"There's no going back. You changed things."

[gim73]

Final Fantasy 7, ps1

Breaking away from the oppresive hold of nintendo, we get a game with swearing, crossdressing and greatness. Many were shocked and amazed that such a platform jump occured. Some would argue that it caused the great migration of third party away from nintendo and towards sony, essentially winning the console war of the late nineties. This definately caused the history of video games to shift, and things were changed for the better.

 

[JMeganSnow]

I'd list it out like this:

CRPG: Baldur's Gate
Action/Adventure: Tomb Raider, although in my personal case this was Drakan
FPS: Unreal, although I give some credit to Heretic which interested *me* in the genre
RTS: Warcraft
TPL (Third-Person-Looter): Diablo
MMORPG: World of Warcraft

Those are the only real genres of which I have knowledge. I'm not really interested in turn-based strategy, for instance.

 

[Gestapo Hunter]

Unreal tournament

 

[k3v1n]

gears of war(damn I'm such a fanboy^^)

What did gears of war change...? I'm just...a bit lost there...

plain fanboyism, although the cover system changed smth

 

[Caliostro]

gears of war(damn I'm such a fanboy^^)

What did gears of war change...? I'm just...a bit lost there...

It's the game that brought this huge emphasis on cover techniques into the foreground. Hardly any games had a cover system before Gears.

Splinter Cell, Metal Gear Solid?

 

[Sennz0r]

I'm really stunned that mentioning the word "Halo" Brought to me such a harsh lash back

I personally like halo, go ahead and burn me for my opinion differing from Yahtzee... I can feel your hatered from here

but you're right, the PC was'nt affected by halo nearly as much as the consoles were

You still didn't explained how halo changed things.

I think I did...

And I agree with him, eventhough it's largely overhyped it's still fun to play. True it's not the god amongst games as sales rates would show but it's fun, has a largely quite cool fanbase and still enjoys support from the devs.

We're talking about innovation not kicks you get out of the game.

If you're referring to your statement about every shooter trying to be a copy of halo,
well then halo did brought innovation for the worse.
But lets see it this way.
Aliens in games, was done before. A lot.
Space marines...need i say star craft?
Being a hero that is hard to kill...well play other games on easy and you'll get that effect.

So really what did Halo change?

@SargentToughie

Don't sigh at people it's rude.

And do i really need to go around checking release dates?
I'll give you one thing though, halo brought something to the market...the fact that if you advertise and hype up a crappy game, it will still sell like hotcakes besides being mediocre.

Gave the enterprising gaming industry a new glimpse of hope on how to make even more money.

Ah yes, but play it on normal difficulty and it's still easy to stay alive while fighting hordes of enemies, while other games were a bit more balanced regarding health.
But if you don't want to argue semantics, then the only thing Halo really changed is indeed the fact that every FPS that came after tried to copy it. Yes it's horrible that there's next to no creativity and only money-grubbing companies who do this, but last I checked this thread is still about games that changed something for the whole industry, be it good or bad.
So please next time you think you're bashing another Halo fanboy here, think twice about patronizing me.

Now I'll stop, this is turning into another Halo flaming thread, and although I like shooting the things it puts in front of me, I'm not about to give it more attention than games that truly deserve it.

Thief the Dark project and its sequels maybe? I'm not sure was the steampunk-stealth/light gem thing an innovation that inspired the systems some stealth games use today? I'm talking about things like awareness meters, different stealth tools and stuff..

 

[Bronzebow]

Final Fantasy 2 (4j) was pretty ground breaking for it's time. You had a false ending (or two?) and a main character that not only changed his ways, but his class as well. As far as I can remember, those two were pretty much out there for the time.

I want to put Chrono Trigger on this list just for the sheer awesomeness, but I can't really think of anything it would have changed as far as gaming in general went. In fact, jRPG's seem to have just gone down in quality since then.

Warcraft did some fun stuff for RTS games.

Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past seemed to have a nice effect on similar puzzle/rpg/action games. It was no longer a case of plot, gameplay, creativity: choose two.

Street Fighter!

 

[D_987]

gears of war(damn I'm such a fanboy^^)

What did gears of war change...? I'm just...a bit lost there...

The fact every game now has a cover system, I know Gears wasn't the first, but its certainly changed things recently.

 

[Sennz0r]

Ah yes, but play it on normal difficulty and it's still easy to stay alive while fighting hordes of enemies, while other games were a bit more balanced regarding health.
But if you don't want to argue semantics, then the only thing Halo really changed is indeed the fact that every FPS that came after tried to copy it. Yes it's horrible that there's next to no creativity and only money-grubbing companies who do this, but last I checked this thread is still about games that changed something for the whole industry, be it good or bad.
So please next time you think you're bashing another Halo fanboy here, think twice about patronizing me.

I wasn't trying to patronize you, and i apologize if it seemed that way.

Alright if that's the case I'll accept your apology, just a little miscommunication then.
(not a Halo fanboy btw xD)

So yeah let's talk different games.

 

[Conqueror Kenny]

gears of war(damn I'm such a fanboy^^)

What did gears of war change...? I'm just...a bit lost there...

It's the game that brought this huge emphasis on cover techniques into the foreground. Hardly any games had a cover system before Gears.

Splinter Cell, Metal Gear Solid?

Both of those games are stealth games where you use the cover to hide. Considering we are talking about changing things in a specific genre you mind mentioning and shooting games with such emphasis on cover tactics?

 

[Duskwaith]

Half-life, it showed us what physics and excellent use of music and setting cab make a great game epic.

 

[Rankao]

Fallout 2, although maybe not very apparent I'm sure it one of those games in the back of a game developers mind. It has a scope which is legendary plus a freedom that I have yet seen matched.

 

[Bocaj2000]

Unreal Tournament - Bringing fps to a whole notha' level. Making it more fast paced and blitzkreig. It has influenced a wide range of games to this day.

Halo - the regeneration (because on the battlefield, that's what I do). That's it. That's all Halo did. fps was already a huge hit on consoles, all halo did was involve a regeneration system that changed the modern fps and makes me cry at night.

Gears of War - the cover system. Hell, Mass Effect had it and it's an RPG. [btw, Mass Effect should be on the list but isn't because it didn't change a thing except for being one of the best games that I found.]

Blizzard, the company - yeah...

Mortal Kombat - First game to prove that violence gets developers money. Also brought fighting games to be a major genre.

the Turok games for the N64 - ...uh... first fps with a physics engine?

EDIT:

Final Fantasy I - first JRPG and the only one that JRPG haters can enjoy.

 

[Jalepeno Shogun]

Halo, doom, Starcraft, Wow, guitar hero, mario, the quote is from the dark knight, said by the joker while being interrogated by batman in the police headquarters

 

[Laughing Man]

It's the game that brought this huge emphasis on cover techniques into the foreground. Hardly any games had a cover system before Gears.

Oh WRONG. Time Crisis was doing the whole cover thing years before Gears even looked in to it and Halo.... lol right.

 

[CarbonEagle]

I think farcry should get some notice for making HUGE open areas to play in... although it doesnt seem like anyone is doing that very much, which makes me sad. Also blizzard and westwood for creating the RTS genre.
And i have to disagree with halo being somthing new... it reminded me of duke 3d without all the secret places

 

[Grubnar]

For the PC, in no particuler order:

Diablo (2) hack and sach adventure for the masses!
WarCraft II (& StarCraft)
Total Annihilation (& Supreme Commander) large scale RTS!
Doom (the Doom and Quake games were the kings of the FPS genre untill...)
Half-Life (& Half-Life 2) not to mention all the mods; Counter strike, Day of Defeat.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert did everything Dune 2 and the orginal C&C did, only better!
System Shock (2) and BioShock
Planescape: Torment & Baldurs Gate
Decent: Freespace the best starfighter sim ever, except for maybe X-wing vs. TIE fighter: Balance of Power
Battlefield 1942 and all its sequels (also see Codename: Eagle)
Aliens vs. Predator (2)
World of WarCraft the MMORPG that is so simple any idiot can (and does) play it!
Heroes of Might and Magic number 2 is my favorite, but 3 is the best (4 is good, 5 sucks)
Company of Heroes a skirmish scale RTS that could be the beginning of something great.
Civilisation and all its sequels (including Alpha Centauri)

... and more I am forgetting.

 

[Chiasm]

Halo...

/thread

EDIT: I mean, Do I really need to go into more detail? It completely changed the face of the FPS

Always thought, Golden Eye had a much bigger impact on console first person shooters as it really proved it could be done and done well.