What do you seek in a game? Graphics? Good storyline? And when is too much, too much?

I personally think there is too much graphics in today's games, and it seems to be a epidemic within the devloping community that more graphics means better games, which is defiantly not true. You just need to looks at DOOM 3 and see how much of a dud it was. Nice graphics, but poor AI, gameplay etc. sent DOOM 3 crashing into obvilion. You look at games like Natural-Selection, which uses the HL engine (which is 6 or so years old) and how it has become more popular independent Half-life mod (i.e. Not brought by Valve)

So my opinion is there need to be more emphisis to storyline and less on graphics.

What i feel is a game should closely resemble well.... movies. Today some of he best games are based on movies. Because movies already have a well defined storyline it gives more time for the developer to give time to the graphics department.

I feel graphics need to be nice without being too demanding....Like Half Life..the graphics are very nice and the game can be run on old computers too. Doom 3 was a monster in terms of graphics requirement. The game looked good no doubt but it needed too much resources.

On the other hand games like Hitman with a solid storyline and good looking graphics are a pleasure to play...One of my all time favourites that one

Yea. Problem is, I think most games use to much graphics because they can make more money are less cost. So the big companies go and pump money into developing new games, and forget about everything else.

I agree that graphics are way too much of a priority in current games. Since I'm an RPGer, the first thing that I look for in a game is storyline. This determines whether or not I buy the game at the outset. Of equal importance are versatility (is the game too linear, or allow for wandering around, sidequests, etc.) and challenge (does it try to spoon-feed me everything I should do, or make me think it out and solve problems myself) and battle system (is it awkward, complicated, too simple, etc). I often don't expect much from characters and dialogue, because games are notoriously terrible for this. Good graphics are nice, and I appreciate them, but they are not necessary for a game to be good. One of my favourite games of all-time, FFVI, has basic SNES graphics.

I still play old commodore 64 games on my emulator, because they're fun and often a lot more thought went into creating the game elements than the game graphics. Sometimes, modern games try to incorporate way too many features and I get frustrated with trying to learn how to play them. Increased complexity does not always equal a better game. In fact, some of the classic games such as tetris and pacman reached that status in part because of their simplicity (keep in mind that simplicity does not imply unchallenging).

looking at your avatar, i think you mean enter the matrix?
well, actually, i agree with the games-movies thing, games should be very realistic, (that definetily doesnt mean no magic etc.) but... graphics is only one side of making a game realistic. and if you overdo the graphics, you will get the balance all wrong and basically well, waste your game. i also agree with kitkat. i love rpg's, and think challenge and versality are very important. for example (not really an RPG) gta1, i started playing it again some time ago, and the graphics are nothing, but challenge is good (those cops can really chase!) and versatilty is good too. although all missions are not much more than driving around from one place to another, because of those 2 lines that explain the mission to you, they all seem different. plus, gta had got a great sphere, you can just taste the gangster-smoke . i also found great sphere-creating at nwn, baldurs gate and kotor - all BioWare games (i love bioware!)

so a game has to be:

• realistic (not necessarily super-graphics)
• versatile
• challenging
• and it has to have a good sphere

I believe that a good game should at least have a good story line, one that would allow you to get involved with the game. It should also have good characters, ones that you actually care about. I peresonly like the old 2D games more then the 3D games the graphics aren't over rated or anything I still like them but I really love the way the 2D looked. Thats why I held onto them for so long, like for example Final Fantasy IV and Chrono Trigger, they both had a great story as well as characters that you cared about when something happened to them.

I personally think graphics are one of the least important qualities in a game. I think AI, storyline, good controls, and having the game be interesting are more important.

Well, people often judge the game by it's graphics. Thus, they'll probably never play it. Most games with bad graphics are good. I think it is the gameplay that matters. The graphics are sorta important, I mean, I need to see whats going on. But, if I have fun playing a game with bad graphics, it is still a good game. Graphics should not be very bad anymore, since they're comming out for Xbox, PS2, and Gamecube.

Sounds and music don't matter to me in anyway. I don't listen to the background music, and I don't really care about the sound effect. A game with no sounds will bother me, as will a game with too much sound and music.

So, basically, the gameplay is the most important part of a game for me. I mean, if there is a game with very relistic graphics, but terriable gameplay, are you going to play it? Probably not. If the graphics are decent and the gameplay is good, you'll most likley play it. It is hard for me to explain.

I know, my brother is always judging games by their graphics, and although good graphics are pretty (!), game quality doesnt depend on it.

For me, I just look for games that are FUN to play! It may be the cheesiest game in the world, but If it's fun, I'll spend AGES playing it! If it's a multi-player game, it's even better coz I can get my friends over and have competitions, lol.

Also, If a game has cool characters thats another thing that attracts me to 'em. That's prob the only reason I play the final fantasy games, and other such games lol. Yeah, but merely cool characters wont keep me playing a game for ages, its gotta be fun. That's simply what it comes down to. I know that may seem a bit ambiguous, coz everyone has a different definition of whats 'fun', but I won't get into a whole description, here. Just... fun.