Time it takes to play a game

[Souness]

I play mostly indie games which let you go straight into it with no menu animations or unskippable intros. I always found Codemasters to be the absolute worst with that kinda thing.

 

[ttaskmaster]

NVM

 

[Unseul]

Though i had earlier systems i remember having different config files for booting into dos depending on what i was going to play, so needless drivers weren't loaded and the game had enough memory to run.

 

[Radox-0]

Personally works pretty smooth for me. To be honest recall waking up when a kid to play C&C generals on disc a lot, took far longer to get going for most the part then.

Now days, within windows on SSD system within 30 or so secs. Steam, Origin, etc, usually password saved, so loads up within another 20-30 seconds. Launch the game and usually playing within another minute or so. In all playing Ghost Recon breakpoint around 4-5 mins from powering on PC. Sure is annoying I suppose to have updates now and then, but with a connection below UK average at 35 mbps, Even I can normally can download most patch's in reasonable time (aside day one / early stuff which can be some GB).

Benefits though once in game, are massive IMO, SSD makes things in between load snappy, love how with some of these systems, cloud saves work. I have a rig in living room and main PC in another room. I can and do often wonder from one to the other when TV us available for couch gaming, fire up the game and voila all saves there and seemless play.

On note of the splash screens, most can be skipped, in some instances after initial viewing can be skipped. Not seen any splash screens that take much longer then 30 or so seconds to get past, even if it can feel like longer sometimes!

 

[loftie]

Jesus. I used to game on a C64, which involved waiting 30 minutes for the game to maybe load up.

Wizard of Wor! Instant load win

 

[dan958]

Why is your Steam taking a few minutes to open? It takes a few seconds to open. Unless there is an update, which then it takes a few more seconds.

 

[bazzabear]

I don't recognise the game, but assume it was a cartridge? I never had any cartridge games on my C64, but I did on my Vic20 previously.
I assume they resulted in much less powerful games, otherwise why were they not more popular given the zero loading times?

 

[AHarvey]

This is just a little rant, maybe you feel the same?

I remember gaming when younger on the Megadrive and SNES, you would insert cartidge, turn on, click start and within a few seconds you were playing.

hmmm, I remember popping the cartridge in, loading, failing, turning it off, taking the cartridge out, blowing in it to clear dust, popping it back in, turning it on, sometimes repeating a couple of times.

Long intro's on some games, often taking 1-2 mins to be in the game.

Now, we have to:
i) load up Steam, Origin or whatever, wait for that to load, sometimes update usually a few minutes. - gaming platforms always running, no load times.
ii) load game (another few minutes even on SSD), perhaps another update is required. - barely does a game take more than a minute to load on my system and it's over 7 years old not including the upgrades to RAM/SSD
iii) navigate your way through convoluted game menus to try and and actually start the game. - Click play on menu, choose save game slot and you're in
iv) try finding the needle in a haystack, the quit button in the menu when you want to finish playing. - menu, exit to menu then exit to desktop or just ALT+TAB and right click/close.

And then you have random things like origin launching on one monitor, but wanting to play the game on another.

I was hoping to play some Battlefield 4, but after 10 minutes messing around I gave up and wrote this instead.

Jesus. I used to game on a C64, which involved waiting 30 minutes for the game to maybe load up.

Yeah, but we always had a game to play while it was loading the main game

 

[PC777]

Some games even when started make you wait or pay a price to progress. A good example was the MGS 5 the Phantom Pain's injured crawling beginning, talk about taking liberties with a gamer's time, but Kojima always did that despite giving some very good gaming moments as well.

Was amused to see that Wolfenstein 2's designer clearly thought it was good by copying it as a game beginning, only that this time he's in a wheel chair which makes it only slightly infuriating and slow compared to the ludicrous opening to MGS5.

Also I'm from the Spectrum, C64 generation as well, it wasn't that bad for loading times but you definitely had to be more patient. I remember Summer Games on the C64 requiring loading after every event that might only take a minute to compete in each event. So 1 min gameplay followed by around 3 mins loading per event, that's after a fairly big load for the game itself.

Also as mentioned the C64 having music and even mini games like Space Invaders clones when loading made it a lot easier to deal with than Spectrum loading times.

 

[bazzabear]

Yeah, but we always had a game to play while it was loading the main game

I remember the Ghostbusters tape loaded up a Space Invaders clone half way through the loading process, so you could play that while you waited.

 

[darkgen]

Was similar on a Spectrum, if you dared to breath anywhere within 30' of the leads to the cassette deck then there was a 90% chance it would crash the loading. Good times.

Aye, tweaking that tone and volume control to ensure those border strips kept on striping!

 

[agnes]

You need a Switch, that sounds like it's up your alley.

 

[Arthur Hucksake]

I happily spent hours catching digital fish in Red Dead 2 for five hours at a time. A minute logon screen is no bother.

 

[Kreeeee]

The OP contains valid points.

A shame people have jumped into it like a PC vs Console debate. I think you are just frustrated in gaming in general and you are right about it in both the PC and Console domain.

I have none of these issues on my switch, so it's definitely not a universal issue for all systems.

 

[Mark A]

The OP contains valid points.

A shame people have jumped into it like a PC vs Console debate. I think you are just frustrated in gaming in general and you are right about it in both the PC and Console domain.

It really doesn't though. People have debunked the ops claimed wait times as no one else seems to have to wait minutes for games or launchers to load. Plus the OP used cartridge games as a comparison, when it's hardly a fair comparison and not much of a faster experience anyway.

 

[robfosters]

There’s so much to play on PC now, especially with the subscription services, that it’s starting to feel like a full time job at times!

I’ve got FIFA, BF5, COD, GTA, Planet zoo, it’s endless! My poor graphics card has to work harder than a Bangladeshi kid making nike trainers!

 

[SPG]

Lamers,

On the zx80 we spent 2days writing the code from a magazine before we played the game.

30min load times pff nothing.

 

[Hedge]

I have none of these issues on my switch, so it's definitely not a universal issue for all systems.

Try pressing start button on a SNES game and comparing the pause menu to a current game. Things are more complicated. The switch is actually a bit different because Nintendo have always maintained a gameplay first attitude.

Lots of other games now have a lot of menus and options that can be a bit overwhelming for some people.

Obviously the more advanced things have become the more we have benefited but some aspects are quite convoluted.

Cassette / floppy disc based games were indeed a long winded process but even comparing PS1 or Saturn to now there are more complicated menus.

Guess we all have different opinions anyway!