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Steam | On sale: Metro 2033, JC 2, Killing Floor, and Beat Hazard. And PO for MNC
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At the bottom of a pit.
Filled with spikes.
It's the year 2010 right
It's not like, 1998 anymore
So why the LIVING FUCK do developers insist on making games use a FUCKING CHECKPOINT SYSTEM
So you get to a checkpoint and die and can't get past it because it saved in the middle of a firefight and WHAT THE FUCKKKKKKK
Fuck Metro 2033, man. fuck
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
What I don't get about some developers these days is the constant insistence on doing things from scratch when there are plenty of tried-and-true methods of doing things out there.
Seriously, everyone should be using Source. (ok, I am biased, this is a Steam thread after all.)
Checkpoints, if done well, I'm okay with. But by 'done well', I mean 'before and after every micro action-bubble, combat encounter, platforming segment etc.' There's no reason you should be losing more than 30-60 seconds' progress after reloading a checkpoint. And it's still worse than 5-10 seconds via quicksave.
Also - checkpoints shouldn't fucking overwrite each other! Not quite as bad as Olivaw's anecdote, but in several of the recent Tomb Raider games I'd fuck up a jump after a protracted climb, somehow survive the fall, and have to spend several minutes agonisingly working my way back up.
What was MW2's engine, that ran like butter on my machine and it looked damn good doing it.
What annoyed me about Metro 2033 is that the game makes a checkpoint WHEN YOU GET SPOTTED.
I've only had this happen a few times, so it could well be a coincidence, but it kept reloading at PRECISELY the point I'm seen. Who's idea was that?
But when does that become a crutch? What about the games that make you start at the beginning of a level again? There's nothing really wrong with that, in my opinion.
What makes me crazy, like Olivaw, is reaching a checkpoint right when my health is low and a grenade landed at my foot. Then re-loading is pointless.
The weird thing about this is that old Tomb Raider games--for example, III, and the most recent one, Underworld, both let you save wherever you want--though I think both will not let you save if you're, for example, sliding down a surface beyond your control or something.
So clearly, they can do it.
That's what Metro does!
There is only ever ONE checkpoint, and if you don't like it, well then better get ready to play the whole goddamn level again!
My kingdom for a fucking save system, Jesus
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
And I never had an issue with the checkpoints in that game. But I'm of the perspective that if you aren't capable of dealing with things not going swimmingly all the time, you're not capable of enjoying a game like Metro 2033. Cowboy up, nancy.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
Has it come to this? Are we, as gamers, now so damn lazy that we get turned off if we lose progress when we die in a game?
I don't know, I come from the school of thought that if you die in a video game, you've failed. You will be punished. Sometimes, that punishment is to restart the level. Sometimes that punishment is to lose some items. Sometimes that punishment is to restart the game. Sometimes.. that punishment is to run, naked and vulnerable, for 45 minutes back to your corpse before it disappears, along with everything you've worked for. Oh, EQ.
The idea isn't to be punished, it's to be challenged. As long as you don't surpass the challenge, it remains your defeat. Making it harder to face the challenge again does not make it any more rewarding or engaging.
That's a nice big smug sense of superiority you got on you, buddy
I should not be punished by my entertainment, nor should I be forced to experience the same portion of that entertainment over and over and over again because the designers didn't put in a goddamn save system
Some of us don't play games to build character
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
Perhaps when it comes to plot-driven games, some people prefer to experience the narrative unencumbered by an arbitrarily high difficulty level.
Especially when that difficulty comes from a flawed game save system and not clicking the "please brutally beat me about the face and neck with your difficulty, you fucking game" button.
Yeah this is something that really varies depending on the game, I don't think we can really apply a blanket "every game should have infinite saves" or something.
I mean personally, I know that SWAT 4 wouldn't have been nearly as tense if they'd allowed mid-mission saves, letting you save/reload after every room clear and every bullet. The whole point is thinking things through and nailing the execution. It was a deliberate design decision there, and it made sense.
Likewise with checkpoint systems in general, at least when they're well executed. What Olivaw's describing is a stupid way of implementing checkpoints. Most games I've seen typically only save the checkpoint after the action bubble is completed and all the enemies have been removed, not in the middle of the freaking firefight.
So, that $20 shipping and handling I got hit for when I ordered from Valve on the weekend? The package came in today. With $17 in extra fees from when it crossed the boarder.
A $30 order cost me $70.
That sucks.
I agree that it sounds like Metro 2033 has some terrible checkpointing. All I was trying to say is that one bad example doesn't mean that something is universally terrible. The checkpointing in Halo is pretty darn good, for example.
On the flip side I think HL2 wouldn't have been anywhere near as fun for me if I knew I'd get a checkpoint after every fight and could just load that checkpoint and magically have full health. If I scraped by a fight with no margin for error on the next fight that wasn't Valve's fault. And a few times it bit me in the ass to the point that I reloaded an older save with more health and got better there instead of trying to figure out how to make it through the next encounter without ever getting shot. It made the whole thing feel more tense and I think it fit the mood of the game very well.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/idolninja
Now Risen has auto save that saves when ever you are out of danger and have walked a few steps after changing something in the game world or just long enough between saves.
Yes. GTA 4 was one of the worst offenders in this regard. Especially that half-hour long final mission.
I could swear that after you fail a mission your phone rings asking if you want to try again. Sure, you endure a load, but you're right back at the start of the mission then. And it does have checkpoints, just not good ones (I think) because they are far apart and often place before the logical point instead of after it.
Don't forget how hard I raged over the follow the train mission.
Game design decisions aren't just taken with regards to what to enable the player to do, but just as importantly what to disallow. And this feeds back into the gameplay design itself. Half-measures typically have a detrimental effect on gameplay.
Yes, the cell phone works that way. But many of the missions have you driving somewhere as the first part of the mission and you can't skip that.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/idolninja
Basically, you can sit and bitch that you want to be playing a game that's not Metro 2033, or you can play Metro 2033.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
I misunderstood. I thought you meant you were driving a cross the city to initiate the mission.
Especially if you kept dying at the helicopter section. >.>
I agree with Figgy.
I don't know about III, but in Underworld, your save will place you at the most recent checkpoint to time when you saved.