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Anakin, you miss the point. It is NOT the number of hours that's the problem, the number of hours is a sign of utter lack of content, which definitely is a problem when a product is priced the same as equivalent titles that have so much more to them. Also, your response is silly. The fact is, DS III is being marketed as an action-rpg. Why are you using a comparison to action games and shooters as a defense for how short it is? Sports games inherently have further replay because the primary object is developing skills and competing with your friends. The same thing applies to shooters and fighting games, wherein the main point is online competition. In action games and shooters, the content is the action game and the mechanics. That means you get hours more play time out of them based on the number of sports teams and players or on the complexity of online team-play or the number of cars and tracks there are to drive. That is how you judge the content in other categories of gaming. Compare DS III to other action-rpgs and it has NO CONTENT. The likes of Sacred 2, Two Worlds II and Torchlight are its competitors and in terms of how much there is to see and do and fight they have orders of magnitude more stuff. It is SUPPOSED to have more content. Even if you're going by multi-player, DS III just does not have enough going for it. Again, it's not like DS III has a short but exquisitely crafted campaign. It's not like it's comparable to short but beautiful games like Ico. DS III has generic artwork, dungeons and puzzles and monsters. I'm not saying DS III sucks completely. I actually like its gameplay. I'm saying it sucks for having such a high price point when it has a mere fraction of the size and content of other action rpgs that are also priced at $40-50. Hell, Mass Effect 1&2, Fallout 3 & New Vegas are technically action-rpgs too since they're hybrid-shooters and they also blow DSIII away in terms of stuff, and when they were new, they were PRICED at the same level.

As I just posted elsewhere, I have no problems with DSIII's gameplay or interface. I read the reviews, I knew it would be an action RPG, I knew I needed a gamepad. The gameplay was fun enough, for me. What none of the reviews said is that THERE IS SO LITTLE TO THE GAME. I finished a hardcore playthrough, all quests completed, at 10 hours, and that was with time wasted on grinding so I had more health and couldn't be 2 shotted if I screwed up in a boss fight. I could have completed it in 8. More skilled twitch gamers can probably skip the sidequests and finish it in 6 hours. That's ridiculously little content for a $50 game. There are not enough locations. The locations are not big enough. There are only 2 towns. There are not enough quests. There are not enough character models. Dialogue is very nearly meaningless. This is a game that was obviously rushed to completion. It is worth $10-15. I have not felt so pissed at a game I paid for in a long time.

I just finished it and although the gameplay (with a gamepad and an x-box controller emulator) is fun enough, I feel totally robbed. The game was obviously rushed through production. There is so little content, it's laughable. I finished a hardcore run and if you look at the hours played on the save file I finished it in 10 hours and that was WITH about an hour and a half of time-wasting grinding to be a little higher level so screwing up in boss fights does not mean I'm almost dead from 2 boss hits. There are few character models for everything, there aren't enough quests, the loot does not affect the look enough, the dungeons and environments are too small... It's not like it's a finely crafted gem of a game that's got an exquisite few hours of playtime either. You could finish the game in 8 hours even with doing all the quests. Actually, if you skip the side-quests and just have the skill to time your dodges and blocks in boss fights, you could probably finish it in 6 hours. TOTALLY NOT WORTH THE PRICE. I don't understand why so many people complain about the interface. It's designed for a console, so you need a gamepad. I read the reviews and knew what to expect regarding the gameplay. What really ticks me off is that nobody mentioned how FREAKING SHORT DS III is. I paid $50 for it and a playthrough only takes 10 hours or less? There are tons of $20 games with better gameplay and vastly more content. Fine, my total time played is longer because I experimented with the different characters, but there is NO WAY a modern rpg (even an action rpg) priced at $40-50 should have so few things to do, places to see, and monsters to kill. I generally like Obsidian's work too, so I find DSIII to be staggeringly light on content. It could have been an awesome game. It needed some character specific quests so that your dialog choices with the companions matter. It needed more than just TWO towns. It needed more than 3 quests in town one and 10 in town two. It needed more character models for monsters and more designs for player loot. It needed to be at LEAST 25-35 hours playthrough to deserve a $50 pricetag. As it is now, it's fun enough, but there's just not enough IN it. It should be a $15 game at best.