One thing I've noticed about the newer plot driven video games - you really need to run through them at least twice. Two cases in point - Fallout 3 and Dragon Age: Origins . I played both games extensively after I first got them, but I missed tons of stuff - not just side quests, but lots of things that could help with the main plot (in fact, I never did finish the first character I created in DAO). With Fallout, I finished the main plot, but left the rest of the world largely unexplored.

On the subsequent plays, I took a lot more time - heck, I maxed my character to level 30 (I have the Game of the Year edition) in Fallout before I even started the main plot. By that time, I had enough custom weapons that I was taking Raider attacks as boring events that my dog could mostly handle on his own :)

This is quite different from most movies (at least for me). There are some movies I like watching again - LOTR comes to mind. For the most part though, it's one and done. First person shooters are mostly like that for me. The plots are linear, and you just run down the track. What I really like are the larger games. I'm running through Mass Effect now, and will play ME 2 once I finish that.

On a humorous side note, I'm getting a lot more play time since I got a toe injury that makes jogging painful. I'm behind on my podcast listening, but the funny thing is, I get a lot more exercise. An hour passes very easily on the exercise bike while I'm playing a game :)

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