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.
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