Why do people hate on multi-disc games?

[Squarewave]

I think its more perception then anything the "immersion breaking" that people keep bringing up.
I haven't played (or remember playing) a single multi-disked rpg that asked to change disks in the middle of an event or cutsceen. They always take place after major plot points like your moving onto another chapter of the story.

I do remember some ps1 games (racing games I think) that had me changing disks between each level. but really any modern game will go 5+hours between disk changes and always at points that you might want to save and take a break anyway. It's funny people making it out like you have to change disks every 15 min or something

 

[TxMxRonin]

Cause like a menstruating women falling from the top of a tall building it breaks flow.

 

[KarmicToast]

Changing disks is about the most immersion-shattering thing you can do.

I second this motion

 

[PirateKing]

They make a joke about this in MGS4.
"Hold on Snake," Says Otacon. "It's time to change the discs."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Wait...we're on the Playstation 3. It's dual layered. What an age we live in."
"Damn it Otacon, get a grip!"

 

[Peaterson Is Back]

Changing disks is about the most immersion-shattering thing you can do.

i third that motion.

 

[ndogg34]

When done properly, it's not that harmful to the gameplay (i.e. disc changes are centered around major plot points) but my main beef is that once one disc is gone, you're done.

 

[Russian Redneck]

Changing disks is about the most immersion-shattering thing you can do.

How so? Unless you're a freak who won't stop playing a video game for a second until finishing it, it's about the same as turning the console off; not immersion-breaking, just necessary.

 

[willard3]

One PC series that got to me after a while was The Journeyman Project (specifically, 2 and 3; Buried in Time and Legacy of Time, respectively). BiT was 3 discs, LoT was 4. Each game had very little install space (LoT had maybe 75 mb total), so the game was largely run straight from the CDs. Every time you time-jumped to another location, you had to switch discs (not ALL the time in BiT, but usually). So on later playthroughs, I would find myself playing through the game so as to do the least amount of switches possible.

At least in LoT each disc corresponded to its own environment, so that was easy to remember. Disc 2 was Atlantis, 3 was El Dorado, 4 was Shangri-La, and 1 was everything else (prologue, FMVs, etc.). But for such an immersive game, it got annoying...although I suppose it was nice to get a breath of fresh air for a bit.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

I don't think I've ever really heard hate for them, but I'm not really in the loop on a lot of PC gaming, so I don't know. I have Fable: Lost Chapters and Morrowind for PC; the multi-disk setup never bothered me.

Me either. I don't mind at all, as long as they do it at a point where it is appropriate.

Yeah, like at the end of a certain amount of chapters in a game or something.

 

[Lord Krunk]

Legend of Dragoon: Best RPG I've ever played. And I've played a lot.

 

[Gamer137]

I really don't mind them. Like you said, more bang for your buck. As for the immersion argument, who cares! In the end, your getting a longer game. If you love the game THAT much, why let a 30 second annoyance get in the way? In fact, I don't know how you can be that immersed in a game. Yes, I can get into my games a bit, but when you scrolling though menus in an RPG, I don't see how you can be that immersed.

 

[Fenring]

If you install both disks to the 360 HDD, would you still have to switch disks?
They kind of annoy me in that I install every game I play for any real amount of time on my 360, I have the original 20gb HDD, and I can only have one disk installed at a time.

 

[insectoid]

If you install both disks to the 360 HDD, would you still have to switch disks?

Yes - you'd have to have the disc you want to play in the 360 to verify you own it.

 

[Librarian Mike]

I kind of like the multi-disc format. In particular, the Final Fantasy games. To me it just feels like finishing volumes of a series of books...maybe that's just the beer talking though. Seriously, I had no idea there was hate for it out there.

 

[xitel]

Are there even any multi disk console games out there? I sure haven't seen any.

A lot of PS1 games were multi-disc, the Final Fantasy series being key culprits. Although nowadays, as the storage medium gets larger the likelihood of multi-disc games is much lower. Although I believe Lost Odyssey had a second disc too.

 

[Aiden Rebirth]

there in an increasingly rare case, a necessary evil.

 

[Veylon]

If I recall correctly, for Final Fantasy 7 and 8, the entire game was on each disk, only the FMV's were different. Thus, game length isn't the issue with more disks, it's the special effects. That being said, I prefer the PC where you take care of all your disk changing during the install process (lengthy though it might be) as opposed to the consoles where you do so in-game.

 

[Lyiat]

Although I can't speak for Blue Dragon, the Lost Odyssey for Xbox 360 is one single disk.

And also, I would like to see them bring back multi-disk games. It would allow programmers to make far more content then what they limit themselves to... Like lacking keys on a keyboard. -glares at Mass Effect-