Nothing frustrates me more than not being able to pause for no seemingly good reason. I’m playing Wild Hearts right now and even though I never play online I cannot pause for some reason. To simulate pausing, I can turn off the xbox and the quick resume feature makes it look like the game was paused when I turn the console back on.
Other games guilty of this are Fromsoft games: Dark Souls, Elden Ring and so on.
Obviously all of these games have an online component. Not allowing pausing when this component is activated makes sense. But if I am playing completely online why cannot I pause? In Soulslike the worst exploit I can think of is switching equipment on the fly but is that really that bad? When stuff comes up in the middle crucial moments it frustrates me a lot.
I don’t play games that don’t have a pause button. I’m an adult with adult shit to deal with. That might be as simple as cooking dinner. I don’t have long for leisure in the evenings but if I can pause a game in between e.g. cooking, I can play it. If I can’t pause, I can’t play.
If devs want to say ‘fuck you, user, we aren’t making our game accessible,’ then fuck them, too. Just another symbol of the shit hole that is game development. I don’t really care what their justifications are. Online games could be made with a pause button as well if the devs cared about accessibility. It’s an industry that takes itself far too seriously, as if games aren’t supposed to be a bit of fun. That’s what happens when games are commodities, I guess.
It’s another factor in gamers being so reactionary; so much of it is de facto the reserve of people without responsibilities or people who don’t care about their responsibilities. Down with inaccessible games.
In Soulslike the worst exploit I can think of is switching equipment on the fly but is that really that bad
in that case they can implement a pause screen that’s only a pause screen, not allowing the user to do anything but unpause 😐
it’s understandable if you’re using a game engine that doesn’t support it (e.g. your own engine), but I can’t think of it as anything other than a design flaw
The basic feature required is to support multiple game states, there’s no reason not to have that apart from incompetence.
Star Craft even supports pausing in multiplayer games.
This is one of the few things I hate in Baldur’s Gate 3. Sure, the game is round based, but I still can’t pause cutscenes. So if my mother barges in while I’m getting it on with Astarion I loose valuable dialogue.
Huh, now that you mention it that’s definitely a nice thing about playing on the steam deck. Just put it to sleep.
That’s why I don’t mind having to interact for dialogue to advance. It’s a simple way to allow for a sort of pause and for people people to read at their pace.
Among online games Starcraft has an advantage that it is strictly 1v1 as far as I know. I have never played it because just hearing about APM gives me carpal tunnel syndrome. FIFA despite being a complete shit game allows pausing in online matches too. Not sure what it is like in fighting games.
Starcraft can be 2v2 or 3v3 or even 4v4, though that is far, far less common for more serious competitive players, as it’s way too easy to just focus fire one opponent as a group and then move onto the next once they’re destroyed.
in Minecraft
But comrade… MINECRAFT is one of those games that doesn’t have pausing…! 😨 (In Bedrock anyway, Java Edition is thankfully safe)
Bedrock is the epitome of Microsoft coming in to ruin shit for everybody
More often than not is a design choice. Dark Souls does it to increase tension: you can’t pause to consider your options, you have to do it, and do it fast. It gives an even greater importance to your quick item slots since rummaging through your inventory for an item, while possible, can be cumbersome and kill you.
I’m playing Wild Hearts right now and even though I never play online I cannot pause for some reason.
Funny to see this happen in a Monster Hunter-like. The recent Monster Hunter game (MHRise) allows you to pause in “offline mode”/singleplayer.
As always, the OG Monster Hunter keeps winning 🫡 🫡
Probably has more to do with the primary target platform being the Switch. I don’t think Monster Hunter World allows for pausing, for example.
MHWorld doesn’t, but neither does MHRise if you have multiple players ingame.
I don’t see a correlation between allowing pausing just because MHR’s primary target is switch. I wonder if Monster Hunter 6 (aka MHWilds) will allow pausing in Singleplayer too. (It should, it would be stupid not to after they implemented it in the spin-off game)
The PSP and 3DS titles also had pause. Pause is more likely to be a key feature on “handheld” games since you’re more likely to play in “bursts,” and the Switch is a handheld" system.
Moreover, as I understand it there are two Monster Hunter dev teams - a primary team that works on the the “mainline” (previously numbered) games that tended to target console, and a secondary “handheld” team that would handle the handheld spinoffs and ports. Rise was developed by the secondary “handheld” team, World and Wilds are being developed by the primary “console” team.
That being said, I’m with you - I like to be able to pause while on a long hunt to go get a drink or take a quick break.
I never noticed that in Rise. That’s great to know.
Well it is hidden in the game menu. You gotta press start to bring it up, go to the settings(?) tab and there you’ll find the option to Pause Game.
I think you can also only do this when you’re out hunting too. Makes sense because there’s not much that goes on in the Village/Gathering Hub.
There’s also no real reason to pause for inventory purposes in most MH games due to the way the menu and item swap works. Those games are designed to not need to be paused for that stuff. Or at least, not need it as badly. The pause feature is pretty much entirely for a “I have to step away for a moment” scenario, which is still great they put it in there.
I agree, and even in online games if I am playing in a solo context I should be able to pause. That should be a benefit to playing solo, by design. As an example, if I am playing Warframe in a non-public solo game, I should be able to pause.
The souls games are a pretty egregious example as they are, by and large, solo experiences first. I understand there are online elements, though I do not think I got far enough in any of them to even see those elements. Plenty of people do not engage with those elements, and a benefit to that should be the ability to pause something.I would argue it should also be a feature in multiplayer games where it makes sense. Starcraft is a great example. The solo campaign obviously allows pausing, but so does online competitive play.
I accept that something like a MMO isn’t going to allow you to pause, but there’s not much that can be done about that. Unless you are engaged in dedicated group content, you can still usually pretty reasonably afk in those games honestly.
I have a friend whose first question when I suggest a game to him is “can I pause it?”. He just became a father and while he still enjoys playing games, he isn’t going to play anything that he can not pause when his child suddenly needs attention.
I think it is only this way in Dark Souls because Demon’s Souls was very messy and allowed for multiplayer to start even during one specific boss battle. So to keep the whole thing seamless (considering how otherwise janky the game was) they just went with “no pause” and it somehow became a tradition. Sekiro which is offline-only has a pause button AFAIK and you can “pause” Bloodborne by pressing the home button.
I’m not sure if there is ever a design benefit to not allowing pausing, it’s mostly from technical difficulties. Monster Hunter is identical to Dark Souls and always had a pause button since at least the Wii version.
What’s the point of pause function if you can just hit Escape and the game will remained paused that way, while showing you menu.
I’m not sure what you mean. Pressing escape in Wild Hearts and Elden Ring shows the menu but doesn’t pause the game which is what I am complaining about.
If you are talking about having a distinction between the state where the menu is visible vs the state where the game is paused, having them separate and mutually exclusive in Souls games is desirable because if the game stops while you switch around your inventory then the whole balance of the game will be thrown into disarray.
Other games guilty of this are Fromsoft games: Dark Souls, Elden Ring and so on.
I missed this part. A workaround this could be exiting to the main menu when you gotta go afk, as the game will resume where you left it off with enemies dead and all (if you killed them).
Granted, this technique is useless against Boss Fights, where it’ll kick you out of the boss fight and make you do it all over again, so…
Granted, this technique is useless against Boss Fights
It’s still useful if you want to keep your souls
I guess, but why would you enter a boss fight while having a lot of souls [that you may need] anyway?
I disagree on Souls games, it makes them harder.
It kinda just makes it difficult to for example answer the doorbell. As others have suggested there could be a paused state that is only available when offline forbids changing equipment.
Sekiro pauses when you’re in its menus, and that didn’t make the game any easier. I think Souls games usually disable pausing because pausing the game would break the multiplayer system!
That’s a bad thing.
you would be surprised how hard a pause feature can be to implement.