Editorial: Five Things Every Game Should Have

As I have mainly been playing older games lately, as that is all my current budget can afford, I have noticed it is hard to get used to not having many features newer games come with.  Here I have listed a few that I feel every game should include.

1. Auto-Save Checkpoints – This probably the most important thing a game can include.  I can not tell you how many times I have played an older game and quit assuming the game saved at the last checkpoint, only to boot it up again later and find I have to start from the beginning of the game.

2. Pause-able/Skip-able Cutscenes – This is another important aspect of any game, especially RPGs.  I think we have all encountered a time when a game has a plot heavy cutscene and just as it is getting good you get that phone call you have been waiting for or one of your parents comes into your room to talk to you (SHUT UP DURING MY CUTSCENES, MOM!).

3. Subtitles – It is amazing to know that even in recent games, subtitle options are not available.  As good as voice acting is these days (mostly) sometimes we have a hard time hearing some of it.  Just give us the ability to read what is being said!  It is not that hard!

4. Home Button Pauses the Game – This is mainly an issue for PlayStation 3 or XBox 360 games.  We all have those times when you get a message from a friend and you hit the home button to read it assuming the game will pause only to find this is not the case.  Usually this is not a big deal, but I know there have been times where I can not get back to the game fast enough to avoid a critical enemy attack.  Just have the home button pause the game!  C’mon, developers!

5. Option to Install Game Data – The 360 lets you do this for any game, but only a select few on the PlayStation 3.  Not only does this make load times faster (because we all have precious few time to play these days), but it also reduces the risk of your system over heating, as it does not constantly read from a disc.

So, my beautiful creatures of the night, I would like your thoughts on this subject.  Anything that should have been added to the list?  Anything that should have been deleted?  Or just tell me how much you love me!  You know what to do in the comments below!

12 Responses to “Editorial: Five Things Every Game Should Have”

  1. SiliconNooB says:

    Parents need to come with an off button. Why do they always assume that what you’re doing isn’t important?

  2. Lane says:

    What my favorite games have to have:

    1. Magic fucking swords.

  3. juan22 says:

    Auto-Save Checkpoints? no thanks. rpgs arent call of duty or some sandbox game. rpgs are usually decent games.

  4. Ethos says:

    Doesn’t mean an auto-save wouldn’t be beneficial…

  5. Bup says:

    Right! I mean, how many times have you been in the middle of a dungeon and got a game over losing a couple hours of play time?

  6. Berserk says:

    Autosaves in RPGs? Not necessarily a good thing.

    Definitely not a good thing in branching games or games in which a lot of focus is put on choices ie. Bioware games, or stuff like SMT: Devil Survivor.

    Imagine you choose one dialogue option, only to quickly regret where it takes you. You want to reload and try that part again but the game has autosaved after the scene you weren’t pleased with. No, that would be stupid.

    On the other hand, autosaves can be good in certain games like FPS, Action/Adventure, 3rd person games etc.

  7. Ethos says:

    Not at all, Berserk. An auto-save combined with a hard save feature is perfect. Think of Mass Effect. It auto-saves, AND you can make a hard save. You can choose from either. The auto-save doesn’t overwrite the hard save.

  8. juan22 says:

    @Bup . thats why you are supose to save often. thats the best thing about jrpgs : “just one more battle and i´ll save” “oh i died and i lost 1 hr of granding ” thats a challenge. i´ll rather play mario party or wii dance instead of a westernized jrpg..

  9. Ethos says:

    That’s crazy to me. Games like Fallout 3 are deep and expansive expansive RPG experiences that should not be ruled out because they hail from the west.
    And saving often isn’t really a skill in my mind…

  10. kenjujuu says:

    You want to meet somewhere in the middle, like Pokemon, where you can save wherever, but with multiple save slots, so you can make different choices in game and see all the story. But that’s mainly RPGs though. After all, if every game did auto save, and you wanted to go back, you’re kinda screwed.

  11. darthgibblet says:

    Personally, I consider losing 3 hours of dungeon crawling because there are only save points at the start and end (think Persona) more “annoying” than “challenging.” I love the way Dragon Age (and ME2) did it, where there was auto-saves and hard saves as well. Granted, I did get a little to reliant on the auto-save at the end of DA:O and got stuck in the final battle without the ability to back out, but that was my own fault. I should have been keeping a hard save at certain intervals.

  12. SiliconNooB says:

    I hate auto-save-only games, but I appreciate a supplementary auto-save. Loss of progress due to lack of savepoints is a deficiency, not a virtue.

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