Things that you LOVE in games

[Marshal Banana]

Let's go the other direction. What are some things that you absolutely adore in games?

[ES_139]

headshots!!!

[crazyfingers]

Deep, well balanced upgrade systems.

[Moosey_G]

HEADSHOTS

[Mazvix]

Epic Lewtz

[HonkyPunch]

Insane amounts of depth, attention to detail.
Anything that is unnecessarily in depth.
Ridiculous gore.
Also, environment destruction, particularly that of buildings, and tactical RPGs such as Final Fantasy Tactics, Disgaea, Tactics Ogre, and their ilk. As well as the Silent Storm series, even though they're broken at times. Ridiculous amounts of weapons, randomly generated content, especially loot and environments. The ability to use anything as a weapon, furniture, garbage, whatever. Physics.

[Asherr]

Memorable characters.
Good story.

[SaferDan]

Memorable characters.
Good story.

Seconded :D

[MattLichy]

Awarding you for going out of your way to explore the environment.

[MasteroftheFork]

good, original story
intuitive easy to pick up mechanics/gameplay
mix of intense and fluid action
unique and artistic look
optionally, deep customization

[Skamberin]

Being taken completely by surprise and not feeling like invisible walls or unrealistic obstructions are keeping me from going somewhere.

[TheWinterLord]

gameplay

[JacqueChoi]

Cow levels.

[Mark Dygert]

Exploration. Wandering around and being pleasantly surprised at the amount of content that is off the rail.

Games with high replay value and awesome puzzles.

Games that don't assume I'm a ADD riddled pre-teen with the attention span of a goldfish.

[ZacD]

Maps that aren't too restrictive, linear gameplay is lame, I like to flank.

Environments that you explore, rather than re-walk through ten times, or ones that are seemingly random hallways that you run through once. Halo 1 and the zelda games have a nice balance of being opening to exploration, and you travels through and around places you've already been, without making it boring, it makes the environment seem more epic and important, and massive, and less level based.


Decent controls, and a decent camera

good characters that aren't stiff.

[Vrav]

Dwarf Fortress! ie, simulated relationships and interaction.

In an action game, first or third person, I absolutely LOVE good controls. Just stuff that feels and animates nice, while still allowing the player precise control. I thought Prototype felt great, once you got used to the movement abilities. For some reason I also like Valve's whole crouch-jumping mechanic. Maybe this is why I like Metroidvania games? Control + exploration, yess.

[Joshua Stubbles]

cowbell.

[whipSwitch]

good a.i., and not simply in the "I never fucking miss because I'm the computer" sense. And all around beautiful imagery. sucker for that. The story doesn't have to be groundbreaking or even very original really, as long it's fun to play.

[Vrav]

- Being able to see places in the distance and travel to them directly, on foot or mount/vehicle
- Extensive moddability in a PC game. Increases the game's value so much. NWN, etc...

Proof of both, what I'm playing right now:

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/5522/morrowind20100613001738.jpg

[shotgun]

atmospheric music, maybe the most underestimated aspect of games

[eld]

- Being able to see places in the distance and travel to them directly, on foot or mount/vehicle
- Extensive moddability in a PC game. Increases the game's value so much. NWN, etc...

Proof of both, what I'm playing right now:

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/5522/morrowind20100613001738.jpg


I came.

[Autocon]

Memorable characters.
Good story.

Totally agree.

Also well scripted liner gameplay. WHAT YOU SAY? Yes set driven liner gameplay is ALWAYS better then games that are so open ended. (This dosnt apply to MMO's though) Games like Uncharted 2, Half Life 2, Modern Warfare are so much more enjoyable because of the games are so liner that they force you to experience these awesome set pieces the game developers work on. They make you play through a wonderfly crafted experience which would be much harder and you will generally miss stuff like that with to much freedom.

Then again I do love open ended go where ever the hell you want like Mass Effect 2, Red Dead Redemption and stuff like that too.

[pestibug]

Well done sound (ambient, music, fx)

[Piflik]

Games that assume I am intelligent enough to play them...I love complex RPG systems that allow me to experiment and, most important of all, to fail...games, where I win no matter what I do, are boring.

Oh...and great atmosphere...Dead Space...I can play this for hours, just looking at the environment and feeling desolate...

[sampson]

Well done sound (ambient, music, fx)

i remember playing oblivion and the sound transitioning from wet footsteps to dry when you walked out of a lake blew me away for some reason.

[dfacto]

-Being billed as a total badass and then actually being able to live up to it by taking opponents apart with ease, ie: Crysis, most of Prototype

-Nice meaty gun sounds with accompanying effect.

-Believable character interaction

-Force choke. Force joke is the best thing ever.

[dejawolf]

mount and blade:

training a huge army of heavily armoured swadian knights, and watch them flatten 50 forest bandits in less than 10 seconds.
solo-raiding villages, and having a hundred angry peasants attack you with sticks and stones. then cutting them all down with a large 2-handed sword.

TF2:

on the servers with cheater engineers building multiple turrets, sneak past the horde, and then sap every single turret.

[Joopson]

http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc25/ItsAllUp/Games/Oblivion/Oblivion2008-02-1704-48-34-27.jpg

THIS. My god, so stunning.

[teaandcigarettes]

Oblivion was bad and you should feel bad for enjoying it.





Kidding of course; I had my share of fun but always felt that it was a step back from Morrowind. The omni-present level scalling made it boring to me; there was no sense of danger or exploration since everything was revolving around the player. In Morrowind on the other hand, I felt like I was a part of a bigger thing; even at low levels I could find some godlike loot, or get myself killed like a little bitch while minding my own business. Unfortunately, this kind of risk-and-reward system doesn't exist in Oblivion (unless you install OOO) and it's one of the reasons why I could never fully enjoy the game.

Secretly, I'm hoping that Bethesda will bring back Morrowind's atmosphere in an eventual sequel, but judging by Oblivion's sales I doubt it.

[Piflik]

Oblivion was bad and you should feel bad for enjoying it.





Kidding of course; I had my share of fun but always felt that it was a step back from Morrowind. The omni-present level scalling made it boring to me; there was no sense of danger or exploration since everything was revolving around the player. In Morrowind on the other hand, I felt like I was a part of a bigger thing; even at low levels I could find some godlike loot, or get myself killed like a little bitch while minding my own business. Unfortunately, this kind of risk-and-reward system doesn't exist in Oblivion (unless you install OOO) and it's one of the reasons why I could never fully enjoy the game.

Secretly, I'm hoping that Bethesda will bring back Morrowind's atmosphere in an eventual sequel, but judging by Oblivion's sales I doubt it.

This...Oblivion belongs in the other thread...nice visuals, but other than that at least two steps backwards from Morrowind...


And posting an Oblivian Screen in a thread with a Morrowind Screen should be awarded with insta-ban :poly124:

[JasonLavoie]

Strong as fack narrative!

[cholden]

Games that allow you to take your time and search around to find the goods to be well strong before stepping into battle OR just going gung-hoe right in and being a badass.

Games that items are so useful and important to gameplay that you remember timeline of the game based on them.

[McGreed]

Games that gives you an instant fear from a single sound or look, such as the monkey scream from System Shock 2, those f-er makes my skin crawl every time I hear them and expect to get hit by a psychic blast.

[RAJ]

Games to do with Star Wars or warhammer 40K, I also like good gameplay and good multiplayer

[Tyler]

Oblivion, pretty much my favorite game ever. Wish they'd make another one already :(

[ZacD]

Games that gives you an instant fear from a single sound or look, such as the monkey scream from System Shock 2, those f-er makes my skin crawl every time I hear them and expect to get hit by a psychic blast.
Or in SC2 when you hear a "nuclear launch detected", or a nydus worm go off.

[ErichWK]

Great looking hair!

[Zack Fowler]

-Being billed as a total badass and then actually being able to live up to it by taking opponents apart with ease, ie: Crysis, most of Prototype

Totally agreed. And not in the "very brief scripted portion of game where you are 99% indestructible" sense, but "you generally ruin fools" sense.


Things I love:

- rewarding the use of lateral thinking rather than forcing the player to complete an objective in a single specific preordained way

- sweet 3D UIs

- villains who aren't the complete utter irredeemable baby-roasting spawn of mega-satan

- allies/squadmates/other NPCs who seem to know the main character personally rather than spewing empty ego-boosters ("Oh my god, you're that totally amazing warrior!") or pointless insults ("Well if it isn't that stupid warrior those peasants won't shut up about!").

- well-developed atmosphere/ambiance, including audio effects and music

- exploratory or player-driven (rather than player-funneling and hand-holding) gameplay

- fucking badass weapons that unlock for subsequent playthroughs, RE4 handcannon anyone?

- a sense of empowerment progression from start to finish by gaining weapons, armor, abilities, stat upgrades, cooler cars, whatever

[Bunny Blanket]

wide open worlds with original looking plants and building styles, as well as customized playable character.

[acc]

- Being able to play enemy factions off one another so the entire game isn't just 'universe vs. you' (eg: watching the military and mutants duke it out in Prototype then running in at the right time to brutalize both of them).

- AI teammates who are more than just 'not a liability' and actually help you out to a decent degree (eg: Mass Effect 2, Tales of the Abyss, I-wish-there-were-far-more-examples-of-this).

- Silenced Sniper Rifles (eg: Deus Ex, circling a building, watching patrols, slowly taking out every single guy before even stepping inside).

- Choices that matter (eg: The Witcher where decisions on who to help changes the game hours later because you screwed a faction you now have to deal with).

- Atmosphere (eg: SS2, STALKER, Ico & SotC)

[Bibendum]

Stories that don't underestimate the players intelligence level.

Japanese games that include the original japanese audio track with the ability to turn on subtitles.

Ambitious gameplay. Even if the game ends up not working well, I appreciate developers that stray from the norm.

Also throw me into the Morrowind over Oblivion crowd. Oblivion got seriously dumbed down and the fact that Bethesda wouldn't release an official model exporter made me profoundly disappointed.

[onionhead_o]

detail visuals. great controls. interesting story. chrs u care about. awesome music like silent hill. etc...

[Kwramm]

good story
unique non-cliche characters
paid DLC which offers more than 10 minutes worth of gameplay
free content patches (e.g. LotRO)
console/PC ports where the devs properly adjusted the controls for the respective target platform

[rasmus]

Vision. Originality. Satisfying, tactile gameplay. Atmosphere. Mystery. Inspiration. Great-sounding guns.

[eld]

Oblivion was bad and you should feel bad for enjoying it.




Kidding of course; I had my share of fun but always felt that it was a step back from Morrowind. The omni-present level scalling made it boring to me; there was no sense of danger or exploration since everything was revolving around the player. In Morrowind on the other hand, I felt like I was a part of a bigger thing; even at low levels I could find some godlike loot, or get myself killed like a little bitch while minding my own business. Unfortunately, this kind of risk-and-reward system doesn't exist in Oblivion (unless you install OOO) and it's one of the reasons why I could never fully enjoy the game.

Secretly, I'm hoping that Bethesda will bring back Morrowind's atmosphere in an eventual sequel, but judging by Oblivion's sales I doubt it.

Agreed, but oscuros oblivion overhaul mod fixes all that and is insanely popular, and bethsoft knows that, they went back from the leveled monsters thing in fallout3 a bit more.

Hopefully they know that people went liked oblivion due to the fact of that it was easier to get into and had a better combat system and generally due to how it took the sandbox thing further, not because of the streamlined rpg-part, Hopefully they've had more time to go back and make more versatile skills again for the next title in the series.

But do get OOO, it's massive and makes oblivion way more like morrowind in terms of having a more static non-leveled layout of monsters, items and more of the explore and run away until you are stronger feeling, that and enhanced economy.

Once again back to: I love how bethsoft embraces the modding community and I hope they continue to do that, more games like that.

http://www.oscurogamedesign.com/oscurosoblivionoverhaul-high.html

[McGreed]

@eld
True, but unfortunately it doesn't fixes the main problems of boring world and caves, there is no motivation to explorer a new cave or ruin you found, because you know the stuff you find there isn't special, you don't find any cool artifacts there because the whole thing is random.

But OOO does makes it playable, and mods to fix the totally crappy interface helped as well. I just don't get how they could ship it like that, really. Modding really save the game imo.

[eld]

Yep, I still haven't been able to get into oblivion to the degree that I have gotten into fallout3 and morrowind, or daggerfall.

but as I said with fallout3, they really went back to having more custom-built exploration rather than randomly generated chests and monsters depending on your level, so hopefully a potential elderscrolls 5 will be better than oblivion, and this time around it'll take place in a more interesting place, considering LOTR-tamriel has been used up.

I want to explore the dungeons for the story behind them, not for some random loot within that would've popped up in any dungeon :)

[PolyHertz]

-Jump button (auto-jump and 'glued to the ground' gameplay ftl)
-Color booklets (I see it as a sign of a quality product)
-Secrets in games that're unlocked by having saves from other games in the series or from the same company
-Surreal stuff

[shotgun]

-Secrets in games that're unlocked by having saves from other games in the series or from the same company

quest for glory style!!! man that was rpg to the extreme. importing a char that would have been otherwise unavailable was such a gr8 effort. do any other games still do that?

http://www.boxofmystery.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/qfgchar.jpg

[Stinger88]

Stab, sap, sap, sap, stab, stab, headshot, cloak. Repeat.

[DKK]

One time In stalker, theres this part where guys from two factions get into a fight, and you can totally shoot the guys you're friends with, you wont lose faction points with them the game just assumes they died in the cross fire, as long as you kill them before the enemies are dead, then you get twice the loot, and none of the consequence. naturally I just decided to shoot them for their cool guns and armor, It was just something I decided to do, but it worked the way it should work in the real world, and it was fucking rad.

[Jackablade]

Tim Schafer.


That about covers it.

[neolith]

Characters, story and most importantly jokes that are not forced upon you but that you may discover for yourself.

[KhAoZ]

I love playing them.

[BreakSet]

Good character design/development is probably the most important thing to me.

Tim Schafer.


That about covers it.
I've found myself playing Grim Fandango at least once a year since it was released.

[Mefix]

Insane/weird Npc's
An idea of something unobtainable (like finding dwarfs in morrowind)
Lots of detail in places noone would look at

[slipsius]

huge, well balanced character upgrade systems.

being able to see far away, like in red dead redemption.

games that arent war games

amazing voice acting

[Kewop Decam]

I only love games that are fun for whatever reason.

The rest can go die in a fire.

[moxy3d]

Doom 3 and how it scared the shit outta ya. Of course, I later discovered Half-life 2 and was thrice scared so I guess it is a moot point :P