Hey, Im starting an opinion thread to see where everyone stands on what they like and don't like in a game. So everyone tell me what things in games impress you, (flashy graphics, good music, fun!) and what things in games annoy you the most, (lack of title screen, poor interface)

Hope this thread hasn't been tried in the past on these forums. I checked and couldn't find any similarities though ;)

The things that impress me most are neat ideas. I read about this one rpg called divine divinity and I knew that I had to have it. The best way to explain this game is Diablo meets Baulders gate. Imo this is the best example of taking the best parts of some games and putting them together to make a really cool and Imo original game. In this game there were 3 classes with different paths of skills but any class can learn any skill. Making a character imo was much more fun in this game that diablo although there was no multiplayer. This game was pretty open ended too. You could run around and play right or you could kill people or steal from people and from peoples houses.

Another game that impressed me alot was Giants:Citizen Kabuto. This game was a 3rd person action game and you could play 3 different people in the campaign but you had to play them in order. There were the Meccs, the Reapers, and Kabuto which was a Giant Monster. The Meccs were my favorate mainly because of this jetpack they had. Its hard to explain if you havent played it but this was one hell of a game. Id get the demo at least if you've never played it. My main problem with this game is that it could have been more. The last level of the meccs had you build a base and go blow up the other base. Imo this was the best level of the game but after you beat that it just went to the next character to play the Reaper Princess. I guess you could say this annoyed me because I would have wanted to play about 5 or 6 more levels like this one.

Also Kohan impressed me very much because of its originality and it was a very fun game.

i think that the implementation of the game most matters to me.
it has the most impact on the game playability and being fun to
play (i think that Dexterity's definition of "polish").

i must say that i've seen too many shareware products that
screams "I was rushed to be published". People that define
their game "Finished" as in "Working" and release their game.

Love:

1: Real install programs
2: Being able to use my own music in puzzle games
3: Memorable characters
4: Light comedy
5: Intuitive menus that give me lots of options(even if they're just technical options)
6: Easter eggs and Cheats
7: Hidden areas or items
8: Manual
9: If I buy the CD version I want to be able to download it too while I wait (god I hate not being able to do this. Furious Entertainment did right with Hateful Chris on this. Chronic Logic on the other hand made me wait a couple weeks after paying to play. At the time they didn't let you get the CD AND download it.)
10: A thank you letter
11: Having the website remember what games I bought without having to write down some reg code(GarageGames does this well)
12: Customization (interface colors, music, tools for modding)

Hey, Im starting an opinion thread to see where everyone stands on what they like and don't like in a game. So everyone tell me what things in games impress you, (flashy graphics, good music, fun!) and what things in games annoy you the most, (lack of title screen, poor interface)
This is IMO a bit wrong place to ask. What is really interesting it’s what players like in the games :) Unfortunately there is no forum where we could ask this question and get replies from our target audience though.

I never liked the fact that game developers look at games (and other things in the world generally) in a whole different way compared to how gamers do. Back to 80s when Borderbund ruled the world of IBM PC games and I was just switching to this platform from ZX Spectrum’s world. It was that period when I came across Broderbund’s Karateka (think it was a port from Atari, but not sure at 100%). Needless to say I was impressed by the smooth animation it had and finished the game more than once. Generally it left me with the impression of a great game (remember it was 80s). But recently I’ve once again found the proof of the high divergency mentioned. Just take a look at this page:

http://manna.the0rem.net/video/karateka/karateka.html

and you will understand what I am talking about. Personally, I was laughing about half an hour and cried bitterly at the same time. See if you can pass this test (admitting you’d once come across this title) :)

All that said, I still enjoy other opinions. But wonder if we could come up with some clues about what players want. Thanks to Hanford and Alchemist who have once raised the discussion about observing gamers playing your games. But that's a localized method tied to your game. It would be great if we could somehow spike more general audience.

I've discovered a few things for myself so far. These are careful studies of reviews at download.com and some other sites. Especially negative ones. ;)

One word; Balance
I am an RTS nut, Ive played almost every RTS made since dune2 and I can tell you that my favorite is still the aging starcraft. Ive purchase warcraft3 when it came out and I also beta'd it, with all its cool grfx and game-play it's still not starcraft.

SC is just the most balanced game on the planet in terms of units, structures, races and gameplay. It will be very hard to top it, SC2 maybe...

I also have to throw something into the mix that seems to be missing from games these days and that's FUN!

Yes, starcraft is definitely one of the best games ever made. Why won't they ever imrpove on it. They have announced the release of a first person shooter for console systems, but it's still not the same!

well i doubt they would want to release another rts for awhile after warcraft 3