I was sitting in my room playing Gears yesterday and I realized that I really hate games that have campaigns that last only 8-10 hours. Nothing against Gears (which has a great multiplayer mode in my opinion) but its single player could've use some more attention. And this make me think that multiplayer has become more important than single player. I think that single player options in games are equally important as multiplayer options, and nobody else seems to agree with me. Every time I get a game now days, it seems like there is just too much emphasis on the multiplayer. This is why i've been hunting down some good single player oriented games. Some of the more notable games that i've been playing through are Ninja Gaiden Black, EarthBound, and The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. I have to say that these games have been some of my favorite games of all time because they embody the true spirit of great single player only games. Ninja Gaiden is the first game in a long time to make me feel like i'm playing an old NES game that has just gotten suddenly thrown into 3D. This feeling of rememberance ( i guess its rememberance) has made me feel the way i do about single player games: that they are dieing out.

Now don't get me wrong here, I love a good multiplayer match if its done right. Counter Strike has some of the greatest multiplayer i've ever played and its an example of multiplayer done right. An example of multiplayer done horribly wrong is Halo 2. I liked Halo 2, I really did. Its multiplayer was good at first, but then it just left me feeling cold at the end of the day, AND its single player is no good at all (this is just my opinion). I digress though, I miss the days of awesome lenghty single player games. Games like the Super Mario Bros. series, Super Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie, Final Fantasy, and many others. These games had such good multiplayer that they didn't need a multiplayer at all. I guess games now days just need a multiplayer to be good. This really puzzles me a lot. I mean if a game has really good single player but no multiplay, it gets critized. I will admit however some games are a lot better with both a great single player and a great multiplayer. Many people now days however, wont pick up a game if it doesn't have a multiplay mode.

Another thing that annoys me is the ever growing trend of making a single player game that has anywhere between 6 to 11 hours of gameplay in it. What is with this trend? Are game companies just too lazy to make more of a game or are they just making games for casual gamers? I think that its just casual gamers honestly. I mean, will a casual gamer ever complete a 45 hour game? not likely. Will a regular gamer finish a 45 hour game? yes they will. No offense, but I think that game developers need to think about everyone and not just the casual audience. But now as I think about it, maybe this is JUST a trend. I really hope that it is because it seems like every time I pick up a new game, its just not long enough to make me care about it and it has a bad multiplayer to boot. What i guess i'm trying to say here is that single player needs to lengthen and multiplay needs to bet better. Will this happen? I guess we'll just have to wait and see.