Graphics vs. Storyline vs. Gameplay vs. Audio

Wich is the the most important part of a game in your opinion? the graphics,storyline,gameplay or audio?
For me the most important is the gameplay,then the storyline,graphics and finaly audio(I love it if a game has a good soundtrack don't take me wrong )

I also agree with the order.

Gameplay comes first- it's why you're playing a game anyway. If you just want to look at something pretty, go to an art gallery.

Storyline comes second, because a good story can keep you interested in a game. Unfortunately, if a game is too dependant on a story, it can damage replay value.

Graphics come third - good graphics can help with immersion (and thus improve your gameplay experience), but it isn't always a requirement. Example: X3 has beautiful grpahics, which definately helps with the sense of immersion. On the other hand, AoE2 now looks dated but it still more fun than AoE3, so graphics aren't all that important.

Sounds comes last. Again, good audio can help with immersion (positional sound, etc), but it is very rarely done well. Thief springs to mind as one that did it well.

I love a good story.

They've been so hard to find lately that I've started to read books again.

I miss the days of Fallout, Baldur's Gate, Deus Ex etc.

Look at the legedary half life 1 and 2 and all the expansions to HL. Legendary story! I think llama_man got it right when he said the story can sometimes kill the replay value - I don't know how much I'd play HL2 again... HL I've played a few times though...

I think sound is very underrated... I ignored it until recently - Just bought myslef a nice set of 5.1 for the Gaming Rig... Wow. Battlefield is amazing with it... as is pretty much every game actually...

I miss deus ex too. Me and a mate we're actually just talking about the second one today and the slightly ridiculous storyline.... Right I'm off to Hong Kong to see Tong... Why? And why not give me my mods straight away? Why am I so expensive and yet cannot shoot anything straight at the start.... Still sucked me in for days though!!

Wow, I'm getting a lot of people agreeing with me in this thread!

Now, if you'll excuse me, mentioning X3 has given me a craving to go back to my empire...

Graphics advancements tend to occur naturally over time, once a game comes out that advances to a new level of graphics, it's hard to go back more than one step in the name of gameplay without thinking "nice game to play, but the graphics suck"... see ArmA, I bought this game because I really enjoyed Flashpoint, but just couldn't play a game with 4 years old graphics

so personally, gameplay comes first with graphics very close behind, I'm not hugely fussed on a "great" story as long as the game is fun to play (I hate unskippable cutscenes, if I want to watch a movie I'll go watch a movie, I'm here to shoot stuff dammit), if the story unfolds as part of the gameplay then all the better (MaxPayne had fantastic gameplay as well as a good story but equally I'll happily play a game with virtually no story to it)

I can't say I pay a huge amount of attention to sound, it's been very good for quite a long time now, I don't really see how they can improve it much beyond it's current state.