Help me enjoy "BIG" games again

[jezzace]

I can't help you get into big games and I'm sick of waxing lyrical about this game but play Half Life 2

This game gets you hooked into it whether you want to or not! YOu just have to keep going....and then you get the gravity gun.....and then you get the buggy etc...

[Madbury]

I am playing HL2, I'd stopped for a bit, because I found the Route Canal and beginning of Water Hazard to be very very DULL.

I've just got the gravity gun which is cool and that alone looks like it will save the game, for me at least. It's the Newtonian puzzles which interest me the most, the shooting parts are just a filler. Problem is the game crashes every 5 minutes.

[gingerj]

Are you sure you're not just evolving as a gamer and your tastes are changing. Its like when you grow up and you go clothes buying if your 30 you aren't going to buy the same clothes as you bought when you was 18, tastes change and you can't force yourself to like something. Stick to what you like.

[Zapp$ter]

I was the exact opposite. I hated arcade type games and preferred the BIG games as you put it. I would always go out and buy an RPG or another game that would take me ages to complete. Recently(around October last year) though I started playing Gradius V and basically have fallen in love with the shmup genre again. Now I try to get a healthy balance between the two. I'll buy some arcade type games and some BIG games as well. For me it keeps the whole thing fresh and interesting. I try to mix up my game purchases as much as possible although I do have a tendency to go for the major RPG games as they are probably my favourite genre of games.

[Reef]

Is anyone else like me and need to know roughly how many hours are needed to be put into a game before they start playing. An ideal length for me is 6-10 hours. That's why I never contemplate starting an RPG, I know that I will never make it to the end so what's the point in starting. I would like to have Edge or Games TM place a rough time guide to how long each game takes to complete (not 100%) just start to finish in it's review.

The last games I've completed are PSI-OPS, Metroid Zero Mission and HALO 2 - all pretty short. I think this is the result of being older and having disposable income but very little amounts of time to play.

[phresh]

Now I've promised myself and my girlfriend

What you want to do is get out from under that thumb and buy some more games. You don't need big games when you have many games. Only kidding, im just playing through Paper Mario 2, and despite being boring as sin for the first hour or so, it really picks up after and is a very funny game. Also try Pikmin 1 or 2, really cute games with exellent playability.

[Papercut]

It does improve a little after the first hour, but it's still centred on somewhat unfocused exploration - yadda yadda...

Ach bollocks, don't be put off.

[Concept]

I'm not trying to put him off.

Shenmue II is worth the effort. The first disc still crawls at a snails pace though for the most part. It's all about following bread crumbs, and not particularly interesting bread crumbs, narrative-wise, at that.

[mattSix]

...try Pikmin 1 or 2...

that's a great idea. i'd recommend pikmin 1 tbh, it won't take you too long to finish (but there's plenty of scope to replay for the best ending / quickest completion) plus you get the arcade action of playing for challenge mode high scores. and, on players choice, it's a bargain!

[ryodi]

I tend to find that I will be more inclined to play longer games if I know I can save at any point or the spaces between saving are not that far apart. GBA games are good for this which is why I actually completed FFT:A despite it taking over 112+ hours to do so because I could play it in short snippets or for hours on end and the game was very quick loading. If it has been a big console game I would never have finished it. In contrast Tales of Symphonia and Paper Mario 2, despite being a huge fan of the original both sit unplayed because I don't know for sure when I can next save. But this might have more to do with my diminished attention span and the traumatic experience of spending hours trying to find a save point in Turok 2 than being unable to play BIG games.

[PeteJ]

I also get put off with games that promise huge scope or boast a huge number of playing hours, however they do occasionally grab me so hard that I cannot put them down until I've got every last ounce out of them. The last "epic" I played was ToS, and it was one of the best games I've ever played, yet the huge scope of Metroid Prime 2 is preventing me from passing the 15% mark.

I've played the original Halo countless times in single player, but don't really feel like returning in Halo2, yet I've played so many hours in multiplayer that it's just unreal (over 1000 games online alone!). The quick turn-around of the games is really appealing, I think.

That said, I do tend to get very board of "arcade" games, despite liking them a lot to begin with. I certainly don't find they lack the challenge (they destroy me frequently), but I just find they lack...interest? I couldn't play the same level over and over to perfect scores, I need change and new ideas, and most arcade titles can't give me that.

So...I like the middle ground. I like those 10-hour games that can be finished in a dedicated weekend or a semi-dedicated week. I don't want to be dominated by a game for months as I feel like I'm missing out on too much eles, but at the same time I want something more than a quick blast.

Halo 2 multiplayer is an odd one then, as it pretty much goes against what I've just said. I like competition, and I like proving myself to others too, it would seem