1. A good story line. You could have the best Graphics ever but if the story is predictible and lousy I doubt it would be a hit.

2. Gameplay should be perfect e.g if controls for a racing car game cant be tweaked and are too restrictive it becomes boring within a few ours (personal opinion). The same can be said about strategy games.
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if it has the same addictive properties as heroin.
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Whenever I look for video game I first go for "Graphics" quality.
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The best video games are the ones that are constantly at the edge of difficulty. You have to learn, to adapt, to struggle, but you can get better and are rewarded for doing so.

The story and the world can also make a really good game great, but they can't make a bad game good. The same is also true for the graphics and sound.
Source(s):
Personal experience and way too much reading of video game magazines.

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I go for gameplay. Meaning how the story line connects throughout the entire story. If it has insane graphics, but the gameplay is mediocre, I would much rather be playing Super Mario Bros. than some of the new games. I think GTA is a great example of this. It has pretty decent graphics, but it's gameplay is absolutely incredible. The freedom you have to do whatever you want to do. I always catch myself spending 30-60 minutes just driving around trying stunt jumps or running away from the cops. Any game that can get me that distracted from the main storyline, is a winner in my book.
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Great immersion combined with incentive to go to the next level which also offers a suitable reward is what makes a video game good.
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It should be easy to get into. Nothing I hate more than having to sit through 15-30 minutes of footage and tutorials before I can start playing a game. A little bit can be acceptable but if i do not feel like I am playing in the first 10 minutes I usually stop playing.

It should have intuitive controls. If you have to read a manual to figure out how to do anything then there is a problem.

It should provide a challenges that do not have to be solved in a specific way. Too often beating games these days depend on learning one specific tactic that is then repeated over and over and over to kill a boss. That tactic may be fine but there should be other ways as well that may be less effective but why do I have to wait until the boss is tired for my hit on his big eye to do damage. I would think a hit on the eye when he is moving around would hurt too.

And mostly I think it needs to have replayablilty. If after I beat it I dont want to jump back in and play it over I dont think it was a great game.
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At the heart of a good video game is a great story line.

Easy to learn, a lifetime to master. Controls should be learnt naturally in the opening scenes of the game. The game should get increasingly difficult, building on what has been learnt in previous levels.
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1. Near zero learning curve. The in-game tutorials (if any) should appear in installments and not all at once.

2. Cut-scenes should serve to entertain and n ot drag on endlessly.

3. Edge-of-your-seat gameplay + thrills beats graphics any day. Ask the Wii people (they're over there, the ones sitting on top of all of that money) if you think otherwise.

4. Invest in a good music track/soundtrack that ties in well with the game's theme.

5. Stand out from the pack. I can tell you how quickly I've pressed "exit" when I sense that the game is a lame rip-off that doesn't offer anything new.


6. The load-from-where-you-last-left-off as soon as you start the game should be painless as possible. No cumbersome menu navigation please!

7. Surprising enemy AI (I can't believe they knew that!) makes the game a keeper.
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1. The game has to be able to keep you occupied for hours without you noticing, it shouldnt be a chore to play.

2. It has to be unique in some way, not just a re-hash of something old.

3.Push the technical boundaries of the time.

4. A good storyline, though its not always vital, some great games (like tetris) have no story at all but are still awesome.

5. It has to be smart at what it does, eg in most games this means intelligent AI.

6. Easy to play, maybe not easy to learn how to play, but eventually playing should be second nature.
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Continuous playability without it getting old. Wanting to play the game any time you're not playing it. It's ability to end a relationship, or at least threaten it.
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You must be able to care about the main character.

It let's you do something that you can't do in real life (this is true).
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Replayability: A good game is fun the 15th time through.
Multiplayer:
For me personally, a good game has a quick respawn time in multiplayer, and involves strategy. I love for instance the Guardian and Horde modes of Gears of War 2 because of this.
Story: No game should ever forget to include a good, solid single player campaign, with optional coop.
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I think it boils down to:
a). A well designed sense of challenge vs reward. Final Fantasy VII had this unique quality for me. I got my butt kicked by the Ruby Weapon the first time I fought it. After strategizing a bit, and really putting my mind to it, I came out on top. Fallout 3 has this quality for me as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZsCe_ch7j0

b). Chicks with guns
http://www.x-power.be/_gallery/Devil%20May%20Cry%204/tgs-devil-may-cry-4-02.jpg
c). But seriously. An engaging narrative/theme, not necessarily a "great story." That quality can get overstated for me. Consider the story in Castle Crashers: save the princess. If there's only 2 distinct stories in video games, "save the princess" or "kill the aliens," good video games to me engage one of the two narratives in a unique way. The story itself doesn't have to be overly elaborate for me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_fFjZRwz1E
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I'm surprised to have not seen tension mentioned yet. Not all games need to be tense, but a lot of the best ones do it very well. It can be twitchy tense, or the feeling of slowly impending doom unless you act correctly, or anything in between. Even a slow turn based game can have a lot of tension. Layers of depth - the game shouldn't be too difficult to pick up, no matter how complicated it is at its core, but it should give an advantage to the better player.

For a few examples games where the tension is what makes the game, see:
Robotron 2084 - Pure twitch. Once you get past the first few levels, the game is a mad dash to save the humans while having nearly constant run-ins with the bad guys.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotron_2084

Geometry Wars
A modern variant of Robotron, really. It's a lot flashier, and the game plays somewhat differently given the significantly greater variety of enemies, but the bottom line is that it's a game which continually ramps tension levels up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometry_Wars

Fighting games thrive on tension:

Street Fighter 3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_Fighter_III

Super Smash Brothers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Smash_Bros._Brawl

Both of these games offer very intense one on one combat, and surprising levels of depth. While SFIII is easily the more complicated of the two (And there are more complex fighting games out there too), the Smash Brothers series has an amazing emphasis on being easy to pick up, there are two attack buttons and one block button, and the most complicated special move consists of pressing a direction and a button at the same time. Just about anyone can pick up a controller and start wailing away after ten seconds.

Eve online - In WoW, you die, and you get your stuff, and lose some gold to keep it repaired. In Eve, you're out in 0.0 space (Full PvP, anyone can attack anyone), hauling something very valuable for your corporation. Suddenly, some pirates (Players, not NPCs) jump you. You want tension? Your ship isn't the only thing on the line, you're transporting three weeks worth of your corporation's work, and if it is blown up, the insurance will only cover the ship, which is the cheap part of the deal. Your heart will pound like it has never pounded before while playing an otherwise sterile game with nothing remotely scary on the screen.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EVE_Online

Left 4 Dead - Here's a new game. Zombies are all over the place, there's you and three of your friends, it's quiet, dark, and hordes of zombies will suddenly come out, but nobody knows from where. A very intense game that is as good as it is through being so tense.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_4_Dead
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