would you buy a game based on visual flair alone?

I have before. Luckily the game ended up being not too bad of a game.

so as stupid as Kane and lynch 2 looks i thought the shakey cam was really cool, and thought about renting it just for that reason. so, would you buy (or rent) a game on visual flair alone?

Why would you spend your cash, that you can spend on games that are enjoyable, on a game that just only looks good ?

nah, I can always see videos of the game thanks to the internet. Especially if the game sucks.

It'd have to be something very unique to be worth playing through based solely on that factor (rent or purchase, its the time you put into it that you must consider). Otherwise you may be able to satisfy your interest in the graphical direction through videos of the title.

I have, it was stupid, but I have.  Probably not as extreme of a case as your Kane & Lynch 2 effect with that level of gameplay.

That was the only reason I bought Okami. Same with Uncharted 2.

I like mafia 2, obviously the pc version for the visual flair. I don't care what the reviews are, i'm going to buy the game regardless, if it doesn't have alot of annoying drm. Usually I don't buy a game for the graphics or visual flair, I did that with crysis, however it turned to be an excellent game too.

No, gameplay is king in my book.

No, but I've come close.  I'm being tested by Shank.
 

In the specific case of K&L2, the answer is no. Whether or not I would ever do that is a different story, but I don't think I would ever pay full price for just visual flair, maybe a Live Arcade game or something. 

Almost did for that game Auto Modellista, back when cel-shading wasn't so overused in video games. That game looked GORGEOUS at the time, but it controlled like complete crap. Still, I almost convinced myself that it would totally be worth playing through a shitty racing game because it looked so damn pretty. 
 
Then I got some sense knocked into me.

If you count box covers from 20 years ago, then yes I have.

Rent, maybe.  Buy, no, because that's just silly.

Well I preordered Super Scribualnauts beacuse of this: 
Maybe not the game's visual flair, but real life visual flair. At first I thought what the hell is wrong with me, but the game looks like it should fix the problems of the first one, so I've learned to live with myself.  

I got Flower and it could be argued that game is all visual due to the extreme simplicity of controls and story.
 
I wouldn't call that flair exactly, but a strong art style.

I think that would be a waste of money.

Maybe. Depends on the game and its genre.

Flower was pretty great. I bought that for visual flair.  
 
I probably wouldn't pay the normal $60 for a game b/c of visual flair though.

 Usually I wouldn't, but Crysis 1 would be the one I bought just for visual flair, if you include sheer graphics as part of your definition of visual flair. I didn't have any clue what the story was about. I just needed it cuz it looked amazing in that "Holt shit, forget the story, I can just stand here and look at water on the beach all day" kind of way. That was an extreme case though. 

Yup. The original Patapon.
 
Bought it after loving the art and sound design. Tough game though.