Your video game hot take(s) thread

[Dirty Hipsters]

This is what gamers want, by and large. They want a game that will give them 100s of hours of content, and that's the metric they judge them by. You see the hrs./$ evaluation everywhere and a AAA game that's under 20 hours would get raked over the coals. Ironically, most people also don't finish games.

Personally, I'd rather play a 10 hour game that's phenomenal than a 100 hour game that's pretty good with a lot of 'meh' bits.

Same.

I actually view a long game length as mostly a negative these days, especially for open world games and RPGs. Most of them just don't have worlds interesting enough to justify spending 80+ hours in them.

Something like Metaphor ReFantazio sounds cool, but I just can't bring myself to invest another 90 hours into yet another JRPG. I'd much rather play a tight 30 hour RPG instead.

A game having a lot of optional side content has also started to be very unappealing to me. I don't want extra content just for the purpose of extra content. If the content is good add it to the main game and pace the story accordingly. If it's not good or compelling enough to be in the main game then why is it even here fucking up the pacing?

 

[Casual Shinji]

Same.

I actually view a long game length as mostly a negative these days, especially for open world games and RPGs. Most of them just don't have worlds interesting enough to justify spending 80+ hours in them.

Something like Metaphor ReFantazio sounds cool, but I just can't bring myself to invest another 90 hours into yet another JRPG. I'd much rather play a tight 30 hour RPG instead.

A game having a lot of optional side content has also started to be very unappealing to me. I don't want extra content just for the purpose of extra content. If the content is good add it to the main game and pace the story accordingly. If it's not good or compelling enough to be in the main game then why is it even here fucking up the pacing?

That's that pendulum for ya. Now games are considered too long, eventhough the length of games currently is a response to complaints during the PS3/360 era that games were too short. Also, back then you had an online multiplayer component, which while usually considered forced did take the load off of the singleplayer to provide 'bang for your buck'. It's why we could have games like Uncharted and The Last of Us be a clean 10 hours.

I don't mind very long games (eventhough I rarely finish them), it's when a game tries to be the everything-game that bloat really starts to fester. Baldur's Gate 3 is one of the longest games I've ever encountered, and after 500 hours I still can't get enough. But games God of War: Ragnarok and Horizon: Forbidden West, though shorter, feel like so much more of a slog to get through, because they have to be everything; They have to be action, RPG, open-world (or semi open-world) , cinematic, performance captured, crafting mechanics, upgrade mechanics, somekind of card or chess game (thanks for that one CD Project) etc.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Seems like another instance of how niche-ified and stranded gaming has become. We are all so happy to expound the virtues of short games while big games keep selling. And when it's pointed out how popular these big games are, the instinct among some of the hardcore gamers is to look down upon those casual gamers who just like having a comfortable thing to come back to over the course of a few weeks.

What's made this all funny to me is how popular jRPGs were this year- a genre getting critical acclaim AND can credibly accused of being way too damn long in a lot of those games.

 

[BrawlMan]

eventhough the length of games currently is a response to complaints during the PS3/360 era that games were too short. Also, back then you had an online multiplayer component, which while usually considered forced did take the load off of the singleplayer to provide 'bang for your buck'. It's why we could have games like Uncharted and The Last of Us be a clean 10 hours.

The problem with multiplayer in most of those 7th generations games weren't even good or actually hurt the single player, because those modes with take time away to polish them. Another big negative is most of these online multiplayer modes you can't even play anymore either because the servers are down, the game is no longer on digital stores (MS purging the 360/XBLA store), or no ones bother with the multiplayer anymore, if there's even a PC version.

It's funny how certain critics and people complained about 7th gen games being "too short" when there plenty of games without multiplayer or not emphasized as much that gave the customers plenty of time.

• Bayonetta
• Dante's Inferno
• Bioshock Trilogy
• Singularity
• Resident Evil 5
• Shadows of the Damned
• Vanquish
• Bulletstorm
• Devil May Cry 4 & DmC (2013)
• Metal Gear Rising
• The Darkness I & II
• Ninja Gaiden II
• Lost Planet 1 & 2
• Space Marine
• God of War III & Ascension
• Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Remake
• Burnout Revenge
• Burnout Paradise
• Midnight Club 3
• Sainsts Row 2 & 3
• Killer Is Dead
• Lollipop Chainsaw
• Marlow Briggs
• MadWorld
• No More Heroes 1 & 2
• Dead Space 1 & 2
• Dead Rising 1 & 2
• Almost any 1st party title on the Wii.

Funny how these games I mentioned have aged better than all of those shooters trying to copy Gears or COD verbatim with nothing to show for it and shoe-in online multiplayer. I blame the critics and certain gamers (casuals share the blame too)/"HARDCORE GAMERZ" for their constant bitching and not appreciating what was given to them. The developers too who went way overboard I blame too, but it's a case of them responding and trying to please "everyone". Once again, a systematic issue too.

We are all so happy to expound the virtues of short games while big games keep selling.

There are plenty of short games that either keep selling as well as the big games or do even better than the big games. I always advocated for shorter games, even back during the PS1 and PS2 days.

What's made this all funny to me is how popular jRPGs were this year- a genre getting critical acclaim AND can credibly accused of being way too damn long in a lot of those games.

I never cared much for long RPGs, even when I had more free time. Some of my favorite RPGs are games you can beat between 15-20 hours. I prefer those than some grand 50-100+ hour RPG or open world sandbox game.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Seems like another instance of how niche-ified and stranded gaming has become. We are all so happy to expound the virtues of short games while big games keep selling. And when it's pointed out how popular these big games are, the instinct among some of the hardcore gamers is to look down upon those casual gamers who just like having a comfortable thing to come back to over the course of a few weeks.

What's made this all funny to me is how popular jRPGs were this year- a genre getting critical acclaim AND can credibly accused of being way too damn long in a lot of those games.

I don't look down on the people who like big games. I understand that a lot of people can only afford a few games a year and would rather buy something that will fill a significant portion of their time.

I personally have more disposable income to spend on games, and don't mind shelling more dollars per hour if I'm getting interesting experiences out of it. That doesn't mean that people who like grinding through long games as wrong.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

There’s also a matter of how much time people have for games, period. So it kinda ties into bang for buck, not just on length but on quality. It varies based on tastes in genre, but say if someone only plays two or three games per year, they will likely lean towards the once or twice a generation, exceptional single player experiences vs stuff that’s churned out every other year. On the flip side, they might be the type to only buy yearly sports game or the latest CoD.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Symphony of the Night would be the best Castlevania game if Inverted Castle didn't exist. It loses at least two points on a 10-point scale just from that.

 

[BrawlMan]

Symphony of the Night would be the best Castlevania game if Inverted Castle didn't exist. It loses at least two points on a 10-point scale just from that.

Thank you. It's why I never bother to replay the game, and rather just stick with the Classicvanias or play a Metroidvania with a much better end game that doesn't extend it's runtime in such a lazy manner.

Castlevania Bloodlines will always be the best Castlevania for me.

 

[Ezekiel]

I looked at my Steam wishlist during the store-wide sale last week, saw The Messenger, knew that it was probably good, but couldn't not see that it's a Ninja Gaiden (1988) imitation mixed with Super Metroid exploration, in low effort pixel perfect graphics. Music obviously isn't gonna be as good as Ninja Gaiden. Games then were scored by outsiders, professionals, not the players. Cheap imitation is so prevalent in indie games. It's a different side of the same coin that we're dealt by cowardly AAA publishers. The indie devs that have real creative passion are so rare that it barely depends. Ended up buying nothing, again.

 

[ExtraWildGames]

Never played SOTN. Is renavigating the castle that much of a pain in the ass? I def heard that critique from others.

 

[BrawlMan]

Never played SOTN. Is renavigating the castle that much of a pain in the ass? I def heard that critique from others.

Yes, even when you know what you're doing and know exactly where you need to go.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Never played SOTN. Is renavigating the castle that much of a pain in the ass? I def heard that critique from others.

Put simply, the maps aren't at all designed to be navigated upside down, and the game expects you to essentially just use the bat form to fly everywhere to get through it.* Problem is, the bat form costs mana to maintain, and mana recharges pretty slowly, so you have to either take long breaks in between flying up vertical passages, or buy a lot of mana prisms from the shop and not much else. And there are no new story beats until you reach the final boss, either, so there's nothing to break up or contextualize the part where you wander around the castle looking for the specific bosses that open up the final boss's gate.

It doesn't even have new music for each area, or use the original (extremely good) music. Instead it just plays one of two songs for each area, and they get old long before you'll face Dracula.

*I'm aware that the Gravity Boots exist, but when I played it I didn't know how to use them because the game doesn't bother to tell you anywhere that I know of, including the manual.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

I never completed the upside down map. I think my % was at 197.something. Might still have it saved somewhere on a virtual card on the PS3 port.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Been wondering why Wukong Black Myth feels unsatisfying to play despite hearing nowt but praise, and hey would you look at that there's a legit issue with how it processes performance mode. I'm not crazy in this one brief moment at least!
- have to savour rarely confirmed glimpse of lucidity -

Black Myth: Wukong Is Eating Your Inputs on PS5, and It's a Problem with Performance Mode

What's in a frame

www.pushsquare.com

 

[Gergar12]

We can have nothing good in this world, can we? As long as private equity and large investors exist, there is always the push to squeeze and squeeze without adding more. Just the other fucking day without telling anyone. Bethesida released yet another stealth update, and by stealth, I mean they flew a stealthy jet and bombed what remains of Skyrim's SE modding community. They literally somehow destroyed my remaining 1.597 modlist.

There are mods that can ONLY be downloaded with Skyrim 1.597. Microsoft shouldn't have been allowed to buy Bethesida; fuck them both.

 

[Gordon_4]

We can have nothing good in this world, can we? As long as private equity and large investors exist, there is always the push to squeeze and squeeze without adding more. Just the other fucking day without telling anyone. Bethesida released yet another stealth update, and by stealth, I mean they flew a stealthy jet and bombed what remains of Skyrim's SE modding community. They literally somehow destroyed my remaining 1.597 modlist.

There are mods that can ONLY be downloaded with Skyrim 1.597. Microsoft shouldn't have been allowed to buy Bethesida; fuck them both.

Hotfix Patch breaks mods for Bethesda game. In other news, water is wet.

 

[Gergar12]

Hotfix Patch breaks mods for Bethesda game. In other news, water is wet.

It's a creation kit patch, and Bethesda can't fix the game. Modders do.

 

[BrawlMan]

All in-house Bethesda games are boring. Even the "good ones".

 

[Gergar12]

All in-house Bethesda games are boring. Even the "good ones".

That's why you mod them.

 

[BrawlMan]

That's why you mod them.

Not worth this man's time nor effort.