Gameplay, storyline, music, game with online, graphics.
whether it be rpg or not, gameplay is key. an rpg's story might be the best ever but if the controls and the menus and enemies, etc. are really bad, I'd give it up in a heartbeat. Example off the top of my head is koudelka. the battles were soooooooo bad, no hot main character or story was gonna make me want to play that game.
the storyline part is dependent on the type of game I think. Racing games have no story really. Nor should they. I like it better just mindlessly racing. Gran Turismo 3 comes to mind.
And lastly I guess I'd have to say the graphics are the worst determining factor in what makes a game good. some of the best looking games really sucked for me. King's Quest 7, Phantasmagoria, Koudelka (again), are some that come to mind (please remember I'm old school and KQ7 and Phantasmagoria were considered revolutionary when they came out. comparable to the Far Cry's, Doom III's, and Half Life 2's of today). Yet some games that had mediocre graphics or plain graphics have been the most fun for me. Final Fantasy Tactics, Pirates, Final Fantasy 4 (II in the US), the very first Counter-Strike come to mind. All of these games were really plain for their time except for maybe counter-strike. but the others weren't the top notch in graphics when they came out but in my mind they were awesome! Take FFT for instance. Hardly any of those CG cutscenes which are now rampant in games, yet still so fun and addicting.
whether it be rpg or not, gameplay is key. an rpg's story might be the best ever but if the controls and the menus and enemies, etc. are really bad, I'd give it up in a heartbeat. Example off the top of my head is koudelka. the battles were soooooooo bad, no hot main character or story was gonna make me want to play that game.
the storyline part is dependent on the type of game I think. Racing games have no story really. Nor should they. I like it better just mindlessly racing. Gran Turismo 3 comes to mind.
And lastly I guess I'd have to say the graphics are the worst determining factor in what makes a game good. some of the best looking games really sucked for me. King's Quest 7, Phantasmagoria, Koudelka (again), are some that come to mind (please remember I'm old school and KQ7 and Phantasmagoria were considered revolutionary when they came out. comparable to the Far Cry's, Doom III's, and Half Life 2's of today). Yet some games that had mediocre graphics or plain graphics have been the most fun for me. Final Fantasy Tactics, Pirates, Final Fantasy 4 (II in the US), the very first Counter-Strike come to mind. All of these games were really plain for their time except for maybe counter-strike. but the others weren't the top notch in graphics when they came out but in my mind they were awesome! Take FFT for instance. Hardly any of those CG cutscenes which are now rampant in games, yet still so fun and addicting.
