^ i would give two ratings to a game like Ico. As I said, it's a 9 as a rental, but only a 6 as a purchase. i don't feel right about giving a 5 hour game a high score.

And like I said: that's absolutely absurd. It did not used to be that games were even that long, save a few RPGs and a smattering of adventure games, and games are no more expensive now than they were then. Essentially you are calling out the entire history of gaming as being deficient because games tend to be short from time to time, or did.

That's absurd.

I mean, what would you give Portal back when it first retailed?

If you focus on Replay Value that much you'll only end up doing alot of short but fantastic games a disservice with your reviews. Telling someone that Ico is a below average game (which is what a 6 entails for most) doesn't seem even close to the truth as far as I'm concerned.

you mentioned it yourself. games USED to be that short.

we now live in an age where games are capable of delivering far longer experiences. it's called evolution. sure, back in the day, a 5 hour game is alright. but now, that stuff can't fly around without strong criticism. you have to make your game more valuable for the money people pay because the standard has changed.

The body of games are still that short - or in many cases, are filled with repeated content! They would sitll be that short if they provided uniqu experiences the whole way through. I love Crackdown and I love Fallout 3 and I love Dragon Qust, but all of them give you length through repeated content, which to me is worse than brevity.

like i said, i'd give it two scores (and i'm thinking of making em this way for the magazine). Ico is a 9 as a rental, but a 6 as a purchase. It's a good game, but it's my duty to inform how long you'll actually be playing it before sending it to the used games department.

Print magazines don't do so well, nowadays. Good luck to you, man.

GGGGGHHHHNNNNKKKKK-

Fine. I won't argue with you. It's your standard of quality, it's yours to decide on.

But do not expect it to resonate with people, especially if you refer to ICO as the sort of game one ends up trading in.

Informing people on value is fine, but that seems to be the only thing you take into account for your final score. Under your system I would take a guess that Cross Edge would end up scoring higher than Valkyria Chronicles, and that's just a crime unto nature.

I mean Jesus Shadow of the Colossus is only like eight hours if you're decent at that sort of game

I shudder to think what you would give it