As an avid gamer more quality time in game is good.
But from a games reviewer/entity perspective less time in game is less "work" from job to job, review to review, which from that perspective shorter is "better".
I totally enjoy the larger open worlds in the last three AC games (Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla). Valhalla for me was much less compelling/enjoyable due to progress stalling hidden keys hunts for locked doors and chests that artificially extended play time. That said I totally enjoyed all three games and prefer the direction the single player experiences AC has gone mainly due to large, varied open worlds to explore and easily 100+ hours of gaming enjoyment.
I have seen this “Game’s too big…” chant by some and I suspect it is partly due to slow progress WRT collecting/earning achievements and 100%’ing the game since players must explore the game world which takes time. Also it seems many players race to “beat” a game before others versus taking time to enjoy what is actually IN the game and not being spoon fed their achievements is frustrating for them.
Bottom-line: The priority for me is maximum amount of in-game fun and the last priority is racking up achievements.
As long as my time exploring any open world game is compelling and fun I feel the game has done an awesome job of making my time worthwhile…the bigger the better.
Lastly WRT AC Infinity…I don’t enjoy multiplayer modes and no matter what Ubi does I hope they end up creating a large interesting and compelling AC single player experience.
@mdinger: Sort of seems like you spent as much time writing your critique as you did playing the game. Alexandria is just barely starting the game, there's tons of new things that take hold as you progress and the story, missions and scripting is excellent. All that said, you sound to be set on not liking ACO, that's cool, uninstalling will free up disk space for something else you might like. Honestly I keep coming back for "just another play through" because I am having a blast and that's what games should be all about. I could write a book on what I like in ACO but people don't read walls of text these days and I tend to be long winded :D. Well have fun no matter what, just know, you haven't really started playing into the game enough to partake in the fun that ACO has to offer IMHO.
5th play through and still having a blast. Old gamer, 314 games on Steam only because I have been on Steam since it came out, but I also love games, play as often as I can. I have always been a Gamespot fan but this review is just bogus, the low score feels like Gamespot is playing politics with their reviews to cause angst or damage to Ubisoft somehow, who knows, but ACO is not a 7/10 game IMHO, not even close. I love the new Open World (huge at that) design along with the revamped fighting mechanics where I am still getting better after 5 plays and I have never had such a good time riding a mount through any other game ever. The game world is amazing.
After 460 hours in ACO and having the best gameplay experience of any AC game (by far) I just don't trust Gamespot reviews like I once did. I mean, sure reviews are written by people who can have different views and preferences, but I just don't see how Gamespot has stood behind this 7/10 for this amazing game. A review score like that by an outfit like Gamespot has most likely helped convince gamers it wasn't worth their time or money and that's a shame at best.
343 has turned Halo 5 campaign into a complete COD clone for campaign structure and progression, but that's not the worst part! What's worse is they also allow resurrecting by AI players anytime making the game meaningless to play, removing all challenge, completely stripping ALL reason to fight well and not die in solo campaigns. Then they put story Data Pads/Access Points in the game BUT you are nagged to death for simply exploring the levels to discover them as your AI team mates constantly whine about "Come On, Let's Get Going, We Need to GO HERE!"...SHUT UP already and let me enjoy the darn game! Then the constant onscreen prompts to Hit UP on D-Pad for next objective/waypoint, it's pure COD "ring in your nose, leash around your neck" yanking you through the game like we are all mindless fools. I think what really helped me see just how BAD Halo 5's solo campaign is is that I just played the Master Chief Collection from start to finish (campaigns) thinking that would be a great way to approach Halo 5's campaign. Well all I can say is Halo 5's solo campaign is such a boring, obnoxious mess created by 343's commitment to including 4 player co-op as unique characters, it's just depressing, $60 gone for yet another dumbed down pretty game. GONE is any challenge, joy of exploration and meaningful reason to properly manage weapons and ammo, to get better, try different things and do well...it just does not matter any more in Halo 5.
@edwardpierce @pepperpepsi @mrbobbster It's simple, I am for equal treatment of ALL people and sexes, my point is where are the Male Strip Clubs? GTA is not on equal footing when it comes to males and females. That doesn't mean males are better smarter or anything, at all, actually I tend to believe guys don't "get" the most important aspects of life in general where I think women do, guys think with other parts of their bodies at times and GTA seems to cater to this...so where are the Male Strip Clubs, I ask again?
The GTA franchise has always catered to the male view of life in general, especially when it come to sexual aspects. To deny this is not being truthful. Having a female review any GTA game, regardless of her sexual preference, is like having a male review Mary Kay Cosmetics. I don't think it serves the targeted audience well at all.
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