First thing that comes to mind... quick saves. Or at least frequent checkpoint saves. Of course it depends on the game, I've never thought 'damn I wish this racing game had a quick save key', but for the most part quick saving has made games much less frustrating for me.

Also, journals that keeps track of your objectives in RPGs. It's nice to be able to just open up a journal and see exactly where I was told to go next, and what side missions I've found. Saves me from having to write it all out on paper myself, or completely forgetting where I'm going and why, then getting bored and quitting.

quick save is cheating :fu:

more games should be 1hityoudie :omg:

I agree with the journal feature, but what would be even better would be a user-controlled journal. The user can make their own entries in game, so they can keep notes etc. relating to certain quests or characters.

I prefer auto-save myself. I like being able to switch off at any time without having to worry.

I think customization is becoming very popular. Some games, are doing it extremely well, while others are sucking majorly. We need to see more good customization (Eg, Mass Effect).

Open ended gameplay. I love it in things like Elder Scrolls and, to a lesser extent, The Sims. I love going back and playing to see if I can make an evil character or a total pussy character, etc. Gives the game an element of re-playability. If the game is already fun, and it has an open ended element to it, it's so addicting. Case and Point: Morrowind.

I think Phantom Hourglass handled that pretty well, you could draw all over your damn map. I always drew sea monsters in hopes of actually fighting one. I can't tell you why I drew so many dicks though...

I think simplicity is one the things a lot of games need. There was an article I was reading from the lead designer or someone important from Naughty Dog games (crash, jak and dexter etc etc) about their latest game for PS3, Uncharted. They tried over doing things a lot. They made an auto-aim system and a different climbing system and all this stuff. They tossed it. It wasn't needed and often times the complex things got in the way of the game. I can only imagine how boring and annoying the auto-aim feature would've been had they kept it.
Not really a feature huh?

A nice feature I always liked was being able to rotate the camera angles.

I agree with the quick save / save anywhere type of things. It's just ridiculous that any game should use saves as a mechanic to make it tougher on the player when I could just pause the game for 5 hours anyways. So let me save anytime it's better for the environment.

I also really like games that supply me with a achievement progress menu. There's nothing more annoying than needing 800 kills with a pistol and not knowing how many you have.

being able to save anywhere can fuck you over
i remember my friend saved over my main save in Thief when he was at some part where he had fucked me over and made impossible to win when i had like 3 other saves going and it made me quit playing

i think frequent save points should be good enough, like in castlevania

yeah, quick saves can block you in somewhere you can't win. I'm not sure I can specify a feature, unless you call having good game designers a feature, who lead you through the level without you realising your being lead. For me that's one of the best. It keeps you in the experience more, because if they lead you well you don't end up walking down an alley that's just there for show and it makes the world feel more expansive than it is.

Well quick saves can fuck you over, which is why I also make multiple saves as I go, but I don't think that's really an argument against having them. Actually I find that having to decide yourself when to press quick save is one of the things that helps stop it from being the cheat mode key. I've screwed myself over more than once by saving just before a rocket hits me or after falling off a cliff or something, which was my own stupid fault. Having to replay a section of game once because of something like that is bearable, having to go back to a checkpoint or save point every time I fuck up just starts to piss me off.

Half life 2 does an awesome job with its saves. it will always save when it loads the next area and in a few other cases as well. Even better yet, if it does save in a bad spot, you can always reload the previous one and not be too far behind.

On another note for good Game features; mini games that reward you for the main game. Good Examples include FFVII's Gold Saucer, Xenosaga's mini game set, and the millenial fair in Chrono trigger, just to name a few.

Yeah, Half Life 2 probably handles saves better than any other game I've played.