What in your opinion was the most ambitious game up to this point?

[spectrenihlus]

We aren't talking about safe games like NFL 20XX or any of the new call of duty games that played things safe. I am talking about an Apocalypse Now of video games. A game that invested so much of itself in the hope that it would be something great beyond everything that came before it.

Now the game doesn't have to be good it could have been too ambitious and simply failed. So escapist bretheren what do you believe is the most ambitious game.

 

[TheNamlessGuy]

DELETED

 

[Vault101]

*flamesheild*

Mass Effect/dragon age series for being a big mainstream title "attempting" to try good gay relationships

"attempting" being the key word

 

[piinyouri]

What about Advent Rising?
That one console (MMO?) that promised someone would win a million dollars?
That's pretty ambitious.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, actually. When you think about it, it's a rather strange game. A sports sim that styles itself closer to an action-platformer, and on a subject that, while having been covered before in games, had never gotten a huge amount of attention or focus. And then they went and stuck a celebrity name to it that 98% of the world had never even heard before. Of course, these day it's hard to imagine a world without THPS, but at the time that shit was freaking revolutionary. It basically started an entire genre on its own.

Though for every smashing success story like THPS, there are a hundred ambitious games that fail tremendously. Zeno Clash, Seaman, Indigo Prophecy, Steel Battalion, and many more.

 

[Savagezion]

Darkfall the MMO
Spore (1/2 - I am not sure about the dev cycle of that game. From what I saw it was ambitious at first, then caved in on itself for a realistic release date.)

 

[pilouuuu]

I'd say Bioshock is ambitious, more due to its storytelling a world than for its gameplay. Also Dwarf Fortress.

Spore was extremely ambitious, but dumbing it down ruined the game.

 

[Veylon]

Total Annihilation: The first RTS with full 3D units, buildins, and physics. And it came out six months before Starcraft. If the polish had been higher and more creativity involved, Cavedog might be one of the big studios today.

Planescape: Torment would be another one. One of the few RPGs that actually involves playing a role. Very creative and imaginative and off the beaten path.

Dwarf Fortress: Bizarrely, even insanely ambitious. An ASCII rogue-like sandbox sim that purports to generate all of world history and simulate every mundane and fantastic detail therein. If there were a tree of life of video games, this would be way out on it's own branch, all by itself.

 

[Terminate421]

Here's a game that nobody seems to realize has Ambition in the title in the japanese version:

Oh, Also, its freakin' amazing, and different then almost any other game I've played (Shining Force is the closest I've come to it)

 

[Skin]

I don't play it, but EVE seems to take the cake.

Every article I read on that game on Cracked just leaves me awe-inspired.

 

[DyranLK]

Grand Theft Auto III comes to mind.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Persona 4. It actually requires you to think through the entire mystery in order to finish the game. It's not reach point X- get plot point Y most of the time and even when it is you feel like you got shit done to get to that point.

Anyone who has played it knows what i'm talking about.

Also maybe League of Legends... You know how fast that game is growing both competitively and casually? Fast, super super fast. As in the first place prize money in the season 2 tourney is fucking huge.

At least 1 million maybe 2 US dollars, probably more if I remember correctly.

Riot probably don't need to make another game for at least a long while. LoL is just doing so so well.

Captcha: ball of confusion. Orianna too strong man!

 

[GiantRaven]

I think the original version/idea of Spore qualifies, even if it did turn out simplistic and rubbish.

 

[Grape_Bullion]

Guitar Hero, obviously. As for a games I personally liked, Rez and Way of the Samurai come to mind.

 

[Pink Gregory]

Here's a game that nobody seems to realize has Ambition in the title in the japanese version:

Oh, Also, its freakin' amazing, and different then almost any other game I've played (Shining Force is the closest I've come to it)

Cao Cao is a Pokemon trainer now?

 

[Casual Shinji]

I'd have to go with the first Assassin's Creed. It was really trying to do something different and put you in a time period in a way that no game had done before.

This doesn't mean the franchise hasn't totally overstayed its welcome at this point though.

 

[Palademon]

Fable always wanted to be ambitious with it's "caring about NPCs" and whatnot.

Not to say any of that ambition ever succeeded.

 

[josemlopes]

I think Spec Ops the line fits a bit, I dont think it will sell very well though since the marketing makes it seem just like any other shooter (wich is kind of the point, the game needs to catch the player by suprise to be fully efective)

They kind of took one for the team.


Another one is Boiling Point, it definitly is an interesting game.

The Demon/Dark Souls games, they have been trying those mechanics since the PS1 times and kind of failed, now with the right tech they finally did something amazing