What the...? Are game saves really all that hard to code?

I'm getting a bad feeling in my gut about the four-player co-op in Lost Planet 2 now...

That saver thing is weird, huh?

But I guess I won´t care because I will only play this game in co-op, so the host will be always the same (my brother, maybe).

Anyway, it sound very fun!!

How could you *possibly* save the state of someone who just hopped in mid-game? This is not laziness, its just fundamentally impossible to save any meaningful or useful information given how they designed the co-op. The host saving state makes complete sense.

I could care less if only one side can save as long as there is system link and it has co-op.

Willtur if this won't have System Link, you can still play it on PC, where some people will make LAN servers, fixes or whatever for it

Well they just lost out on a sale from me.

--- Replying to s0phist -----
You haven't played Army of Two: The 40th Day or Splinter Cell: Conviction in co-op, have you?

Why on earth did it make me an anonymous poster?

--- Replying to Zonf86 -----
its a bug when posting comments from the article's page. nick has been pulling his hair out trying to fix it. i fixed your post for you though

game saves are tricky with drop in/out. i wouldn't say saving progress for player 2 is impossible, but it does present a lot of issues. its not accurate to say a player who dropped into a game at the last minute should get credit for finishing that level. but what if someone drops in just after the host kills the first few baddies? where do you draw the line? this is why borderlands only saves your progress if you already have the quests the host is working on. there's a lot of grey area with game saves and while adding more complexity to the save file will give you more accurate progress, it makes much larger files and introduces more and more programming issues/bugs/headaches. i'm no game developer but i definitely run into the same types of issues when writing programs. loading a program and recreating the state the user left off at is not a trivial task. add in the ability for a second user to jump in at any point makes it quite a bit more difficult.

--- Replying to txshurricane -----
Not to mention Saints Row 2... ahh Saints Row 2, how much the gaming industry should have learned from you...

Makes sense Smurphster, think you might be right.
Still, i dont think this should matter, most people don't care about exploiting saves. They just want to play games with their friends.
And those few who do choose to exploit, who cares?


Either way, they just lost 3 sales. What a shame, was really looking forward to this one.

--- Replying to Dr0kz -----
i'm with you, sometimes i don't care about the story so much and i just want to play w/ friends. some games i really want to get through the campaign once in the correct order, but most games i really don't care. its an unfortunate decision but ultimately, they're going to upset someone either way.

As long as both players get achievements I'll be happy.

--- Replying to DarkestHour00 -----

If it doesn't save your progress I can't see how you will both get the achievements.

I apologize if I hurt somebody with this, but you don't buy the game because of the save system??? That's pretty bad if you ask me... (And before you attack me about Crackdown 2 and no System Link - I'll still get the game)

--- Replying to TheReaperCooL -----

Co-op is still an option for you , if you bought another xbox live subscription; but we know that you can't affordthat.

Why would I spend my money on a game that doesn't have a feature in it that I want? A feature that imo has quite a large impact on the co-operative play. This is a site for arguably the most 'serious' co-op players in the larger gaming community, and without such a save system, the co-op aspect really is affected.

It's great for drop-in, drop-out play - but that's not the type of way we play. We play the game in a single player fashion - from start to finish, but together.

I wouldn't have bought the game for a single player experience, so when the co-op isn't up to par, why would I consider getting it? I made it clear from first hearing about co-op in the game that the save system was a key aspect in my purchase of the game.

It's the same reason I won't buy games with co-op modes in. It's just not the sort of co-op I want.

Looks awesome, too bad about the saves however I am a huge fan of the first Dead Rising and another zombie sandbox type game is right up my alley .

Saving systems, co-op achievements.... Reminds me of the blog I am going to post soon ....

One way that I have managed to get around the save elements of a co-op game is that I only play it with the same person - never on my own. This way you pick up where you left off, but it could mean that you lose all items and any achievements.

--- Replying to Zonf86 -----
most achievements are still traceable without game saves that save your current progress through the game. for example, achievements where you have to kill x number of baddies a certain way can be stored completely independent of your progress in a level. the achievements i see as difficult to record are completing a level or set of levels. we'll have to wait and see what they end up doing but your concerns are definitely valid if the game save situation is as weak as it sounds.

One thing that softens the blow about the saves is that the source article says that you'll keep all of your XP and any unlockables other than just story progress. Meaning that your character upgrades are persistent.

Personally, I can deal with having to beat the campaign myself if I can keep outfits, weapons, and XP that I've earned while playing the "unsaveable" co-op.

The XP etc... is better than nothing at all.

As you say, lets hope they haven't done the same thing in Lost Planet 2

WAI-WAI-WAI-WAI-WAIIIT!!!

I was just thinking about you guys not buying this game because of this savegame feature.

Let me ask you a question - Have you played and enjoyed Mercenaries 2? Just because when the second player saves the game he ONLY saves the money and fuel he gained, NOTHING else!!!

Another question... Do you guys enjoy playing Borderlands? You know when you play with someone who is a LITTLE bit ahead of your story, then you WON'T save the progress either, only EXP and Inventory.

So... what's the problem here if it worked for those two games? It's the same however I see it, and I had fun with both (Note - I'm not trying to be rude here, but if you like those games why don't you like this one if it has the same savegame feature?)

i can't speak for mercs, but for borderlands, it just takes a bit of coordination between your team to make sure everyone gets credit for completing quests. with an RPG, it's even more tricky since you don't have levels, checkpoints, etc. you only have quests that have pre-requisites, quest items, etc. it makes sense to force the team to work on the quests for the player who is the most behind, otherwise, you'd wind up missing/extra quest items for quests you need to complete, NPCs that have moved and no longer offering the correct quest for where you are in the story, the list goes on! at least everyone's progress IS saved if the group is set up correctly.