I love games that tell a good story. If it gets me sucked into the story and I start to care about what happens to the characters, then it's a good game, whatever other production faults it may have.

An example of this would be the Medal of Honor reboot and its sequel, Warfighter. The story of the Battle of Roberts Ridge is one that needs to be told, so that our younger generation is mindful of what we are and what we did, what we hoped to accomplish, regardless of the outcome. It was the little things that both games did so well. The laconic, determined SEAL team leader. The grizzled, bearded Green Beret with his dirt- and sweat-stained FDNY baseball cap turned backwards. It told the story of a post 9/11 military in a place that had destroyed all other conquering armies. The funeral at the end of the second game was one of the most emotional and respectful things I've ever seen in gaming.

Ubisoft has a history of turning out games with horrific production errors. But when their development teams are on, they are ON. Example #1: Splinter Cell: Blacklist. This game continues to pull me into the story. I don't care that it's so much easier than the ne plus ultra of the series, Chaos Theory. The writing and the voice acting were so spot on, serious when it demanded it, funny as hell when it was appropriate, it just told a great story. Likewise, the voice acting and script of Ghost Recon: Future Soldier was super-secret-special-forces awesomeness.

Games don't have to have every little nuance of gameplay to be excellent. At least for me. If you tell me a story good enough, I'll buy in.

PFunk, I can identify with your opinion, but with a bit of a twist. What you describe is what many people refer to as "immersion." It's the reason I like flight sims in single player that have career campaigns for pilots. I can't get into a game without imagining myself there in that time and place. Immersion helps one suspend disbelief. Without the suspension of disbelief, it's just pressing buttons on a keyboard or game controller.

I loved the original Battlefield. The very first one and the original add-ons like Road to Rome. There were no cut scenes but just simulating or gaming the great historical battles of WWII (instead of a fictional place like in Operation Flashpoint and the ARMA games) enabled me to imagine I was there. It was like playing solider when I was a kid or cowboys and Indians. I would always imagine real historical battles at real historical locations. I can't get into it otherwise. I couldn't then and I can't now.

Like you said, games don't have to be perfect recreations gameplay-wise. But I need to be at El-Alemain (spelling?) or Tobruk or Stalingrad or Hue or Saigon or The Little Big Horn or Gettysburg. It can't be a fictional location. It doesn't matter if the gameplay is one guy against the tanks of Erwin Rommel. I just can't get into fictional locations or fictional armies or fictional enemies no matter how "realistic" the gameplay.

That's why I dislike games other people like.

Exactly. That's why online play doesn't work for me unless it is done very well. Battlefield is a good example of multiplayer done well. Call of Duty is an example of multiplayer for the ADHD set.

If Operation Flashpoint: Red River had dynamic AI placement like SWAT 4, and had gotten rid of Sgt. Sweary McPottymouth, I'd still have it on my PC.

+1 to PFunk's sentiments.

I hate reading reviews wherein they slam a current iteration of an older game because 1) it's not true to the original or 2) it's not what they expected it to be. It's like watching a movie and then rating it based on all other movies..... why not watch a movie and rate it depending on actual criteria of a good movie?

Anyway, an example of this is X-Com. The old one was great, I can see that. Golden age of PC games and whatnot. Then the new Firaxis XCOM came out. I loved it. Others didn't. Whatever. Other games such as Deadlight and Mark of the Ninja really pulled me into the game world despite the actual game being quite a simple side-scroller.

Plainsman, I agree with your term of "immersion," however, I find it is not limited to "career campaigns." I can play BMS as a campaign or as one-off missions, but the theatre engine is just so damn insane that I always feel like I'm "there." Compare this to the usual sterile missions of DCS. Having said that, I've played a few DCS-generated missions that were quite immersive and some user-made missions as well. So it is not the game engine itself but how it presents the game world to me that matters. After so many missions in DCS, when we first started playing BMS and had a flight of Eagles fly by our formation (we were on ingress, they were RTB), one of my buddies said "Wow! You don't see that in DCS unless you scripted it in." And he was right. BMS, or rather, the F4 engine does most of the hard work in making a theatre feel alive, and that is one of the biggest immersion factors --- the knowledge that you were not alone in the air and there just might be an enemy flight that is at the right place and at the right time to pounce on you and ruin your day. It keeps the adrenaline up and keeps you on your toes.

Immersion is why I love Rise of Flight. my imagination is fed with stories I heard from actual WWI pilots I met at our local VA hospital. I can understand the technology and physics of that era. The developing career becomes my life and loosing it early is traumatic. More than just saving, reloading and hoping to do better next time.

For some reason or other, I was part-way into Blacklist and stopped. I'm glad I read this post because I just realized I have another practically brand new game waiting to be played.

I love anything with a good story.

Vietcong had plenty of gameplay quirks, but I couldn't of cared less.

I played World of Wacraft for 5 years ....played with two online friends from Chicago & NY and about 4 online friends from Australia. Together we were a band of brothers.... always helping each other. So many good times .... two of them called me today to wish we Merry Christmas.

I couldn't play games no one else likes ....i get lonely