4 Likes
Yeah, Bastion doing nice things with the narration, and having a lighter vibe and a reasonable length made it easier to get through than a lot of games. Games that end up being stressful (hello, horror games) or frustrating I really end up abandoning these days.
Yeah, those 100+ games I have on Steam are just the ones I have currently installed and am not playing. Iāve got I donāt know how many hundreds more that I never started (Iām afraid to figure it out), and a higher percentage of never-played games on GOG, Itch and Epicā¦ Even if I never get another game, Iāll never get through what I already have in my lifetime. It doesnāt help that many of them require absurd numbers of hours to complete.
Iām a big advocate for shorter games. Much shorter. The industry is still stuck in the memory of those childhood days with the Game Boy (etc.) and a handful of games played over and over. That scarcity doesnāt exist anymore, so the industry really needs to stop stretching out games to the maximum number of hours of gameplay. People arenāt finishing them (seriously, the playthrough stats for the industry are terrible), and it also makes the experiences a lot less richer than they could be. Resources are spread thin, often with a focus on the end-game that perhaps 90% of the audience never sees.
Looking at my āplayedā selection of games on Steam, Iāve perhaps finished 10% of those. Most of the games I have there, I never even installed. Itās much worse with my libraries on the other platformsā¦ (I just realized I āonlyā have 700-odd games on Steam, but the thing is, I decided to stop buying games when I hit 600ā¦)
Unfortunately, when Iām not enjoying a game, the game designer in me insists I continue, so I understand any future game design references, and broaden the mechanics I get exposed to. The reality ends up being that I donāt really play much of anything.
3 Likes
Geez, I thought I had a lot, but from the looks of it, maybe Iām relatively not doing so badly in terms of compulsively picking up games. However, I tend to only play one or two games at a time and finish them rather than starting a bunch and dropping them- not to say Iāve never dropped a game, but itās pretty rare I find one thatās so broken or unfun that I just abandon it. And then thereās Cuphead, which I actually canāt beat the final boss ofā¦
I also tend to be a completionist and go for achievements, though Epic Games might be slowly curing me of that habit just by having a horribly broken achievement system that requires you to have a continuous connection to their appā¦ which automatically disconnects itself after youāve been playing for a couple hours. As much as I enjoyed Alan Wake Remastered, I am NOT starting over from scratch just because the app didnāt happen to be connected when I picked up the last of 100 hidden coffee thermoses.
As for shorter games, I donāt know. I like a good epic journey with a stirring conclusion and payoff at the end that makes you feel like you overcame a lot. Not every game needs to be a Fallout 4 or Breath of the Wild, but if I play a game and itās only three hours long it tends to feel disappointing and shallow.
3 Likes
I went through a (in retrospect, clearly a ill-conceived) period where I bought a lot of bundles and collections, to fill in my game library. And to some degree, the collection is a reference library, and I really need to get over my need to play them all. Iām thankful I donāt feel the need for achievements, because that would make things really ugly. (Yeah, Epicās implementation of achievements is a mess - I was playing a multiplayer game with a friend who is into achievements, and he was baffled and upset when he wasnāt getting certain things that he should have - as evidenced by my getting them as we did them together. I wasnāt really noticing when I failed to get them, but it must have been happening with equal frequency.)
Part of my advocacy for shorter games involves the number of games that basically only have three hours (or whatever) worth of compelling gameplay, but then it gets extended, with repetition, filler fluff, etc. into a game thatās four times as long. The end result is a game thatās often boring, where most people donāt even get to see the compelling bits scattered towards the end of the game because the game already lost them. And sure, thereās three-hour games where they just didnāt have the budget to let the idea be fully realized and breathe (and thatās the problem, not the length per se), but thereās even more games that only have an hourās worth of compelling stuff that get padded out to three (or more) hours (either because it was cheaper/easier to add that padding than to fully develop the idea, and/or the idea was pretty shallow and limited to begin with).
2 Likes
Finished Indiana Jones and the Golden Circle today (100%, all achievements). I thought it was pretty good! The final main area (not the final, final area) kinda sucked ā lots of backtracking, lots of tedious boat travel, and numerous bugs. Overall the story was pretty well done and certainly āfeltā like an Indiana Jones adventure. The optional side quests were all pretty solid too.
Combat and stealth never stopped being clunky, although I eventually got OP enough that I largely just tried to power or cheese my way through areas (whistle blow often meant reloading the last checkpoint just because I didnāt want to screw around with it). Thankfully the checkpoints were usually pretty generous.
The finale was kind of ridiculous (and not really in a good way) but the conclusion was satisfying all the same. There was a secret ending that I donāt know if I would have bothered with had I not been going for 100%. That was the one puzzle where I looked up the solution just because I didnāt want to spend all the time it took to figure it out by myself. Even knowing the solution, it was annoying.
Despite the bugs and occasional jank, I didnāt experience any crashes or issues with Quick Resume on my Xbox.
Anyway, Iād give it a solid 8/10. Despite the bugs and some frustrating late/end game stuff, it was well worth playing. If you just blast through the main story, itās about 15-20 hours or so. If you do all the side stuff, about 25-30 hours. Completionist is about 35-40 hours.
5 Likes
Iām glad to hear itās good! That oneās definitely on my wish list and Iām really looking forward to it. I havenāt played an Indy game since Emperorās Tomb (Iām not sure how many there have BEEN since Emperorās Tomb) and that one was, um. Letās just say that Indy traveling to the netherworld to fight a Chinese dragon with some kind of magical Krull dagger is taking the supernatural elements a bit too far for my tastes.
4 Likes
I donāt think the ending was any more ridiculous than any Indiana Jones movie, it fit in, although it was a bit more bombastic, probably because they could.
I was originally planning on 100%, but after maybe 2/3 of the second area I had my fill. So many collectibles.
4 Likes
Without spoiling anything, there was of course plenty of fantasy/supernatural/sci-fi, but it was mostly grounded in reality and makes sense in-universe (where face melting artifacts, immortal guardians, alien ships, and so on are canon). There werenāt any āare you fucking kidding meā moments (for me) at least.
4 Likes
I find it particularly amusing after starting a new game to look at the percent of people whoāve completed achievements.
Complete the tutorial: only 67% of players have done this
Win a race: 43%
Finish the first set of races: 24%
Itās almost like they need to add a couple of achievements for āInstalled The Gameā and āPlayed More Than 2 Hoursā (the refund period) to give a context to the other numbers.
Some of them are oddly even much lower. I have a game where one of my achievements is one that only 1.2% of players have done, but all it requires is that you go to 4 places on the map (which you would likely do anyway, since theyāre particularly scenic spots and youād be going right past them in the normal course of play anyway). And that oneās been out over 6 years and typically has around 8,000 players playing according to steamdb.
4 Likes
One thing my curiosity drives me to do for some of the achievements is switch to relative percentages, especially near the end.
I see some weird things like 10% of those that finished the final mission didnāt bother watching the final cutscene.
2 Likes
And āplayersā is people who have at least installed the game and run it one or more times. Weāre not even getting into the owners of the games who have never even installed themā¦ (And itās not that the Steam stats are inaccurate for some reason - theyāre consistent with what Iām hearing from developers who track these things.)
2 Likes
This is the worst flex.
Thereās a quote often attributed to Winston Churchill regarding the length of a speech. I think this may be true for games as well. Iām not sure what the correct length for a game should be, but Iāll know it when I see it.
I think thatās a pretty reasonable way to look at it. Iāve long ago given up on playing everything, but itās nice to know that theyāre available if I want to see something or understand where something came from.
5 Likes
2686
I guess at that point, it canāt be anything other than a reference library.
Yeah, āshortā is really is context-dependent - different games (and types of games) ideally have different lengths. Some games donāt warrant more than 15 minutes, while others are going to be less games and more lifestyles (Eve Online, Iām looking at you) by their nature.
2 Likes
Thereās also a very clear through-line to the two Riddick games, as MachineGames are basically all refugees from Starbreeze. It also helps to explain why the āback at baseā bits were so damn good in The New Order.
2 Likes
Yeah, I was gonna post my stats, as I similarly have a 21 year old account, but your pile of shame dwarfs mine. My Played:Unplayed ratio is 540:654
I could have sworn I had many, MANY more games than that, but Guild Wars 2 has eaten a lot of my gaming time since the pandemic, and I have a rather large GOG library too, as I made an attempt to break away from Steam for a while.
I also stopped my Humble Monthly sub a while back, which helped stem the flow of titles piling up!
At the moment, I am flip-flopping between my constant, Dwarf Fortress, and the really rather good but still pretty broken Stalker 2.
I also enjoyed Indy, but felt it outstayed its welcome, and shared the frustration about the jungle level, as well as being frustrated that the game ended with a ābossā battle which used precisely zero of the skills or abilities or gameplay youād used up until that point, devolving quite literally into a shin-kicking contest.
2 Likes
When i was younger i really relished playing games that required sinking a lot time into. And while i do like playing a game that i can play a lot, i no longer enjoy games that are just long story-wise. I want something that I can play in bursts, and if I donāt play it for a few weeks and pick it back up I donāt want to feel like Iām so utterly lost that I have to restart. This leaves me with rogue-likes, live service games, and chill games that arenāt story-heavy.
I still enjoy the occasional longer narrative game, but I have less patience/attention span for them these days.
3 Likes
You joke, but IIRC, you got like two achievements for starting the Deadpool game for the first time. He pointed at the notification for playing, made a wiseass comment, and you got an achievement for the comment too.
4 Likes
Yes, absolutely this. I love games that are a little longer with a good story, but the I canāt always stick with them consistently. Just experienced it with Alan Wake 2, and itās part of whatās holding me back from returning to Baldurās Gate 3. Iām at the beginning of the Act 2 in that one, I might just restart doing a dark urge playthrough, for some continuity with BG 1 & 2.
I would welcome a feature that gave a synopsis on the story and maybe an overview of areas explored. Clues found to secrets that arenāt yet revealed? Actually, BG3 might have a journal that does some of thatā¦ itās been so long since I played that I donāt remember now.
2 Likes
Yeah, restarted SO MANY GAMES.
Not sure how many times Iāve tried DA:O so far.
4 Likes
Some games are better than others at how they give you information about pending quests, but no matter what i always feel like games donāt do well with a person stepping away for an extended period of time. But some kind of smarter summary feature would be pretty welcome for me.
I also have been struggling to even start Elden Ring because once i start i donāt know how consistently iāll be able to stick with it. At this point i might as well just watch a playthrough of these kinds of games instead of playing it myself, i had done this with some of the Assassinās Creed games. It was so nice to load up a non-commentary playthrough and skip through the filler gameplay and watch the story play out.
3 Likes