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So you can skip songs on music, you can skip to your favorite part in the movie, so why you can't skip to a favorite part in your game?

Codiox

Member
I played assassins creed odyssey on ps4 maybe 20 hours in, loved it so far. Then I got an Xbox one x and wanted to play odyssey on that. I had to start all over again.

I finished it on one x and now would love to play the dlcs on pc because that's my main platform now. But it seems I can't.

Why is this still a thing? Sure you can say crosssave is coming these days in some games, but why can't I just skip to a part of a game I want to enjoy? Sometimes there are games that have special segments you only get when you are far in the game. I don't know how many great moments I missed because I dropped a game early.

Maybe it's more difficult to have a stats editor and save point editor to choose where you wanna start the game, but I don't think this is something impossible. Could even be a save state system that got you maybe 10-20 pre-configured savestates.

What do you think GAF? Should this be a feature for coming games?
 
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MMaRsu

Banned
All you have to do is to choose the option "The Fate of Atlantis" when beginning the game. You receive a choice, shown in the screenshot above. If you choose "shortcut", a new save will be created, with a level 52 character. This won't delete your old save, provided you've saved manually.
 

Miles708

Member
I agree completely.

It makes no sense I can't skip to the good part of a game even after I've completed it!
Who has the time to replay a 100 hours game? Just let me see that second-to-last dungeon that was so cool and had that cool music!

Why can't I replay the [redacted] part in Monster Boy and The Cursed Kingdom?
Why do I have to replay everything to see the [redacted] part near the end of The Witcher 3?
What if I just want to experience the ending again in The Last Guardian?

"Just keep a save file you dork", "git gut" or "it's just the way it has always been and that's how it'll stay forever" are not convincing answers.


Fake Edit: I'll go further and say that all consoles should have a "skip-chapter" feature integrated right in the dashboard. Set some system-wide checkpoints in every game.
Or, it devs can't be arsed, just make a save-state every 10 hours, let me access that at all times.

Seriously, come on.
 
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kraspkibble

Permabanned.
the question is who the hell only listens to a certain part of a song or watches certain scenes of a movie? that doesn't make any sense. by all means have your favourite parts but surely you'd listen to the entire song or watch the entire movie??!?
 
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Should be a no brainer once you've completed the game, but skipping from the start is an interesting thought.

Majority of games you need to level up to get further in the game
 

Self

Member
Some games offer a chapter select after you beat it. See no problems with that approach. But honestly, most people just don't care.
 

Kuranghi

Member
Uncharted 4 is a modern example of a gold standard for this, you can skip to any chapter in the game but also to any encounter/battle from the main menu and it will update your global save file if you complete challenges.

Maybe Uncharted 3 has it too, 2 and 3 definitely have the chapter skip anyway.
 
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the question is who the hell only listens to a certain part of a song or watches certain scenes of a movie? that doesn't make any sense. by all means have your favourite parts but surely you'd listen to the entire song or watch the entire movie??!?
Honestly I always skip to the best part, listen/watch for a few seconds, then close.
 

Codiox

Member
the question is who the hell only listens to a certain part of a song or watches certain scenes of a movie? that doesn't make any sense. by all means have your favourite parts but surely you'd listen to the entire song or watch the entire movie??!?
Not a certain part of a song, but song 7 of 13 for instance.
 

Miles708

Member
Not a certain part of a song, but song 7 of 13 for instance.

Yes, excellent point.
Having to replay an entire game for just 1 stage/dungeon/story-part is like having to listen to an entire album to get to the one song you wanna ear.
 

Magog.

Banned
I've never turned on a movie just to watch one scene. It would work in some games but not in others.
 

#Phonepunk#

Banned
You can’t skip innings in baseball and you can’t fast forward in football either. No skipping quarters in basketball. Let’s see how far you get trying to skip in chess or connect 4 as well. That’s the thing about games they aren’t movies or tv shows, they are just as close to sports or traditional games, which require a linear play and a live performance. You can’t skip through a theatre play because it requires a live performance as well.
 
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RoboFu

One of the green rats
Games are not movies... I know the growing trend is making them interactive movies but they are still games as of right now.

it’s so funny that FMV games died out when that’s exactly what so many people want.
 

lestar

Member
on music and movies, that feature is intrinsically in the format, in videogames, that depends on the developer, that's why. If you want that, then go and play games on youtube.
 
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Blond

Banned
TLOU 1/2 did this letting you choose between levels down to the checkpoint and encounters. I don’t understand why most companies don’t do this, it can’t be that hard to implement.
 

DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
Simple answer is that there are too many game-states to account for. Games are not linear media like a song or a movie.

I feel like a practice mode or a chapter select are good, basic ways to give players this kind of flexibility, but it really depends on the game and the genre. How exactly can you skip ahead to mid-season in FIFA?
 

Azurro

Banned
the question is who the hell only listens to a certain part of a song or watches certain scenes of a movie? that doesn't make any sense. by all means have your favourite parts but surely you'd listen to the entire song or watch the entire movie??!?

I have watched the intro to The Dark Knight Rises many more times than I've watched the entire movie. It's an amazing intro and sometimes I want to watch it, even if I don't have time or don't feel like watching the entire thing.

About skipping forward in games, I don't think there's an easy answer, it depends on how the game is structured.
 

Zambatoh

Member
Most games are inherently linear in design. It doesn't matter what you do to your character or what path you take in the story, you will always see that next cutscene and that next stage one way or another.
There's very little excuse for games to not have a chapter or level select function.
Even in RPGs they can have a pre-configured party set up for different chapters.
Even in big Open World games, the missions are always linear in design and they always drop you off at fixed spawn points with a scripted event running.

The only games I don't see this working for are immersive sims like Prey and REmake2 which are designed to have long term consequences.
 
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Miles708

Member
I have watched the intro to The Dark Knight Rises many more times than I've watched the entire movie. It's an amazing intro and sometimes I want to watch it, even if I don't have time or don't feel like watching the entire thing.

About skipping forward in games, I don't think there's an easy answer, it depends on how the game is structured.
In free-roam games, players are expected to arrive at certain story beats with certain level/equip. Simply have some pre-made save states to load the game at those story beats with preset levels/items. Problem solved.

"But...", one could say, "that means you didn't actually earn those levels/items before arriving to that story part!"
It's a very valid objection, so I'll tell you a secret:

who cares.
 
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Miles708

Member
Why not use multiple saves? Most games encourage you to use them. Use a new slot after a part you liked.
Assuming the game allows for that (dark souls, The last guardian), and that you think about that at that exact moment.

Again, this should be an OS-level feature.
 
Is this a joke thread?
I like how some people, when they see a concept they don't agree with, immediately resort to a "is this a joke/troll thread?" nonsense.

No, it's not. The OP brings up a good point. Anyway, on topic:

As others have already said, this should be a no-brainer for when one has already completed a game. Giving this option on a first playthrough wouldn't make much sense, as the game expects the player to be at some level/skill, and know the game mechanics enough, before tackling later areas of the game. It's an expected progression.

Many games old and new have tried giving this option to some extent:
- Passwords (Mega Man series, Punch Out!, etc...)
- Save system (more on this below)
- Chapter/level selector built in (explicitly "episodic" games like the Resident Evil Revelations series; my memory is foggy but I think Uncharted offers this choice as well; etc)
- Chapter/level selector with a special code (the Japanese version of Contra III, for example)
- In fighting games, a boss mode that lets you go directly to the final boss (e.g., Gouki mode in Street Fighter Zero 2), or a 1v1 mode where you can free-select your AI opponent
- Many platformers will just let you free-form select any level from the map, this has been a standard since Super Mario World (maybe an NES or Master System game I don't know about let you do that before Super Mario World? I don't know)

In some games, it's up to the user to try to use the multi-slot save system to save in a favorite area and not overwrite that save, so they can always load that file and replay their favorite area. The shortcoming of this is that you still have to go through the beginning portion to get to that area, in a New Game+ kind of scenario.

Allowing level select should be a universal standard going forward. But I think it would be kind of tricky with an Open World or RPG-heavy setting.
 

Physiocrat

Member
That's not a bad idea at all. With more linear games I shouldn't think it would be that difficult. If the game auto saves at the beginning of each level, stage or dungeon you should be able to play it with the same Xp and items you started with originally. With more non-linear games it could be tricky but where it could be introduced it should be although only when you have unlocked it.
 
This is a great point that isn't brought up nearly as much as it should. The idea of "unlocking" game mechanics in a game (levels, abilities, weapons, etc.) is so archaic and pointless.

I just fired up Just Cause 3 PC for the first time. The world is incredibly beautiful and just begging to be explored with all of Rico's abilities...and yet, the game's asking me to "unlock" game mechanics as trivial as "zooming in your weapon while shooting?"
Or even take Smash Bros. If I saw a trailer for this game and only wanted to play it because of Cloud...it's a bit pretentious of the game's designers to ask me to unlock 54 other characters first.

With the exception of maybe cosmetic items, I think that all gameplay content should be available from the start for any game. The time commitment of modern AAA games is really holding them back from reaching a wider audience.
 
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