I think you're perfectly right about every side of the situation you exposed. I feel the same because I'm in the same situation as yourself, but like you said others may not have our luck and get to squeeze as much fun as they can from fewer games. But I really think that a 10-20 hours max main storyline should be the standard (depending on the type of game, 10 for action/adventure, 20 for more story/rpg ones) with as much secondary content as you want for those who want/can play it. This way mostly everyone would be happy, rushers as much as squeezers ^^ The fact is that it's not because you can afford to buy many games that you do not care to COMPLETE them. Finishing, winning against a game is part of the pleasure too, and is supposed to be one of the main reasons you play that game. It's frustrating for me sometimes to even start playing a game knowing that I will certainly not finish it because I won't have the time...
@@thelys oh for sure, I think for me the privilege piece is personally my biggest issue, I know I would happily sit and 100% complete all of my games if I had more restraint and didn't buy new ones all the time. The reason I put down a game usually has nothing to do with my enjoyment diminishing, its almost entirely tied to me just wanting to go and play the nice new shiny thing I couldn't help but buy myself 🤣 if I didn't have that new game then I would sit and get the full experience out of all my games, even if that meant playing them over a long period with the limited bursts of gaming dedicated time I have. I had a similar debate with a friend about services like Netflix, I used to love going and buying a DVD when I first had a job & my own income, I'd rush home to watch it and it would get my undivided attention. Now though I'm overwhelmed by choice and often find myself either bouncing from one thing to the next without finishing anything or just not watching anything at all 😅 ultimately choice is the issue, the more I have/we have the harder it is to concentrate on just one thing
I find there to long but I kind of agree that people are poor and kids might not play anything tell they move out but it's normally not the case we bought a new game every six months and I had friends who where more poor then my family and they still bought a new game every year we where all broke as hell so we had to save up for months but yeah I used to bitch that games where to long I wanted to beat them and play them again to master them and move on to the next game but that did not happen because they where to long and other games came out
I agree with a lot of this honestly man. I remember when I was kid and I played the first Red Dead game for 8-10 hours at a time. But nowadays maybe I can squeeze in 2-3 hours. I've got such a backlog of games because I seem to routinely buy games that clock in around 40 hours. I remember re-playing pokemon games like 10 times because those were the only games I'd have for months. Crazy how this stuff changes as we get older and circumstances change
Oh dude I replayed the Pokemon games ALL THE TIME! I squeezed so much value out of my games when I was a kid but now I'm just like "OH SHIT, I need to buy .... this week" and it ends up going on the shelf with the rest of the games and I end up dropping the one I'm currently playing 😂 I just need to learn a little restraint!
Totally true. Sometimes I felt the same. Even though I’m from Latin America, games there are hell of expensive. Like seriously a new release can cost a week of your salary or even more depending on your income. So getting a game it’s a privilege. Really bro no need to explain better than you. Great review!
Thank you 😁 if I had the self control to just buy one game and play it to completion I'm sure I'd savour it much more than I do currently, rushing to try and finish before the next big release
Great point to make, I think for the longest time I experienced this and thought I've just finally gotten fed up on games and that's why I feel like they feel too long. But then I played Witcher 3 and realized, it's a great game, I just felt like I didn't have the time and had so many games waiting to be played. Now after covid and all the new free time I have, I just let my library sit there waiting for when I'm ready to take the next game on with no rush :)
I think it really depends on the game genre. I don’t think some game types benefit from being overly long. For example I think a 50-100+ hour survival horror, character action game, or 3D plat-former would suffer from being that long. I personally don’t tend to love long games but I don’t mind them being in the market. I think people complaining about games being too long were mostly coming from a time in the market where it felt like every game wanted to be 100+ hours long even if made the game worse. We luckily seem to have moved past that and most really long games are in genres where it’s usually expected (open world, RPG, etc).
Game can be open world and rpg but it still dont need to be hundreds hours long with too many repetative side guests and too long and too slowly progressing story. Its not interesting anymore and loses the wow effect and beside nobody has time to put hundreds hours into one game when there Is so many games available and because everyone has responsibilities and other things to do In life. Now days they think longer means better but its not like that at all. Game Is worth of your money and time if its replayable, not boring, story impacts you positively and you can finish them and feel you accomplished and completed something.
First off, glad you're enjoying the latest Assassin's Creed so much. It's not my cup-of-tea but nice to see you're having fun. Secondly, this is a very interesting topic and whilst I feel you raise some good points, I do ultimately disagree with you. Of course, 'too long' will mean different things depending on the person and genre and I do acknowledge too many games as a key issue (I've been trying to cut back; trying to go from 12 games per year to 8 now) but I feel games should be shorter. By shorter though, I do not mean less content though. I feel games should have shorter campaigns with more emphasis on post-game and replay value. From my perspective, I've almost never completed games and also rarely finish them, but to be fair I've always had access to many games at once thanks to brothers. I loved Turn Based RPGs, but outside of Pokémon, Child of Light, and Mario & Luigi, I've rarely finished them. Length is a big part of it; whilst I'll often love the game, I'll get bored of playing that same game for such a lengthy time. It's comparable to that saying about eating the same meal every night; you'll grow bored of it even if it is still enjoyable (and unfortunately when you return to it, the food has gone rotten so you have to throw it away and cook the meal again; in others words, create a new save file). An then you miss out on the satisfaction of finishing the game. Another genre I love is fighting games and back in the old days for them, their stories were split up as short 8-fight campaigns per character. By just playing through one character's campaign gave me the satisfaction of finishing the game and seeing the end screen. This ironically would urge me to play through all the other characters, provided I had the time to do so. Whilst not exactly the same sort of thing, I feel this kind of thing should be applied to other games; giving you satisfying ends in a shorter time but encouraging you to replay the game via alternative characters, modes, bonuses, etc. I don't mean as short of course, but if I've been playing a game for over 40 hours, I should at least be near the conclusion. Now I'm not a fan of open-world games (too directionless for me, and the lack of gating off makes me indecisive about what I should do to get the most meaningful experience within the limited time I have available), which I feel is where your talking point is coming from, so I'm not 100% sure how much my point applies to that. You made a very good point though and explained it terrifically with enjoyable gameplay and humour sprinkled throughout. Thanks for the interesting topic and my apologies for the lengthy comment.
For sure too long. If you're 17 and have nothing better do, okay. But I'm 34, and I just don't have 60 hours to sink into a game. I've started and stopped Witcher 3 like 6 different times because of this. You start playing and then you can't play for maybe a week, come back and forget what you were doing. Now, I specifically only play games that are at most 15 hours. Back in the day, Final Fantasy games used to be considered crazy long, and those mostly went 40-50 hours if you got into the quests. But now it seems like every other title is like 100 hours long to beat. Too much to keep up with.
I've definitely settled on preferring those 10-15hr experiences as I've got older, I cannot commit to one single 100 hour long game anymore. In my youth I could finish that in a week with no sleep and plenty of doritos, not anymore though 🤣
I will never complain about the length of a game ever again. XD I have had those thoughts about whether or not I can complete something in a realistic amount of time or if it'll take me many months but I've never thought about it this way. This is honestly a good take. I've purchased so many things on Steam and haven't even touched them yet (the whole point of my TH-cam channel was to motivate myself to get through them one by one), perhaps one day I'll get there but not anytime soon.
I feel you dude, I have 600+ games on Steam and I dread to think about how many I haven't actually played, it's insane! Buying games is like an addiction, I love getting a new game but I should really start finishing all the ones I already own before spending my money on mooooore games I don't need
Weird back we get some youtubers saying games are too short 4 hrs now we complain they are too long even for me who plays more than 10hrs a day. Yeah we love games we want to play them all and now that we got disposable income it feels great to own the games we want. Now that I have a ps5 I just have to accept the fact that I can't play them all and my backlog is just stacking and will stack more since I want to play the coming next gen games like Valkyrie elysium and FFXVI
This was such a thoughtful video and wow what an eye opener! I never ever thought about it from the perspective of I am privileged but that is exactly the perspective I needed.
So true! We have too many great games now, we have gigantic AAA games, we have relatively short but also great indy games. we have revolutionary VR games, we have racing and flight simulators, we have massive online games.... Yet we have have the best console, the shinny video card, the blazing fast NVME SDD, we have huge LCD..... Also, as an adult, we can totally afford them. Playing video games is not an expensive hobby after all. But, we also have life to live with, we have friends, we have work, we have family..... Love your video, keep up the great work.
Well put - "the privilage"-angle is something we rarely discuss, totally recognise myself. To little time, financially stable, girlfriend, 8 hrs dayjob and freelance in evening, weekends, etc. BUT, I happily move aside for someone less privilaged who only can purchase a game a year and let them have one, really long game thats filled to the brim. If Im tight with time, I use the openworld game to freeroam and make the experience a meditative one hour-trip - Valhallas random encounters are great for these sessions. When I get a bigger ammount of time, thats when I do the storymissions. If I have some advice, it would be to take a pause from buying games if your on the horder-side of the spectrum; there´s an addictive side to it, and the only way to break those is to go cold turkey. Make a full stop, for say 6 months. If the need to buy new games havent lessened somewhat by then, Im the queen of england.
Only just seen this but loved it, also that they is more Devs making way way more games. When I was a kid, they wasn't as many so you had the time to put into whatever game you bought and squeeze every little thing out of it. I work but even my money is finite. My back catalog is insane also
Having too much of something is not good for the soul. I too don't enjoy games like did before. My first thought was that i was getting older. But then i came to a similar conclusion as you. I don't value them as much as i did before. As they are easily reachable now, i don't feel the hunger for them anymore.
I've just bought a gaming pc and I'm in the same situation I've too many games that I can now play: Red dead, assassin's creed, control, half life alyx, star wars squadron, soon Cyberpunk etc . Very difficult to play only one game. Every time I begin a game I want to try the next one...
Perhaps companies should label games with average number of hours to complete to guide consumer purchase decisions? For games that you pay a one time fee, I like long games because for the money I spend I want to get a lot of entertainment out of it. I even like games that I can replay over and over with different scenarios like Civilization or Sim City. Since this game, Assassin's Creed is not a monthly subscription, and you pay a one time fee, I think the longer, the better. Would be awesome if I got 2 months of entertainment out of it for the money. Compared to other entertainment I pay for like Netflix, I want to get several hours per week otherwise I feel like it's not worth the monthly fee. Games are designed for different people, ones with full-time jobs, retired people, and people still in school. This is why it's great that you pay one time fee, and then can spend 30 min. a week progressing or binge through for 2 weeks. I'm saving certain fights and repeating them for fun, so it will take me a lot longer than 40 hours to finish it. Goals are different for people, yours might be to have as much exposure to as many games as possible. But other people like me only buy one game every 6 months like this, since I play many hours a week on a subscription mmorpg with people I know and a community I've been with for many years. For you, 1-time cost games that Companies could label as 10hrs-20hrs to complete would be appealing. For me, I would buy games that say 30days to complete. The key is Labeling average number of hours of immersion you will get, which they don't do now. Marketing doesn't want to tell us because if a game said $60, and you only get 10 hours out of it, I might not personally buy it, unless it received tons of reviews that the game was miraculous or something. So what I would push for is Labeling on the game to help consumers as a buying guide of how many hours it would take to complete the Main story. Of course even a game that was labeled 20 hours, still might take me 2 weeks because I want to collect every wealth and do all the quests. Assasin's Creed Valhalla is my first time trying this series and Ubi software so for me it will also take longer to figure out the mechanics.
I’m grateful that I had the Xbox Series X and PS5 on launch day, as a kid in the 90s I had to wait years until I could afford a PS1. My mum raised 3 kids on her own so I had to combine my birthday and Christmas present to eventually get one. So the kid inside me has to get every console day one now. The adult version of me now would absolutely trade having a PS5 day one so the younger me in the past could get a PS1 on day one, that would have been amazing as a kid!
Excellent analysis and you've made me see it differently. I've put over 100 hours into valhalla. I've enjoyed my time with it but complained a lot throughout the story saying "This should be shorter!" And I'm the same. I'm always buying games in the ps store on sale. Games I probably won't play for long, but just enjoy buying them 🤣
It depends on each individual title. Games quit exciting me as much as they used to. Red Dead 2, Ghost of Tsushima, and Elden Ring are the last ones that kept me fully engaged from start to finish. Aside from those, VR gaming caused a bit of excitement. Unfortunately they never really did too much with it. The Unreal Engine Matrix demo made me interested in the future of console gaming, but we've yet to see it put to good use. I think last gen consoles are holding back progress. Sick of my PS5 being flooded with PS4 titles. The only games I'm looking forward to right now are Wolverine, Spiderman 2, Gotham Knights, and Suicide Squad. Clearly all in the same niche genre. First Person Shooters are all the same, as well as 1vs1 fighters. Too many games are just reskinned copies of other games.
I'm trying to complete this before cyberpunk also. I get a few hours each day after work. Its a great game but I'm definitely rushing the not so interesting quests. I've slept with Petra and now she is just wanting even more of my limited time. She's so needy 😫
At uni I had absolutely no money to buy games. I got a * cough * "free" version of Neverwinter Nights from a friend and played that for my entire stay at uni. I did buy the "real" version years later when I could afford it though. A short game would have become boring real fast. An abridged version sounds like it could be useful to many and I am all about making games accessible to everyone.
I'm up to my neck in games like Half life Alyx I've been putting off because I've been waiting for my Reverb G2 for over 5 months, and like you I need to finish a game if it's good, but I still like it that games can be over 50 hours you get more value for your money.
I think the number of hours are no problem to me .. its more i dont want fillers , i like rockstar gta rdr2 for that its easy to follow and do amazing stuff .. i dont want to grind - i grinded too much on wow when i wad young
Totally valid point, the sidequests and additional content has to be engaging enjoyable and meaningful. If its just a grind then its not worth wasting your precious time with 🤷🏻♂️
It's a tricky situation that really comes down to personal preference and as you say personal circumstances, you could enjoy a game but after 30/40 hours fall out with the repetition of the game so maybe that game was too long for you, yet somebody else could get 100 hours out of same game without ever getting bored, I'm terrible for having too many games, i noticed when sorting out the house just how many switch games I actually own (well over 30 physical games plus at least 10 digital) and I've got about 22 games that I've not started my problem is I like jrpgs (last one I finnished earlier this year was xenoblade 2 over 100 hours) and 10 of my yet to start games are all lengthy jrpgs I fall into the 1 hour free a night due to young kids ,sometimes I get to play for 1 hour at work so maybe 10-15 hours a week, with all that still got 4 new games for Christmas eyed up 🤣
Dude I have about 40 physical switch games and at LEAST 10 of them are still in their wrapper haha! I just can't help myself, I want ALL THE GAMES but I need to teach myself the restraint to not buy them immediately and instead wait until I'm done with the game I'm currently playing
I have a rule 1 game per console. Jump around when board. I also play at least any multiplayer game for I can rest on the story games My consoles are Vita , Ds, Ps5 , Nintendo switch, PS3 , and MacBook with roms. I actually plan to play all the games I own. Now I’m wondering if I should record and post my journey
Game can be open world and rpg but it still dont need to be hundreds hours long with too many repetative side guests and too long and too slowly progressing story. Its not interesting anymore and loses the wow effect and beside nobody has time to put hundreds hours into one game when there Is so many games available and because everyone has responsibilities and other things to do In life. Now days they think longer means better but its not like that at all. Game Is worth of your money and time if its replayable, not boring, story impacts you positively and you can finish them and feel you accomplished and completed something.
Have you considered all the DLC they’ve promised as well for this game ?!! Theyre going to give us Ireland America and France to explore and season pass lol.
I can safley say we buy to much. I have over 2500 physical games form nes,snes, gameboy, super nintendo, n64, game cube, sega, sega cd, sega game gear, playstation, playstation 2, playstation 3, playstation 4, psvr, xbox, xbox 360, xbox one. So yeah we buy to much but at least I have a kick ass collection.🙂 side note: I'm getting the quest 2 for christmas.
I am VERY envious of your collection. I wish more than anything that I had kept all my retro games rather than getting rid of them, I was an absolute fool as I had stuff that is almost impossible to get hold of now
@@BeardoBenjo I have been collecting for 38 years. As a kid I havd to work and pay for my own games, so I never got rid of them after I finished them. So as the years went on my collection grew.
eh, i don't know about this "abridged" solution, all it would do is make a lesser version of the games, a better solution would be have a list of similar games from other studios, and suggest them instead.
I think if a game is to long to review then its really hard to spread the word if it is a good game like the idea of games was normally something we beaten in less then 3 days and returned it back to blockbuster but now that we are in the 2020s its a different story some games can take upto 3 months to beat it 100% wich is pretty crazy then your have the longing wich can take upto 400 days almost 13 months wich is just insane lol
Hey dude! Hope you're well man. I totally get where you're coming from with this. I'm also guilty of buying the latest games, and them letting them sit in my Steam library for months on end! It's our hobby, and it's only natural that we want to have the newest, and latest 'thing' that comes out. Ultimately though, i think that these games with hours and hours of content provide great value for money, especially with the price of games now. I'd feel a little 'ripped off' if i paid £50 - £60 for a game, and completed it within a couple of hours. Personally, i tend not to pay those kinds of prices for games, as i can't really afford it. I usually wait a while, until the price comes down, or the game ends up in a sale. I think it's a good thing that games are giving us more. It means that developers are being a little more considerate when creating these experiences, and realising that they need to provide a rich and full experience for the price that's being asked. I'm one of those gamers that rarely completes a game. I'm always hopping from one game to another, especially when something new comes out. If i'm into a game, and then a new game gets released that i've been waiting for, then i'll just abandon the game i've been playing, buy the new one, and start playing that instead. It's just the way it is with me, i can't dedicate myself to completing one game. It's a curse really, because i'd love to be able to complete some games. I've been really into some, especially story-driven adventure games, and then something else will come out, and my focus will just get lost! I really do wish i could just stick with a game until i completed it. Love your videos dude! You always say it how it is, and i like that. You're a down-to-earth guy, and i agree with your opinions. I'd love to do a video with you one day man! That would be cool af. All the best mate! Take care and stay safe man :-)
@@BeardoBenjo Well..... i have just installed Phasmophobia lol. Not played it yet, but i plan on having a look this afternoon. I want to try Hinge first though. It's gonna be interesting to see how it runs, given what you said. There's just so many titles!! We'll have to have a think mate :-)
I was born in '85. We had more time as kids to play. We also replayed games in our small collection because we couldn't afford more. Renting games or trading with friends was common in the 90s. Fast forward to modern day. We have more games coming out more often. We can afford more. Games are generally bigger and filled with immersive content. We have real life that limits how long we game these days. I used to feel overwhelmed with all the choices but now it doesn't bother me. I can spend an entire day playing modern or retro games, single player or multiplayer. I think younger generations don't know how good some of the older stuff still is. At the same time, I could easily spend an entire year playing just 3 or 4 modern games and I'd have plenty to do. At the end of the day it's all personal preference. If it makes you happy it can't be that bad. ✌
The problem is we get too many games nowadays, you would have to play like half a year non-stop to keep track with the industry. I remember myself butchering fable: the lost chapters as a little girl, I played it so many times I know every character line by heart. For me length is not an issue, I think that's exactly th reason why I love action rpgs so much, because I can easily bond with the character since we spend so much time together. The problem is when the length is artificially amplified by some nonsense side activities (which are not the case in valhalla but they were in odyssey and origins imho). And being privileged...yeah... I had to starve a little bit to buy valhalla but I couldn't resist because I love norse mythology and assassin's creed (pandemic hits hards, I hope I can afford demon souls some time in the future). But will probably starve for cyberpunk anyways xDD
Haha please don't starve!! Pandemic has definitely hit everyone hard, I've been very fortunate to have a job throughout it all so I've just been here buying all the videogames and complaining that they're too long whilst you're starving yourself, that's why I feel like such an asshole for complaining 😂 I do agree with the artificial inflation, sidequests in so many games feel pointless and don't add anything, Valhalla seems to have fixed that though, they're funny and genuinely varied!
![[FULL] RETROSPECTIVE : Final Fantasy Tactics](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/RUBmYqs1jZ0/mqdefault.jpg)
IN CONCLUSION... I need to stop whinging and stop buying so many damn video games! Realistically though? AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!
Yes, I've noticed that too as well.
you are on point
I think you're perfectly right about every side of the situation you exposed. I feel the same because I'm in the same situation as yourself, but like you said others may not have our luck and get to squeeze as much fun as they can from fewer games. But I really think that a 10-20 hours max main storyline should be the standard (depending on the type of game, 10 for action/adventure, 20 for more story/rpg ones) with as much secondary content as you want for those who want/can play it. This way mostly everyone would be happy, rushers as much as squeezers ^^ The fact is that it's not because you can afford to buy many games that you do not care to COMPLETE them. Finishing, winning against a game is part of the pleasure too, and is supposed to be one of the main reasons you play that game. It's frustrating for me sometimes to even start playing a game knowing that I will certainly not finish it because I won't have the time...
@@thelys oh for sure, I think for me the privilege piece is personally my biggest issue, I know I would happily sit and 100% complete all of my games if I had more restraint and didn't buy new ones all the time. The reason I put down a game usually has nothing to do with my enjoyment diminishing, its almost entirely tied to me just wanting to go and play the nice new shiny thing I couldn't help but buy myself 🤣 if I didn't have that new game then I would sit and get the full experience out of all my games, even if that meant playing them over a long period with the limited bursts of gaming dedicated time I have. I had a similar debate with a friend about services like Netflix, I used to love going and buying a DVD when I first had a job & my own income, I'd rush home to watch it and it would get my undivided attention. Now though I'm overwhelmed by choice and often find myself either bouncing from one thing to the next without finishing anything or just not watching anything at all 😅 ultimately choice is the issue, the more I have/we have the harder it is to concentrate on just one thing
I find there to long but I kind of agree that people are poor and kids might not play anything tell they move out but it's normally not the case we bought a new game every six months and I had friends who where more poor then my family and they still bought a new game every year we where all broke as hell so we had to save up for months but yeah I used to bitch that games where to long I wanted to beat them and play them again to master them and move on to the next game but that did not happen because they where to long and other games came out
I agree with a lot of this honestly man. I remember when I was kid and I played the first Red Dead game for 8-10 hours at a time. But nowadays maybe I can squeeze in 2-3 hours. I've got such a backlog of games because I seem to routinely buy games that clock in around 40 hours.
I remember re-playing pokemon games like 10 times because those were the only games I'd have for months. Crazy how this stuff changes as we get older and circumstances change
Oh dude I replayed the Pokemon games ALL THE TIME! I squeezed so much value out of my games when I was a kid but now I'm just like "OH SHIT, I need to buy .... this week" and it ends up going on the shelf with the rest of the games and I end up dropping the one I'm currently playing 😂 I just need to learn a little restraint!
Totally true. Sometimes I felt the same. Even though I’m from Latin America, games there are hell of expensive. Like seriously a new release can cost a week of your salary or even more depending on your income. So getting a game it’s a privilege. Really bro no need to explain better than you. Great review!
Totally agreed,, the problem is that we buy too many games. Never thought it that way. Nice perspective
Thank you 😁 if I had the self control to just buy one game and play it to completion I'm sure I'd savour it much more than I do currently, rushing to try and finish before the next big release
Oh my... I feel you man and understand you 100%. In very very similar situation...
Happy I found you, looking forward to exploring your channel.
Great point to make, I think for the longest time I experienced this and thought I've just finally gotten fed up on games and that's why I feel like they feel too long. But then I played Witcher 3 and realized, it's a great game, I just felt like I didn't have the time and had so many games waiting to be played. Now after covid and all the new free time I have, I just let my library sit there waiting for when I'm ready to take the next game on with no rush :)
I think it really depends on the game genre. I don’t think some game types benefit from being overly long. For example I think a 50-100+ hour survival horror, character action game, or 3D plat-former would suffer from being that long.
I personally don’t tend to love long games but I don’t mind them being in the market. I think people complaining about games being too long were mostly coming from a time in the market where it felt like every game wanted to be 100+ hours long even if made the game worse. We luckily seem to have moved past that and most really long games are in genres where it’s usually expected (open world, RPG, etc).
Game can be open world and rpg but it still dont need to be hundreds hours long with too many repetative side guests and too long and too slowly progressing story. Its not interesting anymore and loses the wow effect and beside nobody has time to put hundreds hours into one game when there Is so many games available and because everyone has responsibilities and other things to do In life.
Now days they think longer means better but its not like that at all.
Game Is worth of your money and time if its replayable, not boring, story impacts you positively and you can finish them and feel you accomplished and completed something.
First off, glad you're enjoying the latest Assassin's Creed so much. It's not my cup-of-tea but nice to see you're having fun.
Secondly, this is a very interesting topic and whilst I feel you raise some good points, I do ultimately disagree with you. Of course, 'too long' will mean different things depending on the person and genre and I do acknowledge too many games as a key issue (I've been trying to cut back; trying to go from 12 games per year to 8 now) but I feel games should be shorter. By shorter though, I do not mean less content though. I feel games should have shorter campaigns with more emphasis on post-game and replay value.
From my perspective, I've almost never completed games and also rarely finish them, but to be fair I've always had access to many games at once thanks to brothers. I loved Turn Based RPGs, but outside of Pokémon, Child of Light, and Mario & Luigi, I've rarely finished them. Length is a big part of it; whilst I'll often love the game, I'll get bored of playing that same game for such a lengthy time. It's comparable to that saying about eating the same meal every night; you'll grow bored of it even if it is still enjoyable (and unfortunately when you return to it, the food has gone rotten so you have to throw it away and cook the meal again; in others words, create a new save file). An then you miss out on the satisfaction of finishing the game.
Another genre I love is fighting games and back in the old days for them, their stories were split up as short 8-fight campaigns per character. By just playing through one character's campaign gave me the satisfaction of finishing the game and seeing the end screen. This ironically would urge me to play through all the other characters, provided I had the time to do so. Whilst not exactly the same sort of thing, I feel this kind of thing should be applied to other games; giving you satisfying ends in a shorter time but encouraging you to replay the game via alternative characters, modes, bonuses, etc. I don't mean as short of course, but if I've been playing a game for over 40 hours, I should at least be near the conclusion.
Now I'm not a fan of open-world games (too directionless for me, and the lack of gating off makes me indecisive about what I should do to get the most meaningful experience within the limited time I have available), which I feel is where your talking point is coming from, so I'm not 100% sure how much my point applies to that. You made a very good point though and explained it terrifically with enjoyable gameplay and humour sprinkled throughout. Thanks for the interesting topic and my apologies for the lengthy comment.
For sure too long. If you're 17 and have nothing better do, okay. But I'm 34, and I just don't have 60 hours to sink into a game. I've started and stopped Witcher 3 like 6 different times because of this. You start playing and then you can't play for maybe a week, come back and forget what you were doing. Now, I specifically only play games that are at most 15 hours. Back in the day, Final Fantasy games used to be considered crazy long, and those mostly went 40-50 hours if you got into the quests. But now it seems like every other title is like 100 hours long to beat. Too much to keep up with.
I've definitely settled on preferring those 10-15hr experiences as I've got older, I cannot commit to one single 100 hour long game anymore. In my youth I could finish that in a week with no sleep and plenty of doritos, not anymore though 🤣
I’ve played 95 hours of AC Valhalla and I’ve still done next to nothing, clearly I love this game.
I will never complain about the length of a game ever again. XD
I have had those thoughts about whether or not I can complete something in a realistic amount of time or if it'll take me many months but I've never thought about it this way.
This is honestly a good take. I've purchased so many things on Steam and haven't even touched them yet (the whole point of my TH-cam channel was to motivate myself to get through them one by one), perhaps one day I'll get there but not anytime soon.
I feel you dude, I have 600+ games on Steam and I dread to think about how many I haven't actually played, it's insane! Buying games is like an addiction, I love getting a new game but I should really start finishing all the ones I already own before spending my money on mooooore games I don't need
Weird back we get some youtubers saying games are too short 4 hrs now we complain they are too long even for me who plays more than 10hrs a day. Yeah we love games we want to play them all and now that we got disposable income it feels great to own the games we want. Now that I have a ps5 I just have to accept the fact that I can't play them all and my backlog is just stacking and will stack more since I want to play the coming next gen games like Valkyrie elysium and FFXVI
This was such a thoughtful video and wow what an eye opener! I never ever thought about it from the perspective of I am privileged but that is exactly the perspective I needed.
So true!
We have too many great games now, we have gigantic AAA games, we have relatively short but also great indy games. we have revolutionary VR games, we have racing and flight simulators, we have massive online games....
Yet we have have the best console, the shinny video card, the blazing fast NVME SDD, we have huge LCD.....
Also, as an adult, we can totally afford them. Playing video games is not an expensive hobby after all.
But, we also have life to live with, we have friends, we have work, we have family.....
Love your video, keep up the great work.
Thank you so much, hopefully one day we'll find the time to play all the incredible games that we want to experience 😁✌🏻
Well put - "the privilage"-angle is something we rarely discuss, totally recognise myself. To little time, financially stable, girlfriend, 8 hrs dayjob and freelance in evening, weekends, etc. BUT, I happily move aside for someone less privilaged who only can purchase a game a year and let them have one, really long game thats filled to the brim. If Im tight with time, I use the openworld game to freeroam and make the experience a meditative one hour-trip - Valhallas random encounters are great for these sessions. When I get a bigger ammount of time, thats when I do the storymissions. If I have some advice, it would be to take a pause from buying games if your on the horder-side of the spectrum; there´s an addictive side to it, and the only way to break those is to go cold turkey. Make a full stop, for say 6 months. If the need to buy new games havent lessened somewhat by then, Im the queen of england.
Only just seen this but loved it, also that they is more Devs making way way more games. When I was a kid, they wasn't as many so you had the time to put into whatever game you bought and squeeze every little thing out of it. I work but even my money is finite. My back catalog is insane also
Having too much of something is not good for the soul. I too don't enjoy games like did before. My first thought was that i was getting older. But then i came to a similar conclusion as you. I don't value them as much as i did before. As they are easily reachable now, i don't feel the hunger for them anymore.
I've just bought a gaming pc and I'm in the same situation I've too many games that I can now play: Red dead, assassin's creed, control, half life alyx, star wars squadron, soon Cyberpunk etc . Very difficult to play only one game. Every time I begin a game I want to try the next one...
Perhaps companies should label games with average number of hours to complete to guide consumer purchase decisions?
For games that you pay a one time fee, I like long games because for the money I spend I want to get a lot of entertainment out of it. I even like games that I can replay over and over with different scenarios like Civilization or Sim City. Since this game, Assassin's Creed is not a monthly subscription, and you pay a one time fee, I think the longer, the better. Would be awesome if I got 2 months of entertainment out of it for the money. Compared to other entertainment I pay for like Netflix, I want to get several hours per week otherwise I feel like it's not worth the monthly fee. Games are designed for different people, ones with full-time jobs, retired people, and people still in school. This is why it's great that you pay one time fee, and then can spend 30 min. a week progressing or binge through for 2 weeks. I'm saving certain fights and repeating them for fun, so it will take me a lot longer than 40 hours to finish it. Goals are different for people, yours might be to have as much exposure to as many games as possible. But other people like me only buy one game every 6 months like this, since I play many hours a week on a subscription mmorpg with people I know and a community I've been with for many years. For you, 1-time cost games that Companies could label as 10hrs-20hrs to complete would be appealing. For me, I would buy games that say 30days to complete. The key is Labeling average number of hours of immersion you will get, which they don't do now. Marketing doesn't want to tell us because if a game said $60, and you only get 10 hours out of it, I might not personally buy it, unless it received tons of reviews that the game was miraculous or something. So what I would push for is Labeling on the game to help consumers as a buying guide of how many hours it would take to complete the Main story. Of course even a game that was labeled 20 hours, still might take me 2 weeks because I want to collect every wealth and do all the quests. Assasin's Creed Valhalla is my first time trying this series and Ubi software so for me it will also take longer to figure out the mechanics.
I’m grateful that I had the Xbox Series X and PS5 on launch day, as a kid in the 90s I had to wait years until I could afford a PS1. My mum raised 3 kids on her own so I had to combine my birthday and Christmas present to eventually get one. So the kid inside me has to get every console day one now.
The adult version of me now would absolutely trade having a PS5 day one so the younger me in the past could get a PS1 on day one, that would have been amazing as a kid!
Excellent analysis and you've made me see it differently. I've put over 100 hours into valhalla. I've enjoyed my time with it but complained a lot throughout the story saying "This should be shorter!"
And I'm the same. I'm always buying games in the ps store on sale. Games I probably won't play for long, but just enjoy buying them 🤣
It depends on each individual title. Games quit exciting me as much as they used to. Red Dead 2, Ghost of Tsushima, and Elden Ring are the last ones that kept me fully engaged from start to finish. Aside from those, VR gaming caused a bit of excitement. Unfortunately they never really did too much with it. The Unreal Engine Matrix demo made me interested in the future of console gaming, but we've yet to see it put to good use. I think last gen consoles are holding back progress. Sick of my PS5 being flooded with PS4 titles. The only games I'm looking forward to right now are Wolverine, Spiderman 2, Gotham Knights, and Suicide Squad. Clearly all in the same niche genre. First Person Shooters are all the same, as well as 1vs1 fighters. Too many games are just reskinned copies of other games.
I'm trying to complete this before cyberpunk also. I get a few hours each day after work. Its a great game but I'm definitely rushing the not so interesting quests. I've slept with Petra and now she is just wanting even more of my limited time. She's so needy 😫
Which one is Petra? I've slept with everyone, my Eivor is living her best life 😂 Randvi is my main girl though, always come home to her!
At uni I had absolutely no money to buy games. I got a * cough * "free" version of Neverwinter Nights from a friend and played that for my entire stay at uni. I did buy the "real" version years later when I could afford it though. A short game would have become boring real fast.
An abridged version sounds like it could be useful to many and I am all about making games accessible to everyone.
I'm up to my neck in games like Half life Alyx I've been putting off because I've been waiting for my Reverb G2 for over 5 months, and like you I need to finish a game if it's good, but I still like it that games can be over 50 hours you get more value for your money.
People who can't afford to buy as many games as you can just pirate them 💁♂ so being privileged is not the case IMHO
I think the number of hours are no problem to me .. its more i dont want fillers , i like rockstar gta rdr2 for that its easy to follow and do amazing stuff .. i dont want to grind - i grinded too much on wow when i wad young
Totally valid point, the sidequests and additional content has to be engaging enjoyable and meaningful. If its just a grind then its not worth wasting your precious time with 🤷🏻♂️
It's a tricky situation that really comes down to personal preference and as you say personal circumstances, you could enjoy a game but after 30/40 hours fall out with the repetition of the game so maybe that game was too long for you, yet somebody else could get 100 hours out of same game without ever getting bored, I'm terrible for having too many games, i noticed when sorting out the house just how many switch games I actually own (well over 30 physical games plus at least 10 digital) and I've got about 22 games that I've not started my problem is I like jrpgs (last one I finnished earlier this year was xenoblade 2 over 100 hours) and 10 of my yet to start games are all lengthy jrpgs I fall into the 1 hour free a night due to young kids ,sometimes I get to play for 1 hour at work so maybe 10-15 hours a week, with all that still got 4 new games for Christmas eyed up 🤣
Dude I have about 40 physical switch games and at LEAST 10 of them are still in their wrapper haha! I just can't help myself, I want ALL THE GAMES but I need to teach myself the restraint to not buy them immediately and instead wait until I'm done with the game I'm currently playing
@@BeardoBenjo only reason I opened all of mine was to redeem the gold points 🤣 one of them had expired though
I have a rule 1 game per console. Jump around when board. I also play at least any multiplayer game for I can rest on the story games
My consoles are
Vita , Ds, Ps5 , Nintendo switch, PS3 , and MacBook with roms. I actually plan to play all the games I own. Now I’m wondering if I should record and post my journey
Game can be open world and rpg but it still dont need to be hundreds hours long with too many repetative side guests and too long and too slowly progressing story. Its not interesting anymore and loses the wow effect and beside nobody has time to put hundreds hours into one game when there Is so many games available and because everyone has responsibilities and other things to do In life.
Now days they think longer means better but its not like that at all.
Game Is worth of your money and time if its replayable, not boring, story impacts you positively and you can finish them and feel you accomplished and completed something.
We buy too many! Fecking Steam I have hundreds of games I've never even played FFS
Haha I have 600+ games on Steam, its absolutely ridiculous!!!
I have actual 2 years real time in World Of Warcraft... is that considered too long? ;)
Have you considered all the DLC they’ve promised as well for this game ?!! Theyre going to give us Ireland America and France to explore and season pass lol.
Both!
I can safley say we buy to much. I have over 2500 physical games form nes,snes, gameboy, super nintendo, n64, game cube, sega, sega cd, sega game gear, playstation, playstation 2, playstation 3, playstation 4, psvr, xbox, xbox 360, xbox one. So yeah we buy to much but at least I have a kick ass collection.🙂 side note: I'm getting the quest 2 for christmas.
I am VERY envious of your collection. I wish more than anything that I had kept all my retro games rather than getting rid of them, I was an absolute fool as I had stuff that is almost impossible to get hold of now
@@BeardoBenjo I have been collecting for 38 years. As a kid I havd to work and pay for my own games, so I never got rid of them after I finished them. So as the years went on my collection grew.
eh, i don't know about this "abridged" solution, all it would do is make a lesser version of the games, a better solution would be have a list of similar games from other studios, and suggest them instead.
I think if a game is to long to review then its really hard to spread the word if it is a good game like the idea of games was normally something we beaten in less then 3 days and returned it back to blockbuster but now that we are in the 2020s its a different story some games can take upto 3 months to beat it 100% wich is pretty crazy then your have the longing wich can take upto 400 days almost 13 months wich is just insane lol
Play Stephen’s Sausage Roll, it will make you enjoy games again.
They are just way too long when they dont have to be
If the games good it's never long enough 😎
Hey dude! Hope you're well man. I totally get where you're coming from with this. I'm also guilty of buying the latest games, and them letting them sit in my Steam library for months on end! It's our hobby, and it's only natural that we want to have the newest, and latest 'thing' that comes out. Ultimately though, i think that these games with hours and hours of content provide great value for money, especially with the price of games now. I'd feel a little 'ripped off' if i paid £50 - £60 for a game, and completed it within a couple of hours. Personally, i tend not to pay those kinds of prices for games, as i can't really afford it. I usually wait a while, until the price comes down, or the game ends up in a sale.
I think it's a good thing that games are giving us more. It means that developers are being a little more considerate when creating these experiences, and realising that they need to provide a rich and full experience for the price that's being asked.
I'm one of those gamers that rarely completes a game. I'm always hopping from one game to another, especially when something new comes out. If i'm into a game, and then a new game gets released that i've been waiting for, then i'll just abandon the game i've been playing, buy the new one, and start playing that instead. It's just the way it is with me, i can't dedicate myself to completing one game. It's a curse really, because i'd love to be able to complete some games. I've been really into some, especially story-driven adventure games, and then something else will come out, and my focus will just get lost! I really do wish i could just stick with a game until i completed it.
Love your videos dude! You always say it how it is, and i like that. You're a down-to-earth guy, and i agree with your opinions. I'd love to do a video with you one day man! That would be cool af.
All the best mate! Take care and stay safe man :-)
Aye we should definitely do a video at some point!!! What the hell could we do... 🤔
@@BeardoBenjo Well..... i have just installed Phasmophobia lol. Not played it yet, but i plan on having a look this afternoon. I want to try Hinge first though. It's gonna be interesting to see how it runs, given what you said. There's just so many titles!! We'll have to have a think mate :-)
I was born in '85. We had more time as kids to play. We also replayed games in our small collection because we couldn't afford more. Renting games or trading with friends was common in the 90s.
Fast forward to modern day. We have more games coming out more often. We can afford more. Games are generally bigger and filled with immersive content. We have real life that limits how long we game these days.
I used to feel overwhelmed with all the choices but now it doesn't bother me. I can spend an entire day playing modern or retro games, single player or multiplayer.
I think younger generations don't know how good some of the older stuff still is. At the same time, I could easily spend an entire year playing just 3 or 4 modern games and I'd have plenty to do.
At the end of the day it's all personal preference. If it makes you happy it can't be that bad. ✌
The problem is we get too many games nowadays, you would have to play like half a year non-stop to keep track with the industry. I remember myself butchering fable: the lost chapters as a little girl, I played it so many times I know every character line by heart. For me length is not an issue, I think that's exactly th reason why I love action rpgs so much, because I can easily bond with the character since we spend so much time together. The problem is when the length is artificially amplified by some nonsense side activities (which are not the case in valhalla but they were in odyssey and origins imho). And being privileged...yeah... I had to starve a little bit to buy valhalla but I couldn't resist because I love norse mythology and assassin's creed (pandemic hits hards, I hope I can afford demon souls some time in the future). But will probably starve for cyberpunk anyways xDD
Haha please don't starve!! Pandemic has definitely hit everyone hard, I've been very fortunate to have a job throughout it all so I've just been here buying all the videogames and complaining that they're too long whilst you're starving yourself, that's why I feel like such an asshole for complaining 😂 I do agree with the artificial inflation, sidequests in so many games feel pointless and don't add anything, Valhalla seems to have fixed that though, they're funny and genuinely varied!
Assassin's creed valhalla.. cyberpunk and watch dogs oh my!
It's just too much!!!!
No such thing as to long!
Cool
Yes! ;)