Do you think that newer games are too easy and short?

[LTCHIPS]

Hey all, I've noticed that ever since 2004, the Single Player portions of video games have became extremly short, and too easy, even on more difficult settings. For example, I beat COD4 on Regular the first time I ever played it on the same day that I bought it. And it only took me 3 hours to do so, and only died 7 times, low for a game that I played for the very first time. And Doom 3, I beat that in 6 hours and only died 2 times, which just goes to show you that newer games are becoming too easy. (Or it may be that developers expect us to play the game on the hard setting the first time that we play the game, or it may be that I've gotten too good at video games). I'm not liking where things are going in video games, I think that developers are focusing on graphics and multiplayer (not saying that's bad but what does that mean for offline gamers?) I remember the first COD, and that took me a week and I played it through the first time on regular, and died 20 times, and I enjoyed the challenges and the awesome level design!

So, I'm hoping that as video games become more technological, game developers will start giving their hundred percent efforts, and focus on EVERYTHING when they develop games.

 

[Rated_R]

IGN has an article about what developers are doing now with tracking everything and how its playing into that. Here is the link
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/100/1000461p1.html

 

[acefisher1]

Yeah. Most games i've played in the past 3 years, except RPGS, I have beaten in a single sitting or two at the most. And i've played a LOT of games in the past 3 years. COD4 on veteran lasted me about 2 hours on veteran my first run through the game. Pretty disappointing in my opinion. Another that comes to mind is Halo 3, and then so many others like Brothers in Arms : Hell's Highway, Prince of Persia, Left 4 Dead, i'll just stop, the list goes on for a while.

 

[LTCHIPS]

Well, the achivement idea was a good idea, but I'm not really that kind of a person who would replay through a single player game, just to do something certain to unlock something, (unless if its really worth it), I'm a person that would only replay through a single player game if it was addicting, fun, or something that you can't stop playing over and over again (like, Max Payne, and RTCW both fun games to replay through, because they don't get old that easily, even if you already beat the game once.) Halo 3 may have had the skulls, which would allow you to modify the experience of the game, but it still feels like the developers focused on the multiplayer more than the single player part of the game, because that's what the franchise is most popular about.

Game developers need to realize, that they need to do EVERYTHING they can to make their games good in Single Player, and Multiplayer, not just one. I would say this to every game company, if you going to put most of your focus in the multiplayer of a game, then you might as well leave out the single player portion of the game, because some people don't want to go through a game again just to get those achivements.

Far Cry 2 may have been a long game for some of you, but I founded it quite boring, and repetitive. I'm guessing that most developers are too scared of making longer Single Player games can end up becoming boring for the player.

 

[Cut Chem!st]

Yeah, I sort of blame the consoles -- people can't take the hardness of the game, so they shorten it and make it easy yet they still pay 60$ for a half-game, because that is what they are used to.. so they will just buy everything that comes out. So why even bother making a longer game if people are still buying it, so they can go make other 4 hour games for people to buy and dont have to spend a long time producing them. I remember the old games like deus ex took like 30 hours to beat, and were really difficult. Now the only games I find hard are things like Fallout 3/Half life 2. Hell, half life 1 had sub-par AI to like the newer games yet it is a million times harder then the newer games like farcry 2, and some people cant take the old level of games and just quit.

 

[Bane]

well easy maybe? they have to be user friendly but there is also a difficulty setting for the hardcore players....and short yes and no for the type of game a FPS probly short but like Star Ocean where the game has 40 hours of just gamplay and about another 5 of cut scenes....

 

[Two Listen]

It just depends, and I too blame console users, for the most part. Assassin's Creed was a great game, but pretty easy, pretty repetitive, and too short. Portal I beat in something like 45 minutes. Doom 3 wasn't that short, longer than most games these days. Oblivion is a RIDICULOUSLY huge game, which I've still never done 100% of...

It just depends. I agree to a certain extent - but I think over this past year or two, with the economy as it is, people are going to start demanding more for their money. It should be a good next couple years, for us gamers.

 

[Cut Chem!st]

It just depends, and I too blame console users, for the most part. Assassin's Creed was a great game, but pretty easy, pretty repetitive, and too short. Portal I beat in something like 45 minutes. Doom 3 wasn't that short, longer than most games these days. Oblivion is a RIDICULOUSLY huge game, which I've still never done 100% of...

It just depends. I agree to a certain extent - but I think over this past year or two, with the economy as it is, people are going to start demanding more for their money. It should be a good next couple years, for us gamers.

Portal was just a little extra sprinkled into the win that is the orange box, portal 2 is going to be a much longer game. Valve actually spends a ton of time producing there games so we play it over and over, and they last a long time. Instead of working on in a little bit, having a shell of a game and throwing it out the window for someone to pay for it.

 

[Passerby]

and portal is also a very inexpensive game it around 20 $ stand alone or it 39 for the orange box which is one of the best deals for any game package.

and yes i want some brutally hard single player games again. like something that is just as challenging as system shock 2 which was nasty hard even with a very primitive AI

even RTS campaigns are getting to easy like trying compareing the diffculty in say dawn of war or C&C 3 to one of the homeworld games

 

[LTCHIPS]

Yeah... games like HL2 made me happy because it was a very diffucult game (even on normal, it gives you hell) and it was a very long game. Throw in the episode packs, and you got enough game to last for about a week and a half, which is impressive.

I'm finding myself these days looking for old games, because I've ran out of shooters to beat, so I founded Doom II (I never got around to playing that) and that took me a extreme of 3 weeks, because I got lost, and I was playing it on Hurt me Plenty. Doom II may have not been as good as Doom, but it was a nice break from the games today.

Next I might go get the old Fallout games, and maybe I might get around to getting the Fallout 3 add on packs. I'm guessing that developers have founded making an Single Player portion of a game to be pointless.

I'm betting that the next game that will have a good Single Player will be Max Payne 3, which is due for late this year. I've founded the Max Payne franchise to be very fun, and all of them have great single player, but no multilplayer. The game was entirely focused on its Single Player experience, and it was well excuted.

 

[Passerby]

ya for single player the game im looking forward too are Half-Life 2 EP:3, Max Payne, and Mafia 2 which all 3 are strictly SP.

any one have some good suggestions for good SP experinces past, present or upcomeing

 

[Bravo Company]

For new games you really can't find a good singleplayer. I've found that most older games have the best singleplayer but horrible multi. Its a trade off, most people are going to play the multiplayer and a few are going to just going play the single. There is alot of people that are going play the single but even more are going spend more time on the multi. So if you have a good game thats gets good reviews for multiplayer more people are going buy it just because of that and, probably, never going touch the single.
Me personally I love having a good mix, COD4 was fun on hardcore. Regular was just too easy and veteran is just aggravating.


If you want a good singleplayer experience I'd suggest Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 and BiA:Earned in Blood. The BiA series has always had a good story imo (except HH, that one just sucks).


just my 2 cents.

 

[Markus]

Fallout 3 will solve all your problems.

 

[Sharpe]

I remember Half Life being REALLY hard. I still haven't beaten it without using some sort of cheat. Mostly god in the console. BUT, that being said, Even though I did use cheats, It was still....Fun. More games need to be like Half life I think.

Most FPS games today, are extremely easy. One that I can remember being really hard, Is GoldenEye for the N64. Sure, It was easy on the easy difficultly, but try putting it up on the max difficultly. Then it actually gets challenging. Games like Call of Duty, are Fun, But just to easy. I even saw the first COD's being to easy sometimes.

Developers need to make these games longer, and harder, I do agree. I mean, Heh, Just look at Donkey Kong Arcade game. The one where Mario has to climb up the ladders while DK is throwing barrels down. I think it was rated one of the hardest games, and yet it was made quite a while ago. People need to realize, you can make a game hard, and long, and still have fun. Even if some people use cheats (Me) It can still be really fun.

 

[acefisher1]

Fallout 3 will solve all your problems.

Don't count on spending much time on the story of Fallout 3 however. My buddy didn't realize it had fast travel for some odd reason and finished the story his first time through in 6 hours with a really bad character build in addition.

But yes, it is capable of eating away hours and hours of your life if you stay interested past the story itself.

 

[a pet rock]

Fallout 3 will solve all your problems.

Fallout 3 isn't really a long game. The story line wasn't that long, and the amount of side quests is minuscule compared to previous games Bethesda has pulled out. Certainly, the gameplay itself and the engine is better and much less glitchy but after about 10 hours of Fallout 3 I went back to playing Oblivion and exploring that. And for the brave at heart, you could try playing Morrowind. Anyone who can stomach gameplay that bad, a combat system that inane, and an uncounted amount of days of real time traveling across the continent just to explore the millions of quests deserves serious old school gamer props. Either that, or they've never played anything newer than it.

Besides that, I've heard it's not all that hard no matter how high the difficulty settings are if you use energy weapons.

 

[Destroy]

Want challenge? Play a Nightmare song with Expert difficulty on Rockband.

 

[Destroy]

Fallout 3 isn't really a long game. The story line wasn't that long, and the amount of side quests is minuscule compared to previous games Bethesda has pulled out. Certainly, the gameplay itself and the engine is better and much less glitchy but after about 10 hours of Fallout 3 I went back to playing Oblivion and exploring that. And for the brave at heart, you could try playing Morrowind. Anyone who can stomach gameplay that bad, a combat system that inane, and an uncounted amount of days of real time traveling across the continent just to explore the millions of quests deserves serious old school gamer props. Either that, or they've never played anything newer than it.

Besides that, I've heard it's not all that hard no matter how high the difficulty settings are if you use energy weapons.

If you explore more than just following the simple story, you'll beat the 100 hours, i think.

 

[Tattered]

Put the difficulty all the way up and some games get pretty dang hard

 

[Passerby]

tattered sure a new game on hard is more challenging than a new game on normal but were talking comparison to modern games to stuff like system shock 2 and the original half-life.