What do you look for in a Video Game?

What do you look for in a Video Game when you Buy it or Rent it?
Example:
Gameplay
Graphics
Controls
Story
Style [size=10](Like what styles did they use on a certain game to make it look more creative other than just being copied off of another game)[/h]
Theme [size=10](Example: Survival in a dangerous urban environment)[/h]
Subject [size=10](Example: City crime)[/h]
Effects
Sounds
Camera view [size=10](Example: Zoomed in, Zoomed out, Freely move around)[/h]
Playability
Technical Achievement [size=10]( Example: more realistic car physics, better bot AI, or a more immersive gameworld.)[/h]
Longevity [size=10](Example: 10-30 hours of gaming)[/h]
Landscape

Note: If you believe i missed out on a category, please let me know, i will gladly update it. Thanks in advance.

This is a treat for all you Xbox 360 Gamers, treat her nice.

For me...
Story(important)
Gameplay
Graphics
Sounds
and Longevity.
Thats the kind I go for. To me story is the most important. I dont want a game where you just fight monsters save someone and "boom' its done,I want a story that has a good plot, you know. Gameplay...as long you can do more than walk,talk,"button mash" to do combos than im good. Graphics vary to me so as long I can tell the enemy and a box apart. Sounds well as long it matches its good, if the game has japanese voices thats also good. Longevity...as long as its long like Star Ocean etc its good for me. Sorry for making this post so long...got too carried away. But anyway this is what I like for in a game.
One of my fav games.

If you want video game stuff, maybe you should look here

Ah i see, that is very good. Yes a game with a simple story is no good, it is just a child's game to me. I really do not like game where you just walk, talk, walk, talk, smash some buttons and your done. Rather play old NES games instead, hehe. It is ok, no matter if you type more than two paragraphs, lol. As long as you fit in all you want to type down.

Kingdom Hearts I & II, were really good games, i was really addicted to them.

i like games like disgaea and FF tactics,specially when the characters are cute like in disgaea,so in other words, i like chibi and tactic games.......also shadow hearts and dark cloud is my fave, i like games thats hard to play (shadow hearts, where the attack ring critical point is hard to point) and dark cloud,where i can walk and beat enemies on my own way.........

Yeah, i know that, but i wanted a discussion here, in what you are looking for in a game, AKA Serious Discussion (Read Rules) of why.



I do like games with cute characters too. Especially chibi ones. Reminds me of Mabinogi, a free online-playable MMO which is addicting.

lol forgot to add fate/tiger colosseum

Here are my top five most important features.
Story - Probably one of my main interests. I want to be entertained, and that means telling me an interesting story. Mind you, this only goes for RPG's and the like, when it comes to a fighting game, I could care less why I'm beating the hell out of someone.

Gameplay - This one seems simple, but is very important and I'm a bit particular about it. If there was a great VN with a really captivating story that had absolutely no game mechanics other than clicking through choices every once in a while, I would love it. If that same game had some sort of shitty battle system, I would probably drop it after a battle or two. Bad combat systems ruin good games.

Longevity - I don't hate short games (Saya no Uta was awesome), but I prefer to be in a certain game world for a long period of time. A short visit is a bit disappointing. Mercenaries 2 comes to mind, considering how long and awesome the first one was, the sequel left a bad taste in my mouth. My experience was further dulled by the fact that I was playing the ps2 version, but after reading about the fancy next-gen version, I wasn't exactly wowed. A good rpg should have a long story, several sidequests, a lot of hidden objectives, mini-games, a secret dungeon, and extra stuff added once you beat it (Aka, new game+).

Controls/Camera - I'd put these two together, since a good game will let you have a little bit of control over how you work the camera. There is nothing worse than dealing with a action intensive game and having a controller set-up that doesn't feel right. Usually when that happens, the game won't let you change the configuration either, as if they know and they want you to suffer. Even worse is a camera angle that is constantly getting in your way. I have played too many games where I died because the camera wasn't on my side and clearly trying to hide the bad guys on purpose. Even worse are those games they made for two players, but in only a half-ass sorta fashion, so first player is always on screen, and second player is kinda screwed. A good example is Blood Will Tell, where you have to fight for your dear life to keep both characters on screen at the same time. I think one of the Naruto games suffered from similiar camera problems (I don't know which one, there are so many these days).

Sounds - I loves me a good sountrack. And voiced characters, man those have ruined me for simply reading text. I blame games like Lunar where you get half-way decent voice acting and at least two songs or so per game (The psx version, not the bullshit they try to pull on the DS). Ever since then I've been buying soundtracks for games whenever there was something especially good; I have so much Final Fantasy music I could open a franchise. So yeah, that completes my list.

Yes, a game without good gampeplay... is just trash. Also i do not mind short timed games, but it is annoying when you play too many of those. Sounds are one of the most important Elements in a game, without good BG's and Battle Songs, you can just throw down that game. Controls on a game is one of the roots, if it has the same type of old styled controls, I'd throw it down, playing different games with the same type of controls is like watching different type of hentai's with the same main characters. I am surprised you did not type down Graphics, because many players look for really good graphics in a game.

story.........fate tiger colosseum plot is the best!!!............hahahahahaha the lulz......

Hahaha. I played Oblivion for Xbox 360, has a really good plot in the story of the game. its a 9/10 game. Addicting if you buy more features on it. Shame it is not online playable like the version on the PC.

I like pretty graphics, they are nice, but in the end they are not essential. I find that alot of people spend alot of time making a game look pretty and then forget to make it fun to play as well. And here I am perfectly fine with 8-bit graphics as long as it has a good combat system and a kick-ass soundtrack. Not to mention, you get the graphics too fancy and you run into problems. Especially on the PC, if you don't have a fancy enough computer to run it. So yeah graphics are nice, but they are towards the bottom of my list.

Yes, in that i do agree with you, it is like Perfect World International (a free online-playable MMO) it has insane graphics, but their plot and battle system is the worst. One game that really caught me is Oblivion, insane graphics with really good plot and battle system. Another game that caught me is Final Fantasy games, good graphics with good plots.

I think the serious discussion is for more than just video games, but what the hell? It's not like I'm the police.


Story THE MOST IMPORTANT PART TO ANY GAME. ZETTAI!(I love RPGs)
Gameplay: Has to be top notch. Game play is the 2nd most important, after storyline and it ties 2nd with longevity
Longevity: A good game is replayable, and makes you go back and correct your mistakes. I almost never use a guide on my first run through a game. Guides come second.
Sounds: The sounds should be the third most important
Controls: They have to be comprehensible, and changeable.
Camera view: first person or 3rd, it doesn't matter. I prefer a choice
Playability: If it's a good game, does that increase playability?
Technical Achievement: You mean like Optional quests in RPGs? Yeah, those are important.
Graphics: Who needs those for a good game?

video game section.......

Story: A game with a good story will make me want to keep playing. My biggest pet peeve with games is when they bring story elements to the forefront and then fail to develop it. It ends up with too many loose ends, or a crap ending. I felt FFX was a bit disorganized in this way. The game with the best story that I have played to date is MGS4. The characters were great, there was depth and explanation, and there were some truly amazing and epic moments. One of my favorite games of all time already, no question. Other games with good stories in my opinion include FF7, Fallout games, NWN2:MotB, Call of Duty 4(more for presentation than content), Grandia, and Metroid Prime(though told in a different way).

Gameplay: Games should be reasonably challenging and need to have variance in how they require you to complete obstacles. Challenges need to be interesting, that is if you lose, better strategies should be the answer, rather than being able to hit a button faster. Variance comes through good level design(such as Mario 64), customizable PCs(Neverwinter Nights), open worlds(Oblivion), options on how to "defeat" enemies(MGS4), powerful enemies that require special tactics(Metroid Prime). Of course, a game needs to generally not have broken abilities, horrid controls, glitch camera angles and such to allow good gameplay to shine. Examples of a few more games that I thought had particularly good gameplay, in addition to those above: Mechwarrior 2, Grandia II, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Mario Galaxy.

Sound: Very few games have had truly epic scores that I still remember(in fact, I don't think any really have had them. I know some FF7 music because it is so pervasive and then the Grandia main theme, but that's it). As long as the music and sound effects aren't overly repetitive and annoying, it's enough. An example of how not to do things was the battle of Endor level on Rogue Squadron II for gamecube where due to a glitch(I assume), Lando Calrissian would repeatedly say "We gotta buy more time" up to about 50 times.

Graphics: They should generally be acceptable for the time, at least. No one wants to play an overly ugly game, or one that simple lacks detail and imagination, but not every game has to push the limits of my CPU. I thought Armored Core 4 lacked in that latter department. Technically fine, but too many vast expanses of waste with nothing interesting. I thought that Assassin's Creed, Grandia games(especially the portraits), MGS4, and Metroid Prime had especially good or creative graphics for their respective times.

Controls: Something intelligent. If they can be customized, it's a plus. It's usually hard to ruin and otherwise good game, but there have been some truly epicly bad control schemes that managed to do it. I can't think of any off the top of my head.

Length: Honestly, I don't want an RPG that is 70 hours long. Generally, 20-30 hours tops is good for me for a main storyline. That's a long time to try to keep up an engaging story, and most RPGs struggle with even that length. Simply making a game longer to advertise more playing hours is no good to me. I'll get bored and give up playing if I'm not engaged by an RPG's storyline(like I did with Xenosaga). For some types of games, a solid multiplayer is equally important to having a good length campaign.

Replayable/Sidequests: Honestly, not that important to me for RPGs. If I go through the game once and feel that I was engaged and enjoyed the game, then I don't need 100 hours of pointless sidequests or to go back and replay the game. I loved MGS4 playing it through once. I'll go back to it at some point, but adding side missions irrelevant to the story at the cost of cutting into the development resources for the main game(as I thought Star Ocean 2 did) would make it worse, not better. Quality of quantity here. For games where the storyline/campaign is not that central, replayability is very important. No one would want to play an RTS more than once if there was only one faction and one map.

Technical Achievement: Xbox achievements and such? I never understood it and don't need it personally.

Hai, Hai, ill pm a mod so he can move this post to the video games section.



I agree with you, games should be challenging, not like "Two Worlds" for Xbox 360, beat that game in just 14 hours. Boss was so easy, killed him in two shots, i had alot of strength and used berserk, so basically i was a walking god on that game, it was really boring, no challenging at all. Unlike Oblivion, it keeps you thinking what you are going to do next, you cannot just run like a maniac towards a boss. Every MMORPG i played, they all have the same thing, is grinding and quests, a lot of walking. Really boring.



Lol, same here, i never use a guide on my first run on any game. Guides are for noobcakes. Yes the controls should be changeable to a gamers' likings'. For Technical Achievement, yes that goes under this category, being able to choose which quests you wish to do and wish not, and that they will not affect you in the game if you deny any.

i want a zombie game that provides me with :
Gameplay - i want a REAL zombie survival game, i.e; your goal is to live as long as you can while fighting hordes of zombies while collecting necessities such as food and water and ammo or make-shift weapons and fellow survivors while exploring a big horde infested city of zombies and zombies, yeah
Graphics - who wants to see crappy polygon zombies?
Controls - needs to be easy and smooth
Story - for this zombie game, story doesn't need to be much
Style - i want stats to suit my style of gameplay (accuracy of gun, strength when i swing my melee weapon around, how fast or long i can run) and a sims like stats as well (you need to sleep, eat, pee and stuff)
Theme - ZOMBIES ZOMBIES ZOMBIES ZOMBIES ZOMBIES
Subject - KICK ZOMBIE ASS
Effects -GORE BABY
Sounds -creepy, scary music when i'm exploring, heavy metal when i'm kicking ass, oh! and be able to customize tracks
Camera view - interchangeable from 1st to 3rd to suit my needs of guns and bats
Playability - ONLINE!!! and f2p
Technical Achievement - hmmm.... i dont see much ragdoll physics engine games that supports the piling of dead bodies, they all seem to go through each other. MORE realistic deaths with ragdoll physics
Longevity - i could play this game while a real zombie outbreak goes out of my room
Landscape - post-apocalyptic cities and some dark subway shit-ma-pants-a-palooza

@pi-natsuu. Damn you really like zombies xD i'd also love to play a game like that.

From the experience I have with games you tend to get picky over time. And there are some things you just can't bare after a while. And I say the most important thing in a game is:
Gameplay/controls- So many games i've given up (that people say it's good) because theyre simply too frustrating to play or simply aren't fun to play.

Also gameplay is the main factor (along with story) for me to go back and play the game again. Games like:
FFX (complex but well made battle system),
THUG (from time to time I have this EXTREME urge to play it. and after 2 hours or so of releasing my tension I go back to normal xD)
Katamari Damacy/we love (only thing this has is gameplay, and it's a hell lotta fun to play)
Kingdom Hearts I/II (along with the story and music and all that, KH is the best game(s) i've played)
Wouldn't be anything without the gameplay.

Most of the time, when I want to play a game, I just want to have fun and enjoy myself, so gameplay is the most important thing. If a game is fun to play, then the story doesn't matter.

Perfect example - Ratchet & Clank. Yeah, the stories of the games aren't the worst things ever, and the humor is pretty good, but the story of the first few games are almost nonexistent, and that's fine. You don't need a big story to tell you to blow shit up.

Of course, if I'm playing an RPG, then story needs to be important, but at the same time, the gameplay is just as important. There's nothing worse than a game with a great story but shitty gameplay. You don't know what to do. You want to know the story, but playing the game sucks. Thankfully, that doesn't happen too often (great plot + bad gameplay), but there are a lot of games with subpar stories and subpar gameplay. That's why I don't play a lot of RPGs anymore.

Sound and graphics and everything else are important, too (some more important than others), but overall, if the game is fun to play, then that's all that matters. If the sound sucks, then you can mute it. If the graphics are bad, then you haven't played enough classics.

Also, it's kind of common sense, but controls are important, too. On the same level as gameplay, actually, because the game isn't fun if you can't adequately do anything. In that sense, camera control and position is important as well.

To add something, I like games that I can replay without getting bored, or that have secrets that allow me to play the game even after beating it. To bring up Ratchet & Clank again, one of the reasons I love the games is all the stuff you can do besides getting to the final boss and kicking his ass. You can upgrades weapons, find secret items, and do special tricks. That means a lot to me, because it makes the game a lot less linear. If the only goal is to fight the final boss, then the game simply isn't as fun. Or even if the game is still fun, it isn't as enjoyable afterward.