Hour Play - Why An Hour Is Enough

Pushing Play put up an article justifying their 'hour play' review format.

[TheBeginningOfTheEnd]

will never be enough. ill be damned when i "take a break" from my break

[Kappa Mikey]

everybody needs to play at least 5 hours

[Born2BK1NG]

I NEVER play my games on monday-friday, only on Saturday, and rarley on Sundays,and only play for 45 minutes MAX, Seriousley, i do. I still luvy luv my games though...

HALA BAK @ THE Wii!!!!!

[SynGamer]

If the game hasn't hooked me withing an hour, i'm likely not going to continue on. The game is supposed to be fun, and wasting the first hour, two, three, sometimes more just getting through story and what not...isn't fun.

[Baka-akaB]

That's nice in theory but it doesnt work in any story driven game likes rpgs . hell even in stuff like DMC it doesnt work , with many of the future skills essential for proper gameplay that arent available from the start .
And its epic failure in mmo as well . At best you'll get fooled by the first moments of the game , only to realise one week later that it actually sucks (AOC) , or you'll be miserable and weak (90% of mmos) .

Sorry but even pure fighting games needs more than an hour to properly judge .

[Wildarmsjecht]

1 hour is not enough. Believe it or not, most games that were fantastic in their own rights, did not have that epicness occur right from the start. If it's an RPG, most of the major story twists that really get you into it don't occur till half way through. Are you telling me that such an RPG should be only 2 hours long?

The same can apply for fighting games, action adventure games, even first person shooters. It'll take more than an hour to get used to the control scheme, the game mechanics, and what the overall game is about. If you want to spend a fraction of a time reviewing a game, then you're only reviewing a fraction of the game itself.

[PS3Freak]

you need the play the full game before you can get an accurate review on it. THATS THE BOTTOM LINE

[qwertyuiopasdfghjkl]

Might be my new favorite gaming website... other than N4G of course ;) ...Interesting read though, I look forward to reading their Hour Play reviews.

I'd say a good share of the game can be experienced in one hour, good games would inspire more play, bad games would obviously... NOT. This is a very touchy subject though, considering most games become very repetitive after hours of gameplay, and only a small percentage of games actually grow on the player as the game progresses.

Like for example, some story driven games that throw in different gameplay mechanics well into the game. MGS4 mech fight and boss battles, driving sequences, and not to forget Spore, which has you playing completely different gameplay styles one after another.

Also, with games like LBP coming up, the first hour or two of the game will be tutorial based single player gameplay, explaining how the game works and other mechanics. The creation part of the game is said to be accessed later on.

Multiplayer also poses an issue, COD4's multiplayer completely overshadows the singleplayer, when they do a review, will they play an hour of SP or MP, 30 minutes of both, or review them separately?

In closing I'd say the biggest deciding factor on whether or not you should buy a game, is all up to you. I know people that think Lair is awesome, and some other people that think COD4 is complete dog turd. The point is, if people don't pay attention to others preaching about what movies to watch or music to listen to, why should video games be any different?

PS: Yes I know video games cost more than any other form of entertainment, bringing up a solid statement that video game reviews are much needed. But for those of us who have the common sense to rent or download a torrent or demo before actually purchasing a legitimate copy.... Reviews are not necessary.

[kenshin22up]

Based on this, highly repetitive games like Assassin's Creed would get 10/10.

[Bathyj]

Hmmm, I think he spent longer writing this article than he does reviewing a game.

And what if a game gets better or worse, or has a plot twist after the first hour? Would this guy hav e informed us you have to play as Raiden halfway through MGS2? Would he have used any off Kratos's powers in full. Will he complete even one of his own user created levels in LBP?

Yeah 1 hour is heaps. ;P

[Harry190]

from Gamedaily. He reviewed MGS 4 after only playing Act 1. He did not even know there was Facecamo in the game and he used it as an argument to give it a lesser score. This spawned quite a debate. 1 hour review my arse.

[PistolPumptMonk]

I think you could get a GENERAL feel for how crappy or good a game is in an hour but you really need to play the entire game for a proper review.

[Final_Rpg]

Enough??!! IT'S NEVER ENOUGH!

[Tacki]

I would not trust any review if I knew the person had only played for one hour. I can't believe that they would believe this to be a 'good' idea. It's like eating an appetizer and judging the rest of the meal solely on that. I read the article but I still don't see a purpose for this.

This method might not be so bad within certain genres... let's say racing games... but it still sounds quite dumb. At first I thought it was a joke as I was reading along. I can't imagine how this will help other people decide what to spend their $60 on. You're better off trying actually playing the game yourself for 5 minutes in a demo or something. It really just sounds like a way to justify giving a lazy review if you ask me.

[Harri4444]

no bad reviewer bad one hour is not a nuf to truly review a game you should always play the game at least 2 times i hope all reviewers are not becoming like this irresponsible... person he sould be fire.

and don't you tell me to calm down this is serous :O(((

[ape007]

not enough

I play demos more than an hour

[MashedButtons]

What you guys arent getting is that we're not sayign that we're going to have a perfect understanding of all of the nooks and crannies of the game, just that we will be able to offer educated opinions that won't be colored by our particular playstyle.

How many people couldnt tell that Mario 64 was AMAZING the second they picked it up? Same with bigger games like Simcity, Oblivion, and even WoW. Sure your understanding of the game GROWS... but the hour marks an interesting mix between of knowledge, and intrigue. You understand how to play the game... but you don't understand the depth of it (story, progression, etc etc.)

But the whole point is.. if the 'playing' the game part isnt fun... then the whole thing isnt worth it!

right? RIGHT!