Video Games Are Getting Shorter, They Don’t Have Much Meat on Them

It was early in the morning, I sat down, and started watching a particular video on YouTube, a speedrun of Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. while eating and. Whilst attempting to combine entertainment and nourishment I got reminded again that modern video games these days just don’t have much ‘meat’ to them.

What I mean is, they aren’t as lengthy any more. Video games are getting shorter these days.

As I finished eating, the video was nearing to a close and that meant so did the gentleman speed running the game. If you’re paying $60 to $100 AU, you really want a bang for your buck. Sure games can look great, due to the new technology and next gen engines. This shouldn’t be coming at the cost of length. Co-op, features, graphics and multiplayer does immerse the player more, but it doesn’t make the game,

This not being the case for today’s Video game titles, with all the New genres/game archetypes, and some being purely multiplayer based which needs no story, but that falls on whether or not games even need narrative but that’s a whole different post you can read here.

I understand the companies needs and budget as well, when going through the process of making a game. Development costs and whatnot. having a idea for a game is just the start…

But remembering the days as a kid, where Internet was not available to me and every game I got, I played the plot over and over again, and the plot has always been the core of games, the overall experience of the story……

The main campaign of a video game usually last around the 5 Hours mark these days,Basically a afternoon of gaming. I’m looking at you First Person Shooters! Although Shooters nowadays have shifted towards the online and multiplayer aspect of things.

Let’s take the newly released Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes now. You might or might not have heard that Euro-Gamer, put up a Video on YouTube, beating the game in 10 minutes! Yes, that’s a $50 AU game right there, which is pricey for a non AAA title. Though there are side missions, various tasks, collectables such as XOF Patches and a Leader Board.

[youtube url=”http://youtu.be/4dINNhfwVgI” fs=”1″ hd=”1″]

Yea…that video, you can watch it……here.

But even if there are side missions to do, when I finish a main plot line in a game, I think to myself; “well that’s that”, I just feel everything else is like I’m there to pick up after the NPC’s, I feel that the main problem is gone, the princess is saved, I don’t care if I you want me to collect 10 of these, to make 5 of these so this can have that, its tedious and I’ve done my job, that’s when I put my controller down, that’s when I never touch the game again…or at least for an extended period of time.

Do I want longer games, yes and…no, If the quality the game is exceptional then, yea, but what I think is AAA games should be a ‘bit’ cheaper for the standard’s of today, even for today’s digital distributed game prices are a ‘bit’ too much in my opinion, because we still need to download the game, and for some people, internet isn’t cheap, or maybe some people live in black-spots and the only way to get reception is to do pilates (me…).

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes Releases in Australia 27/3/2014 for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3  and PS4

And serves as a Prologue to the upcoming Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain…