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- LiquidChimera, on 10/12/2007, -2/+60Why can't we want both quality and quantity. Who would want to play FF XIII if it only lasts 6 hours. IMO I want to play a great game for as long as possible
- gkwillie, on 10/12/2007, -1/+28What about sandbox games? I say bah to linear gameplay!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+24Some games are too damned long IMO, it feels a bit daunting to start into them knowing that. The older you get with new responsibilities that require your time, the more this applies.
- DracoLord, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18While a narrative-driven game may not be the same if it only lasts 6 hours, the best games IMO are ones that, no matter how long, are just as enjoyable the second playthrough. The best example I can think of is Resident Evil 4. I had about 40 hours of gameplay the first time AND by starting with the same weapons you had, it is as much or more fun the second time through.
- johngardiner, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17Gears of war is the perfect example of this
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+18Oblivion would've been the best game ever made if it was about 5 times shorter. As i was playing it, this was the sequence of my thoughts of the 40 hours it took me to get close to the ending:
"Wow, this is amazing!"
"Heh, this game is pretty cool!"
"Hmm, nice game, I'm enjoying it."
"It's a good game..."
"Umm... eh, I guess this is entertaining..."
"Hmm, I wonder when something meaningful will happen..."
"Jeez, doing these little missions is starting to get old..."
"Wow, all these dungeons are basically the same thing over and over..."
"Come on, when is this ***** going to end!?"
"WHERE IS THE ***** END TO THIS NEVERENDING ***** GAME!"
At this point I gave up.
I'm really hoping I won't have the same experience with Mass Effect, because that game looks equally as promising as Oblivion did before I played that for several weeks straight... - Crimsoneer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Can I say Deus Ex? More replay value than a barrel full of monkeys.
- darkstar949, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Everytime someone mentions Deus Ex someone else reinstalls the game... speaking of, I need to find my disks.
- 4bit, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Ok... here's the deal.
There are games with no end, that are fun.
There are games I beat in a day, that are fun.
Here's what I hear from the short game crowd:
I would rather have replay value.
- WTF? I would rather play the same game twice then have an experience that lasts twice as long?
I don't have time to play that long a game.
- So, between now and the day you die you won't put 60 hours into gaming? WoW says otherwise. So instead of paying for 1 game to fill that 60 hours, you now have bought 3 at the same price. Good job.
I hate playing a game and thinking "When will this end?"
- I've felt that way about 20 hour games. If the game play is bad, the game play is bad. All a short game does is lessen the misery as you play it because you bought it, and damn it you're going to finish it because you don't have that many places to put your money.
Multi-player gaming (Counterstrike, Starcraft) shows that people will put plenty of time into ONE game. Don't listen to the developers when they tell you that's not what you want. It is. You just don't want them to give you a 20 hour fun game filled with 40 hours of suck so that it looks like you're getting a long game.
And while I have the soap box, developers. Do me a favor. FINISH THE GAME BEFORE RELEASE. I'm tiered of waiting 6 months for a patch to play something I already bought. - CaptShmo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Whatever happened to difficulty? Nowadays reviews say "you can beat this game in 20 hours". Games should be back like they were for original NES, where there was no guarantee you would EVER beat the game, or even if there was an ending at all (games that would just loop forever). Those games offered years of enjoyment / frustration.
- tuxidomasx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9God of War II was kinda short
but it was worth every penny - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I had the same reaction to Gears of War. A short game, but wow, what a ride.
- chris9902, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8I still play Gears of War. That's going on 5 months now. I would call the single player short but not the game. It has a lot of replay value.
Grim Fandango had both (Plus I just wanted to mention it here in the hope people will go look it up and play it because it's a true masterpiece). - GGzah, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7What about Oblivion (or Morrowind for that matter)?
Fantastic game - long, but very involved. I'd say long can be ok assuming it still has new things to offer later in the game. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Games have gotten shorter because, when you include more content on the disc at the quality people expect of modern games, your production budget and development time escalates to insane levels.
You can't just slap together 100 levels of sidescrolling action anymore. When you're creeating sprawling, life-like worlds, it simply becomes cost and time-prohibitive to keep putting more and more content in. - hockey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Jack. . .is that you?
- Neiby, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@chris9902:
Grim Fandango was awesome! It had the best voice acting and dialogue of any game I've ever seen. Period. - merreborn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Part of the reason for games being like that back in those days is simply hardware limitation. You couldn't give a game a 60-hour story arc, and still fit it in a cartridge that weighs in at a megabyte or less.
"Games should be back like they were for original NES, where there was no guarantee you would EVER beat the game"
Some people like those. Others don't. There's more to gaming than Space Invaders. - skyfire1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Apparently it's Chuck Norris Junior. Pretty retarded calling himself that since everyone is Chuck Norris's son.
- nattybohman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Just play an hour a night before bed and a few more on the weekends. I finished 150 plus hours of Oblivion this way.
- sauron256, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Deus Ex is everything a game should be:
a) Awesome gameplay and story
b) Good length (I seem to remember 30-40 hours of gameplay clocked up by the end, not including all the dying and restarting, so probably 50-60 hours all up)
c) Replayable, tenth time though I will still finding new areas - Crimsoneer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Wow...your one slow ass man. I finished HL2 in a day...I still regret rushing through it so fast.
- W00DR0W, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4"A Long Game Isn't A Better Game"... may be true, but it's the difference between deciding to rent or buy. GTA isn't the best game series, but I still buy it. However I don't always buy games from my favorite series, Hitman.
Their are a few exeptions, like the Elder Scrolls series, that give you the best of both worlds. But when the game media asks why no one bought Beyond Good & Evil, the answer is pretty simple; it was a rental. - Lucian0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I would love to play a great game for a long time, but you can't always do that without watering down the story. For example, I loved Max Payne and Max Payne 2. Both games were relatively short but I enjoyed the story and I had a lot of fun playing it.
At the risk of ruining a great game just for the sake of longer playtime, I would have to say that I prefer story quality over a short game than 100+ hours of button mashing. - MWeather, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6"I'd rather play a game that is well made and short with huge replay value than a 30hour game, if only for the fact that I'll end up forgetting where I left off in the story and give up. My favorite games are the type I can pick up, play for 30min and put away again and still feel satisfied."
I take it you don't read many novels. - CaptainEO, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@Mweather
Reading a novel vs playing a game is very different. Would you rather read a book for 8 hours or watch an 8 hour movie? Personally, I read novels regularly, usually about an hour or 2 every day. I'd rather get lost reading a good book then stare at a tv screen 8 hours. - cljordan1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I guess the problem for me is that I'm a hardcore gamer that is restricted to "casual" status due to job, family. Suggestions?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I think the focus on length comes from a perceived tendency of companies to make really short games that aren't worth buying when you could finish them with a rent. Gamers want two core things - a good engine providing fun gameplay, AND a long engrossing narrative or reward system or content base to drive the experience forward and make the gamer want to comeback. Simply put, gamers want gameplay value and replay value. Once they see an upcoming title that they believe has a gameplay experience that they are interested in, they begin to question its replay value because its difficult to see replay value in screenshots and videos. So, that is how to understand the call for playtime estimates. That being said, people play very differently and the numbers are often inaccurate or vague. Some publishers can get away with exaggeration because there is no way to objectively measure running time as with a movie.
- Barnolde, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@ Lucian0
Max Payne 1&2 are the perfect examples of awesome games that are short (around 6-8 hours). Their short length also increases replay value as I've beaten both of those games six times each.
A bad game that's longer is worse because it drags on and on. - vertinox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Fall Out 1 & 2
- nattybohman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Bravo! I completely agree with you.
What's wrong with having games that are great and long? This is just a ploy by developers to cut costs and convince people that shorter games are what they want.
I just don't understand how it's actually working on some people. When you don't want to play a great game anymore - STOP !!
No one is forcing you to play the entire sixty hours. Please just don't ruin it for the rest of us by taking away our option to continue. - skyfire1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I don't mind a long game as long as they offer new content later in the game. One of my pet peeves with Oblivion was that npcs tended to treat you the same if you were a knight, thief, or assassin. I kind of wish that there was less voice acting too so they could focus on more variety of dialogue (think Monkey Island).
- Anagrama, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@BrianBoyko:
Man, I wish they would make Beyond Good and Evil backwards compatible. My original Xbox died and I never got to finish it, but I am holding onto it in hopes I get to play it again. Sigh... - missflibbles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I honestly can't see RE4 being a 30 hour game. My first run through, with exploring and all the cut scenes, was still only 17:49 and I like to take it slow my first time through. If you think it's a 30 hour game, you're hanging around the wrong people or they're lying to you.
lol @ mweather, I agree. I dunno, though, the other day I powered through two brand new books in significantly less than 24 hours. I was totally stoked to finally receive them, though, so that makes a difference. - brianboyko, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4I own Beyond Good and Evil, so take this with a grain of salt:
The reason no one bought it is because it featured talking cartoon pigs and animals. Sometimes that's cool, but not in an action-future-conspiracy game. - hockey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2IMO It depends on the situation and genre. Sometimes you may want a game that you can finish in one sitting (but play over and over again). Other times you may want a game that takes days to finish.
In the days of the old NES if I wanted something quick I'd throw in Contra and run n gun for about 30 minutes. If I wanted something a bit longer I'd throw in Metroid or Zelda (which once you got good could be completed in a few hours from start to finish) and if I was in the mood for something long term I'd pop in Final Fantasy.
Also the story writer seems to be biased. "Games should be fun not long" doesn't say much. I agree with others when I say it's possible to have a long fun game. - imasuperhero, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Very excellent and valid point. I bought BG&E used and beat it in less than two days. It was an awesome game, but I would've been very upset if I had to take a big loss on it. I ended up trading it back for full credit, but I really do wish it was longer.
- tuxidomasx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2more games should offer expansions
- CaptainEO, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'm one of those gamers who love to play a whole bunch of different games, but I can't sit and play a game for hours on end. Maybe an hour here, and hour there. Therefore, for me at least, the longer the game = the less likely I'll beat it. I'm a big fan of racing games, action, adventure, 1st person shooters, and even some rpgs. However, while I have beaten games like Gears of War, Prince of Persia, or even Marvel Ultimate Alliance, games like Resident Evil 4, Zelda Wind Waker, or Xenogears get left untouched.
I'd rather play a game that is well made and short with huge replay value than a 30hour game, if only for the fact that I'll end up forgetting where I left off in the story and give up. My favorite games are the type I can pick up, play for 30min and put away again and still feel satisfied.
But hey, maybe that's just me. - KyleMistry, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'd say anywhere from 20 to 50 hours is a good length.
'Course, that's only if the game has nice graphics, a good storyline, and doesn't bore you to death with tedious or dull gameplay methods.
This is where recent games have really shown some improvement. Kingdom Hearts 2 and God of War (as examples) are basically button-mashers, but they've got great storylines and appealing graphics. Gears of War was a shooter, but it implemented an element of cover; you couldn't just run in and mindlessly shoot everything, or else you wouldn't really last very long. You would have to maneuver your way through a series of barricades and shields before getting in a few kills while staying alive.
It's not so much the quantity that matters, so much as the quality. This isn't saying that a game shouldn't be long, but it should be long enough to keep people wanting to play, but not so short that beating the game will leave the gamer unsatisfied or feeling "incomplete." - Thoric, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2No, but if you get a great game, you just want to keep on playing forever.
If I recall correctly, I actually stopped playing Half-Life 2 at a certain point because i was afraid it would end too fast and my fun would end. And it did.
Thank god for Episode 1 though. - nubnub, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2No, but you are disappointed if it is good and short.
- strabes, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3That's what online play is. You can never "beat" online play since there's always someone better than you.
- o0joshua0o, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This article is too long. I'd rather have a short one I can read over and .... hey look, a stapler!
- navster15, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Have you played Oblivion? 70 hours of gameplay on a single DVD. And even if we do need multiple DVDs, is that really a problem? I remember that every other Playstation game I owned came on multiple discs and it wasn't a hassle.
- samdu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Other media are the same. The Matrix Trilogy would have been spectacular were it 1/3 the length. ;)
- psionicman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I think that's the kind of demographic that's really going to be getting larger soon. This push into hi-def I think came with a large swath of the people who grew up playing games getting to the point where they could buy big TVs and spend a few hundred dollars on a system for themselves. But that kind of thing gets hard to justify the less time and money you have lying around for whatever use you may want to put it toward, and a big thing that reduces that is starting a family or putting more time in at a job.
I think this will kind of intersect with the Wii target audience and perhaps end up causing developers to create some games that are unquestionably meant for hard-core players in terms of gameplay etc, but with the kind of pick-up-and-playability of casual market games like Wii Sports.
I myself am putting in a lot more time at work than I have been in the past, and I've found myself graviting toward playing DS games at home, of all things. The sleep functionality is a pretty good way of making any game "pick up and play." My PSP sees this too, but not quite to the same extent. I would love for a console to have a really robust and useful sleep mode like the DS or PSP, or as another example Mac computers. Unfortunately, unless I've missed some setting somewhere, none of the home consoles do yet.
That being said I too have put in ungodly amounts of time into Oblivion, using the hour here, hour there method. - BIGmog, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You won't need the discs any more. Deus Ex is now available on Steam.
- masamunecyrus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I don't care how long a game is. Super Metroid is anywhere from 50 minutes to three hours, and it's one of the best games ever. Dragon Quest VII is damn near 120-150 hours, and it's also fantastic. The length of the game is irrelevant, as long as the creator is a good game designer and the game gets what s/he wants done, the game will be good regardless of length.
- Silencer7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I remember days sick home from school playing Dragon Warrior (that's the first screenshot, for anyone born after 1986)...hours and hours of killing Slimes, then Drakees, Magicians, eventually Goldmen. It was just endless, mindless grinding...so why do I still have this fondness for it?
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