Do you use HowLongToBeat to see how long a game is?

https://howlongtobeat.com/game?id=41753

I don't use it all the time, but I do like to use it to gauge how much time a game is going to take to play a game. There are just so many games to play, so having an idea if a game will take 100+ hours is good to know. It's also good to know if a game may be too short, so you don't spend too much money on it. I guess it really depends on how interested you are in the game as well. How about you, SW? Do you use HowLongToBeat to see how long a game is?

I don't, since it can make it feel like an obligation to finish a game in a certain time frame, and if I'm not then I'm doing something wrong.

Prefer to take a more relaxed, more "take-my-time" approach in my gaming. Explore everything, listen to every dialogue, never using fast travel unless I've messed up something, and just take in the game world. Another reason these estimates are probably useless to me.

Lol, that would be under the "completionist" section. But you sound more than that lol.

Not really. Don't care about completion. Never got all the achievements in any game, and the last time I got a 100% completion was Assassin's Creed Syndicate. I just like to take my time and take it all in - see an icon on map, go there and see what it is. That's all.

Yeah, I find myself using it from time to time.

Finding out if a game is 25 hours or 10 hours can be interesting to fit in a certain game between two other games.

Though the time it takes for me to complete a game can be way off. Probably depends on how good you are in a certain genre.

Nope. Most of the time people lie if it involve a combination of jrpg and platinum trophy.

You sound like someone who would enjoy No Man's Sky lol.

Maybe. I do like space games; Freelancer, Starpoint Gemini, almost bought Elite: Dangerous at the last Steam sale.

The thing that has always made me wary of No Man's Sky was its lack of direction. As a certain internet personality puts it; "the appeal (of exploration) lies in the finding. You can explore a sheet of blank printer paper for an afternoon, but it wouldn't exactly stimulate." Freelancer, Starpoint Gemini and Elite Dangerous have objectives, missions and progression - something to work towards. NMS doesn't seem to have much of that.

Could be a decent podcast game, though. But again, I already have one of those.

Nope.

Never heard of it.

I take a lot longer than these suggest since I like to explore a lot but it does give a bit of an idea.

Nope! I prefer to find out myself for the games I am interested in. But it's cool for casual research.

Never even heard of it, so nope never used it.

Sometimes. But games typically take me longer than what's listed , so I factor that in. Like if it says 8 hours , it's probably 10-12 for me. The bigger the game is , the more hours I'll add percentage wise.

No. I’ve heard of it but never used it myself. No particular reason as to why I’ve never used it although I’m not really too concerned about how long it takes to finish a game. I’m more concerned about about the experience instead.

Not really but I kind of am right now given there's an Xbox Rewards goal for completing 10,000 achievement points in like a two week stretch. So I am picking the easy 100% games that might take a few short hours to get this, still need another 4,000.

Generally though I do factor completion time in what I play. If I know a game will be a 100 hour endeavor then I am less likely to start.

^ Pretty much

It's generally way off from the average anyways.

If I know I'm playing a longer game I will.

I do check sometimes just to make sure a game is not too long. For example I was thinking of picking up Dragon Age. But this https://howlongtobeat.com/game.php?id=11627 means nope for me.

Well seems I'm about to be the exception in this thread.

I sometimes use it out of curiosity, I want to know roughly what to expect. Of course it's not 100% accurate and it doesn't gauge "fun" but then again I don't feel like it was ever supposed to do either.

Basically It's like taking a pulse and giving you a rough idea of how long the game will take you and of course length isn't everything but I do sometimes take it into account when choosing a game (although it's nowhere near a deal breaker).

Never, but i like my games to be as long as they can be. And i am talking about games, not pensis. Bye.

Nope

It took me almost 150 hours to finish Inquisition. And I don't even consider myself a completionist. Just fell in the trap of the modern day open world game design.

I no longer have the patience for most long games so I sometimes check howlongtobeat to get a rough estimation of what I'm dealing with.

I've had that game forever. Never made it past the first hour lol. It seemed cool. Not sure why it didn't catch on with me.

Yeah, I use it on occasion. It doesn't determine what games I buy, but more just gives me an idea of what i'm getting into.

I do if I want to schedule time for gaming.

Sometimes I do look if I wanted to see if a game is worth purchasing. I want to see quality and longevity in a game. So at times I do. Helpful site and tool. 👍

Yes, because it's always the first result when I try to see how long a game is and I care about my time.

lol, go for completionist bro. 💦

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I've come across it a few times in random searches, surprisingly seems pretty accurate.

First time I've ever heard about this website.

I use it a lot, though games tend to be a lot longer than howlongtobeat suggests. I play on hard difficulty settings which means more retrying. And I often fool around a bit instead of doing main missions.

Yes, but I try not to spoil myself.

I use it all the time. If the average time is pretty high I may even skip out on a game.

I generally do, as I tend to be averse to longer games these days.

It's a pretty good game if you ignore the boring side content. Just a bit bland.

I look at it from time to time but for no other reason to just gain perspective.

Yes I check it. I don't have the patience for super long games anymore

Didn't even knew it existed. If I want to check how long a game is because I don't wanna end up in a time sink, I simply Google it and compare a handful of results.

I do if a new game is coming out in say a week or so. Say X game is coming out in 3 days. Do I have enough time to beat this game as I will drop this game when X game comes out.

I don't because I couldn't care less how long it takes to beat a game. If it's a good game, it could take forever for all I care. If it's a bad one I probably won't play it to the end anyway... Also, most games I play don't really have an "ending" since I do not play a lot of story driven stuff anymore. Gimme some rocket league or an FPS or a racing game.

All the time, but it is wrong lol.

it says TLOU2 is 24 hours and 38h to get 100%

it took me 42 hours first run through (survivor) and then 38 hours on the second run through (survivor+) so 80 hours and still didn't get the platinum :(

Ghost of Tsushima:

21 hours and 55 hours for completionist. Well I'm 35 hours in and barely started act 2.

Finished act 1 a couple of hours ago. I play on 'Lethal' difficulty of course which is the hardest.

so 21 hours for GoT and 24 hours on TLOU2... Do y'all just skip through everything, explore nothing and play on easy?

Final Fantasy VII:

Again, says 34 hours for the story. It took me 65 hours to finish the story + extras (but not all) still longer than the suggested 42 hours with the extras.

RE2 I think says 8 hours and I spent 14 hours as Leon, and 9 hours as Claire (so 23 total)

MGS5 says 46 hour story and 163 hour completionist. I finished the story around 100-105 hours in and spent a total of 200 hours. No where near 100% completion.

What I've learned is that main + extra is what I spend on the main story alone and completionist is what I usually take to complete a game doing main story + a lot of (but not all) side quests

Not usually - but when a game starts dragging on and throws one of those "haha! you thought you were done! CINEMATIC TWIST!" at me I'll sometimes check it out to be like "where the f*ck am I in this hollywood schlock"

Which Final Fantasy VII? A couple months ago I did a full playthrough on stream of the original. I counted the length of each stream and it game out to 38 hours. I skipped most side quests except for breeding a golden Chocobo but that allowed me to get the materia needed to expedite the rest of the game.

@eoten: The Final Fantasy VII remake. I didn't even die much at all to be honest, I found the game very easy. Still took around 65 hours to complete it, and didn't get all of the side quests or anything. Spent 80-ish hours total but that includes a NG+ at Hard difficulty (which is also quite easy)

Yeah I do. Especially with any kind of JRPG just to get an idea of what I'm getting myself into.

I think most people do that. Especially PlayStation gamers.

@Litchie: For real. That's why I take those numbers with a grain of salt. I've recently become fond of playing the hardest difficulty and exploring *everything*. For GoT that means all the Fox dens, shrines, camps, etc. and for TLOU2 that means all the coins, artefacts, etc.