What makes a great game?

What makes an outstanding game?

What excites you, and attracts you to a new title?
What kind of gameplay makes a game great?
Storylines, are they important? How big of a storyline do you expect?
Characters, what makes them playable? Are you attracted to hot girl characters or burly german lumberjacks with 10ft Axes?

Lots of variables in games, and I want to know - what makes you think a game is great?


("Good Reviews" doesn't count. That's another persons' opinion )

I like new things, this is why i'm attracted to the wii..it brings so many new possiblities to games, so many new ways of doing things. Adds a new level to the gameplay.

Visuals are good to..i love highly detailed cut scenes, i think they always look pretty cool.

Also, sound plays a huge part, decent sound track playing can get me worked up. :$

I prefer war gamplay, noting fantasy, war like ww2 war and present day war. I really like fight pilot games also. On the way games i like realistc gameplay with lots of interactivnes.

I like to be able to do what I want when I want. I like to explore.
A game that puts me on a set track doesn't appeal to me.

I like a game with a decent storyline, games like doom (its a good game don't get me wrong) don't have any purpose. You just shoot monsters and what not.

But I much prefer games that have a meaning to it.

RPGs

Any game that you can play as a role playing character/s.

1.) It has to have a great storyline and graphics
2.) Outstanding characters with personalities
3.) Always have to have a well-done bad guy.
4.) FMVs or Cut scenes that when showed, has enhanced graphics.
5.) Along with characters, characters' own storylines and/or sidequests. Also revealing a character's past, etc.
6.) Good music that goes with the place you are.
Finally, an ending that goes out with a bang, that leaves the player thinking "Well, what happens next?" That's what I think.

This is why I LOVE Final Fantasy. It has all of these things and more.

Thanks for your opinions so far guys ^^

How would you lot feel about playing as a "Bad Guy"?
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Some of you already know, I'm studying animation to get into games design. And to do so, I've been told I'm going to need a killer idea. I believe I have that, but now I just needed a way to present it and write it down, yah?

With regards to cheats, I believe they're added into game for testing purposes. And not merely for people to breeze through the game.
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Anyways, so far, what I've picked up on is that I need;

Storyline: The storyline has to be unique, the player has to "feel" the situations and know what their purpose is. A degree of similarity is needed to allow the player to get used to what they're doing fast, to negate any confusion.

Character: The character's personality will be determined by the players actions in game. The character starts of vengeful, however a player is given three main choices, evil, good, or neutral. However the main objective of the game remains the same. The character is to be using two forms of combat, melee and ranged. The melee is most obviously more powerful in comparison to the damage dealt, however the ranged attack (with infinite ammo) is much more fast, but can only be used at certain distances.

The "Bad Guy": You will be playing the bad guy. However, since who is evil and good changes, since people have different opinions on what is right and wrong, along with the free choices you have ingame, your character may turn into a paladin or demonic deity.

Cut-Scenes: Kept to a minimum, and only used in circumstances where interactivity is not possible. The point of the game will be to make decisions fast, disregarding consequences. The cut-scenes will, as in many other games, be of a quality much higher than in the interactive gameplay.

Freedom: An entire world consisting of 7 continents and 1 major ocean will be your playground. A wide variety of environments from desolate wastelands to a rich forest thriving with life, to a city sitting on the clouds, all containing mini-quests to boost your alignment. Freedom is limited by how far you are in the game, as the ability to fly and swim are picked up by methods other than "completing a level".

Soundtrack: Opening, Ending and Climatic video sequences will have atmospheric and or orchestral music, the world environments will have sound much like they would in real life. Dungeons and Key Areas will get their own theme tune playing while the player treks through them. Boss Battles and Confrontations will have more exciting themes, and the final conflict and theme song for the game will have fast paced music, including some lyrics.

Repetitiveness: Where as the main objective of the game will be to collect 7-9 of a specific item, the ways in receiving each one will be differentiated from the last as much as possible. A massive ***** of weapons and forms are available from the start, with more being "unlocked" through receiving extra power from certain events ingame.

Other: The main charcter will have 4 main rivals;
1) A bounty hunter.
2) A treasure hunter.
3) The world's military.
4) The second main character, whose ambitions are very close to the Player.
The first has a nice collection of traps, set up in various places, and will follow the Player around.
The treasure hunter appears in the Key Areas of the game, but not always. He uses a lot of "gadgets" and tools to immobilize the Player so he can receive the treasure first.
The third being the most easy to defeat, has a major advantage in numbers. Lots of explosions.
The second main character has a past similar to the Player. He/She will be collecting the main items at the same time as the Player, there is no set sequence in how they do this.

Well I think a good game has to have a pretty original storyline, not like storylines that have been worn out, like "A terrible evil has spread over the planet" blah blah blah I've heard it all before, Sure there are some good games out there with a generic storyline but to make a great game it has to be original, something interesting that wants to make the player keep reading/watching the dialog instead of pressing a bunch of buttons to try to get out of it and just play the game. Thats my two cents about storylines, now for graphics, ok well graphics do play a big part in a game, but how many people would play Contra or Zelda for NES? Even SNES? Alot because the're fun games, Pong for those of you who had an Atari? Was it fun? who ever thought a game with a black background a white square and some white lines would be fun? Anywho what I'm trying to say is graphics don't have to be great. Also if you have a game with kickass graphics have a day and a night, I get sick of playing games that are all dark and you can't see where your supposed to go because the lighting is crap.

Freedom in a game I believe is also important, being able to do what you want after you go through the story, or if you get stuck in the middle of the story go do something else in the game, like Fable, but you get kinda bored playing Fable after you do just about everything there is to do, make it so you always have something to do if you choose you want to do something besides mindless killing etc. As for the rather playing as a hot chick or a big german guy with a 10ft axe, be able to choose from a variety of faces clothes etc. Appeal to both male and female gamers, not being able to choose your genders I think plays a role in if a certain gender buys, or more importantly likes the game.

As for weapons etc. I think a variety is good, instead of just being able to get swords and nothing else in a medevil type game, be creative make something up.

I'm done for now...