Save anywhere would have made Dead Rising pathetically easy. As it was you could save in bathrooms and other places: there were save spots scattered through the mall. That was a pretty good setup IMO.

A quicksave anywhere option ala GBA/DS RPGs would be good though. You can only reload it once. So it's more to save where you're at and can't be used to replay things over and over.

Save-anywhere makes things VERY easy. Anyone that has played with an emulator and save-states can tell you that.

The ability to shoot limbs off people like in Soldier of Fortune. That game also had some huge exit wound effects that you don't really see in other games.

Cover. After GOW and R6V its hard to play a FPS like COD or PDZ without being able to hide and either blind fire, or pick off headshots.

I agree with this - I don't think every game has to have a huge level of gore, but the fact you could blow people apart 10 different ways made that game a lot of fun. Shooting someone point-blank with a shotgun SHOULD blow their leg off.

Yeah, I gotta agree with this.

The first thing I though of was the Grappling Hook in Bionic Commando:
http://speeddemosarchive.com/gfx/BionicCommando_2.png

Yup, quicksave anywhere seems to be the most requested... it still amazes me that some portable games don't have this (though I love the fact that you can just flick the PSP off and have it resume as long as it doesn't run out of batteries).

Second most requested seems like skipping cutscenes, which I agree with too. I also like the ability to pause cutscenes, especially if it's really, really long...

The ability to go through cutscenes after you've already viewed them is cool too.

Although they're pretty frivolous, I liked that Perfect Dark collectors edition came with gamerpics and a background.

The Gears of War Y Button.

Lost? No problem, press the Y button.

Difficulty selection. Not that Easy helps me any, but it's nice to see it there (my suggested difficulty level would be: Make enemies freeze in place while you shoot at them. Not that it would help me win the game, but it's a nice gesture).

Planescape Torments: Journal system. It basically had everything you needed to know and more. Completed missions, pending missions, info on people, log of what you did. It was perfect.

No One Lives Forever, Half Life: Smart AI. Its sad when you shoot a guard in the head and the standing next to him doesn't do anything because he can not see you. Nevermind that the guy next to just caught a bullet.

Max Payne, Pain Killer, Half Life: No major bugs. Atari is known for release games with major bugs like the matrix, temple of elemental evil, ever game they put. The fans have to resort to fixing the game. That is just sad.

Viva Pinata's Journal is excellent. It basically contains everything you need to know to reach level 108 except for the variants. Everything else is there.