With a varied selection of semi-recent games, with one old game showing how it fits in.

Valued:

1.a.
Deus Ex 4 - one giant secret-hunt / theft-a-thon by a variety of means.
Grim Dawn - lots of hunting around.
Quake - most good maps feel like you're progressing around somewhere cool, with some secret-hunting.
Rise Of The Tomb Raider - so many little things to do in cool settings, but not too vague and aimless.
Dark Souls 3 - does this ridiculously well.
Doom 4 - a bit linear but the progression in environments keeps it going.

1.b.
Mordheim - little progression, no linked maps, but it really makes you think fucking hard.
Battlefleet Gothic - simple tactics but requires some work with positioning and actions.

2.
Grim Dawn - loads of effects, bodies and bits of bodies flying everywhere.
BattleFleet Gothic - even though it's just ship to ship, there's a good feeling of weight and power to it.
Quake - still fun shooting monsters in the face. AD's extra gibbage is nice.
Doom 4 - oh yeah!

3.
Mordheim - the city is nicely presented, my Skaven have lots of character.
Titanfall 2 - on-reals, but just plain goddamn beautiful.
Grim Dawn - lovely details and general great style.
Dark Souls 3 - good to great graphics, but great to perfect art direction.
Doom 4 - looks great, much better variety than D3 too.

Unvalued:

1.
Dark Souls 3 - pause the awesomeness for 2 hours while you bang your head against the same brick wall?? Fuck that, just paint the wall and I'll watch it dry.

2.
Deus Ex 4 - all the bloody emails and e-books. Dull dull dull.
Grim Dawn - all the tomes and notes and minor conversations with people you don't give a shit about.

3.
All games that do this. 

Valued -

- short-medium length experience (I have a life god-damnit)
- gameplay density of said experience (areas have purpose, no wasted space)
- game juiciness (hitting things feels satisfying, actions have meaning)
- customisability (adds extra longevity so I can dip back into the game at a whim, doom and quake are prime examples)

Not Valued -

- games which are 500 hours long (on purpose, fucking skyrim)
- games which aren't fun immediately (they hinder your abilities from the start and upgrades are arbitrary)
- COD or Fifa 

I play games for the sense of reward. Obviously there are many ways to give the player reward. I really love how exploration feels awesome in Metroid Games at least in the 2d games, as I don't own Nintendosystems and played them in an Emulator. Also the bosses in Metroid are excellant because you will not first try them always. They are doable after a few tries and if you first try kill them you feel rewarded for being really good at the game. I think AM2R, a Metroid fangame did this just as good or better than the Nintendogames themselves.
What I like is how Metroid or Zelda deliver a sense of progression/reward by giving the player more powers or items overtime.
What got me with quake was the dark scary atmosphere and the otherworldly architecture
I value as well:
-tight, very intuitive controls
-immersion through atmosphere or graphics but I take both if the game can offer them 

- short-medium length experience (I have a life god-damnit)
I don't get this argument at all. There's no obligation for you to finish the game in a fixed time. Just come back to it, and come back to it, etc. There's literally no draw-back of more content?! I would love a few more quake episodes... 

For me Brothers was one of the greatest games. It was short, meaningful and just gorgeous.
One of the few games I completed because it kept me gripped but didn't consume my free time.
Most games were like this back in the early 90's. It's more of a preference thing really, the only exception being WoW. 

I get all of those, even if they aren't my personal preference. 

I value:
- Good gameplay systems. Doesn't need to be too complex, just robust and well thought-out.
- Emergent gameplay allowing freedom and creative play, mostly why I love the so-called immersive-sim genre with games like Thief or Ultima Underworld.
- Great/good level design.
- Strong atmosphere/real sense of place.
- Immersion.
- Emphasis on sound design (with good sound tech if possible).
- High replayability/length as long as the pacing is good.
- Modding tools.

I don't care about:
- Anything taking precedence over gameplay. There's the word game in video game, it's there for a reason.
- Walking simulators. Only exception would be NaissanceE.
- 2deep4u stories that are more often than not written by pretentious hacks who think they're the new David Lynch but have the talent of a clam under anti-depressants and should consider another career option.
- Real time with pause in RPGs. I hate this system.
- Cover systems in games. 

Like:
======

> A cleverly interconnected world where you are continually coming back to previous areas throughout the whole game to unlock new routes with new abilities. (Metroid Prime, Dark Souls etc.)

> An elegant marriage of expertly-crafted puzzle elements and awesome environment (Ico, Shadow of the Colossus etc). Can be basically the entire game, or can be just part of an otherwise action-oriented game.

> Combat (in a first-person or third-person game) that requires actual thought and strategy, not just reflexes and/or character stats. Been a while since I played a game like that so I can't think of any examples right now.


Don't like:
===========

> All those pretentious "indie" wank tropes like ultra-minimalist visuals, super-pretentious hipster music as soundtrack, and (as Skacky says) "This story is sooo deep" crap. You can usually tell if a game is going to be full of this shite before you play it by looking at a picture of the developer(s), or reading whatever wanky article they've written for Gamasutra.

> "Procedurally-generated [levels, quests, whatever]" crap. AKA "I made an algorithm to randomly generate mediocre and soulless content because I haven't the resources or am too lazy to do it fucking properly."

> Games where it's just about grinding and min/maxing your character stats and nothing to do with skill/thought/strategy (vast majority of RPGs and action-RPGs, and now most modern action games in general as they incorporate more and more stats and grindy shit into the gameplay) 

There's nothing lazy about making a good random level generator.

Obviously, it won't replace hand-crafted environments, but not every game is like Quake, and sometimes the focus is on having a different experience every time you play. 

i was going to write something but i will go with what kinn says

i don't care about pretentious indie games, i'm more neutral in that respect. i don't actively dislike them

but i really dislike procedurally things. the technology is just not there for now.

and grinding... i like skyrim and i would like a mod that get rids of most of the leveling. you don't get good at something in a few months (or days).

also i would like something like classes, you start with some stats and a "background" story or archetype and you can go +-25 points in those stats. the skills will slowly deteriorate to -25 if you don't use them and go to +25 if you use them. and rebalance everything with that in mind. so you have a 70 magic character that can go to +95, with 40 strength that can go to 65 or 15, etc. that would introduce some grinding, but grinding that i wouldn't mind to endure

and with things that like, i go too with that "juiciness" thing that fifth says. it's one of the things that like in arcane dimensions, it's the main reason that i seek mods for the games i like. sometimes juiciness can be something like brutal doom. after a while it gets old but you need juiciness so you end up with beautiful doom or smooth doom.

i also like that unreal thing that shambler says. that's why i like more quake and stalker that call of duty et al 

It's partially random but all the rooms are handmade.
I love the trailers. 

Replayability, good art direction, fluid animations, tight controls, direct control of the action, usability, non-annoying music, non-annoying voicework, rich soundscapes, etc. 

Looks OK but I think the scale and movement feel off. I'm more excited for Gibhard 

same here. 

My interest in STRAFE is despite the procedural generation. I like the materials system of acid v blood on the ground, and details like the blood actually staining the water.

On the topic of the thread:
- Meaningful exploration
- Meaningful returns to spaces
- Secrets that matter but aren't required (they shouldn't be obvious, but should make me feel clever when I find them)
- Mechanics that match the art work and lore rather than being arbitrary changes
- A setting I can't casually encounter
- Manual unlimited saves
- Pause
- An escape from the situation in which I myself am playing the game
- Easy return to favorite places and experiences (map lists, or console access that isn't arcane in use)
- Deterministic logic in complex data (I hate dice rolls, I do like numerous factors, gradients, and mitigation)

I'm probably getting a bit too Armchair Designer at this point. 

This board to blind to realise the old school retro love letter's to Quake and hate it becuase there cuck's 

more than either of those. I'm sure there might be a game or two waiting in the wings as well. 

The bombshell prequel is a retro game on a retro engine. It's got an advantage there 

Next person who seriously uses "cuck" on this board should be skinned and dipped in IcyHot.