Games that broke the mold.

[KapnKerfuffle]

How is Morrowind breaking the mold? Look up Daggerfall. Point out some games that actually did something really new and exciting and (in general)failed utterly because they didn't suit the zeitgeist.

Planescape: Torment
System Shock 2
Thief
Deus Ex
Portal
Maaaybe S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy
Arcanum
Shadow of the Colossus
Penumbra series
EVE Online
Spore

True about Daggerfall, but you are also doing it with System Shock 2. What about System Shock one? It was definitely different for it's time, but was over shadowed by Doom and Warcraft at the time. It had a wonderful, complex interface and inventory with a rich cyberpunk story. It tried lots of things and succeeded with most. System Shock 2 was a refinement.

Most everything Trokia did was mold breaking (Temple of Elemental Evil, Arcanum, Vampire the Masquerade). Only they smashed the mold so hard, they broke their games in the process.

 

[Sylocat]

Portal, obviously.

The original Myst broke the mold.

I believe Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask definitely broke the mold for the Zelda series, and put a fun twist on action-RPGs in general.

Goldeneye: the real cause behind console FPS's.

Kingdom Hearts, obviously, broke several molds.

 

[L4mbd4]

Definitely, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I seriously think it is one of the best games ever.

The Original Half-Life is definitely one, if you were alive and into the PC gaming scene in '98.

Half-Life 2, basically for the same awesome reasons as its predecessor.

Even though I'm not much of a Nintendo person (especially since the Wii came out), but I love Ocarina of Time.

Unreal Tournament, because we were shown how awesome it is to explode people into tiny bits and laugh.

Grand Theft Auto III, because that was the dawn of the 3D Open World environment.

 

[zoozilla]

The Monkey Island series of adventure games.

Nothing comes close in terms of sheer wacky hilarity. Tim Schafer, Ron Gilbert, and Dave Grossman are all geniuses in their field.

It also has one of the most memorable theme songs of all time by Micheal Land.
It's pure awesomeness.

LucasArts, where did you go wrong?

 

[bleuish]

the upcoming game Little Big Planet would really break the mold. It's a pretty diff platform and I can't wait for its release at October.





Little Big Planet PS3 [http://www.littlebigplanetguide.com] | Xbox 360 [http://www.wikixbox360.com]

 

[GarFin]

In no particular order... (or, some games that come to mind as i think..)

Portal,Abe's Oddessy,Lemmings,Wolf3D,Descent,Quake,Unreal Tournament,Crystal Caves,Doom,Captain Comic,Choplifter,Counterstrike

 

[rainey]

Showing my age here but..

Elite - on the spectrum.

 

[JaguarWong]

Showing my age here but..
Elite - on the spectrum.

Good man! Although I think Elite started on the Acorn Electron.

<--- Turbo Esprit, the worlds first sandbox game, also on the Speccy.
There wasn't much of a mold to break in 1983 but Turbo Esprit shattered it anyway.

And the how hell has no one mentioned Metroid yet? You could move LEFT!!!

 

[randombob]

Going very far back in time, does anyone remember Exile for the C64. You played as a guy in a space suit with a jetpack strapped to your back. You had to explore a strange new planet, progressing by going deeper and deeper into the planet's core. At the time I was mesmerized by the fluid animation and shear scope of the world.... Plus flying was a blast!

How about Gribbly's Day Out? There was nothing like it at the time.

 

[Russian Redneck]

As much as people are going to disagree with me, I have to say that the original Call of Duty was definitely a ground-breaker, per se. Sure, it was WWII-themed. Sure, you were still gunning down Nazis. The difference between CoD and MoH along with every other WWII-themed shooter before it was that CoD was the first to really engage the player in team-coordinated combat, rather than the lone soldier figure that inhabited so many games prior. For once, you were penalized if any of your teammates died. For once, you were given some incentive to not let the Nazis slaughter them to get them out of your crosshairs. For once, you had the ability to duck-and-cover. Your enemies seemed like they actually had a brain; I say seemed because krauts running back and forth on scripted paths might have been the shit back in the day but seems tame in comparison to today's games.

Let the disagreements begin!

 

[Uszi]

Conker's bad fur day.
Nuff said.

 

[Moon-Goose]

The wii broke the mold .

The Wii is pure evidence it's not always a good thing to break the mold! [My opinion]

 

[Alex_P]

In no particular order... (or, some games that come to mind as i think..)

Portal,Abe's Oddessy,Lemmings,Wolf3D,Descent,Quake,Unreal Tournament,Crystal Caves,Doom,Captain Comic,Choplifter,Counterstrike

Why Crystal Caves? The smooth scrolling? The humor?

-- Alex

 

[superpope89]

Armed and Dangerous -some of the funniest cutscenes in any game
Okami -unique art style for a game
Psychonauts -various interesting styles changes throughout the game with that Schafer touch of wackyness
Katamari Damacy -fun and simple game with trademark Asian absurdity
Indigo Prophecy -pretty much an interactive movie, well executed
Portal -fun gameplay + good humor = awesome
Oddworld games -various different gameplay mechanics throughout the series all work well, but the style and humor make all the games great

 

[Unknower]

Half-Life. Other people already explained why.

Thief. First First-Person-Sneaker.

Morrowind. First RPG I played.

Far Cry. Great mix of stealth, freedom, great AI and the physics (by the way, six months before HL2) and the graphics came as a great bonus (yay for polybump). Also, I liked the Trigens. Though the story wasn't that good. Oh well, can't have everything.

Portal. Other people already explained why.

How is Morrowind breaking the mold? Look up Daggerfall. Point out some games that actually did something really new and exciting and (in general)failed utterly because they didn't suit the zeitgeist.

"I'm interested to find out what games struck you through your gaming years as different and unique in terms of art style, gameplay mechanics or simply because they were different from the rest."

 

[laikenf]

The wii broke the mold .

The Wii is pure evidence it's not always a good thing to break the mold! [My opinion]

I think the wii was a great idea regardless.

 

[GoodbyeRocketship]

let's see... just off the top of my head:
- Star Control II (possibly the greatest old-skool-space-epic game of all time)
- Skullmonkeys (claymation anyone?)
- Katamari Damacy (just. plain. weird.)
- Monkey Island I (the humor was waaaay ahead of its time)
- Virtual On (pure action. instant classic.)
- Guitar Hero (try ripping THAT game without somehow reverse-engineering the guitar-controller)