When I was kid, I could sit in front of TV for hours and sink a day or two away into a game and have no problem having to start the game over from the beginning. Time meant nothing to me and I wasted it like it was a near infinite resource.
Now I am a parent and ain’t got time for some of the nonsense that’s in games nowadays. I’m lucky if I have even an hour to play each night.
A good example: Forza Horizon 5 allows you to switch cars mid game without traveling back to a house. That to me is a huge time saver compared to the recent NFS games.
Contrarily, Forza Motorsport (2023) makes you do qualifications every round. While realistic, a big time sink.
That said, what are some of your favorite games that have respect for your limited time?
I realized I only have the patience for (relatively) short singleplayer games (I just hate grinding in general in video games).
Some of my favorites are:
NieR:Automata (around 40-60 hours of playtime. This one might seem ironic, as it does have some repetition, but it has no grinding and always something interesting new. It also has by far the best story of any game I’ve ever played)
The Beginners Guide (~4 hours of gameplay. It is super unique and has a cool take on psychology, which I haven’t seen in any other game or movie. But you need to play it all the way to the end for it to make sense)
Noita (hard rouge like, and the only one I really enjoy. It’s also very unique in its genre and you can always save and quit.)
Balatro (technically also a rouge lite, but with playing poker hands. It has short rounds and is a casual game, if you only have a few minutes ans don’t know what to play)
Nier Automata isn’t my favorite story. I’m still confused about some parts of it. But it’s one of the most intriguing stories I’ve ever played.
The gameplay and understated humor are some of my favorite though. The combat is the absolute perfect mix of complexity to stay interesting and yet simple enough to not be overwhelming. And the chip upgrade system is one of my favorite upgrade systems.
Balatro also has a game speed setting that greatly shortens the animations. The game basically moves as fast as you can click.