Why do you always have to choose one, why not say both?

Gameplay and a decently realized world can take a game alot further than pretty graphics and passable gameplay.

Look at Crysis 3 vs Dark Souls.

Personally I think it could work either way. For example Windwaker was your standard Zelda affair but what really made it stand out was the amazing cell shaded graphics.

Both are necessary and interdependent.

Some great games couldn't exist without sufficient graphical power, and some games wouldn't be as immersive without the graphics they have.

Imagine playing what I consider one of the best games this gen, Red Dead Redemption on PS1 or even PS2 for that matter. Those wild west vistas and euphoria engine reactions to getting shot pulled me into the world in a way that less power would never do.

The only problem is when devs rely on flashy graphics over solid gameplay....so I guess gameplay, but that's like saying your heart is more important than your lungs, you could live without one but the quality would suffer tremendously compared to two.

I'm glad you're all commenting and debating because that's what we do here, however an approval would be great too :P

I think both variables depend on each other, at least a bit. But gamer's tend to consider gameplay mechanisms more than graphics.

gameplay

both are important

gameplay all the way. 100%

If done right, graphics are gameplay.
For excample...

An exploding building rigged with physics blowing rocks up across the map can look stunning, yet turns into gameplay when these rocks can actualy hit and damage you.
Looking down seeing your own body in a fps, can be considered awesome gfx, but turns into gameplay when a rock hits your knee, and you'll be able to put some bandaid on it after noticing it.

Most developers are stupid, thats why you have this GFX versus Gameplay discussion.

If we can have both.... :')

Yeah, story is needed. Great graphics aren't NEEDED but are still very important. When I played Oblivion for the first time it was about 3 years after it had come out. The graphics and animations, just ew. Yet it remains the most played game ever for me.

One game series did both. Metal gear solid. 1, 2, 3, 4. Excellent graphics/animations/sound + gameplay that is still unrivalled

Gameplay of course is the 1st thing when creating a game & everything else is just a bonus. Thats what sets great devs apart from others. Some devs just give u a great gameplay experience, some give u great gameplay & story, but when a developer can give u great gameplay, great story & great graphics to bring the game to life thats when u just have to tip your hats off to those devs because they go that extra EFFORT to give gamers that all around experience.

Both. Graphics are important, having a high quality polish helps me feel secure about my purchase. Gameplay is important because it helps bring great controls to my polished game. Everyone who grew up gaming remembers why we kept buying new consoles. It was the bragging rights we got when we moved from Atari, to nes/turbo graphics16 to sega genesis/super Nintendo and so on. Playing Mario from nes to snes was amazing with the graphic jump. With that in mind it did start with the gameplay. So gameplay first then when that gets mastered polish the crap out of it.

Gameplay is most important but graphics are more for immersion. Coming out of a dim and hollow cave only to be greeted by beautiful sunshine with good lighting and shader quality. Foliage being plentiful and top notch with that river down below moving and flowing seamlessly.

That what graphical finesse brings for me anyways. It makes a great experience even greater.

I wouldn't put graphics over gameplay but I'd say graphics are just as important to me. I can stand a game if the gameplay is mediocre but graphics are great, just for the sake of eye candy visuals. But I find it extremely hard to stand a game with solid gameplay, but sh#t graphics. It's 2013, for Christ's sake, we were supposed to have flying cars a couple of years ago. Where are the Avatar-quality games we were promised?

My conclusion is, both are equally important.

65% Gameplay, 35% Graphics.

Graphics sells the game, gameplay is what makes it good, bad or great.

What good is gameplay if you cant get immersed into a game? I dont care too much about the cutting edge stuff, I mean if you offer me a version with better graphics ile take it every time, but im not gonna cry if its not Crysis 3 or whatever. but if a game is just plain ugly to look at, or just isnt well put together, ile beat it, and never touch it again.

Graphics are what forms a first impression and as psychology has proven in a vast majority of cases, First impressions actually have a stronger influence on your opinion than Actual long term experience. (Its true, your brain works by creating topics or memories, then manipulating them little by little, it takes a lot to overide a first impression)

I want both which is why I'm getting a PS4.

BTW in case anyone is wondering about this I like the PlayStation because of the controller, technology and Sony exclusives.

Motorola RAZR i

It's 2013 so we don't need to bother about graphics. They are already great. And with the next generation of consoles coming out this year they are going to be even better. What we need to be bothered about though is a lack of a relly fresh ideas regarding gameplay mechanics. I'm sure both PS4 and the next console from Miscrosoft will bring lots of fresh ideas e.g. the use of PS4's new Dualshock with it's touchpad thing. This is just a beginning!

This debate is bs and anyone who says graphics or gameplay etc is a dumbass.

A game needs to be balanced and not mathematically balanced but plot, context, believable, interactivity etc etc etc.

45% grafics 55% gameplay

When I bought homefront I was amazed at 2 things. The game play was fun. It was different. There was a lot of good chokes and fire fights.

But man the graphics were horrible lol. Eventually I got tired of the bad graphics and the animations that were getting cheesey. And the reverted back to cod or bad company 2 at the time.

Counter strike on the other hand I can give a shit about graphics. I tone down all my settings and config the hell out of it for the best fps and maximum performances in time I need it. Thats what every good player does anyway. You gotta be outta your mind to think the best players play at high settings. I play counter strike global off at 640 x400 resolution.

Gameplay

Why?

MINECRAFT.

we have reached a point where graphics are doing well. The biggest problem is gameplay and it needs to be focused on more and not less.
Gameplay 75%
Graphics 25%

As someone stated above, the answer to this question should be known. The majority of gamers know that gameplay is the most important thing, as it's the gameplay that provides the experience. Graphics on the other hand are trivial in nature, as long as a game is visually presentable (i.e. current gen standard, depending on genre, such as 2D fighter vs a 3D fighter) that's all that matters.

While gameplay is king, I think that other elements in the game like a great soundtrack and nice graphics cannot be discounted. They are the added ingredients to a great recipe. roasted chicken may be great but Chicken cordon bleau is superb and has taken the humble chicken to a whole other level.

To simply state that the "only" thing that matters in a video game is gameplay is just absurd. Anything that can truly enhance the gaming experience I see as important and a step closer to better immersion.

It's a pointless question as in this day and age there's no excuse not to have both!!

Think of all the great games people talk about, think of your favorite games and then think about why they are your favorite game, was it the gameplay or graphics?

That should decide the debate for most. Half-Life, Red Dead, Super Mario Bros 3, GTA San Andreas, Dark Souls, Oblivion, Fallout 3, MGS3, PES6, Bioshock etc... These are my favorite games and considered by many to be the greatest games out there. Its not because of the graphics i loved these games, its because of solid and immersive gameplay all day long, and with a lot of them its also great stories and characters on top of that.

This articles title is the problem. Why does it have to be either/or? Hopefully, this won't be an issue next gen.

Great Example: Assassins Creed III. Amazing graphics, pathetic gameplay, stupid characters, boring stroryline.
Result: I stopped playing in the middle and deleted the game from my PS3.

Graphics should enhance the experience, not be the experience.

Who cares? If you buy a game like Black Ops 2 you get graphics AND gameplay AND insane framerate. Stick to the big boys and you won't have to write these stupid articles.

Gameplay is the more important of the two, but graphics still matter quite a bit as well.

Game Play always. This is why MAG > BF and COD.

Gameplay
if i want a good graphic then i go watch Avatar

Why can't we have both?

I don't know why we can't have both.Everyone wants good gameplay but why can't it have breathtaking views and environments too? God of War wouldn't have been half as epic if it didn't have such towering, epic environments

Gameplay, heck look at some classic games that are still loved Today. They had fun gameplay that made them classics. I'll take gameplay over graphics anyday. Some games like Uncharted, Skyrim for example when you get to a big open area, something catches your eye and you pan around looking at the mountains or something thinking "Damn this looks nice", but at the end of the day it's how the game played matters.

Gameplay, but there are times that graphics take a major role in the games gameplay.

Graphics aren't just how pretty a game is, but is also the amount of detail in the games world map, dungeons, areas, etc. If you're playing through a game that has both poor textures and is made up of short hallways as you progress towards the next point, the games amazing gameplay won't help as much as if the areas you travelled through were a bit more detailed and gave a little bit of depth to them.

I'll use Uncharted as an example. Uncharted is based mostly on going from one location to the next. Point A to B, but the design of the worlds aren't just a straight hallway. You progress through a believable world in all three games, having to actually scale on both an x and y axis to get to areas that are all around you, even though there's no differentiation on where you're actually supposed to go. What if Uncharted was nothing but a straight hallway with pits you jumped over every few minutes, cover points in the hallways, and a bunch of enemies. The game clearly wouldn't be near the amount of fun it is right now.

Another example would be Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2(only one I've played.) The first dungeon you enter is a path that is literally one minute in length with a dead end. There are very few dungeons in the game and each dungeon is as lackluster as this. The next dungeon is a hallway to one somewhat medium sized room with a hallway that goes to a dead end, next one is circular rooms with a small hallway connected to a duplicate circular room, the next dungeon is boxed rooms with hallways into other duplicate sized boxed rooms, etc. You get the idea. The dungeon layout of this game is awful and with as few dungeons as there are and both story missions and quests taking you back to these same dungeons repeatedly, it really drags down the game.

So while graphics don't particularly make the difference, if there isn't good detail in the stage, then the game is going to be much worse. So graphics do matter, atleast some, but gameplay does take priority.

Without graphics you would have no image, therefore no gameplay.

I'd say Gameplay.

Reason being: When a game doesn't look that great, a fan (or fans) create mods to make the game look even better.

If the gameplay is rough / awful then that's the end of that game. No modification needed.

Both but game-play should be the main focus I'd say 65% game-play 35%graphics.

Graphics mater most cause as the graphics improve then so does the innovation of gameplay.

.You didn't have FPS until 3D Rendering was invented
.You didn't have games like Heavy Rain or L.A. Noire until Facial Expression Graphics came about
.NO GTA games until NPC A.I. and large scale on screen graphics were possible
.No Gravity gun until Physics came about
.SSAO lighting effects make STALKER really creepy and realistic at night

SO as the Graphics improve then the gameplay improves, they go hand in hand.

both matter.

Graphics, then animation, then physics, then gameplay... just kidding.

Seeing what I've seen now, it's hard to go backward and play old games with blocky graphics. My memory of those games is way better than going back and playing them again.

Like, I remember how great Tomb Raider was on the PS1. If I were to play it now (after having seen how amazing games look and play now) it would just look and feel like a cheesy game, but my memory of it is saying "Wow, that game was really fun".

Gameplay over Graphics anytime

This is really a pointless question as the answer can change dramatically depending on the game.

I don't give 2 craps about the graphics in shmups because I'm there to dodge bullets. It's the cruising between bullet patterns that gives the rush I crave in those games.

Then there's amnesia where the only gameplay is lighting candles/lamps, hiding, and walking through levels. The enjoyment(or terror) doesn't come from the gameplay, but from the atmosphere of the game. It's the lack of complex traditional gameplay mechanics to protect yourself that makes it so scary.

Then look at a game like Proteus, a game where you pretty much just wander around and enjoy the scenery and music. No real gameplay beyond moving, and thus the graphics and presentation are much more important than the gameplay.

This debate of story vs graphics vs gameplay is pretty much just as pointless as the debate on what is and isn't a game. The answer will inevitably change depending on the game discussed and the person discussing it.

Everything matters !!! The more th things are done right the better the end result will be... EPIC story, gameplay, graphics, sound, music, animation, environment etc. = EPIC game simple. Q? Would your life matter more if you had better looks or brains :] ?
Like i said EVERYTHING MATTERS !!!

Gameplay, duh. Sure, graphics need to be presentable and well done, but graphics are not the be all, end all of a video game. Look at the many games that don't have realistic graphics and have their own style. They more often than not meet with a lot of success.

I didn't play this on the original Playstation, but I did buy the steam version after hearing about the amazing mods that are available. Square Enix definitely made the right decision to re-release this game on multiple platforms decades after release.

I am still wishing for the day Nintendo releases the original Pokemon Red and Blue on mobile with online features.

Edit: I am also looking forward to the day Square Enix ports FFX to mobile.

wow