Yep, agree completely, worst offender I've found personally though was prey, took me a whole 5 hours on PC for that game... Playing Blue Dragon atm though 60 hours into that so far but running round for stuff I missed, found a boss which keeps whipping me, so its leveling time :D lol. so its not all short, sweet trips down the sugar path. That game however isn't for everyone. I can't remember a game other than that recently thats taken me over 8 hours to complete :( which sucks.

Yea I found that with most games now days they make them short which is fine if you have good multiplayer on it.

Most long games are RPG's and they are only long because you take hours to level up.

Short to me personally is a game I can complete sub 10 hours, with no incentive to either replay (different endings/something I've not seen that I've heard is a nice twist) Don't get me wrong some games that are short can be fun, its just that empty feeling of wanting more, hard to put into words. But I'm sure you felt it at some point, halo 2 was the one that hit that home the most for me as a friend of mine put it "I was expecting the next level to load".

Just because you can complete a game in 4 hours doesn't mean you should. Maybe you should start setting yourself personal challenges. Try and see if you can keep you health above 70 in most cases, allow yourself an exception if you get cornered or something, but just reload if you don't get it perfect. Maybe you should just start taking your time, working out tactics, playing the game with a little more intensity than just rushing them to get to the next area.

Tbh, I have trouble getting through games because I'm too much like this. I've spent ages on Doom 3 checking every single nook and cranny to make sure I haven't missed a PDA or an early gun upgrade or a special secret area that'll give me a greater tactical advantage, etc. I tend to play games on super hard if I find the first level too easy, or if I feel like I want more of a challenge, because I owe it to the game to put effort in.

I think with the gamer points they're counting on the replay value - and the greedy industries don't care that they're making interactive movies that won't hold you over for very long, its not their loss.