this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2025
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[–] buckykat@hexbear.net 19 points 2 days ago

I think game reviewers have a tendency to complain about long games because they are under pressure to finish a game in a week so they can put out a review, which gives them a distorted idea of how long games should be.

On the other hand, my personal favorite type of game is the thousand hour sandbox

[–] DefinitelyNotAPhone@hexbear.net 22 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Ironically not watching the video because it's too long, but a large part of the reason why a lot of games are bad is because they're too long. Or, more specifically, because the developers choose to pad out the playtimes with meaningless sidequests, enormous (and completely empty) open worlds, collectathons that give your character an extra outfit if you find all 4900 of the shiny rocks the developers had some algorithm autopopulate the world with, and basically every other AAA trope that doesn't involve well-polished, purposeful gameplay or story.

And they do this because the industry has repeatedly doubled down on "more content == better" dollar-per-hour metrics. There are plenty of games out there that actually take 120 hours to beat (looking at you, Persona) that are legitimately great games because they fill those hours with engaging storylines, characters, and mechanics (some grinding aside).

[–] DeathToBritain@hexbear.net 6 points 2 days ago

I love the Yakuza games, but alllll that mini game shit and 100 side quests that are mostly boring is an annoyance of mine. I will just play the main story in Yakuza, look up some top 10 side quest list and do those, and I am done with the game in like 20-30 hours. no I will not get Haruka to level 10 affection by playing skee ball 100 times or eat every menu item at every restraunt

[–] Des@hexbear.net 24 points 2 days ago (2 children)

watched the vid, then looked to see what recommended populated on the right

using FreeTube with Invidious and there's no youtube account associated with it

and after a few related videos on the recommended, which is just the pure algorithm, is just an endless stream of right wing shit. some related to gaming, then just chud news

[–] doublepepperoni@hexbear.net 15 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I randomly decided to try creating a new Youtube account yesterday just to see if I'd get asked to cough up a phone number. I didn't which was interesting.

Anyway, the recommended videos were Asmongold's Trump inauguration coverage and some chud shit about woke whatever. Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and now Tiktok are all so, so cooked

[–] Des@hexbear.net 5 points 2 days ago

that's exactly what i got as well!! literally same vids

[–] crime@hexbear.net 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Several years ago I remember hearing from a comrade that youtube's upper management is full of ideological fascists, so that sort of thing never surprises me even though it's always horrifying

[–] Gorb@hexbear.net 11 points 2 days ago

Thats basically any upper management anywhere will always be the worst humanity has to offer

[–] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 23 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I'm gonna comment without watching because of the Orwellian conditions of the workplace

There was a time where I started NG+ on games only to immediately give up on it because it starts with a 2 hour slog of handholding and cutscenes, now just the idea of going through some of these games, even if I liked them, feels ridiculous. Big games somehow manage to be constrained for narrative purposes but are terribly paced because there's 40 hours of unsatisfying fluff between the "real" part of the game.

[–] FourteenEyes@hexbear.net 21 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Exactly. There's a reason there's like a dozen "alternate start" mods for Skyrim but most people just play New Vegas with mods that improve the graphics and keep the game stable, if any. Starting a new game in New Vegas takes like five minutes. In Skyrim it takes like 45.

[–] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I think since Skyrim is so open and the main quest is so optional, a new playthrough feels fresh enough to brave the long ass intro, as opposed to feeling like a checklist like some games (even though, annoyingly, it mostly is)

[–] Parzivus@hexbear.net 17 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I recently played Armored Core 6 and really liked it, fantastic game, but damn if I wouldn't have enjoyed it more if it was like 20% shorter. I appreciate people wanting their money's worth but it is tiring to finish a modern AAA game.

[–] HoiPolloi@hexbear.net 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Oddly enough, I've been playing it too, and I thought it was about right. I even felt it that a nice change from padded out games. I suppose every has a different idea of too long.

[–] Parzivus@hexbear.net 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It was starting to drag a little by NG++. I think taking a short break between each of the three playthroughs might have been a good idea.

[–] Gorb@hexbear.net 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Yeah by the final ending I was ready to get it over with, the Nier games are kinda like that but its not length more the repeating of the same content. If there were more unique missions in the varying timelines it would have been more palatable

[–] RION@hexbear.net 13 points 2 days ago (5 children)

Didn't watch, will comment anyway gigachad-hd

Elden Ring is a great game but it's 10-20% too long

[–] Esoteir@hexbear.net 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

for me it's the open world stuff that makes elden ring feel really long. dark souls 2 is a longer game but it feels more fresh because im walking through creepy castles instead of doing imprecise platforming on a goat to pick up my 537th Golden Rune [1] because idk if the white spark i saw on that cliffside is something cool or something lame

actually just saw this mod that removes the open world and makes it just a legacy dungeon game ong gonna try this for my next playthrough jevil-bounce

https://www.nexusmods.com/eldenring/mods/6981

[–] RION@hexbear.net 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

dark souls 2 enjoyers xigma-male

i disagree on DS2 being longer. Maybe that's just because I've played it so much that I can knock out a run pretty quick but even still it's a fraction of the size

[–] Esoteir@hexbear.net 2 points 2 days ago

yeah fair, I was thinking more of like just the meaningful legacy dungeon content, huge swaths of elden ring playtime is travel time

[–] peppersky@hexbear.net 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Elden Ring is a great game but it's 10-20% too long

Wrong. Elden Rings greatness comes from those moments during your first playthrough when you have no idea where the borders of that game world is. Where you truly feel lost because you have no idea where you are. Is the mountaintop of giants a particularly great area? No, but if it hadn't been there, the previous areas wouldn't have felt nearly as grand. A shorter Elden Ring might have had higher lows, but it certainly wouldn't have the highs it had. A masterpiece isn't a masterpiece because you cut out all the bad parts.

[–] RION@hexbear.net 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I think it would have been better with some of that fat trimmed. For me, the experience of the map getting bigger and bigger went from "Oh, really?" to "Wow this is cool" to "OMG" and then all of the sudden "Ugh, really?" as it overstayed its welcome and I just wanted it to be done. I really do think there is something to be said for too much of a good thing

[–] comrade_pibb@hexbear.net 5 points 2 days ago

"cool boss, i hope i get to fight two of them at once!"

[–] Gorb@hexbear.net 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I appreciate the experience elden ring gave me but i'll likely never touch it again, wouldn't be able to survive all the copy paste dungeons a second time i barely survived them the first time round. Well thats a lie seamless coop will make me play again with a roleplaying rpg party

[–] barrbaric@hexbear.net 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Tbf most people seem to just ignore all the non-mandatory dungeons on subsequent playthroughs. A strange benefit of them having no useful rewards by and large.

[–] Gorb@hexbear.net 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

You kinda need them for the bells to buy upgrade items tho. It's quite easy to fuck up your build and invest in a really shit weapon. Also very rarely ome of those dungeons may actually have something really unique and cool in it so the lootbox addiction continues. Am i gonna get a super unique cool area with quests and unique bosses? Or another lava slug that drops 1 upgrade item. I ended up looking at an online map to find what i cared about and ignore the rest cos zigzagging across the map to find things organically was very very boring

[–] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 days ago (2 children)

It has a case of Dark Souls 1 syndrome imo

[–] hogslayer@hexbear.net 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

what is Dark Souls 1 Syndrome?

[–] Future_Honkey@hexbear.net 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

As the picture implies ds1 suffered from a rushed end game and final boss so bad the devs actually apologized iirc

DS1 (one of my all time favourite games) by Lost Izalith is pretty rough.

[–] peppersky@hexbear.net 6 points 2 days ago

And just like dark souls 1 it's a fucking masterpiece

[–] Monk3brain3@hexbear.net 2 points 2 days ago

I didnt even play the expansion. Didn't have the energy for another playthrough

[–] DeathToBritain@hexbear.net 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I think not mentioning genre in this does miss quite a large part of things. RPGs should be long, because the point is an immersive world that you can explore and play around in as a character. many games are very different on subsiquent runs; rouge likes and strategy games get thousands of hours out of me, but no 2 instances of the game are the same as say RPG quests can sometimes be. action adventure games have been getting too long imo. this is because they're a genre that lends itself to a simple gameplay loop, combat, set peices, and a linear story that is the driving factor for playing. sometimes, after a few years, I will go back to say portal 2, but I would not find it that weird if somebody had only ever played it once. the RPG-lite aspects being tacked on to what really should just be a straight forward action adventure game, are something that bloats these games imo. like he said in the video, if disco elysium had added a combat system it would bloat the game beyond the core that it should be.

basically, many modern games have scope creep that turns into bloat, and this happens due to marketing teams leading design because they think this will make more money if they have a crafting system and open world

[–] notceps@hexbear.net 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I actually disagree RPGs should be shorter, I remember playing Dragon Age Inquisition and it just being a slog, and even now replaying the old infinity engine games they are all very nice and tightly paced that I can finish a game in 2 weeks so roughly 20-30 hours while BG3 is more than 100 hours and it also becomes a slog after the first act which is roughly around 30 hours.

If anything a shorter play experience is vital for RPGs because they allow you to play different characters who perceive the world differently. One thing that Disco Elysium did really well is depending on what your character does well they perceive different things. There's no 'universal' world and RPGs should lean more into the roleplaying and what you can do with it. Pathfinder:WotR does this but that also feels a tad too long and a bit shorter would've really made it so you can't wait to play through all paths.

I just remembered Fallout:NV is also one of those games you can have a full experience in 20-30 hours.

[–] a_little_red_rat@hexbear.net 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Tyranny felt so fresh because of it, as it was something like 10-15h if I remember correctly.

[–] notceps@hexbear.net 1 points 1 day ago

Tyranny is also a great mention I think I did like 4 playthroughs ranging from warrior to lawyer because it doesn't take that long to get through it just once.

Quality gameplay (of whatever genre your game is) is infinitely more important that the amount of "content" to me. It's becoming more apparent that the average "AAA" title is padding and filler with a dash of gameplay rather gameplay with a dash of filler and padding.

[–] HexReplyBot@hexbear.net 2 points 2 days ago

I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy: