For me, the main little thing I look for in games is, strangely enough, beautiful blood and gore effects. In my opinion, it just enhances the graphics and maybe even the experience. While some games with darker, more realistic blood effects (Metal Gear Solid 4, for example) look great that way, others like the Uncharted series and Max Payne 3 just benefit from the colorful flying hemoglobin. Maybe I'm just sick, but that's what I like in video games.
I like games that can keep me entertain for a while. Such as minecraft. I like games that has like a sandbox mode, once again like minecraft or Halo. Halo has the forge mode that I really like. I guess wow goes under the category of games that would keep me entertain for a while as well since its really long.
Good maps are becoming a must for me. As much as I enjoy the Witcher 2, the quest icon being so damn small makes it a really frustrating game at times. I also enjoy the many, many helpful options in games like Forza 4, where I can decide if I want to have a guided line to follow, assistance with turns, that sort of thing. I think that should be standard in all sim racing games to come.
One big thing I liked about Gran Turismo 5 was a zoom button in the menus. Text too small? Just hit L2 (or whatever) and you get a zoomed in look at whatever you want. I wish that was standard in every video game, period. For those of us with low vision, the shittiest part of this generation of games has been the tiny text that has seemingly become the industry standard.
I guess what I like most in a game is having open areas I can wander around and dick about in. It makes things so much more immersive to me, somehow, when after an intense mission I say to myself "I need a break", but I can actually take the break while still playing the game. Maybe this doesn't count, I dunno.
I don't know if this counts, but what comes to mind now isn't mechanical but stylistic. In Fallout 3 & New Vegas when you'd start a new quest, and you would hear the crackling, hissing static sound, and the title of the quest would slowly fade on-screen. It's not integral, but I like it when games have nice a presentation, and inspired stylistic choices.
I like that games like Demon's Souls exist, but much like you, I got about ten hours into Dark Souls (I know it's not the same, but...) and couldn't do it. I just don't want my gaming to feel like masochism, although I get the appeal of that level of difficulty for some gamers. For me though, I don't think putting in an easier difficulty setting or options for accessibility dumbs down the game if the game developers keep the more brutal difficulties intact for gamers who want that sort of experience. Getting back to Forza 4, I love that it's as accessible as you want it to be, and if you genuinely want to become a better driver in it, you HAVE to drive without some of the assists on, because without them, you're limiting yourself to what the AI has determined is best for you. The EXP and cash bonuses for driving without assists are a great carrot-on-a-stick for getting better, too.
Thats stuffs all great, pause able cutscenes are amazing. I love the Metal Gear Solid series but god damn some of them are long, I was always halfway through one when my mom shouts out we need to go now!
Nice looking UI, the ability to change difficulties without having to restart your game, a New game+ that lets you take the previous playthrough's unlocks into the higher difficulty, a big head mode because video games and some way to check achievements/trophies without having to bring up the console interface.
It's not really a "feature" but I really appreciate games with gun "authenticity."
Walking Dead Episode 1 SPOILERS ahead:
For example, in the final moments of Walking Dead Ep 1 when you have to save Doug or Carley, it is impossible that Carley doesn't have a round in the chamber to shoot the zombie that is holding her ankle. For one, the slide isn't locked back (like it would be after firing all the rounds in her magazine, but say she for whatever reason pressed the slide release after running empty:) but ignoring that, you give her the magazine and she puts it in the gun and is able to fire without putting a round in the chamber first (by cocking the slide.) So she already had a bullet to kill that zombie that was holding her. I know it's severe knit-picking but it cheapened that moment for me just a little bit.
I'm always too scared to see if a game has pauseable cutscenes.
I like when a game has stylized menus that move or something like that but are also still totally functional. Final Fantasy 13's character things that did a brief animation when loading up were cool. Escape from Butcher Bay's big rotating square also struck me as really cool. Metroid Prime 2's start up menu was pretty neat. Fallout 3's Pip Boy menu was also good.
That's a little touch which seems to stand out to me.
Oh another one I like is when games have an in fiction reason for making the game harder or easier, like Bastion with it's Shrine stuff and stuff like that.
I agree with everything you said to the enth degree, except Easy Mode. I look for a Hard Mode that the developers actually played, and didn't just double every number from the last difficulty. I love hard games, and if that means playing them for longer than if I had picked easy, then so be it.
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