One save system I like but very rarely see outside mods is the timed, multislot autosaves.

This is where you can have, say, 12 save slots that are automatically saved into in turn every 5 mins so you can always backtrack up to an hour (configurable). Handy when you play something like Oblivion or Fallout:NV and die after forgetting to save after a few hours >_<

(I mention those games since I have autosaves mods for them)

If it's too difficult, turn down the difficulty setting?

It is not a question of difficulty, really, it's a question of control over the game. I like the challenge, but I don't like having to repeat myself. If you prefer the challenge, nobody forces you to save all the time.

Especially not if you consider saving after difficult parts cheating anyway. So I guess you wouldn't use the save function even if it was there for cheaters who prefer to save some time, right? ;)

Indeed, I'd be fine if the quick save was automatically nuked upon reload, but preventing players from being able to quit without having to worry about what they're going to have to do over, is not cool.

My theory is that the game business is targetting younger and younger audiences. At some point, games will only be made for kids with boundless energy (to jump up and down in front of a camera) plus infinite amounts of time to play and replay partial levels. We're already there with the shoddy save system, and only a matter of time before only games with camera input will be profitable.

I suspect it boils down to... keeping a game in the public eye as long as possible. If you can save every 2 feet and finish a game in a couple days, you'll quit talking about the game on the forums, and word of mouth will dry up, along with sales. Reviews will peg the game as "too easy" and "not worth $60 for 5 hours of playtime" etc.

But hey, I'm not bitter! GOG to the rescue!

The issue is you're viewing each wave as an individual challenge, where the developers see the entire area as a challenge you have to complete before moving on to the next. What you're saying is no different then "I should be able to save after every single hit, so I don't have to replay the times that I did hit the enemy!".

If the challenge is too much for you turn down the difficulty. I know I've done it with games in the past.

I've heard this complaint before by a few others, but I don't get it. I'm not saying you're wrong for complaining, I'm asking why is this so bad? What are some examples of games that don't do this? I am a long time consoles player and am still relatively new to pc gaming, so I never really noticed the difference

One example of this is Azure Dreams (PSX version I am referring to, but the Gameboy version may behave the same) where the save system worked like so:

You can save in the town by speaking to an NPC (your mother).
In the tower, you can only save when you go between floors on the elevator. Saving here "exits" the game. When you load the game, it saves it again as though you had died in the tower i.e. back in the town, lost all your inventory.

This lead to hurried races to find the elevator before you had to leave for school (I really like this game.. :]) and if you managed to lock the game up (quite easy considering some of the bugs[1]) or otherwise exit without saving, it behaved as though you had died :|

Needless to say, I was planning on removing these save mechanics in my PC adaptation/port of this game (I was taking a few things from the GB version, such as dungeons, and adding in multiplayer) and letting players save whenever they want.

[1] One of which was to have one of your familiars (a Manoeva) transform into an object and then try to recall it to the bag. The game would lock up immediately, waiting for the Manoeva to enter the bag, but it being unable to because it wasn't a familiar. I have a theory that this is because the Manoeva was instructed to return to its natural form, but such an action takes a turn, and it wasn't its turn yet!

The checkpoint system in Alice did piss me off a couple of times. I prefer to save anywhere myself. To make it easier on myself I used the caterpillar dress so I didn't have to get carpal tunnel in my pinky which helped out alot for the stupid platform BS.

Sometime I also used the red queen costume which helps out during fights as well but really the game is tremendously easy when fighting enemies it's the platforming (like the stupid pinball minigames) that caused alot of frustration because I couldn't save anywhere.

PC gamers NEED a save anywhere system to not offer that at all is not very user friendly.

PC Gamers are supposed to be hardcore elite players as they put it but you would rather be coddled?

Come on. I bet you saved after each blunderbuss hit on the final boss in the first game taking away any challenge.

<chuckle> This reminded me of why I stopped playing Bioshock. Once it became apparent that there was ZERO penalty for dying and using the Vita Chambers it became a question of why bother playing. The game wasn't any fun at that point.

This post reminds me of Metroid Prime where there was a pretty long section without any save points and some crazy battle I would die and have to backtrack another 20 minutes or so (had to get my scans in!). So hated save points during that time period!

The saving outside of combat I was fine with until Oblivion. Or was it auto travel? Either way, I would be about to use whatever feature and hear the music kick in where there was a baddy nearby. I would run a bit and see nothing. Keep running for 5 minutes and still... nothing! This is why I love games with the quick save feature (pretty much see it in my DS games) where, as a previous poster mentioned, you can have two saves at one time. One was a "real" save whereas the other was a "quick" save which would disappear the next time you load it.

Though, saving anytime I want would be perfect. I don't get many long gaming sessions anymore. :(

Checkpoint-based saving originated on consoles and handhelds for legitimate reasons due to the severely limited storage space. The Xbox led the way for PC-level storage capabilities, and now all current consoles and portables support multi-GB memory cards and/or hard drives.

Current games have no excuse for continuing this trend but do so anyway because the audience is used to it and it lets the developers add imagined value through their inaction by artificially extending game length with challenges that are cheap rather than genuinely difficult by design.

Because it's such a familiar and accepted mechanic (with many even arguing in favour of the artificial difficulty it creates) it's mostly PC gamers who complain about this nonsense, but despite that it's extremely rare for a port of a console game to add the save-anywhere support PC gamers expect (Far Cry 2 is one of the few examples this generation), even if the game engine inherently supports such a feature (e.g. Unreal Engine 3).

So... anybody wants to talk about the save game system in Fable: The Lost Chapters? :-P