What is the last video game that you were completely hooked on?

Baldur's Gate 3, four playthroughs back to back, two of em multiplayer. I still play it every now and then when I want to continue my honor run.
Besides that, Rimworld. Nearly 4k hours.
- Ah Rimworld. What are other games except brief distractions from more Rimworld?
  
  It's honestly a neverending stream of new stories. There's new, quality mods nearly every day.
- Have you yet done the "all gnomes" playthrough?
  
  Not yet! Waiting on a friend, we're doing an all-barbarians playthrough, so we were thinking halflings. It'll probably get very messy.

I am utterly shellshocked by how much I'm enjoying Helldivers 2. It's been a very long time since I've daydreamed about going home to play but I just can't wait to blast some bugs with friends most days. It's like I'm 10 again
- I just want to let people with lower spec hardware know about "Earth defense force 5". It's better than hell divers in my opinion. Bigger scale, more aliens, more destruction but lower graphics to compensate.
  
  There's 6 days left on the EDF Humble Bundle.
  https://www.humblebundle.com/games/earth-defense-force-friends-unite
- I keep seeing so much about it, I really need to give it a shot.
  
  You won't be disappointed especially if you play with friends or people who communicate
- Yeah it's this dog me too except im forcefully teaching democracy to the robots.
  Not to mention i really try to help with all the major orders as i want to see where the story goes

Ive been playing a lot of read dead redemption lately.
- Came here to say this (specifically RDR2). I found the story really slow in the beginning but it got me addicted.
- This is me right now with RDR2, almost feverish with it for the last two weeks.
  Currently on my second full playthrough. This time I'm changing it up by playing with a controller, and doing a low honour run - role-playing as the disillusioned dickhead that hates the world, antagonises almost everyone and gets bounties left and right. I have been avoiding story missions for the last 5-10 hours just because the world is so engrossing, so rich with experiences and possibilities that the thought of returning to the story starts to feel restrictive. But I've added a good 20+ mods to enhance the experience in a lore-friendly way, too.
  But man is it fun. God, what a pleasure it is to experience that world, and to know just how much of it I still have left to discover. I love it so much.

I'm still playing Starfield. I'm 120% the targeted audience. It helped me go through depression.
I'm a 45 years old dude, and I started creating a comic with my character in Starfield, by taking screenshots and adding speech bubbles with Figma. I didn't know I had it in me.
As far as I'm concerned, Starfield is self-care.
- That's deep rock Galactic and star trek for me, whenever I'm bringing those 2 then times are tough.
- I really enjoyed that game, despite its faults, and despite the loud folks yelling about how it was the worst game ever. I put around 150 hours into it.
  
  Awesome. I'm way past 500. Not sure, I don't check much.

Deep Rock Galactic
Just gotta finish one last assignment...
- ROCK AND STONE!
- I've gotten to the point I just browse the servers list. Help
- WE FIGHT FOR ROCK AND STONE!

I've spent a ridiculous amount of time with Balatro, the Steam Deck is Dangerous...
- I'll have to try balatro after I finish minishoot.
- Was just telling my friends, had one of those instances where I lost a run, so I closed the game with the intent of going to go so something else, then found myself opening it again 2 minutes later.. so addictive
  
  I get angry at the game and instead of turning it off, I switch decks...
- I really enjoyed the game, until it came to beating it on the harder difficulties. I lost steam when I had all the decks unlocked except for the ones that require bearing the higher difficulties. I did normal, and the next harder one.
  
  Use the checkered deck lol it's like cheat mode for the higher stakes.

Got hooked on Factorio back in 2016. Still am.
- Friend gifted me this game just a few weeks ago. It gained more prominence in my dreams than i am willing to admit
  
  What are you in bed dreaming for? Don't you have some iron throughput to upgrade?
  
  Can't dream if you don't sleep. Can't sleep, the factory must grow.
- Currently on my 2nd attempt at a Space Exploration run. Part of me wishes I'd just started heroin, it would have been less addictive.
  
  I finished SE not long ago. I like the added complexity of logistics, but I found that SE was a bit too repetitive for my taste, as every new resource requires pretty much the same setup but on a new planet.
  I'm more of an angelbob kind of guy.
- Factorio is one of the few games that cause the Tetris Effect for me.

Helldivers 2, currently. I'm hooked on the progression and acquisition of all of the unlockables, but it's the moment to moment gameplay that keeps me wanting to hunt all the loadout options I probably won't use anyway.
- Be sure to subscribe to !helldivers2@lemmy.ca if you aren't already!
  
  Good looking out, I hadn't gone there yet, subbed!
  
  Cheers subbed
- I've never loved a game with so many technical issues so damn much

Baldur's Gate 3. I just can't get enough. When I'm too tired to play myself I'm watching streams of other people playing. Sometimes I get fed up for a few days but so far it has always pulled me back in.
The "worst" for me was in 2006 with the release of Gothic 3. I had saved up for a powerful new PC and taken two or three weeks off work to play. I played deep into the night. Then deep into the morning. Then deep into the day. Then deep into the evening. Until my sleep schedule was aligned with my regular schedule again at the end of my holidays.
- I remember being like that with Morrowind.

You'll laugh.
Bus simulator: Ultimate
Android game that will toast your phone, but it's pretty nice. It has a multiplayer too and a 2nd hand market where people bid on used buses. Naturally this means it's best to attempt to put a bus for auction in specific hours, and bid in others.
Some of the longer routes take well over an hour in real world.
One effect on me, which is also true for trains and busses in real life, is that it makes me sleepy pretty quickly.
Low frequency sound of the engine, trees moving past, road lanes quickly zipping past, you're just staring in front while doing minor adjustments and falling asleep.
I should not drive in real life.
- As an avid ETS2/ATS player, I totally get you.

Completely hooked on would be Dark Souls 3. Right now I'm playing The Witcher 3, and while it's good, it makes me want to boot up DS3 - less talking more fighting
- Come back to DS3! Plenty of people invading and praising the sun on PC...
- DS3 is my favorite. I have to fight the urge to play it again fairly regularly. It's an oddly soothing game to play.

If by "were" you mean "are", then Balatro.
- I just got it. Beat my first red deck run, but it has yet to really sink its hooks into me. I’d be curious to hear what makes it work for you.
  
  Have you not seen how big number can be? Number can just get so big. I don't even care that I'm ADHD and I'm playing into all the worst stereotypes about us:
  NUMBER GETS BIG
  
  I couldn't say why it got me so hooked. I like roguelikes/rogue-lites as well as deckbuilders, and I think it hits a really good balance of the things that make them fun - challenge, randomness, a variety of strategies that can make different runs feel very different. Also good achievements and unlockables.

Probably WoW tbh. I don't play anymore and don't recommend it, but WoW with friends/guildies at its peak is unparalleled. You can't wait to log on and reconnect with everyone.

Outer Wilds
- A wonderful game, still need to go back and do the dlc at some point.
  
  I loved the game, and actually loved the DLC even more

satisfactory on my 8th full playthrough and the game is not even 1.0 yet
- I got so hooked on Factorio for years that after trying Satisfactory for a few hours I had to stop since I had things to do in the next year and a half. One day I hope I’ll have time to give it a real shot.
  
  yeah that is a good idea I have almost 1000 hours in satisfactory and have a real problem of telling myself I will go to bed after I finish this production line then I blink and it's 4am.

Currently hooked on Factorio.
Before that, Baldur's Gate 3.
Before that, Factorio.
- factorio is one of the best automation games ever, and also has just about any quality of life feature you could think to add to a game.
  i'm in my first ever modded playthrough with space exploration and i'm blown away by the increase in complexity. the vanilla game is great but the mods are definitely worth trying if you want an exponential jump in complexity.
  
  My latest game is with Krastorio, and I've been loving the added complexity, though I've heard it's lighter than some other mods. Definitely doing a Space Exploration run next I think.
- Factorio is eternal.
  Can't wait to play the new extension.
- The Factory Must Grow
- Haven't touched Factorio in ages. Really looking forward to diving back in with the Space Age expansion!

~~Fac~~Cracktorio

I gotta go with Cyberpunk : i waited until very recently to start playing (didn't have a beefy enough computer before) and man am I hooked. The universe feels complete, and the characters feel real to me : truly a fantastic game
- I love this game. I got it at launch and never had a problem, and I've played like two complete 100% games already before the dlc, now on my third one.
  
  I also had it at launch and had very, very few bugs. The ones I did were very easy to work around. I think my favorite part is the amount of philosophy some of the side quests had!
  
  Played original game about a year after release and loved it. Expansion came out and didn't get far. Enemies take 80 rounds to kill. All weapons seem like junk. The crafting and "loot" drops are too much maintenance for me to really enjoy.

Few games have captured my attention like XCom2, and it's last expansion.
I often find myself playing something new while also wishing it was XCOM 2...
- If you haven't played Phoenix Point yet put that on deck.

Dragons Dogma 2
story: garbage
storytelling: garbage
performance: garbage
CAPCOM: garbage
But I tell you what, the world, exploration and gameplay they've put together, it's all A+.
- I turned it to Japanese voices so I didn't have to hear the god awful English voice acting and it's improved my experience a lot
  I hope they add a localization patch so I can change it to something fun like Spanish or German

Currently Horizon: Forbidden West. So glad the PC port only took 2 years this time around rather than 5 for the first one (or however long it was)

Descent, over 20 years ago
- 20 years? What, in the 80s?
  
  lol, 20 years ago was 2004; but yes, I’m old.

My own work in progress game, an arcade style deckbuilding game with meta-progression.
The current release doesn't include the last part but the next update will introduce it.
It's so fun to try to get a high score, and the randomness gives me the "just one more go" feeling.
- It's a good sign. Usually, the project I work on (no matter what they are, be it an edited video, a website etc.) just get boring in the end because of how much time I spend on them.
  
  I feel that way about my high effort YT videos that don't even get more views than my low effort ones.

Baldur's Gate 3. Before that, I dunno. Outer Worlds, I guess.
- Exactly the same here.

Crusader kings 3, aka Sims for psychopaths.

To the moon. Played it a few years ago. Cried.
- There are sequels too!
  
  What? No. Seriously?

No Mans Sky. Off and on for like 4 years now. But I keep coming back with each new update and I get completely hooked again.

I totally binged Alan Wake 1 in like 2 days. Then spent a while enveloped by Alan Wake 2! Part 2 really got the AAA treatment. It was funny, spooky, actiony. Lots of stuff to explore, the characters play differently.
I also didn't realize Control was part of the story, so now I gotta go play that!
- Control is great. In my top 5.
- I did the opposite and played Control first, so now I have the Alan Wake stuff to play.

Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart
It has a special place for me because a long time ago, when I was younger, I had R&C Size Matters as the only game on my PSP and that's because I bought the PSP in a bundle
And that was the only R&C game I played until Rift Apart and that shit hit me like that scene in the end of Ratatouille mfer

Finally played Half-Life 2 recently. Best shooter I have ever played.

Elden Ring (again) I go back and forth between many games
- Just waiting for shadow of the erdtree to reignite this addiction...
  
  Good time to roll a new character so it's beefy when DLC drops.

Horizon Forbidden West just released on PC, been hooked on it since then.
- I watched a 14 hour silent walkthrough of it. It's a game that I actually don't enjoy playing (I played the first), but I do love the plot so much. Fuck Ted Faro
- I've got so tired of open world games that I couldn't get to like the first one. I'll blame Ubisoft for it.

Kenshi. Just the sheer dynamic ant-farm nature of it made the grind somehow all the more the worth. Even if you cheat and max out all your stats, you can still invent your own narrative in your head for what you think is happening.

Spellcaster University.
It's not the most complex game, but you're given control to build your own set of universities, trying to accomplish the goals given to you. You have a limited amount of time before the Great Evil comes and you have to start over.
Each location has its pros and cons, different graduation classes can give benefits that persist through the run, and all the building is done through picking one of 3 cards themed around what they focus on(Gold for general improvement and random magic things, Mana of particular types for rooms/items focused on that school of magic).
- I think I got this game through a Humble Bundle, but never gave it a shot. Might have to check it out!
  
  It definitely hits that "Simple on the outside, addictive on the inside" itch. Even playing on Marathon, a School goes by fairly quickly, so you get in that "just one more" mentality.

Noita! I've stopped playing it now as I more or less achieved everything I wanted to with it, but it really got a hold of me with how much it rewards creative approaches to problems

Dragon's Dogma 2 really has me like that now. I've waited years for this, and for the most part it's everything I expected. I love the new playable race, and I'm excited to try out the new vocations. I have a lot of fun just hunting monsters for other players' followers' quests, and finding things for them to potentially tell their own players about. In some ways it feels better than traditional multiplayer.
Also loving Helldivers 2, but now that I've unlocked almost everything it's no longer all I think about all day.
- I've unlocked most things in Helldivers but what's keeping me going is the memes and the propaganda lol.
  New warbond next Thursday!

Monster hunter world. I bought it to have a replacement for genshin and it worked a little too well. It just feels different from any other game for how many things it does so well: from enemies to armor design to music to mechanics to weapon variety, everything is amazing.
- MH Wilds is going to consume my life

Runescape/Old school runescape
Been playing since 2009. Sure I've taken breaks, sometimes multiple years, but I always return.
The old saying is true, "You never quit runescape, you just take breaks"

Yesterday i started playing custom doom wads at night because i wanted to see what new mods where available and lo and behold; i saw the sun rise.
- "Ok, I'll play till midnight and then hit the sack."
  (Suddenly, you hear birds singing.)

Noita - for the longest time the addiction was something along the lines of not letting this 'simple' game beat me, and damn does it beat you...
Then I finally had my first God run breaking the reroll machines and oh my fuck it's like crack. I've been chasing that dragon ever since.

Completely hooked on: Baldur's Gate 3.
Completely hooked on in the past tense and stopped playing: Overwatch.

Ignoring digital releases of card games, which I've loved since I was a kid, it has to be Valheim. I would spend hours and hours making structures like castles and villages, with their own defense mechanisms against monster invasions. It's a wonderful indie game, very pretty for only taking 1GB in storage.

Ingress. I was obsessed with it. Couldn't stop playing.
- Same. I rocked that game for a year before Pokemon Go came out. It was insanely addictive. I would walk like 3-5 miles a day and I'd take way too many breaks at work to go hit the portals by my office.
  
  Family trips were awkward. I would make detours and hide the reason but just pointed out there was something awesome they should see.
  I also took part in global ops where I met irl with other players to move keys.
  When I think about it the real life component of that game is amazing.
- I was trying to think of a PC game until I saw your comment. It's totally Ingress for me too. I was hooked and my area (Chicago burbs) had a very active player base. The ops and competition were intense! I really enjoyed the real-world tactical shit, closest I'll ever get to feeling like I was part of a military operation.
  I still play it too, but not like before. It's a great way to kill time and explore new places. I think I'm level 12, almost 13, and I'm lazily working towards more badges. I don't understand what the red faction is all about and the other new stuff.

Doom Eternal
- when the doom music kicks in

I know I was super late to the party, but I'm genuinely surprised that nobody has said Skyrim, yet.
Before that, Subnautica (both of them).
But I've probably spent as much time in Skyrim as both Subnautica games combined.
- Well, Skyrim is already 12 years old. Most people played it obsessively a long time ago. Of my 1000s of hours spent in Tamriel, only 100 or so were in the past year.

Commandos 3: Destination Berlin The gameplay was so good and I kept imagining about the missions all the time.
- If you liked Commandos you should check out Shadow Tactics, Desperados 3, or Shadow Gambit. They're very similar to the style you like with modernized map designs and addicting gameplay.

Elderborn. In its own words, a METAL AF SLASHER. Kind of like a first person souls-like. rolled straight out of beating it into a new game+
- This looks right up my alley but unfortunately it’s not on PlayStation!
- The studio that makes those games, makes the best in their genre and is somehow punching above their weight. I got Elderborn too after playing Postal Brain Damaged and was impressed.
  Everybody likes different genres, and this one probably wouldn't be mine, but it was entrancing and I basically immediately poured all my free time into it too. Totally worth the buy.
  
  These days I'm more of a boomer shooter dude, but the trailer hooked me and I regret nothing. Haven't tried the newest Postal yet. Played postal 2 back in the day. blood west is likely next up for me.
  Devs like Hyperstrange and New Blood are killing it these days, in a time when the big devs are laying off entire teams. It's amazing what happens when you have smaller devs who are focused on the games and not chasing number-go-up.
  As New Blood says, "We love you. We hate money."

Kenshi, and I still am. Before that it was Stellaris. Singleplayer sandbox with modding is basically what does it for me.

Space Engineers. I played that shit for at least one ten hour session and a bunch of six your sessions.
Then I got to a certain point in the game and there was just … no goal. And I sorta lost all my steam.
Technically I still have the goal of “kill as many drones as possible in the never surrender thing”, but I’m focusing on work which I neglected while playing.

Cyberpunk 2077 when it was released. And then panam made me cry ( ._.) And that scene inside the robo is burnt into my brain xD
I kinda didnt even realise alot of the bugs, cause I really enjoyed the story. I remember seeing the trees through the walls but the immersion/ my imagination was strong enough to mask them .D
- I've played it more recently, encountered 1 noticeable bug on my entire play though. They've turned it into an impressive, well polished game now.

Ghost of Tsushima is so good it almost makes me want to buy my own ps5, but I think I'll stick to borrowing my gf's.
- Good news, It's coming out on PC.

Cross Code for me. Ended up putting like 60 hours into it in about 3 weeks while in university and working part time. I could not put it down.
- I've had this sealed on my shelf for nearly a year until about 4 days ago. Not bad. Some games take me a bit to get into. Just got the fire ability. Seems interesting so far but the combat at this point is monotonous to me. There's also a ton of garbage quests. "collect me carrots. Run me an errand". No thanks.
  
  I think the game has a great story, but both the gameplay and story takes a while to get going.

Team Fortress 2, for more than 8 years

I think there are two answers to this.
The most recent game I was completely captivated by and just obsessed with was Subnautica. I was deep into it in 2022.
The most recent one I spent a long time playing is Satisfactory, I started my most recent run in mid-December and completed it a week or two ago. Satisfactory didn't quite grab me the way Subnautica did in terms of loving this world, but I get into it. I had a goal of 100% full clearing it including buying all the trophies before it was out of early access, so I did.

Kerbal Space Program, Shadow Empire and Baldur's Gate 3.