I gotta stop misleading you all with those titles. This blog is about the best genre of video games. Now of course it's all personal opinion, but it's been discussed in great detail here and abroad. (Ok fine, at gaming stores)
The greatest genre of video games are RPGs.
How did we get to this conclusion? Well, I have a stack of games to play, as I usually do, but this stack is different than normal stacks, it's
Dragon Quest IX
Pokemon Black
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn
Now, the savvy video game consumer would, and often does, ask "is this game worth my $60?"
Well, unfortunately nowadays, most shooters can be flown through at about 8 hours. Now some are already protesting and creating effigies of me to burn. Put down the paper-mache and the stick-on facial hair and hear me out. The average game has a limited amount of space they can use for their game, so gaming companies have to divide up their game wisely. A portion of it can go to the single player, another portion to the multiplay, some for the cutscenes, a little here and there for the FMVs, and you have a game.
Which as far as a side topic goes, there hasn't been a game (to date) on the PS3 that's more than 1 disc, however on the 360, it's quite common to find games be 2 if not 3 discs (some even 4 discs, what is this, ps2??) The reason being the Bluray discs can hold more blah blah blah. Regardless, they all have about the same amount of space to work with. (However, would a game on the PS3 be able to have more content than it's single disc 360 counterpart? well, yes, but gaming companies don't do that for the obvious reasons)
So you have to manage your game space in the right way, but understand that people want as much bang for their buck as they can get. You can pretty much see how a game is divided by looking at the achievements/ trophies for a single game. Get all of the awards and essentially you've done "everything" a game has to offer, usually. The multiplay has achievements, the single play has achievements on different difficulties, and the likes.
But you're playing the game for the game and the story, why on earth would you want to go through multiple times to get every single dollar out of the game? Because $60 clams is still a lot of scratch in this day and age. They used to have achievements where you'd get them for just finishing the single player storyline, on easy. Not no more. Conversely, you'll find a growing number of gamers getting the hot new game, blazing through it on easy, then deciding if they want to keep it or not. Sad? Maybe a little, but as long as they enjoy it on easy, they usually tend to keep the game and try it on normal.
Truthishly? I played Dead Space 2 the first time on easy, got through the game, and liked it so much I tried it again on normal. Now the discussion of "playing games on easy" isn't todays topic. We're here to discuss bang for buck. And shooters.... usually don't have it if you're just looking to get through a single player campaign and enjoy the game.
Imagine spending $60 on Black Ops if you didn't have the internet? Seems like a waste yes? There was a rumor ages and ages ago, and it was probably more of a wish than anything else, that a game like COD would come out and you would be able to purchase individual items of the game, pick what you want. The single player would be like $25, the zombies and bot mode would be $25 and the multiplay would be $30. You could still buy all 3 at $60, or buy what you want. Buying the normal arrangement individually would cost you more than the packaged game, so if you wanted it all, you could get it all cheaper, see how it would work? Inevitably, the gaming companies would make a fortune on the games themselves because of careful planning. The consumers couldn't exactly complain because they were given options, and it's essentially like a map-pack, but divided better.
Will this ever happen? Hopefully, you're already seeing more and more XBLA and PSN games for sale individually. Stand alone DLCs are still pretty common too. But for now, we're stuck with what we got. So if you want to enjoy the awesome single player campaign of Black Ops (Which to be fair, if that was all they had to focus on, the game would be stellar), or just the storyline of BioShock 2 (since no one really plays the multi anymore, trust me, I checked for you), you're still going to have to fork out the total amount of everything, even if you aren't going to use it all.
Then there's the RPG, those saucy dime a dozen ladies of the gaming night. A standard RPG clocks in at 30 to 40 hours. Yeah, not 8. Sometimes there's a difficulty setting, but usually it's not present to make the player put more time into the game. Yet, there's something enjoyable about grinding an RPG you like. (giggity).
You don't mind the extra time put in, because you can start to get better loot, which will allow you to defeat bigger mobs faster and so on. But an entry-level 30 hours? That's huge.
You have to enjoy the RPG elements of a game, but they make some that are tactic based, some that are turn-based, hack-n-slash, and some that are just straight up Zelda-esque fighting with leveling elements, all that push the clock at 30 hours. And that's just playing straight to the boss, assuming you never die or need to grind.
Name a few games like this? Deal.
(Tactics/ table based)
Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced (GBA)-
(I personally have put in 50 hours into the game, and my team is only level 30, the level cap is 50, in the DS version it's 99, the DS version I have about 40 hours in)
(Turn-Based)
Dragon Quest anything
(currently my gaming crack, I'm like 10 hours in, and they're still giving me tutorials to skills)
(Hack-N-Slash)
Demon's Souls
(I'm 40 hours in, and I've only played 3 of the 10 classes)
Dragon Age 2
(I'm like an hour in, but I know there's more than 10 hours I can easily get out of this game)
(Straight up Zelda style)
Children of Mana (or any of the Mana series)
Tales of Symphonia
So what's all this mean? Well, if you're looking for a good way to spend your $60, maybe try something other than a shooter. I probably get one guy in every week annoyed at how quickly he's beaten every shooter, I try to tell him they aren't worth the full $60 if you don't play online, but it's hard to understand I suppose. I got him hooked on Borderlands, so there's hope. If he hates it, I'll suggest Final Fantasy 13, a good 60 hours of your life down the drain.
Try an RPG. Oftentimes they're portable, so that's always good too. And usually you can find a pre-owned one, so even cheaper.
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