A few things in video games.

[Rageaholic]

Now I love video games. Who doesn't? But there are a few things that bug the hell out of me.

-Not being able to save. The worst offender is New Super Mario Bros DS. Good game, but you can only save either after you complete a world or you buy a secret. With the DS's limited life before it needs to be recharged, this is extremely frustrating. I can't always complete a world once I get the red light and when I find secrets, I want to keep playing. I've only had the game a day, and I already had to do several levels over again because I couldn't get to a save point in time. Seriously game developers, what's so hard about letting us save when we want to? Other mario games do that so why can't you?

-Lives reset. If only I could count the number of times I've racked up 10, 15, 20 lives on Mario DS only to save the game, come back to it and be back to 4. Again, why can't they program that into the game? There's no point to collecting lives if they're always going to come back to 4.

-Unskippable cutscenes. Zelda games are nitorious for this. I've seen the intro, I know the story, so just let me play.

With the exception of the last one, these really do hinder the gameplay. Why make it like that?

[Andara Bledin]

The lack of save anywhere options is actually a big pet peeve of a lot of gamers, including a few reviewers. Unless you're playing hardcore survival games, there's just no excuse to not allow saving from anywhere.

When it's something like Super Mario Bros DS, there's just no excuse, just lazy programming.

^-.-^

[HotelKatz]

Points one and two have been around forever from my POV.

Point three is fairly recent. I blame people who don't want players to miss all the work they put into the cutscenes.

Admittedly, an argument could be made that saving wherever you want destroys the difficulty. Sometimes I have a problem with this, sometimes I don't. It depends on the game.

Another argument could be made about farming lives. I really don't have a problem with this one because it takes time to do so.

[AdminAssistant]

The cutscenes (particularly those involving Harrison Jones :P) in Cataclysm are really starting to bug Fiance. I dunno, I'm not to the Cata stuff yet, but I like most cutscenes. As far as not being able to save goes? Yeah, that sucks.

[Plaidman]

I think it was intentional. Back in the NES days of Mario, you didn't have ANY save option. It was a straight battle to Bowser.

I'd be fine with the once a world thing, it's not like they're that hard.

I think video games now adays are all graphics and little difficultity.


Those that love cutscenes should watch Xenosaga. EIGHT hours of cutscenes. More movie then game.

[Andara Bledin]

The cutscenes (particularly those involving Harrison Jones :P) in Cataclysm are really starting to bug Fiance. I dunno, I'm not to the Cata stuff yet, but I like most cutscenes. As far as not being able to save goes? Yeah, that sucks.

If it's an area where there are multiple players, they have to be unskippable, to make sure that everybody is in the same state.

City of Heroes does the same thing with a few of the Task Forces. Sure, it's a little annoying, but in CoH, since you're still in the scene, you can set up macro keys to pop up amusing word bubbles.

I think video games now adays are all graphics and little difficultity.

Honestly, that's completely irrelevant.

If you think that using the save feature makes a game too easy, then don't use it. It should be no excuse to make it not available to those who are less game savvy.

It's an artificial barrier to entry that shouldn't exist.

^-.-^

[Plaidman]

Honestly, that's completely irrelevant.

If you think that using the save feature makes a game too easy, then don't use it. It should be no excuse to make it not available to those who are less game savvy.

It's an artificial barrier to entry that shouldn't exist.

^-.-^

How's it irrelevant? The thread is on video games. No where did I say that video games are easily BECAUSE of how several save at anytime, even during boss battles for some, but simply that video games are easier then the ones I grew up on from NES, Sega, and SNES.

[Andara Bledin]

For the thread topic, absolutely.

I was speaking directly regarding save capabilities within games, which is what your post seemed to be addressing.

The fact that there are too many games that go for style over substance has nothing to do with the existence or lack of save points.

Older games didn't have the "save anywhere" feature because they literally couldn't without actually sacrificing game assets. These days, such a feature is such a trivial inclusion that the only reason not to have it is either laziness, poor design, or to create artificial difficulty.

For some games (survival horror, for instance) it can work to add urgency into the game. But the usual result is to make it harder for gamers with time constraints to advance and nothing more.

^-.-^

[Smithereens]

Yes, the freaking cutscenes. I get what's happening, let me play the dang game!

[muses_nightmare]

The first Dead Rising game for Xbox is irritating in that only one game can be saved, so if someone else plays it just saves right over your game. That happened to me when my bf played. But then I don't play that game much since I got Left4Dead Yeah I'm all about the zombie games.

I agree that you should be able to save from anywhere in games like Mario and such.

[Rageaholic]

If you think that using the save feature makes a game too easy, then don't use it. It should be no excuse to make it not available to those who are less game savvy.

It's an artificial barrier to entry that shouldn't exist.

^-.-^

Exactly. At least with the save option available, you could still do speed runs. I've done games on SMB3 where I tried to see how far I could go without a game over. I've gotten really good at that game, yet even now, only being able to save at castles and fortresses can be a pain. Especially when I'm anxiously trying to complete some levels just so I can save. Or even worse, wanting to keep on playing but having to stop because I know there won't be a save point for a while. There's no need for this as it does nothing but frustrate gamers while adding no fun to the game.

[MadMike]

-Not being able to save.

Agreed. I picked up a copy of Far Cry at a computer show about a year or so ago, and that was my biggest complaint, second to how often the damn thing liked to crash, and the lack of a 64-bit installer for that particular copy (had to install it under my 32-bit XP partition, copy it to my 64-bit Win7 partition, and then apply the patches.)

There are checkpoints throughout the game, but there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to their placement. I've had some that I could get to without trying, and others that I just couldn't get to without getting killed. I was stuck in the same spot for days, even weeks at times.

I did eventually beat the game, but because of the frustration with those stupid checkpoints, I might never play it again. Too bad, because it was a good game overall, and had an interesting story line.

[ZedOmega]

Now I love video games. Who doesn't? But there are a few things that bug the hell out of me.

-Not being able to save. The worst offender is New Super Mario Bros DS. Good game, but you can only save either after you complete a world or you buy a secret. With the DS's limited life before it needs to be recharged, this is extremely frustrating. I can't always complete a world once I get the red light and when I find secrets, I want to keep playing. I've only had the game a day, and I already had to do several levels over again because I couldn't get to a save point in time. Seriously game developers, what's so hard about letting us save when we want to? Other mario games do that so why can't you?

Starting out in La-Mulana would drive you crazy, then. You have to buy a particular item just for the ability to save, and unless it's further in the game and I haven't found it yet, the only way to save is to go all the way back to the only person in the game who can save it for you while you have that item equipped, even if you're a good ways into the dungeon area.

-Lives reset. If only I could count the number of times I've racked up 10, 15, 20 lives on Mario DS only to save the game, come back to it and be back to 4. Again, why can't they program that into the game? There's no point to collecting lives if they're always going to come back to 4.

God, my blind rage way back when I played Faxanadu... Get a good chunk of gold, save my game, go back to it and... wait, I'm missing a few thousand gold.

-Unskippable cutscenes. Zelda games are nitorious for this. I've seen the intro, I know the story, so just let me play.

I don't think I've played anything that made me sit through the cutscenes, but I can see where you're coming from with this. I'm honestly one of the people who'd watch them all the way through, even if they pop up in the middle of a hectic part of the game, but there's just times you want to get in there and go nuts.

[LexiaFira]

Not being able to save, difficult game or not, or being able to pause at all or the pause isn't really a pause.
Such as Fable 3, pausing takes me to a certain area, and the timer (if that matters towards an achievement or if I wanted a personal time achievement on how fast i finished the game) doesn't help.

Want to be able to save as needed or at least have available or known save areas or pause for the fact when I DO have the rare time to play any video game I more than likely have to pause or save to get chores done or tend to a child done napping.

[KnitShoni]

The cutscenes (particularly those involving Harrison Jones :P) in Cataclysm are really starting to bug Fiance. I dunno, I'm not to the Cata stuff yet, but I like most cutscenes. As far as not being able to save goes? Yeah, that sucks.

Actually, there are only 4-5 that I've found that you can't escape out of. I like them, but after seeing them all the first time, I'm glad to be able to skip them.