How long do you like yours?

tba

Its your money you should get what you want and need, get it wherever, whenever and for as long as you want. No matter if you spend €50 three times a week to sustain your habit, or you get what you want for free from the net like the scrooge you are. The fact is we are all guilty, guilty as sin!

So heres my question do you enjoy finishing games once in a slog of epic proportions and never speaking of them again. Or are you more of a thumb twitching petrol head, high on the fumes of arcade machines and High scores? Or are you that happy medium of being to cool for skool to actually play games and prefer smoking crack out of ye olde Atari Jaguar?

Spew it here, rant about how games are to short, hard, crap, easy or simply too tractable. Persoanlly I think my preference rests with the mood Im in often varing widely and without warning.

rgiller

Is this guy alright?

tba

*embraces rgiller*

welcome to the fold....

Creamy Goodness

personally i like games that are challenging or 'too hard' it gives you something to vent frustration over.

regarding length to price ratio of a game, it doesn't really bother me that much if the game sticks well to the story and doesn't seem to have too much filler in it. god i hate games that have filler in them.

Laguna

Yes sir, it's all about the 'filler' these days..

RE*AC*TOR

Firstly, its "Pooh Bear".

Secondly, please don't drag Pooh Bear into your insane ramblings.

tba

Thirdly, I didn't bring Pooh Bear into my insane ramblings, I brought Poo Bear a dirty little bear that no way infringes on copyright

Giruilla

Nothing beats the sense of accomplishment in clearing a good hard long game like ff7. However if i'm playing a ****e game like recently 24 and tomb raider legend i can't wait for them to be over!

i_am_dogboy

I'm not too bothered by length as long as it's not repetitive or filler for the most part(that's what she said) but I do think games are lacking in any real challenge these days, the only games I can recently remember actually challenging me were resident evil 4, which was the result of a clunky control scheme, and pikmin 2, because I felt really guilty for letting and of the little guys die.

A lot of games are too much of an investment for me as far as time is concerned, like rpg's where you have to run around and level up before progressing, but that's more a case of me not being arsed to put up with such **** than not actually having the time. I also tend to grow tired of games very quickly so if I don't clear it in a few days I probably won't go back to it, again resident evil 4 is one of the only recent games that I've played for more than a week or so.

What I said only really applies to linear story based games, I've played unreal amounts of electroplankton, animal crossing, mario kart, F.E.A.R, ET and HL2DM over the last year and I've yet to get bored of any of those games.

Sarky

Nothing quite like a long, complex, immersive epic, whether it's about gaining XP or shooting things. For 50 quid I want more than a weekend's worth of entertainment. Half-Life 2 was disappointing in that regard, as was PoP 3. Thief 1, 2 and 3 took me a long time (They're satisfyingly massive, and also murderously hard on the harder settings), and I'm still not finished Morrowind (I'm getting close though).

Immersion is probably the most important thing in a game for me, but it's completely wasted if it's over by the time you've gotten into the mood of it.

So, er, in conlusion, long, hard and deep, please.

Vegeta

i despise short cash in games,

has to be long and hard

recently level design and environment has takin over in my appreciation for a game. Games with sh1t lazy pepeating level design drive me nuts, there are way too many doom long dark hallway style FPS shooters out there. The ever acclaimed Halo towards the end was pants.

Like Zelda the ocarina of time was class cos the world had a real feel to it and each area was interesting.

to be honest it takes a special game to impress me these days.

Stephen

Quick but good/intense beats long and boring every time.

Retr0gamer

I really depends. I haven't much time on my hands these days so I don't mind short games. I do however like to indulge in a nice long epic RPG as long as levelling up isn't involved. Was enjoying Dragon Quest VIII but really annoyed me when I had to level up to stand any chance of beat a few of th bosses. I really don't mind as long as the content of the game is good and non-repetitive. Resi 4 ws a long game of 4 hours but the game kept presenting you with such unique and varied action set pieces that were a joy to play that you were never bored. Then there is Gitaroo Man, a game I beat in 4 hours and yet am still playing it now.

tman

i_am_dogboy wrote:

What I said only really applies to linear story based games, I've played unreal amounts of electroplankton, animal crossing, mario kart, F.E.A.R, ET and HL2DM over the last year and I've yet to get bored of any of those games.

ehm... does that game actually have more than 5 minutes of entertainment value, or was i missing something?
it's great when you're stoned, but i wouldn't bother playing it any other time tbh.

short and sweet for me... i just don't have time to get into epic games, and would never finish them even if i did. (guess i should'nt have splashed out on WoW, then:p )
Prey is a perfect example of this - it's just right, and if it were much longer would definitely start to drag.
I actually felt that HL2 was too long. somewhere between the length of that and episode 1 would have been the sweet spot for me tbh.

i_am_dogboy

tman wrote:

ehm... does that game actually have more than 5 minutes of entertainment value, or was i missing something?
it's great when you're stoned, but i wouldn't bother playing it any other time tbh.

I'm a bit of a music nut, and I've always been a big fan of emergent patterns and stuff, so electroplankton was pretty much perfect for me, I'd consider it the best game on the ds, and just about the best game I've bought in the last few years.

Cuddlesworth

I'm always looking for a compeditive and unpredictable opponant, so would look towards online Fps for my kicks. Cant be bothered with completing most games anyway, they just become meaningless. Even games like Half life are just another version of a rpg. Level up(new gun) take on better enimies etc.. Human opponants will always give me that buzz rather than a badly laid out storyline and sub-par Ai.

Dont be at yourself

I would take ten hours of distilled action a-la Metal Gear Solid over 30+ hours of fluff and padding a la Final Fantasy or whathaveyou.

FranchisePlayer

I perfer games that a quite good and long eg Kotor 1.But games like dreamfall are just long and boring to get through.

GrumPy

I like em' long, nothing like when a rainy day hits, and your all like "zomg, I can finish oblivion now"

Playing through hl2 atm, trying to beat it in less than 2hours 14mins (world record apprently, I have the video)

But it aint looking so good.

L31mr0d

I like them long (40hrs+) and progress from easy to ridiculously hard. I would usually finish a game in under a week, and usually have a few games on the go at the same time, so that when i'm bored with one I can switch over to another.

Current games mid-finished:
Psychonauts, Onimusha3, Tomb Raider: Legend, Panzers II, Swat4, Hitman BM, Hard Truck Apocalypse, MOH:PA, BF2, Doom3, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, ToCA3, Flatout2

I can't stand games that are too easy and I lose it quick with games that make it impossible. If its going to be hard, it has to slowly let you know its going to get hard. With me lately though, graphics seem to be trumping gameplay. I've got GRAW, and even though my system can handle it on minimum settings, i'm not going to touch it until I upgrade my system and can see it in its full bloated glory.

I don't like epics like the elder scrolls, which you'll be 50 before you set foot on every piece of rendered soil and finish every task and quest. The GTA series is about as big a game I'd play.

Favorites are ALL fps's, i'll give them all a shot (although I can never bring myself to finish Doom3 after playing Quake4, its like a step back or something) the odd RTS (AOEIII is beautiful) but never RPGs (FF7 was the last one I played when it was first released)

honru

I really enjoy games with alot of mastery. I like titles that take 5-10 hours to complete the main part of the game, and once finished you can choose to hone your skill of the game to the next level. Things like getting a higher score or improving your fighting skillz, for example.

I don't think flooding games with countless levels/bonuses counts as masterful experience... just wrecks the head.

Call Me Jimmy

I'm playing SOTC now and I'm nearly finished it. I'm on 12 hours so far and I think that's a good length for a game.

I think the exception to this is the final fantasy series which can sustain my interest for 40 hours because they have immersive stories and characters that you (usually) care for.

tman

i_am_dogboy wrote:

I'm a bit of a music nut, and I've always been a big fan of emergent patterns and stuff, so electroplankton was pretty much perfect for me, I'd consider it the best game on the ds, and just about the best game I've bought in the last few years.

hmmm... guess my opinion just differs on this one.
as fun as EP is, i'd rather actually make real music. programming a fat lead on a synth or whatever is a far more rewarding experience for me (<3 the polysix)
going back a bit, i gleaned far more enjoyment from the music creator section of mario paint than i did from EP:p (must give that another go actually)
i wouldn't even consider it to be a game tbh, more of a mildly diverting gimmicky toy (still great when you're caned though...)

Steven

Apples and oranges, to be honest. I have logged thousands of hours playing short games like "shoot 'em ups", "beat 'em ups" and puzzle games but some of my favourite games of all time take days to complete when you first play them (weeks if you're busy)

I play multiplayer quake every single day, but long adventure games like Deus Ex and System Shock 2 rank among my favourite games of all time. Baldur's Gate 2 takes days (ie. 24 hour periods ) to complete fully thanks to engrossing sidequests and decisions affecting how you develop your character and how the N.P.C. world sees you, whereas a game of B-Type Tetris takes two minutes, and I love them both equally.

My point is that long games typically offer different experiences to the short ones. To say something like "Deus Ex is s**t" just because you're looking for a constant adrenaline rush in your games is to display a lack of understanding about the fact that games are not designed to offer the exact same playing experience as others.

If you'd played nothing but relatively short FPS games like Half-Life all your life, you might find something like Quake 3, which has little in the way of single-player but has a similar interface and method of play, to be incredibly poor value. It's not that these games are poor, it's just that they aren't what you're looking for.

[edit]

tman wrote:

hmmm... guess my opinion just differs on this one.

See? That's what you say. [/edit]

superfly

i'm more of a play it once to completion or not and then forget about it type person
what i find lately that i'm doing is playing long games like Neverwinter nights, Battle for Middle Earth or Oblivion but in between i'll play a short fps like F.E.A.R or Quake 4 to just have some mindless fun before going back into something with more depth

Rhyme

RPG's for me have to be 50 hours and up on the first try... ill even stop to level up and do a sidequest or two if i feel im playing through the game too quickly. Then adventure-y games like Zelda, MGS etc can be anything from 12 to 30 hours depending on how exciting it is.

Most anything else (eg; racing, beat-em-ups, etc) can be anything as playing them and playing them with friends are completely different things altogether.

Theres not much like popping in MGS:Twin Snakes for the Gamecube, putting it up to the hardest difficulty and being really careful... 'Big Boss' is pretty hard to accomplish

To answer the question, 'long, hard and with increased winking' is the way to go

K.O.Kiki

Gotta be arcadey, like Virtua Fighter -- something you can pop on for a few mins & get a good laugh out of before the CPU beats you to a pulp.
Of course, then you want to get better, to show that CPU who's boss. Who's the boss? I'm the boss! Fear my Jacky!
Then you get to introduce your friends to the game, and mercilessly beat them again & again & again
Oh, and anything with a highscore board. Guitar Hero & Rez are regular fixes. Gotta keep beating those online masters...

And Halo 2. Good g*d, I don't even own an Xbox & I get the thumb-twitches thinking of how I'm gonna try to beat my Live-playing, no-scope-sniping, plasma-sticky-ing friends... *shudder*...

jaggeh

its not about the size of the boat, its about the motion in the ocean!

monument

Like everything, it depends.

Generally, if a games is going to be 40+ hours it has to be excellent. If it’s only alright I don’t want to be playing forever just to find out what happens at the end. I like sim/management games to have literally a few years or reliability, dont get me started.

Goodshape

Out of interest, how would you guys rate Far Cry in terms of length and difficulty? I've been playing this for the past while and really enjoying it.. possibly my best FPS experience since the very old days of Doom 1/2 (god I loved those games).

And - in stark contrast to the likes of Doom 3 and Half Life 2 - it's actually quite a challenge. I've gotten stuck in a number of places and I'm now at a point where the difficulty has started to get quite annoying (I've been stuck on one point for ages), although this will only add to the feeling of achievement when I finally beat those pesky mofo's.

I've also had a look online and it turns out I'm just over half way through the game, which is incredible considering the time I've put into it (I think not having a quick-save button helps with this). This game seems to have the perfect mix in anycase.

I like 'em long and hard (...quite you! ).


//edit
oh, Deus Ex (the original) would be another game that got the length/difficulty right.. not really a FPS though (more like a FP sudo-RPG). Great game.

tman

Goodshape wrote:

Out of interest, how would you guys rate Far Cry in terms of length and difficulty?

That was a fantastic game, but the difficulty kind of put me off in places.

the fecking part after the helicopter crash especially:mad:

it didn't strike me as being especially long... perhaps a little over average, but not by much.
it's definitely up there with HL2 in terms of replay appeal. all i need to do is find time to replay both of them though...

Goodshape

tman wrote:

That was a fantastic game, but the difficulty kind of put me off in places.

the fecking part after the helicopter crash especially:mad:

Heh, don't even think I've gotten there yet. I currently have to 'get into the vents' and wait for my female friend... the vents being on the other side of a whole **** load of bad people.

Didn't really find too much replay value with Half Life 2, although I'll be upgrading my PC before the end of the year and will probably play it again just to look at the pretty pictures, if nothing else. On my current set-up I've got to play most new games on the lowest settings.. I felt that really hindered my enjoyment of HL2 and Doom3 but not at all with Far Cry. The gameplay is top notch.

Retr0gamer

It's hard to call farcry. It was fantastic when you were killing human enemies but the mutants were awful. I found it quite a long game but maybe it was because the mutant bits were silly and dragged on so much.