Which games have had the best influence and why?

[Same River New Water]

Every now and then, a game comes out with a feature either never done before or done well for the first time - and six months later every new game has it too. What are the games which have invented or popularised the best features which we now think of as standard?

It doesn't have to be the very first game that had the feature, it just has to have been the game that popularised it. Examples:

*Halo's two-gun limit and rechargeable shields
*Half-Life's compelling, novel-standard storyline in an FPS
*Grand Theft Auto's "sandbox" playing style
*Warcraft's unit responses when clicked on

NB. If someone says one game did it first and you know they're wrong, no flaming! Just educate them. Politely.

 

[Graustein]

Dungeons and Dragons: Hit Points

Beat that.

 

[MisterDevil]

Dungeon Keeper : Evil vs Good
Black and White : being a god

 

[Graustein]

Dungeon Keeper : Evil vs Good
Black and White : being a god

Actually, Black and White isn't anywhere near the first God-game. Populous is the first one where you take the role of a god in 1989, and even before that was Utopia, although I'm not sure if you actually take the role of a god in that one.

 

[nikomas1]

Command and conquer, FMVs?

Or we can go with the HALO parade !

 

[MisterDevil]

Dungeon Keeper : Evil vs Good
Black and White : being a god

Actually, Black and White isn't anywhere near the first God-game. Populous is the first one where you take the role of a god in 1989, and even before that was Utopia, although I'm not sure if you actually take the role of a god in that one.

In pop3 at the end, final mission i think the shaman vanishes and says something like : Finally i am a GOD. But in B&W you start from the beginning, being introduced as a GOD + it has the GOD vs GOD idea and the uber pet part

Beat that.

 

[DeadlyFred]

Wolfenstein 3D, because it turned the whimsy and colorful world of early video gaming into the blood-soaked cesspool we have now.

 

[Graustein]

Dungeon Keeper : Evil vs Good
Black and White : being a god

Actually, Black and White isn't anywhere near the first God-game. Populous is the first one where you take the role of a god in 1989, and even before that was Utopia, although I'm not sure if you actually take the role of a god in that one.

In pop3 at the end, final mission i think the shaman vanishes and says something like : Finally i am a GOD. But in B&W you start from the beginning, being introduced as a GOD + it has the GOD vs GOD idea and the uber pet part

Beat that.

Populous: The Beginning was different from the previous two. In the other Pop games you're already a god from the start, and the aim is to destroy heathens who refuse to worship you.

Can't beat the uberpet though

 

[MisterDevil]

Well, Total Annihilation gave you the first most powerful "Command Center/builder/loose if dies unit... The main inspiration for Supreme Commander i guess + it had the first unique resources plan : energy and metal ... something like Dawn of War has.

And let`s not forget Stratosphere : the first rts that gave you a floating island as a base, with many possible buildings available and little space, allowing you to turn your base into various killing machines such as rams ( with lots of engines and spikes) to ballistics ( catapults and etc etc.). the main inspiration for Nomads i guess.

 

[stompy]

Gears of War, while not inventing the cover system, seems to have start a chain of events leading to very many games on the market today having the games. Well, TBS and FPS.

 

[Graustein]

The most influential and important game ever made: Spacewar! OK, it wasn't the first computer game ever made - early experiments in computer gaming date back to 1951 - but it inspired some of the pioneers of arcade gaming, including an electrical engineer called Nolan Bushnell.

Without Spacewar!, there would be no Atari, there would be no breakthrough hit for the computer gaming industry in the form of Pong and the history of the computer game may well have been stunted for decades. Before Spacewar!, the only computer games in existence were simple card-game or board-game simulators. Steve Russell, and the rest of the developers in the Tech Model Railroad Club, designed a game so complex and advanced that it was difficult not to be enthralled.

Following that note, Tetris did the same thing for the Gameboy and thus the handheld market (not to mention helping Nintendo become massive) when it was bundled with the gameboy

 

[KierzoSBC]

Command and Conquer for popularising RTS and the way the games plays, also as nikomas says the FMVs.

Body Harvest for showing that sandbox can be succesful and not tedious.

GTA for setting new standards of sandbox, humour and "being the bad guy"

Goldeneye for Hit Zones and stealthy FPS, plus kicking off the 4player console FPS multiplayer.

Red Faction for Geo mode (which hasnt really been used again although it should be.)

Resident Evil for the Horror factor.

Sould Blade for introducing varying weapon atributes into Beatem ups.