[MattWBradbury]

About a month ago, I purchased 5 great games from the past decade: Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper, Return to Mysterious Island, Still life, The Longest Journey, and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. Right now, I'm on chapter 5 of TLJ.

I have to admit that, even though I've always given high praise to adventure games, I feel rather burned out on them right now. Maybe it's that I didn't expect TLJ to be that long. After playing Still Life, which ended before it actually finished, this game seems extremely long (especially with dialogue sequences reaching the half hour mark), and I feel like I'm not giving it proper attention.

Right now, I am in some serious need of some Action Adventure or FPS gaming. Where is Half-Life 2 Episode 3 when I need it? Though I think this can happen with any genre; playing Fallout 3 right after Mass Effect has given me an RPG fix to last for another six months at least.

How about you guys. How many adventure games can you play in a row before you get burned out on the genre? I'd say I got burned out after three.

[Adventurer4Life]

Originally Posted by MattWBradbury

How about you guys. How many adventure games can you play in a row before you get burned out on the genre? I'd say I got burned out after three.

I only play adventure games... pretty much nothing else and have been like that for around 15 years. IMO fps are just unplayable... i totally hate them... RTS is a joke... but if they in fact made one that did involve strategy i would prob play it. Think i will stick with online chess. RPG's are like.. wtf you have no life that you spend it playing a game that takes min 300 hours to complete... what a joke.. get a life.. and MMOs are even worse.

I know i am in teh vast minority... but computer games suck ... almost all of them.

[orient]

Going from one inventory-based third person adventure to the next has definitely taken its toll on me before. The formula can become rather repetitive, so now I try not to play one after another, unless it's a sequel to the first game.

Once I've had a fortnight's break from adventure games, though, I kind of crave them, because I really do love the genre.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by Adventurer4Life

I know i am in teh vast minority... but computer games suck ... almost all of them.

I disagree. It is not that the vast majority of games doesn't suck. The vast majority of games is not to your interest, that's all.

[MattWBradbury]

Yeah, I kind of agree with you, Adventurer4Life. There are some moments when I'm playing an RPG where I stop and say to myself, "What on Earth am I doing here?" Usually this happens when I'm wasting my time just trying to make my character stronger or looking for rare items.

I will tell you that there are some very compelling stories out there in the genre. One of my all time favorites is Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. Unlike a good portion of RPGs, I never felt like I was wasting my time. Games like Fallout 3, however, are basically dungeon clearing games that can waste a lot of time. And yes, MMOs are a thing I really hope to never get into. I kind of like seeing the daylight, and getting together with my friends and loved ones.

Orient, yeah, I should really have mixed it up. I just wanted to play some of the classic games before I switch over to Windows 7. The odds of these games working on it are not looking too good, especially The Longest Journey.

The last adventure game I played before my purchase was The Experiment; it's an interesting game, but the technical aspect of it started to add up to something that was not at all compelling and a big waste of time. I never finished it. My brother played Dracula: Origin, and said it was terrible, so I didn't even bother. Other than that, Overclocked was decent, but I was really looking for something that was as awesome as Gabriel Knight 3. Batman: Arkham Asylum is coming out soon, so I'll probably pick that up. Nothing quite like beating the tarnation out of some bad dudes.

[ggreen737]

I look at games like I look at good movies, they should entertain me. That is what they are there for, thats what I spent my hard earned money on, entertainment. Period.

A big reason whey I don't play MMOs of any kind, they are a huge waste of time, and I don't think anyone should spend that amount of time on anything. Moderation is the key to happiness IMO. Spend time with family and friends, get a girlfriend, get other hobbies, put in your time and effort in work, and play GOOD videogames. Everything in moderation.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

A lot of these opinions on other types of games seem to be based on ignorance and the propensity to take a small segment of a gaming population and impose its characteristics on all the rest of the population.

I take care of my elderly mother, taking her to doctor appointments, going with her to the bank (her eyesight is horrible), running errands for her (like getting her medicines), and other things. And yet I also play RPGs and other games that "demand" time from the player for maximum enjoyment.

That doesn't mean I put the needs of my mother aside just to get that one last ownage that'll level me up. And a vast number of MMO or RPG players out there are themselves young fathers or mothers to little kids, or they're taking care of other family members or they know better than to sacrifice their social life and professional life and whatever else just for gaming.

Adventure games are just one of a diverse bunch of game types I play.

If you are associating non-adventure games with robbing gamers of hours and hours of their time, please stop stereotyping others just because you are not interested in the games they play if it's not adventure games.

As for being burned out, the one adventure game I look forward to is Heavy Rain. Because it's different. I got burned out on adventure games a long while ago because they all felt the same afterwards. Then I got to that baking puzzle and slider puzzle in Still Life and I was, like, WTF!

I do, however, keep an eye out for new adventure games that don't fall into that trap, which is why I check here often.

[orient]

I'm currently playing Dragon Quest V on DS and it's probably a 100+ hour game, but that doesn't mean I have to sit down for a hundred hours straight and complete it. I play it when I have time and I play it even when I'm doing other things.

[dgolds]

I'm right there with you MattWBradbury. I am currently burned out on excessive dialog, and using every item with every item. This is after over 25 years playing adventure games. I love the genre, but the games that really grab me anymore are few and far between.

Like you, I have found that RPG's can fill the void. Games like Half Life, Oblivion, Fallout3 and Mass Effect are very immersive. The environments can be stunning. To climb to the top of a mountain range in Oblivion and simply look out over the land still amazes me. To me it feels more like an adventure than trying to figure out how to use the fish in my pocket to short circuit an electrical box. The fact that I had to dispose of a few monsters alone the way adds just adds to the excitement (I like to set the combat level to wimpy mode so it does not become overbearing).

Another diversion for me are casual games. I enjoy a well done "escape the room" game. Also, I just finished playing "Drawn" and thought it was pretty good.

What I really miss are the Myst clones (I loved all three of the Rhem games). Unfortunately, I don’t see anything like that on the horizon.

As far as gaming platforms go, I think Windows 7 is a great gaming environment. Having run it as my primary OS (64 bit) for a number of months (since RC1), I have not had any game issues. I loaded up a few of the older games and they ran fine. I think MS has taken its beating (deservedly) and finally come back with a strong OS.

And lastly, you mentioned KOTOR, which I noticed that Steam is offering for $10. Looks like I've got a new game for the weekend. Thanks for the final push!

[Gamegirl]

I haven't gotten burnt out on adventure games because I never play one after the other. While adventures are my favourite I also play The Sims 3, Fallout 3, Prince of Persia, and I really loved Assassin's Creed. I even play those time management games like Wedding Dash when I only have a few moments to spare. Variety is the spice of life in my book.

[Ascovel]

When those rare moments come when I'm burned out on adventure games I'm twice as burned out on other genres. Adventure games simply offer the most relaxed and varied of gaming experiences.

[DustyShinigami]

As Gamegirl said, I'm not burnt out on adventure games as I don't play one after the other; nor do I have three going at the same time. I tend to ignore the majority of these newer adventures as they don't really appeal to me or they're just very generic.

Not only do I love adventure games, but I love to play action (third or first-person) and action/adventures and whatever else appeals to me. I tend to look for/play the games that are 'good'; games that I'll enjoy. I love to mix my games up a bit. One minute I might like to chill out and solve some puzzles in an adventure, wrapped around a good story, the next, I like to play something with a much quicker pace, which requires some skill/quick reflexes on my part.

[tsa]

Originally Posted by Adventurer4Life

I only play adventure games... pretty much nothing else and have been like that for around 15 years. IMO fps are just unplayable... i totally hate them... RTS is a joke... but if they in fact made one that did involve strategy i would prob play it. Think i will stick with online chess. RPG's are like.. wtf you have no life that you spend it playing a game that takes min 300 hours to complete... what a joke.. get a life.. and MMOs are even worse.

I know i am in teh vast minority... but computer games suck ... almost all of them.

Same here, except for the sucking part. I play little mind-games on my phone. Sokoban is my favorite.

[3rdFloor]

Never!! (In response to the thread title.)

Originally Posted by Adventurer4Life

RPG's are like.. wtf you have no life that you spend it playing a game that takes min 300 hours to complete...

Although I highly respect RPGs for the sheer amount of work that goes into making them, I find myself never playing one because of what you say there. A game that requires hundreds of hours to complete isn't likely to interest me, no matter how good it's supposed to be. Besides, I prefer to stick to adventures. There are so many good ones to play!

[Toefur]

I think games like Mass Effect and Fallout 3 are good references for discussions on adventure games. Minus the shooting and stuff, whenever I play games like these I think to myself, "Wow, this is just like what an awesome adventure game would be like."

Adventure games (as we all know) can be often too restrictive and remain too steeped in what has been the historical method of presenting an adventure game. I, for example, really, really, loved Mass Effect. Some of the shooting bits I didn't mind - in the cases of where the story warrants a bit of shooting, that's fine, but I don't enjoy things like running around trying to kill giant alien monsters. I find that silly.

However - the all the other parts a game like Mass Effect, you think that an adventure game should be like this! If an adventure game was presented in a format similar format instead replacing the running around and shooting a whole lot with more dialogues or objective based tasks you could have some really exciting and stimulating adventure games!

But then again... sometimes I just like to sit down and relax with a typical adventure game.

[Adventurer4Life]

Originally Posted by Toefur

I think games like Mass Effect and Fallout 3 are good references for discussions on adventure games. Minus the shooting and stuff, whenever I play games like these I think to myself, "Wow, this is just like what an awesome adventure game would be like."

Yea... I have to admit I have had a similar discussion on Mass Effect. I couldn't finish that game.. The game is just to long and all that combat is not my thing. Still when you first get to that space port place and are just running around "investigating" and exploring and chatting to people... I thought that same thing.. "Man I wish this was just a normal adventure game"

Fallout 3 dose not fall into this same realm for me.. That game is a ancient "dungeon" archetype. Get quest, go into dungeon kill shit, get gear. Total snooze feast imo.

But yea that frist bit of Mass Effect showed me that AAA adventure games would be awesome if they were... . . you know.... in fact MADE

[Jelena]

No, I'm not burned out on adventure games yet even though it's the only genre I play.
Adventure games suit my personality and my cravings perfectly. If I was to not play adventures, I wouldn't play computer games at all. Of course I don't love or even like every game I encounter, but I'm not at all interested in anything that requires reflexes or a trigger finger. It's just not my thing.

[Fantasysci5]

I get burned out on adventures every once in awhile. I need to put them on the back burner for a little bit, and go play something entirely different, like an RPG, until I feel like playing them again.

I'll get tired of adventure gaming when the story doesn't really capture me, but I want to at least finish it. So I'm trudging along playing it, and I just get tired of doing all these tasks that I don't care about. So I go off and play another type of game, which does not consume my life anymore than adventures do, until I feel like tackling the adventures again.

If I'm interested in the story, though, I'll play non-stop.

[J.H]

I haven't played any adventure games for around 2 months now but I've just got back into finishing Full Throttle. Adventure games are my favourite but I love RPG's and Action Adventures, however I can't stand FPS.

To say that playing any other games but AG's means you have no life is pretty ironic in my opinion though.

My top 5 favourite games are probably

Broken Sword 1
Grim Fandango
Final Fantasy 7
Metal Gear Solid
The Dig

Variety is always good.

[crabapple]

Originally Posted by MattWBradbury

How about you guys. How many adventure games can you play in a row before you get burned out on the genre? I'd say I got burned out after three.

I don't think I've ever played exclusively adventures without having a game from another genre going at the same time. So my getting burned out doesn't have much to do with how many I've played in a row (without playing any other genre in between).

What does burn me out is playing a succession of mediocre adventure games which never manage to engage me in either the story or the puzzle or the exploration department. I haven't enjoyed a "serious" 3rd person adventure this year other than The Lost Crown and Sherlock vs Jack the Ripper. (I did enjoy Dracula Origin because I enjoyed the puzzles, but I think I played that last year.)

Lately I've been replaying Dungeon Keeper 2 even though I have a few unplayed adventure games I haven't installed yet. None of them really look that appealing at the moment because I'm not in the mood to listen to a lot of dialogue.