What kind of games entice you to buy them and allure you to play?

[sted]

This was inspired by the Dead Island Mods thread, sort of.


So I was wondering, what do you look for in a game, most, what are the most important components you look for? It can be absolutely anything, from Genre to graphics or gameplay to a great story.

For me one of the biggest things to pull me in to buying a game is its graphics - after that history of the dev's, game series reputation. But then I try to do my research on a game, story, gameplay, versatility, replayability, likeable characters and depth. There are other things that influence what games I buy, but they are the things that came off of the top of my head. I never ordered them specifically and the order they are in is not of priority.

I almost always avoid Zombie games (don't get me wrong, Dayz looks great, the whole concept is amazing and I may even play it on my future rig), horror based games (Bioshock being one of the very few exceptions), racing games, boxing or other fighting games (I used to love the old WWE games as a kid, though, me and my brother used to fight each other in the game and out of the game over silly things, was hilarious) and simulators are the last thing I can think of ATM (I don't mind the Sims, though).

But that's not the only purpose of this thread - I've noticed and in my personal opinion, while a lot of games have gone up in the world in terms of graphics by a lot compared to 15+ years ago, they seem to have degraded in other aspects as many of you no doubt have noticed - length of gameplay, sometimes dull stories, linear missions and not so great characters. So my question is, what do you think Devs should be doing to keep the interest of current and future gamers alike?

Personally I think it's a big step forward in the gaming world that almost every single modern Pc game now can be modded to heaven and back to add more flavour, gameplay and generally enhance your experience. For me mods add so much more to the game, especially when you need something new to look at or play with. Take NWN (probably the first game I ever played that could be modded with use of overrides and Haks and it was created over 10 years ago now) the game can get quite bland after you've played through it offline or on for a while, but there are overrides you can use that change monster appearances and make them look more like what they are supposed to be, better clothing/armour appearances and many other things too. So I think this is a good step in gaming for Devs to keep their proverbial foot in the door.

I really liked how you could mod the sims 2 and they were so easy to use for the most part if you got them from mod the sims site. But I hate how EA/Origin took advantage of that and made their own extra mods that you have to pay for and a lot of them don't even appeal to me to make me even consider wasting money on extra flavour that adds no real difference to the game but a bit of eye-candy, so to speak, if I want to play the sims and mod it beyond my wildest dreams I'll go back to number 2 but if I don't mind to just stick with the vanilla game I'll go on 3.

So my final question on the topic what do you personally think of game mods, are they worth it, do you use them and how affective do you believe them to be in terms of getting a better experience from your games?

I find even on sites dedicated to custom mods you'll find a lot of pointless stuff that you may not even offer a second glance, but with a little extra time and effort put into searching you'll probably find some things you like.

 

[Bsrz]

for me I would say great graphics are good however they dont make a good game - a good story line is always nice as it keeps you griped - and the playability factor - short games that can only be played once can be great but I like games that are long and give you an amazing experience that when you finish it your like dam that was such an epic game.

 

[sted]

I agree. I have a great respect toward games with replayability. While FFX-2 is not the best of FF games, the fact it had new game+ made it that much better, FF games aren't just about completing the game, but also about unlocking things, finding the secrets, revealing more of the story, so the fact you can start it again from the beginning with all your items and skills (though start from level 1 again and lose certain key items) and having many different things to discover in game that you'll probably miss first time through it makes it a great game, to me. I've had that one years and even now I haven't got 100% completion.

Crisis Core was probably the second game I played with a new game+ mode, except this one wasn't quite so tempting to play through a second time, but you did keep everything when you start it through + even your level achieved last play through.

 

[Flucky]

What I am in the mood for whilst holding my debit card, originality, price, graphics, reviews - pretty much in that order.

 

[lewishollings]

For me Graphics mean absolutely nothing, most amazing games don't even look too good, I would say that I look more at a great story when buying a singleplayer game and in a multiplayer game it has to be balanced and fun

 

[steaky360]

For me Graphics mean absolutely nothing, most amazing games don't even look too good, I would say that I look more at a great story when buying a singleplayer game and in a multiplayer game it has to be balanced and fun

Certainly agree that if the gameplay is excellent and the story is good etc. then the graphics don't matter quite so much. Although its a wee bit lazy for games not to look pretty now-a-days I'd say. Graphically games dont need to be cutting edge, but rather just have a unique or interesting look about them. Take games like Bastion or Rayman origins for instance (maybe not the best choice of games but they both do look very cool). Then there is the other side of the coin, games that are genuinely graphically amazing, Witcher 2 for instance and FarCry 3 (I think that game looks really good).

 

[sted]

Thanks for the replies.

One of my flaws when it comes to gaming is the graphics, no doubt about it, but graphics alone like said don't make a game. I'd say graphics, story line and gameplay are very close to each other in the race for me. Bioshocks graphics are not the best (keeping in mind I had to play it on an ATI HD 2400 pro) but so far from being the worst, or terrible. It had a great story, the whole twist with Fontaine I thought was great. Bioshock had almost everything I ever looked for in a game ever since playing Second Sight iirc.

Then Bioshock 2 came along, I bought it as soon as it was released - the story wasn't as powerful, but the characters weren't too bad, I liked the introduction of the Big Sisters, the update in the splicer appearances were good too instead of everyone looking the same like on the first one (except Andrew Ryan, only one who never looked like he spliced and I think he actually never, which he suggests with certain things he tells you and what you hear on a certain audio diary), though I hated the spider splicer appearance update on 2, they didn't make much sense to me, I mean the first was weird with the thought of how they could crawl on the ceilings with rusty hooks, then the second they've turned into these overgrown weightly looking creatures and do the same as the first, they must have had gravity defiance skills xD.

I still loved listening to the audio diaries like in the first and I thought it was great playing the game from a Big Daddies point of view (I thought it was interesting when you get to see Rapture from the Little Sisters eyes, too.) and the new gameplay just added massively to the whole experience for me, the whole dual wield deal was great, I thought.

But I've replayed the first more times the the second. I think it's the story of the first that keeps drawing me in, I think it is safe to say I'm obsessed with those games (definitely less than when I first played it, though), I'm sure I'm not the only one but a city built under water sounds like a very interesting idea, though obviously not the most ideal thing to do, maintenance would be a pain.

I was so obsessed at one time I was pointing things out in other games and in real life that reminded me of Bioshock. I even had numerous Bioshock desktop wall papers and sometimes spent a lot of time on the Internet looking up pictures and screenshots.