Video games & time limits

[Chaosut]

Personally i've always been unable to enjoy games that place any time restrictions as a major part of the gameplay. It's not that i think that time limits shouldn't ever be used in video games, because alot of people do enjoy them.
Any sense of exploration and immersion seem to go out the window, which are two of the things i really look out for in a game. For example, i bought Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts seemings as i really enjoyed the older one on N64 (probably my second favourite 3D platformer, after Mario 64 of course). However 95% of missions/quests were tied to beating the clock or beating your best times, and i just couldn't play the game.
I suppose also as well time trials or challenges tend to be more about competition, i guess though i'm just thining in terms of games like Mirror's Edge, where the time trials where all about either beating certain set times or even trying to get a time low enough to be on the leaderboards.
I really just can't play games where it plays a large part, or i can put with little to no sense of enjoyment. Does anybody else have this problem?

 

[Rock Beefchest]

I agree completely.

The worst offender in my mind is Dead Rising. until you unlocked the unlimited mode the time pressure to complete the story missions when they popped up made doing many of the sub plot missions implausable. Furthermore, it made the exploration of all the environments a rushed process. I had a hard time enjoying the game. The worst travesty of the time element was at one point I had saved myself into a position where no matter what I did i could not get to a mission start point before the time exhausted. Therefore could not go forward in the game without starting over. It was nice of the designers to create a continued ability system to speed up the replay but i hope that the sequel removes the time element altogether.

 

[Chaosut]

I agree completely.

The worst offender in my mind is Dead Rising. until you unlocked the unlimited mode the time pressure to complete the story missions when they popped up made doing many of the sub plot missions implausable. Furthermore, it made the exploration of all the environments a rushed process. I had a hard time enjoying the game. The worst travesty of the time element was at one point I had saved myself into a position where no matter what I did i could not get to a mission start point before the time exhausted. Therefore could not go forward in the game without starting over. It was nice of the designers to create a continued ability system to speed up the replay but i hope that the sequel removes the time element altogether.

I felt exactly the same way. I didn't play Dead Rising much for this reason. And as you said, games like DR with time limits often don't give you a chance to save often or just stop where you are and come back without a large penalty.

 

[Tales of Golden Sun]

I can totally relate to that.

I always like to explore every nook and cranny of the game, and time limits make me unable to, because I'm afraid I won't make it in time. It's also the main reason I have never played Majora's Mask.

It's okay as an EXTRA, but not as a part of the main quest or whatever.

 

[Chaosut]

I can totally relate to that.

I always like to explore every nook and cranny of the game, and time limits make me unable to, because I'm afraid I won't make it in time. It's also the main reason I have never played Majora's Mask.

It's okay as an EXTRA, but not as a part of the main quest or whatever.

I actually managed to stick through Majora's Mask till the end, but similarly i was never impressed by the time limit. Exploration is probably what i'd consider the most important part of a 3D platformer or adventurer, which is why Nut's and bolts was such a dissapointment for me.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Absolutely.

Time limits are a cheap ass lazy method of creating tension in a game.

Dead Rising was the worst offender, as people have said.

It was a waste of such a wonderful sandbox world as you never had time to properly explore it, and it would have been nice to unlock a bonus mode where you were free to just roam around and kill zombies.

No Fighting In the War Room in COD4 is another example, I didn't find that level fun at all due to the annoying time limit.

 

[Erana]

Now the Majora's Mask model is something I can get behind. I mean, it puts a little pressure, but unless you were fooling around for the better half of a day, you could finish a dungeon with all the faeries in one good go.

 

[NeoDeath90]

I rather hated the time limits in GTA4, more specifically the ones set by Little Jacob when you're doing a drug run. Even though the very first guy is practically right around the corner, he's in such an awkward position that you run out of time just trying to figure out which entrance to the alleyway he's in.

 

[Chaosut]

Absolutely.

Time limits are a cheap ass lazy method of creating tension in a game.

Dead Rising was the worst offender, as people have said.

It was a waste of such a wonderful sandbox world as you never had time to properly explore it, and it would have been nice to unlock a bonus mode where you were free to just roam around and kill zombies.

No Fighting In the War Room in COD4 is another example, I didn't find that level fun at all due to the annoying time limit.

I agree, it often seem like a pretty cheap gimmick to make the game more tense. As you said, having a sandbox game like dead rising with time limits doesn't feel quite right.

I really don't like time limits.. but in Nuts & Bolts I could deal with it. It really had to be there, because it was incentive to go back and beat your times with the new parts that you received. At some points it was just a joke, and also served to separate bronze\silver\gold completion so that you could go back.

And buying it because you liked the N64 games was kind of going in with expectations that couldn't be matched, two totally different styles of game.

True they are different sorts of games, and i really shouldn't have gone in with expectations that it would just be the Banjo-Kazooie of the current generation consoles. I guess just having time trials seemed to change the style of gameplay in a different direction that i just didn't enjoy at all.

 

[timmytom1]

In racing games or games based around score attacks then time limits work well ,but in exploration or story heavy games they just don`t go down well

 

[Bellvedere]

I'm not that into games that are completely focused on time but it can add an extra sense of achievement to beat record times.

I agree completely.

The worst offender in my mind is Dead Rising. until you unlocked the unlimited mode the time pressure to complete the story missions when they popped up made doing many of the sub plot missions implausable. Furthermore, it made the exploration of all the environments a rushed process. I had a hard time enjoying the game. The worst travesty of the time element was at one point I had saved myself into a position where no matter what I did i could not get to a mission start point before the time exhausted. Therefore could not go forward in the game without starting over. It was nice of the designers to create a continued ability system to speed up the replay but i hope that the sequel removes the time element altogether.

I didn't really mind this. I only really dislike time if you're given a very short amount (in minutes) 6 hours I think worked well enough and fitted well with the sandbox style gameplay, in that you didn't have forever to run around.

 

[Hamster at Dawn]

I hate time limits. You can be 3 inches away from a goal and then suddenly it says "Fuck you, you ran out of time!" I don't like having to rush in the first place, I much prefer to explore and think of unique ways I could complete a task.

 

[Avaholic03]

There are some games, or parts of games, where timed sections make sense. Perfect example was the last level of Halo 1. That needed to be timed to make the story work, and since it was linear, you weren't missing much exploration or any side quests.

But when games arbitrarily throw in timed sections to ramp up the difficulty, that's a sign of lazy programming and I usually don't bother with those games.

 

[Trivun]

Crash Bandicoot 3 back on the PS1 was one of the first games (that weren't racing, like Ridge Racer) that I played where there was any sort of time limit. When you finished a level normally you could go back and do a time trial to win a 'Relic', and you had to get at least the Sapphire (lowest rank) Relic in every level as part of the requirements for 100% completion. It worked well because you had a choice, and they put 'time stop' boxes every so often as well. It was a challenge, but there was also replayability value in that there were three different relics to get for each level, three different ranks, and it made it more fun to play. I've always felt that's the way to go with time trials, whereas games that rely on the time trial aren't as fun to play. Racing games are the exception to the rule, of course, as they're always fun when there's a time limit, in my experience.

 

[mikecoulter]

I hate time limits so much, I've disabled them on New Super Mario Land. 400 seconds isn't enough time to have fun!

 

[iJosh]

I agree.

Games with extreme time limits are not enjoyable. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of a game.?

Games are supposed to be fun. Unless people like those kind of games.

 

[Sneaklemming]

Countdown timers and games are not my friends, unless its down in a way that makes sense like in Dead space with the air supply.

Even then though, it annoys me, like underwater bits in games, or "oh noes the place is xploding, everyone run" and especially the completely abstract timers for RTS missions

 

[ace_of_something]

Depends on context and plot. For example "defend your buddy while they hack the computer" for 5 minutes. Can be pretty fun. Or 'escape before the building explodes' but 'build this thing out of twigs and chewing gum in 4 minutes' is stupid and has no feasble reason.

 

[ffxfriek]

I hate time limits. You can be 3 inches away from a goal and then suddenly it says "Fuck you, you ran out of time!" I don't like having to rush in the first place, I much prefer to explore and think of unique ways I could complete a task.

seconded that level in halo wars made me put the game down for 2 weeks. then i got an idea from yahtzee. rush the place with tanks is fun and there ya go thats what i did and i passed it. but it wasnt enough time to do it properly without skulls. so time limits are good with enough time without enough they are horrible.