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Marathon Gaming Sessions: Yes or No

M

MrAngryFace

Banned
Can you even handle them anymore? I dunno if its my attention span or my interest in games but I can barely play a game for 2 hours straight anymore even when I have the time.

I even try buying a big soda to serve as a catalyst and NOTHING. I do like gaming tho, this isnt some weird ANYONE TIRED OF GAMING THREAD?!??!
 
I can ONLY play games in marathon gaming sessions. If I try to nibble at them an hour or two at a time, then I wander like a lost sheep and never come back to it. It's 6 hours of Psychonauts here, 8 hours of Forza there, 5 hours of Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee on the side. I even forced myself to play Fable for 7 hours today. If I didn't, I never would have made it that far (and started to appreciate it).
 
Absolutely yes.

Any big single player game gets released that I have high anticipation for, I just wait until I can find a few days where I don't have any work and nobody will be bugging me. Then I play the hell out of it until completion.

For me, it's insurance that I did everything I could for my best possible first experience with the title; which is something that means a lot to me.


Ealier this week, I played MGS3 straight through because a friend wanted to see it. Took almost 12 hours. We might do the same for RE4.
 
Sometimes, but usually my definition of marathon is about 5 or 6 hours back to back now, nothing like when I played Tomb Raider for about 18 hours straight when I was younger, or my current record 23 and a half hours straight the weekend I bought Xenogears, of course, I don't think I'll ever do that again anyways.....the headaches....ugh :D

In more recent times I came pretty close with Deus Ex though (played it about 12 hours the first night.)

Actually, I recently did play Jade Empire for almost 24 hours straight (I was renting it.)
 
last gaming marathon I had was with RE4 7 hours straight

biggest one I had was with FFVII 15 hours straight wow that was some good shit.
 
Sometimes I can play a game for seemingly all day, with minor breaks.

Other times, I can't play for more than 15 minutes.
 
30-60 mins on a single-player game per session (two usually in a day). 4 hrs given a multi-player games session.

Red Scarlet, you change your avatar every freakin' day! That's not normal if you're a guy...
 
CO_Andy said:
30-60 mins on a single-player game per session (two usually in a day). 4 hrs given a multi-player games session.

Red Scarlet, you change your avatar every freakin' day! That's not normal if you're a guy...
Click to expand...
Press refresh a few times. It cycles avatars.

I still have quite a few marathon sessions. Last week, I beat Grandia in a little over a week so I had plenty of marathon gaming sessions.
 
red scarlet and maf are using some kind of hax that changes avatar every time you refresh!


gaming marathons? nah...unless i'm playing a really, really good game
 
Yeah, they rotate. In all supposedness, it should change every time you hit refresh.

Games sure take longer when you let them sit for hours inbetween playing (SoA took about "96 hours").
 
Heh, marathons are pretty hard for me now and days. I usually get off work around 10 pm, and usually I'm in the mood to do nothing but sit/chat or go to sleep. However, when I do manage it, I pull around 5-7 hour sessions. I'm usually mad groggy by the last hour or so, then I start to doze off :/
 
Depends. Gaming marathons for me = launch day for big game with usually friends.

Metroid Prime = Bucket of KFC, Dr. Pepper, and passing the wavebird around.

Halo 2 = 2 days off from work, various soda on hand, accepting no phone calls.

Metal Gear Solid 2 = Skipping school only to beat it an hour into the day I missed, having an story that made me want to kill..........

*WARP 3 YEARS LATER*

Metal Gear Solid 3 = Playing non-stop, enjoying one of most epic and moving games I have ever played.
 
Indeed they do. I put ~65 hours into Baten Kaitos but I spread it out over 3 months. It felt a lot longer. I could have finished the game in a week if I had really cared to.
 
Sunday is going to be a hell of a day, my first gaming marathon in a loooong fucking time. I've planned this for weeks. I don't play games for more than 1 hour a week usually now. I've got my family, errands, and 2 jobs so it's not that much of an option. But this Sunday is going to be great. I just got my HDTV, so saturday is going to be hooking the tv, consoles and surround sound up, maybe playing a bit. I also just replaced the laser lens in my xbox. So my first round of damage is going to be to finish RE4, then play some Fable and Halo2. Then it's off to Advent Rising and Psychonauts. After that, it'll be nostalgia galore. FF VII and VIII, Tactics, Star Ocean 2 and whatever other goodies I decide to dig out of my collection. If I feel really happy, I'll bust out the DC and play some Shenmue. And if time permits, I'll play some Streets of Rage 2 on my gennie. My marathons aren't one game, I have to experience a bunch of games. I want my games to rape me so that if for the next week, I don't get any game time in, I'm alright because my ass is still sore from the weekend before ;)
 
depends how long marathon means... me and my friends have been busting 5+ hours of battlefield 2 almost every night since release... starting to wreak havoc on my daylight life

finished jade empire in 2 nights (14 or so hrs total).. and lets not even mention wow before i got 60
 
I rarely get to play my console games anymore, though we do have a huge Zelda fest planned for this fall. At least four of us, probably more, are going to cram into a tiny one bedroom apartment with our own TVs, Cubes, and copies of Twilight Princess and do our damnedest to finish it that weekend. We did it when Wind Waker came out, and it was a fucking blast. Can't wait! WOO!

Though I hope that if I can get the money together to get a 360 at launch, I'll be taking a couple vacation days to enjoy that.
 
I'd say it was during Christmas break 1991. I had just gotten SNES and Populous- woke up around 9am, started playing, and I just got so hypnotized by it that before I knew it, my mom was calling me for dinner- 11 hours later. Christ... that game...
 
As a kid, I would frequently have 5-6 hour gaming marathons. Then I'd stand up and for some reason, temporarily lose my ability to walk in a straight line.

The last time I had a gaming marathon was in Christmas 2000 with Grandia II for the Dreamcast. I logged in six hours a day and beat it the fifth day.

There's just too little time anymore. Marathons to me now are anything more than an hour.
 
I like 2-4 hour sessions. For some reason I need about an 30-60 minutes to get into the groove of playing games, especially one with more in depth controlls(which is most games on consoles today).
 
If I play a game for too long, I start feeling guilty. I don't know why though, it's not like I'm contributing anything worthy to society when I'm not playing games. I can't remember the last time I played a game for longer than five hours--since my teenage self was so enamored with horrible RPGs on the Playstation like Xenogears, it was probably one of them. Maybe it was something on the NES though, because you really had no choice but to marathon those. Beating Mario 3 while being six years old is really an adventure.
 
If the game has a really compelling story then I'll play it in marathon sessions - I finished MGS3 in two days because I loved the story

But other games I prefer to play an hour or so at a time, just taking my time and stopping when I feel like it

Multiplayer though - I've had plenty of all-nighters on loads of games
 
Only PC games -> LAN-parties




And with those you build up by not playing games for a few days prior, and you're actually living up to the moment where you can play for days even without work/phones/groceries/cleaning etc. LAN-parties are the best!!

Last time I did a single player game in a marathon sessions was Half-Life 2 - Finished it about 15 hours after it was unlocked on Steam. Had to skip school and such. And I work on weekends so I can't really have marathon gaming sessions anymore without planning it... hence, LAN-parties
 
The last game I marathon'd was RE4. I think I literally spent an entire weekend playing it. I just couldn't put it down, it was that damn good.
 
Every weekend I have a several hour sessions with one of my friends. I have usually manage a few hours a night of gaming. It's pretty rare when I have a long session on my own.
 
By myself, no I can't play a game longer than a couple hours (1 or 2 exceptions). With friends I can play for a day straight. Playing DW5 with some friends we can play forever.
 
I love marathon sessions but I don't get much chance for them nowadays. Last one I had was DQVIII at the start of the year. I've managed to pull off a few lengthy sessions since then, but nothing like the 12 hours+ I was doing back in January.
 
I rarely ever NOT have marathon gaming sessions, unless something interrupts me that I have to attend to immediately. I've wased a few days (not straight, seperately...I'm not that crazy) on XBL, sports games, and GTA.
 
I'm somewhere in the middle. I can play games for quite a long time, but in the case of most games, I don't like to play so long as to finish in one sitting. If I pay $50 for a game, I want it to last a bit longer than that. I do the same thing with books, I'll limit myself to a few chapters per session, even if its really exciting!
 
I enjoy
mtwo5.jpg

gaming sessions.
 
Yeah I have no problems with marathon gaming sessions. As long as I have the time and nothing I'm supposed to be doing that day I can play all day.
 
Only for really special games. I'll do it for Civ IV and Zelda, but I tend to drag out my experience with most other games.
 
I think I used to do marathon gaming sessions alot more when I was a kid, like for SNES RPGs. I have less time now, and more social life going on. The last big games I played in a marathonish type way was MGS3 and RE4, and the longest I would play was probably about 5 hours straight.

I actually really appreciate RE4's chapter system, because it's paced really well, so you can play for a while, and then you hit the end of a chapter, and you think, "go on or not?" It's the perfect time to save and put the controller down and do something else.
 
Not as much as I used to. I remember getting Final Fantasy 7, playing it for hours and hours then all of a sudden I'd hear a "Let's go get some take out food" and I'd burst with "Not now bitch, I'm levelling up to fight Emerald Weapon".

Nowadays only a few games make me play them without any breaks and it has to be either a GTA or a good fighting game with stuff to unlock like VF4 Evo. And even then after about 3 hours I have to take a nap.
 
Seems a bit stupid but the only game that's compatible for a marathon is any Metal Gear Solid game. For unknown reasons (and that angers my gf to the point that she *hates* Solid Snake), I can play these games non-stop and I need to contain myself not to continue.

It rarely happens with other games. Ninja Gaiden Xbox was the only exception recently.
 
Mine are always accidental. Zelda Wind Waker, RE4, Halo 2 and GT$ being recent examples. I sit down with the full intention of playing for an hour, and next thing you know, cataclysmic asspain and pins and needles when I try to stand up.
 
I have this weird thing that makes me want games to last. If I spend 30+ bucks on a game I don't want it to be over in a few nights. So I play it a couple hours at a time, and it will last a good few weeks. It feels afterwards like I got my moneys worth, and I savored each minute of the game. Even in long games though, I generally get tired of it after a few hours. Like just the other night, with GTA:VC. I had set time aside to play for a long time... but got sick of it after a few hours. A few hours after that I felt like playiing again. And especially being the summer... my little concious tells me I should be enjoying the weather OUTSIDE. So I feel a bit guilty playing when I should be enjoying the few summer days that wisconsin has.



However...the last marathon I can remember was with F-zero, perhaps MVP Baseball might count as well.

On F-zero GX I played for 5 hours straight, doing the same level over...and over..and over and over and over and over. My back was in knots and my eyes were blood red. Those Very Hard chapter difficulties were insane. I was so happy at the end that I looked like gollum when he finally gets the ring back in The Return of the King.

And I think with MVP 05 I was up late trying to get some progress. I wanted to go to bed on a good note, actually winning a few games in a row and feeling confident. Never happened. I'd always struggle just enough to make me want to try it again.
 
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