Yakoob on 29/8/2012 at 22:15
Quote Posted by 242
howlongtobeat.com
This site is a joke, right? It states Skyrim lasts 5 hours, lulz.
I donno, I feel playtime is very variable, and a useless metric in open world games / RPGs. It can be vaguely applied to linear/corridor games (i.e. shooters) but even so, a slow, methodic and stealthy player will probably take longer than a guns blazing rusher.
Also, one thing that is never distinguished in reviews is the "continuous gamplay" vs. "overall" time. What I mean by "continuous gameplay" is if you played the whole game without dying or loading at all, without any repeats. Overall is including reloading and replaying multiple sections. The first, again caaan be a bit more determinable, whereas the overall, again, will vary widely depending on player skill and difficulty level. Take Hitman series which have a fairly short "continuous gameplay" time, but due to the game's nature, it's "overall" is probably several times that.
I know some rpgs (particularily oldschool JRPGs) do have a timer that shows you your continuous time. I always liked that and wish more games would incorporate it, thought I can see why devs would rather not (*after 2 weeks of 8hr/day grinding* "what I beat the game in just 5 hours? Rabble rabble I want my money back rabble rabble angry online forum posts rabble rabble call valve a fag...")
Zerker on 29/8/2012 at 22:25
It's probably also a factor of the inherent inaccuracies of various methods of measuring playtime:
Using the ingame clock typically reports lower than accurate playtimes because it does not count time spent retrying sections if you screw up.
Using an external clock (i.e. Steam playtime) typically reports higher than accurate playtimes because is also counts time spent with the game paused, or in menus. And if you start playing multiplayer on the same game, or replay it, then the external clock is essentially useless.
So yeah, I experimented and checked a few games on Steam where the Steam clock is likely as accurate as I am going to get:
Dead Space 2 : "Completionist" is 12 h 56 m, and I took 14.2 hours.
Fallout New Vegas : "Main Plus" 55 h 30 m and I took 58.5 hours to do the game + DLC
That wasn't too bad, but I actually know I skipped a fair bit of content.
Deus Ex Human Revolution : "Main Plus" 27h 56 min, and I took 24.7 hrs
I checked a few other games, like STALKER : Call of Pripyat (my time: 23.3 hours) and Mass Effect 2 (30.1 hours) and they seemed in line with the "HowLongToBeat" times. But then again, I took 10 hours for the Extended version of Hard Reset, which is longer than anything on the site so far. It seems that the site seems fairly decent for medium to long games, but is way out to lunch for the "shorter" games.
henke on 30/8/2012 at 05:24
Quote Posted by Yakoob
This site is a joke, right? It states Skyrim lasts 5 hours, lulz.
The site's design is a mess so I don't blame you for getting it wrong, but you were looking at the page for the Dawnguard DLC, linked on the first page. The (
http://www.howlongtobeat.com/gamebreakdown.php?gameid=3365) full game is listed as 25 hours for the Main Story.
icemann on 30/8/2012 at 10:57
Quote Posted by Zerker
Fallout New Vegas : "Main Plus" 55 h 30 m and I took 58.5 hours to do the game + DLC
145 hours for me for New Vegas + all the DLC. Though that game you can get REALLY lost in.
Zerker on 30/8/2012 at 21:48
Probably true, but it didn't catch me as much as most games of its sort. So I generally just did the main quest + a few sidequests or random dungeons as I noticed them along the way.
icemann on 31/8/2012 at 06:11
Fair enough, and that goes with what I was saying earlier on how an estimated amount of time a game will last the average person for is so subjective. I understand though that completionists like myself are in the minority.
Zerker on 31/8/2012 at 22:28
I can be a completionist in some games, but it totally depends on the game; i.e. I have to really love it. I recently replayed Ultima 7: The Black Gate and I made a point to tackle every optional dungeon, do the Forge of Virtue, etc. I have also done 100% runs of Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion and Metroid Zero Mission, as well as Yoshi's Island, Wind Waker and Link to the Past. But generally speaking, games like those have a well-balanced amount of content. Most Bethesda games (or their cousins) are just too vast that they just don't stay interesting for that long.
