i hope this game tanks and they learn their lesson: 4-6 hr games that do not have multi aren't worth $60 fucking dollars
I disagree.
That's exactly the problem with so many games these days. Developers try to cram so much bullshit into their game in order to have another bullet point on the back of the package and end up producing a LOT of content that is somewhat average throughout. Do you really think every game needs multiplayer? Most people tend to stick to a select few multiplayer games and learn them rather than skip around to every release. A game like Mirror's Edge doesn't need multiplayer and it would have likely had a negative impact on the game. I'm still angry that Kojima Productions decided to include multiplayer in MGS4 when they should have used those resources to add more gameplay to the single player package.
This type of attitude is precisely why so many games end up going the sandbox route and delivering LOTS of average gameplay rather than a refined experience.
The backlash we are seeing here is, I believe, one of the reasons why series like Sonic the Hedgehog have gone down the crapper. Sega is scared to death to release a short game and, as a result, ends up tossing in a lot of extra modes and slower paced characters just to increase the playtime. Games Mirror's Edge and Sonic are not slow paced by their very nature. With a game like Gears of War, the developers can get a lot of mileage out of a single room. With a game focused on moving forward constantly, the player will have crossed the equivalent of 10-20 rooms in the time the player may have completed that single room in Gears. The gameplay space still needs to be created and that requires time and money. If Sega weren't so concerned with play length perhaps they would have actually attempted to create a true Sonic game. I mean, in the Genesis titles, each stage could be cleared in about 1-3 minutes and the games could be completed in under an hour. If they were to approach those games with a modern attitude, they would have to greatly extend the game.
This obsession with "length" has resulted in so many games that could have been great failing to live up to their potential. They either include extraneous multiplayer modes that nobody will play or suffer from lots of filler material that ends up dragging the entire experience down. Unfortunately, the amount of work necessary to create a game like Mirror's Edge is just as significant as many other longer games. The fast paced gameplay, however, has you covering more ground at a faster rate.
