A reader explains how he uses a certain website to plan what game he’s playing next and how it’s helped him to have a more enjoyable gaming life.
I feel I should say that GC is my most treasured video game website, or there’s not much chance of the feature being used, but in truth I’m here to talk about my other favourite website, the one which has had more influence on what I play and buy than any review source: HowLongToBeat.
I’m never quite sure how well known it is but I find it invaluable. I’m assuming you’ve already guessed what it does, it’s not like the name is trick, but basically it has info on almost any game you care to type in, in terms of how long it takes to beat it for just the Main Story, Main + Extra (which I interpret as a reasonable number of easily discoverable side quests), and Completist (i.e. 100% completion).
There’s other information if you dig down further, where you can see how the totals are calculated from people who have written in to add their completion time and data. A lot of this isn’t very useful, except to see how many people the numbers are based on. If it’s only a few people then there’s a chance it can be quite inaccurate, although I rarely find it to be completely wrong.
Now that I’ve sat down to write this, I’ve realised I’m not actually sure why most people use the website. Maybe they’re trying to beat the average or something? But I would imagine they’d be better off at a dedicated speedrun site for that. Anyway, the reason I use it is pretty simple: to work out whether a game is worth playing.
If a game is any more than 10 hours for ‘Main Story’ then in nine out of 10 cases I just will not bother with it. And if it’s something silly, like over 30 hours, then forget about, there is absolutely no chance of me making an exception.
This is not some arbitrary rule I’ve invented, since I am quite happy to bend it if it’s a game that interests me and I feel I have the time, but usually I just don’t. I’m a working dad and there’s only so much time I can commit to gaming. I already spend more time than probably my wife would prefer, but I think it’s about average for someone in my position, at around 10 hours a week.
Maybe that seems a lot to some people – my boy’s 12 – so it’s not like I’m getting up every few hours to feed him anymore, but any gamer will tell you it’s really not that much. You need half that time to even get to the interactive part of Persona 4, for example. Or learn what the heck you’re doing in Dark Souls.
I don’t know what exactly you’re doing by hour 10 of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom or Elden Ring, because I’ve never played them, but I can tell from the website that I’d barely be 15% of the way into the games. And that’s assuming you were taking the ‘golden path’ and making progress, whereas I’d probably be pottering about and achieving very little.
I have absolutely nothing against open world games, but I don’t like to be hurried with them and nowadays that just means I haven’t time for them, full stop. It’s a shame, I’m sure, but there’s a thousand other things I don’t have time for in my life anymore, from reading super long books to learning to play the piano, and I’ve just got to accept that I’ve got responsibilities and my free time is a resource I have to manage
But now that I’m used to my limit, I have to say I’ve been enjoying gaming I lot more than I was five or 10 years ago. There are a few reasons for this but to put it simply, I’m beating almost everything I play within a relatively short time (i.e. I actually remember what the story was about by the time it’s finished), I’m playing a lot more games, I’m playing a lot greater variety of games, and I have no backlog.
On average, it takes me a week or two to complete a game, but the thing is, most shorter games are indie titles and they’re cheaper, so while I am buying more games I’m also getting more games in return. For £70 I can get at least three or four good quality indie games, sometimes more depending on what it is, and that’s not even counting sales.
Maybe I’m just making do, but I’m very happy with my set-up and my self-imposed limitations. I can break them whenever I feel like it, but I rarely do. The thing about 10 hour long games is there’s never any bloat, there’s usually no massively long cut scenes, and all the budget goes on the game and not just the graphics. The shorter the game, the less you can rely on visuals and gimmicks and I find that a big plus.
So, I say give it ago. Even if you have all the time in the world, limit yourself to only playing 10 hour or less games and I’d be surprised if you didn’t end up enjoying yourself more than the latest 60+ hour epic.
By reader Lagger
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