What are your personal preferences in video games in general?

Dear video gamers in the Giant Bomb forums

Before we begin this question, after I think back on some debates from the past, between Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport series, some say they personally prefer Gran Turismo and some say they personally Forza Motorsport, due to specific points they like more such as car handling, the quantity of content, etc.

So this inspired me to create this thread as I would like to see you guys share which part of the aspect of video games, in general, is the most important to you. Something like gameplay style, story writing, setting and many other things to describe.

For example:

There is a gamer who wants to play a fun shooter game that has fast pacing, very appealing graphics and is not so violent, so the Splatoon series for Nintendo consoles would be a perfect choice for him/her.

Here are my personal preferences in gaming:

• I prefer to have the most realistic driving model/physics and car handling accuracy to the real world so I find Sim Racing is more suited for me than Simcade and various other sub-genre of driving/racing games, that's why I prefer iRacing, Automobilista 2, Assetto Corsa Competizione & rFactor 2 more than Gran Turismo & Forza Motorsport series these days plus I preferred first person/cockpit view.
• The racing wheel with pedals, gear shifter and handbrake add-on is my most preferred gaming peripheral, which makes me feel like being a real race/rally car driver.
• I prefer race cars (Formula 1, Le Mans Hypercars, etc.) and rally cars (WRC, Dakar, etc) more than road cars in gaming.
• I prefer realistic race circuits (Either licensed or original) more than cartoony kart racing tracks in general.
• I prefer motorsports way more than street racing.
• Manual and Semi-Auto transmissions are always my favorite for driving games.
• PC is my personal favorite gaming platform of all because it's highly customizable in terms of specs, RGB lights, etc. A huge variety of games to choose from and it's the official platform for high-end Sim Racing games.
• I prefer the keyboard & mouse combo more than controller pads when it comes to rhythm and mechanic/electrician simulators, even though I really love using any sort of motion controller including Joy-Cons to play the Just Dance series though.
• Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport were both my favorite driving game IPs during my teenhood.
• I still like controller pads (Either PlayStation or Xbox controller) for arcade-style racing games.
• Guilty Gear and BlazBlue are the only two fighting game franchises that I like while I dislike the rest of the others.
• For action adventure, a controller pad or keyboard and mouse are already good for that.
• I'm a casual gamer, even though I still like to master my virtual racing skills in games.
• I prefer human characters while I dislike furries in general.
• I do love cel-shaded anime graphics.
• I avoid a majority of ESRB M-Rated/PEGI 18 games (Regardless of gaming platform) because they contain too much graphical/disturbing content such as blood and gore which tend to give me nightmares, yet the only three M-Rated games that I handle and enjoy are the Halo series, Team Fortress 2, and Quantum Break which they appear to be milder compared to others, while Cyberpunk 2077 is a little bit too violent me even though it contains strong foul language but I find this game is enjoyable.

The gaming genres that I don't like:

• Survival horror in general, as I said, it contains too much disturbing content as they give me nightmares.
• Arcade-style kart racing games including Mario Kart, Modnation Racers, etc. Because I don't like its driving model/physics/kart handling and gameplay style plus I'm not a big fan of cartoony graphics (But not saying they're bad).
• Super Smash Bros style fighting games especially its clones like PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royal because I dislike its gameplay style plus its very toxic fanbase.
• Multiplayer online battle arena, is a genre that I don't personally care plus a very toxic fanbase.
• All sorts of boxing games in general, because I don't like this type of sport.

Lately I have been very interested in games that I can play in half-hour bursts, which is why I spend a lot f time in Magic Arena. Also I've been interested more in FPS games with good campaigns lately; I should really go back and finish off Doom Eternal now that I'm thinking of it. I still prefer FPS' with mouse and keyboard.

Right now I'm just playing a mountainload of Returnal which is scratching a lot of itches for me. Very difficult but manageable and I feel like I'm making good progression.

World of Warcraft when it was good

@rorie: The Doom series' gameplay looks pretty fun though, I agree with you on preferring keyboard and mouse more than controller pads for shooter games because it's more accurate to aim at the targets.

For the Returnal (A game made by Housemarque and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment), please enjoy while you're processing through the story mode, yeah it looks so hard and scary to play and I find this game unsuitable for me despite it being T-Rated.

lately i'm more drawn to narrative-forward games that have a specific story to tell. i'm still playing a good diversity of stuff, but if i can point to an emotional connection or some humanity in a game (as opposed to emergently 'telling my own story,' really kick ass 'game-feel' or something more minimalistic that puts fun and mechanics first) it slips through my brain pretty quickly. i still have a good time, but it doesn't stick.

hell yeah. that's secretly A N N H I L A T I O N: The Game and i love it. great abstracted storytelling and that soundtrack is a banger.

Re: your last bullet point, I always thought it strange that Halo games were rated M. I haven't played much (really only Halo 3) but it seemed pretty tame.

This one might be kind of weird, but anytime a game has character customization I'm immediately more interested for some reason.

The original game has a lot more blood than later games. I mean, it's still pretty tame in comparison to most games, but it would have been a pretty hard T for the time. There's not really much in the way of gore, just way more blood splatter in both multiplayer and single player. There are also specific moments that push it into M territory - Chief punching through Flood Keyes's head, for instance, or that human that goes nuts and starts shooting at you as soon as he sees you and you have to shoot him first. And just more human corpses laying around in general than other games, mostly to explain why there are health packs and ammo laying around for you (fun aside: Most or all of those corpses are gone in the last half of the game, after the Flood are released).

To answer OP's question, I'm up for trying mostly anything but the majority of the time I'm playing or thinking about playing games from these genres:

• First person shooters, although less often these days. And I generally mean single player campaigns, not multiplayer. In my teenage years, this was Halo and Call of Duty. As time went on, that became old-school Doom and the Machine Games Wolfenstein games, then CS:GO and R6 Siege, and these days I prefer the "classic style" shooters we've had over the past few years. Dusk, Prodeus, that kind of thing, though honestly I'm mostly interested in playing Wrath: Aeon of Ruin and kinda not much else in the genre at this point.
• Crafting/Survival games, specifically not those of the Ark/Rust lineage. Subnautica and its sequel are some of my favorite games ever made and I'm kinda always up for playing Minecraft and Astroneer, but my real obsession in the past has been Factorio/Satisfactory. I cannot describe to you how satisfying it is to make a massive factory with machines and conveyor belts all over the place and then figuring out how to do it better, neater, and more efficiently next time.
• RPGs - Specifically, CRPGs, but there are some JRPGs hanging around on the "list of games I want to play". Honestly out of everything on this list, I'd tell you that CRPGs take up most of my mental space these days. I don't play them all the time, because I've done that before and that's a quick way to go insane, but I've definitely caught myself considering builds I could potentially take through one of these at any given time. Actually finishing these games is a different story, though. Finishing Pillars of Eternity 2 and Baldur's Gate 2/Throne of Bhaal is on my "definitely need to do it this year" list.

The next thing I'd like to dive into, actually, are turn-based strategy games. We've had a lot of these recently and I'd like to dive into a few. Next up on my to-play list is actually Tactics Ogre Reborn and I'd also like to play Warhammer 40K: Chaos Gate: Daemonhunters at some point soon.

And the other thing I want to do more of this year is get some shorter games in. I spend a lot of time thinking about and playing games that are supposed to be dozens and dozens of hours long and, really, it would be nice to finish some smaller games. Signalis seems cool, I bought Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time during the Steam sale, I want to play Blasphemous again with all the DLC this time, and I never actually played much of Ori and the Will O The Wisps.

Another game I got from the Steam sale is Distance, a racing game that has some cool stuff going on that I really want to dive into at some point. I haven't got huge into a racing game in a while.

And that's where I'm at in terms of "things I play often and things I really want to play".

Well, there's a dozen different ways to be a smartass about this, but I'll try for a real answer.

I tend to go for open world, racing, role-playing, 3D platforming, and/or strategy games. Also single-player shooters, I suppose. I'm typically repelled by rogue-likes, survival horror, sports, and multi-player games. I casually disdain Zelda-likes and soulsborne games send me into an inconsolable rage.

I'm usually a sucker for games set in space or post-post-apocalypses. COnversely, I usually could not care about traditional fantasy settings, whether of the high or "dark" varieties. Also, anime is for jerks (Note: I am a jerk sometimes).

There are always exceptions, of course. For example, I like Hades and I have no patience for the Horizon games. Games that mix and match stuff that I both like and dislike, such as Signalis or The Witcher, tend to leave me conflicted.

Also, I like to take long walks on the beach- Ah, I couldn't help myself there. Anyway, have fun psychologically profiling all of us.

I would love to still b able to play JRPG's like I did before I had kids. I spent SO many hours in those worlds and ate it all up. Recently I played a ton of Fortnite. So much so that I had to quit cold turkey so I can play other games. I have an ever-growing backlog of Steam games.

@justin258: Yeah, Halo: Combat Evolved's blood detailing is just quite disturbing so I guess the developer (Bungie) wanted to make it quite realistic while they didn't want to make it too disturbing so their goal was to attract most kinds of gamers to play it.

For the game called Distance (By Refract), and I really love it, appearing to be a combination of San Francisco Rush 2049 and TRON movies, even though it's quite scary but I got used to it.

Here are my personal preferences in gaming:

• I enjoy games like Ace Combat where there is a balance between aradey and sim like flying. Flying stuff around - aircraft, spaceships, birds is relaxing to me.
• I like game that have their own unique peripherals and controllers, but if a game works on a joypad...that's fine.
• Rather than SHMUPS I like narrative based 1st/3rd person shooters with a bit of sneaking around and heavy on story.
• If I play a racing game I like realistic looks but a bit of arcady forgiveness in the driving. I don't mind modifying teh car as long as it not too complex. My patience for modification and tinkering ends at Gran Turismo 2. ;-)
• I have a gaming PC, but I perfere most game son console, sitting on a sofa or an easy chain peats any gamers chair.
• My favorite games in the last few years (in no order): Mass Effect 2, Uncharted 1-3, AC4: Black Flag, Ace Combat 7, Dragon's Dogma, Persona 5, Heavy Rain, Until Dawn, Yakuza 0, Journey, and Life Is Strange...among a few others.
• I have started getting in to retro games, mostly up sampled and germorty fixed PSX games - simple games that when upsampled often look very nice - even now.

What I don't like in gaming:

• I dislike many games that were thought of as fantastic a decades ago. Everything has ist time and place, but it never should hold that "pedestal". Life for the young & popular games now should be games made recently.

  For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to reap.

• I did not grow up with Nintendo, so I have no youthful affection for Mario, Link, Donkey Kong, or any of teh other characters. They are fine, but the thought of those characters holds no wonder/enjoyment in my mind. I went form Atari 2600 to Apple IIc to 386/486 Wintel gaming in the 1980 and 1994.
• I don't like most MMORPGs because they cannot be soloed effectively. Just like in real life I like playing by myself (oh, shut up) more often than multiplayer. I love a good multiplayer shooter, but when a game does beyond shooting I want to think and figure out things at my own pace - doing it solo.
• I think all MMOPRGs where everything really is reduced to DPS (Damage Per Second) become pointless...you might as well play an Excel spreadsheet.
• When developer slal start making the same game it is bad for the industry...yes, there can be too many of a popular game type.

I generally prefer first person over third person cameras, but it largely depends on the game and genre. I prefer mouse and keyboard inputs for most games over aim assist/auto aim. I like being in full control of my game. I like arcade racing games over simulators. I have a great fondness for Street Fighter over most other 2D fighters despite my username. I love arcade games and arcade controllers, and the inventiveness of arcade game design over longer narrative game experiences. I also really like competitive game experiences over narrative stuff.

I probably find exceptions for all of these preferences all the time though.

Oh, I can see you named after Terry Bogard, he is a great fighter, yeah I used to have an interest in Street Fighter, Darkstalkers and The King of Fighters series until I become more of a fan of Arc System Works' Guilty Gear and BlazBlue since 2014.

Also, I used to play the Metal Slug series (A Run & Gun series from SNK), which is totally fun.

Pretty interesting gaming preferences so far.

I like a wide variety of games, but fatherhood limits my time. Tend to mostly stick with racing, fighting, and arena shooters that can be played in short bursts. The past year was mostly dedicated to Mortal Kombat X, Soul Calibur 6, Killer Instinct, Gravel, Star Wars Squadrons and Battlefront. Haven't made it through an RPG since my daughter was born, and it's taken me a year to almost finish Control.

Edit: Forgot to mention, I did play Mario 3D World with my kids. That's a fun game.

I see, also I've got Star Wars Squadrons on PC which is fun but I'm not that good at flying in first-person view and I wished I had a flight stick peripheral so I can properly control my virtual spaceships and planes in whichever flight games that I play.

There are a lot of things, in general, getting more expensive which makes me feel like limiting myself from buying gaming products at the moment plus I'm still thinking to upgrade my PC by fall 2023 or mid-2024 to utilize DDR5 ram and a new CPU.

@gtxforza: I've been thinking of getting a flight stick for all the flight sims and space shooters in my backlog, but will probably wait until the kids are older and I have more free time.

Squadrons works pretty well on a controller though.

I play a little bit of everything, so there are always exceptions to these, but generally:

• I prefer offline, single-player games. I've yet to find a single MMO that I enjoy. Any competitive game that has a shop you're supposed to buy stuff in during a match immediately loses my interest, which makes it hard for me to enjoy MOBAs and certain shooters.
• Outside of the online distinction, there isn't really much in terms of a genre I won't touch. Again, I play a little bit of everything. I'll play anything from the "Dude Bro-iest" shooters and sports games, to the nerdiest JRPGs.
• Similarly, I don't really have a preference in the story vs game mechanics fight. It's an apples to oranges fight and I like both.
• I prefer linear games over open worlds. I usually don't have much desire to explore game worlds, so when I have to drive two minutes to get to my next objective in GTA because they want to have a really big map, it just feels like busy work to me.
• I don't care for excessive violence. Having played Mortal Kombat since I was about 7 or 8 years old, I now roll my eyes at the modern-day fatality, or the Callisto Protocol's "grinding a man in a fan" trailer. It just all feels very "dumb 90s kid energy" to me. It doesn't offend me; it just seems more like an outdated fad or something.