Searching for something for study leave

[Lunarman]

My study leave is soon to hit for my A-levels. Although I will spend a good deal of this time revising I'm looking to buy a PC game to keep my mood up through the long days at home on my own.

Ideally it would be something I can play in short bursts, say 20 minutes and still feel satisfied, and that will give me an adrenaline rush and make me motivated to revise more. That way I can slip it into a break every hour or two and it'll stop my mind from turning into revision mush.

The kind of games I like are adventure games normally, those steeped in storyline, but to be honest I'll play almost anything expect sports games and racing games. I like Crysis, Bioshock, Age of Empires, KoTOR, Zelda, World of Warcraft and Guild Wars if that gives you any inspiration!

Thankyou

Lunarman

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p.s. I've never played any of the Oblivion games, I've seen it played on Xbox and it didn't appeal but admittedly I only watched for a 30minutes and I'm none too keen on consoles anyway. Given my gaming tastes, should I be giving it a go? Or is it too long and addictive a game for revision purposes?

[detourne_me]

just 20 minutes at a time?  how about Audiosurf?
my other choices would be Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead, The Penny Arcade Games, and Wolverine.

[lugaru]

Fallout 3
How good: I really liked it, it is an rpg but they point where you should go when you are on a quest and if you "play the ball where it lies" by which I mean take things as they come without trying to be perfect, you get a great low stress game out of it.
20 minute session: You can easily walk in a direction, see something new, shoot a little and get some loot and then shut it off. I play a lot of 20 minute sessions before work.
replayability: mods make the game very good and they can change the tone from a struggle for survival to a major actionfest with motorcycle mounted mini guns and slow motion.

Left 4 Dead
How good: I love it, the game has a perfect mood, great characters and is well balanced.
20 minute session: They added survival modes which are done in 5 minutes... if you are really good.
replayability: 4 1 to 2 hour levels that you can replay a lot,several difficulty levels and Valve is always putting out something cool for free.

[daerdevil]

Fallout 3 - as already described by Lugaru.

Mount & Blade - a great medieval 3rd person/1st person combat sim.  Nothing better than charging into battle on horseback to give you that energized/refreshed feeling.  It has some RPG elements and a bit of strategy, but nothing overwhelming.  The mod community is also great and there's a most excellent Star Wars mod (which actually lends itself well to the game engine).  Battles are quick to play out and you can get some good fun squeezed into your 20 minutes. Plus this is a bargain title (got mine from Steam for $7.50 normally $29--after playing it, $50 would be a fair price).

[bearded]

strange adventures in infinite space.
designed for 20 minute games, and a free trial.