10 Gaming Mechanics That Developers Should Have Fixed Years Ago

Pretty much replacing the check-point system, the auto-save feature seen in many games today does exactly what it says; it saves your game automatically so you can turn it off and pick up where you left off without having to worry.

Or at least that’s how it should work. With games that have auto-save only, it can become quite a task just making sure your game has actually saved, thanks to the way developers implement the system. In many open world games, completing a task usually causes the game to save. However, what counts as a task worthy of auto-save differs from game to game; some games save only after completing missions, meaning if you’ve gone collectible-hunting you have to start a mission just to make sure they’ve been saved, whereas others save your game every time you so much as open your inventory, which can lead to the game saving mid-battle when you're nearly dead.

This confusion with knowing what makes your game save means you often have to run around doing extra things just to double-check that your progress has indeed been counted. Surely developers can just add a manual save to their games alongside auto-save? Pressing pause and saving was perfected with the PS1: this is an example of one mechanic which has got worse with improved technology.

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Agree with this list? What mechanics in games do you find annoying and outdated? Let us know in the comments below.