I'm getting there. I've started playing BG3 maybe a dozen times, but only played it through to the end once.
BG3 is truly ridiculously long though. It's trivially easy for a playthrough to stretch out to 120+ hours, without even finding or doing everything!
RPGs in generally have been getting longer since The Witcher 3 (which was also ludicrously long), as for some reason that's been used as a benchmark of quality, even though in many cases it's more of a "this soup is terrible and there's not enough of it!" situation. I honestly hope we see more trending back towards 30 hours full playthrough, 60 hours completionist.
I do have a problem with not finishing RPGs but I've had it since there were videogame RPGs, which is I get to some major "no turning back" point or big story point (often but not always pretty late in the game) and then I decide it's not time to do that yet and end up stopping playing rather than going forwards! I've been getting better at forcing myself through that point and finished BG3 and Elden Ring, and I expect to finish Avowed the same way. My second BG3 full playthrough (Honor Mode) is paused at the end of Act 2 because I kind of am overwhelmed by the idea of having to do Act 3 again. I've got 400 hours total on Skyrim (various versions) and I still have never finished Skyrim or even seen like, "the last mission". I should fix that one day.In my personal cases its less about length than always hitting sticking points and lacking enough motivation to push through.
Even BG3 doesn't quite have both imho, because the quality drops from like 10/10 in Act 1 & Act 2 (Act 2 is really short, as well, after the first playthrough) to 8/10 in the last act (and until the patched in the epilogue, which is admittedly pretty great, the actual ending was dangerously close to Mass Effect 3 levels of incomplete and "Wait what?" feeling).Quality and quantity?
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Dont necessarily agree about Cyberpunk 2077, but I agree with the sentiment. Mass Effect Andromeda for example, had loads of fetch quests that were about as interesting as watching paint dry (A feeling I often have from playing CP2077). ME games in general usually had some boring timesink to give the game more legs in the time to complete territory.Even BG3 doesn't quite have both imho, because the quality drops from like 10/10 in Act 1 & Act 2 (Act 2 is really short, as well, after the first playthrough) to 8/10 in the last act (and until the patched in the epilogue, which is admittedly pretty great, the actual ending was dangerously close to Mass Effect 3 levels of incomplete and "Wait what?" feeling).
The closest I can think of off-hand to a game having both is probably Cyberpunk 2077 with the expansion.
I dont think this is anything to worry about. If folks dont want to play it through at least once, they will just watch the ending on youtube.Plus I personally think if a game takes forever to finish, like there's no reasonably fast way (i.e. 30 hours or less with focused play but not speedrunning) through, then you're really limiting how many people will actually see the end, even if its really good.
Europa Universalis 4 for me. I stayed on patch 1.30.6 and bought all of the expansions up to that point. I am really enjoying it.![]()
Even BG3 doesn't quite have both imho, because the quality drops from like 10/10 in Act 1 & Act 2 (Act 2 is really short, as well, after the first playthrough) to 8/10 in the last act (and until the patched in the epilogue, which is admittedly pretty great, the actual ending was dangerously close to Mass Effect 3 levels of incomplete and "Wait what?" feeling).
The closest I can think of off-hand to a game having both is probably Cyberpunk 2077 with the expansion.
Plus I personally think if a game takes forever to finish, like there's no reasonably fast way (i.e. 30 hours or less with focused play but not speedrunning) through, then you're really limiting how many people will actually see the end, even if its really good.