Saved games. They, you know, save your games. It may seem obvious but save files are designed to literally save your game state as it is so you can reload it should you die, make a mistake, or encounter some game breaking bugs. It’s simple, and they should work just as such, no? But what does saved game data really mean to gamers if it gets deleted or lost?
There’s been a lot of issues cropping up recently to do with save games issues, obviously the most prominent of which was the recent problem with Cyberpunk 2077 that saw your save file get corrupted if it exceeded 8MB in size (which has now thankfully been fixed). This is obviously a problem, and for the life us we can't figure out why there was a limit in the first place considering how big and expansive CP2077 really is.
But there was also an issue earlier with Watch Dogs Legion, which saw an issue with your save game getting corrupted if you force quit the game whilst it was saving when you back out to the main menu. At this point there was no manual save, and the only way to save your game was to exit to the main menu, which resulted in a lot of frustrated players losing their entire progress because their one and only save file was corrupted and there weren’t any more backed up.
So how does one combat this? Backup your saves of course! Unfortunately this shouldn’t be an issue in this day and age, yet here we are, where players are expected to fix and manage their game files when developers should have already implemented a better system. So are the woes of a PC gamer.
It’s not a huge issue when you have multiple/backed up saves, but when you’ve nearly completed an entire game and your only save file gets corrupted/deleted or even just plain lost, do you really want to play another 20, 50, or even 100 hours (like in a game like Cyberpunk) again just to get where you were before? What if it happens again at the exact same spot?
So we want to know from you exactly what lengths you go to to backup and store your saved games? Do you back them up daily, weekly, monthly? Do you use a special program to do it for you? Or do you not worry about it? Also, what was the worst save game loss you experienced and with what game was it? Let’s debate!
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PC Specs
I lost a 90 hour savegame of skyrim once... I never finished skyrim
PC Specs
Sounds like my run of Skyrim where I said how I will be laser focused on main quest, 90h latter I got drunk, woke up in the temple I wrecked and apparently married to person I don't remember. It about described the situation with how sticking to main quest went. :-D
PC Specs
lol i'm almost ashamed to say that this sounds way to familiar xD
PC Specs
I lost a 60+h Monster Hunter World save that I didn't back up (and Steam Cloud was off). It really annoyed me and put me off playing the game again for a long time. But then me and the missis wanted to play Iceborne, so it was less painful to start a new save for me, since she was playing for the 1st time anyway. Ended up pretty good :D
PC Specs
Ever since i lost a save (it was like 85-90% iirc) in Dragon Age: Origins (i was so sad and angry at the same time that i could not go back to playing the game again for over a month lol) i have always from that point been very careful to make a backup save in most games when i reach a certain progression point... just in case. Thankfully it only happened one more time in XCOM 2 (i think too many mods might be to blame here lol), good thing i had a backup, lost only about 25% progress maybe.
PC Specs
Yeah, I lost saves before. But not lately, since all major launchers have cloud save synchronization feature. And since I don't pirate games anymore since I got a job, this is kind of the past for me. Still it did suck when it happened back in the day. And it definitely put me off games for a while. But today cloud sync is must have for me. As for games, luckily I haven't lost saves lately.
PC Specs
I have almost always backed up my Fallout 3, New Vegas, 4, Skyrim and Witcher 3 saves for every playthrough.
PC Specs
It means everything. It's just wasted time. Yes, the journey counts and you still had fun until the corruption, but then you are forced to start over instead of willingly.
PC Specs
My AC Valhalla saves have been corrupting when online even after the patch. Ubi's solution to restart the game and click continue just results in the game starting as a new game with no continue option. The only solution that has worked for me has been to switch off cloud syncing, so I now have to backup manually after every session.
PC Specs
To find out what it means to you, maybe play Nier Automata :)
PC Specs
?
PC Specs
Trying to be vague here: it becomes part of the story :)
PC Specs
once my MGS:TPP got corrupted and i was like 1hr away from completing, never played it again. It ****ing sucks and save games matters alot tbh.
PC Specs
I never save over old saves doesnt really matter save sizes are so small. Cyberpunk 2077 did remind me the F5 key was crucial.
PC Specs
It's all about that time loss. And it's not like you can just select chapter like old games, saves are so player specific now.
PC Specs
in ac origins i lost around 70h and i lost the will to play it again came back like a year later and did just story bec since i played all ac games it would poke me that i left it unfinished
PC Specs
Yeah, never finished ac origins because my HDD died just before you make the assassins creed, was 70 hours into the game and never ame back
PC Specs
I used to have a Skyrim save with over 500 hours and it corrupted and I lost the files later on too when my PC got stolen. I still haven't completed the game, but I'm looking forward to giving it another go when I have a bit more time on my hands.
PC Specs
I got mildly mad when mine was corrupted after 60 hours after reinstalling the game or windows (I don't remember which). Back then, 60 hours in a singleplayer game was monumental. Of course, by then I was just repeating assassinations, farming money as an overpowered assassin.
PC Specs
Yeah, that game had a surprising amount of side content. I liked maxing myself out and playing around with some of the crafting stuff it had and exploring the dungeons and secret areas. It's a really glitchy game, but it was still a really fun game