How long should a game last?
Discussion
How long is it reasonable to expect a story-based game to last from start to finish?
I'm feeling a bit peeved as I'm far from the best gamer in the world, but managed to complete The Godfather II in 13.5hrs according to the save file. This doesn't seem a lot for nearly £40, and the online play for it sounds pretty pathetic even if I was into that sort of thing.
TC
I'm feeling a bit peeved as I'm far from the best gamer in the world, but managed to complete The Godfather II in 13.5hrs according to the save file. This doesn't seem a lot for nearly £40, and the online play for it sounds pretty pathetic even if I was into that sort of thing.
TC
Depends on your expectations really, clearly you're disappointed there and I'd expect more myself, but strip away all the cut-scenes from a Metal Gear Solid game and you're looking at around 8-10 hours gameplay on average, but I've no qualms about paying £40 for that. I'd rather play a shorter excellent game than spend hours of my life battling through a mediocre one.
DoubleYellow said:
As somebody who doesn't really enjoy single player gaming, the call of duty games are short, even by my standards!
The originals were quite long then they moved to the whole console "next gen" pap that really means 90% budget goes on shiny engine 10% goes on content. Daston said:
DoubleYellow said:
As somebody who doesn't really enjoy single player gaming, the call of duty games are short, even by my standards!
The originals were quite long then they moved to the whole console "next gen" pap that really means 90% budget goes on shiny engine 10% goes on content. grim_d said:
if the main story/part of a game last less than 7/8 hrs then I would start complaining, 13.5 isnt bad considering you probably have not 100%ed it.
If a game is good it's worth playing through a few times anyway.
That's for 100% complete, whereas I'd expected something more like GTA4 where the story lasted probably 40 hrs then there are loads of add-ons. Maybe Rockstar just make more impressive games.If a game is good it's worth playing through a few times anyway.
Edited by grim_d on Monday 15th June 19:38
TC
15 hours for a game is considered pretty good going these days, isn't it?
I can name a few modern titles that lasted about 7-8 hours, but if you pick them up for about £25 (PC) then it works out the same as a few movie tickets.
Its a far cry from the days of games like Baldurs Gate 2, which could easily top 100 hours on a play through.
I can name a few modern titles that lasted about 7-8 hours, but if you pick them up for about £25 (PC) then it works out the same as a few movie tickets.
Its a far cry from the days of games like Baldurs Gate 2, which could easily top 100 hours on a play through.
Tom_C76 said:
grim_d said:
if the main story/part of a game last less than 7/8 hrs then I would start complaining, 13.5 isnt bad considering you probably have not 100%ed it.
If a game is good it's worth playing through a few times anyway.
That's for 100% complete, whereas I'd expected something more like GTA4 where the story lasted probably 40 hrs then there are loads of add-ons. Maybe Rockstar just make more impressive games.If a game is good it's worth playing through a few times anyway.
Edited by grim_d on Monday 15th June 19:38
TC
Theres also development time, on the on godfather II was around 2 years where as on GTAIV it was around 4, which acctually ties in nicely as Its very possible to finish GTAIV in 30hrs, I did it in 32, and i did plenty mucking around.
Theres also development cost, the important factor, I could not find any details on the cost to develop Godfather II, however, GTAIV is estimated to of cost $100 million to develop, which would make it the most expensive game ever developed.
It a shame that you feel there wasn't enough, but at £3/hr, theres more expensive ways to spend your time.
Daston said:
DoubleYellow said:
As somebody who doesn't really enjoy single player gaming, the call of duty games are short, even by my standards!
The originals were quite long then they moved to the whole console "next gen" pap that really means 90% budget goes on shiny engine 10% goes on content. I much preferred the multiplayer on the earlier games as well, so the new ones are a little disappointing on the single player front...!
My current Championship Manager 01/02 saved game reads 14 days, 13 hours, 9 minutes and 32 seconds or around 350 hours play time. That's my current game, in the last 8 years since it was released I bet i've lost 1500+ hours to that game - and I don't even like football!
I lost an obscene amount of my life to Morrowind and I daren't look at how many hours have gone into Oblivion. I bet some of the Forza crowd have spent a fair few days play time on that with all the single player and online racing aswell as tuning and painting.
I think it depends what games you choose, open ended ones like i've mentioned above swallow lives, story/mission/shooter games like COD, Halo, Doom, Sonic are all very linear, so are bound to have a much shorter lifespan.
I lost an obscene amount of my life to Morrowind and I daren't look at how many hours have gone into Oblivion. I bet some of the Forza crowd have spent a fair few days play time on that with all the single player and online racing aswell as tuning and painting.
I think it depends what games you choose, open ended ones like i've mentioned above swallow lives, story/mission/shooter games like COD, Halo, Doom, Sonic are all very linear, so are bound to have a much shorter lifespan.
Edited by WildCards on Tuesday 16th June 11:54
paulmurr said:
I bought Fallout 3 for the PS3 for £20, and I'm still playing it after 60+ hours. Some have racked up hundreds of hours on this game. Not bad value for money in my book 
Indeed. I'm somewhere up round 180 hrs now. Although I have been milking it, got all the add-ons, and am now somewhat pointlessly wandering around in freeplay because I can't let it go. 
I thought my brothers 22 days of online in-match Halo 2 time was ridiculous.
COD4 I'm at around 5 days I think. COD5 around 3 days. I see that as alot of time.
Couldn't imagine 100+ hours as somebody previously mentioned.
Slightly off topic, I recently saw somebody hit 300,000 gamerscore on the xbox 360. I'm at about 1,500 and have been playing a year a few times per week. I know that some games are easy to rack up the score etc. but still, that is mental.
COD4 I'm at around 5 days I think. COD5 around 3 days. I see that as alot of time.
Couldn't imagine 100+ hours as somebody previously mentioned.
Slightly off topic, I recently saw somebody hit 300,000 gamerscore on the xbox 360. I'm at about 1,500 and have been playing a year a few times per week. I know that some games are easy to rack up the score etc. but still, that is mental.
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