The icon for game save actually kinda makes sense in another way. I want to know when I can turn the console off and go to bed after I have completed a checkpoint. Even if you can avoid savegame corruption, I would be very annoyed to complete a difficult section and return to the game the next day to discover that I'm back to where I was before and have to do the difficult part all over again. Especially since modern console games seem to be designed with a difficulty curve where 99% of the game is very very easy and the other 1% is frustratingly difficult.
Do games consoles not implement some kind of transactional system for game saves anyway? It would seem very harsh to lose all progress in a game because of a power cut! Especially since modern games don't seem to have any way to allow the player to make multiple arbitrary save files as backups.
Makes me nostalgic for the days of "you will know that the game is saving because your PC will be completely unresponsive for 10 seconds".
Yeah I don't think he was complaining so much about the icon per say; more that every game developer has to make a save game system that handles corruption rather than calling a save api.
If it was done via an api then the xbox could automatically show the 'saving' icon, delay switch off until the save is complete, and handle corrupt save files with a lot less work per developer...
My understanding is that games on the current generation of consoles are assumed to corrupt your save if power is lost while saving. The response from the certification process of these consoles is to warn the user about this every time every game starts rather than to require a robust save system.
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Do games consoles not implement some kind of transactional system for game saves anyway? It would seem very harsh to lose all progress in a game because of a power cut! Especially since modern games don't seem to have any way to allow the player to make multiple arbitrary save files as backups.
That is actually Jon's point. The API by default is not transactional, while it should be. That is left up to the developer to implement.
> The icon for game saves actually kinda makes sense in another way.
Sure, it may make sense, but that is not part of cert. The message is required to show at any point where any data is being saved, which could just in fact be useless stats. In which case its possible to see the icon finish, shut off the game, and then later be suprised when the game did not in fact save your progress.
Reminds me of my friend not shutting down his NES for over two weeks because his copy of Zelda II had a faulty battery. Even with a working battery the save system kinda sucked.
It basically says "Really sorry. The record of your adventure disappeared." ... Then you get to a fresh home screen as if your save game never existed..
Ugh. I had repressed the memories of losing hours of game time in Dragon Warrior. Losing saves in that game almost made me quit playing games...almost.
Do games consoles not implement some kind of transactional system for game saves anyway? It would seem very harsh to lose all progress in a game because of a power cut! Especially since modern games don't seem to have any way to allow the player to make multiple arbitrary save files as backups.
Makes me nostalgic for the days of "you will know that the game is saving because your PC will be completely unresponsive for 10 seconds".