can we stop screwing this up please?

[gremcint]

I mean video games are at over 3 decades now, I can have a 250 gb harddrive in my console and a 3 tb in my computer. so why do they still limit the number of saved games.

I keep coming back to it in my mind, it seems like such a minor thing but 1 saved game only? really? in this day and age 1 saved game only. hell even legend of zelda let you have three. seriously it takes up 4 megabytes on my flashdrive, my 16 gig flashdrive and it only lets me have 1 saved game. what the fuck?

for the record Castlevania lords of shadow.

It's a great game and I don't need a second saved game but I just can't wrap my head around the logic of this.

Honestly they really make some stupid mistakes when designing games these days.

[Rageaholic]

Yeah why do video games makers mess up something so simple as the save option? You should just be able to save, come back to it, and finish it later. Instead of making all these unnecessary restrictions where you can only save when you make it so far (my biggest pet peeve).

I never thought much about the one save option, but it does suck. Especially when you want to let someone else play. Actually, that's probably why they do that. If you don't want your brother or friend to play on the only saved file, they'll have to get the game themselves. Still a pretty dirty trick though.

[Hyena Dandy]

Instead of making all these unnecessary restrictions where you can only save when you make it so far (my biggest pet peeve).

That makes sense in (and only in) the survival horror genre. Maybe the action genre if they're trying to get you a little tense and edgy if not outright scared. If you need to get to safety to save your game, then you lose some of the immediacy. And really, the immediacy lends a lot of emotion to a tense game.

Like when Madden NFL erased its ability to pick up a game on the same play you left off. At first that pissed me off, but then it started to make the emotional games a little more emotional.

Although Madden really SHOULDN'T have that ability erased. If there's one sport in the world that should be able to save at any time its football. And probably Baseball.

[Greenday]

Ugh, I hate when games only let you continue the last story or start a new one. Can't save multiple ones. Pokemon is notorious for this. Just lazy on the developers part.

[muses_nightmare]

Uhg I hate this! For a little bit I couldn't figure out what was happening, I thought my bf was saving over my games instead of saving his own game, but no, the game only allowed one save. Irritating, especially if you have more than one person who wants to play the game.

[joe hx]

Yeah why do video games makers mess up something so simple as the save option? You should just be able to save, come back to it, and finish it later. Instead of making all these unnecessary restrictions where you can only save when you make it so far (my biggest pet peeve).

That's one thing I always loved about about emulators. You can save friggin' everywhere. In the middle of a cutscene, even!

But letting you save wherever isn't always the best game design decision. Hyena Dandy presented a couple.

Also, you don't want to allow the gamer to save somewhere where if the gamer has screwed up, they have to start the game completely over.

Let's say I've made a really awesome RPG, and I let my player save anywhere, emulator-style. They're on the final boss fight, took them 80-100 hours to get there. Final boss fight start, perfect place to save, right? Except for the fact that you get killed (game over) and need to level up. So you reload your saved game... Right at the start of the boss fight, and instantly get killed again. So you try again... And again... And again... Unfortunately, since you saved over your old save file, you have to start the game completely over.

[Greenday]

Let's say I've made a really awesome RPG, and I let my player save anywhere, emulator-style. They're on the final boss fight, took them 80-100 hours to get there. Final boss fight start, perfect place to save, right? Except for the fact that you get killed (game over) and need to level up. So you reload your saved game... Right at the start of the boss fight, and instantly get killed again. So you try again... And again... And again... Unfortunately, since you saved over your old save file, you have to start the game completely over.

Which is why I like games such as KOTOR where you can have multiple save files for multiple games.

[Andara Bledin]

Which is why I like games such as KOTOR where you can have multiple save files for multiple games.

This.

Unless it's necessary for the tension (survival horror, etc), then there's no excuse to not allow multiple saves and multiple playthroughs at the same time. Even on handheld systems.

^-.-^

[Racket_Man]

I know of ONE game that did let you save mulitpule games, and this game was published back in the days of MSDOS (1995 I believe)

I give you QUAKE.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quake_(video_game)

I think you could save up to 12 seperate games. Yes I still play it along with Half Life.

I think this was also true of Quake II (have not played II in quite a long time)

I believe that the newer Steam version of Halflife also allows you to save multipile games in Chronological order.

[Greenday]

Haha, Quake was badass. My friend and I would be playing on two computers in his house. Then his brother would get on a third computer and join us. Then his dad would get on a fourth computer and join us.

[Salted Grump]

The only game I have that's 'recent' with a limited save functionality is Demon's Souls, and in that it makes sense because the game damn well autosaves everywhere you go and everything you do (so it can rub your inevitable death in your face later)

[powerboy]

I hate the ones that only lets you save at certain save points. I hate it, because I could be playing and then have to eat dinner. But atlas, I cannot save at that point and I get in trouble because I couldn't save. Yes I could have just turned the system off, but if I got so far and didn't want to try to beat that hard level again....

[Bloodsoul]

I've yet to actually try it myself, but is it safe to assume that on an Xbox 360 you can save multiple copies of games using different profiles (which I assumed was half the purpose of having profiles to begin with). This way Jimmy and Billy can both play the same game on the same console without worrying about messing up each other's saves?

Oddly enough, my little bought with obsessive compulsive disorder unconsciously prevents me from having more than one saved game at a time, since I've noticed that a lot of games don't let you delete saved files so I end up with all of these unfinished saved states cluttering the game and just feeling "icky" like a room with trash in it.

Well, I think that might apply more towards PS2 than Xbox 360 since I believe FFXIII had a seperate file for each saved game while DW5: Empires on the PS2 had up to three saved games on a single file, neither of which you could delete, only override.

I think I can also understand the limitations for Pokémon because, often times, there's more going on with the game's code than one might realize (i.e., a Pokémon's stats are determined by its base score, determination value (1-15 old gen, 1-31 new gen?), and effort points (which got capped starting with Ruby/Sapphire; the vitamins grant EP up to a certain limit). I will admit that I haven't played a Pokémon game since Emerald nor a Zelda game since Seasons, but I'd say Pokémon's the bigger game in terms of memory.

With regards to saving only at certain points I actually have to give FFXII thanks for this; not because I like it, but because I want to implement "save crystals" into my Dungeons & Dragons games; I had planned on having this large, floating island full of drow/dark elves (looks like the moon from the planet's surface due to proportion/perspective) and at the center of their city would be a giant sapphire that, when used, grants the party the benefit of a caster level 25th, 10th-level mass heal spell.

[SkullKing]

I Don´t think there is any serious RPG, that doesn´t let you have multiple save games.

Even games like Diablo, and Torchlight. that save everything you do, allow for different saves for different characters