As a matter of interest: Nowadays, more all less all games with a manual save game feature also save automatically, at exit and/or specific points in the game. Do you still save manually, or rely completely on autosaves?

And while we're at it: What's your opinion on autosave-only interfaces?

I still do manual saves even with autosaves. I prefer to be able to also save manually.

Oh, yes... definitely much prefer a manual save in addition to exit. Having to replay a certain part of a game just because life intervenes is SOOOO aggravating.

I still save manually, and I don't like autosave only. Thanks for the question, Mikael.

I like to save manually at points of my choosing but i sure appreciate an automatic save on exit just in case I forget.

I started letting games worry about saving for me. Especially in adventures where I don't need to worry about health, ammo and such.

Autosave on exit is fine, but I still like creating save game points on my own. I despise save points in games. It's usually a deal breaker for me because I grab little bursts of time to play and can't always get to a save point. i do appreciate a game that saves all your progress as you exit though in case I forget.

Ana

still save manually, but i like save on exit.

one reason is because we have sudden , inexplicable power burps,

and i don't want to repeat things because of it.

also not fond of hint systems that give a hint and the solution on

the same "page"

so yes , not being able to save when i want means i won't play that game.

Absolutely I still save manually.

My opinion of autosave-only interfaces isn't fit to print, especially when there is only one single autosave that is overwritten every time the save is updated. Does the developer really think the game will never crash on any computer, destroying the one and only save? Does the developer really think the game is entirely bug free and will never get into an unwinnable state, which would force going back to a previous save if there was one, but forces a replay of the entire game if there is only a single save from after the unwinnable state was triggered.

Another reason for allowing manual saves is that there are players who refuse to play a game if there is no walkthrough -- even if the game has an excellent Hint system. It only takes playing one game where the Hint system didn't work to convince them that they need a separate walkthrough for every game they play. Allowing manual saves makes things much easier for someone writing a walkthrough. Think about how inconvenient it is to have to replay an entire game when you want to go back and check something for your walkthrough.

I agree exactly with Jenny100 and Browneyedtigre, You can have an Autosave on exit but it has to also have the Manual Save system. The games that force you to play to specific save point in the game is absolutely ridiculous and makes no sense why any developer would use such nonsense. I really don't know why they would do that or who it benefits. Like Ana says, if you only have so much time to play and you don't reach a save point you have to start that portion all over again the next time you play...idiotic....sorry, rant over.

Also in agreement with the futility of that style of save system. Unfortunately, it's fairly heavily rooted and most likely began with Dark Side style games; FPS, Action Adventure and so on. The original logic put forth was to allow the player to remain completely immersed in the gameplay and not create the potential for a critical lag in-game as the result of an Autosave. This can be an issue with twitch oriented gaming where every move makes the difference between making the goal or not. It could be argued that with today's more advanced machines, the potential for lag has less probability, but as machines advance, so does the demand by game graphics - At least that's what some production groups use as a justification.

The main reason it's adopted by other games is to make a shorter game appear longer by forcing the gamer to replay the last sequence of events each time they fail to make a save checkpoint. It's even done on low graphic demand platform style games, for just that reason; it stretches out the gaming experience to increase the game's "perceived value." It's all about the bottom line

I'll save manually but it's nice to know that there is an auto save feature just in case I forget, especially on exit. What I don't like is when there is no indication whether the game auto saves or if you have to manually save and figure out how to do it.

Good question, Mikael

My preference is always to have the option of saving when and where I want and not be forced to accept an "auto save" system.

The only "auto save" I am happy to accept is that on exiting a game

Cheers.

Mad

There are 3 general types of autosave features:

1. The game can be saved manually, and also saves automatically at exit and/or check points. I see no negative sides here. The player can choose to save and load any scene in the game, regardless of current progression, or choose to never save, and simply start up the game from the last autosave in the next gaming session. I have a little pet peeve about the saving icon that sometimes appears in one corner of these games (and sometime inadvertently alerts you that something dramatical is about to happen), but that's just a detail. Sometimes you can turn off the autosave feature in these games, which makes the system perfect.

2. The game only saves on exit and sometimes also at checkpoints. I don't like this, for the same reasons that have already been mentioned here. And who's to say that the player doesn't want to revisit a scene that isn't available at the point he or she has progressed to? The point of a game is not just about rushing though a number of scenes just to get to the end!

3. The game only saves at checkpoints. This method should be criminalized. When I come across it in a game, I always feel like the game is punishing the player. And for some reason the checkpoints are often very far and few between in these games, forcing the player to repeat large portions of the game.

I always make plenty manual saves. But I'm old school. In the old Sierra games, not saving frequently was crucial, since one could reach a dead end if one hadn't performed a specific action prior to certain scenes. I particularly remember being tied to a bed forever if one hadn't bought wine to the wino outside the store earlier in the game.

Oh...thank goodness Mikael. I thought that because you asked this question you were contemplating changing the Save system in future Carol Reed games..whew. Speaking of the old school games and manual saves, in my opinion the perfect save system was one that you didn't have to leave the game screen to save. With some of the older games all you needed to do was hit a certain "F" key or the "S" key. To me this is perfect as it doesn't make you pause when you are drawn into a game. This is optimal when you like to save a lot like us old timers that are programed to do this because of the chances of a game crashing at a most challenging part. Some games now-a-days have too many clicks just to manually Save and click back to where you were. Yes, bring back the one click Save and have the choice of Loading any at the beginning of a session.

Your autosave works great Mikael. but I never use it to load, well resume. I like some control when playing, and for that reason only I use manual saves. One thing that I miss from the earlier games is the possibility to name my saves. Now, that might not be possible anymore, but I liked that function and used it quite often. More control.