Originally posted by DigiMark007
Fair enough, and no worries. I got a bit jacked, but know you didn't intend it as insult.We'll just have to agree to disagree on the rest. I can't stand 10-15 games most of the time. Makes me feel like I'm playing an add-on or something. Regardless of the quality, I'm just kinda like "hell, that's it?" And long-ish games can be excellent throughout their entirety. If a game gets tedious after 15-20 hours, maybe they aren't doing enough to develop a diverse enough game to be truly good, and thus have to hide it with the length. Though one could argue that a game like COD isn't 10-15 hours because of multiplay. That has to be factored in, so it in fact does become more of a 20-50 hours game for most people, like longer single-player titles.
No worries.
If MP is involved, then yes a game could be considered longer, but most people dont think in those terms.
If a developer can make a game of COD4, Crysis, Far Cry and HL2 quality thats 40 hours long. That would be awesome. But I just dont think a developer can create an intriguing game that will always bring something new for 30 hours or more without some sort of gameplay element that takes up that time.
Ubisoft has stated that Far Cry 2 will have over 50 hours of gameplay, but in reality, how much of that is getting to the objective instead of action. (if you didnt know, Far Cry 2 has a massive area to explore).
A game like HL2, where its strictly linear will not have that so at all times, there has to be something going on. If not, it wont be fun.
And your right, its a balance. People complain that COD4 is too short (it is), but they will probalby complain that the 13 to 18 hour to be not as good as the rest. Its bound to happen because its unrealistic to expect a developer to make a thrillride game like COD4 for a constant 20 hours. In the end, people want the game to be longer, but they want it to be longer because they had so much fun with it.
Bioshock is a prime example of this. It was awesome for a very long time, but it tailed off after you meet Ryan because its just more of the same. It's not like they suddenly turned into a bad developer, its just the same and there isnt something to change it up. I compare it to food and how you remember your first and second bite of a dish, but dont remember the rest of it, so the next 20 bites are a complete blur until the very last one.