it first appeared in arcades. 

World of Warcraft 

wow

 

Giving a whole new meaning to the word immersive, this massively multi-player online role-playing game has you exploring the lands of Azeroth, forging fellowships with other players and then maybe taking them out with the thousands of weapons at your disposal. With 11.1 million subscribers as of June 2011 World of Warcraft is currently the world's most-subscribed MMORPGand holds the Guinness World Record for the most popular MMORPG by subscribers. 

The Sims 

the sims

Since its launch 11 years ago, The Sims - which allows you to create and live a virtual, simulated life on a computer - together with its many sequels and expansion packs, has emerged as one of the best-selling PC game franchises in the world. Unit sales of all The Sims' offerings have topped 125 million worldwide and a staggering amount of people continue to spend unfeasible amounts of time on this pretend life. 

Counter-Strike 

sounter strike

A first-person shooter with a multi-million user base and one that is played in professional online leagues, Counter-Strike began life as a Half-Life modification but proved a massive hit in its own right. Play as either a terrorist or counter-terrorist team and then work through the missions until the opposing side is annihilated. It was banned in Brazil by a federal court in 2007 for bringing "imminent stimulus to the subversion of the social order". Which, of course, made it well cool. 

Football Manager 

 football manager

Debuting on the Spectrum in 1982, Football Manager (ironically launched by Addictive Games) kicked off the football management sim genre. The brand name was revived in 2005 by Sports Interactive and various incarnations have since robbed countless devotees of a life. As one fan put it: "The hours, days, months and years I have afforded that Devil's spawn of a title are too numerous to count." Nuff said. 

Plants vs Zombies 

plants vs zombies

Simple but compulsive, Plants vs Zombies has you fending off hordes of zombies intent on invading your home. All the zombies have special skills - watch out for the pole-vaulters, snorkellers and 'Zomboni' drivers - and your only defences are the plant-life you can grow and fashion into weapons. Pea shooting and cherry bombing has never been so much fun. The fastest selling game in PopCap's history, since its introduction on the iPhone and iPod touch in February 2010, Plants vs Zombies has sold more than 650,000 units. 

Tetris 

tetris

There are puzzle games and then there is Tetris. This is the game that ensured the Gameboy's stratospheric success and made games cool for girls. With such a winning formula, there have, of course been a zillion clones and remakes with everybody trying to improve on the original idea. But there is no improving on perfection and this silly little game, where you press buttons to turn the shapes to fit them into a grid to make the rows disappear, is as near perfect a concept as you can get. 

Halo 3 

halo 3

A truly superb first-person shooter. Halo 3 ticks all the boxes: fantastic for both solo and for and multiple players, it looks utterly gorgeous, has a totally immersive storyline and a large amount of truly excellent weapons. The Halo series has spawned a variety of 'I'm addicted to Halo' forums and websites where hopelessly addicted gamers go on the rare occasions they're not blasting hell out of the Covenant. 

Super Mario Kart 

super mario kart

In 1992, when Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, Wario, Yoshi and Bowser first hit the tarmac and started hurling out banana skins and Koopa Shells, the 'kart-racing' sub-genre was born. Arguably the best game ever on the Super NES, Super Mario Kart was certainly the most addictive two-player racer of the time and remains a treasured classic today. 

Space Invaders 

space invaders

Ranked as the top arcade game by Guinness World Records, this is the granddaddy of all shooters which helped bring gaming into the mainstream and still looms large in popular culture today. The aim is to take out the wave after wave of approaching alien ships before they land on your head. Easy enough but as addictive as hell (which probably explains why it led to a shortage of 100-yen coins in Japan after its release in 1978). 

Street Fighter II 

street fighter 2

Street Fighter II started life in the arcades and revolutionised the beat 'em up genre with its 6-button controls and assortment of brilliant special moves. There were a variety of characters to fight as but Street Fighter aficionados usually fought as Ryu because he was the best all-rounder (Ken was almost as good but had a crap name). Much copied but never bettered throughout the 90s, by 2008 the SNES version was Capcom's best-selling consumer game of all time. 

My personal addictive game 1:
Grand theft Auto: San Andreas
 

san andreas

Even after you've played through every mission and seen the story to its end, there's still loads to do. How many cars, trucks, motorcycles, airplanes, helicopters, and tanks have you stole and crashed? What about the weapons, races, graffiti tagging spots, and mini-game diversions? It's hard to imagine ever experiencing everything there is to see in San Andreas. 

Originally released for the PlayStation 2 in October 2004, the game has since been released for the Xbox and Microsoft Windows (PC) in June 2005, and has received wide acclaim and high sales figures on all three platforms, and is the best-selling game of all time on PlayStation 2. 

 

My personal addictive game 2: Runescape 

runescape

The fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in January 2001 by Andrew and Paul Gower and has approximately 10 million active accounts, and over 156 million registered accounts, and is recognized by the Guinness World Records as the world's most popular free MMORPG. Its regions offer different types of monsters, resources, and quests to challenge players. 

 

 I know you might not really agree with most or all of it, but there you have it. You are always welcome to tell us what you thought of the list and which games you would have picked in the comments section below.

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