What do you look for in a game?

[Pete for President]

Mental challenge
No holding hands
No one man army
No maps
Imply, don't tell
...
(SPOILER)Dark Souls.

[Polnareff]

Gameplay. A game ain't trout without good gameplay. Unfortunately all these developers really care about now is story. Bioware and whatever company made Assassin's Creed are good examples.

[Masamunemaster]

I tend to aim for something that calls for some strategy, like rpgs. There is some times though that I just want a simple game to waste time on.

I try not to burn myself out on any kind of game at one time, so I may play a few rpg games, then switch it up to action or puzzle games.

[Quindiana Jones]

Gameplay. A game ain't trout without good gameplay. Unfortunately all these developers really care about now is story. Bioware and whatever company made Assassin's Creed are good examples.

AC? Really? They've made it quite clear that they are all about gameplay with that series nowadays.

[Shiny]

-Engaging story: Though not so much important to me with arcade style games. The story has to make me care about the outcome or the protagonist for me to really enjoy it.
-Characters aren't annoying and if they are I can make them die horrible deaths if I want to
-Replayability: I usually keep my games so I'd like to still have fun going back to it every now and again
-Amazing music: If I am going to spend hours on something with looped music it better be good.

[Araciel]

product placement

[edczxcvbnm]

What to look for in a game? I like to now classify games into 2 types of categories namely Big Budget and Indie and I look for different things in both of these.

The indie game market I am looking for a unique gameplay experience with well thought out gameplay concepts. Some examples of some games that I have that I think follow these are FTL, Prison Architect, AntiChamber, Braid or Trials Evolution. All of these games are kind of pick up and go without much story to them. Prison Architect is still in development (only on Alpha build 12 right now) but it is highly engaging and seeing the development process as it progresses and how it affects the game is interesting in its own right.

As for the traditional big budgeted games, I have begun to look more and more for a meaningful story that is driven by the gameplay. It is also a big bonus if the choices I am able to make matter and how much choice matters in the game.

Immersion can be a pretty big deal in specific types of games (see horror) and I am a big fan of strategy games even though I utterly suck at them. Starcraft, Civilization are damn well designed and a ton of fun. Lets get down to a few examples.

Skyrim ultimately got on my nerves and I became pretty aggravated at the game. For the first 20 hours, I did what I like to do. I ignored the story and when exploring. That is kind of fun but there isn't much to see as I go from point to point. I am not a big fan of a huge world for the sake of a huge world. Then there are the choices you can make in the game. I feel that from a story perspective, that I have no real choice. You are the good guy and will do good things because the developers want to tell you a troutty story with no complexity. I am not a fan. You can't kill even insignificant villagers half the time because they might be important to some minor quest somewhere. I made the choice to kill them and it should fail said quest. It was my choice to do that!

On the flip side I LOVE Fallout New Vegas. Tons of locations, most of which have stuff to do and never an insane trek away. I make my own way in the story through the choices I make. If I want to be a murderous asshole and kill a ton of people, I can do that and they actually die! Piss off the NCR? That option is gone and I have made a big enemy. Caesar's Legion, House or screw them all and forge my own path for New Vegas. Even a lot of the side quests and things have their own outcomes based on some of the choices you have made. But I feel best of all is that in these choices the endings are never truly good or bad. They are a mixed bag proving that there are no perfect choices and that things don't always turn out perfect and rosy which also fits the themes of the game.

Now for a quick good bad list.
Shadow of the Colossus - Good. A nice slow burn where a lot of what is going on is the adventure and the consequences of going on the quest right up till the end when you become the monster. Simple and minimalist but I felt it was an effective story none the less.

Bioshock Infitie - Not so Good. Pacing, story structure and character resolution leaves much to be desired. The themes of rebirth and redemption surface and never quite dive in enough for the character. Feels like a rejected Hollywood movie script. Sad and all too common.

Bioshock - Pretty Good. Pacing and story seem to line up quite nicely and the gameplay fits with the world. Adam had a purpose in the story and the gameplay. Finding random audio logs in a torn down world that is falling apart makes sense. The deconstruction of Objectivism and the morality are engaging. The dualistic choice to save or harvest is laughable and so is the final confrontation. The game has faults to overcome.

The Walking Dead - Awesome. A game all about choices and how they affect things. Should I side with Kenny in this dispute? Who to feed? How should I deal with Lilly? Who to save? Should I kill this person? The way the other characters reacted and remembered my choices made me feel like a part of that world and it started to become incredibly immersive as this wasn't just any Lee Everitt. It was me and my choices. Good or bad. My first play through I lived with my mistakes. Maybe I didn't see something or react fast enough. That's life and it shaped the way the characters in the game treated me. At the end of the game Kenny decided to go with me because even though I might have had disagreements with him, I was always there for his family so he will be there for mine. In a sense that felt like a friend coming to my aid and few if any games have been able to pull that off.

Dead Space - Pretty Good. No HUD was ingenious. The menus were projected from my character's suit and it was real time so I had to think fast. The atmosphere always kept me at the edge of my seat and the story came in classic survival horror: audio logs and random notes for the most part. My character didn't speak so I had a feeling like I was shaping him. The action never seemed to get too heavy until the end which fit with the story and I like the kind of ambiguous ending.

Dead Space 2 - Bad. Same HUD...good. Issac doesn't know when to shut up, bad! The last game was claustrophobic and tense in my opinion and this game was trashy, loud and action packed. They wanted more 'epic moments' but epic moments are not scary. They are awesome. And when things were kind of scary, Issac ruined my almost immersion by opening his mouth and saying something at the wrong time and I felt was out of place. Don't tell me how to feel game. Let me feel what I want to feel.

[Agent Proto]

I enjoy games with a good story and great characters. Other factors include gameplay. Games that are easy to understand and play are good, and I also enjoy a bit of challenge as well. If games are too easy, I will lose interest or only play in short spurts to kill time.

[black orb]

>>> Fun..

[YaakaKhiladi]

My only priority is to have a good fun.....!
To have an intersting stuff so that i can pass my time...!

[Araciel]

Changing my answer to Dragon's Crown

[Madame Adequate]

If that's all you want, Dead or Alive did it earlier and 99 years old.

[Shaibana]

I enjoy games with a good story and great characters. Other factors include gameplay. Games that are easy to understand and play are good, and I also enjoy a bit of challenge as well. If games are too easy, I will lose interest or only play in short spurts to kill time.

[Polnareff]

Gameplay. A game is nothing without good gameplay. I'd take a game with no story but good gameplay over a game with great story but bad/average gameplay.

[Del Murder]

I'm sorry, but 'gameplay' is not a valid answer (I don't mean to pick on you in particular Pol). Obviously, you play the game. If you can't play it, it's not a game. It's almost like saying the thing you look for in a movie is 'plot'.

What types of gameplay elements do you guys who like 'gameplay' look for?