Hmm I wonder why these two specific games are going for so cheap...

@livedreamplay: the character action genre has always had lite rpg mechanics such as leveling up abilities, character progression, weapons options, and different playable characters.

"No longer an old fashioned hack and slash series"? Since when did character action games become old fashioned? The genre is still one of the best in gaming with games like nier automata pushing it to new limits.

@RicanV: They have monotonous tasks in the game to make their microtransactions more appealing to avoid said tasks. The user score on metacritic is also notably 3.7, the number of people who did enjoy it outside of reviewers worried about ad revenue are very few.

@superklyph: haha its alright it happens to all of us. And this article is written by eddie so it makes sense considering how incapable he is at his job. No offense eddie.

@RicanV: shadow of war is not an rpg though, it is akin to playing a game designed for 8 hours length for 40 to 60 hours, as you repeat the same actions over and over at the end of the game with hours of no plot. Star ocean is an excellently designed game with plenty of fresh content to keep you entertained for all of that time which is different. Long games can definitely be enjoyable, one of my favorite games is persona 5 and i have put countless hours into it.

TL;DR bottom line is it depends on if it is enjoyable to play it that long or not. If it isnt it is just unecessary padding which in the case of shadow of war and perhaps far cry 5 a means of greedy monetary gain.

@RicanV: shadow of war's ending is a prime example where it require excessive amounts of grinding to accomplish about 40 hours of it. Or you have the "option" to save your time by spending money on microtransactions.

@superklyph: "Executive producer Dan Hay stressed that the game will be generous in what it offers, though if you want to speed up your progress by spending money, you'll have that option."

@fivepercent: speeding up your progress isnt cosmetic.

I would be hopeful but valve has had "multiple games in development" for years now. Im sure we will be waiting for years to come. Im not saying that Im not excited I have just learned to keep my expectations low when it comes to modern valve.