290°

Splinter Cell Creator: 'Games Are Too Long'

NowGamer: Clint Hocking, mastermind behind Splinter Cell and Far Cry 2, thinks single-player games need trimming down...

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nowgamer.com
joydestroy4857d ago

yah, because 6-8hrs doesn't really cut it. 8 should be the very minimum, even on easy, for a shooter campaign imo. i think 10 should be the standard, though.

looking at other genres, like RPGs, i'd say Mass Effect is a great length =)

teething4857d ago (Edited 4857d ago )

Depends on the game.

Bad games FEEL long, GREAT games feel short.

ME2, ME1, Borderlands (and DLC), Fallout 3 (and DLC), AC2 and RDR were all long games that were tons of fun and thus did not feel long. For a long game to feel short it needs to have a cool open world, RPG advancement, and fun game-play. Bioshock was great, but too long for the type of game it was IMHO.

That being said, I like the idea of short games. I am pretty busy, and like the idea of picking up a game and finishing it quickly. Splinter Cell Conviction was a solid game, and it was just right in length.

Part of me would almost rather pay 1/2 the price for a game that was half as long, but was released twice as often.

joydestroy4857d ago

@teething
i completely agree!

Iroquois_Pliskin4857d ago

i dont mind short games as long as they have replayability value. Like do this really hard thing and get stealth camo for example in all Mgs games

PrimordialSoupBase4857d ago

An excellent 6 hour campaign is better than one artificially padded to 8. This really varies on a case by case basis anyway.

gamingdroid4857d ago

It used to be that 8-hour short game WAS SHORT. Now a days, we are talking about 5-hours!

ShabzS4857d ago

i seriously hope he is joking... conviction lasted for less than 6 hrs for me... short length games work only if they are jam packed with quality... one of the first games to get away with short story for me was max payne 2

lil Titan4857d ago

Splinter Cell Creator needs to shut his F@#ing face Uncle F@#ker if its anything single player games are dying to online gaming.

lelo2play4857d ago

"Splinter Cell Creator: 'Games Are Too Long'"

He's probably playing a lot of JRPG's...

FOXDIE4856d ago

Splinter Cell creator: Games are too long
Me: STFU & GTFO

+ Show (5) more repliesLast reply 4856d ago
skyward4857d ago

He asks on his blog: "Why is Fallout 3 a one hundred hour experience?" I'm starting to ask myself the same question. If a movie was that long I'd never consider watching it...

BlackTar1874857d ago

cuz fallout is awesome and i could play it for 200hrs.

Agent Smith4857d ago (Edited 4857d ago )

If you do everything in Fallout 3 with all the DLC, then yeah, 100 hours+. But straight through the main quest is only 10 hours.

mandf4857d ago

maybe if you're that good. I would tend to think like 18-20. You could be right though. I put in over 500hrs myself.

Perjoss4857d ago

You're not supposed to play games like fallout in 1 sitting. When someone enjoys the setting in a virtual world they want it to last. I played GTAIV for almost 100 hours and I didn't want the main story to end.

skyward4857d ago

yeah, fair point. But something like Killzone 3, which is more action-movie like, playable for 2/3 sittings doesn't necessarily need to last for 10+ hours... HL2 at 20 hours? Yep, cuz the story and action are so excellent/varied...

Perjoss4857d ago

it all depends on the content really. Look at Halo 1, now I don't mean to downgrade it in any way, but there are some levels in there towards the end that are -very- repetitive, IMO it would have been a much better game without them.

Uncharted 2 on the other hand, if they kept that story and varied action plus varied locations going for 30 hours+ I would never complain. After all why not? the mass effect games are 30 hour ish and they dont get dull (unless you scan too much).

skyward4857d ago

Heh, I've got 12 disagrees - that's a lot of people that would sit through a hundred hour movie... seriously though, I'm not talking about worse value games, just tighter, more focused experiences...

Perjoss4857d ago

If you think about it Band of Brothers is a 10 hour movie, I sit through that regular like. I have no idea how many hours Battlestar's four seasons plus pilot are and it doesn't 'feel' too long at all. The key I guess is moderation, don't try to take in too much at once.

I know that TV series are not the same as movies but they are a better comparison as you are not supposed to play very long games in a single play through.

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disturbing_flame4857d ago

If he would have said that game are to expensive to make i could have understood the statement.

Games too long ? For the gamer, certainly not.

Flashwave_UK4857d ago

yeah games are to loong for those nooby devs cough* treyarch *cough

disturbing_flame4857d ago

Treyarch can thank Infinity Ward to have designed the engine of COD 4 in 2006/2007, since that time they use their engine they can make average games that sells millions of copy.

Man, some people are just paying 70$ an update (or so called) of an engine of 2007.

Now devs want to sell 70$ games that can also e less longer... That makes sense.

DaThreats4857d ago

People complain games are too short nowadays, and he wants to make them even shorter?
What, he wants 3hr single player games?

Eamon4857d ago

Portal was part of the Orange Box.

flyingmunky4857d ago

I wouldn't doubt it. I'll bet they still want to charge 60 bucks too!

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90°

Two Decades Later, the Original Splinter Cell is Still a Masterpiece

They don't make games like this anymore.

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gamingbolt.com
vgvill18d ago

Too dated in my book. The AI is way too unpredictable to be acceptable today. It's definitely a game of its time.

Jingsing18d ago (Edited 18d ago )

Agreed with those sentiments. The quality of the CPU controlled characters make or break a stealth game and they are pretty poor in all the Splinter Cell games by today's standard. This is what led me to playing Spies vs Mercs all the time in later games just to get a better stealth experience from a real person. Arguably Sony are making better stealth games albeit not Tom Clancy stuff.

TheProfessional18d ago (Edited 18d ago )

You should stick with fortnite or one of the countless bloodborne style games then. What a joke.

rlow118d ago

I had a good time with the game. It is a product of its time. But when it came out it was a must have game for a lot of people. I wish Ubisoft would make another game in the series or at least a reboot.

vgvill18d ago

They are making a remake, I think. I loved the original game when it was released, but I tried to play it again in recent years and just couldn't get on with it. The same with the older Hitman games.

PrecursorOrb18d ago

Yeah chaos theory still holds up though I gotta say. If you’re a fan of the series I highly suggest you go back to that one. Ubi has said they are remaking sc for “modern audiences”. I don’t have a lot of faith for the future of that company

Chocoburger17d ago (Edited 17d ago )

Due to the lack of modern stealth games, and me constantly playing the MGS series, I've been looking for alternative stealth games to play, and went back and re-played the SC series recently. I wouldn't call SC1 or SC:PT masterpieces, there are AI issues, they're very much trial-and-error games, and that can lead to a lot of frustration. I also found the stories in this series to be boring, uninteresting, and just sloppily told. Cinematics are also of poor quality for both in-game scenes and CG cut-scenes, the soundtrack didn't leave any impression on me either.

Chaos Theory is better, but there was still a lot of room for improvement, and Double Agent (old gen ver.) was a sloppy mess that ended up a regression from CT. But still, at least they tried back then, these days Ubi-junk doesn't even try to make good games!

HvNzSoul9d ago

Everyone needs to quit with all of the unnessacery Ubi-hate. SC Conviction and Blacklist are both still good games.

HvNzSoul9d ago

Everyone needs to quit with all of the unnecessary Ubi-hate. SC Conviction and Blacklist are both still good games, they just weren't 100% focused on stealth with Conviction and they remedied that in Blacklist. The only thing they have released recently that I was disappointed with was Watch Dogs Legion, and Skull & Bones. Everyone seems to be salty about the misleading trailer for the original Watch Dogs and The Division. Which are also, both good games, and actually Watch Dogs seems like it was ahead of its time even with all the trailer drama (having gone back and played recently, can say the game didnt deserve all the flak). Yeah the misleading E3 trailer that had better graphics than release is understandable to a very small degree, when most Teaser Trailers, or Game Demo's only have that portion of the game developed so they use the highest quality assets of w/e they have being showed, or what they are showing was made purely for the showing, allowing for extra polish . As to the gripes about minor game design changes, or cut features upon a games release just goes to show how unknowledgeable most gamers are in terms of how game development works or to even understand what what the hell a WIP, let alone titles still in early development.

Good games from Ubi since 2014 (Year that SC Blacklist Released) include:

Watch Dogs 1 & 2
The Division 1 & 2 (Although I had a hard time getting into The Division 2 at first)
R6 Siege
Ghost Recon Wildlands & Breakpoint
Immortals Fenyx Rising
AC Origins, Odyssey, MIrage (Haven't finished Valhalla games too damn long)
Far Cry Primal, and 5 (6 also has a length issue)
Avatar Frontiers of Pandora
Prince Of Persia The Lost Crown

Haven't played a couple of titles those being For Honor (played at launch but didn't honestly give it an actual go), The Crew, R6 Extraction and at the time of writing this xDefiant.

Even if you absolutely hated any of the above titles, they aren't inherently bad games, they're just good, but not always top quality either.

I say give Ubi credit where credit is due, they at least fix games post launch if they start out rough, Breakpoint is an excellent example this and is such an enjoyable experience now compared to it's launch.

70°

New Assassin’s Creed Mirage gameplay teases unique ability for Basim

Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Mirage appears to be adopting a key Splinter Cell mechanic, which is great news for the characterization of Basim on PS5 and Xbox.

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theloadout.com
60°

Why a Splinter Cell mobile game now would make perfect sense

Splinter Cell is the most innovative stealth series to ever grace this industry, why this is high time for a mobile port we'll discuss here

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gamingonphone.com