What Makes a Good Game?

[fishy_fiz]

There's no absolutes here. Everybody has different tastes and different things they deem "fun". In my opinion its easier to put a finger on what makes a bad game, and try to avoid that.
In my humble opinion however:

Variety, but not in excess is important. Too little variety there's little motivation to keep going. Overdo it however and there's never a sense of cohesion.
Learning curve. Give a player a level or 2 to come to grips with the game controls and basic mechanics. Again, dont overdo it though, or a person will just start thinking, "enough already, I just wanna get on with the game".
Im also a fan of a good storyline. Doesnt have to be the best story, but something engaging for me helps me me want to continue a game to see how the story pans out.
Audio. Especially for a dark, atmospheric FPS shouldnt be underestimated. For A grade modern gaming this atmosphere can to a degree be created with visuals, but for older games/game engines sound adds more. We have natural sensory responses to audiovisuals, so try to have at least one or the other adding to atmosphere.

[fishy_fiz]

I can honestly say I have never played any 3D shooter that I have enjoyed. In fact, I find them downright boring. Maybe this is a bit of a melodramatic broad comment...but "they are all the same game with different graphics"!

To each his own as they say, but this is exactly the same with any genre.
Platformers, 2d shooters, racing games, rts games, etc., etc.

The devil is in the details. This is what separates games that are on the surface 80%+ (figure chosen at random) the same.

[fishy_fiz]

While Im not really a mobile gamer (I only a few emulators on my phone and never really bothered to download any other games), I actually think there's a few good things theyve (and Nintendo's Wii to a degree) bought back to gaming. Most notable being that people no longer judge games on so heavily on graphics.
It was only a few years ago when most gamers would write off a game before they even gave it a chance if the graphics werent up to par. Nowadays people are exposed to weaker platforms again, ergo much quicker to judge a game on its own merrits rather than the quality of its graphics.
There's still some people who dont look beyond audiovisuals, but this has always been the case (even amiga had its share of games that played badly, but looked nice, and sold well because of it).

Low spec systems (mobile devices) I believe have played a big part of this.

[fishy_fiz]

Haha, Ive had some majorly weird dreams during periods of excessive gaming. For some reason though they tend to be very over the top nightmares when I have dreams that are influenced by games. Perhaps due to the style of games that have the longevity required to completely submerge yourself into for a week or two and thier stories, or maybe due to the sleeping patterns that submerging yourself so heavily into a game requires (probably somewhere inbetween really). Whatever the reason they usually end up a twist on the same recurring theme. Lots of flesh tones (never full color), lots of blood, and my father's decapitating clones factory (weird story of its own), but with an influence from whatever game Im playing.
Reading this back Im not surprised I seldom have marathon gaming sessions Those dreams are creepy as all heck.