Including DLC, micro transaction purchases, etc. If you got a game for free, please also list your non-infinite next best.
For me it’s Team Fortress 2. $100 total spent on hats and the Orange Box back in the day, 4200 hours plus of fun, meaning 2.3¢ AUD per hour. Initially I thought DotA2 would be my best but it turns out I’ve spent a lot more money in that game than I thought…
My worst is God of War: Ragnarok. Bought it full price for $95 AUD, only played 2 hours and hated it, meaning $47.50 AUD per hour.
I’m deliberately excluding free titles as that would be technically infinite. Otherwise it would be Dota+Dota2 combined, even accounting for the last few years of playing Dota2 not exactly counting as “enjoyment”.
Most enjoyment is tough, but it’s probably either Diablo 2 or Warcraft 3. I played both fervently throughout my childhood, but considering Dota 1 technically counts as WC3 I think that is probably the one. I played a whole ton of WC3 custom maps, even apart from Dota. It was the unifying game me and my childhood best friend bonded over.
Least enjoyment per dollar is unquestionably STALKER 2. I pre-ordered the €100 deluxe edition because I love the franchise, I loved the GSC studio and I wanted to support them through being struck by the Ukraine war. I ended up doing a single playthrough and then shelving it, waiting for patches. But do I regret my purchase? Not necessarily. I knew it was an emotional purchase, I know it was a show of support. And I knew it was an investment for the future. GSC have still not given up on the game, they’ve slowly been fixing it and the first DLC is coming. And mods are being developed. Do I think it will supplant Anomaly? No. But it still has the chance to pay off.
Man, Anomaly had soooo many bugs that I just couldn’t get through even probably half of it (no idea of the length of the storyline). It had a lot of cool ideas but the execution even as of 1.5.x (can’t remember by now) just worsened the farther I went, particularly with NPC teammates who just stood there while I was under attack by factions who they themselves had okay relations with. There were several other issues that were so immersion-breaking that I couldn’t keep going.
I can’t say I have had any experience even close to that to be honest, but I would never advise anyone to play vanilla Anomaly. It’s meant as a stable and unified platform for mods, and it does that exceptionally well compared to previous Call Of Chernobyl-based soups.
What I would recommend is installing one of the numerous pre-built modpacks that are one-click downloads and probably address all your issues and more.
Hmm… which would you recommend?
G.A.M.M.A. is the most popular and most supported (their Discord has like 700 000 members). It does have a somewhat specific playstyle though, mostly focused on scavenging and a slow gear progression that many love but not everyone.
I recommend watching Cheeki Breeki’s two-part video from last year, where he goes over some of the most popular and notable ones.
Part one
Part two
Fair, I think I’ve heard of that one, but never tried it. Thanks for the links!