of time to play. Pretty much the only games I play any more are America's
Army and Ghost Recon for that very reason. I don't find even an hour very
often when I can sit and just play.
--
Timothy Heald
Web Portfolio Manager
Overseas Security Advisory Council
U.S. Department of State
571.345.2319
The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S.
Department of State or any affiliated organization(s). Nor have these
opinions been approved or sanctioned by these organizations. This e-mail is
unclassified based on the definitions in E.O. 12958.
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Davis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2004 1:23 AM
To: CF-Community
Subject: RE: Nintendo Interview. Are they out of touch?
I don't know - I used to have very similar opinions to you. A long
(involving, not tedious) game felt more "worth it".
However now I have kids - I appreciate a well crafted game even if it takes
a short amount of time. In fact thinking about it most of my favorite games
tend to be short. "Ico" is hands down the best game I've ever played - not
precisely due to gameplay but rather due to the experience of it. But it
only takes about 8 hours to complete and there's really no replay value.
Any of the "Silent Hill" games are also incredibly good - but short (3 was
actually quite short, but still worth it to me). They do have some replay
value (alternate endings, extra weapons and such) but the story is
definitely the driver.
"Jak II" took me a week or two to complete, maybe 20 or so solid hours of
gameplay. Incredible game, tho INCREDIBLY frustrating at times. In this
case the game was lengthened due to it's difficulty (you have to do pretty
much every mission over and over until you finally got it). "Ratchet and
Clank: Going Commando" took about the same amount of time but was simply a
better experience (although I still can't beat the Ace Bunyan races and
they're all I've left undone).
I just finished "Lords of Rings: Return of the King" myself - it was great.
I'm redoing the levels now with the other characters but I doubt I'll redo
every level with every character - it just won't hold my attention that
long, I think.
I'll be starting "Final Fantasy: X2" soon, but to be honest I've been
putting it off. I live for the next Final Fantasy game but simply don't
have the gaming time I used to. But I know I'll get sucked in and my kids
will be orphans and my wife will be thinking divorce and my boss will wonder
why I'm so bleary eyed.
I love the three month journey's that Final Fantasy offers, but I could
never do that for every game. I'm perfectly happy to shell out the money
for a weekend of entertainment for an 8-20 hour game if the game is good.
Then again not all games are good. I just recently finished "Jimmy Neutron:
Jet Fusion" at the prodding of my five-year-old - it's just not a very good
game at all. But I struggled through it, bad cameras, cheap deaths and all
because he wanted me to.
I'm on the lookout for game him and I can play together. The best game,
hands down, was "Simpsons: Hit and Run" I could do the missions and he
could run around perfectly happily. But most kids/family games are utter
crap. We did "Wallace and Grommit" and although I did eventually beat it I
found the difficulty level insanely high considering its target audience.
Same for "Jimmy Neutron" (although that had more to do with poor design in
my opinion).
Sorry, it's late and I'm rambling. but my point is that short is sometimes
worth it as well. Even if you're not willing to pay for the game outright
the benefit to a short game is that you can almost definitely beat it in a
single rental. ;^)
Jim Davis
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From: Andrew Scott [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2004 12:17 AM
To: CF-Community
Subject: RE: Nintendo Interview. Are they out of touch?
As a very seasoned gamer, who has also worked in the industry can safely say
that it does depend on the individual.
Me I can play Lord of the Rings - Return of the King and be blown away with
the game, I have enjoyed this game over and over. Although I have completed
it including all the unlocked levels and played using the extra characters.
But it was a game that I would feel is not really worth the price tag, I
completed it a week or two.
Final Fantasy, well what can we say the graphics aren't what I would call
spectacular. But the game play is awesome.
Enclave for the xbox, game is brilliant in graphics but lost my interest as
the game play is not great.
Baulders Gate II for the xbox, finished in 2 weeks graphics not to bad, game
play shocking not worth the money I payed for it.
Pirates of the Caribbean average on the graphics in some places, but game
play is extensive. Maybe too much extensive for me, but I'll still pick it
up from time to time.
Azurik, graphics extremely average, but the game play what can I say it had
me hooked and took me around 2 months to finish this one.
One of the things that tends to plague developers is time, the publisher
pushes the developer into an unrealistic time frame. Thus one of two things
will happen, the graphics or the game play will suffer.
I can recall working on the SNES version of shadow run, it was supposed to
have around 100 hours of game play. But it took longer than that to complete
this game. Although when QA'ing this game I had it down to around 5 hours
from start to finish to show Nintendo that the game could be completed.
I guess I could ramble on more about the games, but again it depends on the
gamer. I personally want game play that will take me into the world of the
game, and last longer than 3 months to play. And this is the seasoned gamer,
not the person that wants to complete the game quickest and move onto the
next as quickly as possible.
There was one rule we used when I worked in the industry, if the graphics
was awesome the game play was shit and it has still applied after 15 years
since it was mentioned.
Regards
Andrew Scott
Technical Consultant
NuSphere Pty Ltd
Level 2/33 Bank Street
South Melbourne, Victoria, 3205
Phone: 03 9686 0485 - Fax: 03 9699 7976
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