How long should SP games be?

Recent news of Mafia2 being ~10 hours long is rather disappointing.

Anyone else disgusted with the length of most of todays games.

Just imagine if Dragon Age was only 10 hours long, what would people say?

Recent news of Mafia2 being ~10 hours long is rather disappointing.

Anyone else disgusted with the length of most of todays games.

Just imagine if Dragon Age was only 10 hours long, what would people say?

VeryBumpy

Source on Mafia 2 being ~10 hours?

Recent news of Mafia2 being ~10 hours long is rather disappointing.

Anyone else disgusted with the length of most of todays games.

Just imagine if Dragon Age was only 10 hours long, what would people say?

VeryBumpy

As long as they need to be. Portal was a 4 - 5 hour run. Probably about 2 hours after beating it. And it was a great length.

As long as they need to be.XaosII

My thoughts exactly. Game length is relative to what's being presented.

That isn't a valid comparison because Dragon Age is an RPG (a genre that has long gameplay hours by default). I think between 10-15 hours is a good length depending on presentation and the overall enjoyment of it. I beat Metro 2033 in 12 hours but it was 12 hours well spent.the_ChEeSe_mAn2

There is no 'default' rule that says RPGs have long gameplay hours. Doom took what, 25hours or so to play through, so shooters by default should be long too. Game length is as long as the game makers want it to be regardless of the type of game.

I feel anything less than 20-25hours is a horrible game value.

[QUOTE="the_ChEeSe_mAn2"]That isn't a valid comparison because Dragon Age is an RPG (a genre that has long gameplay hours by default). I think between 10-15 hours is a good length depending on presentation and the overall enjoyment of it. I beat Metro 2033 in 12 hours but it was 12 hours well spent.VeryBumpy

There is no 'default' rule that says RPGs have long gameplay hours. Doom took what, 25hours or so to play through, so shooters by default should be long too. Game length is as long as the game makers want it to be regardless of the type of game.

I feel anything less than 20-25hours is a horrible game value.

I think the standard should be 12 hours for most games these days. Kinda disappointing to see games that are only 6 or 7 hours singleplayer wise.

[QUOTE="the_ChEeSe_mAn2"]That isn't a valid comparison because Dragon Age is an RPG (a genre that has long gameplay hours by default). I think between 10-15 hours is a good length depending on presentation and the overall enjoyment of it. I beat Metro 2033 in 12 hours but it was 12 hours well spent.VeryBumpy

There is no 'default' rule that says RPGs have long gameplay hours. Doom took what, 25hours or so to play through, so shooters by default should be long too. Game length is as long as the game makers want it to be regardless of the type of game.

I feel anything less than 20-25hours is a horrible game value.

Huh? I thought doom was a short game....very short honestly.

Just imagine if Dragon Age was only 10 hours long, what would people say?VeryBumpy

To be fair, Dragon Age was really stretched out by the huge amount of trash mobs filling every dungeon and not by compelling game-play elements. If the amount of junk fights had been minimized it would have been a considerably shorter game.

Personally, I believe the short length we are now seeing in games is directly related to developers trying to create that holy grail of a "cinematic experience" and "immersion" (god, I hate those terms) so that most of a game's budget goes into CGI cut-scenes, voice acting, cutting-edge graphics, and other, in my opinion, useless fluff instead of developing longer, deeper, and more compelling game-play.

But as long as people are wowed by the fluff and, looking at what sells and what receives the most hype, they obviously are, I don't see this changing anytime soon. In fact, I only see it getting worse.

Games have become, sadly, mostly just a collection of cut-scenes and developers are trying as hard as possible to get the player from Point A to Point B as quickly as they can.

As long as they need to be.

XaosII

This. I absolutely HATE filler. Doom 3 was about 2x as long as it should have been, but Farcry was a pretty good length. I'm happy with most FPS if they top 5 hours for an expansion or 10 hours for a full game.

I think if I were to make a generic statement, "the slower the pacing, the longer the game should be" would be my best descriptor.

Really depends on the genre and type of shooter. With a simple shooter like CoD SP I've usualy had enough after an hour or 8, but for most shooters these days I'd say 10-12 is more appropiate, depending on how much variety there is in gunplay/environment etc. I enjoyed F.E.A.R. a lot, but the repetitive environments made me glad it was over after ca. 10 hours. For platformers it would have to be 20 hours, and for adventure games like Zelda 30-40.

I think if I were to make a generic statement, "the slower the pacing, the longer the game should be" would be my best descriptor.

True_Sounds

To be honest, I think games like Dragon Age were maybe a bit too "long." It was an amazing experiance, but I was wondering when this story was going to finally wrap itself up. it took me 75 hours to beat that game :P

If it doesn't have some kickass multiplayer included, I think they should be 20+ hours or longer.

I hate finishing a game in 4-5 hours, if I'm gonna pay $40-60 for a new release I want some content.

Depends on the game. An RPG should last for dozens of hours, but a shooter should only last about 8-12 hours.

10-20 hours. It might be a burden to replay games with gameplay longer than 20 hours.

I would rather play the 4-5 hour long portal than the 25-30 hours of farcry 2.

If it's a good game then it souldn't ever end.

If it's a good game then it souldn't ever end.

i_saw_a_mudcrab

lulz

The minimum should be 10 hours. Actual 10 hours...not this crap about potentially being 10h long when its actually for anyone with a brain 5h.

Depends on the Genre. FPS should be about 15 to 20 hours or so. At least double or triple for the main quest/story of RPG/open world/adventure games.

The minimum should be 10 hours. Actual 10 hours...not this crap about potentially being 10h long when its actually for anyone with a brain 5h.

rzepak

I usually try to take my time and find the majority of hidden items and powerrups on the first playthrough so it tends to last longer for me. I'm usually less disappointed at the end of a short game that way.

I think SP only games don't worth the buy especially because once you've beaten them, there's not much more to do. I usually play Multiplayer games for that reason. But I also loved Dragon Age Origins since the SP was EPIC and VERY long. DA:O is an exception because I never buy single player only type of games.

For more standard games, around 10-14 hours. For RPGs, a bit longer.

if its sp only...and im paying full price....better be at least 15 hours with extras....just imagine if mw2 was sp only....more than just the pc community woulda been p*****

As long as they need to be. Portal was a 4 - 5 hour run. Probably about 2 hours after beating it. And it was a great length.

XaosII

The old showbiz quote; always leave them wanting more. At least with Portal. But for most games I think they are becoming too short. FPSs should be at least 15 hrs and not full of Wildflower's fluff. I miss games that had the ability to keep me interested for their entire length like Deus Ex. Instead I get games like Crysis that are lengthened by rinse and repeat and get boring after a few short hours.

I use to complain about games being too short but I'm beginning to agree with the group that a shorter game with great gameplay is better then a long game that becomes boring. Very few games leave me wanting more these days rather they leave me wanting out. That is something I liked more about older games. Or am I just being nostalgic and not remembering well.

Story-wise it should be very long and immersive. However, it is a deadly sin to try and stretch a game through tedious tasks. RPGs are the only games I've played that have had really good stories.

Deus Ex is pretty much as good as it gets, how great that game/story was. A damn good balance between progression of the story, bit by bit through direct (talking to NPCs and the almost "endless" outcomes/dialogues) and indirect (voice messages, idle talk, eavesdropping, NPC/enemy behaviour, messages/notes, magazines/books, computers, news, etc.) interaction.

There were no "outside-of-story segments" where the story stops and won't progress until the next "dialogue segment." The story was moving/changing all the time, and pretty much all aspects/segments somehow changed and/or progressed the story. The story was alive, and present throughout the game.

That is one thing that I truly despise in most modern games, the story is present only at certain points, and anywhere else you just blindly storm ahead into hordes of enemies that gets so spooty boring after a few tries. In these segments you just fight, level up, collect items, or something else, almost entirely disconnected from the story.

I don't know if people find it boring and repetitive to always hear this, but Deus Ex really was a milestone/wonder in terms of story and interaction.

I really, really, really, really, really wish there were more games like that. Hell, even Deus Ex wasn't perfect (though I'd give it 10/10 any day) and you could make it even BETTER, even more IMMERSIVE, even more AMAZING. Seems developers these days have no interest in that, too much work and effort...which could have been put to "better" use to create bloated and flashy graphiXXX that lasts for about a second before it gets old.

15 hours with extras.rmfd341

This.

I like a FPS game to be around 6-8 hours with good online play. Depends how good the game is.

I find 10-12 hours is about right. Having said that I'm more concerned with the quality of the game rather than how long it is.

I rarely buy games less than 10 hours on average. It feels like it's over too quickly with shorter playtimes. Yes, it may have been a damn good experience, but I still feel cheated. I like to taste my food you know and not inhale it as fast as possible. However, RPGs I expect 20-25 hours minimum. Of course, the more the better for any game is a nice plus. I like to have games with long hours and replayabality getting the best bang for my buck.

Id say 20 hours is fair. (for $50 game)

Not sure how so many of you enjoy paying $50+ for only 10hours of gameplay. :?

Myself, I refuse to pay full price for a game that has less than 15 hours of SP. I've been spoiled by games like ME2 that have very long SP campaigns.

A matinee is about 6 bucks for 2 hours or so of entertainment. At 15 hours that is a similar price point for a $50-60 game.

Myself, I refuse to pay full price for a game that has less than 15 hours of SP. I've been spoiled by games like ME2 that have very long SP campaigns.

A matinee is about 6 bucks for 2 hours or so of entertainment. At 15 hours that is a similar price point for a $50-60 game.

SerOlmy

Not sure how so many of you enjoy paying $50+ for only 10hours of gameplay. :?

VeryBumpy

Depends upon the genre...RPGs are all about storyline, that's why they are longer than most other genres.

Not sure how so many of you enjoy paying $50+ for only 10hours of gameplay. :?

VeryBumpy

If it's 10 hours of quality content, then it's worth the price.