Dear Loading Screen, It’s 2015
Not a rant, but a recent observation from the various games I currently play.
Many games these days include tips, some fancy art and lore on their loading screens to make up for that loading time. Most times, it just can’t hide the fact that it’s so darn long.
Here are some of the games I currently play that has pretty long load times — considering it’s 2015 and I’m gaming on some sweet hardware. I’d like to stress that depending on many factors (SSD, internet speet etc), these may be different for you.
Pillars of Eternity
Pillars is a great isometric RPG that I purchased recently during a Steam sale. Its got a great narrative and a nostalgic nod-back to the RPGs of old. The loading screen times however, are ridiculous. I remember slogging through the first quest (first quest!) and was hit with a loading screen that took a couple of minutes, to load pretty 2D type graphics. The wait got longer as I progressed.
Ark: Survival Evolved
As much as I love Ark, I absolutely loath the loading time, especially the first load-of-the-day. I get it, it’s open world. It’s got so much texture, terrain and art resource to load, but taking close to five minutes is not cool. A lot of bad things can happen in five minutes, especially on Ark..
“A lot of bad things can happen in five minutes, especially on Ark..”
The Lord of the Rings Online
MMOs I play like Wildstar, Guild Wars 2, Neverwinter and The Secret World have one thing in common — they all load up under a minute tops. So what’s the deal, Lotro? I even put you on my SSD! Surprised to see this here? Maybe you folks can pass on some advice. Granted, it’s not as bad as it used to be, prior to the introduction of pre-cache loading from the launcher. I remember the times when I would log out in GV and it took forever to log back in, DC, crash or no. It is slightly better these days, but it annoys me a tad little that newer MMO’s load faster than my favorite of them all. Maybe being an eight year old game has something to do with it.
Company of Heroes 2
Another culprit of the first load-of-the-day syndrome. It’s fairly long and heavily dependent on your system. I can appreciate the reason though. Any given game promises to be packed with physics driven action, destructible terrain etc, but it does test your patience. Playing with friends? Then expect some varied load times, and not for the better. The multiplayer takes into consideration everyone’s system, and if there’s someone in the match that’s running on a good old PC from the dark ages of early 2000’s, you may have time to go make coffee or do multiple runs around the house.
Got any games you’re currently playing that has some incredibly long load times? Share them!
