These two elements of a game can make or break a game in some cases, but which is more important to you? Graphics, or Sound (including music)?

I prefer sound to be honest.

Give me sound or give me blood! Honestly, would games such as Lylat Wars or Deus Ex be half as successful if not for their wonderful voice-acting and (albeit strange) sound effects? I did not think so!

Sound.

Sound sets the atmosphre of a game so much better than visuals.

They're both very very important I think, but I had to go with Graphics.

I'm with team Neither.

Maybe it's just because I tend to be a bargain-bin warrior, but I don't really worry about sound or graphics. If it works within the context of the game, then whateva.

Better sound by a mile. Lots and lots of games have this 'oooh look at me I'm photo realistic' put on, but very few games can do sound really well.

Take for example Bioshock, the sound in that was fuckin' incredible. Bobby Darin playing while the demented wail of a splicer can be heard in the background? Fuck yes.

Hearing the creaks of the pipes because of water pressure? Fuck Yes.

The sheer terror unleashed by a Big Daddy roar (before you figure out that YOU CAN'T DIE) Expletive yes.

Also, Deus Ex (because I've been playing it) had some pretty neat sound to it, although some of the accents were just awful.

how could i ever play any megaman games without that kick ass music?

If i had to buy a game with great graphics/sound but horrible sound/graphics you mean?

I'd go with graphics depending on how horrible the sound would be. I mean, if i'm playing a horror game i'm going to hear that stupid "scary" breathing and screaming anyway, but if something that's actually grotesq (sorry for mispell) is right in my face and i can see every pore on it's blood ridden face then that would scare me more than some stupid "AAAAAHHHHAFOSDHA;JD;FLAJSAHDFIOAHSDHAHAHD"

Neither... Gameplay

Sound is important, but graphics are more important. Some people might disagree with me and say "Bioshock would have been nothing without its stellar sound."
Yes, that's true. But how would it have been if the splicers looked like a cardboard box? It would have been a lot worse.

Gameplay > Graphics > Sounds

I'm not saying sound isn't important, but it has to play well before anything else, and look well before having nice music.

I would have to say graphics. I can think of a few games out there that were loads of fun but they had horrible soundtracks. I think that stellar visuals can counter horrible sound, but stellar sound can not do the same for bad graphics.

Content

I've stopped playing games because of bad sound before; indeed one of the reasons I don't play Xcom these days is because I can get everything working for it except that awesome sound. Great sound has made many good games (Outrun, Rez) even better.

-- Steve

Sound. I've always thought that Half-Life 2 and the Episodes had excellent sound, it really made the game for me.
Not to mention the fact that my life would be meaningless if it weren't for the Tetris theme tune!

definitely sound. imagine silent hill 2 without akira yamoakas music, resident evil save rooms without the jingle, hell route one from the original pokemon. sound makes a game more than graphics, it gives it character.

You know, I've actually changed my mind. Thinking back, what would Starcraft have been without the sound?

I'm surprised no one said it! Depends on the genre. Graphics are pretty darn in important in action or FPS games, but a music game has to have great sound.

Rez has some fun graphics, but they aren't terribly complex considering everything is either lines, or simple polys. Even at the end of the game the model is a low poly count.

Rock Band has nice visuals, but who is looking at them while they are keeping up with the track besides spectators?

Dradiin:
Neither... Gameplay

That about ends the discussion right there :P . Anyways, I voted for sound, not because I like graphics better, but because sounds are terrible and should become better with most games, so I would buy a game with good sounds, since the graphic part will be astounding anyways.

Sound for sure especially since I'm a rpg fan and where 80% of the game is pure dialogue and cutscenes. I better damn well get some good voices and bgm. Also I agree with tooktook that starcraft wouldn't be remembered as it is without the sound. "Nuclear launch detected" anyone?

Between the two I honestly couldn't care less. Yes both are important, but against other criteria like enjoyment and challenge it's like arguing over hubcap rims for a tank.

I would say that it depends on the genre and, more specifically, the game itself. I prefer Silent Hill 1 to the rest of the series (in terms of being a horror game rather than storytelling) because if anything the younger graphics aided the horror mechanics whilst the score and the sound effects let you appreciate the game a lot more due to the atmosphere. If the original Silent Hill had fantastic visuals with a bland and feeble audio selection I think I'd put the game down. Moving away from Silent Hill, there are plenty of games that are in dire need of graphical enhancements whilst others are bland HDR/Bloom-fests that put you to sleep. A well balanced delivery of both is normally nice to have, but as I said, it depends on the genre and the game itself.

I'm tempted to say graphics purely because they can direct affect gameplay, but good sound can make a good game truly remarkable.
So I vote I don't know :)

tooktook:
Sound is important, but graphics are more important. Some people might disagree with me and say "Bioshock would have been nothing without its stellar sound."
Yes, that's true. But how would it have been if the splicers looked like a cardboard box? It would have been a lot worse.

I think System Shock 2 was nothing to complain about in that field.

graphics because without the graphics the sound is meaningless

sure you can have sound but without a reference it how can it provide an atmosphere

Graphics.

I can usually tolerate a bad soundtrack, but if a game looks bad, then it's usually not forgivable.

If you want a true creepy ambiance you have to have good sound effects.

i.e. Bioshock and all the tapes/creepy music, HL2 and the shreek sound the zombies make.

This question is like saying is it better to be death or blind, the simple answer is death - good graphics no sound.

Because how would you play a game if everything was to hard to see?

Moon-Goose:
This question is like saying is it better to be death or blind, the simple answer is death - good graphics no sound.

Because how would you play a game if everything was to hard to see?

Eh? I don't think I would want to be 'death.' Deaf maybe, but not death.

I vote for neither, but generally, the sound conforms to the graphics. Graphics convey the game, but sound makes the game T3H PWNZ0R or 4W350M3 5h1t. Look at STALKER, it's beautiful as hell visually, but when you're going through all the labs and such, if it weren't for the sounds, it wouldn't be nearly as memorable... or as freakishly creepy.

I prefer to go for sound, though, because most games already have graphics.

Although I don't consider either to be the most important aspects of a game, I would say that graphics have a slightly higher importance.

Graphics > Sound

The reason: although sound can greatly enhance the "atmosphere", they typically don't have a huge impact on gameplay (the exception obviously being games where sound is implemented as a mechanic). Graphics, on the other hand, can truly make or break a game. Design choices like color schemes and special effects have the potential to harm gameplay-- on several occasions, I have stopped playing a game because I had difficulty even seeing my character or my enemies. Bad lighting that forces me to stop and crank up the gamma detracts from the game's immersion.

Of course, many of my favorite games were made before the era of ultra-realistic graphics. I prefer not to judge a game based on its "graphical quality", but rather the way all the visual elements work together to make a game more playable.

Graphics? Yeah, ok, but only if you take the most extreme case. And no, you will have to go more extreme than "really pretty bump-mapped with bloom lighting and reflections and refractions and..." vs "Wait... so that corpse on the floor is really just a static image file scaled for simulate diminishing size due to distance?".

On that thought... "but what if it looks like a cardboard box?!"

Doesn't happen. Even if your budget (or hardware) requires you to put a 2D sprite in a FPS, you do that, and it looks halfway reasonable. Seriously. Fancy graphics tech is overrated.
Furthermore, things looks like cardboard boxes only through comparison. Yeah, if a sprite showed up in a current release, it'd be out of place and ugly. (With exceptions. What is a skybox, anyways?) But in a release with a low-quality view of the world, who cares.

Graphics have been able to competently display all the aspects they do currently (tone/mood, setting, even generating aesthetic responses in the player) for about a decade and a half. (see my post in "what defines an era?")

The variability between two even reasonably recent games in terms of graphics is thus inconsequential... such that the differences in sound can become more important.

***********

The above poster makes an enormously valuable point.

The quality of a game's graphics is much more important than their tech level; well executed design based on old rendering techniques beats poorly designed pretty stuff; a well-built steel shovel beats a flimsy titanium one anyday.

Dradiin:
Neither... Gameplay

Agreed. I can do without fancy sound effects and sweet images. Give me a sweet story line and nice controls and I'm hooked.

^_^

I say Graphics out of these two options, mostly because I listen to music while gaming. However the most important is indeed gameplay/controls and story

I think the graphics (and if this is also included, "physics" too) are what keep you immersed, although, I'd say sound is just as important, because come on, you know when you hear that one sound effect too much and then it just makes you think "oh yeah, this is a game where they loop certain tracks for people to scream".

I'd say graphics wins just by a little.