About 40h+ each if you do sidequests. If we only count the new ones, there are 4, so at least 4x 40h :D

There are many good sales and promos. Most people here with large game collections wait for good deals on games they like.

Yep, hold on to your money and just buy stuff during sales. What you want will most likely go on sale in the next year at some point.

The idea of pre-ordering a digital game, I think, is that if they decide to increase the price upon release, you will have paid the cheaper price. They don't do that much, but it does happen. Also, it is good for people who budget their buying. If I only allow myself $10 a month on video games, I have to wait 5 months to buy a $50 game, or pre-order the game 5 months ago, and now I'm free to buy some games again. Or a million variations of that.

As for: I completely disagree. That's like saying a good movie has no re-watchability or a good book isn't worth reading again. NONSENSE. Adventure games have some of the best writing, characters, and stories in video games. Just because you aren't itching to start the game over once you have finsihed it, doesn't mean it isn't worth buying or that playing it again sometime is out of the realm of happening. I would even say, even if you do only play some adventure game one time in 10 years, it can be more rewarding than replaying Diablo II fifty times in 1 year. or spending 2000 hours on some mindless sidescroller/platformer/shooter. Then there's Pathologic, which you must play 3 times in order to even begin to get it all, and if you play more, you'll start to get more.


If you're itching to play a good RPG and don't know where to put down the $, try these suggestions if you haven't played them before, they're worth full price (though I'm guessing you have):

Geneforge 1-5
Planescape: Torment (goes on sale a few times a year but is really worth the full price and if you haven't played it, just get it already!)
Arcanum

Otherwise may I suggest playing some of the freebies they give you and waiting for a sale that has a game you actually want. Go through and add games you REALLY want to your wishlist so that when they are on sale you have a tool for helping you discern what to buy and what to pass on.

And then there was Botanicula ... ;)

(Not that anything of this sort would ever happen with POE, but I also can't see how they'd get away with raising the prices even further at release.)

If you are friend of cRPGs, I have one special advice: wait for the D&D bundle! ;-)

Don't preorder. Research the other games you are interested in and see if you'd like them; otherwise wait for Pillars to simply come out.

My 2cents.

It depends. If you love something then perhaps the point&click repetitive exactly same nature.

Regarding movies and books, it really depends on how long you take before you go back to it. Shorter movies & comedy you tend to let go of faster before you can re-consume; While longer & more serious ones stick around and you hesitate or are reluctant to watch... I have Dances with Wolves i'm not ready to watch again, and then there's the books Shogun or LoTR series (which i last read 11 years ago) that are just so big that to get into them when i know what's coming up sorta ruins the experience, not to say i can't enjoy them and imagine them; BUT i'm not ready to start them up again probably for another 5 years at least. Yes they are totally worth going back to again; BUT NOT RIGHT NOW.

It's sorta the balance or difference between the mechanics and the story. I've played Bayonetta... 40 times? I i went through the story 2 or 3 times after which i've just skipped it to play the spectacle fighter portion where each fight is the same layout but varies in results; And you get just a little bit better each time.


The reason i said to avoid P&C's was based on his limited funds and if he doesn't have more money for say, 6 months, you want something you can play and enjoy for more the mechanics, and not a visual novel/story with no variation and no real failstates implied or otherwise.

Nah, it all just depends on your personal preferences, habits etc. Some people forget a plot a week later, others still remember it after 10 years, some people enjoy experiencing a story only when it's new to them, others appreciate it even more if they know it already. Personally I don't like replaying any kind of game, so for someone like me the replayability would be no argument for or against a title at all. But you are right in that P&C adventures are often short, compared to e.g. RPGs or strategy games, so if you only compare playtime per dollar or something like that and disregard everything else, then there are better choices than a P&C adventure, yes. ;)

It's interesting how much things vary, depending on when you go back to it. I've started to live long enough now that I've had a great variety of experiences with this sort of thing, and it is fascinating, really. I used to always have the practice of "do not rewatch/reread/replay this until it is far enough away that the experience will be as close to the original experience as possible." This wouldn't happen because I forgot things about it (though that is a part of it, sometimes, sometimes I don't forget anything though), but because the "feeling of the impact" of it was far enough away that I would be able to re-experience it again, regardless of what I learned new from the repeat experience, how I saw it differently, etc., etc., etc. Some things it is worth doing that for, somethings it doesn't matter at all, somethings it is worth doing it for numerous times and then NOT doing it for to see what you see differently/how the experience can differ. The problem here, for me, becomes experiencing something for its art (and impact) vs. consuming it to analyze it for an intellectual reason, and the lines can blur, certainly.

To throw another wrench into the mix of it all, you can watch something (or read a book outloud or play a game) with someone who is watching it for the first time (or your 10th time to their 2nd, etc), and it is quite something to simultaneously understand (in part) the experience they are having and still have your own experience. This has to be done with some awareness, however, and can't just passively "be done", at least I think.

Aside from any of that, the OP wasn't necessarily looking for something with a lot of play time or replayability, it seemed to me that they were more looking for something that would be a good investment. Who knows? Let's ask! Pixelord? Though you were quite specific with which games you were pondering between, we don't know why those specifically, so it is natural to come up with other suggestions outside of the listed games from you, perhaps we assume too much? More guidance for us if you like.

Really? Why not? And are you sure you can even say that without actually replaying every game you have played to see if there is one you enjoy replaying? Heck, some games aren't worth playing unless you replay them over and over, like Tetris or Diablo. Others you can play in different ways and get different results as you go along, some are simply worth replaying (like the argument I initally made) for their story-telling elements and for the experience itself you can get, depending on the game.

I wld suggest u do some research on Pillars & decide just how much u really like the game 1st. If u really like it & 1 2 support the developer then go ahead pre-order it. However, it wld be more wise 2 wait @ least of couple of mths aft its out 2 decide cos by then u wld hv a clearer picture abt the game aft reading other ppl's reviews of the game.

If u decide Pillars is not wat u 1 now & 1 2 get the other games u mentioned earlier, my best advice is stick ard & wait 4 sales (bigger sales usually happens every few mths) & get just those on sale since I doubt u'll play all @ once concurrently anyway. In the meantime, cont 2 check out future sales & get those games u hv yet 2 get when they go on sale. This way u get the most bang 4 ur buck.

Just my humble opinion, hope it helps. :)

Well, that's true, I grant you that I was mostly thinking about games with story-telling elements like action adventures, modern shooters, RPGs - which many people bring up when it comes to replayability. Sure, you can get slightly different results by playing different classes or making different choices, but I have yet to see the game that makes it worth it (for me) to suffer through all the repetition for it (because the major part of the game will still stay the same and bore me). I don't mind replaying games like Tetris, Mario Kart or even Doom. But even in this group, there aren't many games that I replay for more than a few hours, as I'm just more interested in investing my time in checking out other games that I'm still unfamiliar with. It's just the way I roll, which was my point.

My opinion: Pillars of Eternity. And consider pledging for Torment: Tides of Numenera and Shadowrun Hong Kong.

What have you ended up getting? If you're still around...

Forget all those games! Just buy the Thief series and be happy for untold hours.
And even if it doesn't make you happy it'll make happy that even more people have
played Thief. You want me to be happy don't you? :)