Playing games in chronological order

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HavocXphere

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Do you always play games in chronological order or just skip to the newest one?

e.g. I've got 7x Total War games in my library. Would you start with the oldest (and possibly never get to the new)?

Also...are you OCD about completing games 100%?
 
Well, I bought all S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games recently and started off with Clear Sky. Same story with F.E.A.R., so yes I suppose I do.

I don't care about finishing games 100% though. It's just a game.
 
That depends on whether the story is important to the game or not. Games like Mass Effect are very story-driven, so it makes sense that they should be played in chronological order.

Games like the Total War series are all about the gameplay. I don't think most of them even have a proper story, so it doesn't make sense to play them in chronological order when every game just improves the gameplay of it's predecessor and changes the setting.
 
HavocXphere said:
Do you always play games in chronological order or just skip to the newest one?

e.g. I've got 7x Total War games in my library. Would you start with the oldest (and possibly never get to the new)?

Also...are you OCD about completing games 100%?
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Yes, yes and yes. I've got the same problem with the Total War games... I refuse to start the newer ones, because I've got all the older ones glaring at me. I'll test the waters of the newer ones for a couple of minutes, but refuse to play it until the older ones are done. Problem is, I can't get into the older ones, so I end up missing out on all of them...

I've broken my rule somewhat recently though... I finished Bioshock years ago and recently got Bioshock 2 and Infinite. I tried working through the second one and got about 80% through it, but it started irritating the crap out of me. I tested the waters of Infinite and ended up playing it for 4 hours straight... So I'll end up finishing it before finishing the second one...
 
I play games in chronological order. It bugs me to pick a number and start there. I like to see the gradual changes to a series and how stories sometimes interlink. Granted, some entries that aren't story driven can be played out of order.
 
FarligOpptreden said:
...my rule...
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I think I need to redefine mine...to play in reverse chron order unless its story drive as pointed out above. Else I'm going to miss out on all the cool stuff.

GTA...never made it through.
Deus Ex...never made it through.
Hitman...never made it through.
Civ...never made it through.
etc

Also...suddenly have a newly discovered appreciation for reboots. :D
 
FarligOpptreden said:
Yes, yes and yes. I've got the same problem with the Total War games... I refuse to start the newer ones, because I've got all the older ones glaring at me. I'll test the waters of the newer ones for a couple of minutes, but refuse to play it until the older ones are done. Problem is, I can't get into the older ones, so I end up missing out on all of them...

I've broken my rule somewhat recently though... I finished Bioshock years ago and recently got Bioshock 2 and Infinite. I tried working through the second one and got about 80% through it, but it started irritating the crap out of me. I tested the waters of Infinite and ended up playing it for 4 hours straight... So I'll end up finishing it before finishing the second one...
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The older ones rome 1 and medieval 2 are the best in my opinion. The mods out for those games are fantastic.
 
RotT and Shadow Warrior? I really want to play them, but I've got too many games on my backlog already... I also haven't made it through any GTA ever, but I've put at least 20 hours into each Civ game, including Alpha Centauri.
 
I think, imho, if the first game is really old, say 5 years or more, and you havent played it, let it be, most devs take that into account when bringing out a sequel. You might just be put off by the graphics and what not.

But I myself have played a couple of games the wrong way round and it was still ok, one major example was Mass Effect. I got the first one, couldnt quite get into it. My brother raved about the 2nd so I got that and was sucked in, then went back and played the first one. Was actually cool to play the game, kinda like a Star Trek episode with time and chronologocal problems. (The best episodes!).


FarligOpptreden said:
RotT and Shadow Warrior? I really want to play them, but I've got too many games on my backlog already... I also haven't made it through any GTA ever, but I've put at least 20 hours into each Civ game, including Alpha Centauri.
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For a blast, you can perhaps look at getting Shadow Warrior Classic Redux or The Apogee Throwback Pack.
I own both and they are simply a must have for ANYONE who likes FPS. You might not start and complete the game in a week or two, but for those moments when you are tired and just want to have some good old digital mayhem, they are perfect.
 
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To put things into perspective... I havent started Starcraft 2 yet... Because im still trying to get through the first one...
 
Are we talking about chronological order (i.e. Metal Gear Solid Ground Zeroes is the newest MGS game, but falls somewhere in the middle of the franchise's timeline) or order of the game's releases (i.e. MGS 1, 2, 3 - with 3 actually occurring before 1 and 2 in the story's timeframe)?

Anyhow, if I haven't played previous entries of a new game that looks good to me, I'll do some research and decide whether I feel it's necessary to play the previous ones. I don't like to be lost in the storyline. Otherwise I'll jump right into the new title. I sometimes find it difficult to go back and play older titles that I didn't manage to experience in the time of their release. Some of them age really badly and without the nostalgia of replaying games you loved, I usually hate them :p.
 
If I have the games in my library then I will generally play it in chronological order, just because its usually difficult to go back to an older game, but if I don't have an older title I wont go out of my way to get it first. That said, I wouldn't lump all the total war games into one. I would see all of those as separate franchises and thus wouldn't have a problem playing them in any order. I also take into account how many of the older games I am likely to play. For example I have the entire c&c collection, but I doubt I will ever play the older titles, so there I would just play what I want to.
 
brendanvb said:
Are we talking about chronological order (i.e. Metal Gear Solid Ground Zeroes is the newest MGS game, but falls somewhere in the middle of the franchise's timeline) or order of the game's releases (i.e. MGS 1, 2, 3 - with 3 actually occurring before 1 and 2 in the story's timeframe)?

Anyhow, if I haven't played previous entries of a new game that looks good to me, I'll do some research and decide whether I feel it's necessary to play the previous ones. I don't like to be lost in the storyline. Otherwise I'll jump right into the new title. I sometimes find it difficult to go back and play older titles that I didn't manage to experience in the time of their release. Some of them age really badly and without the nostalgia of replaying games you loved, I usually hate them :p.
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Chronology is the science of setting events in their respective time or time line. So the former option you stated would answer the question.

Also a huge MGS fan + a little OCD, if you wanted to play MGS chronologically the path to follow would be:

1964 – Snake Eater
1970 – Portable Ops (Japan only AFAIK)
1974 – Peace Walker
1975 – Ground Zeroes
1984 – The Phantom Pain
1995 – Metal Gear
1999 – Solid Snake
2005 – Metal Gear Solid
2007/09 – Sons of Liberty
2014 – Guns of the Patriots
2018 – Metal Gear Rising

If you feeling the urge to play it like that I present: http://www.takealot.com/gaming/metal-gear-solid-the-legacy-collection-ps3,29925064 Or you could get most of them on PSVita.

***EDIT
With regards to the topic at hand, I make attempts to play games in series but it does not always end up that way. I love Final Fantasy as most of the games have no correlation with the other, unless it has -2 next to it, or it's Lightning returns.
 
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In my country, it's actually really hard to find oldest games for console, like my Xbox classic. So i usually play the latest games around that day, like Splinter Cell Chaos Theory or Prince of Persia Two Thrones, and then followed by the older series of those games, like Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow and PP Warrior Within. But that depends on the availability of the games i'm looking for.
 
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