Boo urns. Spambot made an interesting topic that was removed (tried to keep it but i guess it's best to just make a new one). So what do people find to be the defining point in what makes a good game GREAT!? (Emphasis on great!) For me it comes down to mechanics. A game might be felt to be good at a point in time because it looks or sounds pretty but what really cements a game as being great and gets us coming back years later is mechanics and how they are implemented in the game. I mean really mechanics are what get me to play a game all the way through with out just saying "yeah I experienced it and it's now on my shelf"
a special mixture of the three that is well balanced and well timed, keeps you coming back for more over and over again.
I'm going to use Parasite Eve for my example. Release in 1998, the game was on of the best games for the Playstation in my opinion. Here are my reasons: 1st. The story is great, its surprising, fun, and I'm looking forward to what happens next 2nd. The control/gameplay, its labeled as a RPG, but in all reality to me I would call Parasite eve an Action RPG! I love the fact that I can move around and dodge attacks while in battle, not just relay on some stat rating. The sound in the game is average to above average at best and the graphics are really nothing to write home about, but regardless I find myself excited about playing Parasite Eve tonight after my kids are in bed. Its one of those games I missed when I had my original Playstation in its glory days and even then I didn't have many games back then. If the story is great and the gameplay is great, the graphics and sound can be poor and I'll still play it. I'm trying to think of a game that has great graphics and sound but poor gameplay/story but at the moment nothing comes to mind but thats probably because I wouldn't remember it to begin with. -Disjaukifa
It depends. I mean, some games really transcend stuff like that. It can be nostalgia, childhood memories,... but some games are as addicting and fun as they were 20+ years ago. Even if they aged terribly on graphics, sound, control mechanics... I don't care much about graphics if the whole rest of the game is crap. Usually when a game is crap, everything else is. Still, some games really stand out because of the story, a nice idea and for being entertaining, even if they aren't so great graphic wise. Disaster Report (PS2) comes to mind.
A game that comes to mind that does all 4 very well would be Castlevania Symphony of the Night. The graphics were stunning, the soundtrack was wonderful, the gameplay was fantastic and the story was great! All you had to do was get past a few odd bits of dialogue which in my mind was the only real con of the game. -Disjaukifa
I think it differs on different genres of game. While all of them should have good controls. For Rpgs the main things would be the story and the fighting/leveling mechanics. Fighting games I would say good amount of characters to select, but even this could be bad when certain fighting games have tons of fighters but a good bit of them are pretty much the same fighter different look. So a good selection of "individual" characters, and I personally like it when they have a good story to each of those characters. Puzzle games should have a good balance of challenge yet fun to play. The same could probably be said for adventure/platforming game but with a good story thrown in there as well. Graphics can be something that can ruin a game later on. It's a good thing for great graphics but it can get in the way of what the games potential could have been. If all a game relied one was good graphics, in the future it'll just be an out dated easily forgettable game.
I agree with IronBudhha, that it depends on the genre of the game to some extent. But all three are important, and if one is Severly lacking it can pull the whole game down..
I think we have left one major category out of this topic actually and that would be re-playability. Lets face it, if you play a game all the way through once and then it has no added value of being replayed, whats the point. Castlevania Symphony of the Night <-- Not only have I played this game several times, you can beat the game with a different character, armor, or lower starting stats to give you an even more difficult challenge to the game. Haven't beaten Parasite Eve yet but have heard there is another mod you can do once you have beaten the game once. Funny enough good games that I won't ever beat again. Super Mario 64, great game but have desire to beat it again. I do understand that personal preference to a specific genre of game does take into consideration for all this, but I think re-playability is a major fact in a games greatest. -Disjaukifa
I don't think there's a recipe set in stone. Money making games that have become legends each have their own special reasons for being that popular and memorable. I think innovation is another factor besides the technical and procedural stuff in a game. To feel that you're engaging in a unique experience, that's what is always valued the most by people, gamers and civilians alike.
Everything supports each other perfectly, graphics, sound and story that breaks through to the player CSOTN is pretty a landmark in platforming, not the first and hardly the last it still has a lasting impression in music, design ... uh ok the story gets screwed up Super Mario World: The first game I completed 100% without a guide Jet Set Radio: Amazing and being able to upload your own jpegs ? Damn ! Soundtrack was out of this world. MGS2 for the mindf*ck that is Psycho Mantis and watching the controller bounce back and forth. Katamari of course gets mentioned in the sense it shows how simple game play be, every one knows how to play it but to master it ... takes practice. Plus the soundtrack is killer. There are other games I enjoyed through the ages but ones firing on all cylinders are rare for me, those are just a few and given other options I would probably mention other games but from the package to the console and playing them those hit me the hardest.
@Subbie: Polish. If you have a good game, you already have a recipe for success. The only thing that can mess you up is execution. Lots of great ideas get weighed down by unpolished execution. I don't necessarily mean obvious deficiencies, like out of place graphics, or crappy music... I mean small details which may not be readily identifiable, yet impacts the experience. As an example, if you have to constantly do something over and over, you might make the method for doing so easy and people might not complain about it because it isn't too terrible to do. However, if you went one step further and made it pre-populate some things for you, or know your habits and try to set realistic defaults, that's polish. People might not be able to describe why it's better, but these small nagging things do add up and combine to make an experience thats much more than the sum of it's parts. IMHO anyway (^_^);
You make a good point and I think a game that does that very well is Diablo. This game nailed the issue with replay value but making all the levels randomly generated each time you start a new game. I noticed this as well with Castlevania SOTN, it was the small details that the programmers did that made the game great, such as the Fairy familiar sitting on Alucard's shoulder after he has stood still for a short while and then "falling" when Alucard moves. Its the little feature that help push a game above the others. -Disjaukifa
I and people like me do I suck at making stuff from scratch, but give me anything I'll either make it or tell you how to make it better It is all of the above and neither though. Graphics, Gameplay and sound all have their role to play but but nither are more important than the other. The most important thing above all else really is how engaging the game is. Each game may engage you in different ways but the AAA titles allow you to substititute your own reality for theirs, you are fully immersed and feel involved. This can happen regardless console generation and it is what makes a good game great, end of
Something that apparently puts me in the minority of gamers is that I am not impressed by "presentation" one bit. I either enjoy what I'm doing while I am actually playing a game, or I don't. That means that I prefer gameplay to be interesting to me and a good mix of intuitive controls, evolutionary controls and pure innovation. This is a relatively genre independent criteria for me. Graphics, Sound and Story can ruin a "good" game for me, but they cannot make a game better in my experience. These aspects only need to be at or above what other games in the same genres set the bar to that year in order to not take my attention away from the gameplay. A game is either "great" to me because I enjoy the actual gameplay time spent, or it is something less. Positive examples: Zombie Revenge, Spikeout Battlestreet and Golden Axe Beast Rider all apparently disgust most gamers for their presentation and story, I love playing them for their excellent group fighting mechanics at the time. Batman Arkham Asylum and X-Men Origins: Wolverine are both games with generally respected presentation that I enjoy playing to the same degree as the above maligned beat-em ups. First person shooters are actually all the same to me because they have the same controls. Negative Examples: Chakan The Forever Man on Genesis has interesting presentation, functional graphics, and unique gameplay, but I hate playing it because of the cheap shots and music. Action Fighter and Wonder Boy on Master System irritate me only because of their music. Final Fantasy 7 had my interest until the (non) ending, and I will never play that game again.
Great play control. That's what draws me in the most. Solid control, great feeling jumps/movement, weapons that feel powerful, enemies that react appropriately, etc.
Hello everyone, What makes a good game? That is a good question. I would say that the story of a game is important. But the gameplay needs to be well developed. Few or no bugs, I really hate it when you encounter a bug that makes you lose everything. If you come back to a certain game and play through it multiple times, that is a good game. Bye. :cur_sonic: :luigi:
