What sells a game?

If it is an FPS action game it certainly is graphics and game play. F.E.A.R. was good on both respects. Half Life 2 had both and longevity.

RPG it has to be story and immersion. Gothic II is one that stands out for me as did KOTOR.

Strategy RTS. Hard one. I loved Red Alert 2 and Warcraft II etc but I feel that the RTS market is a bit jaded at the moment. I tried Age of Empire III and gave up after only a few hours. Waste of time and money.

Strategy Turnbased: Civ IV is nearly perfect it has it all. ONly hassle was that out of the box it had some real issues. Seemed to be solved now though.

Presentation does matter and graphics is part of presentation. A bad game won't be good with great graphics but a great game with excellent graphics certainly is a winning combination. I very much got into Half Life 2 this was mainly becuase the storyline and the world had so much going for it. However, it would not have worked for me if the graphics had been similar to Half Life 1.