Next Gen games are too short

[James]

It's all to do with high definition, isn't it? A car modelled in RE4 would take considerably less time, money and general resources to model than a car appearing in RE5.

Am I right? That's been my general assumption that high definition development is generally expensive.

[Carnivol]

the worst thing is even next gen JRPG's are freaking short ....

i mean if you discount the four or five hours i spent over-leveling my party, (and yes, i severely over leveled them) i've completed the first three discs of Lost Odyssey in around 10 hours. That's way too short for a JRPG.

I mean, the second disc of the game just had 2 towns and 3 dungeons, and that's about it.

I dunno if you played a lot of past gen JRPGs, but the first time I played through Chrono Trigger, I had a "perfect" run and a total time clocked at about 15 hours or something. Final Fantasy VI had me clock in about 30 hours or so. Think I never even reached 20 hours when I played through Final Fantasy IV. Final Fantasy VII had me hit 40 by the end (but I think a replay I did had me hit 70 while I was doing some sidequest stuff, such as chocobo breeding and the weapons).


Lost Odyssey had me hit 60 by the end, I'm past 90 now ('cause I've been doing bonus dungeons, DLC, some additional leveling, finding missing seeds, etc...). All I ever did on my initial run to the end was trying to make sure I had at least "cleared" each map before proceeding (but no power leveling or anything), along with some minor backtracking to pick up some stuff that I couldn't access earlier.


I think the problem this generation is that far too many are sitting with their sticks in one and a guide in the other. Thanks to achievement-like systems, there's a lot of people who for some reason have forgotten how to play a game for the game and fear the thought of missing out on the achievements. So there comes the guide to the rescue; Player gets to sit there and constantly check what is next on the game's agenda. Heavily limiting the amount of replaying that is deemed necessary, as they've got all secrets on their first. No real trial and error needed, 'cause they already have a strategy given to them as for how to flawlessly handle even the most complicated situations on the highest of difficulties.


Another thing with current gen games in general is that I feel a lot of them are just recycled formulas. The replay value of many of the older games (some of which are now, nostalgia aside, inferior) just isn't present anymore. It's a whole lot of been there, done that...



But it's also true that a lot of gameplay experiences are cut short this generation thanks to the development process and the amount of additional work that is required for creating high definition assets and debugging of all sorts of functionality (main engine, middleware, event scripts, etc.)


And, of course, there is a lot of shit this generation too. A lot of it is sold on hype only. And since it sells and the hype is there; it's a formula anyone can abuse for their own profit.

[riderkid]

im anti strategy guide actually, i tihnk there like a spoiler guide at most

[A-J]

i only use guides for miss-able or one-shot only items ..

[BadWolfX]

I can see what you're saying, but for me, games have always been short, unless said games were RPGs, which I could count on to be long, mostly because back in the day they took up four discs on the Playstation.

On the topic of graphics and the such....I agree with with what people have said. One of the first things gamers tend to look for these days are awesome super realistic OH MY GOOD GOD IT'S SO FUCKING REAL THAT'S SO AWESOME mega cool graphics, so naturally more time is spent on them and less on the story mode. It's actually annoying when what you really want is an immersive story but because people only care about awesome graphics that's all we get.

Oh and multiplayer too. Rise in online gaming = Better multiplayer = More time focused on the Multiplayer aspect of the game = Less time spent on the Story part of the game.

[hellrizer]

I never use "cheats" because for one thing, it takes out the fun and secand, It seems the game goes by way faster than before. As for guides, I perfer to find out myself.

[biohazard_star]

This topic just made me wish for a next-gen Outbreak even more. They could retain the current gen graphics but make the levels more expansive. No more load times, lots of players on the map, random events, maybe even player-controlled monsters.

[Helegad]

Well Mass effect was pretty long as the older games and Fallout 3 was ehhh somewhere around there. But yeah I agree with you, the older games were long and fun like Shenmue 1 and 2. When are they going to make a part 3?

Fallout 3's main campaign was REALLY short. I could do it in one night if I tried.

GTAIV was boring. All GTAs are long, but GTAIV manages to be boring.

[REmaster]

AAAAAAAgreed. A good example is Dead Space...great game, but a little too short.

[A-J]

it was still a lot longer than, say, RE5 :p

[REmaster]

it was still a lot longer than, say, RE5 :p

You got that right lol. I thought RE5 should have been much longer since it was the finale.

[Helegad]

Finale? Umm, there is gonna be more REs you know.

[Alexia_Ashford]

Yeah, but RE5 was the final RE of this story arch. Capcom have already said RE6 is going to be another big change and a fresh start.

[Sephiroth]

Evan MGS4 is short with gameplay there's about 10 hours of cutsences and about 5 hours of gameplay the only game I think that's is going to be long is Final Fantasy XIII most Final Fantasy games are really long I just hope XIII is much longer.

[aris13]

Evan MGS4 is short with gameplay there's about 10 hours of cutsences and about 5 hours of gameplay.

5 hours?? Try 3.