Reading on the web, many reviewers and much of their audience are now complaining bitterly about Crysis 3 and how it is 'only' 6 hours long. I'm not sure I have ever timed myself or clocked up how long it took to complete anything but even so 6 hours does seem a short period of time? Even so, does it matter? Some games I would play repeatedly, Metro 2033, Stalker, and so on, seem to encourage replays, and if you felt short changed by the length of a single player story you would merely play it again. Serious Sam is another such title. Or are these reviewers just smashing the hell out of games in their desperation to be the first to publish a review? Are they doing us, the buying public, much of a service? Is 6 hours, really more like 10 for those of us who do not whore our way through games or try to brute force them? I mean in Crysis 2, you could spend about a hour working your way through a modest part of a level if you so wished, just being a sneaky guy and killing a few guys. That is surely the whole ethos of the game, not an in your face demolish em up? And just what the cronk is it with people expecting sequels of games to change the gaming landscape? Seriously. In my experience, sequels games generally do what they say on the tin. Its the previous game in the series, but with a new engine/graphics/story/protagonist/enemies/weapons/maps etc. It would surely be developer suicide, for them to release a game so novel compared to its predecessor that it would probably lose you sales? Conversely, it is the new and novel games with no forebears that dish up the truly revolutionary stuff. Games like DX:Human revolution. Crysis. Far Cry. Halo. GTA. Dishonored. Each bringing their own unique take on a genre in an individual way. This is all well and good but if you are a loyal and very pleased fan of a particular game, common sense would expect you to look for more of the same in the following sequel. You're not going to look for anything out of the ordinary or mind-blowingly different in terms of how it plays, or the content, I would be more than ticked off if that was the case. Take hitman- each game is a third person perspective murder game. The more variety and content you cram into that simple concept, the more happy the participant who buys the thing will be. Quite what anyone expected from Crysis 3 then I'm not sure. Reviewers say 'it isn't a gaming break through'. Who the hell was looking for one of those? I wasn't.
Finishing a $60 game in a couple nights? Too short, want my money back. Hence, why I tend never to buy "campaign/story" games. I don't feel there is a worthwhile investment. I'd rather buy a book and read an actual, quality story. I prefer the Total Wars, the MWOs, the Civilizations, the Skyrims, the games which take a page from the boardgame world and allow you to play multiple times (okay, Skyrim might be stretching it to fit there, but I've sunk many many hours in to it), with each time being "different". Games where you make your own story. Give me a sandbox, not a theme park.
I suppose you're right. But ultimately we all know PC games turn up cheap in no time at all. I bought Crysis 2 for nothing money and I have a half dozen games I need to play before Crysis 3 really but what the hell. I could wait 6-8 months and snag it for half the price probably and feel better for it, but I enjoyed Crysis 2 and Crysis 3 looks like the same again, bring it on. I tend to struggle with the total war games. I enjoy RTS games, but total war seems not to agree with me. I think it is because of how the units react to your commands only slowly whereas in other games it is instantaneous almost.
I usually ask for a dollar per hour out of my games. If I pay $30, I'd like 30 hours of game play, whether its re-plays, or side-stuff, or whatever, I just want to get my money's worth.
It depends on the game for me. Most FPS's average around 10 hours of total play time on one play through of the campaign... but those games also generally have a multiplayer component that makes it work the 60 bucks. Mind you, I pay full price for adventure games, usually because I get about 40-80 hours of gameplay from them, be it going through the gameplay, finding all the collectibles, or just playing it a different way. Assassin's Creed 2 is the best example of this for me. Best 60 bucks I ever spent. I think I've put a total of 120 hours into that sucker.
The AC games are good full stop. I don't think it is the length that does it, more the variety. I do detest collecting feathers though. I haven't even started on brotherhood yet, either.
Brotherhood is actually a good sequel to 2. Revelations... play it for the continuation of story, but not much else. Both Brotherhood and Revelations were not done by the same dev team as 1, 2 and 3, and so suffers from feature creep. Good continuation of the story, but meh overall game improvements. I'm still working my way through 3, and so far is pretty decent.
AC? Did someone mention armored core? Love that game, but hate the story. Oh, you mean Assassin's Creed. Bleigh to that one. Weird (but interesting) idea, with sub optimal (repetitive) execution and poor overall story. Beat the first one, but didn't care enough to go any further.
To me the length of a single player game means a huge amount to me. I dont generally buy FPS's anymore thinking that they will have a good single player story or game, but more for the multiplayer aspect. That said games like Mass effect (the entire series) Far Cry 3 (haven't played the first two..) or the Baldurs Gate collection are games that I have more than got my monies worth from and spent untold hours playing through them again and again. I would be pissed if I bought a game expecting a decent single player campaign only to have it end after 6 hours...
You really should've played the second one. Yes, the first has is flaws (sometimes huge), but the second one is where they really pull it together.
If anyone here played C&C Generals... holy shit... that is how a game should be... WEEKS of storyline, and single player achievements.... if you play non-stop.
Haven't played it in years. I've played the BTech mod for it more recently but kept crashing my old system.....may have to dust off the game and mods again.
