Are Games Too Short?

The subject of game length has come up again at work this week, with complaints about Homefront’s short single player campaign of four to five hours.  I got rather annoyed with the double-standards of some people whining about Homefront but being perfectly happy with the length of the single-player campaigns in the Call of Duty series.. they’re all about the same length!

Personally, I think five hours isn’t enough if that’s the entire game.. I really wasn’t happy when I completed Half Life 2: Episode 2 in just a few hours.
However, in most games there are extra modes, and for Homefront and the Call of Duty series, there is a lot of playability in the multiplayer part of the games.. though if you are only interested in single-player, that’s no consolation.

A short game with great action and really memorable sections should be considered far superior to a longer but less fun game.. but it seems that some people dismiss a short game as being poor value for money regardless.  I wonder where this leaves us for the future.. I hope it doesn’t lead to devs padding games with boring travel sections or pointless dialogue..

While talking about Call of Duty 4, we all agreed that the single-player was rather short, but overall the game was fantastic.. even months after playing, we remembered parts of the game we enjoyed.. such as the One Shot, One Kill mission, which stood out as a real highlight.

Another game I look at favourably is Half Life 2, which was a lot longer, but was also paced nicely so that you could stop and look around between the more action-based parts if you wanted to.. and when devs have gone to the effort of creating a good game environment, I’d feel I was wasting that to speed through as fast as possible.

As for pacing.. I recently had early access to a game with rather annoying, nagging NPCs which made me push on all the time and I found myself getting angry with it, especially since I knew the game was fairly short.  Sure, I could have ignored the NPCs, but their constant barked orders were irritating.. this just spoiled my enjoyment in looking around and made me want to get things over and done with just to shut them up.

That’s not the feeling I want in a game, if I’m honest.. so short and rushed rates badly in my books.

I saw an argument last year for games being too long.. since many gamers have unfinished games in their collection, they must be getting bored before finishing them: therefore games are too long.  Now, I have a horrible record for completion, but this is nothing to do with the length of the games in question.  The reasons I don’t complete my games are a lack of time after the grind of work, lots of cheap games (I’m looking at you, Steam sales!) leading to there being more in my collection, and the fact that when I do have time, my friends are around to play as well.. and I’m hardly going to tell them to sling it while I get on with a single-player campaign.  Recently I would also blame WoW, as it’s rather too easy to just pop on for half an hour, which turns into a few hours that could have been used to advance the story in another game.

Worgen

When Cataclysm was released, it added two new races, Goblins and Worgen, each with their own new starting area.

I was going to check these out much sooner, but since Christmas we’ve really not been playing WoW as we used to.. a lack of interest in dungeons thanks to too many randoms spoiling the instance, maybe a little bit of disappointment at the lack of things to do at 85 as well, without more friends to actually try out raids.

I finally got around to creating my Worgen character.. well, human and Worgen character, as you start off as a human.  She’s a warrior.. I’m going to attempt to learn to tank, if we play these for more than the initial levels anyway.

Leveling with Jaysoon instead of the usual suspect meant killing a lot of extra mobs..

Rampaging Worgen just off to the side of my route back to hand in?  Attack!  Maybe unnecessary for XP purposes, but this allowed more uses of fun quest items such as the Gilnean Mastiff, which just threw itself onto lurking enemies from whichever direction 🙂

As per the storyline we were eventually bitten, and a little later changed into our furry forms..

The female Worgen has a better walking animation than the male; being a little more hunched over, she looks more sneaky and animal-like.  I was rather amused by the ‘sniff’ emote, which has had the relevant sound added.  Worgen can also roar, unlike other races.

There were more amusing quests outside as the Forsaken arrived.. one in particular involved shoving gunpowder kegs on the heads of Abominations which were too stupid to do anything about it!  I would have liked more than four to blow up between us, though 😉

Shortly after this, the land starts to be flooded.. thanks Deathwing.. and we end up rescuing drowning people and trying to evacuate people such as a little old Grandma who turned out to be anything but feeble when a Forsaken tried to steal her cat..

Near the end of the area came the Battle for Gilneas City, which was great as we got to play with catapults, but less good when we managed to run into a glitch; a missing hand-in.  It seems that somebody else started the section just as we finished ours, resetting the location of the NPCs.  More catapult action, though, so it worked out fine 🙂

As our lovely area of the world was fast becoming an underwater area of the world, we had to go and seek refuge with the Night Elves, but not before jumping on the back of a Hippogryph and destroying a Horde ship.. after playing Horde side for so long, this felt a bit weird.

While completing missions for our new hosts, Jaysoon discovered that this huge whirlpool leads to a secret cave..with a hidden quest!

By completing the quest in here we got a secret achievement: Ghosts in the Dark.  I absolutely love the idea of little extras being hidden for those who explore 🙂

Borderlands – Siren

I needed something more interesting than random web surfing during my lunch break, and decided on Borderlands.

Since it’s been a while since I played, I went with a new start, picking the Siren.  The early quests were easy.. no wonder, as I’ve seen them a few times now, but the gun choices are causing me a lot less stress this time round.. something’s sinking in at last! 😉

I also don’t think I really appreciated the style of the graphics this much last time..

I’m finding this a rather satisfying use of my lunch break.. even if it means I progress fairly slowly.  I levelled up enough to get Lilith’s special ability, the Phasewalk, which gives invisibility, increased running speed, and damages nearby enemies both going in and coming out of phase.

Using Phasewalk to finish off an enemy also netted me an achievement 😉

Heading towards Nine-Toes’ den, I heard some screeching and couldn’t quite make out where it was coming from at first.. then I looked up!  I’d forgotten about the Rakks!

After killing these off, and watching the loot rain from the sky, it was time to face Nine-Toes..

He managed to kill me off on my first attempt, but I was more careful the second time, dealing with the dogs while staying out of Nine-Toes’ line of sight.  I then had a smug moment when I finished him off by phasewalking and going up behind him for the killing blow!

Chaos Rising – Pure

A friend and I finally got together to complete the last mission of our co-op campaign on Dawn of War II – Chaos Rising, having gotten most of the way through it back in January.

This last mission, Foul Play in the Chapter Keep, started with Predator tanks, which we were meant to use to clear the path for our later fights.. it was good to feel powerful and I would have liked to have mine for longer!  I was a bit disappointed when I lost control of the tank after being given my regular units back.

The Undoer thought we’d missed something, and ended up going down the path where Eliphas was hiding all by himself.. this meant Jonah got a little time laying on his back while the rest of the troops came to find him.  Eliphas put up a bit of a struggle, but not too much.. a warm-up for our future confrontation with Ulkair, the Great Unclean One and final boss.

Ulkair had his own arena..

Compared to other fights, this one was fairly tough and Force Commander Bob and Jonah had to take it in turns to tank him.  I was glad of Jonah’s healing skills as well as the invulnerability buff.. not the mention the nearby beacon where I had to keep reinforcing troops.

We took him down in the end, and were rewarded with a rather cool cutscene and a bit more story.

And there it is.. another game completed!  Next up: Dawn of War II – Retribution.. although I do want to play this again on the corrupt side! 🙂

Falling Out with New Vegas

After many weeks of being distracted with other games, I went back to try and complete Fallout: New Vegas.  I had left the game at The Strip itself, undecided as to whether to support Mr House or kill him, and therefore support Yes Man..

Having been stalked across the wasteland by Victor, I then wasn’t too keen to put my trust in another slightly creepy computer.

Not only was Yes Man another creepy Securiton, he had also belonged to Benny, who had been willing to kill my character for the sake of the Platinum Chip.  I didn’t want to go with either at this point, but ended up giving the chip to Mr House as the lesser of two evils.. instantly regretted as I realised it also upgraded all his robots..

I did a few more missions, but then he asked me to destroy the Brotherhood of Steel chapter.. not something I wanted.
However, the alternative I was presented with, siding with Yes Man, meant also approving of the Omerta’s desire to go on a rampage on The Strip.. well, I don’t want that either..

This is where I’d almost fallen out with the game before, so I decided to explore instead, hoping some more options would reveal themselves.. and in the meantime, I came across a few things..

I recruited Marcus from Broken Hills in Fallout 2, and kept him in my group for the rest of the game.. so was quite excited when his name was mentioned by a mutant near Black Mountain.  I instantly went to find him at Jacobstown.. he hasn’t changed too much, I guess! 🙂

(From the Fallout Wiki)

Here, I waved goodbye to Boone and recruited a new companion, a crazy Nightkin who thinks I’m her granddaughter.  Originally, I only planned to keep Lily for as long as the mission requiring her, but was seriously impressed and have kept her this far.

Despite having had a message that the NCR would no longer accept my help because of helping Mr House, I have been able to get a variety of quests from various NCR camps.. finding missing supplies, running errands, checking on radio outposts and the like.

Some of these quests appear to be leading me towards joining a battle against the Legion.. something I’m looking forward to! 🙂

Mind-Controlled Games

I’ve always been rather interested in how new technology can improve gaming, so when I spotted this article on Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry blog about the use of biometic data in games to alter gameplay according to how the player feels, I was quite interested..

Valve have done some studies using skin galvanic response (electrical conductance of skin changes with moisture level) and heart-rate, measuring them on players using a special build of Left 4 Dead 2.  On feeding back some of this data to other players, they noticed that people reacted to players based on those projected feelings.. with people being more aggressive towards a highly-aroused opponent, but very defensive of similarly aroused players on their own team.

This makes sense enough.. if an opponent is crowing about every kill they make then I tend to want to take them down more, while I would tend to be defensive of a teammate having a bad time.. however, if you use voice then you can already tell which players are worked up.

Another problem would be in having the system determine whether the player is reacting to the game or external stimuli, as well as establishing readings per person, as everyone reacts differently.  I rarely get to launch a game while in a calm, relaxed mood.. sometimes far from it.. so the system would probably struggle to work out what my baseline readings should be.

I also imagine some people would try to block the capture of data.. disconnecting the sensors, or wiring up a sibling.. so that the opposing team don’t target them as much.. and there might be more trolling as they would be able to see the readings for themselves, and know they were having the desired effect.

A system using biometric data probably won’t be really effective unless you have genuinely co-operative people.. for me it would maybe be friends-only.. though I can see it being better for single-player games where more enemies could be sent towards calm players, basically altering the difficulty based on how the player feels.

Interesting stuff, anyways, and even if it doesn’t end up with a practical outcome for gaming, I guess it will be useful somewhere.

Xenocide

After many hours playing Sol Survivor I finally got the “Xenocide” badge, for killing 1000 creeps on a map!

I’d had one soul remaining from around the 26th minute, so I didn’t expect to get it this time, but the upgraded laser turrets did their job nicely 🙂

Crysis 2 Demo

My interest in EA’s Crysis 2 demo comes more from friends’ excitement about the game than anything else, as I’ve not even played the original game.  I didn’t have any real idea of what to expect from the multiplayer, so I was glad of the intro on launch which gave a quick run through of the nanosuit and the objectives of the different game-modes.

Be strong; be fast; be invisible.. all possible thanks to the rather interesting nanosuit, a battlesuit which gives you improved armour, speed or invisibility depending on how you like to play.. speed is always fun, and I loved the idea of the ground stomp, though as yet I have to actually use it on a target.  I found the armour just didn’t seem to last very long or add much protection when in a direct confrontation with an enemy.  I preferred stealth as this allowed me to get out of trouble while on low health, as well as helping in attempts to sneak up behind enemies.  I also found via watching one of my deaths on kill-cam, that the enemy can still see you while stealthed thanks to your shadow, which still appears as normal!

There were two maps and game-modes to choose from: Skyline, an instant-action team game, and Pier 17, which had alien drop pods to capture.

I rather liked this mode as it added a bit more direction to the game.  If you were unable to secure the pod for your team and then defend it, all was not lost as a new pod would be dropped at another location on the map.

Of the two available maps, I preferred Skyline with its variety of  indoor and outdoor areas and accessible roofs.  I also liked how the greenhouses changed through the round.. you can climb up and run along the top of them at the start, until stray bullets smash the glass leaving gaping holes for you to fall through instead.

Despite the multiplayer being fun so far, I’m not sure whether I’ll pick this up or not..  I have plenty of shooters, and more than enough multiplayer games to keep myself and friends occupied for quite some time, so the singleplayer will really have to get my interest if I’m going to add this game to my collection 🙂

Civilization V

I won a copy of Civ V from a Twitter competition a while back, but until the weekend I hadn’t really taken the time to try it out properly.  This weekend, however, another friend picked up the game and had been playing, so a multiplayer game was suggested..

Four of us set out to conquer the world.. and I think I might have got the worst starting island I’ve ever been on.

This bit of the island was the best purely because there were a few hexagons of land in a clump.  Fortunately there are methods of getting some use out of the water, such as the fishing boats, so my people weren’t always starving, but that particular notification did pop up a few times.

Barbarians were a nice source of XP rather than a real threat to my city.. this may be down to the difficulty setting chosen.. and overall I’m finding this version a lot easier to pick up than Civ IV was.. though as yet I don’t know which technologies and Wonders I should aim for.

Two friends decided to pick a fight with Suleiman, and proceded to smash their way through his lands.  As I was passing by the destruction with my exploratory trireme I decided to join in.. partly because I wanted to see battle, but mainly to pick up a bit of XP.

Much more to learn about this version of the game.. I can see this particular multiplayer game taking a while to complete too, since it requires four people to be online together.

My first experience of the Civ series comes all the way from Civ 2, which I often played alongside my dad, discussing tactics and which the best Wonders were.. the Pyramids were essential as they counted as a granary in every city, meaning you only needed half the food to get your next citizen.

The Great Library was also fairly good as it automatically provides any tech discovered by two other civilizations from that point on, though only really profitable if you weren’t leading the tech race yourself.  I also liked Leonardo’s Workshop, for the free upgrades to all units, and Adam Smith’s Trading Company, which reduced your maintenance costs.

My Civ 2 games tended towards mass-expansion, with so many cities that the automatically-generated names started to come from other Civilizations after a while.. unless I chose to rename them all.  As far as dealing with other Civilizations.. I either rushed for the Spaceship, or if enemies were pressuring me.. I took spies to their cities with a lovely Nuclear present 🙂

A successfully built and launched Spaceship would eventually arrive at Alpha Centauri, and count as a win for your Civilization.

(Screen taken from CivFanatics)

More recently, I picked up Civ IV: Beyond the Sword, but found myself rather lost with the new concepts of Religion and Culture, as well as the changes to my well-used and well-known tactics.  Expanding to a new city suddenly became expensive as the cost increases further away from the Capital, so instead I had to focus on building one city up at a time.. and all my old favourite Wonders stopped doing as I expected.

I attempted to play this version with a group of friends who knew the game, but quickly started to feel frustrated with my lack of knowledge, and rather uncomfortable with the banter that went on if somebody beat someone else to a Wonder, when trading with the AI, or when building cities where somebody else wanted to expand towards.  The others had been trading technologies from the start, so I quickly fell behind in tech as well.  With poor technology you don’t get access to the next level of resources, and your military units are weaker.  Then, not only do you have no technology or resources to trade, you can’t take anything by force either.  At this point, you probably need to get something from one player to use in trade with the next, and so on.. or wait to be picked off!

Completing Dead Rising 2

Last time I played this game, we found ourselves slightly frustrated by the Psycho encounters which we always seemed to run into when we had Survivors in tow.  Eventually we left it with ‘Case 4-1 : The Source’ unfinished, as Amber and Crystal cut us down again and again with their katanas, forcing us to repeat a large chunk of the game.

This time, we got ourselves a better save-point and returned to give TK’s sleazy girls the beating they deserved, though not before trying out a few more crazy weapons and levelling our characters up a bit more..

There was also a repeat of “Dressing Up with The Undoer” as he found even worse clothes to wear..

Seriously.. look at that hat.. 😉

After killing the twins, we found the regular zombies were rather easy for a while, so we racked up the points playing with more custom weapons.. my favourites this time being the Defiler, made by combining the Fire Axe and Sledgehammer, and the Lightsa.. er, Laser Sword, made with a torch and gems.

In the end we screwed up slightly by not giving TK his Zombrex.. so while Katey was loaded onto the helicopter and the day was saved, Chuck Greene was not.  I think this calls for a replay, and if we can start again with levelled characters, we might be able to save a few more survivors this time. 🙂