Lee Harvey Oswald

I'll go with these as well:
1. Skip the scenes (I want to play a game, not watch one. This is one of the main reasons I prefer old school games).
2. Save anywhere. Especially in the middle of sports games, in particular racing games like Nascar 0#.

clckworang

Oh, I like this idea. It would be very cool if it could show things that you actually did rather than prerendered previously scenes. It could personalize your experience just a bit more.

fumanstan

I never understood this either, because back when i played earlier versions of NBA Live on the PC, I think Live 95, I was able to save in the middle of games. I hate that I can't do that now, and often don't finish games in both NBA 2K and Madden.

Supermallet

Save anytime is a must (I can understand a few specific spots where you might not be able to save due to the storyline, but autosaving can be a pain if the save spots are too far apart, and save spots are even more annoying because they always require backtracking).

Skipping cutscenes while having access to cutscenes you've passed is another must.

I'd probably also go with a roaming camera setting. In games of almost any genre, an awkward camera angle can ruin a great playing experience. Adjustable cameras make things easier.

taffer

Actually Max Payne did have something kind of like this. The story/cutscenes in Max Payne were told in a comic book panel style. You could go back and re-watch the comic book scenes anytime you wanted. Also, Max Payne 2 had a pretty good recap of the first game similar to serialized TV shows.

pizzamousechips

A few games in the Pokemon series do the Journal thing. When you load a file, it tells you and shows you the last three things you did (including who you fought, what you bought, where you went, etc.). Makes it easier to jump back in months later.

One other thing I'd love is leveling up in unconventional genres. Puzzle games, music games, fighting games... Unlockables through experience points make any single-player experience that much more replayable. New items, songs, clothes, skins, levels... Love it.

Edit: Speaking of puzzle games, I've also always said that music should be implemented much more into puzzle games. A retool of Tetris by Tetsuya Mizuguchi (Lumines) would undoubtedly be a great time.

kaze0

Pocket monsters, you should always be able to whip a pocket monster out and battle someone you meet. In any game.

Michael Corvin

Great idea dodgingcars, I also really like this one clckworang. Pre-rendered would get old, but if it used actual game footage, I think I would love that.

Brooklyn

Customizable controller configuration.

maxfisher

For the 360, I'd really like any game with a 2-player mode to support online co-op. I've never been a big fan of the competitive death match type of online play, but co-op has made a huge Live fan out of me. I really miss it when a game leaves it out, like in EDF 2017.

For the Wii, every game should allow you to play with a Wavebird. I love the motion controls on some games, but they feel very forced on others. I traded in my Wii copy of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance for the 360 version because I really couldn't get into the Wii controls (and because the 360 version has online co-op).

Groucho

In my case, I'd get to watch myself missing some jump over and over again before giving up in frustration.

My suggestion for this thread: the ability to play as a left-handed character.

DodgingCars

Remind me to add you as my friend for online games. This is how I play too. Probably why I rarely finish games.

PopcornTreeCt

Save anywhere would do wonders for Dead Rising. As it stands I just got incredibly frustrated playing the same part over and over again. I quit playing it.

DodgingCars

See.. I always come up with good ideas that have already been taken!

IDrinkMolson

How about a 50' tall boss monster as your running back in Madden?

Michael Corvin

I didn't mind it. It made the game more challenging. I imagine save anywhere would drop the difficulty of the game exponentially.

KurrptSenate

the weird thing is, i purposely started over again and again while keeping my stats. When I hit level 50 and beat the game, i haven't played the game since.

matome

Agreed. I HATED it at first, but in the end it definitely made the game more challenging and enjoyable IMO.

kaze0

A way to use custom characters across multiple games.

Ghym

I agree with the save anywhere and skip cutscenes.

Another one I'd like is a feature from the PC versions of High Heat Baseball. In those, you could take your franchise and import it into the next version of the game. So, whenever a new version of the game came out, I could keep the franchise I had already put time into, and get the new features that were added into the newer game. I think I took one of my teams through 2 or 3 different releases of High Heat. I liked that better than starting a new franchise each time. Seems they could do that on consoles now, that have hard drives.

Supermallet

I'd definitely play Madden if you could play as Galactus, or Cthulhu, or even Ganondorf.

bahgee

This is my wishlist for casual gamers, like myself.

- Save anywhere, anytime

- Real-time help option that you can call up if not sure where to go/what to do next

- ad-hoc invincibility, so you can get past difficult bosses.

taffer

Something I just thought of: mandatory tutorials. I hate 'em. I like to replay my games a lot; I am not the type that plays through once then sells it. Therefore, I hate going through a tutorial after already going through it before.

I just started replaying Hitman: Blood Money, and that is why I just thought about these shitty mandatory tutorials. The entire first level is one big tutorial. It is so boring because it is completely linear unlike the rest of the game. The previous Hitman games had optional tutorials you selected from the main menu. Why the **** the developers decided to suddenly make the tutorial mandatory in this game is beyond me...

clckworang

^^^ Good one. I'm the same way with the games that I really like. The first Buffy the Vampire Slayer game for the Xbox has a mandatory tutorial type of level for the first one. It's very slow and annoying, especially for someone who has already played the game.

Draven

I actually think Half-Life was the worst offender of the unskippable opening/cutscene.

I remember when I fired that game up again for another playthrough, I went into the other room to watch TV while my character rode the train car for 10 minutes. There should be no design decision in a game EVER that forces someone to do that.

This actually turned into more of a technical game design discussion than had intended, but that's fine. Anything else like the "doors that can be blown up" example from anyone?