Why I'm Not Playing Mass Effect 2
- Thread starter John Funk
- Start date
I'm not playing it because I want to finish dragon age, STALKER: Clear sky and then replay Mass effect before I play two.John Funk said:
I'm not playing ME2 because the first one just did not get me psyched in any way. Don't get me wrong it was good i beat it and then sold it end of story. It just didn't grab me. I felt it was too convoluted and I completetly forgot what happened until i read up on it again after all the hype of the new one. Plus ever since i bought my new PS3 slim i just feel the xbox is out dated bloated machine... but thats a whole different thread. Flame shield engaged.
Sometimes plays games like L4D2 are better than playing epic length ones because all you have to do is turn on the console or computer and play. There might be a single player with somewhat of a story, but it's mostly about the action.
I'd say the length is one of the reasons why I don't play RPGs. It's not that I don't enjoy playing them, but when I can't get past an area, I stop playing. A couple months later I'd try again, but by then I'll have forgotten the plot and my current objective. I did it with Zelda, Breath of Fire 3, Quest 64, Star Ocean, and Half Life 2. I only finished Zelda and HL2. Fallout 3 has been the only exception.
I'd say the length is one of the reasons why I don't play RPGs. It's not that I don't enjoy playing them, but when I can't get past an area, I stop playing. A couple months later I'd try again, but by then I'll have forgotten the plot and my current objective. I did it with Zelda, Breath of Fire 3, Quest 64, Star Ocean, and Half Life 2. I only finished Zelda and HL2. Fallout 3 has been the only exception.
I'm assuming you don't watch tv either cause its just no fun following a story from week to week.John Funk said:
I don't know what you heard about ME2 but gameplay is broken up into 30 mins to an hour chunks, even punctuated by a mission summary report at the end. If you can't manage to fit 30 mins a night of mostly instantly gratifying pick up combat you are psychologically predisposed to then you don't have a time lack problem, you have a time management problem which is totally fixable.
Wow, this sums up what I've been thinking for a long time now.
I mean, I actually managed to get affected by the ME2 hype to the point that I actually decided to finally try ME1. Granted, it was fun, and I already read a thousand time how you could technically breeze through the main plot in 10 hours... but when I play an RPG, I want to get the sidequests, because not doing those would mean purposely ignoring content I've paid money for. Many of the sidequests were fun, too, but the game lost more and more momentum... and in the end I didn't even finish it because the experience had grown stale for me and finishing the story didn't hold any appeal for me anymore.
Now that I have less free time on my hands I feel quite comfortable with games that have an average duration of 8 to 15 hours; the plots usually have just the right amount of density and proper pacing to keep things interesting for me, and I can actually finish them on a free weekend which makes a rental viable.
I mean, I actually managed to get affected by the ME2 hype to the point that I actually decided to finally try ME1. Granted, it was fun, and I already read a thousand time how you could technically breeze through the main plot in 10 hours... but when I play an RPG, I want to get the sidequests, because not doing those would mean purposely ignoring content I've paid money for. Many of the sidequests were fun, too, but the game lost more and more momentum... and in the end I didn't even finish it because the experience had grown stale for me and finishing the story didn't hold any appeal for me anymore.
Now that I have less free time on my hands I feel quite comfortable with games that have an average duration of 8 to 15 hours; the plots usually have just the right amount of density and proper pacing to keep things interesting for me, and I can actually finish them on a free weekend which makes a rental viable.
I'm totally with you, John.
I bought both Fallout 3 and Dragon Age: Origins on release day. Both special editions. I absolutely loved them.
For about 12 hours each.
I just didn't have time to keep going. Life would intrude, I wouldn't get back to it for another week, and then I had been away for so long that I had forgotten what I was doing.
Playing a story-driven RPG takes a lot of investment. You have to know the story and what you are trying to achieve, you have to know how you've been molding your character, and you have to spend dozen of hours to get through all of the content. There's a lot of fun to be had, but it's going to take a long time to get squeeze it all out.
The problem for me is that I can't dedicate enough consecutive time to those kinds of games. I can spend an hour or two on Team Fortress 2 or Modern Warfare 2 and have a great time, and if I don't get back to it for a week, I'm not missing anything. But you can't do much in an RPG in an hour, and if it's been a week since you last played, it will take you an hour just to get back into the game.
Every now and then I can devote some time to games. I played Machinarium straight-through and finished it in 8 hours. Same thing with Portal and both Penny Arcade games. I loved every minute of them. If a new game comes out, I can generally devote about 12 hours to it over a few days, but after that, I need to start spending time on the rest of my life.
For kids, and even college students, long games can be great. But for us adults, shorter games would be a lot more practical. That's why I never got to finish the original Mass Effect and why I don't plan on buying the next one.
I bought both Fallout 3 and Dragon Age: Origins on release day. Both special editions. I absolutely loved them.
For about 12 hours each.
I just didn't have time to keep going. Life would intrude, I wouldn't get back to it for another week, and then I had been away for so long that I had forgotten what I was doing.
Playing a story-driven RPG takes a lot of investment. You have to know the story and what you are trying to achieve, you have to know how you've been molding your character, and you have to spend dozen of hours to get through all of the content. There's a lot of fun to be had, but it's going to take a long time to get squeeze it all out.
The problem for me is that I can't dedicate enough consecutive time to those kinds of games. I can spend an hour or two on Team Fortress 2 or Modern Warfare 2 and have a great time, and if I don't get back to it for a week, I'm not missing anything. But you can't do much in an RPG in an hour, and if it's been a week since you last played, it will take you an hour just to get back into the game.
Every now and then I can devote some time to games. I played Machinarium straight-through and finished it in 8 hours. Same thing with Portal and both Penny Arcade games. I loved every minute of them. If a new game comes out, I can generally devote about 12 hours to it over a few days, but after that, I need to start spending time on the rest of my life.
For kids, and even college students, long games can be great. But for us adults, shorter games would be a lot more practical. That's why I never got to finish the original Mass Effect and why I don't plan on buying the next one.
Analytically, it seems ridiculous to call a game too in-depth or too long.
On the other hand i have to agree. Fallout 3 was about as long as I was willing to put up with.
On the other hand i have to agree. Fallout 3 was about as long as I was willing to put up with.
Sadly, I'm having the same problem with ME2. I pre-ordered it and have so far only logged about 7 hours. I need to start looking into more simple games with shorter stories, I suppose. Especially on the PC.
I will say why i will never play ME1, ME2 or Dragon Age:
because they are all in 3rd person!
I cannot enjoy anything thats 'meant' to have a good storyline in 3rd person. I don't care about gameplay, I'm in it for the story. And for me the story is best told through a characters eyes, not a few feet above/behind them.
because they are all in 3rd person!
I cannot enjoy anything thats 'meant' to have a good storyline in 3rd person. I don't care about gameplay, I'm in it for the story. And for me the story is best told through a characters eyes, not a few feet above/behind them.
To me, a good game is like a good book. I like a lengthy story I can get interested in. It keeps me playing, not just because I find the game fun, but because I want to find out what happens next. And I feel a little guilty when I never finish a game because I never find out how the story ends, unless I look it up online.
The games with dull or non-existant storylines cause me to lose interest quickly. I played Left 4 Dead for maybe a week before getting bored. Same with Borderlands. While those games are great to play with friends, they're pretty boring solo.
That said, I'm enjoying the hell out of Mass Effect 2 and I'm going to be very sad when I'm finished.
The games with dull or non-existant storylines cause me to lose interest quickly. I played Left 4 Dead for maybe a week before getting bored. Same with Borderlands. While those games are great to play with friends, they're pretty boring solo.
That said, I'm enjoying the hell out of Mass Effect 2 and I'm going to be very sad when I'm finished.
well i am playing dragon age and i think i am going to finish it in 40 hours but if you just did the very main quest you might be able to get done a bit faster.
that being said i am loving this game an i am looking forward to my second play through and the expansion
that being said i am loving this game an i am looking forward to my second play through and the expansion
I think for me, the fact that the substories and side quests break down into manageable segments makes the longer games work well for me. I don't have to spend days on end; I can get a quest done after work and then I've finished the whole epic storyline whenever I get there. Maybe it's just a different mindset, but I love immersing myself in the whole experience.
This sort of time burglary makes me value my limited days as a mere high school student. Granted, even with a part-time job, I still plugged about 30 hours in ME2 before I beat it (though it was state testing week, and I had quite a bit of free time).dagens24 said:
Makes me wonder why I spent the same money on, say, the Halo games, which took me about 20% of that time to complete than either Mass Effect to date. Ironically, I've gotten the most replay value out of the least expensive games. The old Pokemon games? I played the shit out of those, and they were maybe thirty bucks a pop? Oblivion? Got it used for around $20; NASA is still working on how long I played that game for.
i'm fairly sure i haven't done any sidequests, and i think i've sunk about 20 hours into the game, and it doesn't look like it's gonna spring an ending on me any time soon.Onyx Oblivion said:
though i haven't finished it... frankly compared to kotor i find the story boring. maybe thats the star wars fan shining through though. I felt more pull to finish Torchlight, with it's terrible story, because at least the gameplay was fun.
Though i really enjoyed fighting people on KOTOR so maybe i'd enjoy DA:O more, but then again, i feel i should finish ME before starting that...
and that after christmas i don't have the money left to buy a £30 game... whilst i may get more use out of it, it's a lot harder justifying a hit to my bank balance of £2 a pop buying discount steam games, then never playing them
games i also feel i must finish before buying DA... freedom force 1+2, defence grid: awakening, bioshock, ben there dan that + sequel, GTA 4, dead space, jade empire, darwinia, kings bounty, osmos, STALKER shadow of chernobyl, trials 2, the witcher, zombie driver, zombie shooter 2, borderlands, all the unreal torunament / unreal games and max payne 2 (though i'm quite far through that one)... hell since i got these in the jan sales i've only beaten Max payne 1 and psychonauts...
knowing prog rock... you could be surprised.John Funk said:Gee, I didn't know Led Zeppelin required 30+ hours of commitment to listen to. You have opened my eyesByers said: