Depends on the genre. A fighting game, give me an hour or less, though I could have beaten it in that time as well. An RPG, you want several hours normally.

It depends. I think a lot of games require at least an hour, as most can have a slow start that's filled with tutorials and getting a grips on the game, and doesn't actually represent the main game play. Or they could just have a bit of learning curve which takes some time to properly understand the mechanics and enjoy it.

I recommend you to see if you would like the game watching reviews in internet, if you think you could like the game, just try it. Then it depends on the game, i would recommend to at least finish the tutorials and all and at least try the game when it start, play the first mission/quest and then you see if you like it or not...

I usually decided after a few minutes, but I think an hour is pretty good.

A maximum of 30 seconds, anything higher clearly means the game is shit. =]

The minute, where you say: "Thanks but that's enough". I usually complete at least 1 mission to see, if the game is bad, but if I see good reviews, I try to like it. If everything fails, I just quit, and never play it again.

yes

It depends, to realize if the game is good or not i guess you have to play around 1 hour.

However, to realize if you WANT to play the game takes no more than 10 minutes. I also have around 225 games or so, i know the games i want to play and finish. I know which games are decent enough to give them a try (AFTER i finish the ones i want), but i dont really know which ones are shit, i just spotted a few.

alan wake - good
alan wake american nightmare -- good but not as good
alien breed 2 -- meh
alien breed 3 -- meh but slightly better than 2
alien breed impact -- couldnt tell you
alien rage -- heard it was brutal
aliens colonial marines -- way better than i expected, id say its playable
a v p -- good
alpha prime -- BLOWS
amnesia -- amazing
arcania gothic 4 -- good once you get into it
arma's -- couldnt tell ya
Assassin's creed -- fun for about a hour then it BLOWS
Assassins creed brotherhood -- couldnt tell you, heard its better than the first
Assassins creed 2 -- couldnt tell ya
Atom Zombie Smasher -- AMAZING games last only a hour.
awesomenauts -- BLOWS (but I hate mobas)
batman arkham city -- amazing, but less so than asylum, not as focused.
Bit trip runner 2 -- couldnt tell ya
blood bowl -- FUCKING BLOWS
Botanicula -- amazing
burnout paradise -- couldnt tell ya
Carrier command -- Meh
Cities XL -- fun for a while, loses appeal quickly.
clive barkers Jericho -- OK
clones -- MEH
Command and conquer RA3 uprising -- MEH
confrontation -- couldnt tell ya
COntagion -- couldnt tell ya
Cryostasis -- amazing
Crysis 1 -- AMAZING
damnation -- BLOWS
Darwinia -- OK
Dawn of fantasy Kingdom wars -- fun at first but peters off quickly
dawn of magic 2 -- BLOWS
Deadspace -- great
Deadspace 2 -- amazing
DEFCON -- fun
demigod -- OK
Deus ex goty --- couldnt tell ya
deus ex invisible war -- pretty good
Divinity 2 -- starts off a little slow, becomes fucking brilliant later
dont starve -- pretty fun also a little annoying
doom 3 -- great but a little long winded
doom 3 resurrection of evil -- OK
Drakensang -- alright
dungeons -- not that great
dungeon siege 1 -- amazing
dungeon siege 2 -- slightly more amazing
dungeon siege 3 -- OK
dwarfs?! -- pretty good, takes a little while to get into
eye divine cybermancy -- BLOWS
Earth Defence Force -- multiplayer fun, otherwise its meh.
Elven legacy -- couldnt tell ya
Europa universallis -- fun if you are in the mood to pay attention to 5 bagillion things all at once
Fear 2 -- passable
fear 3 -- blows
fairy bloom freesia -- suprisingly good, but takes a little while to get used to.
fallout 3 goty -- good if you can get it to work
fallout new vegas -- amazing
farcry -- ok, with nostalgia its great.
farcry 2 -- great for a while but suuuuper long winded and very grind-y
fireburst -- couldnt tell you
fuel --- blows
galactic civ 1 -- couldnt tell ya
game of thrones -- suprisingly good after you get into it. takes a little while because of the wonky combat.
hearts of iron --- blows, just play europa at this rate.
hoard -- great multiplayer fun, short.
hotline miami -- great
joe danger 2 -- couldnt tell ya
judge dredd -- couldnt tell ya
just cause 2 -- way better than 1, pretty good, a little long winded again.
karateka -- couldnt tell ya
king arthur collection -- good if you can get it to fucking work when you fight the sidhee
king arthur 2 -- ok but at least this one works.
krater -- meh, wierd as fuck
legendary -- suprisingly OK, linear but pretty graphics and goodish story.
Lucid -- MEH
Majesty 2 -- Great, very casual strategy.
majesty 1 gold -- amazing, less casual but still pretty casual.
mare nostrum -- dunno
mars war logs -- OK once you get past the wonky combat, also the voices are supposed to be better now
mass effect 2 -- great, not as good as the first
mc pixel -- BLOWS
Miner wars 2081 -- BLOWSSSSSSS
mirrors edge -- great, but can get old after a while.
monday night combat -- not so good (moba hate here)
Multiwinia -- OK
necrovision -- MEH
Operation Flashpoint dragon rising -- BLOWS
operation flashpoint red river -- couldnt tell ya
Overlord -- AMAZING
Overlord 2 -- just as amazing
Pacific storm -- couldnt tell ya
painkiller -- all of em are not that great
papo & yo -- meh, but OST is great.
Patrician 4 -- pretty good takes a while to get into
payday: he heist -- OK 2 is way better
Primordia -- AMAZING
Prototype -- AMAZING
Prototype 2 -- Slightly more amazing
ravaged -- blows
raw -- couldnt tell ya
red faction armageddon -- pretty good
red faction guerrilla -- great
red faction 2 -- good luck getting it to work
red orchestra -- OK
red orchestra 2 -- also OK
Reign -- BLOWS
Revelations -- need I say it? its not as bad as people paint it to be though...
RIP trilogy -- not that great
Risen -- amazing if you stick with it for a while, starts off a bit slow.
risen 2 -- amazing as well if you stick with it for a while, also starts off slow.
robin hood -- couldnt tell ya
rome total war -- amazing
sacred 2 gold -- OK
saints row 2 -- OK the newer ones are way better...
Saints row 3 -- great
saints row 4 -- amazing
sanctum -- pretty good
sanctum 2 -- great
section 8 prejudice -- couldnt tell ya, but if its like the other one its not that good.
Serious sam 3 -- pretty good, but long winded. great OST tho
Shadowgrounds survivor -- good, better than shadowgrounds by leaps.
singularity -- great
slam bolt scrappers -- OK
sleeping dogs -- great, but not as much content as gtas.
sniper elite nazi zombie army -- not sure, but if its like 2, pretty good, great with MP.
spellforce 2 faith in destiny -- meh
starwars TFU2 -- Playable, but not great.
strike suit zero --- BLOWS
superfrog -- dunno
supreme commander GOLD -- AMAZING, way better than supcom 2.
surgeon simulator 2013 -- dunno
take on helicopters -- dunno
Morrowind -- amazing if you get past the diceroll combat. (just train your weapons skills early, or go with magic.)
oblivion -- good but fuck me if it doesnt blow chunks in a lot of ways.
fish fillets 2 -- dunno
the guild 2 -- amazing. pretty complex
lotr war in the north -- OK, engaging enough story.
the ship -- great with alot of people, otherwise it sucks.
showdown effect -- suprisingly good, but its plagued with multiplayer bugs.
witcher 2 -- dunno
witcher 1 -- super slow beginning, gets better but not much.
thomas was alone -- dunno
Toki Tori 2+ -- if its like the old one meh.
tomb raider -- pretty good.
to the moon -- dunno
trapped dead -- OMFG STAY AWAY WITH A 20 fuckin foot pole!
trine -- amazing, even more so if you got somone else to play it with in the same room.
trine 2 -- equally amazing but with online mp support.
two worlds epic edition -- multiplayer (if you can get it working in this) isnt half bad.
two worlds 2 -- multiplayer blows, single player is alright.
uplink -- meh
ufo afterlight -- dunno
vegas make it big -- really great if you like old tycoon games.
wargame european escalation -- dunno
warhammer 40k space marine -- mp is great, story isnt half bad.
Dawn of war - soulstorm -- great
worms blast -- dunno
worms armageddon -- dunno
worms crazy gold -- not half bad, SP only though :/
worms pinball -- dunno
worms revolution -- pretty good.
worms ultimate mayhem -- dunno
xcom enemy unknown -- dunno
zeno clash -- pretty good, gotta get into it though, short.
zombie pirates -- meh.

and there you have it..

From my own experience:

1. I played Aria of Sorrow for 30 minutes... Hated it. 2 months later, played again... loved it. I've been a Castlevania fan since that moment and done some replays of the game.

2. Played Final Fantasy VI for 20 minutes... Hated it. Played it again 7 months more and now I love Final Fantasy (I've only played the old games)

3. Played Septerra Core almost to the end... and I left it because I couldn't bear it. I did it twice with this game. I should finish it next time.

You will never know and be completely sure what you will like or what you won't until you finish it and experience it... as it is with everything in real life ;)

Like Delta said, it all depends. If I would try Skyrim for the first time, at least 2-3 hours are required to get the feel of the game. If I'd try L4D2 for the first time, a few minutes are enough to know if you like it or not.

It really does matter from game to game, for a game like Shank 2 or Mark of the Ninja, it only takes about 5-10 minutes to notice whether you like it or not. Though for other games like Black Ops II Multiplayer, it takes 1-3 hours to see whether I like the game or not, it in the first 10 minutes, I hated the game, because I was totally getting PWned by pro's, over the course of 1-2 hours, I actually LOVED the game.

my recomendation is to try the game in 2 or three sesions (at least 15 -20 minutes each). if you feel like coming back you are okay, if you feel like beign tortured pass to the next one.

Also depends on your mood. I didn't feel like playing Skyrim for almost a year and now I can't stop, almost 100 hours in the past week or so.

I am more into wargames ( not RTS ), like war in the pacific admiral edition, histwar, command air naval operations, the hps simulation, matrix and ageod games... Dominions 3 ( the 4th is out but i haven't bought it yet, dominions is on steam, as is conquest of elysum ), dwarf fortress... Those are games that take i say a dozen hours to really try. Sure you can get a feel quickly, but those games tend to shine but their subtilities rather than what you see first, and those take time to discover and appreciate.

On the other hand i was sold to the first duke nukem in 5 minutes and to arma ( since operation flashpoint ) in an hour.

Most games I try to give around 3-4 hours before I judge it good or bad. That's close to a fourth of most games nowadays so I think it's pretty fair. Of course the genre does affect the time, but 3-4 usually works with a large chunk of games.

Play audiosurf!
Good luck figuring out how many hours it takes to play all music in the world xD

After playing the original Mass Effect I've come to the conclusion of 1.5 hours, especially if its an RPG. If by 1.5 hours you feel the game is too boring to go on, then I would move on. Obviously this is hugely dependent on the game, genre etc etc but thats usually what I go with.

I usually force myself to beat a game even if its bad, cause I paid for it.

It's relative, some people have no tolerance and can get frustrated in 10 minutes, but i think 30 minutes is a fair time though.
Also watching youtube gameplay videos can be a good hint.

idk if it helps but when I get a game I give it however much time I paid for it to see if I dig it. SO I basically assume for every dollar spent I should get at least a MINIMUM of one hour of fun game play out of it. Of course some games turn out way more time for less which is phenomenal, and some turn out less which come out as somewhat of a waste of money. Using that system I usually find it easy to gauge how much time I am willing to spend testing out new games.

Really depends on the type of game. Stuff that is going to be pretty short, I usually try and stick it out to the end, especially if it has achievements.

Longer games like RPGs, I usually try to give about 5-10 hours to see if I like the characters and battle system mostly. Even if the story isn't anything amazing, a fun battle system and interesting characters can drive me to play more until the story does get interesting. RPGs tend to need a bit more buildup to really become interesting and I like to find out how a story ends.

And then for games that aren't really short or RPGs, it tends to depend on how fun it is to play. If I suck at the game and just can't get anywhere, I'll put it down pretty fast. If it's a game that I may not be all that good at, but I may get better with practice and be satisfied when I beat it, then I'll keep going.

There are two exceptions to this. One is if the game doesn't allow me to play it in windowed mode. If I can't find a windowed setting and the game blocks any utilities from forcing it into a window, that game gets uninstalled before I even give it a chance. I won't put up with a game forcing itself to take over my computer pretty much. The other is if a game gives me motion sickness. That game will be uninstalled as well.

it really depends. best example: i played 5 minutes of Woodcutter Simulator 2013 yesterday. nothing worked, absolutely nothing. you spawn in front of an invisible wall, where really none should be. you clip through all trees (so why cut them anyway ^^). the tutorials are only videos - but they don't play. they just don't play! and after 5 minutes of not knowing what the fuck i am supposed to do (i didn't cut a single tree), the game finally crashed. pretty safe to say that this game is garbage, even after 5 minutes. :)

I always try to complete the game, even if I don't like it. I mean, I paid for it, I feel weird if I didn't stick it out until the end, not matter how excruciatingly painful it is. But I say try to stick to it for about 30 minutes; 5 to 10 minutes for shorter games.

All responses in this thread are now null and void.

This is all you need, OP:

HowLongToBeat