Why there’s more to value-for-money than a game’s length
Ed suggests we stop counting the hours.
Incompetence pays, it turns out. The story mode for Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes is supposed to last half-an-hour, including several minutes of cutscenes – there are two hostages to prise from the clutches of the Omega site, and once you know where they are, retrieving them is a stroll in the park. Unless, that is, you have all the grace and discretion of a rusty lawnmower. It took me five hours to polish off the Ground Zeroes campaign, thanks to such clever value-for-money tactics as shooting at tanks with tranquilliser darts, and calling for rescue helicopters while hiding next to enemy AA guns.