Longest Video Game Ever?

[bdshort]

I've been impressed with how long it's taking me to make my way through Fallout 3, while still holding my rapt attention, and that made me wonder what the longest video game ever is. Discounting MMORPGs that don't really end, and old school arcade games that just keep going on and on, what games have taken the longest amount of time to complete the main storyline/quest/whatever? I think Fallout 3 will take me right around 100 hours but I've spent a lot of time just exploring while not actually doing any of the quests. I have Oblivion, and may complete that some day. I know it doesn't really end even when you finish the main storyline, but there still has to be a point where you've completed all the quests and explored everything. I wonder how long that would take... I think I remember reading some reviews for some old school RPGs that took 200-300 hours to complete everything.

edit: Also, to keep things a bit simpler, maybe restrict this to complete the portion of games with a traditional plot, but not the time it takes to get all of the achievements or trophies in the multiplayer portions of action games, or 100% completion in something like Gran Turismo.

[Deftones]

i think FF7 could've been a 100+ game if you did everything.

[Drexl]

There was an unreleased game for Sega CD (Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors) that would probably feel like the longest. From Wikipedia:

Desert Bus is the best known minigame in the package, and was a featured part of Electronic Gaming Monthly's preview. The objective of the game is to drive a bus from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada in real time at a maximum speed of 45mph, a feat that would take the player 8 hours of continuous play to complete, as the game cannot be paused.

The bus contains no passengers, and there is no scenery or other cars on the road. The bus veers to the right slightly; as a result, it is impossible to tape down a button to go do something else and have the game end properly. If the bus veers off the road it will stall and be towed back to Tucson, also in real time. If the player makes it to Las Vegas, they will score exactly one point. The player then gets the option to make the return trip to Tucson—for another point (a decision they must make in a few seconds or the game ends).

[Chris_D]

I'm nearly 90 hours into Tales of Vesperia. Persona 3 plus FES could be pretty long too I think.

[james2025a]

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has to be one of them. On my first game i clocked in over 200 hours on the game and had still not completed everything. I guess it also depends on how well you play the game.

[Raul3]

I guess Fallout 3 will be *my* game too. At least for the main story, offline. I know I've spent a lot of hours with Halo, Halo 3, Gears 1, etc.

[edstein]

Originally Posted by james2025a

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has to be one of them. On my first game i clocked in over 200 hours on the game and had still not completed everything. I guess it also depends on how well you play the game.

This is the game I have spent the most time with. I logged a 100 hours and still had quite few quests to do.

[noonan4224]

My final save on FFXII was at 136 hours. I also put in over 200 into both Obivion and Morrowind. Fallout almost seemed like a demo compared to the length of Bethesda's other games.

[McHawkson]

Originally Posted by james2025a

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has to be one of them. On my first game i clocked in over 200 hours on the game and had still not completed everything. I guess it also depends on how well you play the game.

I've completed Oblivion three times and the average is about 140 hours.

There's another game that can take 100+ hours: Fable II

I would like to try out Fallout 3...

[RockyMtnBri]

Wow.

Growing up in the era of 2 minute and 36 second games (old Atari cartridges were programmed like that) it's amazing now how much more game time there is nowadays! I'm a quick-fix type of gamer myself, and I guess that's why I like platformers and staged games where I can get in, get to a certain goal, and take a break. All that being said, wouldn't flight simulators kinda fit in this category?

[shumway]

Dragon Warrior VII on PSOne took me somewhere in the realm of 130 - 140 hours, I don't remember the exact number.

[nemein]

So do these games really keep people's interest that long or is it more a matter of "I've invested this much time I'm going to finish it" sort of thing? I have to say the longest I've ever played was the Star Wars one from a couple of years back (drawing a blank on the name now... Old Republic or something like that). That clocked in at over 50, probably would have been longer but after about 30 I dug up a script/walk through and followed that.

[orangecrush]

And here I thought my recent 60+ spent on Jean D'Arc was a lot

[redbill]

I'm having nasty flashbacks to the ammount of time I sank into Phastasy Star on sega master system... Ultima 5 had some length too..

[shumway]

Originally Posted by nemein

So do these games really keep people's interest that long or is it more a matter of "I've invested this much time I'm going to finish it" sort of thing? I have to say the longest I've ever played was the Star Wars one from a couple of years back (drawing a blank on the name now... Old Republic or something like that). That clocked in at over 50, probably would have been longer but after about 30 I dug up a script/walk through and followed that.

Part of DW7 did grow into tedium but I did want to make it through and was still interested in finishing. It wasn't a case where I was just not going to stop because of how long I had played no matter what. I genuinely wanted to finish.

[rabbit77]

What about World of Warcraft? I know it's open ended, but don't some people spend their time 24/7 on that game?

[McHawkson]

Originally Posted by nemein

So do these games really keep people's interest that long or is it more a matter of "I've invested this much time I'm going to finish it" sort of thing? I have to say the longest I've ever played was the Star Wars one from a couple of years back (drawing a blank on the name now... Old Republic or something like that). That clocked in at over 50, probably would have been longer but after about 30 I dug up a script/walk through and followed that.

Knight of the Old Republic?

[sauce07]

The first thing I thought of was the Penn & Teller game, one day i'll find it and complete the round trip.

[nemein]

Originally Posted by McHawkson

Knight of the Old Republic?

That's the one.

[fujishig]

I think most of the "old school" rpgs vastly inflated their playtime by making it absolutely necessary to grind... it's VERY evident when you play the GBA remake of Dragon Warrior 1 and see how short the game really is without having to grind so much. Of course, most modern rpgs still force you to grind (especially MMORPGs) but they've gotten a lot better.

As a kid, I remember staying up for days at a time getting to the end of Phantasy Star 2 (for Genesis)... and that was with the included hintbook, I'm not sure how long it would've taken me if I didn't have that. At the time, it was the most time I'd ever invested in a game.

I get a little overwhelmed by the sandbox-type games like GTA or Oblivion... without a clear direction of where to go, I usually get lost in the side quests. I find that a similar thing happens with JRPGs, when you inevitably get to the point where the world opens up and it's the last chance you have to level up and finish side quests before the last boss.

There are also those games that just seem like they take an eternity.... I gave up on FFVIII because the Summons that you have to level up are non-skippable. Also, I always mean to go back to both Xenogears and Xenosaga, but both have eternally long cutscenes (Xenogears is mostly text).

[superfro]

For me it's been RPGs mostly, of course. The various Final Fantasy games, Oblivion, and now Fallout 3. The only non RPG games that have ever gotten close to those would probably be the GTA games and Guitar Hero/Rock Band.

[Rob V]

The first thing I thought of was the Penn & Teller game, one day i'll find it and complete the round trip.

Why?

[slop101]

The longest non-RPG action game has to be Okami.

[jdpatri]

Originally Posted by redbill

I'm having nasty flashbacks to the ammount of time I sank into Phastasy Star on sega master system... Ultima 5 had some length too..

Cripes. Ultima 5. I thought that game would never end. Also, not coincidentally, the last Ultima game I played.

[Breakfast with Girls]

Originally Posted by jdpatri

Cripes. Ultima 5. I thought that game would never end. Also, not coincidentally, the last Ultima game I played.

But Ultima VII was so good.