Vodstok

What is the #1 most important thing to you in a game? I know a blend of things make a game good, including playability, sound, graphics, saves, but there are somethings that are just deal-breakers.

Atmosphere is #1 with me. I am a flexible gamer, so if the controls are a little off, i can adapt, but i have to be able to get INTO the game to enjoy it.

Example of good: Quake. not much of a story, but it had an incredible atmosphere. The textures, monsters, sounds, and most importantly, the music,made the game incredibly atmospheric. Quake was one of the first games to scare the hell out of me. It still influences me heavily. Gloom is almost a retelling of Quake (but more accurately, it inspired it)

Example of Bad: Daikatana. This game was just awful. Bad. Terrible. This is what happens when you get an arrogant team lead who causes a production to have a turnover rate of an entire team every few months (because they couldnt work with him. his name is John Romero. Dont confuse him with the creator of great zombie movies). It was inconsistent. it took over 3 years to make, and was hyped to hell the whole time, and when it came out, it was BORING. There was not atmosphere. the early levels were grey and green. Green and grey. Grey mechanical frogs. Green mechanical bugs. Little gun turret things. crappy weapons. bleh.

So what floats your boat with games?

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polymorphikos

The ability to sneak up on people, and then use a silenced ppk on them in a highly creative manner. I love games that are atmospheric, light on the control-complexity, but have that Splinter Cell quality to them where a misplaced step will land you in a heap of trouble. But no sniping levels, just a sniping option, and no over-relience on stealth. Just the ability to creep and be tricky and take out the enemies with gusto, brevity, finess and aplomb, really.

And guns. Big, loud, nasty guns. especially if they make people explode.

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I, Brian

The ability to be versatile. The more versatile a game is, the more you can enjoy it.

Vodstok

So, both of you like Far Cry then?

If you havent played it yet, download the demo. it is incredible.

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I, Brian

Never heard of it. :0

Then again, I know little about PC games, being only a rare purchaser.

Hypes

I tinkered around with Farcry. Not my kind of game.

Tea-boy
You should give Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic a spin. It's a marvellous game - easily my favourite RPG.

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I, Brian

Heh heh - I have to give them a miss because I get too addicted - I would drop my life to play them, which is not a good idea - certainly not when I need to be busier than I am a it is. Maybe when I need to reward myself...

Hypes

Yes, that usually works.

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Morning Star

Atmosphere and story telling. If a game can evoke any kind of emotion from me whether its laughter or fear, then I'm impressed.

Also, depending on the genre (rpgs specifically) non-linearity and flexibility. IE: Customising your appearance, name, etc.

rkp

The story line is a main factor for me in any game but the action must be good as well.
Games like Freedom fighters,Metal gear2,Halo,and the best of the best HALF-LIFE.

ravenus

The history of Daikatana was certainly a troubled one but it's problems didn't come from an arrogrant lead rather from one who was too naive. it was essentially decisions that sounded very noble on paper that did DK in.

Ion Storm was launched with a great deal of fanfare and money but it suffered from a lack of necessary foresight. The office was a lavish glass-walled penthouse suite - after the initial euphoria, the team had to cover their cubicles with black paper to avoid the glare of sunlight on their monitors.
Romero hired a lot of complete newcomers based on samples of mods/maps to work on his magnum opus. Unfortunately they didn't have the temperament to handle the harsh schedules of game development. Ion was supposed to represent the triumph of game design over technology but technology proved too big a hurdle. After working for more than a year on DK using the Quake engine, they saw the graphical advancements of the Quake II engine and realized that if their game had to be competitive they would have to redo everything in the new technology. This was what exposed the rawness of the developers, who cracked under the unforgiving pressure of professional game development.

Romero was not an arrogant leader but he was basically unsuitable; he was too used to doing things themselves and, from his days with the pros at id, relying on others to do their job without supervision. Also Romero was too busy in media activities (some of which, like the "I'll make you my bitch" ad backfired since people interpreted it as arrogance on his part and became fodder for the growing anti-Ion press that was building up) and not devoting enough face-to-face with the group. This was disastrous for the inexperienced team that could have done with stronger guidance. Internal political chicanery (involving a certain Todd Porter) also caused rifts in the team that Romero appeared blissfully unaware of.

The walkouts that happened were essentially the last straw. There was a brilliant expose of this at salon.com, unless they've taken it down. With Romero becoming so desparate to get team members that practically novice mod/map-makers would get hired based on tiny samples of work on the internet, disaster was inevitable.

Sure, Romero is an attention-loving chap but he was never arrogant. His fans will recall him to be one of the friendliest and most unassuming guys they came in contact with. If anything he had so much contact with gamers that his work slipped up, as his former colleagues from id will confirm. I recall, during the making of DK, I had a brief amount of e-mail correspondence with Romero and it was truly a nice experience chatting with him about games, music (he's a huge guitar-rock fan like me). he was even nice enough to send me a level for Quake that hadn't made it to the retail version (originally designed as a part of The Dismal Oubliette but cut out for size problems). I really like Romero as a person and would like for him to get back to what he does best, programming and designing levels for games. Let someone else handle the leadership end.

ravenus

Ah getting back to the topic, the most imp things for me in a game are:

1. Atmosphere (for me Blood1 is the ultimate in atmosphere, also love the Lucasarts adventure games - Curse of Monkey Island, Grim Fandango)
2. Ease of controls
3. Good weapons (in case of FPS)

I'm not a big stealth fan and steer away from games that require you to be stealthy.

I, Brian

Thanks for the background info there, ravenus - interesting reading.

Stormydreamer

I think that are only two main things for me:

1) The storyline. I simply can not play a game I am not interested in. Like Morning Star said, if it evokes an emotion, if it draws me in, I'm very happy.

2) I like the everything to be very clear. I like simple controls, not necessarily perfect, but basic. I like the graphics colorful and clean, again not necessarily great graphics, but... defined. It's hard to explain, but I suppose what I'm really getting at is the atmosphere idea again. I like to know that the developers actually put something into this game, not just slapped it together. I suppose I also value a sense of creativeness, something unique, not the same old same old.

Games like Zelda, Rayman, Hype come to mind. They're all very different from your average game, have great storylines, and have that sense of clarity.

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aftermath

For me it has to be the story that draws me in. I am basically a RPGer only, and with that said, I need a good story. I don't care for graphics, for I will play text based (ZORK!) and NES or SNES for a good game. Also, people mentioned controls. I don't much care about controls. I can overcome them. But a good, deep battle system is very important.
Like in FF7, the materia system. I loved that. I was much like the system in FF5.
And then you have Chrono Trigger which was unreal real.