Rock, Paper, Shotgun

29/09/2008 at 18:42 Sucram says:

@suchchoices
Having a default install directory for games has to be a setting in Windows. I don’t think we should be asking for or expecting games to scan our PC’s for where games are installed; comparing registry entries/executables against a database so that they can present us with a default directory.

A lot of the fault regarding where save games are kept is Microsoft’s. Most program data which you would want to transfer between PCs is kept in the Roaming folder. But for games they make a special case and have not one, but two extra folders . Why do they have a ‘MyGames’ folder AND a ‘Saved Games’ folder under Users?

edit:
Just found a good (by which I mean bad) example. C&C3 has Saved games in the SavedGames folder, replays in Documents and maps and profile data in AppDataRoaming!

(P.S. in other news we’re all bankrupt, just in case everybody is just reading about games and hadn’t noticed)

29/09/2008 at 18:49 brog says:

I was all prepared to go ahead and implement in my game anything you said.. and then it turned out half of it was irrelevant because there are no savegames.
I’ll get right on to the windowed mode though.

29/09/2008 at 18:51 karthik says:

Skippable intro videos and logo splashes. (Echoing Maximum Fish above)

Crysis allows me to skip all but the EA logo, whereas Gears of War makes me watch four screens (about twenty seconds) before I can get to the main menu. I couldn’t find the responsible .bik files, either. Another of Games For Windows’ splendid innovations.

I remember some game that forced me to watch the intro videos the first time after installation that it was launched, but allowed me to skip them from then on. This was perfect. I think it was Titan Quest, or its expansion.

29/09/2008 at 18:55 Downloads_Plz says:

Oddly enough the one that resonated the most with me is the one that I don’t see anyone commenting on, #1. Alt-tab support. Far and away in my opinion the most annoying thing a dev can ever do is not include alt-tab support.

I do not want my PC to be stuck on your game until I exit. A PC is not a console, and the lack of an alt-tab option (and a FAST one at that…TF2 I’m looking in your direction) seems like an attempt to turn it in to one.

29/09/2008 at 18:59 Mman says:

Can’t really disagree with anything on the list, as it’s mostly common sense stuff (beyond #3, possibly, for reasons others have mentioned).

On #2, and an extension of the last part of #5, keep my saves in the damn game directory, instead of spreading it to my documents or some other place (though I have to admit I’ve almost been convinced otherwise by a couple of posts here).

Also, I would put #7 as “let me change my quicksave and quickload keys”. I’ve seen many games that let you configure everything else, but not save/load, which kind of sucks.

Ever since Crysis I’ve completely lost any sympathy for developers not doing #1; Crysis is probably the most advanced game ever, yet almost instantly alt-tabs itself on/off even if you leave it half an hour.

29/09/2008 at 19:03 James says:

If anybody in the industry reading this, please get rid of the

FUCKING SHIT COCKSUCKING INTROS OF FUCKING NVIDIA EA INTEL YOURGRANDMA BULLSHITLOGO CRAP

because

I ALREADY BOUGHT YOUR SHITFUCKING GAME NOW LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE!

how hard can it be?

29/09/2008 at 19:13 Patrick says:

I am in complete agreement with Bitkari. All developers must host their own patches. To not do so is troublesome and an inexcusable. Also all patches should be cumulative. If I want to update my game to 1.5 I should not have to download the 1.1 patch and the 1.3 patch and the 1.5 patch and install each one in succession. With modern internet connections patch size has basically become irrelevant. Just offer one big patch.

Ideally all games should come with auto update where you click one button and the patch is downloaded and deployed. Auto update, however, needs to be an OPTION not a requirement for those of us running mods incompatible with the most recent patch or for whatever reason.

Also in line with the Alt-tab point, never map keys so that Alt and tab need to or could rationally be pressed at the same time. Several games I have played, most recently including the Witcher, have done this and it is really annoying (Yes, I know it can be changed but it should never have been set that way in the first place).

29/09/2008 at 19:24 Tei says:

My list:

1) Quake style console
2) Good modding support
3) ESC key skip all non-interactive crap
4) Having Quicksave/Quickload
5) Screenshot key
6) Run on my native LCD monitor resolution, and looks good
7) Ability to change FOV
8 ) Ability to rebind keys
etc..

29/09/2008 at 19:29 Mogs says:

Good list RPS. I agree 100%. The other thing I would add after playing STALKER is

11) Don’t invalidate old save files when a new patch is applied.

Having to start the game from scratch because you’ve patched it? Unforgivable.

29/09/2008 at 19:44 Pederson says:

I really want to be able to bind key _combinations_, even if it’s limited to Ctrl, Alt, Shift. Some games do this, most (in my experience) don’t. I know it’s possible to do this without stepping on the bindings for the individual keys, and it would allow me to bind related actions to related keystrokes. Even if this isn’t something I need in most games, I want it in any game complicated enough to justify remappable controls.

29/09/2008 at 19:46 spd from Russia says:

why the bloody need to shit allover the Documents and Settings/users/ folders?
keep the saves, configs and EVERYfucking thing inside the games` install folder!
digging thru Documents and Settings/blah/blah/blah/blah/
is always a pain.

And plz why install yet another pukbuster ( I think I`v had 5 of them at some point) and another aGaya driver

and rebindable controlls is a MUST above all those things!

29/09/2008 at 19:48 Gabanski83 says:

Multiplayer via that POS Gamespy as an option, not as the only choice.

I hate Gamespy. I do not understand why devs/pubs use it, as it’s such a pain in the arse to use. Really puts me off multiplayer gaming if it’s through Gamespy and it’s flaky login system, with random lag and disconnects. Relic Online is almost as bad, but at least that’s one series of games.

And yes, lose the playing of the damn EA (or whoever) logo every time I launch a game. I’m sick of seeing the logos of who the game was developed by, published by, sponsored by, the hardware it (apparently) runs best on, etc. I know this shit, and even though I wasn’t interested in it all the first time I had to sit there and watch it, I’m even less interested now, on the thirtieth launch of, say, WAR, or Crysis Warhead, or whatever. I don’t care who made it, I just want to enjoy the product I paid good money for.

29/09/2008 at 19:51 Radiant says:

YES! Fucking save files!
I told the installer to stick the game in my D drive why in gods name are you saving my save games in my windows drive?!?!
The D drive is labeled GAMES you bastards.

29/09/2008 at 19:53 Kadayi says:

Offtopic:-

Cliffski

You’re releasing Kudos 2 tomorrow?

Ontopic. Good list overall gents. There isn’t much I can add or say, save that actual resolution only really suits people with beat machines generally. A better option is a degree of autodetection and optimal setting (best suitable resolution and graphic settings), which you used to get with a lot of games, but seems to have died a death in recent years.

29/09/2008 at 19:58 BobCFC says:

11) Don’t use DRM! I was just about to pre-order Red Alert3 on amazon; it has a natural incentive to buy the game because I want to play it online so I need a real CD key.

After reading all the terrible reports of the SecureROM restrictions and the fact that you can ONLY INSTALL THE GAME 5 TIMES I have decided to wait and see. Sorry you lost a sale EA. I bought the previous game C&C3 last year too.

29/09/2008 at 20:15 Hobbes says:

Why the _____ does a game need to modify the registry?

I understand a work App like Office or Creative Suite where you need to link files to file editors and such.

Annoying!!! adding useless _#it to my registry just makes my comp’s boot time increase EVERY day.

29/09/2008 at 20:17 Theory says:

%USERPROFILE%\Saved Games\ surely, Cliffski.

29/09/2008 at 20:33 ascagnel says:

A new one to add, that goes along with the ALT+TAB: Proper support for the mouse in windowed mode, especially in strategy games. RTS and TBS games may not have a minimap and may rely on edge scrolling. In windowed mode, if you go outside the window it could ruin your game. Either trap the mouse, or include a minimap/scroll buttons.

29/09/2008 at 20:45 Nitre says:

Good article. Agreed on pretty much all points.

29/09/2008 at 20:57 wien says:

@spd from Russia: As has been stated several times already, storing saves in the game’s directory is bad mojo. In any proper OS (and some bad ones) a normal user does not have write permission there. User files go in the user’s home directory, plain and simple.

29/09/2008 at 21:05 cHeal says:

Heads up, I’m pretty sure that you should infact install your games under Program files, while working with Vista 64bit I learnt that Program Files is a special folder, and all apps should be installed there. Forget what it was all about now. I put all my games under Program Files/Games/*game name*/

It’s pretty easy to do so, as it just means replacing the Publisher name with “Games”

29/09/2008 at 21:08 Nick says:

“As has been stated several times already, storing saves in the game’s directory is bad mojo. In any proper OS (and some bad ones) a normal user does not have write permission there. User files go in the user’s home directory, plain and simple.”

What? Why would you not have write permission to the folder your game is installed to?

29/09/2008 at 21:20 CdrJameson says:

> Even if your machine is locked down with lead weights, EVERYONE can access their own MyDocs. That’s what its there for.

Oh, if only this were true… Sadly, there are corporate/educational environments where not only do you not have access to these, they don’t even exist (which causes hilarious* Installshield problems). The user ends up with some crazy network path as their only editable area, which there is quite literally no way to guess.

*Not hilarious

29/09/2008 at 21:22 wien says:

What? Why would you not have write permission to the folder your game is installed to?

Normal users (non-admin) do not have write access in “Program Files” or any other directory outside their user directory. This is a good thing as it prevents bad software run by users from screwing up important system files.

Windows has traditionally been lax about this of course since all users until recently have been admins by default, but in Vista (and *nix) installing software does (and should) require admin privileges. Running software should not, meaning savegames need to go in the user directory. I would prefer the “AppData” part of the user directory myself, as I don’t find savegames to look very much like documents, but I don’t know what the official Windows docs (if any) say.

29/09/2008 at 21:31 cliffski says:

I remember similar fun when people switch from dual monitor setups to single and when they launch some programs they are invisible :D
(you can use cunning combination of alt and control and arrow keys to find the windows :D)

29/09/2008 at 21:38 CdrJameson says:

Oh, another.

Don’t assume I want your ‘latest’ version of DirectX installed along with the game, as:

a) It’s quite easy to check whether I have a high enough version of DirectX to run your game;
b) Once your version is on a CD it ain’t keeping up with the times.

(Thanks to Sid Meier’s Gettysberg for the reminder there. No I don’t want to install the ‘latest’ DirectX 5, ta very much).

29/09/2008 at 21:54 Duoae says:

Good list. With regards to the problem of having to skip logos and intros AvP2 did it right with the game launcher providing a tick box selection of being able to skip all the intro crap…. plus they allowed you to change the resolution and other graphics settings without entering the game…. i.e.:

No. 12 on the list: Do not require a restart just to change the graphics settings! Or allow these settings to be changed outside the game.

29/09/2008 at 21:56 GibletHead2000 says:

Have an option to invert the mouse

If you don’t let me invert the mouse, I can’t play your game. I just spend the whole time looking at the floor, or the ceiling. Most first-person games do this now, but there are some annoying exceptions.

29/09/2008 at 22:04 Theory says:

Most first-person games do this now, but there are some annoying exceptions.

Seriously? I would have thought the opposite…inverting the mouse is almost as ancient as using the arrow keys to look around. Might be better to spend a few evenings adjusting to the norm.

29/09/2008 at 22:14 Alex says:

The best example of the developers ignoring the ability to pause the games is Bloodlines.

Since it runs on Source (albeit a crappy beta version of Source), you can enable the console, and bind the ‘Pause’ command to any key to want, but there’s no way to do it through the menus. Did they not think it was worth including in the UI?

29/09/2008 at 22:26 Vodiii says:

No one have mentioned the damn annoying windows support when you click the shift or the alt key several times and windows ask wether it should turn on the help… it is SO frustrating.. and it should not be allowed to conflict in a game.. If you have an lesser computer it wil take ages before getting in to Crysis or assasins creed for exampel…

29/09/2008 at 22:43 Okami says:

‘Amen’ to bloody well everything said in the article and the comments.

29/09/2008 at 22:50 Evangel says:

Alex, more likely it was left out due to a lack of time. Activision forced them to release before it was finished.

29/09/2008 at 22:55 Mr Pink says:

Nick: In a “proper” OS, you should only be logged in as an admin when installing programs. This would give you write permission for the game folder. For normal use you should be logged in as a user, with restricted permissions, and hence you wouldn’t have access to program folders.

29/09/2008 at 23:04 Bhlaab says:

Oh, speaking of the mouse, when you’re porting a game from the consoles make sure the mouse movement works and allow us to turn mouse smoothing off because it’s crap

ive just started timeshift and the damn thing slides all over the place because they actually put an acceleration curve on it!

29/09/2008 at 23:33 rocketman71 says:

So right, almost all of them. Except the My Games thing under My Documents. What idiot at Microsoft decided to put My Games data into my My Documents folder?. My Documents is for… my documents, for fuck’s sake!!!!!

Games should keep their saves and config inside their own folder, in easily marked and discernible dirs, like, you know “savegames” and “settings”. Whenever I have to go search for the Company of Heroes or Trackmania profiles, I dedicate some words to the mothers of the programmers. They should learn from Blizzard. And Relic should drop the shitty SecuROM protection in OF, but that’s another story.

I would add a couple of things:

- First, a way to disable the intros, I’m tired of seeing the nVidia logo, the publisher logo, the developer logo, the pizza boy logo, etc. Once is enough. Specially if they don’t let you escape and I end up having to replace the .bik files with empty ones.

- Second: every single/multi hybrid game should have the option to install either one separately. Why should I have to waste gigabytes of my HD in intros, cutscenes, sounds, maps, etc that I’m not going to use anymore once I finish the single player campaign?. If I want to play again, I can always reinstall, but in the meantime, they’re lost space.

29/09/2008 at 23:47 minipixel says:

WASD is fail!! cursor keys foreva!! ;p

And I’ll add: it’s really really stupid when only some of the keys can be ramapped, because, after all, they are just numbers!

29/09/2008 at 23:51 roryok says:

@Iain

And as for developer logos, I only want to see them ONCE. I don’t need to be reminded of them EVERY GODDAMN TIME I LOAD UP THE GAME

Yes. YES! And there is one easy way I’ve found for 90% of games. You can usually just go in and delete the logo files from the folder (often in bik format). if not, make a 640×480 black png file in paint, and make a 1 frame bik file out of that using radtools (google em) and then replace the logo video files in the folder with the 1 frame file, renaming where appropriate. Not only does this save a lot of unskippable ubisoft tunnels and nvidia whispering, it also can seriously speed up the start time of games! FarCry loads in about 6 seconds without cutscenes.

in fact, you know what, I’m feeling generous so here’s my ones

http://rapidshare.com/files/149521348/640.bik.html

http://rapidshare.com/files/149521349/800.bik.html

don’t be fooled by the size, these babies are less than a kilobyte each. 1 frame long

30/09/2008 at 00:32 Simon says:

I’d agree with all of this, with an addendum to point 2: let me put saves where I want as well…I HATE the My Games folder. On my computer, the C: drive is for Windows and other things I don’t totally mind having to nuke every 6 months.

Actually, come to think of it, here’s another one…don’t use the registry at all. I see some other right-thinking people have mentioned this already, but I’d like to add to this. The Windows registry system is terrible. Why should programs need information from outside their directories in order to operate? Linux seems to do fine without this. I therefore propose that developers of all programs stop using the registry, so that Microsoft can get rid of it in future.

Yeah, right.

30/09/2008 at 00:53 Down Rodeo says:

In regards to Alt-Tab: using the desktop cube plugin on Linux allows a fullscreen app, for example TF2, to be running on one of the sides, with your IM programs on the other. And then maybe a fullscreen video on the third. And I think I’ll go a browser window on the fourth. (Though of course you are by no means limited to 4 sides.)

Alt-tab? Who needs it?

Serious now, I agree with a few points here, some in the comments too, but it’s getting late and I can’t remember what I was going to say about various suggestions. Though I do agree that save game locations need to be standardised. Come on Microsoft! Not that that cry has ever motivated them.

30/09/2008 at 01:40 Serzus says:

I adored Max Payne for preserving the second quicksave.

A few people have mentioned this, but games should not usurp the keyboard input. Games that both can’t run in windowed mode AND block my keyboard’s music controls drive me insane. I play almost all my games listening to my own music, and preferably in windowed mode for easy random googling/wikipediaing, IMs, and doing other things when stupid cutscenes I’ve seen a hundred times and can’t skip crop up. Max Payne takes a hit on that one for the long intro cinematic.

30/09/2008 at 02:21 Lisa says:

gamesaves are better in the mydocs folder anywhere, than in the individual game folders, IMO. so long as all the developers adopt a convention about where they will be and they all go the same place in an individual subfolder named clearly after the game. why? so i can easily set up my system to run a daily or weekly backup of every save in every game, without having to hunt down where they all are, and add a new location to the backup every time i install a new game.

30/09/2008 at 02:48 geo says:

I am a big proponent of all games having passive computer versus computer play so you can just sit back and watch the thing play itself. Great camera moves make it even better.

30/09/2008 at 03:14 Mr. Phil Games - Download Games says:

This is a wonderful list. What so sad is they didn’t already think of it. It not like these are hard things to come up with!

There is however one very important one:

11. Game updates don’t require some third party application running in the tray.

30/09/2008 at 03:45 AlpineViper says:

No. Do NOT put save games into “My Games”, or any bloody where else under “My documents” or the user profile. Keep savegames out of windows shoddy profiles PLEASE. Windows does weird shit with its profiles, and I don’t want my savegames to have any part in it!

Keep my save games in a save games subdirectory of that games directory.

Why? Cause when that inevitable repair install of windows comes along, the windows profile is the bit that can get wiped out.

30/09/2008 at 04:56 Thiefsie says:

Unskippable logo videos
Unbindable keys – godamn EVERY key should be able to be bound to what I want not hardcoded to the developers retarded buttons. Fuck you EA for constantly screwing that one up. God I remember how godawful Battlefield 42 and 2 were.
Invert mouse… wtf Overlord?
Quick save and load have to be available… I don’t want to use a menu to save.
Exit the game to desktop with one button (esc) and one mouse click – maybe 2 at most (confirmation) – what the fuck were you thinking Assassins creed?
Adjustable graphics in different criteria for the advanced ppl. Not High Medium Low and thats it.
Surround sound that speech actually works with properly. Wayyyyyyy toooooo many games can’t get the centre channel speech thing right so you can’t hear jack about what characters are saying!
Multiple User profiles…. Come on. Spore, etc.
Cut scenes that have been unlocked can be watched anytime from a menu.
Menu to facilitate playing from any level you have unlocked ala HL2 or even unlocked a la AITD
Cut scenes can be paused at anytime… WMP can do it, why can’t your game?
ESC has to be bound to the menu… looking at you STARCRAFT, etc!
Mouse buttons fully bindable. It’s retarded but many games say use a mouse configuration utility to macro bind your mouse buttons to keyboard presses. That is retarded.
Better in game server browsers… Uhhhh I still lament the takeover of the all seeing eye as 99% of in game browsers are absolute gash and slow as shit. I don’t need to ping 3000 servers only to find 3 are in australia. fucking give me an ip/location filter.
bloatware… i’m looking at you PhysX and gamespy comrade etc. Fuck off and die. I will never EVER use your shit.
Mouse delay… seriously… so many games seem to crop up with this issue? It can’t purely be performance related? – prioritise the mouse calculations!
Slow text…. Maybe I’m a fast reader? Maybe I’m older than 10, maybe I’m not a retard? I can read text godamn faster than you can default scroll it for me. Fix it. (Most infuriatingly xbox dashboard is the biggest culprit here)

ALT-Tab I can understand is hard because of the kernel etc. I would settle for the secondary monitor being able to park MSN etc on there and be usable without having to close the game window. Only some old games can handle that :(

thats all I can think of on my lunch break

30/09/2008 at 05:34 wien says:

Keep my save games in a save games subdirectory of that games directory.

Oh for crying out loud. It had been repeatedly stated in this thread that this is an unworkable solution on any recent OS since normal users DO NOT have write permission in directories outside their user directory. It doesn’t matter how much it annoys you, that’s just how it is.

30/09/2008 at 06:42 Sucram says:

@rocketman71
Back in the day, games often asked you if you wanted to install ‘hi-res textures’. When you don’t have a hi-spec PC it’d be nice if games didn’t have to install 10GB of files you’ll never use.

@Simon
You can move the location of the User folder to another drive, right click on the folders and you’ll see a location option.

Also agree with what people are saying about:
* annoying intros. It’s like online videos, where you have to sit through an advert before you are allowed to get to the good bit.
* multimonitor support. Often I disable one monitor before I launch a game, having a game crash because I clicked too far to the right is anti-fun.
*multiple user profiles. I recommend we provide all development studios with girlfriends who like to overwrite their quicksaves.

Also agree with people who say that it is better for games to autodetect a suitable resolution than just defaulting to native res. I don’t want Crysis running at 3k x 2k, I’m not trying to use it to make my desktop wallpaper.

umm.. what else. Even if you are anti-quicksave there should still be save on exit. I shouldn’t have to quit to main menu to change my controls. Dear devs: Not all PCs have internet connections. More games should have garden gnomes.

30/09/2008 at 07:12 RED_404 says:

Another thing always alow the keybindes to be changed some of us like ESDF more than WASD

PS sorry about my spelling :-)

30/09/2008 at 07:54 Razor says:

1, 4 and 6 top my list. The disk-in-drive shit has got to stop.

30/09/2008 at 08:36 Gap Gen says:

I’m not sure it’s fair to compare the uninstall time of a game that by rights should only be out next year to a demo of a game that probably fit on a floppy (if that’s the King’s Quest you mean).

30/09/2008 at 09:12 Irish Al says:

I hate patches that break savegames too. Unforgivable. Write a savegame converter feck ye.

30/09/2008 at 09:46 rocketman71 says:

Oh, one more thing: NO CHECKPOINTS.

I want to save whenever I want. Perhaps a 12 year old has all the time of the world to play and reach the following checkpoint, but I don’t, and if I have to do the same segment three times because either I died or I had to do some work, I will uninstall your game and never again buy another one from you.

PCs are not a console!. Checkpoints are a sign of lazy programming.

30/09/2008 at 09:55 Flubb says:

Point 1 is absolutely essential for sneaking around the wife’s watchful eye.

30/09/2008 at 10:17 Iain says:

@rocketman71: re checkpoints – I’d argue the other way, actually. Checkpoints preserve game flow and immersion, while quicksave and quickload (or any other save/load anywhere system) simply reinforce the fact you’re playing a game and encourage the player to be ultra-conservative in the way they play – “whoops, I lost thirty health there, let’s quickload and try that encounter again” – rather than play the game fairly and actually learn how to play the game *better*. They also encourage the designer not to properly balance their game because they know that the player effectively has no penalty for dying, they can quickload and all they’ve lost is a minute or two.

Being able to save anywhere in a game has its uses (say if you’re interrupted by a phone call or the cat’s on fire, or something) but if you use quickload/quicksave as a method of making the game easier to play, (or worse, *have* to use it like that) then either the game’s difficulty curve is seriously flawed, or you really suck as a player.

Try playing Half-Life 2 without using the quicksave/quickload. On Medium difficulty you really shouldn’t be having to replay sections again and again. If you do, then that’s a sure sign that you’re using the quicksave as a crutch and not actually learning how to compete with the AI.

30/09/2008 at 10:30 Iain says:

@Bobsy: “DVDs these days often have up to minutes of unskippable stuff like copyright messages, logos, introduction animations to menus…”

This is why I watch DVDs through my soft-modded Xbox. I get to skip all that crap and go straight to the main menu. And it upscales the picture into 720p. Win-win.

30/09/2008 at 11:06 AbyssUK says:

Oh number 18) or whatever … Web based games must support all web browsers not just Internet Explorer.. come on… seesh.

30/09/2008 at 11:13 roryok says:

@Iain

ok Now I’m confused. I didn’t think you could softmod a 360 but I’m also pretty sure an original xbox can’t do 720p… which is it?

30/09/2008 at 11:14 rocketman71 says:

@iain: ok, let me choose then. Do I want to use checkpoints or not?

Example of bad use of checkpoints: the one in COD4 in the sniper level, when all the baddies come in the end. You have a checkpoint with 6 or 7 minutes to go, and you die a lot. And then you play it again and again, knowing exactly were the enemies are going to come from, mining the exact places, dying, doing it again… That’s not playing, it’s grinding. It doesn’t have anything to do with the IA, it’s just unbalanced. And it’s not fun after the 10th time. I don’t consider myself an exceptional player, but I’m not a n00b either. And I had to play that quite a lot of times to finish it. And it was really frustrating. Now, with saving and loading, they would have been a lot less. Does that mean I was getting an advantage from using it?. Not really. It means I was using saves to pass a really bad designed part of the game without hating the developer too much.

But yeah, I was referring mainly to the saving as a “I have to go now and I don’t want to leave the computer on to avoid losing my progress” method. When you are a dad, you don’t have that much time between baby, work and sleep (the little you get). And if your checkpoints are 20-30 minutes apart, I can’t really play your game, because the third time I lose progress because I have to stop playing and I couldn’t reach a checkpoint, I’m going to uninstall the game and play a better designed one.

Now, if anyone wants to use quicksaves to progress, it’s their choice. But I’d argue that we should ALWAYS have that choice.

30/09/2008 at 11:39 AbyssUK says:

@grumpy – This is why I added the Wine section simple things can be done in windows programming to be more ‘Wine’ friendly, and linux gaming programming will only get better when developers start supporting it more. I personally think it is linux next big step to start sorting out its gaming platform, nows the time to jump on the boat.
Ubuntu has made linux a real alternative platform for the home user, I myself run Ubuntu but i must admit i do have a windows install for the special games that refuse to work under wine… but I haven’t booted that up in ages.

30/09/2008 at 12:02 rocketman71 says:

@iain: yes, I’ve had the same problem, with Bioshock. I played for like 40 minutes without saving, and then the game crashed (for doing Alt-Tab, no less!) and I lost all that play. And it took me 2 months to get back to it, so angry I was with the programmers for that.

So, for me, the best is both approachs: put checkpoints (autosaves), not very far appart, let me play from any of them (I’m not happy with how I was in the middle of the level, I prefer to restart it), but also let me save whenever I want.

That way, you will save only if you really have to, but if you die, you don’t really lose much. Otherwise, we all end up like F5 drones: kill baddie, press F5, kill baddie, press F5, oh I died… F9 (yes, I put F5 as QS and F9 as QL, I’ve always agreed with #7).

Checkpoints wouldn’t really be that much of a problem to me if half the developers really knew where to put them.

Also, they should be transparent. “CHECKPOINT REACHED” in the middle of the screen also puts me off the game.

30/09/2008 at 12:26 Simon says:

Being able to save games to an off-site location via in-built FTP gets my vote (apologies if it’s already been mentioned, I just didn’t have time to read 170+ entries on this thread). Free webspace comes with most, if not all, ISP accounts these days.

Perhaps RPS can condense this list and present it as a fait accompli to developers around the world, under threat of the readers of RPS never buying a game again from developers who don’t sign up to the charter?

30/09/2008 at 12:30 Nallen says:

If all my save games are going in one place I better be able to say where. Nothing fucks me off more that installing games to E: and then finding C: is full of 100mb save games.

Also wtf is up with 100mb save games.

There is a reason I have more than one drive and don’t install crap to the OS partition. Don’t just decide you actually know better and go ahead with putting stuff there anyway.

30/09/2008 at 12:42 Galen says:

For Vista, saved games should clearly be in C:\Users\\Saved Games. I haven’t seen a single game use it though.
I’m fine with My Documents/My Games for non-Vista users but, saved games are not documents and realistically C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\\\, is the technically correct place to put them. (I think, anyway. Its been a few years since I’ve had reason to look at Microsoft’s recommendations for this kinda thing) Other than backing up, in which case you’ll want to back up the rest of Application Data too since it contains all the settings for your programs, there is little reason to touch saved games and so putting them in a hidden folder is fine.

30/09/2008 at 13:06 grumpy says:

@grumpy: Hi, I’m a PC Gamer. I don’t have Windows installed, and haven’t for about 2 years now. The success rate for games running in Wine is a damn sight higher than 1%, you know – even Spore almost works perfectly in Wine now, only a couple of weeks after release.

Yes, which means a Linux port isn’t necessary for you. :)

And sure, OpenGL is a stable API, but games need access to more than OpenGL. Unfortunately, OpenGL is also roughly 8 years behind DirectX. And the development tools for it are nonexistent. Debugging or profiling or tweaking OpenGL code is a massive headache, whereas Microsoft and DirectX have truly amazing tools available to assist in that. And as the Braid blog post I linked to shows, try finding one single usable, low-latency and stable audio API for Linux. It does not exist.

And yes, some developers put the necessary resources into a Linux port. But here’s the kicker. They 1) don’t do so at release (yes, most of id’s game run on Linux. How many of them did at release day?)

There is a problem with reading direct mouse location and mouse-warping workarounds in the current versions of xorg, but there’s a patch in the works for that after the Wine developers complained about it.

Yes, and it only took them 15 years to realize that this could be a problem. How about this then? When this patch is done, integrated into the main X11 source tree and a developer can rely on this being supported on *every* Linux box that tries to play the game, *that’s* when it might make a bit more sense to make a Linux port. But surely you’re not claiming that because glaring problems may one day in the future be fixed, developers should attempt to write software that works on the same platform *today*? Once these issues are fixed, it may be possible to write a Linux port of your game without too much trouble. Until them it will remain something that takes a significant amount of resources to work around the most glaring shortcomings, and when all is said and done, you get access to a what, 0.74% larger user base, of which at least the first 0.65% will refuse to pay for *any* piece of software.

AbyssUK:

linux gaming programming will only get better when developers start supporting it more. I personally think it is linux next big step to start sorting out its gaming platform, nows the time to jump on the boat.

No, the time to jump on the boat is when they *have* sorted out their gaming platform. And I don’t see why 1) it would improve if more developers made Linux games (wouldn’t that just encourage a status quo? Hey, look at all these developers who don’t mind the weird mouse wrapping issues or the shaky, high-latency sound. Why should we fix it then?), but also 2) why is it the responsibility of game developers to help fix this broken mess? Game developers make games. And if a platform doesn’t support them in doing that, then I can’t blame them for choosing a different platform.

And like you say, you have Wine *and* Windows. Most Linux users do. So native Linux games isn’t exactly of the utmost importance for the PC gaming market, is it? Would you be willing to pay more for a native Linux port of a game? Are there games you’ve skipped, that you would have bought if only they were available on Linux?

Oh, and didn’t see your comment about Wine before:

Even if you just support one distrubution, people will get it to run on others it would be awesome.

How will people do that? Oh, you mean the game should be opensourced too? Sure, that fits perfectly into the business model of most games. I’m sure EA won’t mind at all that you open source your game after they spent years alienating their user base with DRM everywhere. Fits perfectly into their strategy.

Or even show a litle love for Wine… test your game/program if it doesn’t work perhaps have a lookie at the debug data and aid the Wine dev teams…

Two problems here. First, debugging is hard enough as it is. I doubt many developers are just itching to debug on Wine on top of all their normal problems. And second, why should they spend their precious time “aiding the Wine dev teams”? They’re making a game here, submitting patches to completely unrelated software is a waste of time. It doesn’t help their game get done, it just drives up costs.

simple things can be done in windows programming to be more ‘Wine’ friendly

Are there some guidelines somewhere telling you what you should or shouldn’t do to guarantee Wine compatibility?

30/09/2008 at 13:45 The Sombrero Kid says:

hate to be devils advocate but you’ve talked about alt tabbing before and I’ve explained the trade off before so what are you actually asking for?

and about the patches i can see why it can happen that patches break the save game but it wouldn’t be hard to write a convertor that jumps you somewhere or restarts you near where you where kind of thing.

this also ties in with my idea that all games should be random access and have fast forward/rewind functionalites by default like a DVD.

30/09/2008 at 13:58 The Sombrero Kid says:

ohh sorry i thought you were asking for it to be quick, yeah, alt tabbing in pc games shouldn’t crash your pc or the game defo, that drives me absolutely insane as well!

30/09/2008 at 14:28 roryok says:

@grumpy

The Ubuntu guys have announced recently that they’ll be pouring piles of money and effort into OpenGL, X, GTK, KDE, Qt and GNOME. That should certainly help get the ball rolling.

30/09/2008 at 15:15 Joseph4th says:

In order for your game to qualify for the “Microsoft Games for Windows” sticker, Microsoft says that you must save things such as screenshots and save games under the following path:

C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Local Settings\Application Data\MyGames\GameName\…

Besides being over half a dozen directories deep before you get to the game’s directory, two of those directories along the way are hidden! Local Settings and Application Data are hidden directories by default!

Now granted all this has something to do with Admin rights on the machine and such and it is amazing how many games will choke up and die when run on machines where the user doesn’t have admin rights. But still you’d would have thought Microsoft would have thought this through a little more.

I also read something recently that makes me believe that Microsoft have relaxed their “Games for Windows” requirements so this may even have changed, though I doubt it because of the Admin rights problem.

Also I should say that I didn’t actually read the Microsoft requirements, but that is what I was told when I stopped banging my head against the desk after seeing where we were putting the screenshot directory.

30/09/2008 at 15:47 animal says:

Stuff wasd, there’s no space over there. Move over 1 to esf, and change d to c for a more natural thumb permanently on the button.

Now you’re gaming.

30/09/2008 at 16:05 Adam says:

This is Gamer’s Bill of Rights. Rightly so.

30/09/2008 at 21:49 Infinite Monkey says:

As a Game Developer, I’d like to say a very big YES to all those points except (2).

Sorry if this has already been covered in the comments (read some but not all, naughty me), but savegame location just isn’t that simple.

The main problem is for computers with multiple users. If the game has it’s configuration data in My Games, no other user on the machine can access it reliably. I agree that it is a good place if you are the only person that will be playing the game on that computer, but the developer cannot rely on this being the case.

If you put the files in All Users/blah blah blah, at least all users can access the files. I think a good installer should offer the Install just for me/Install for all users option, possibly with a short explanation of what the choice actually means.

01/10/2008 at 02:17 malkav11 says:

I confess that I use a separate computer (and monitor) for all my during-gaming internet usage, so alt-tab support isn’t especially critical for me. Still, it’s worth doing. Windowed support is critical for the aforementioned reasons, though.

Always, always let me customize my install as much as possible. Default to a single, universal set of settings that everyone uses, for sure. But I don’t ever want to install a game to Program Files (especially with how finicky Windows is over that folder), and I don’t ever want to put save files or other program elements in my user directory. I also don’t ever want a desktop shortcut, and you would be *amazed* how many games (and other programs) dump that useless garbage all over your desktop without ever asking.

I’m aware of the security and account issues that have led to using the user directory, but I have the same issue other people have with this system: I have multiple drives, and when I install a game to a particular drive it’s because that drive has enough free space to handle the game and its attendant files. The system drive may not. Moving the user directory to a different drive doesn’t address the issue – it’s still a single location for files I want spread out to ease the burden. Besides, it makes far more intuitive sense to have all my game’s files in one spot – on an individual game basis.

Of course, the best solution, savewise, is to have a default directory set at install (user-customizable) and then for manual saves, pop up a save dialogue box like you get in Word or other such programs. It can’t possibly be that hard. Macintosh games were doing it over ten years ago. If you don’t have permission to save somewhere, then Windows won’t let you specify that as a save location. Simple.

01/10/2008 at 10:09 rocketman71 says:

Sorry, but savegames should be in the game folder, not in “My Documents” nor in “Users”. Why?.

I install my system in C:. My games in E:. Whenever I reinstall my OS (which is much more frequently than I’d like given the POS that is Windows), if I don’t want to have to reinstall the games, I have to:

1) Pull the appropriate entries from the registry from each game
2) Copy the savegames, configs, etc from each game from wherever they chose to put them (My Documents, My Games, Application Data, Local Settings, you name it)
3) Reinstall
4) and 5) Restore the above

If configs and settings were all were they should be (i.e., in the game directory), I would just need to do (3). As soon as I reinstalled the OS, all my games would be working without doing a thing.

Also, about the permissions thing: when your game is installing, it is working under admin permissions. Can’t the game give permission to All Users to Read & Write the newly created save directory before finishing the installation?. Then, you could have %GameDir%/Saves/%ProfileDir%, where profile would default to the currently logged on user. That way you can have profiles, and access any profile with any user without having to log off and log on with another account. Magic!.

Finally, about the certification process: I don’t give a fuck about what Microsoft says, and a Vista logo with a “GAMES FOR WINDOWS certified” on the front of a game makes me want to buy it LESS. Microsoft is not defending gamer’s interests there, it’s just yet another push towards Vista, as anyone that listens to the bullshit that Xbox360 PC’s white knight Kevin Unangst says in every interview should know.

I’m much more likely to buy a game from someone that puts saves in the gamedir (and respects all that we’ve been saying here, plus most of Stardock’s Bill of Rights), than from someone to gave money to Microsoft and did 4 or 5 stupid and useless things just for the right to put the Vista logo in the front of the DVD case.

Edit: and for the nth time, “My Documents” is for documents, dammit!. Game configs and saves are not documents!!!. It’s bad enough that I have to keep constantly deleting “My Music” and “My Pictures” to have to put up with “My Games”. I hope that whoever idiot thought that “My Documents” was any kind of bin where you could put anything you wanted was fired long ago (although knowing Microsoft he/she is probably a Executive Director of Something by now).

01/10/2008 at 16:22 Harold says:

Awesome.

11- Gimme the friggin’ same keys positions to move in a fps; just positions so that it works on every keyboards no matter the layout; use templates (WASD/ESDF with graphic schemes etc) to get players quickly enjoying. this one is particularly dedicated to Indy Games (hate when the game seems cool but that the controls are shit because of my lame french azerty layout); No, I don’t like to set each fucking keys before playing, did that too many times now!

01/10/2008 at 18:17 myname says:

This article is of extreme importance! I especially agree with the standardized folders thing, although i do like a C:\games\ folder rather than the “programs” one which through 3 months turns into a pile of mysterious crap.

01/10/2008 at 18:56 Joseph4th says:

You guys just don’t realize how restrictive Windows is when you don’t have admin access to your machine. You just can’t do all these things you are suggesting or you will be overwhelmed by support calls. You would be surprised how many people are playing on a computer, either at their office or set up by somebody who is smart enough not to let them have admin access.

You can go on all you want, but that is just the way it is. Now setting up the install where it lets advanced users do these types of things if they want to would be great. But it can’t be the default behavior.

01/10/2008 at 20:23 rocketman71 says:

@Caffeinated Sentry Gnome:

if your savegames are inside your game dir, you don’t care if your gamedir is in C:, E: or G:. They are in your_current_directory/savegames.

Also, you can have one hard drive and still have different partitions.

@Keith:

Everyone ends up running as admin anyway. Microsoft dropped the ball with W95 and Vista is just not going to fix that. Some engineer at Microsoft admitted that they put up all those “are you sure?” popups so everybody would shout to developers who, in turn, would feel obligated to develop their programs without using admin righs. Well, they didn’t.

Also, I could redirect the “My Documents” to a different drive (which indeed I do), but I would still have the registry problem.

About the potential security problem: I don’t really care about one more potential hole in windows. I have who knows how many thousand just in IE, and game developers end fucking up the same, admin rights or not. Was it “The Temple of Elemental Evil” the one that would delete all the adjacent directories when you uninstalled?. Just more reason to not let the installer touch ANYTHING outside the game directory.

@both:

and I’m not advocating having a e:/savegames/game/user. What I’d prefer is a e:/game/saves/profile

For example, starcraft keeps saves in starcraft_dir/saves and users in starcraft_profiles. I could reinstall and not lose them except for the fact that some things are kept in the registry, like the letter for the CD drive and the folder where the game is installed. Both useless. The first one is for the DRM (now removed). The second, I can get from the location of the .exe I run when I load the game.

Q3A did keep profiles, replays, configs, etc inside its dir, and only used the registry to save the game dir and version for future patches. I can reinstall and play the game without a problem without having to restore anything at all.

Nowadays, whenever I reinstall my OS, I end up having to reinstall 15-20 games (yeah, I know, I should finish some of them already!). And it’s not nice. The My Documents folder, I can put up with in the end. The registry?. Not so much. And now, they’re starting to add extra shit like the C++ runtimes, OpenAL, PhysX, the shitty .NET… I remember even a game that needed MySQL!!!

In any case, I don’t want to be a Taliban about this. I only wish game developers did like Total Commander and asked me if I want to have my settings saved in the standard folder (windir) or in the program folder. The method today: install custom or default. Default installs to program files, savegames to My games, etc. Custom?. Let me choose everything!. If I choose custom, I know enough to set my own permissions, thank you.

01/10/2008 at 20:58 Number 6 says:

It would be nice if a game is a sequel to a game you have installed, that it set the default control keys to match the previous game’s configuration.

01/10/2008 at 22:14 roryok says:

yeah sorry about that

01/10/2008 at 23:39 rocketman71 says:

@Tims:

Who the FUCK are you saying that to?!!!!!!!!!!

;)

02/10/2008 at 01:24 bif says:

remap all the keys. I’m left handed and I use my mouse with the left hand. for god’s sake, let me use the numpad instead of wasd.
and don’t put sounds that you can’t turn off (for example menu or installer music that you can’t disable). I usually play with winamp running

02/10/2008 at 09:37 TooNu says:

These rules should be law and taught in game schools around the world.

02/10/2008 at 10:26 Erased says:

I say, nerf the windows button completly. I hate accidently pressing it with my palm when using WSAD

03/10/2008 at 18:23 JayKay says:

To anyone who installs their games to a different drive/partition and then whines when save games are in your home folder – why the hell do you have your home folder on your C: drive anyway? The whole point of partitioning (besides keeping a better overview) is to have your C: drive for your OS install only and nothing else. This way you can wreck your OS and reinstall without having to worry about your data.

Move your bloody home folders, folks!

03/10/2008 at 19:12 Rick says:

Wow.. A top ten list that isn’t 1 or 2 good points with 8 or 9 other “fillers” put in. Great list!

03/10/2008 at 20:21 rocketman71 says:

@JayKay: my home folder is in D. The problem is not everybody knows how to use TweakUI (for example) to change it. The big problem is the registry, that bloated POS that I wish developers never used for anything at all except adding an entry in the Uninstall programs list.

03/10/2008 at 23:29 meh says:

this was a pretty terrible article. you may think your points are valid, however you obviously do not represent mainstream gamers, case in point this article.

03/10/2008 at 23:42 JayKay says:

@rocketman71
You don’t need any extra software, note even TweakUI. Just rightclick your “My Documents” folder and move it (in XP, I don’t have a copy here to verify the exact wording). In Vista, you can move single folders within the User-folder via Properties => Location.

04/10/2008 at 00:35 Col says:

Another addendum to point 7: again all praise to Max Payne, this time for forcing TWO presses of quickload to actually load. What a piece of genius!

04/10/2008 at 05:07 me says:

1. My opinion: Every game needs multiple quicksave slots.

Example:
I hit quicksave (this causes game to be saved in ‘quicksave’. The previous ‘quicksave’ is renamed ‘previous_quicksave_1′, and the even earlier ‘previous_quicksave_1′ is deleted.)
I hit quickload (this loads quicksave)
I can manually load the older quicksave.

This stops you from getting a bad quicksave if quicksaves are the only way you’re saving your game. Saving before you die not so much of a problem with a backup, but too many backups clutter load dialogs.

2. Linux support (and even better… additional alternative simple command line linux support)
My system dual-boots. And windows hogs resources like crazy. A game made to run under linux will generally run better there than in windows, and I want my game to run to the max. And if i can run from command line and not even have to boot up the full operating system, I can zoom by on a weaker machine while someone else lags on something beefier.

04/10/2008 at 07:30 luke says:

8. Escape means menu/pause

Blizzard has had this bound to F10 since the beginning of time. Supcomm copied this. I am comfortable with either ESC or F10.

04/10/2008 at 18:32 malkav11 says:

Saved games these days *do* frequently take up a lot of space. I’d filled multiple gigs with Neverwinter Nights saves, for example, before I realized this and did some pruning. And the problem with having the saves in a centralized location is that even if you can plop it somewhere other than the OS drive/partition (and you apparently can), that still forces all those large files to fill up space on the same drive. It’s like the problem with Steam putting all of its content in the same directory – yes, you can pick which drive that directory’s on, but maybe you don’t want all 30 gigs of that content on the same drive. I sure don’t.

07/10/2008 at 15:24 MacAddict says:

As I have no PC at the moment, I am not all that familiar with these bugs. However, on my Mac, I notice that quite a few of these problems are non-existent.
1. I have yet to see a game I cannot Command-Tab out of,
2. Save games are typically in the program folder (with a few exceptions where it is in a folder under the user who saved it)
3-4. Like PCs, it depends on the game.
5. Uninstall process on a Mac is no harder than dragging the files to the trash folder and deleting. There are no external uninstall programs that need to be run, as everything is in a centralized location. However, if you want to purge of ALL the files for the game, you may have to look in the preferences folder to rid yourself of the preferences file. Also, as plug-ins are typically in the same folder as the game, they do along with the game without any added hassle.
6-10. Like PCs, it depends on the game.

In no way am I saying Macs are perfect. They still have their little problems. And the fact that for many games we have to wait until a 3rd party ports it over, Mac users usually have to wait for some time. However, there are still plenty of games for the Mac, both native and ported (Bungie originally made games solely for the Mac. The Marathon trilogy, Myth, Oni. Halo was originally designed for the Mac, until Microsoft bought them out. Blizzard is also known for developing all their games simultaneously for both Mac and PC)

08/10/2008 at 17:40 Michael America says:

I gotta say extremely yes to everything. I cannot remember agreeing more wholeheartedly with anything in my life than this list.

11/10/2008 at 00:57 My first kiss sucked says:

sucks​ to be you huh ? becau​se you opene​d this,​​​​​
you will get kisse​d on frida​y
by the perso​n you love (or like)​​​​​
& tomor​row will be the best day of your life,​​​​​ so
dont break​ the chain​ cause​ if you do
you’​​​​​ll have probl​ems with relat​ionsh​ips for 10 years​ :(
repos​t this as: “my first​t kiss sucke​d!​​​​​!​​​​​”

11/10/2008 at 15:47 bgates87 says:

Good list, but be careful what you wish for with the super-fast uninstall. And with the save games, I agree they should be standardized but it makes sense that some games (especially online multiplayer games) want the save files to be hidden to help prevent hacking the save file, although they’re naive to think that we can’t find the files if we really want to.

15/10/2008 at 03:00 Osama says:

GENIUS!

18/10/2008 at 04:39 Devin says:

Dear “someone,”

Can I have your supplier’s number? Clearly you are intoxicated in a way that I dearly wish to be.

A majority of PC games support some of these requirements, but I think you’d be hard-pressed to find even one game that supports all of them. For instance: I can’t think of a single game that backs up quicksaves. I have never, but never, hit “load game” and seen a list like “Autosave, Quicksave1, Quicksave2,” and then my manual saves.

If it is your contention that “almost all” PC games meet this standard, please name one game which meets every requirement on this list.

31/10/2008 at 16:03 Simon says:

Don’t require the CD/DVD in the drive to play.
Oh dear good yes.
I nearly ALLWAYS break or loose my cds/dvds for my games, han then i have to download a .iso image of the game to play it, even dough i payed for it.. øv øv

Can we send this artikle to the mayor game producers??

03/11/2008 at 00:39 Essell55 says:

1. Alt-tab support.

I agree.

2. Use standardised install and savegame folders

Sometimes you have to, like the special checks in Vista’s Windows and Program Files folders. You need to install the game somewhere the game can easily modify & create files.

3. Automatically set themselves to your desktop screen resolution

Most new games already do. sooo…

4. Support widescreen resolutions.

Again. Most new games already do. sooo…

5. Uninstall in seconds.

You install 10 Gigs , 50 registry keys and expect to uninstall it under a minute? .. ur stoopid or what?

6. Don’t require the CD/DVD in the drive to play.

I agree.. but for them its a form of passive drm.

7. Keep the quicksave and quickload keys far apart.

Meh maybe.

8. Escape means menu/pause

thats just stupid

9. Auto-backup quicksaves

do it manually… its easy copy & paste

10. Patches should fix, not break

All code in the universe has bugs. live with it!

21/11/2008 at 01:12 Igor Levicki says:

The only thing I really hate are checkpoints and I wish they get nuked out of existence.

I once played Far Cry like 30 minutes through the damn forest killing like 50 enemies and the last one refused to die after a whole round emptied into his body — he stood there taking it until my gun did an empty “click”, and then he owned me with a single bullet.

I have two problems with that.

First one is with checkpoints, I had to replay the whole part again which sucks. I want to be able to save F5/F9 should be in every game, fsck the console crappy checkpoint system.

Second, I want a game to be fun, and I don’t have anything against challenge, but it has to be fair — if I empty a round into someone no matter if they are wearing bulletproof vest they should go down screaming in pain, and not just stand there and wait for me to run out of ammo.

Instead of uninstall times I would like developers to focus more on load times. Those can be horribly slow and they kill any incenitive to play.

Other things that come to mind — long, boring and unskippable cutscenes right before the boss fight (saving Liara in Mass Effect for example). If you have to stuff the cutscene in my face then save me after the cutscene so I only see it once not 10 times if I get killed repeatedly. It makes me reach for a trainer and that automatically means that the game isn’t funny anymore.

First Person Shooter should be in First Person, not Third Person. What is the point of making a FPS game when you are looking over your shoulder like in Dead Space? Third person is good for tactical shooters only and even then in limited quantities such as if you lean against the wall.

Mouse lag — unforgivable (Dead Space). No mouse — double unforgivable (Resident Evil 4 the worst and crappiest console conversion ever. Don’t bother to port the game if you can’t make PC controls and make them feel like PC controls.

19/12/2008 at 16:39 DBeaver says:

Okay, how about this one: Games which support Games For Windows (and thus have that abominable user system), please (PLEASE) create a default user. GTA 4 does that (while failing badly with their crappy DRM). Other games, like Quantum of Solace, a really bad game in itself, don’t. I played up to the Train level, which is around the 15th, according to my count. And now, as I’m about to quit the game, I get a little notice: “Note that you are not logged in, and therefore all your progress will be lost once you quit”.
I quit, uninstalled, and went to my store for a refund.

22/05/2009 at 18:07 Crazy konrad says:

the rule with the quicksave and quicksave is a great idea i once quicksaved in oblivion i find it to be a good game but once i accidentally clicked the quicksave button in a hopeless situation less than seconds before i got killed by an arrow the last quicksave was a long time before that and i was a level less than i was when it happened i tried for about an hour and a half to find a way to survive the arrow ( my health bar was almost not visible because i was in a difficult situation ) but then i finally managed to dodge the arrow and kill my enemy with a spell and thats not the first time it happened either

28/05/2009 at 10:56 Earl Warren says:

its a good views and i read all points which are very much help for playing game. i am really appreciated this site.

08/01/2010 at 10:46 Raj says:

Loved them!! Some of them are really necessary, like, Alt+Tab, Screen resolution, no-CD, Escape key and separation between quicksave and quickload keys.. :))

01/03/2010 at 10:01 juxtatux says:

forgot…works in linux

13/06/2010 at 02:34 James says:

I would love this!

Make life so much easier.