We know that certain games are big, like BG3 or Persona 5. But recently games like FF7 rebirth and Indiana Jones just kept going on and on past “Act 3”. Also Rise of the Golden Idol seemed a little short to me

Are developers getting more efficient with generating content?

  • iegod@lemm.ee
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    4 days ago

    As an older gamer I want the opposite: shorter games. I don’t have the time to sink.

  • Random Dent@lemmy.ml
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    4 days ago

    Untitled Goose Game, but the other way. Got to the end of what I assumed was the first world, but it turned out that was the entire game.

    Still a good game, but if I’d known I would have waited for a sale or something.

  • pixelscript@lemm.ee
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    4 days ago

    I remember grinding my way through Pokemon Conquest, having a decent time but also kinda wanting it to reach its conclusion. I get to the end of the main campaign, scroll the credits, and then it tells me on next boot that there’s now some more content to play.

    “Oh cool, a postgame,” I thought.

    No. There was not a postgame. There were something like eighteen new campaigns to play.

    To a certain kind of person this must’ve felt like Christmas morning. I put the game in a drawer and didn’t turn it on again out of sheer intimidation.

  • durfenstein@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Hollow Knight.

    Surely this is the end of the map… Ok but now Suuuuuurely this is the end of the map… OK NOW SUUUURELY…

  • InfiniteGlitch@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    6 days ago

    I got surprised by DeathStranding.

    Did not expect that a game that’s basically about going from A to B through walking could be that lengthy, having great scenery and a weird, vague but good story.

    I’m really excited for its sequel, just hoping it will also be available for PC on release.

    • OhFudgeBars@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      I wasn’t surprised by the length of the base game, or even by the presence of the post game, but by how much time the game spent ending. You beat the villain, that should be it, right? Lol no, you have to traverse the whole game world without vehicles and no network support. That’s it, right? Lol no, here’s a giant boss monster. That’s it, right? Lol no, here’s a shitload of cutscenes. Then the credits, then cut to black. That’s it, right? Lol no, more cutscenes, then one last delivery… and one last burst of cutscenes, some of which should have come earlier. That’s it, right? Lol almost, you have to watch the credits again, and then one blessedly short cutscene before the postgame, and then you can finally go to the main menu and quit.

      I really liked the game, but good lord.

      • misk@sopuli.xyz
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        6 days ago

        Is that correct? Kojima bought full rights to the IP couple of months ago and released Death Stranding on everything immediately. Seems like it’ll be timed exclusive at most.

        • They’ve only announced it to be getting released on PS5 in 2025. That’s almost all the information there is about the game rn. I would take it to mean timed-exclusive, but that’s still not releasing on all platforms at once.

  • Katana314@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Considering how simple its premise is, Another Crab’s Treasure seems pretty basic, like its story doesn’t have much left, at several points. People online gave some takes that four boss fights from the end, they thought each one would be the final boss.

    Far Cry 3 also did this well. You finish the skill tree, do the last few missions where the increased power slides the difficulty down…and then it turns out you unlock a whole other island to make use of your full ability tree in every encounter.

  • Tedesche@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Xenogears. 80-hour game, and that’s without grinding for everything. And, it probably would have been close to twice as long if they’d been funded enough to complete it. As it was released, the second disc began with a 2-hour cutscene with a save point in the middle, which essentially summed up most of the second half of the story. Amazing game. Like playing through an entire mecha manga.

  • QuantumSparkles@sh.itjust.works
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    5 days ago

    Going back a ways here with Castlevania: Symphony of The Night. It seems like a fairly fleshed out game as it is when you get to the “final” boss but then you read a guide and find out “ending A” is only half of the game

  • Console_Modder@sh.itjust.works
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    5 days ago

    Nier Automata actually kinda pissed me off the first time I played it. Thought I was finished with the game and was confused by the ending, turns out that was just ending A. Gotta play again for B, and then C, and can’t forget D and E for the full picture.

    Had to take a break from the game but I went back for the rest of the endings and they’re worth it. Also they cut out a lot of the side quests and grinding after ending A. Getting that first ending is actually like 50% or 60% finished. But yeah, at first I was getting flashbacks to the PS2 games that tell you the true ending can only be seen by playing again on the newly unlocked ‘Very Hard’ difficulty

    • Katana314@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Ending B was absolutely just padding.

      There’s maybe a few segments where it’s interesting to see 9S’s perspective, but so many other scenes that weren’t bot-specific.

  • Dettweiler@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    6 days ago

    Dragon Age: Origins. The base game was easily 80+ hours of interesting story and game play. Each DLC added 20-40 hrs a piece. I used to play it a ton.

    I don’t recommend giving money to EA, though. They have properly shit all over the sequels.

    • anakin78z@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      I just finished The Veilguard at 68 hours. I loved it, but haven’t played Origins. I bought it, but refunded after I saw how buggy and unsupported it is on new hardware these days. Maybe they’ll have a remaster some day, since everyone seemed to love it.

      • Dettweiler@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        4 days ago

        It probably wouldn’t be too resource intensive to run it on an XP virtual machine. You’ll want a version that runs on its own, though (no game store launcher, drm, etc)

      • VeganCheesecake@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        4 days ago

        What problems did you have with it? Still runs surprisingly well for me. Haven’t tried Veilguard yet, but plan to as soon as I have some time. Felt that none of the sequels where able to match Origins yet, though.

        • anakin78z@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          Well, it crashed on launch, for one. I saw there’s a ‘4GB’ fix, but that doesn’t let me launch from steam, and I wanted to stream to the steam deck, where I do almost all my gaming these days.

          I really loved Veilguard, but I’ve definitely seen people who played Origins complain about it. I thought the characters, story, and combat were fantastic though.

          • VeganCheesecake@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            4 days ago

            Well, people love to complain. I didn’t feel Inquisition was as good as Origins, but I still had fun with it, and I assume the same is gonna be true for Veilguard.

            Anyways, that’s curios. I think the Dragon Age Games are some of the few I own on Origin. I’d be kinda surprised if EA made the effort to patch the games on their own client, though.

            Might try running it tomorrow, out of curiosity.

            • anakin78z@lemmy.world
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              4 days ago

              I just started Inquisition. I’m looking forward to learning more about the characters that appear in the Veilguard.

  • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Okami. Every time I finished an area, I thought I was nearing the end of the game. And every time, I was presented with a new, even larger area.

    • QuantumSparkles@sh.itjust.works
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      5 days ago

      There’s like three different points in the game that look like the end before revealing more. It’s a chunky game. If it was paced slightly better and the dialogue trimmed (by a lot) it would be perfect. But it’s close enough

    • VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Even if you notice that your brush techniques an inventory screens don’t look complete, it really does feel like the end. Then when they do look complete and you’re sure you’ve finally finished it, there’s one more region and some upgrades.

  • skrunch@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    It Takes Two. I thought the game would be over about four times, but then it kept adding even more mechanics and got HARD. I thought it would be super casual, did not expect that much length and depth to it (ignoring the cheesy story 😅)

    • wrekone@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 days ago

      It was a really fun game. It took months to finish it, in small chunks, trying to fit in time here and there with my kid. I’m glad we finished though.

  • magic_lobster_party@fedia.io
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    6 days ago

    Elden Ring. Even after finishing the final boss there was so many areas I’ve not been to. And all those areas are unique - some with unique enemy types. It’s the game that dares to hide a secret area behind a secret area.

    • KreekyBonez@lemm.ee
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      6 days ago

      from the people who brought us illusory double walls of the Great Hollow and Ash Lake, go figure

  • porotoman99@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    The Talos Principle. After a short bit in the game, you go to a hub area that goes to other areas like the one you just came from. Eventually, you find out that there is another hub area above this which leads to other hub areas. I didn’t remember if there is another layer on top of that, but either way, once I hit that second hub layer, I remember realizing that the entire game was multiple times larger than I had thought, and I had no way to know if it would expand again when I made it to the next area.

      • inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        My wife and I each 100%'d Talos 2 and it was abundantly amazing. It had been years since either of us completed 1 but the way the story is structured you hear about the events of the first game in detail pretty regularly. I’m trying to be vague for spoilers. And of course I’m not trying to talk out of replaying 1, but just know you don’t have to, understand 2, and in my opinion it might be a touch tedious to do them back to back.

        Both fantastic games tho that started a lot of good conversations between us.

      • shrodes@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        There’s a remaster coming out early next year! I’m planning on doing the same when that comes out