Getting older has many side effects, but the one thats hurting most at the moment is the decreasing amount of time I have to play games.

And whilst multiplayer modes have grabbed me with their ‘pick up and play’ nature and, perhaps more importantly, the engagement with other gamers. I struggle to remember the last single player campaign I played all the way.

I’ve tried loads of times over the past few years with Battlefield: Bad Company, Half-Life 2, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, Gears of War 1 and 2, Modern Warfare 2… The list goes on. But I just can’t stick with it to the end, no matter how hard I try.

It goes back to my point about time, sometimes it can be a week before I get back to a game, by which point I’m so detached from the storylines and my progress that its becomes all too easy to drop in favour of some Team Deathmatch or a match on FIFA 10.

When I was at college some 7-8 years ago I played games like Metal Gear Solid and Silent Hill for a few hours almost daily, I knew where I was instantly, and could carry on has if I never left, and I did until I finished the game. At which point I’d complain and moan that it was too short? I doubt I’d get through the first few missions on them now.

Whilst others are clearly still playing campaigns (according ot my friends list at least) it would seem that Games developers are aware of this growing trend, with campaign modes getting increasingly shorter and multiplayer modes being ‘strapped’ onto games that shouldn’t need them.

We live in a time where barely a word is said between neighbours, and most of our ‘real life’ time is spent with work colleagues rather than friends or family – so of course multiplayer gaming and the micro communities it has spawned has become very powerful, but is it also the reason for the decline in truly stella single player games being created these days?

The last one I finished was Bioshock, if you must know.