GC8

Am I mistaken, or games completion times getting shorter and shorter? I remember playing Tomb Raider on my PlayStation for an hour or two a day for weeks and Im not sure that I finished it.

Ive just completed Call of Duty 4 in about five hours and that included my dinner!

Are all newgen console games like this, or is this an unusually short game?


Simon

dave247

Its probably with the developers concentrating more on making the online side of the game and that's leaving us with shorter campaign modes

ash002004

iTrader: (1)

Yup I agree....the latest gta was completed in a few days!

More concentrated online nowadays, does make it alot better to play people

cookstar

iTrader: (6)

I thought the same thing about COD4, what difficulty level was that at though?

ash002004

iTrader: (1)

Anyone remember Altered beast and Splatterhouse on the megadrive? took me weeks as a kids, fifteen minutes now

GC8

'Super-Easy'

Ant

Try veteran, possibly a hour a mission

Iain Young

Not only are they getting shorter, they are getting easier as well. I can't remember the last time I actually had to think in a game. Used to love the old adventure games (Day of the Tentacle etc) which required more than just random button bashing. Sadly that genre seems to have died completely now

HankScorpio

Online and freeform is the way forward, just looked at me burnout stats - 16hrs online, 60hrs offline and still loving it.

I hate it when games are too challenging, I only use them as entertainment.
I've only ever completed a couple of the Toca/Race Driver series and that was on medium.
Any harder and it becomes a frustrating chore for me and I'm a really bad loser - ceases to be entertaining.

Also don't care for the press this brick that opens a door three miles away that you have to hop on one leg to and roll through type stuff.
((Gun + baddies + bullets) - puzzles) and I'm happy

Iain Young

That stuff is ok for a while, but I get bored with it very quickly. No challenge. I can only do the same things over and over again so many times.

Where have the engaging plot lines gone, or anything that requires more than 2 brain cells to work out a puzzle? MY 4 year old nephew can play most of the games around these days (including things with so called puzzles like Uncharted). He's a bright kid, but things are definitely dumbed down now compared to a few years ago...

scoobyverysoon

iTrader: (1)

Cod 4 doesnt really start until you go online thats whats its all about IMO single player yeah its easy but the fun is online

agree most games now I start on hard just to get a challange same went for dead space cracking game but easy in most parts on Normal

playing siren blood curse on PS3 ATM thats really racking my brain as some puzzles are to damn hard good though but im near the end will need a new game soon luckily silent hill is out end of feb

spectrum48k

It's the corporate boys - they don't want to give you the full game, when they can charge you for an additional level via downloadable content. I'd guess there's much higher profit margins on DLC, compared to it's retail counterpart.

I was suckered into this scenario recently with Fable II and the Knothole Island downloadable content.

messiah

Compare the latest Tomb Raider with the first - looks better but the original walks all over it in every other department - they reckoned the first game would take the average player 100 hours. Underworld is a lot more linear, it's almost impossible to go wrong, it's more like a platformer than a 3d adventure puzzler - and the on the subject of the puzzles - they have definately been dumbed down, I used to enjoy the puzzle aspect of the old games, but these ones now are so simple they're like a TV phone-in...

messiah

pee's me off that - Knothole Island was supposed to come on the disc, but wasn't going to be ready in time - so originally we wouldn't have had to pay for it - now we do. Same thing is happening with Tomb Raider Underworld with 2 levels that were chopped off so the game could hit it's launch date...

GC8

Isnt the latest Tomb Raider (Anniversary) actually the first Tomb Raider re-made using the 'Legend' engine?

WRX_Dazza

cod 4 is worth every penny for online purposes!!!!

i finished it in about 4 hours, when it came out, but have ben playing it ever since online!!!
same with Forza2 !!!!
infact i dont play any other games at the moment!!!

true though, is a short game as standalone!!

Flaps

iTrader: (1)

Try something like Fallout 3 (and not on easy ), that should give you a few more hours play.

I agree with the other comments regarding online though, it's like the single player levels are just there to provide the code for the online games sometimes.

W R X

COD World at War is the future on the 360. Endless hours of online fun to be had.

I was slightly dissapointed when I first played it as I was a huge fan of COD 4and didnt think it took the game forward. Im now hopelessly adicted to it and think its superb.

**** Zombie mode is also a nice touch and a laugh with a few players!

Scoobynet clan to be formed I reckon

bob269

Yeah i've read it's supposed to be rediculously short!. As for Fable 2 I don't suppose you've got all 6 dolls you can gift my way so i can finish up my last few achievements

chrisowe

Yes it is but there been another Tomb Raider caled 'Underworld' released recently with a new engine.
Mirrors Edge, now theres a short game with not much online play to speak of.

speedymonkey

Altered Beast
I used to love that Dont think i ever completed it tho

StickyMicky

When i was a lad, next to nobody ever "finished games"

Or as we called it "clocking games"

but, we never had "save game" technology back then, once you could save your position they did get a lot easier to finish.

COD4 was mentioned about its short campaign in nearly every review, but the game was made mainly for multiplayer, so its not really an issue, when you think how long it takes you to get to level 55 in multiplayer, you are talking days worth of time, instead of hours.

Nowdays i use the single player campaigns, usually to get me ready for the multiplayer sections, if i play a single player game, that has no multiplay at all, it feels wierd
i enjoyed my second playthrough of COD4 just as much as the first one, although i did leave a year between the playthroughs.

if a game is not "top notch" i will almost never play through the single player campaign again after the first time.

out of all the games i have played, only a handfull have had another single player playthrough to be honest

off the top of my head

gears 1 = about 7 times
gears 2 = 3 times so far
cod 4 = twice
army of two = 3 times (really loved this one for some reason)
rainbow 6 vegas 2 = 3 times

the rest i have never bothered with since!

bob269

You need slapping Micky and slapping hard! . Half life 2 the best single player pc game ever, 15hrs first play thru atleast, and when you're done, the best online deathmatch aswell, it's no excuse to churn out a 5hr game just because your online is gonna be good.

speedymonkey

Half life was the yard stick for PC 1st person games IMO, i remember taking control of 'Gordon Freeman' and thinking, why are'nt all games as good as this

But having said that, the 'Call of duty' series has been fantasic for war stylee action, unbeatable really

Iain Young

I guess you've never played one of the good games then. That, and they do tend to have save features these days meaning that even a 40+ hour game can be completed in 10 minute chunks if you so desire...

Flaps

iTrader: (1)

Sticky, the only games i've ever revisited on single player have been Bioshock (3rd round now) and Dead Space. If I enjoy them though I like to play for as many achievements as I can.

StickyMicky

i had the orange box for the 360, with all intents to play them all, and i just could not get away with it, never finished any of them

GC8

I tried a couple of levels from Act1 at higher levels last night (all except the hardest) and their completion time was the same, or less in one case, because I was being more careful.....

mart360

When games first appeared, they had near on vertical learning curves, and

would invariably have no save points.

How many people remember the tower dropping down to the floor in the

original TR? the save point was on the bottom of the pit, which you had to get too.

Weeks it took me to get there, only to die at the hands of the tigers, before saving...


Then in the next game it was savable save points, supposedly you could use them anywhere.......


Which evolved into save at any point for the next installment.

Totally ruined the sense of the game.


I have to admit, its a pita going through 32 levels only to die in 2 secs flat

when you reach a new challange, but isnt that whats its about?

(great ghiana sisters lol)


Eye of the beholder on the Amiga took me over 2 years, and i never finished

it!!

FFIV took me over 100 hrs to finish....

TR1 took me near on 100 hrs

Legend took about 16 on the 360,

That seems to be the norm now.

A lot of the problem is the Japanese markets. they dont like long hours of

gameplay, but prefer cut scenes and storylines, with short intense bursts

of action in between.

As thats the biggest Market........


Anyone remember when Games moved from Disk to CD?


"Huge levels" developers said. Games so nonlinear it could takes years to finish...

Didnt take them long to work out that if your playing a games for years,

your not going to be playing any oothers, so there potential revenue

drops...


So they bumped up the eye candy, shorter levels easier gameplay, and

youve finished the game and onto the next...


There,s a guy on here who has somthing to do with adds being inserted into

Xbox games when you play online, or have updates.


wouldnt be any good advertising a game or movie (in the game) if it was

two years after it was released before you got to it in the game would it.


too much dumbing down.. and making it easy.


Mart