I do that as well with some games and it's really annoying. When you uninstall it though, finished or not, it's like a huge wieght has been lifted away from your shoulders..It's amazing! Speaking of which, rage quitting is also rather nice even though it almost never happens to me. Last time it was with Dead Space during Chapter 9 of 12. I still have the save..

Games I always I keep installed: Heroes 3 and before I had Windows 7 I had Red Alert 2. I've First Decade now so I should probably try it but oh well..

I had the original HL installed for the longest time for this very same reason. I decided to make a backup and hide it away on my server until I actually feel like finishing, though.

I have over 100 games installed on my computer. My collection from GOG, Steam and others. When I get them, I install them so they are ready to play when I am ready. The nice thing is that I have a drive that has all of my system files so I can reference the extras of all of my games as well if I need them. I do not like not having access to a game that can take a while to install just to be able to play one for a little bit.

None at the moment, but in the past any game from the civilization (including freeciv) and the anstoss-series (german football manager). For my own safety I avoid and better keep them away.

Steady visitors are GTA Vice City for cruising around in the 80s and Duke Nukem 3D to have some fun as an 80s action hero. Because it's so short and because of nostalgia reasons I replay from time to time the first Leisure suit Larry game, which funnily also plays in the 80s. Mmmhh

Dominions II and Nethack. those two games never bore me...

You haven't lost much, frankly. While the game itself is good, the whole end sequence kind of sucks, it's completely linear and loses almost everything that made the game interesting.


On topic, I have a huge hard drive so I don't often bother uninstalling games.
However, if I had to choose, I'd keep BG 2, Europa Universalis 3, Civ IV, NWN (for the mods) and FO:NV.
Oh, and the latest version of Football Manager. So many hours lost to those games...

Civilization 2
Majesty: the Fantasy Kingdom Sim
Dwarf Fortress
Stars!

Luckily these 4 games together take less space than a single modern game :P

Thief 1
Thief 2
Thief 3
Deus Ex 1
Morrowind
Oblviion


Above are instant installs just after drivers. The computer isn't usable until they are installed. These tend to find their way before too long...

Diablo 2
Age of Empires 2
Painkiller
Serious Sam
Vampires: Bloodlines
Unreal Tournament 2004

TES III: Morrowind
Sacred 2
Neverwinter Nights 2

Those are the ones which is installed for some time and which got installed when i make a fresh Windows installment.

Heroes of Might and Magic III (HOMM 3). Sooner or later, I always come back to it. It's soothing and entertaining in a quiet way that suits me whether I'm feeling up or down, wound too tight or lethargic. Sometimes I feel specifically like gaming, but sometimes I just want to get away from the world for a while, and HOMM 2 and HOMM 3 is a good fit either way. All in all, it's a game that manages to feel like the right choice almost all the time.

Doom 1 & 2 (Zdoom)
TES II: Daggerfall
X-com

AoE 2, though I haven't played it in possibly 2 years.
Commander Keen
Descent 1,2 (D2X-XL) and 3
One of the Supreme Commander games

Funny how the ones I *must* have installed aren't the ones I'm actually playing.

It isn't so much as specific games that I always have installed rather than specific kinds of games.

I keep pretty much any co-op games I have installed so if a friend comes over we can just play any of them on the slightest whim without too much effort.

Any games that I can just pick up and have fun with (open world games, FPSes, sky shooters and the like), I keep.

I also never delete most games I have on GOG, mostly because a lot of them are just too small to be worth the effort of deleting them.

Only have a laptop at the moment so this isn't the case right now - however whenever I have a games PC these are always on it:

UFO: Enemy Unknown
Master Of Orion II
ESIII: Morrowind
Deus Ex
Fallout
Fallout 2
Battlefield 1942
GTA: Vice City