Here's a challenge for you guys--Make a list of some games that have great game play but not-so-great graphics! It can even be Sim games! Here's a few:

Fallout and Fallout 2 have outdated graphics but can keep you immersed in it's game play all day long.

Minecraft has a strange look to it but it's got addictive game play!

Some people even like to play Happy Wheels.

So what are some games that you've played due to it's addictive game play?

I play Deathtrap Dungeon quite a bit, it's graphics aren't the best and the controls suck, but it's fun sometimes.

I used to play a game called Vikings! Strategy of Ultimate Conquest or something along those lines. It had rather simple graphics that I could easily create on paintshop if I had the patience for it but I would play it for hours on end.

Nah, graphics are all that matters in a video game!

/sarcasm

Uhm, yeah, I could list a bunch of games from the '80's '90's and early 2000's, but I won't because I'm just that lazy.

A couple of recent games that I found fun to play and didn't have a lot super detailed graphics were "Limbo" and "The Binding of Isaac".

The binding of issac is my shit, man.

Most of the games I consider the best ever made were from the year 2000 or just before - their graphics are cruddy by today's standards but the gameplay is excellent and they were much longer and had more depth of plot and character than most of today's games: Deus Ex (2000), Thief: The Metal Age (2000), The Longest Journey (2000), Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption (2000), System Shock 2 (1999). Honourable mention also goes to my two all-time favourite mindless fun shoot-em-ups, both from 1999: Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament. I can go back and re-play any of those today and still enjoy them - although the graphics are not ideal to today's eyes, they are not unplayable.

As someone mentioned above, there were tons of games in the 80s and 90s, too many to list, that were fantastic games but that now look awful to today's eyes, to the extent that they now feel unpleasant to play due to the poor graphics. As far as my personal favourites from those early days go, my first fave was Doom (1993) - the graphics were considered really impressive and cutting-edge at the time, and I loved it. I used to play it at night with the lights low and it scared the pants off me. But nowadays it looks so headache-inducingly blocky (unless you get one of those mods that enhance the graphics such as ZDoom). Also loved Heretic (1994), System Shock (1994), Hexen (1995), Rise of the Triad (1995), Duke Nukem 3D (1996), Quake (1996), Blood (1997), Half-Life (1998), Unreal (1998), SiN (1998) - all games I could lose myself in for hours when they were out but terrible to look at by today's standards.

They just don't make em like they used to, both for better (graphics) and for worse (depth of story, length of game)!


ETA: Heh, forgot to mention that, more on-topic to this particular website, The Sims also came out in 2000 - awful graphics by today's standards, but still a lot of fun gameplay in it!

I don't know if it's just nostalgia, but some of the 90s games from my childhood that I loved and replayed last year, but have truly atrocious graphics, include Jetpack, Castle of the Winds, Xargon, Jill of the Jungle and Grim Fandango. Once you put the poor graphics aside they're all pretty good fun. And I agree with EsmeraldaF, The Sims is a lot of fun when I don't compare it to the later Sims games!

I like good graphics, but if the gameplay and story is just not there, I won't waste my money on it.

I'd rather have a crappy-graphical game that's fun than a super-deluxe HD game with nothing to do. Black Ops = one hour, maybe two. Civilization II = Days, weeks, and months of gameplay.

Oo, Grim Fandango, I loved that game! I don't find its graphics atrocious at all, in fact I feel they've stood up pretty well, it's a very stylized cartoony artwork style and the festive Mexican and colourful Art Deco themes are gorgeous. Now I want to go off and play that again!

What I tend to think of as terrible graphics is the old 3D-engined stuff that looks really pixellated and blocky, but some of the late 90s 2D adventure games had nicely-drawn attractive smooth graphics that still look quite good now, Curse of Monkey Island being another one that comes to mind - I can still happily re-play that one too!

Graphics aren't indeed everything, but it seems nowadays that some people only care for graphics. The graphicwhores is what you can call those. And the companies are just doing the same, setting graphics above gameplay. One developer that is known for doing this is Crytek. Crytek sets graphics above the rest. Now take Crysis (or let's say crapsis). Yep, awesome graphics, but crappy gameplay and by the time it came out it was nearly unplayable.
Offcourse you can combine good graphics with good gameplay, but that's not happening nowadays. The Myst serie is combining good graphics with good gameplay, especially Myst, Riven and Myst III: Exile. And it still looks good now, despite the lack of physx hocuspocus. I still play Myst III: Exile sometimes and Riven too. Still have Myst III: Exile in a big carton box, where J'nanin is portraited on, complete with manual, behind the scenes book and 4 cd's. They don't make such boxes anymore. Hate it that everything goes digital. But that's an other story.
Anyway, i play myself some old ones, like good old The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Morrowind is the best from the TES serie and never gets boring, even after 10 years of release. Despite it's age the graphics aren't that bad.
And as said Myst III and Riven too. Also Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Diablo II, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, Planescape: Torment, Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, Divine Divinity, The Longest Journey, Bloodrayne, Baldur's Gate, Gothic I & II,, Age of Empires II and RIse of Nations.

I agree on the big picture, but there are exceptions, like Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Amnesia, The Witcher, Portal and the list could probably go on.

Yeah, I do agree that Grim Fandango's graphics are pretty decent, especially compared to the other games I listed there! It's just another 90s computer game I played as a child and loved. I still have the disc, I might look into reinstalling it if Windows 7 can run it (I remember it didn't run on my Vista PC although there was a solution). I loved the Mexican theme, all very Day of the Dead!

Dwarf Fortress.

http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/screens/dwf1.png
(image not hotlinked because that's rude)

It already runs on heavy CPU load on most PCs. If it had any better graphics than ASCII characters, no one would be able to play it.

One word: Minecraft.

Minecraft
The Binding of Isaac (never played it, but always wanted to)
Blocks That Matter
Super Meatboy
(indie games ftw)


Non -indie games:
Stronghold & Stronghold Crusader. I just can't get enough of it, after roughly 10 - 11 years.

Half-Life 1 is from 1998 but still has great gameplay but with a little dated graphics. And the sequel has good gameplay, good graphics AND awesome music.

Uncharted may have good graphics, but its Uncharted all the way!

A lot of the games mentioned here had very good or even edge-cutting graphics at the time of their release: e.g., at least compared to the original game, Civ II looked brilliant; I remember discussions about how well, in a never-seen-before way water was done in Morrowind, about the uneven terrain in Half Life, etc. Some of them even look pretty good today, Grim Fandango probably being the prime example, but what puts them all apart is the originality and quality of their scenarios/stories.

I'd also like to add Paradox games to the list of contemporary games with graphics-aren't-everything flair. Theirs are never first class but the gameplay always is.

Minecraft, Limbo, many, many old 8-bit games, Morrowind, the list goes on and on

Well, even though I wasn't much of a gamer until a few years ago, so I'm one of those new generation gamers, I have some old games I hold dear despite their graphics -- the Syberia series, which had really good graphics for its time, Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, TES Morrowind, the Sam & Max series, Beyond Divinity, Age of Empires III, Shogun: Total War, Heroes of Might and Magic up to the 3rd one, the rest were pretty bad, and the list could probably go on. The recent games which don't exactly stand out with their graphics are Minecraft, Limbo, The Binding Of Isaac (which I haven't personally played, but I will).

Star ocean 2 SO many endings so little time...... i think there was a total of 80+ endings

http://abobosbigadventure.com/

This was released 1-11-12 and has the graphics quality of nes games. But, it mashes them all together, satirizes them, and brings nostalgia.
The only problem is that there is no pause, so go and pee before you play it.

I actually like the fact that Limbo was so simplistic, graphic wise. For me, it enhanced the gameplay, and the general atmosphere.

As an avid gamer since the late 80's I must state that graphics aren't everything. If you have a pretty game graphics wise but the game play is clumsy and the story line is transparent or non existent then you have a bad game. Doesn't matter what it looks like. Same principal that applies to a move applies to a game.