Worst Load Times

[HardRockSamurai]

If there's one thing I think all gamers can agree on, it's that load times can go to hell. Nothing frustrates us more than having to wait to play something they already own, and the worst part is that there is very little we can do about it.

I know that ranting about load times won't really accomplish anything, which is why I thought it would be the perfect topic for a thread.

So you guys, I have 3 basic questions for you:

• 1. What are some of the worst experiences you've had involving loading?
  
  2. What games have the worst loading times imaginable?

and lastly

• 3. What is the worst loading screen you've ever seen?

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Hahahaha...okay, it was Wing Commander 3, the...tiger one, I can't remember the subtitle. Anyway, the PC I had could run it, but...not particularly well. It took FIFTEEN MINUTES, give or take a minute or two, for each mission to load up. I would read a book while waiting.

These days if I have to wait 15 seconds I'm shouting at the screen. Fortunately, since I upgraded to a SSD, this is rarely the case. TOR can have some pretty grueling loading times if you're low on RAM/have a slow HD though.

 

[dimensional]

I remember Army Days on the commodore 64 took about 2-3 hours to load and all for 3 screens of repeating lightgun action, ah those were the days watching flashing blurry lines that make your eyes bleed hoping that soon you will be able to play the damn game.

Even more annoying was some games loaded a minigame or even a picture first yes loading the loading screen wtf let me play the game, occasionally you would also get the infinite loading screen and you wouldnt be sure if it was actually still loading or it had broke.

There were probably loads of other 64 games with long load times but I definitely remember Army Days taking forever.

Modern ones im not sure they all are miles better but I remember Oblivion being annoying at times with its loading oh and patching WOW from scratch was a joke last time I played must have took a solid 12 hours or so but I guess thats installation more than loading.

Oh actually just remembered Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 bloody hell the loading on that as it searches for DLC everybloody time you boot up annoys the hell out of me.

 

[MajorTomServo]

I've always hated Fallout 3 and New Vegas' load times.

- Boot up game
- loading...
- Main menu -> continue
- loading...
- Walk a short while, find building, enter
- loading...
- Explore building a bit, enter new room
- loading...
- Decide you didnt want to go in there after all, immediately exit
- loading...

Repeat forever

 

[TehCookie]

Psychonauts loading times on the PS2 were ridiculous, the only thing that made it entertaining was watching my cats paw at the birds on the screen. Either that or the Sims2 when it first came out and I had a crap machine. It took so long I'd play another game on my Gameboy or read a book.

The worst loading screen would be a static one that crashed. You stare at it waiting to load but it even will. I have a game that won't load past a certain point but I had that in my console for hours thinking some magic may happen (granted I was doing something else at the time.)

 

[krazykidd]

Worst loadiing time EVER? Goes to dark stone , a game for ps1 that had a long loading time even for it's era , i'ma go see if i find a youtube vid of it's loading time and put it in my edit.

 

[Generalissimo]

servers on garrysmod who insist on having a metric ****ton of custom models, materials, lua and entities.

NEWS FLASH, YOU PRETENTIOUS NITWITS, IT TAKES HALF A FRACKING HOUR TO LOAD.

 

[AdamxD]

I got pissed off by KOTOR 2 on the xbox. So many loading screens, especially for missions where you had to go to people who were behind a loading screen. I'd question whether it was really worth it.

 

[Weaver]

I remember an older PC FPS (sometime in 2000 - 2004) that just had abysmal load times, but I'm not sure what it was. Might have been unreal 2, Red Faction or Red Faction 2. I'm talking like 2 minutes and 30 seconds to load a level.

It was later patched, but man was it hell.

 

[Scarim Coral]

1 I foolishly try to play Guild Wars: Eye Of The North weekend when I was back in my parent place which they only got a 56k modern. It took 10 hours just to load into the first map and then another hour into a proper outport for me to log out properly without worrying about doing it again!

2 Not sure, I will get back to you when I remember it.

3 The Last Story. Oh wow the loading animation is just a little square stacking up to form a bigger square (3 by 3) which start in a snake and ladder just of order! (start from left to right and then go up and then left etc).

 

[endtherapture]

Neverwinter Nights 2. I literally gave up on it.

Every location on the world map had a 5 minute module loading time, followed by 1 minute loading screens for every area within that module. It was awful.

 

[Viridian]

There was a Sonic game for the 360.

Terrible game aside, loading times. Loading times everywhere.

 

[Whitbane]

Dead Rising 2, the Citadel on ME3, and Fallout: New Vegas on consoles after playing for a long amount of time.

 

[Gorilla Gunk]

I remember some old racing game had really long loading times...

BUT, to compensate, you could play Pong on the loading screen until it was done, or you were. With Pong I mean.

 

[The-Fiction]

There was a Sonic game for the 360.


Terrible game aside, loading times. Loading times everywhere.

Oh god this. I tried so hard to like this game as well... but the loading. First game that sprang to mind when I saw this thread.