Widescreen Gaming Forum

Such a thing? I often find my self searching for how long it takes to complete a game before actually playing it, so that I know what im getting my self into. Would be a great resource.

That'd be cool, actually.

Could have 'average' 'manufacturers average' and 'minimum'. ;)

(Like... Morrowind has how many hours of gamplay in it... but it's actually possible to finish it in something stupid like 7 minutes...)

I like the idea, the only problem that I can see is that a game that someone needs (not wants) 20 hours to finish it, someone else might take half that time.
But very good idea.
Perhaps if ALSO people could vote for how many hours it took them.

I have found that games that state 20 hours I complete in 12. Those that say 50 I complete in 100.

So we have some form of quadratic equation. 8)

I usually get that info from a game's dedicated forum and/or the deveopler's overview. Since I never preorder or pay full price, I can get a lot of input from those whom have bought it before I buy. I know what you mean by wanting to know what you're getting into, esp if you don't play mp anymore like myself. I can't see paying more than $35 for a short sp game. They often aren't patched properly until several months after release anyway, if at all.

It generally depends on the type of game, how high tech the graphics are, and when it was released. The trend has been for some time that the devs put lots of effort into the engine and graphics, leaving little project time to give them an intricate story or long and non linear gameplay. It's common a lot of games now reuse maps for certain levels. Shooters can range from 6 to 12 hours anymore. It seems like 9 hrs is about average for a shooter with high end graphics anymore.

I remember when FEAR came out I was upset that it was only about 10 hrs ave gameplay. By today's standards that's actually fairly long for a modern shooter with state of the art graphics. The real value seems to be in RPG games that have expansive maps, intricate stories, and sandbox gameplay with numerous character interaction and quest options.

Too bad I'm not a big fan of melee and magic based role playing games. It would be nice if there were some good RPG/FPS hybrids, but most that have been made with that in mind aren't very good. I can't think of many PC games coming out that would be considered RPG/FPS hybrids, Far Cry 2 comes to mind. As far as I know there's no word on it's estimated play time yet.

I mostly play strategy and wargames so I don't have a problem with game length or replayability, which is very high for both. I find it unfortunate that most of the focus of new games, especially FPS is on the online part and not the single player.
What is good is when FPS games have some reasons to make you want to play the game again, or other options.
That's why my favourite single player FPS is Rainbow Six Vegas. The campaign, on realistic, is quite long, you can play it with different weapons and thus tactics, and it has a Skirmish mode! (Terrorist Hunt). I found that the most cool aspect. The sequel is out next month and I just hope they release it Hor+. Oh, and it will have very slight RPG elements with character development if that's what you want.

What I do is to avoid buying any games that are both full priced and short in length. The only way for companies to learn is to vote with your wallet.

Max Payne 2 was the biggest disappointment for me in the 'game length' category - OK, so I got it cheap from a friend who worked in Game... but even so, I completed it in under six hours, the day I got it.

That'd be cool, actually.

Could have 'average' 'manufacturers average' and 'minimum'. ;)

(Like... Morrowind has how many hours of gamplay in it... but it's actually possible to finish it in something stupid like 7 minutes...)

Yeah, it's amusing how some games more than likely take longer to install than to do a speedrun through them... (I haven't played Stalker yet, but a 17-min speedrun isn't what I was expecting... Then again, a speedrun of Quake almost takes you back in time...)

The value of a game can certainly make gametime seem longer, though. I personally really liked Prey. I have only played through it twice, though, in separate sessions a complete year apart. Thing is, apparently I liked the game so much that in the second play-through (a complete year later), NOTHING was new... I was expecting each area, and knew immediately what to do...

Thing I found most interesting was that the game seemed extra long to me... But, according to my gamesaves, my first time took 7.5 hours, and the second time only took 5 hrs... (the 7.5 hr run the first time, I had more than a few sections where I didn't know what to do...)

The game certainly feels much, much longer than that, though...

Maybe it felt so much longer because it seemed intense, so I played it in short spurts of maybe 30 min each...