Dead Space - In Space Nobody Can hear you Pause

[Dr.Finger]

CVG got some hands-on time (http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=181756) with Electronic Arts' upcoming survival horror game, Dead Space. Among the features of the game: the conspicuous and deliberate lack of a pause feature. We've all done it, or at least been comforted by the fact that if the rabid dogs in Resident Evil got a little too much, you could hit pause, calmly cycle through your inventory and ram a few health packs down your throat. You're now able to take a few more bites to the leg before seeing the You Died message. Well done you.

If they weren't so vicious, you could try and pat the nice doggies on the head for stopping their hellish onslaught and allowing you to revive yourself so you have a better chance of killing them. If they could talk though, they'd probably call you a cheating bastard. So would the zombies. Imagine if enemies could pause you and heal themselves.Your inventory is handled in real-time via your HUD.

Also of interest, CVG's actual preview (http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=181704) of the game, which sounds like a blend of Event Horizon, Half-Life and Silent Hill.

I'm not sure how I feel about the pause thing. Making the inventory control real-time is fine, but no pausing at all? I don't get the point of that.

[roboninja]

So if the phone rings, I am going to die? No other recourse? Sounds like something that will be fixed in the game's first patch. Controlling inventory in real-time is fine as a game mechanic, but no pause at all is just being different for the sake of being different, which usually ends up being dumb.

[menage]

Must be the stupidest idea ever. So now how am I going to get my beer and take a piss.

[Heretic Machine]

Yeah, that's dumb. Having to use the inventory in real time is fine, but having no pause feature is stupid and frustrating.

[karak]

...Sigh. People have begun putting random shit like this and the inability to restart in Burnout thinking it brings you into the game more. And it may for a moment...but I have to pee, answer the phone or the door or various other things and I want to feel comfortable throwing it on a pause for 3-10 minutes.

[lost]

So when my girlfriend walks or stands in front of my TV what do I do?

I'm looking forward to the game but this is a stupid idea. You can pause the Alien DVDs, doesn't kill the scary space tension.

[Gorvi]

That's incredibly stupid. I think I can safely cross this game off of the "interested" list.

[Baron Samedi]

I'm sure there's a corner you can go stand in somewhere...

[Citizen Philip]

Jump to Windows to pause?

[TheFlyingOrc]

Survival horror games like to limit you in some way to make the game more scary.

Note to developers : the original Resident Evil games were borderline acceptable. Dead Rising and this nonsense do not make a game more fun, they make it more frustrating.

[Gorvi]

Actually, on the 360 at least, can't you just hit the guide button? I know that seems to pause all games save for FFXI for me (which would be impossible to pause anyway).

[Achilles]

So if the phone rings, I am going to die? No other recourse? They did the same thing in Steel Battalion. If the phone rang you were supposed to eject I suppose, because if you let yourself die it would erase your save, though you'd still lose your mech if you ejected. There's a way around it though, the Xbox/360 HAS to pause if you disconnect the controller, so if the phone rings pull out your battery.

Really they should just put in a pause, any game that leaves the player no recourse other than to disconnect their controller is some kind of broken. I see what they're going for; unrelenting suspense, but there won't be because there will always be the controller disconnect workaround, so just put in a damn pause and prevent the player from accessing the inventory in it. Just make pause an option screen and something that pauses the game incase someone’s phone rings, or their kid runs in front of the TV.

[CoachCrazyMcScot]

Looking at the trailer video, I'm not impressed anyways. My first impression is a big Doom-clone, with some Resident Evil and Half Life sprinkled throughout.

For newcomers to the gaming community (over 18), however, this could be a tasty game.

As far as the "lack of pause", they may have some kind of compensation - maybe a hiding spot or room you can lock yourself in - to keep adversaries at bay so you can eat and piss.

[Deadend]

Pausing/saving everywhere is good.

increasing tension by not having game related things done from pause is good.

Did anyone read the preview? the game seems awesome. It had me sold somewhere around zero-gravity and no sound without air.

[TheFlyingOrc]

Actually, on the 360 at least, can't you just hit the guide button? I know that seems to pause all games save for FFXI for me (which would be impossible to pause anyway).

I think that calls the in-game pause feature, and is hard coded by the developers.

Movies keep playing while that menu is up, I don't see why a game couldn't.

Although, a pause feature for the 360 to call whenever the guide button is pressed might be part of the spec MS requires from developers.

[TheFlyingOrc]

Pausing/saving everywhere is good.

increasing tension by not having game related things done from pause is good.

Did anyone read the preview? the game seems awesome. It had me sold somewhere around zero-gravity and no sound without air.

I disagree about saving EVERYWHERE. Just keep your save points within a reasonable distance. *glares at the first two Turok games*

[Gorvi]

I think that calls the in-game pause feature, and is hard coded by the developers.

Movies keep playing while that menu is up, I don't see why a game couldn't.

Although, a pause feature for the 360 to call whenever the guide button is pressed might be part of the spec MS requires from developers.
Yeah, that's what I was thinking. It obviously can't pause an online game (so the FFXI thing wasn't necassary to bring up, since it can't pause anything online), but for single player, you'd think it'd do that.

[Gorvi]

I disagree about saving EVERYWHERE. Just keep your save points within a reasonable distance. *glares at the first two Turok games*
Personally, I'm a strong proponant of saving everywhere. If the dev doesn't want it abused, have set save points where you have a "hard" save, but you can make a "soft" save anywhere that deletes itself once you reload it. These days, it's archaic to be tied to your game if you need to do something else by the old style save system.

[Rayonic]

I will say that this COULD be implemented well. If you think about it, most games have moments where you can safely leave the game alone.

Personally, I frequently play a certain game that doesn't have a pause feature. Perhaps you've heard of it -- World of Warcraft.

[TheFlyingOrc]

Personally, I'm a strong proponant of saving everywhere. If the dev doesn't want it abused, have set save points where you have a "hard" save, but you can make a "soft" save anywhere that deletes itself once you reload it. These days, it's archaic to be tied to your game if you need to do something else by the old style save system.

Ah, yes - soft saves are fantastic. I am totally OK with those.

[Achilles]

I disagree about saving EVERYWHERE. Just keep your save points within a reasonable distance. *glares at the first two Turok games*Don't you like being able to save right before a killing shot hits you in the back of the head so your save game is effectively corrupted? Or saving at too little health for you to successfully complete an encounter?

I agree, save anywhere presents a great many problems, including making developers lazy because they know the player can save in the middle of an encounter, so why balance anything. A good, frequent checkpoint system is the way to go in my opinion, unless you're trying for a certain kind of game, like in RE where you can only save in safe rooms, or in an RTS, where checkpoints aren't always an option (Supreme Commander sure could have used some though between the many stages in its SP missions; nothing like really getting into a mission and then upon death realizing you haven’t saved in 3 hours).

[TheFlyingOrc]

I will say that this COULD be implemented well. If you think about it, most games have moments where you can safely leave the game alone.

Personally, I frequently play a certain game that doesn't have a pause feature. Perhaps you've heard of it -- World of Warcraft.

Egad, that last sentence reeks of arrogance.

You can't pause WoW because you're playing with someone else, sometimes 20 someone elses. Were WoW single-player (which would suck, but still), you would probably be able to pause.

[LongStepMantis]

Will not having a pause make it unplayable?
Doubtful.

Is it a stupid idea, that doesn't really add anything to the game, just an annoyance?
Yes.

Coming Soon! The first RPG that won't let you save! EVER! You have to go from lvl 1 to beating the game in one playthrough. EXXTREME!!!

;)

[Gorvi]

Personally, I frequently play a certain game that doesn't have a pause feature. Perhaps you've heard of it -- World of Warcraft.
It's called logging out.

[LongStepMantis]

It's called logging out.

I thought WoW players never logged out willingly. ;)

[fitbabits]

Having no pause feature in games is frickin' stupid.

[teksama]

WHat is going on?" No pause ... really .. really!

WTYF!

My virtual world is so important that it cant stop for my real world!

You shouldn't even have the balls to say stupid shit like that in public.

10 lashes for everyone who thought that was a good idea

Next your going to tell my your building a Breathalyzer into my console so I can't play PGR4 or Burnout drunk

[LongStepMantis]

Next your going to tell my your building a Breathalyzer into my console so I can't play PGR4 or Burnout drunk

Lies! If you can't enjoy driving a virtual car around drunk, smashing into shit and totaling other vehicles, guess we'll have to do it the old fashioned way.
"You're too drive to drunk. Gimme your keys!" *falls*

[Greeble]

If I didn't have a wife and kids I'd be all for the no pause deal. I think it would add more to the atmosphere and make it feel like a real survival horror. The whole game world pausing while I hacked a turret in Bioshock was really pretty lame, the world didn't feel dangerous.
When you are getting chased by monsters does it make sense to stop in an exposed location to rummage through your bag or read a map? No, you should have to hide in corner with your back to a wall.

[Ancalagon]

Yes, pausing is unrealistic, it should be removed.

Lets make games more and more realistic, because more realism = better = more money.

So, how about, we give the character a scare meter, and if it gets too high, he pees himself. Thats realistic isnt it? Yellow stains everywhere. Yes that really adds to a game, its really worth it.

Some things, while realistic and logical, have no place in something you are supposed to do for fun.

[Dr.Finger]

It sounds like they could put a pause in the game in a heartbeat, but you wouldn't be able to do anything substantive while paused, which is fine by me.

[Variable Gear]

This sounds really cool.

But, sounding cool and actually being cool are two different things.

Let's just wait until the game is released, or at least until a demo comes out, before demanding that the lack of a pause feature should be addressed. If it's implemented as well as it can be, meaning that encounters and save points are positioned with the knowledge that there will be no player-induced breaks in the action, then I think this decision could really add to the survival-horror experience.

So, how about, we give the character a scare meter, and if it gets too high, he pees himself. Thats realistic isnt it? Yellow stains everywhere. Yes that really adds to a game, its really worth it.

Didn't Eternal Darkness do that, but without the piss.

Yeah, Silicon Knights did do something pretty similar to that within Eternal Darkness. You had a Sanity Meter and every time your character was seen or struck by an enemy it would decrease, which would cause crazy shit to happen. Things like your character's head falling off when you try to cast a spell, seeing blood dripping down the walls, walking into a room and actually controlling a blue skeleton instead of your character, and even the volume being turned down could happen if you had low Sanity. You get it back by killing enemies, so the system worked very well.

[menage]

Yes, pausing is unrealistic, it should be removed.

Lets make games more and more realistic, because more realism = better = more money.

So, how about, we give the character a scare meter, and if it gets too high, he pees himself. Thats realistic isnt it? Yellow stains everywhere. Yes that really adds to a game, its really worth it.

Some things, while realistic and logical, have no place in something you are supposed to do for fun.

Didn't Eternal Darkness do that, but without the piss.

I honestly can't see why they actually came forward with this. It's like they hit something totally new and innovative while it actually has been there for a reason for over 20 years. And if it's only concerning managing items it's still not my cup of tea. Cycling through menu's while playing is only frustrating.

Game didn't look like my kind of thing anyway:P

[Sammael]

Wow, what a hit idea. /sarcasm

I find that the busier I get, the less important games become to me in the scheme of what I need to do for the day. So if I'm playing a game and the phone rings, if it's important, F the game.

This game seems to be trying desperately to be different. Too bad it's being made by EA. What was the last original IP they made that was any good? And as far as being different, how about not ripping off The Thing and Virus to make your Event Horizon ripoff with a gravity gun. I'd like for this to be good, but I don't see that happening.

Also, I'm sooooo sick of people trying to make games more like real life. Hey dummy, the reason we are playing these games is because they ARE NOT LIKE REAL LIFE!!!! There has to be some difference, otherwise we'll just go outside and look at trees.

[wiredInsanity]

So when my girlfriend walks or stands in front of my TV what do I do?

Throw your controller at the cunt and tell her to get the f*k out. :cool:

[fitbabits]

Throw your controller at the cunt and tell her to get the f*k out. :cool:

Dude, that's harsh, not to mention unnecessary!

[Thumper]

The development version we played had a pause function assigned to the start button, like every other game. But EA says it's unsure whether that will make it to the final game. We're hoping, after all this effort, they take it out.

We'll see I guess. The previewer didn't seem to mind the lack of pause feature. Of course, I doubt an EA rep is gonna walk in front of him during a firefight.

[wiredInsanity]

Dude, that's harsh, not to mention unnecessary!

Sorry, Valentine's day has my wallet feeling the pain and thus, I'm feeling very bitter.

[fitbabits]

Sorry, Valentine's day has my wallet feeling the pain and thus, I'm feeling very bitter.

So you toss the word "cunt" into conversational missives. You're quite the catch! :)

[Rayonic]

It's called logging out.
Which would be the equivalent of saving and quitting in a single player game.

Egad, that last sentence reeks of arrogance.

You can't pause WoW because you're playing with someone else, sometimes 20 someone elses. Were WoW single-player (which would suck, but still), you would probably be able to pause.
The fact that you can't have a pause feature in an MMO is irrelevant to this discussion.

Let's say you're soloing in the game, in which case the game is essentially single-player for you. Nature calls while you're in the middle of a hostile area, so what do you do? There are a number of different solutions, some of which could be applied to Dead Space. That's all I'm trying to say.

Get to a (hopefully nearby) safe area.
Find some corner somewhere to hide.
Activate personal stealth.
Logout / Save & Quit
Have an NPC guard you.

Now, I'm not all gung-ho about taking away the pause ability in a single player game. Dying while I'm AFK isn't a fun experience. And sure, pausing a game is somewhat immersion-breaking, but so is having your character stare at a wall for 10 minutes. I'm interested in where they end up taking the concept, though, and at least they're trying something new.

Oh, and is it arrogance if I really am better than everyone else? :D

[wiredInsanity]

So you toss the word "cunt" into conversational missives. You're quite the catch! :)

Well, I say it with great affection ;). Seriously though, I think not having a pause feature could have a positive impact on survival gameplay. Taking a piss and not having the comfort of knowing that your character is safe-and-sound behind the veil of a pause screen will certainly affect my anxiety level and probably result in a messier bathroom.

[Jadbalja]

I'll also have to go the "No, thanks" route. I'm getting too old and non-extreme to want to deal with games that go out of their way to make me replay the same section from my last save point over and over again because I don't have the reflexes of a 12 year old.

If you really feel the need for this, make it optional -- playing on Hard or Expert takes away your ability to pause / save anywhere. That way the Hard Core get their version, and I get mine. Hell, add Acheivements for playing that way.

[karak]

..Am I wrong in thinking that hitting the XBOX button and brining up the dashboard pauses the game? If it does than I am set.

[fitbabits]

..Am I wrong in thinking that hitting the XBOX button and brining up the dashboard pauses the game? If it does than I am set.

It can, but there are some games out there where that doesn't work. FIFA is one that pops to mind.

[Achilles]

When you announce a feature and gamers respond by saying that they probably won't get the game, it's time to rethink the feature.

I see what they're getting at, it's fine; no healing in the inventory, no reprieve from the suspense. They just went too far and they need to dial it back. Problem is now that they've announced this they may need to announce that they're dialing it back before people will reconsider buying their game.

Again, you can always pause by unplugging the controller... don't make people unplug their damn controllers.

[Mortanius]

Hrm, is it just me or do I remember being able to pause in virtually every Resident Evil game I've played? Granted, there are a few I've not played, and the ones I did I played long ago so my memory may be playing with me. I do remember that on at least one I could pause, but not do anything but stare at a 'paused' message till I un-pause.

I think maybe this is what's being talked about here, because I really can't imagine designers being that silly and not allowing people to pause ever. Oh wait.. I can. But it seems stupid to me too.

As for WoW, that's an entirely different type of game, you can log out whenever you like and pick up where you left off, and there are several places you can just stand around idle, even in the 'wilderness'. That analogy doesn't hold up against a survival horror game, where concepts such as 'save points' hold sway over the game.

Oh and.. congrats to me for finally coming out and posting instead of just reading the main page. I'll go back to doing that now.


Mortanius.

[agentgray]

If anyone read the preview or even saw the writeup in Game Informer (which is turning out to be a surprisingly good rag), you'll see that they are going for intense suspense.

Lack of pause is an interesting thing to do to keep that suspense. If you can't run with the big boys...

[colonel 32dll]

Why does it have to be so black and white? Why can't there be a pause feature that ONLY pauses the game without allowing you to access inventory menus? Like hitting ESC in most PC games? The game stops, allowing you to pee or whatever, but you can't heal your character or anything else except continue from where you were. Wouldn't that be acceptable common-ground? I mean, these are GAMES not LIFE - which takes priority? Oh, you're gonna say games ARE life, aren't you.

[Sammael]

I'll also have to go the "No, thanks" route. I'm getting too old and non-extreme to want to deal with games that go out of their way to make me replay the same section from my last save point over and over again because I don't have the reflexes of a 12 year old.



Exactly my point. Good call.

It's shit like that that drive me crazy. When done WELL, it can be fun. Too brutal and it becomes tedious and annoying.

I no longer have the time to try one part again just because I couldn't pause because I had to check a txt message.

[ResistanceAddict]

Changing the subject from the pause to the actual game, I read that the goal of this game is supposedly to be the scariest game yet. From the look of everything, I have high hopes for this game.

[mister_slim]

Don't you like being able to save right before a killing shot hits you in the back of the head so your save game is effectively corrupted? Or saving at too little health for you to successfully complete an encounter?

I agree, save anywhere presents a great many problems, including making developers lazy because they know the player can save in the middle of an encounter, so why balance anything. A good, frequent checkpoint system is the way to go in my opinion, unless you're trying for a certain kind of game, like in RE where you can only save in safe rooms, or in an RTS, where checkpoints aren't always an option (Supreme Commander sure could have used some though between the many stages in its SP missions; nothing like really getting into a mission and then upon death realizing you haven’t saved in 3 hours).

I prefer a Zelda-style save anywhere system.

[Wasson_]

No pausing?...are you shitting me?

Let's just start manufacturing cars without breaks while we're at it. All or nothing baby!

[Sammael]

Changing the subject from the pause to the actual game, I read that the goal of this game is supposedly to be the scariest game yet.

The problem I hope they avoid is it seems a lot of developers seem to translate scary as "lets make the game seriously difficult! That translates into scary!" EX - RE- Nemesis. Or there are the cases where darkness = scary. I am getting sick of games where you can barely see anything. EX - Jericho. Holy crap that game was dark.

Good, scary games?

Undying
Doom 3 (a bit dark though)
Bioshock
RE1 and 2(some of 2)
Silent Hill 2

[wiredInsanity]

Night Trap (Sega CD) for the Win

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Trap

[ResistanceAddict]

The problem I hope they avoid is it seems a lot of developers seem to translate scary as "lets make the game seriously difficult! That translates into scary!" EX - RE- Nemesis. Or there are the cases where darkness = scary. I am getting sick of games where you can barely see anything. EX - Jericho. Holy crap that game was dark.

Good, scary games?

Undying
Doom 3 (a bit dark though)
Bioshock
RE1 and 2(some of 2)
Silent Hill 2

What about Eternal Darkness? I have to ask because I never played it, unfortunately.

[ResistanceAddict]

The problem I hope they avoid is it seems a lot of developers seem to translate scary as "lets make the game seriously difficult! That translates into scary!" EX - RE- Nemesis. Or there are the cases where darkness = scary. I am getting sick of games where you can barely see anything. EX - Jericho. Holy crap that game was dark.

Good, scary games?

Undying
Doom 3 (a bit dark though)
Bioshock
RE1 and 2(some of 2)
Silent Hill 2

Don't forget F.E.A.R. What about S.TA.L.A.K.E.R? I was under that impression that was scary as hell as well. Maybe even Condemned... others come to mind.

What about Eternal Darkness? I have to ask because I never played it, unfortunately.

[Sammael]

Don't forget F.E.A.R. What about S.TA.L.A.K.E.R? I was under that impression that was scary as hell as well. Maybe even Condemned... others come to mind.

What about Eternal Darkness? I have to ask because I never played it, unfortunately.

Hey, that was quick examples. Sorry.

FEAR was not scary, the expansion was scarier. Most of that game was against the psychicly linked soldiers, which weren't scary, just awesome to fight against.

STALKER I didn't get too into so I couldn't say. My PC runs it so-so.

Condemned, I'll definitley agree there. That game gave me the chills. Perfect game to play LOUD! The audio was astounding, and the enemies were pretty fucked up.

Eternal Darkness... had it's moments. I wouldn't say that it was too scary, but it had some awesome bug-out moments. I'm dying to see another game in that series/vein.

Manhunt. The original had some pretty intense moments. I have to admit, until the gun play there were parts I was actually a little scared, and when you got spotted and had to run, there were times I would actually be saying "Oh shit, oh shit!" while trying to lose them.

(don't forget that fucker piggsy. that gave me a freaking heart attack!)

Anything I'm missing? I'm sure there is.

I would suggest we try and keep the references more recent, mainly due to the fact that a lot of old mechanics in the horror game genre don't work any longer in current games.

[ResistanceAddict]

Hey, that was quick examples. Sorry.

FEAR was not scary, the expansion was scarier. Most of that game was against the psychicly linked soldiers, which weren't scary, just awesome to fight against.

STALKER I didn't get too into so I couldn't say. My PC runs it so-so.

Condemned, I'll definitley agree there. That game gave me the chills. Perfect game to play LOUD! The audio was astounding, and the enemies were pretty fucked up.

Eternal Darkness... had it's moments. I wouldn't say that it was too scary, but it had some awesome bug-out moments. I'm dying to see another game in that series/vein.

Manhunt. The original had some pretty intense moments. I have to admit, until the gun play there were parts I was actually a little scared, and when you got spotted and had to run, there were times I would actually be saying "Oh shit, oh shit!" while trying to lose them.

(don't forget that fucker piggsy. that gave me a freaking heart attack!)

Anything I'm missing? I'm sure there is.

I would suggest we try and keep the references more recent, mainly due to the fact that a lot of old mechanics in the horror game genre don't work any longer in current games.

I disagree there. F.E.A.R. had more shock than scare, but it definitely had its scary moments. If Bioshock is scary (I haven't finished the game but nothing has scared me yet), so is F.E.A.R.

Manhunt. I forgot that one. I loved the game, but I don't have patience enough for stealth games so I never got very far.

[karak]

Thief 3 Asylum level.
One of the scariest levels in a game ever.