What is it you look for in games (primarily) ?

[erikjanneman]

[quote]
R6V was fairly bland and boring after a while.
Assassin's Creed 2 looks awesome. Got it pre-ordered. :D
Oblivion - I thought you had this?
Starcraft - amazing single player, good multi... just don't play any Koreans...
Fallout 3... it's OK. I just got Operation Anchorage and The Pitt on DVD (no GfWL needed!) and O:A was way too short. :(

Never owned Oblivion, played morrowind constantly for a while, oblivion like 20 bucks at the store right now, or someone has offered me a copy also) (20 bucks for Game of the Year edition, basically new art and expansions included, yet its 30 bucks for normal, and 30 bucks for just oblivion and bioshock)

Starcraft I have played against Koreans and Chinese people (buddies who tried getting me hooked, didn't work...)

AC2 does look awesome I would preorder it but I don't have money between some other purchases I am making (or not sure if I will have any)

If it goes on sale for 40 shortly after release I will probably pick it up (any idea how it would run compared to the original, seems like original should run fine on my computer so im not sure about this version) Any keyboard and mousers thoughts on AC1? not sure if I should invest in a gamepad or not.

I've just started with oblivion, including all the expansions and DLC. It's alot of fun, altough a bit huge. Dungeon after Dungeon after Dungeon. But still, i like to gather stuff, and gain XP :).

I'm playing AC1 with a keyboard/mouse combo atm. Reason being, i can't play with a controller. The only thing i can sort of do is a shooter (halo/cod4 on x360). But AC1 is quite playable with the keyboard/mouse imo. But i think it all comes down to personal opinion. Do you like a gamepad or not. And if you don't know about the specs, i sometimes try http://www.systemrequirementslab.com. Not sure if it's foolproof, but it's userfriendly :p. They update their site with new games regularly.

[Paradigm Shifter]

Never owned Oblivion, played morrowind constantly for a while, oblivion like 20 bucks at the store right now, or someone has offered me a copy also) (20 bucks for Game of the Year edition, basically new art and expansions included, yet its 30 bucks for normal, and 30 bucks for just oblivion and bioshock)

Get the GotY edition with Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine. The other DLC is not included, however, which I thought was extremely cheeky. Fortunately, I already had all the other DLC on another DVD.

Shivering Isles made Oblivion for me. 'Twas awesome. Way better than the original game IMO.

Starcraft I have played against Koreans and Chinese people (buddies who tried getting me hooked, didn't work...)

I meant a Korean in Korea... they take Starcraft waaay too seriously...

[erikjanneman]

Get the GotY edition with Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine. The other DLC is not included, however, which I thought was extremely cheeky. Fortunately, I already had all the other DLC on another DVD.

Shivering Isles made Oblivion for me. 'Twas awesome. Way better than the original game IMO.

DLC isn't that much i think. Some armor for your horse and some armor other small stuff.

But i'm going to try in play through the whole game first. But i've already selected the datafiles of the DLC and expansions to be included. Does this change anything? Or can i just do the main oblivion story, and then go do the shivering isles and nights of the nine storys? (how does this play out? Do you get them when you finish oblivion? or are they already available?)

[Paradigm Shifter]

When you get out of the sewers, after a random amount of time a bunch of quests will just suddenly magically pop up, usually along the lines of, "An uncle I didn't know about left me... blah." or "There is a strange door in the middle of the bay, I should go investigate."

You don't have to do the DLC or Shivering Isles, but some of them give you some awesome stuff. Frostcrag Spire in particular is awesome if you ever use spells.

Knights of the Nine integrates quite well into the whole Oblivion main story, IMO. Shivering Isles is practically stand alone - you're in a different world and it's... inconvenient... to get back to the main world until you've completed Shivering Isles.

[Flatfingers]

Depends on the game, really. What I want most from a turn-based strategy game (that would be "strategy") isn't what I want most from a simulation or pure shooter, etc.

If I had to pick one general form of gameplay that appeals most to me, though, I'd have to go with something that didn't appear to be one of the poll options: exploration.

The related quality of immersiveness is pretty important to me, which encompasses things like appropriate graphics and ambient audio, significant depth of character interactions with the gameworld, as well as strongly-defined (and well-voiced) characters whose actions help to tell an intellectually and emotionally engaging story. The best games I've ever played have exercised not just my hands but my head and my heart as well.

But it's opportunities for exploration that I crave. Not merely exploration in the obvious sense of mapping physical terrain, but of discovering that which is unknown, of mapping the individual abstract rules of any system and perceiving their functional relationships.

What's around that corner? What's in that crate? What is that character's hidden motivation for helping me? Is there something useful hidden up in that tree? If I raise Slider X, what happens to Value Y over time? Is there a gorgeous visual panorama waiting for me if I turn left here instead of following the trail to the right? What happens if I combine essence of lotus with iguana bile and heat the mixture? Is there a pattern to those strange clicking sounds? What are the underlying rules that govern the crafting of armor? Is there some way to reach the top of that peak? How does magic work?

And so on. For me, it's not "how can I win as quickly as possible," but "how much of the gameworld can I experience and understand?"

The greatest game in the world -- from my perspective -- would combine the gameplay depth of System Shock/Deus Ex with the world-immersiveness of Oblivion/Fallout 3 and add the persistence and dynamism of online games. (Actually, having written that, I just realized I've already created a basic outline for what such a game might look like. Heh. http://flatfingers-theory.blogspot.com/2008/06/living-world-massively-single-player.html)

I realize this kind of thing isn't everyone's cup of tea. Where's the visceral action? Where's the opportunity to demonstrate one's superiority to other players? Where's the community?

Those things are all valid ways of gaming. Done well, they're all aspects of good games, and I feel strongly that there ought to be plenty of games that reward those gameplay interests.

They're just not my most preferred gameplay interest.

More exploration-oriented games, please. :)

[StingingVelvet]

Immersion.

That is priority number one.

After that, probably a smooth UI and controls.

[The Disciple]

So long as the game drags me in, I don't care what genre/type of gameplay a game has. Games for me is an escape from the real world and as long as it does that and keeps me interested; i'm a happy boy.

I'm hooked on Batman at the moment and haven't played continuously on a game like this since Bioshock. Game of the year for me; totally unexpected, but nevertheless.

[suiken_2mieu]

I very in what I like to play for:

I like having something to do for short burst of time so i'll play a puzzle game or a quick instant action match on unreal.

Other times, I really get involved in awesome narratives so ill play an rpg or shooter (yes there are some shooters with good narratives).

An yet again, some times it's for realaxation. I'll will run around the track in rFactor by my self for an hour or more. for some reason I find it relaxing as hell.

Other times I just feel like killing time and I'll play some rythm games like stepmania or Osu! (elite beat agent simulator).

I am what you call the all around gamer because i can find a game i like in every genre. (Though i really do hate sports games except for 2 that i've played: "NBA Street Basketball 1" "Mario Tennis"[if that counts])