[TheGame]

To me the best and most timeless games to me are the ones that try for their own art style opposed to trying to look realistic. It kinda gives more life to the game when it doesn't try to mimic reality. Wind waker for example can be played side by side with any game now, and even seem more polished because it tried for its own art style instead of trying to push too much towards looking realistic.

But.. for me personally.. I'm a sucker for a good storyline. (I know that wasn't one of your options) It doesn't matter how good or bad a game is, if it has a good story line, then I'm very likely to force my way through it regardless of how the gameplay works. I've never been into those shoot em up games where you don't really have any purpose behind your actions other then getting random orders.

This is why I love MGS so much, its a perfect example of good story telling in a video game. Its a great story presented in a manner in which you really can connect with the main characters. It just happens to have awesome graphics and solid gameplay. I'm so sold on the story line alone that the only way the gameplay or interface would have stopped me from beating it is if it was extremely hard and riddled with near impossible parts.

So yeah, to sum it up.. what works best for me is games that are story driven.