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All-Time Worst Load Time Thread

All the negative NGCD comments are the biggest reasons I own an AES instead. Well, that and the fact that I'm nuts and spend $100's on games I could get roms for.

Nuts like a fox.
 
In Mortal Kombat II for PSX there's load times in the middle of the fight. The first time you do any special move there is a pause in the middle of the gameplay while it loads the move up. I don't mean a bit of slowdown, it actually completely pauses everything for a couple seconds. It is a bizzare way of loading for a fighting game and completely ruins the game.
 
Sho Nuff:

If you have a pic of the game you nominated for worst ever in your first post, it's not showing up anymore.




My vote goes to X-Com PSX. Lot's of people stretch the truth when recalling their horrible load time moments, saying shit like they could go make lunch while the game loaded, even though that isn't really true. Well, with X-Com PSX, you really COULD make a sandwich and put some chips in a plastic baggie and pack it all in your lunch box before this fucker was done loading. I think the average load was 5 minutes.
 
fucking hell, Stuntman for PS2

If you failed, it had to reload the entire level. Which took like 2-3 minutes.

Anyone remember the monter truck level that you had to run PERFECTLY in order to pass? Holy crap, at least 20 tries to beat it with that ridiculous load time in between.
 
Nikashi said:
Hrm, we did the PSP Smackdown vs Raw test thing, and it only took a buddy 3 mins, 45 seconds from start to gameplay. The black screens were way longer on the video.
There was no way to prove he wasn't pausing the videogame there.

Any idea if his PSP was just failing?
 
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This game's load bar was hillarious, it was the length of the screen and it would fill up green, then un-fill up red, fill up blue, un-fill up yellow, ect. at a snails pace.
 
jett said:
Any, ANY, ANY FUCKING GAME loses to your average C64 game.

Any, ANY, ANY FUCKING C64 game loses to every single Oric 1 game. We used to go play football on the lawn while a game loaded. Sometimes we'd get back after 25 minutes only to be greeted with a "load error". Good times.

Honourable mentions:

Largo Winch for PSX. Holy crap that was just ridiculous. The game was one of the worst PSX games ever, too.

Stuntman for PS2. It's already been said.
 
Gahiggidy said:
Is that typical of PSP games?

Not really...some first gen PSP games (mostly the quick and dirty unoptimized ports like Rockman Dash and the like) took a while to load up, but more recent titles are on par with what you experience on a PS2 (about 20 seconds to a minute for initial boot, and maybe 4-6 seconds for other stuff)
 
DavidDayton said:
Hmm... I can't believe I find myself wanting to speak up on behalf of IGN, THQ, a PSP game, or professional "wrestling", but isn't a good chunk of that video showing off stupid game design, as opposed to loading times? That is, there wasn't any real reason to put 2-3 video/etc. clips in before the first match... but the "time to start" was a bit inflated because of that. How long does the actual match take to load up? If THQ had simply dumped the video clips, or reduced the fluff a bit, how long would that all have taken?

It's still stupid, but I think it's more a general interface and design issue than just a loading one.

Exactly, I don't get the video and whoever made it seemed to try and make the PSP look bad by including the comment about the load times being comparable to other PSP titles and then choosing to start a new career. Those career modes always take forever and a day just to get to a match no matter what console you play it on. That video was nothing compared to Smackdown on PSone. If the person would have just went to an exhibition match it would have loaded much much faster.

Land of the Dead on Xbox gets my vote. The game actually stops and loads if you turn too fast.
 
Nikashi said:
Hrm, we did the PSP Smackdown vs Raw test thing, and it only took a buddy 3 mins, 45 seconds from start to gameplay. The black screens were way longer on the video.
I had a feeling this video wasn't 100% clean. You guys did everything they did, started a new career right?

Nearly 4 minutes is still unacceptable.
 
Sho Nuff said:
My vote EASILY goes to this shit. The fact that someone could be expected to sit through this, let alone on a handheld, is stunning. I used to own this game until I SOLD it for being an unbearable piece of shit with the most unreasonable load t--well, just watch it yourself.

Runner-up: Destruction Derby on PSone. You could order a pizza in the time it took for a race to load.


Damn that video is painful to watch.

I seriously....that just makes me sad. Hopefully we won't see anything like that from now on....
 
The fact that this DOES happen when you want to start a mode like that is why we ignore the other modes. It's the major draw for these Wrestling fans. That 6.5 minutes is absolutely rediculour, since it loads the loading screen and takes incredibly resources to do such simple things. It loads an intro, and loads the next one up completely again, not bothering to keep the ring oranything else in. It's just poorly done.
 
ionicbluebird said:
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This game's load bar was hillarious, it was the length of the screen and it would fill up green, then un-fill up red, fill up blue, un-fill up yellow, ect. at a snails pace.


OMFG I remember that lol! I remember going to my friend's house and he showed me that game and we would sit on his bed and stare at the load time and be very depressed.
 
Onix said:
FastLoad by Epyx ...

... problem SOLVED.





Anyway, my vote probably goes to the original Legacy of Kain.

Wasn't Kain really impressive for the time, though, because it only loaded once and then after that it was all just streamed seamlessly?
 
sonarrat said:
Wasn't Kain really impressive for the time, though, because it only loaded once and then after that it was all just streamed seamlessly?

I meant the original PSX 2D overhead game ... sorry, it's technically called Blood Omen : the Legacy of Kain. You are thinking of the later 3D games, Legacy of Kain : Soul Reaver, etc.

The original Blood Omen loaded for practically every scene change, ala Resident Evil.
 
I think it's unfair to compare a new game with something from 20 years ago - those machines were going as fast as they could at the time. I happily waited for something epic like Knight Lore or Chuckie Egg to load.
 
Onix said:
I meant the original PSX 2D overhead game ... sorry, it's technically called Blood Omen : the Legacy of Kain. You are thinking of the later 3D games, Legacy of Kain : Soul Reaver, etc.

The original Blood Omen loaded for practically every scene change, ala Resident Evil.

It took like a minute to load up the fucking pause/inventory screen (and it took about 15 seconds to actually rummage through each item in the inventory because the descriptions were voice acted.) WTF Silicon Knights. At least the rest of the game was nifty, with its little Dark Zelda charms and all
 
I'm speechless at the video, just wow, i'm more harsh on this type of loading time because it is a portable. whoevever approved that shit should be put on some kind of strict probation where everything they do has to be delayed by 6 minutes, like eating, games, and going to the bathroom.
 
Again, I can't believe I'm coming to the (partial) defense of anyone, but... there is NOT a 6 minute "load time" delay in this game.

It takes about 6 minutes to start a NEW game. There are many games WORSE than that ... someone mentioned a Final Fantasy title with a 12 minute intro movie?

To judge load times, you'd have to measure how much time it takes between powering on the system and either a) starting a mode WITHOUT a long intro, or b) loading a saved game. This example is NOT showing load times as much as it is the pointless fluff tossed in before someone can start a new game.
 
Any idea if his PSP was just failing?

I discovered last night that the UMD drive seems to slow to a crawl when the battery is really low (mine was like 7% at the time) , which was promptly fixed when i plugged it in. Hmm..
 
I dont know if anyone already posted this but Knockout Kings 2001 (I think 2001 or the first one for the ps2) had about 4 load times just to get into the main menu
 
Sho Nuff said:
My vote EASILY goes to this shit. The fact that someone could be expected to sit through this, let alone on a handheld, is stunning. I used to own this game until I SOLD it for being an unbearable piece of shit with the most unreasonable load t--well, just watch it yourself.

Runner-up: Destruction Derby on PSone. You could order a pizza in the time it took for a race to load.
I think they should've stoped the clock whenever they were at a menu, considering that wasn't "loading". Granted, it still would be long but meh....
 
Pandemonium! on Saturn had some ridiculous loading times. I remember just watching that weird clown guy run across the screen back and forth dozens of times.
 
Suburban Cowboy said:
some of the people complaining about load times are the same people who called nintendo retarded for wanting to stick with carts.

just an observation.
Yeah, but now adays most console games have next to no loading times, so it's not that big a deal. I remember Batman Forever for the SNES saying "loading" whenever you went to a new area. And the thing was DKC games had better gfx yet no load times.
 
I hate to be this way, but that video just convinced me to NOT get a PSP for my B-day [my mom was going to send me a late gift since she lives far away and my bday was on the 19th]. WOW.
 
Flipmo23 said:
I hate to be this way, but that video just convinced me to NOT get a PSP for my B-day [my mom was going to send me a late gift since she lives far away and my bday was on the 19th]. WOW.

It's smart to make major judgments on singular events
 
Flipmo23 said:
I hate to be this way, but that video just convinced me to NOT get a PSP for my B-day [my mom was going to send me a late gift since she lives far away and my bday was on the 19th]. WOW.

Guy...The majority of the PSP games, don't take anywhere near as long. ITs sad that you would make that decision off of one occurence of long loading.

Oh well.. You will be missing out, while I am playing Powerstone and Rockman Rockman.
 
Synbios459 said:
I think they should've stoped the clock whenever they were at a menu, considering that wasn't "loading". Granted, it still would be long but meh....

Not to mention that he went through the trouble of starting a new season instead of going straight to an exhibition match...
 
Flipmo23 said:
I hate to be this way, but that video just convinced me to NOT get a PSP for my B-day [my mom was going to send me a late gift since she lives far away and my bday was on the 19th]. WOW.

I hate to be this way, but you are an idiot.
 
Nikashi said:
Hrm, we did the PSP Smackdown vs Raw test thing, and it only took a buddy 3 mins, 45 seconds from start to gameplay.
Interesting word choice.


I don't think I'd sit through that even for No Mercy, never mind a Smackdown game.
 
Early C64 stuff that used the default Kernel Loader took ages. Not only is it incredibly slow all data is saved twice effectively doubling the load times. Thankfully people soon started doing custom loaders which shrank the load times dramatically.

VALIS said:
I think cassette based games on the Atari computers trump all load times
Yeah they do, unfortunately you couldn't do much in terms of custom loaders on the Atari.
 
neopokekun said:
Yeah they do, unfortunately you couldn't do much in terms of custom loaders on the Atari.
Why not? De Re Atari had full instructions for creating custom read/write cassette routines, if I remember correctly. You can't change the speed of the tape, though, so you are somewhat limited... but how is that different from the C64 loader?
 
pet.jpg


Wait for my beloved Telengard to load and save on ^^^^ was a zen exercise in learning patience.
 
I tested out Smackdown vs. Raw PSP today, to get from boot-up to exhibition. It's still too fucking long (3+ minutes). I picked up Most Wanted 5-1-0 PSP and was surprised that the loading times on that mofo was respectable (going to quick race within a minute from bootup).

THQ... :lol
 
ionicbluebird said:
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This game's load bar was hillarious, it was the length of the screen and it would fill up green, then un-fill up red, fill up blue, un-fill up yellow, ect. at a snails pace.

Loaded was the same way. At least it only has to load per level unlike NGCD games that do it every match.
 
HAHAHHAHA holy shit!

i just watched that PSP smackdown video. that is by far the most rediculous and insane thing ever!

maybe the worst part is IGN reviewing it and lying about it.
 
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