10 Biggest Video Game Time Sinks

10. Skyrim

Open world games are easy to sink hours into. With so much to explore and so much to do, you often find yourself getting distracted from the main story by pointless (but oddly compelling) side quests, or battling wolves, or running for twenty minutes to see if you can actually reach that mountain in the distance.

Skyrim, Bethesda's epic fifth entry in the Elder Scrolls series, is one of the worst offenders. Or should that be best?

The main storyline, which involves your character discovering they are the Dragonborn, a mystic warrior who can literally shout people to death, is engaging enough, but as soon as you are given free reign, you're likely to forget about that in favour of one of the hundred side stories, collecting singing flowers, battling giants and bandits, or buying property so you can fill a room with wheels of cheese.

There are bigger game worlds, but Skyrim has one of the most detailed and most beautiful. While there's plenty of open countryside, there's always something to do, and even after sinking solid weeks into the game, you will still be discovering new things to do. DLC packs like Dawnguard and Hearthfire only make the game richer, with the possibility to build your own house and adopt children offering even more distractions from finally going and killing Alduin.