Poll Question 121 – How often do you replay your favourite mods?

27th April 2009

Single Player First Person Shooter Maps and Mods for Half-Life 1, 2 and Episodes 1, 2 and 3

Regular readers will know that I never replay mods. Although that may be about to change. There’s been such a dearth of good mods lately I think I’ll try a few good ones again.

The only time I have replayed a mod was Das Roboss and that was because I needed new screenshots. In fact, that’s another reason I will be replaying a lot of mods over the coming year, I want to ensure the older mods all have screenshots and are in the same format as the most recent additions.

Anyway, eagle-eyed readers will recognize Minerva: Metastasis used in the header image of this poll, and that’s the first mod I plan to replay, probably on Friday. I’ll even try and add some panoramic views.

Back to the topic though. I know a lot of readers replay their favourite mods and probably just as many replay the games but I can’t seem to. I need a much longer gap between the first play and the second. In fact I don’t think I’ve completely replayed ANY of the HL games! I did try to replay HL2 last year but stopped because I almost got bored.

I think it would be a valuable exercise, just to see how my memory serves me. I have recently been rereading some favourite books and I am surprised at how they differ from what I remember. I seemed to have enlarged certain characters and situations in my mind, when in reality both are quite minor. I wonder if the same will be said of the mods.

I am looking forward to playing Minerva again because the first time I played it in the 3 separate parts, but this time it will be one long run through, which in itself will be different.

Some side questions:
What game have you most replayed (Not necessarily HL franchise)?
and
What mod have you played the most and how many times?

The Poll

18 Comments

  1. Very rarely, and only if they’re very good. The only one’s I can think of are Minerva and Eclipse, but there are probably a few more.

  2. Mel

    I have played through a few more then once and when I get time may run off a list. Phillip makes a good point, nows the time to replay some of the good old mods.

  3. Rosco[CoF]

    Usually once or twice, except for one. For some reason I always find myself replaying “They Hunger” every year right around Halloween time. That mod has always been my favorite, and I hope someday we hear more news about Manke’s upcoming commercial release someday soon.

  4. I have a problem with replaying. Story is the only thing that matters to me. So, after finishing a game or mod replaying seems pointless. I only played HL2 twice and it was because I was not able to totally understand the story. In that point multiple ending comes to mind. I really like mulitple endings, and I love being able to choose my own path in game or mod.

    All in all I don’t replay games or mods, unless they have something new in every play.

    Examples: Diablo 2, Silent Hill Series, Fable, etc… Any mod???

  5. oopla

    I put down once or twice.

    I play once for the first time experience, and often a second to exercise my inner critic,

  6. Jasper

    I play all the HL2 episodes frequently but, when possible, with different tactics. This teaches you a lot and makes the games more interesting. Same goes for the good source mods.
    I start on easy to learn the maps, then middle difficulty to start getting a strategy together and then hard. I usually then replay on hard.
    The main exception is Coastline to Atmosphere when I got iritated by the long tightly confined buggy drive and the drugged section.
    If you do not replay you will not know what you missed and it is easy to miss a lot.
    Simple maps as BSPs I play a couple of times and then delete.

  7. Kasperg

    I voted never. Besides playtesting my own maps and mods, I don’t really replay others.
    I’ve played HL2 twice (four years between each play) and replayed isolated chapters from Ep1 and Ep2. As much as I like these games, a great part of the enjoyment for me comes from the novelty of exploring each area. After playing so many FPS games, the combat aspect of the HL series becomes nothing special, even with the gravity gun.
    I think another reason is that these games aren’t exactly full of “satisfaction input”, or at least these moments are spaced too far apart. Shooting down bad guys is the most typical “satisfaction input” moment in FPS. But after almost 5 years of the same weapons, I’m afraid HL2 has lost that for me.
    I can replay lots of other games like racing an sports games, because their pace and enjoyment factor is much more fluid. For example: my brain acknowledges scoring a three-pointer in NBA2K9 as something more enjoyable than killing an ant-lion.

    I think that the only mod I’ve played was Redemption for HL1, which I initially played before having ever used the HL1 map editor. Years later, I replayed it because I had some nice memories of situations and places, but I was severly dissapointed with it in almost every aspect 🙁

  8. Mel

    On checking my records, I have now played over 400 HL1 and over 200 HL2 games, mods and mappacks, trying to recall what amongst these I have replayed more then once does not come freely to mind. For sure I have replayed a small percentage and then not for all the same reasons. I replayed all the retail HL1 games including Opposing Forces and Blue Shift countless times, very much a case of getting one’s monies worth also you did not have the frequency of custom mod releases such that replaying these retail games was also a time filler in between the better custom mod releases.

    I don’t play other games outside the world of HL which limits my choice, and that’s also another reason I would replay stiff during the long dark nights of winter. I have tried other games outside the world of HL and have always been disappointed, my expectation I think are too high finding any classic HL1 mod both better and more replayable then other FPS.

    Apart from replaying a game or mod for shear enjoyment I always play through a mod 2 or 3 times if I am going to write a detailed review, I would hate to miss something and on a repeat play through will look for different paths and ways of defeating foe and beating any encounters or puzzles. Also I sometimes replay a mod just for the challenge having first gone through on easy or normal upping the hardness factors next time around can lead to adopting different tactics for a somewhat different playing experience.

    Having said all the above I still don’t replay many releases these days for either enjoyment or for a challenge and looking back I would recall only a handful of mods I now would consider replaying.

  9. geekofalltrades

    Any mod that gains a permanent spot on my hard drive – Minerva, Penetration, Mistake of Pythagoras, Dear Esther for Half-Life 2, Infliction, They Hunger, Black Ops for Half-Life – gets replayed fairly frequently. The rest of them get played 2 – 3 times before they disappear into the depths of my external hard drive.

    As for games that I replay the most… the games that I most often replay from start to finish are the Half-Life games. Any and all of them, including Portal.

  10. I play many of my favorite mods over again, in fact, I am playing Poke646 for Half Life 1 over again. I have replayed They Hunger, Gateway 1, Black Ops, USS Darkstar, Half-Quake Amen, and Conundrum 1 many times.

  11. I never replay a game,be it hard or easy. So,I’m always on the look out for mods. I do have faves but who knows when I’ll get to them.

  12. MattyDienhoff

    Needs more poll options.

    I would’ve gone for “occasionally”.

  13. paddyl

    Minerva, Coastline to Athmosphere and a few others – only long mods that I forget over time and want to revisit.
    Its always the HL experience I’m after. Even if there was a regular supply of longer mods I think I would replay some of these again – just because they are great enjoyment.
    I’m currently replaying the Strider Mountain episodes and trying different tactics – as Jasper mentions about HL2.
    So definitely once or twice – but more so occassionally.

  14. wreade1872

    I play through mods every now and then, I don’t see much difference in replaying a mod or replaying a purchased game. Currently i’m playing through what I call the ultimate half-life story using all this (includes 23mods not including decay)
    Half-Life: Source
    Opposing Force
    Blue Shift
    Decay
    Azure Sheep
    Point of View
    Case Closed
    Life’s End
    Half-Life Visitors
    Sweet Half-Life
    Black Operations (+12hrs)
    Escape from the Darkness (+48hrs)
    Half-Life Invasion {Gordan Freeman continued}
    Intolerable Threat
    Edge of Darkness
    Deliverance (after Xen ending freeman captured again and given gman’s choice again, this time he accepts)
    Todesangst
    Timeline
    Todesangst 2: der Echte Feind
    absolute Redemption
    Project Quantum Leap (test subject for parrellel dimension travel, goes wrong gordan eventually retreived)
    Timeline 2: Iced Earth
    Timeline 3: Heart of Darkness
    Issues
    Fallback, Fire & Ice {whatever happened to Adrian}
    Poke646
    Poke646: Vendetta
    Half-Life 2
    Half-Life 2: Episode 1
    Half-Life 2: Episode 2
    Its moderific 😀

  15. Actually I replay Half-Quake series

  16. I replay alot. I usually go thru the games slowly to begin with, but I always miss somthing interesting, so I go back again and take my time, again. After that, I go thru fairly quickly, or look for new routes.

    But to me it’s like reading, or these days movies: I can always see something new in a replay, that makes it worth doing again.

    And I’ve replayed pretty much EVERYTHING I’ve ever actually finished, and I haven’t *not* finished much that I started (FarCry is one; Serious Sam another).

  17. depends on how long the mod is. I’ve replayed Forward Motion a few times just to check it out, and I’m working my way through The Trap again, but I still need to work through the other mods and games that I haven’t played at all yet.

  18. Pyro

    I replay all my mods, and even the official games a lot, because currently my system doesn’t want to run any other games. I can’t even play the old Rock Raiders game! Q_Q

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