I guess thats what I mean, everything you listed in your OP is pretty irrelevant to what makes a game good much less great. If flamethrowers = great game then so does the shiny box it comes in…so what else is there to talk about then.
That’s not the way I meant it. I meant in the sense of what you tend to most like in games and what would be in your ideal game. It can be a flamethrower, a gameplay mechanic, a way of telling the story etc. I took the most concrete elements but feel free to elaborate on more abstract ones.
Far Cry 2 made a lot of use of flamethrowers and flame weapons. The game wasn’t that awesome though.
Add scoped sniper rifles. Especially the Barrett Firearms series of .50 cal rifles.