For all the stupidity it exhibits, the reviewer is right: DF should have implemented a solid checkpoint system. Not because every game needs one, but because this game does. It fits perfectly with the idea of an immersive cinematic experience. Sadly, with all the hubbub around tank controls, Shaeffer seems to have completely forgotten the intentional design choices of the original.

Technically my first 2 PC games I was ever introduced was:

Sierra's 3D Ultra Pinball

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31Q5Wk6m1yE

And Some kindergardern Computer game called Are You Ready For School with some Purple Chimp.

I would expect a game released in 2015 to automatically save my game.

And....

what licurg said.

in the gamer's defense i guess, if you are used to not having to worry about saving b/c you've only really played games that automatically saved, it would be easy to forget to do so. but i would hope (again though, what licurg said) that the first loss would be enough of a reminder so that it only happens once.

I do like the immersion point made by kalirion.

You (and I'd wager, a lot of others here too) probably don't have a lot of sympathy for people who aren't prudent enough to make regular backups of their system (or at least their mission critical/important personal files). Why should you feel any different for people who aren't intelligent enough to save their game? (Assuming they're not trying to do something like go through an entire playthrough without saving.)

Automatic saving has it's place... However it's not always wanted. Actually automatic saving could be a death sentence in some games.

BioForge for example, if you do something out of order you literally can't complete the game. And of course if you only save in 1 and never experiment, then when you make a big mistake you just have to start the whole game over.

As for having to quick save often, sometimes i wonder if some games are just too hard, where quick saving and constantly quick loading and repeating until you get through a sequence that would take 2 minutes of game time but two hours of actual time. I remember one such sequence in Fade To Black where you had to go across a catwalk with like lasers or turrets on either side shooting seemingly at random at the spots right in front of you...

Which is why the optimal balance is (IMHO) to have autosaving at the start of each level, and have a manual save system too. I can see checkpoints working, as long as they're paced well. Trouble is, they usually aren't, at least not in my experience.

With respect to difficulty, it's hard to say, and I think it depends on the game and what you're expected to do. Sunless Sea is a good example of this for me: because of its heavy reliance on -- apparently -- RNG to determine specific outcomes, I'm not ashamed to say that I save-scummed through several of the encounters in the game. Oh, and there was MoH:AA and it's infamous "Snipertown" level.

Ever spend 3 hours looking for a switch that was right in front of your starting position? XD

I will easily get annoyed at losing 20 minutes or so, however that usually would be side issue of the stability of the game. I've had Morrowind work flawlessly for hours, and other times crashes within 5 minutes of reloading; And when the game crashes over and over every 5 minutes i start complaining. If it was my fault i lost 5-20 minutes then fine and died that's fine. But when it's because you touch an object to pick it up and suddenly you're looking at your desktop background because the game crashed... grr... Then it takes like another 2 minutes to get back into the game as it loads up all the assets again.

Curiously i can't recall that many games that crashed nearly as much as TES3...

That's a good point, that the frustration is actually at the technical issues rather than player issues.

Morrowind stability... jumbo shrimp? XD

I hate having to repeat almost any amount of time in games, which is exactly why I prefer manual saves. With checkpoints I'm at the mercy of the designers (who usually put them in such places that I have to repeat a lot of easy but at repeatition tedious stuff to get to what actually killed me), with manual I have no one to blame but me if I have to repeat a shitload of gameplay. And somehow that frustrates me far less.

But more to the point- I guess some of you make a good point, and it's best to have the best of both worlds, or at lest the choice between the two. What really bothered me about this is not that someone prefers autosaves, it's the fact that he called manual saving "antiquated", and that it is a adventure game we're talking about, not a console action game for heaven's sake. It felt like seeing someone complain about all the pointing & clicking in a Monkey Island game, and asking why are there no QTEs.

Hmm i remember someone trying to scale a land crab to 30x or 300x larger and it was apparently a nightmare as you couldn't see the damn thing, then it attacks with huge claws out of the forest, and it's too far away for your to attack...

When i played, i got quite far, i think 100+ days in game... maybe a lot more, i'd have to check, but it had the two expansions. Half the crashes seemed to involve bloodmoon, or at least from what i last remember. That or NPC's who spawned but weren't active (so they just stand there, barely move, can't talk to them, etc). Not sure what the cause was... Perhaps adding the expansions after i'm quite a ways into the game? Maybe, since object data has to be totally replaced...

In 2016 you'll probably expect the computer to play the game for you.