Everyone has different opinions on different games. This is most probably due to the fact that everyone has different characters and they want to get different things out of a game. From this fact we get different breeds of gamers. the light gamer is one who just wants a fun, easy gaming experience. who probably owns a Wii to play "Wii sports" and maybe some "Super Smash Bros." this kind of gamer probably wishes he or she owns a PS3 just for "LittleBigPlanet" alone. this gamer often gives birth to or knows a "Jock Gamer". the Jock gamer is known to reside mostly in the locker room/weight room conversing with his fellow "bros" about the dark haired chick that wants to.. regardless. these organisms often own an Xbox 360 for all of the Madden games, the NHL games, and usually "SmackDown Vs. Raw". But no matter what, they always own a copy of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare". To not drag out the genealogy chart of Gamers, ill just say that we also have the FPS gamers: playing the "Half Life" series and "Unreal Tournament", the Nerdy Gamers: seen only periodically for sustenance, and to empty the sprite bottles he/she has been urinating in while advancing towards level 80 on his/her "World of Warcraft" account for the past 20 hours. The Gamer Chicks: i'm just kidding, we all know something that amazing could never come true... Blast.. The General Gamers: who play just about anything that is found under the tree at Christmas morning. and the Artsy Gamer: one who knows the difference between a fun game, and a great gaming experience. these include probably everyone on the Gamespot Staff. they know the Rubric for what makes the ultimate Game. they understand the criteria that all games must pass before when they are placed into the hands of the gamer.

The most important part of a game is always, the quality of the gameplay. If the controls are good, if the difficulty is just right, and the combat is well balanced, then the game is off to a great start. the gameplay must be enjoyable and how a game has unique gameplay can be because of different things. maybe it's because it's incredibly intense and heart-pounding like "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2", or maybe it makes you think in a way that you normally would never have to. a great example of this is when Valve made gamers "Think with Portals" in one of their components to the "Orange Box". one of the worst things ever a game can do to an audience to death. this may be more of what makes a bad game, and perhaps i'll go over that in a separate blog, but i'll just leave you with a few examples. Faulty/obnoxious Computer AI, Horrible or repetitive voice acting/monologue, too high a level of difficulty, and tedious or repetitious tasks. gameplay is always the most important part of the game because it's what the gamer's mind is focused on. if an athlete had to play a sport with ridiculous rules, stupid teammates, and extreme conditions.. i am fairly certain the athlete wouldn't be too apt to play the game again.

The next thing, and maybe the least important but most pleasing aspect of great games is the way it looks. Good graphics. i somewhat take back what i said in the previous sentence, Graphics are important. but they cannot in anyway be the focal point of the game. the point of a game isnt to look pretty. it's to stimulate every part of the gamer's senses. (with a few exceptions.. woulodnt it be great if we could smell and taste games :D )just like the gamer's mind is focused on the gameplay, the gamer's eye is obviously focused on the way the game looks. good graphics should be broken down into a few things: Origionality/Artistic **** and smooth animations. the animations are most important out of these three. i'd rather a good game with smooth animations and last year's graphics quality than maxed out graphics with frame rate drops and vertical tearing. (the one and only issue i had with "Assassin's Creed 2". Maybe the Xbox version didn't have this issue) a game with an artsy look is great. this means that they don't follow the standard look of all games. they bend the rules and do it well.this means that a lot of the time having a different artistic ****means that the game will not look realistic which is fine.

One part of a game that can completely throw a game into the halls of fame is a great story and impressive voice acting. The "Metal Gear Solid" series is notorious for it's uncanny ability to make a video game feel like a film with story that digs deeper than any other, and voice acting that blows away many actors today in some hollywood films. but perhaps maybe Metal Gear is an extreme example of story telling in games. another example "System Shock" OR "Bioshock". Bringing us to the next part that it's not just the quality of the story that makes it important but the way that the story is presented. In Bioshock the story is told completely through audio diaries that the player picks up and listens to through his or her adventure. this makes the story much more dynamic.using a creative tool to tell the story can modify and enhance the story of a video game drastically.

These are the few main cores that make games great. of course they do not need to follow the rules so rigidly. what i mean by this is that a game can have more of one aspect, such as good gameplay, and need less of something else, like beautiful graphics. an example of this is "LittleBigPlanet". this game effectively has no storyline, but because of it's fun, light, cute, and amusing gameplay it is a great game that has been experienced and loved by many. making the "perfect" video game changes depending on what genera it belongs to. in truth games are an art. instead of molding clay or covering a canvas, the task is for the developers to balance the components that are important to games correctly so that the exposure that they want their audience to feel is pulled out of the game, so their senses are filled with an entertaining experience.