Game sizes are getting too big

[MongGrel]

Is kind of amusing these days myself.

I remember beta testing EQ and would leave it on when I went to work on dial up for it to dld some days just for the new one.

Sometimes it would not have been finished when I got home.

Yeah, NM, just old stuff.

 

[danu4u]

I agree! The games like counter strike were just 400-500 MB and that's one of the most popular game in the world! I wished to play GTA 5 but couldn't due it's requirements...

 

[BSim500]

I agree! The games like counter strike were just 400-500 MB and that's one of the most popular game in the world! I wished to play GTA 5 but couldn't due it's requirements...

Same with original Deus Ex (25-35hrs fully voiced gameplay = 431MB installer, 712MB install size). Sure, better HD textures and "bigger engines" will take up more room, but I think there's a lot more "reduced bloat" optimization they could do on a number of games if they truly wanted. The fun / enjoyability / immersion factors (especially of post 2013 games) don't seem to be going up anywhere near as much as the "bloat curve" even with "better textures" factored in. A lot of it is "cinematics" (the obsession with demanding every trivial action be scripted and Hollywood-ified), however many of us find that when that involves "snatching" control of the player back and forward every few seconds, it actually reduces immersion rather than adds to it. If there was an option to turn off micro-cutscenes, that would be yet another thing I'd disable more often than not (on top of dumb post-processing FX), and all that "you stepped over a pebble. Let's start a pre-rendered pebble-stepping-over cutscene!" stuff probably adds another 5-10GB.

 

[Blitzvogel]

People forget how going from a 1024 x 1024 texture to 2048 x 2048 is a 4-fold increase in size. Lack of audio compression is huge culprit too with many recent ports to PC, notably Titanfall with 35 GB (!) of uncompressed audio so that old dual-core PCs can realistically have a go at the game. CoD Advanced Warfare has the same issue too IIRC.

 

[shortylickens]

I should like to point out that my biggest game ever is Elder Scrolls Online. At a whopping 82 gigs, it still doesnt fill one of my many 1TB drives.
So I dont see the problem.

 

[mnewsham]

I really dont care about file sizes at this point to be honest, give me uncompressed 24 bit FLAC audio and 16k textures for all I care. I just want games to move back towards systems based games. My biggest problem with fallout 4 (just as an example) was the lack of actual RPG systems, conversations had very minimal effects on how the game would play out, your choices had very limited consequences, and no matter what there was always a path forward. Whatever happened to real RPGs where if you mouthed off the wrong NPC your entire quest is now F'd and you either start over with a fresh character, or move on to something else.


I digress, but file sizes aren't anywhere close to the top of the list in my concerns for modern games.