While I like that they're considering trying something new, I would hate having to go back through and play through a significant portion of the game because I died when I couldn't pause to prevent my dog from throwing up on my shoes. There had better be an intense autosave in this game.

real life doesn't offer a save station either. and if i ever got hit with a chainsaw or something, i'd be dead a hell of a lot faster than i am in games... i sure as heck wouldn't be all healed up by some random item i found in a box. games aren't about real life, generally, and if they are, they still don't emulate it to the tee. if they did, we'd be playing life, not games.

This could be a decent idea, as long as it's limited to the hardest difficulty level (if there even is such a setting in this game).
Perhaps the player can use the Guide button to 'force a pause,' but I don't think it works that way, does it?

I want to like the idea, but general life distractions like bathroom breaks or the phone ringing - things that aren't an issue in the game's world, but are in a gamer's world - pretty much mean games need a pause feature.

A perfect example of why this is a bad idea is the MGS games. I've had to replay several of those fourty minute long cutscenes that can't be paused because of something coming up ten minutes in. In one or two cases I've actually said the hell with it and didn't bother watching the cutscene again.

@ Einhander:

You are more useful than spell check. Thanks.

Dude, wait...What? No pause? So when I needs to excuse myself for a "break" I have to find a nice, safe corner in the game and hide? DO NOT WANT.

Like several others, I think the first time I ate it because my phone rang the game would end up on the Shelf of Gaming Shame and probably never be recovered. Losing because you screwed up is one thing, losing because the game tries to pretend it isn't one is just stupid.

Thats just stupid. Does the console menu pause the game like on the wii? if so then you can jsur use that, otherwise :S.

I would never buy a game that you couldnt pause.

I like this idea. Even now when I am interrupted I usually restart the level. So it wouldn't change much for me, as long as there are enough savepoints that you don't have to restart more than 15min or so.

No my idea!!!

"Even now when I am interrupted I usually restart the level."

I don't believe that for one minute. So instead of pausing Super Mario Bros, you let yourself die, then let the clock tick at the start, hoping a spiny or errant goomba doesn't put Mario in the ground while you go pinch one off? I mean, I've heard a lot of gamers say a lot of stupid stuff to come off as "hard" or "badass" but this little bit of idiocy takes the cake.

The difference between this and a DVD and pause is, the DVD isn't interactive. You are watching something not PLAYING something.

@ Dis - many of those arcade games were a couple of hours long, tops. Being at an arcade also removed the player from many of the pause scenarios: answering phone/door, caring for children, and a trip to the restroom usually meant a balls-out run through a crowded shopping mall to the public pissers, rather than a short jaunt down the hall.

That being said, if Dead Space actually includes so few enemies that I could find a safe space to hide within the first two rings of a telephone at any point in the game, I'm no longer interested.

There are many games out there WITH pause features that still interrupt the game, should you have to lose them. I know for a fact that simply having to pause Viewtiful Joe during the last boss for a phone call or bathroom break meant that my timing was screwed up for the unpause and generally left me for dead. Lot of memorization in that game. Does that mean that VJoe shouldn't have a pause feature because it just gets in the way when you actually do have to use it? No.

No pause = Bad idea. As much as popular media would like you to believe it, gamers do have lives, and many times, those lives intervene when we're playing games. Not letting me pause the game and forcing me to replay 15-20 minutes of it because I had to take a shit and got eaten by a face-hugging, mutated alien of some sort is just going to make me stop playing altogether. Because lets face it, any dev who would think about doing away with the pause feature to "up the intensity" already has a brutally unfair save system to implement, too. Start searching for those ink ribbons now, because since there's no pause, it's the only way to stop the aliens from eating your face.

Dumb, dumb dumb idea. I hope they drop it so I can buy this game.

"because you have to sit there and watch your character die because you were taken by surprise and couldn't pause the game"

"if when you met that first enemy and you knew that there was no way to stop it from coming at you,"

Who the hell does that anyway? I can't think of a single time where something made me jump for the pause menu instead of slamming down the fire button in pants filling fear. Simply this idea does not make the game any more scary AT ALL, it just makes it annoying. But like Sterling said, there is no way in hell this is ending up in the game, I think it's just a publicity stunt.

If the lack of a pause feature doesn't inhibit the experience while allowing room for real life, the game is going to be devoid of enemies and truly boring. I didn't have to pause Harvest Moon, either.

This has promise. PLEAZE don't milk it though EA!

Dead Space & Army of Two, looking good!
Kudos to EA, NO?

EA will fail if they include this feature.

Me pushing pause never made a scary game less scary. Put the fucking pause button in. Or like someone mentioned earlier, make it an option on a harder difficulty

Just because a must miss title.

i like this idea

WE HAVE LIVES

THEY TOOK OUT JOBS!

"I can't think of a single time where something made me jump for the pause menu instead of slamming down the fire button in pants filling fear."

then you wont miss the pause button?

I really think this is a good idea, maybe they will even work it into the auto saving, like you have to barricade yourself in a room first then it will save...

and maybe even have enemy's that are virtually impossible to kill except within certain situations (alien anyone)

I like it.

It's kind of interesting to think you'd have a lot of tension and a foreboding feeling while taking a piss, but I don't think this idea is worth that.

They better have something that offsets the lack of pause.

Horrible idea. That's the only reason I have a hard time playing online games is because of the lack of being able to pause. Like Sharpless I only ever pause out of necessity, but a necessity can pop up quite often with a house full of kids.