I encountered this problem with babies. They definitely don't pause.
My solution was the DS/3DS line of consoles... snap 'em shut, bam, paused. I've called them the consoles of choice for the discriminating father.
(If you've never had kids and find yourself wondering what horrible father would be playing video games while taking care of his children, well, you see, it turns out that sometimes your child wants to sleep on somebody, and will not sleep any other way... and there's only so many things you can do with a baby that cries if you move sleeping on you. Both of my kids went through that phase for different reasons.)
I was able to bottle feed my daughter when she woke up at night and simultaneous play through and finish Braid over the course of a few days/weeks. Through some sort of weird pavlovian conditioning I started looking forward to her waking up in the middle of the night (I restricted my playing to night-time feedings to give myself something to do during those times).
> My solution was the DS/3DS line of consoles... snap 'em shut, bam, paused.
I'm a fan of this as well - works for PSP and Vita too, just quickly press power and it's in sleep mode. However, I have run into one game that didn't properly pause itself when closed. I think it was Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. Its cutscenes didn't pause when I closed my DS. Otherwise, yeah, this is the greatest.
My solution was the DS/3DS line of consoles... snap 'em shut, bam, paused. I've called them the consoles of choice for the discriminating father.
(If you've never had kids and find yourself wondering what horrible father would be playing video games while taking care of his children, well, you see, it turns out that sometimes your child wants to sleep on somebody, and will not sleep any other way... and there's only so many things you can do with a baby that cries if you move sleeping on you. Both of my kids went through that phase for different reasons.)