TESLA

This has absolutely nothing to do with games, I have several posts in the works but I couldn't not mention this. We don't get a lot of sports cars around St. Paul, MN. It's a little too cold, and a little too snowy most of the year to justify it I think. So when I saw this sitting across the street from my apartment today...well I just couldn't not take some quick pics and share them. Oh and if you want to know more about the car that will bring electricity to the masses check this out.

The Shorter the Fewer

Honestly it seems like there are two kinds of games. The under 20 hour kind, and the we can't really say how long the game will be because it's so long we stopped counting; I'm looking at you Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, and any game in the last 7 years by Bethesda.

I have mentioned games I have enjoyed before that are rather lengthy, but that was a lot of my past gaming. Just like I dislike it when reviewers knock a game for it being to "linear" I also think that well crafted, independent or blockbuster, but short game is not a real critique.

Take a game like Mirror's Edge, or even Assassin's Creed. Both games clocked in under 15 hours, but were two of the best games I played last year (yea I got Mirror's Edge Pretty Late). Even the single player campaign in Call of Duty 4 was barely over 10 hours. All of these games have their flaws, but the length of the game isn't one of them.

For someone like me who only get maybe an hour a day tops to play, and not on a consistent basis, this the perfect length. A 12 hour game can last we two weeks or more, which is all I really want to spend on a game. Looking over the games coming out this holiday season, how the hell am I supposed to play through all these? People talk about the movie season as if seeing 10 or 12 two hour movies is difficult, but how am I supposed to play through five or six 30 hour games?

It's not that longer games aren't great, but too many of them add on extra time just to say their game is so much longer than the next. I took the extra time to play through GTAIV; all 40 hours or so, but that was an exception. That game managed to play strong all the way to the end, but wading through the end of a Zelda game, or even trying to find the end of Oblivion can get next to impossible. You don't complete the game because it's to engrossing you can't put it down, you beat it because... well because you're a gamer and that's what you do.

So when Assassin's Creed II comes out I'm hoping it's not much longer than the first. With any luck Uncharted 2 will clock in around 15 hours, and I'll get to play Left 4 Dead 2 over my time off around Christmas.

MMO's or How I Spent My Summer Vacation

First off lets clarify. I don't play MMO's. I spent my summer vacation starting a running program and playing with the PS3 I finally acquired (for a little over $100 with rebates). I have a friend or two who does play WoW, and knew a few guys in college who plays Ultima, and that's as close as I have ever come.

I guess at the core I don't see anything wrong with them, but I just don't think I could ever grind. Oh sure I played Final Fantasy VII for somewhere around 120 hours when I was young, and a lot of that was spent wandering around level building. But it never really felt like "grinding"; that wasn't even a term that was used at that point.

And I think it's a little sad that people are willing to spend so much time to accomplish so little. I enjoyed all those hours playing FF because I was always doing something. Training my chocobo, exploring side quests, and really if we're honest the game itself could take you 80 or 90 hours to complete on your first play through anyway. That means you are always advancing the story.

So it wasn't unreasonable to ask a gamer to spend so much time, there was a story, there was a purpose. Oh and I didn't have to pay an additional cost every month just to keep playing.

I can't schedule my life around video games either. I can't plan on having a raid on a certain day of the week, or tell my wife I can't go out for dinner because my clan is counting on me. That sort of thinking just doesn't fly in the real world. Oh there are exceptions, but exceptions do not make up the millions of WoW players worldwide. I've met a lot of women in my life, there aren't enough understanding wives out there to account for it.

Which means the players are single, for the most part, and probably pretty much what you picture them to be. This is a separate post, but that bothers me since it makes it harder for working professional like me to mention gaming as one of my main hobbies.

Anyway so that's how I spent my summer, and why that summer did not include any MMO's. Though I am holding out for the new Star Trek.