With all of the current generation of hardware supporting built in hard drives, the use of autosave is proliferating. From a developer’s perspective, this should be considered highly sought after functionality as a means of creating a save system that the player can forget about and get lost in your game. In Oblivion, for example, once autosave is turned on, the game practically saves every time the player passes through a door or when traveling from one area to another. Many hours can quickly pass without the player giving a thought to the last time he saved (unless a lot of time is spent roaming the countryside, then you are on your own). Similarly, in Gears of War and Halo 3, there are several checkpoints throughout each level that keeps lost progress due to death at a minimum.
On the other hand, in Mass Effect, autosave occurs only after key events in the game. Since much can happen between these story events due to the sheer size of the universe to explore and accomplish, a player who has not saved in a while can be frustrated by an unexpected death and a loss of progress. This forces the player to consciously stop what they are doing and remember to save on their own in order to minimize the amount of progress that is lost. Bioshock also implements an autosave feature that only saves at the beginning of each area but is far less intrusive due to the Vita-Chambers which bring the character back to life with no loss of progress.
While these examples only cover a few games and genres, it can be applied to nearly all games. Platformers and puzzle games can save after each level is completed, such as in Zach and Wiki. First person shooters and adventure game should drop the random save points in lieu of the autosave at these checkpoints. Role-playing games should follow Oblivion’s example and save very often. Finally, since loading screens will not be going away anytime soon, it is always good to autosave at this point as well.
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