Got Your Money's Worth?

[Vilge Duin]

After recently looking for something new to play for the PS2 that I haven't yet played, my girlfriend spied DragonQuest VIII in EB for $20, but I thought against it. Same goes for Okami (but for $30). So went looking around at websites for a better idea of what I'd be buying and I kept getting the same information that is uniformly useless.

But the one thing that is always sticking out to me lately is... "80-100 hours of gameplay", "20-30 hours of gameplay", etc. Like with Dragonquest, I've been bombarded with how long it will take and it scares the shit out of me. People saying they've played over 70+ hours and still aren't 2 thirds done the game. When I was younger I loved RPGs for that because I felt it added value, now it both bores me and scares me at the same time.

So what I'm asking is, what do you think is the best value for your money when you buy a game?

Some people find sticking with a MMORPG and paying a pretty hefty fee (to me) to be great fun. Others love plowing hours endlessly into RPGs. And so on.

I find myself being drawn more to the PC over time. Sim type games (Tycoon style stuff) and strategy games are fantastic. You can get in quick games, but also plan out long stretches of time. For instance the Total War games are great for that. Same with the recent Dawn of War expansion. I find the inclusion of a macro map with the more micro battles to be awesome. I'm also still drawn to Zelda-style adventure games.

Console games are becoming routinely a big waste of cash to me. Prices keep getting higher, supply is becoming annoying and there just seems to be a regurgitation of ideas. Short repetitive games with slick production values seems to be it.

So what do you find to be the best waste of your money?

[Toe]

Thats the joy of sports games for me. You can easily just jump into an exhibition game and have fun whenever, or you can commit a little bit of time into the franchise mode and really have fun.

[The Kraig]

Never-ending addictive, online multiplayer. Social games really.

Although games like KOTOR are well worth the money. I've played through those games so many times now, all in different ways. It's getting boring now, but I certainly got what I paid for and MORE. Luckily it takes so long to get bored with epic open-ended RPGs than by the time you're well and truly done with it, they've made another one (Mass Effect~! )

[TheCrippler]

I completed Gears of War in about a week, playing an hour or so a day.

I still think it was worth every fucking penny I paid for it.

[Rashid]

I love RPGs. I played many. I've only ever beaten a few, as I usually don't devote a lot of time into them. The only FF games I ever beat are I and Tactics. Though I'm currently commiting myself to finish II.

The amount of time you play a game means nothing. God of War was very short, but very awesome. Super Mario Bros can be beat in like 10 minutes, and it's one of the greatest games of all time.

Though I'm not saying long games are bad, some of the best games ever are long. I just find it hard to devote to them for a long period of time.

[stokeriño]

The amount of hours I've spent on various incarnations of Civilization and Championship/Football Manager boggles the mind.

But considering that there is a very real possibility that I've played Sonic 2 for more culmulative hours than those two combined, it puts it all in perspective.

[Xero Gravity]

Not surprisingly for me, the FF series are the ones I've got my money's worth out of the most. Collectively I've spent thousands of hours playing them, and to this day I can still pick any one of them up and happily play it again.

[Farmer Reil]

Because I have the attention span of a... thing with a short attention span, I tend to find myself swapping between games (and books, and TV shows, and wrestling promotions...) a lot.

So for me, the most "value for money" games are games that you can pick up, play, and put down again.

Pro Evo, Smackdown games, etc. are great for that. I don't care how up to date they are (there are only two "yearly" games I ever buy every year; TEW and Football Manager, and even then I've skipped some FM's). With Pro Evo, SDvsRaw or FM I can just pick it up, play a couple games when I'm bored, then close it and do something else.

Total War is similar to that, too, in that there are no points I feel I have to play up to (like in an RPG, there will be certain "I have to get to there before I save, otherwise I'll forget wtf I'm doing"), I can just stop and do something else whenever I get bored of it.

Once in a million, there'll be a game that grabs my attention for so long that I play it extremely regularly, not because I feel I have to like with Dungeon Siege, but because I actually WANT to, because I haven't got bored of it yet. WoW was that game for me (up until the Burning Crusade came out, that ruined it). Team Fortress Classic (online) was another game like that (and coincidentally the only time I've ever been good at an online game ).

Strangely, both games had radio stations that I listened to regularly. Maybe there's a link there somewhere ¬_¬

But yeah, on the whole, the best value for money for me is something that doesn't have an end to it. Excluding Dawn of War, I very, very rarely buy games that actually have an end to them (I didn't even buy Mark of Chaos ). Oh, except Oblivion, but the end to that seems to be so fucking far away I doubt I'll ever get there, so it's kinda endless to me.

Thus, my top three value for money games (personally. Some people will think they're shit ) are:

#1: Pro Evolution Soccer.

Pick up, play a few games, put down, forget. Simple.

#2: Counter-Strike: Source.

Half-Life 2 was fun and worth half the £25, and CS:S (if you find a good server to frequent that's relatively retard free and fun) easily makes up the other half. Again, pick up, play (this bit isn't quite as easy in CS, you have to find a few servers that are good so you can switch between them depending on who's online when you get bored), put down.

#3: World of Warcraft.

Sure, depending on your financial situation, 1p per day might be excessive (¬_¬), but nothing has given me the enjoyment WoW has since I found Team Fortress Classic five years ago. I miss BYTFC and UKTFR The only thing that ultimately broke me and WoW up was the Burning Crusade.*

(* not that TBC is bad. Just that I'm not in a position to spend £28 on gaming in one month right now. When I'm back at work and earning money, I might. If WAR turns out to be shit (doubtful, but possible)).

[Guest Weaf]

Dragon Quest VIII, the bane of my life.

I'm about 14 hours into it and I've owned it for about nine months. I'd owned the thing for six months before I even started it, I had a few other games to play and summer also kind of got in the way. I kind of wish I'd never played the thing, that game is my Everest.

I know I should like it, the graphics are sublime, the sound is beautiful and the world that Square-Enix have created is amazing...It's just not fun. The story doesn't interest me in the slightest, admittedly it might get better but so far it's not the best. The voice acting is good but they've never got anything interesting to say. The difficulty hasn't bothered me so far as I haven't died yet, partly because the battles seem so generic.

I just don't think I've got the time to devote to the thing, I can't really play 100 hour RPG's anymore, I've got too much shit to do. Final Fantasy 12 also comes out over here in February so Dragon Quest will probably get put back again. Then it'll be summer so it'll get put back again. When summer is over I'll probably buy a PS3 with Resident Evil 5 so it'll get put on the shelf yet again!

I should really be honest to myself; I'm never going to complete Dragon Quest VIII.

There, I've said it.

Now where did I put it?

Oh and to answer the question, personally I think Resident Evil 4 is the perfect example of what a game should be like. It's only around 20 hours long so it doesn't dominate your life. The gameplay is absorbing and the atmosphere is terrifyingly tense. It surprised me actually because although I was a fan of the first 2 the rest of the Resident Evil series has left me cold.

Edited January 26, 2007 by Weaf

[Guest Grapehead]

Well, thanks, now i'm off to play DQ8. Anyways, I prefer a long well written standard RPG to the MMORPG. I like knowing that I'm coming to an end, and everything will be wrapped up. MMO's are fun, for the fact that it goes on endlessly, and that I'd definitely get my moneys worth, but the concept of not really working to a final goal bores me. Sure I can get incredibly strong, and destroy this and that, but I need the satisfaction of a final chapter and page in a story. I don't really enjoy commiting so much time to reading books, but I treat any decent RPG like a book, so an MMO would be, to me, like reading an endless book.

[Jack Krauser III]

I completed Gears of War in about a week, playing an hour or so a day.

I still think it was worth every fucking penny I paid for it.

[Vilge Duin]

Weaf, that's why I'm avoiding Dragon Quest VIII. I have no time for games as is, let along ones I know will take forever. Thus why the idea of 80-100 something hours is daunting.

And despite owning Resident Evil 4 for almost a year, I haven't touched it. I popped it in and watched the opening and haven't played it. I just can't get an urge to play it despite it being declared amazing.

Best money I ever spent on a game would have to be Smash Brothers Melee. I can't name the number of hours I've ploughed into that both single player and multiplayer. Smackdown: Here Comes The Pain too. Got that for $5 brand new off my nephew.

[Momo]

Not surprisingly for me, the FF series are the ones I've got my money's worth out of the most. Collectively I've spent thousands of hours playing them, and to this day I can still pick any one of them up and happily play it again.

[Gazz]

Well, my current FM2007 game stands at 9 days, 13 hours and 16 minutes, and I've bought every one since CM2

Oh, and a Chase HQ arcade machine of ebay for £70, hours and hours of nostalgic 'Dad, can I have 20p?' fun (plus the chicks love it in the living room!)

[VerbalPuke]

I'd addicted to Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, it's probably the best game I have ever played in my life. The game can easily consume a few hours without a person even noticing, it's that captivating. I've definitely gotten my money's worth out of it.

I'd also like to note that I did not get my money's worth out of Dead Rising. I fucking hate that game, a great concept poorly executed. One of the biggest video game let downs I've ever had. Fuck that game.

[-A-]

Yeah, although I do enjoy sports/beat-em-up type games, I generally feel like I get my money's worth from good RPGs/FPSs. The exception would probably be FM, but when I think of games that really had a lot of content and different experiences, I think of System Shock 2, Baldur's Gate 2, Oblivion etc. I do still enjoy PES, Gears of War and so on - because although I'll play them plenty, it's the single player that grasps me most.

[stokeriño]

With all this talk of Dragon Quest VIII - I got it at Christmas when it was cheap from Amazon. I've played it for about an hour and I really can't bring myself to pick it up again. It doesn't help that I have to turn the sound off because the voices are just ear-grating. How long does it supposedly take to get good?

[Robsturgh]

I got DQ8 after rave reviews and while I like the game, thats all I do, like it. Its just so generic for where I am that its painful. There are plenty of games that I have that I more than like right now, like Baten Kaitos for GC, Arc: Twilight of spirits, right back into FF6 again, Shadow Hearts 2, etcetcetcetc. Its just too plain to be anything more than good.

[stokeriño]

DQ8 just completely failed to capture my attention, much in the same way that Star Ocean (which I also own) did as well. I don't know what it is. Other RPGs like Disgaea, Dark Chronicle, Final Fantasy and the like can grip me virtually from the start, but those two games just utterly failed for some reason.

When I'd rather spend hours playing the same level on Disgaea 2 over and OVER again to level characters than play either of these virtually untouched games, well...something's up there.

Edited January 27, 2007 by stokeriño

[Robsturgh]

DQ8 just completely failed to capture my attention, much in the same way that Star Ocean (which I also own) did as well. I don't know what it is. Other RPGs like Disgaea, Dark Chronicle, Final Fantasy and the like can grip me virtually from the start, but those two games just utterly failed for some reason.

When I'd rather spend hours playing the same level on Disgaea 2 over and OVER again to level characters than play either of these virtually untouched games, well...something's up there.