Dominions 3 - huge scale, insane depth, fantastic synergy between magic, armies and artifacts. Rich, wonderful lore.
AI wars - the game has a true AI, also the asymmetric game design is both bold and innovative
Minecraft - I got bored by it, but Notch sure showed those corporate drones a thing about game design
Dwarf fortress - a true simulation, mind-boggling scale, maybe most ambitious game of all times
Tangle in the Web - interactive fiction from Andrew Plotkin, but of the finest quality. Storytelling at its best - text only
Fall from Heaven 2 (Civ4 mod) - the lore is just charming, the diversity in factions is awesome
Dreamweb - one of a kind atmosphere
Another World - quite an accomplishment when it was released, unique, mysterious
Dragontorc
Perihelion
Frozen Synapse
Chess - best abstract strategy ever
my opinion... Forgotten Realm's: "Baulder's Gate II, Shadows of Amn"
I am almost 50 years old, and I've been playing Dungeons & Dragons since the days of 20 sided dice... hehe. I have played literally thousands of hours both on paper and computer, and years past I've won 3 different D&D tourniments at conventions. And easily the best, most heart wrenching adventure I ever played was Baldur's II. The graphics might seem somewhat crude compaired to todays games, but the storyline and quest are still un-paralleled in D&D based games.
I don't know if I have ever looked at a game as anything awe-inspiring but I found most of the Call Of Duty games memorable. Starcraft II is sorta ground-breaking to me as I think it looks really cool, especially compared to the original. I also like the game style. GTA Vice City and San Andreas were very memorable.
I have not played many games in my life so I can't point to any others that may have been groundbreaking or even original.
That is a very strong recommendation indeed. On that picture, you look like a hippie (that is a compliment!), and I tend to trust hippies most of the time. I have the game, but never played it much. Guess I will have to give it another try.
Couldn't agree more. Such a great game. *Sigh*
A lot of great games have been mentioned, but there are two I didn't see yet that were incredible groundbreaking games for their time:
StarflightPirates
Pirates was a completely open world for you to explore while Starflight had an underlying quest to be solved, but you had to fly around the galaxy to find clues as to where to go.
Other games that were really groundbreaking for me were:
Ultima IVCivilization (I currently still love Civ IV and its great mods, probably one of the best turn based strategy games ever made.)Master of Orion 2 (first was groundbreaking, but the 2nd was incredible)Master of Magic (if only I could have played a full game when it came out without hitting a game stopping bug)Warcraft 2Everquest (yeah, it is a cliche now, but I found this game to be a major milestone that stood out between UO & WoW)
Of the games released in recent years that I found to be really incredible, I would have to say Sins of Solar Empire is the one that has most impressed me.
I will gladly take Hippie as a compliment!!! hehe
The best memories ever are from the Apple IIGS days. Sid's Pirates, SSG's Reach for the Stars, and Electronic Arts' Bard's Tale. These games were so original, and so engrossing, and all done with extremely efficient programming to fit into a 512K disc.
By the late 1980's and early 1990's, Civ I & II were out, soon followed by Master of Orion and Masters of Magic. Several hundred hours could be spent on each game of the series.
Around that time, the Wing Commander series made me buy a 386, a 486 and then a Pentium, just to be able to play all the games in that series. If a game can make you buy a new computer, then it has to be good.
The early 1990's produced Ultima Underworld I & II, which look terribly dated now, but they were engrossing then, and made me jump out of my seat, in fright, more than once.
The original Fallout was right up there with my favorite games of all times. I don't have such fond memories of any of the sequels.
System Shock may well be he greatest shoot/sneak/think game ever. It deserves far more credit than it has received, and its sequel is just as good.
Might & Magic is a wonderful series. As my daughter grew, we often played this together. Heroes of Might and Magic was even better, especially Heroes III and IV. A great game to solo, and a great game to hot-seat or play on-line. Lots of fond memories in our family.
The Europa Universalis series has been great. The designers have been very responsive to gamers, and have tweaked the game nicely over the years. I have wasted (?) well over 800 hours here.
Bioshock is short, but oh so sweet. A superb game...graphics, audio, script, mood, and game play are absolutely top shelf.
Gal Civ I is one of my top five favorites of all time. It is sooo deep, and allows me to play, and win, without having to be terribly aggressive. I much prefer to win games by diplomacy or by sneakiness than to win by smashing everyone else to bits. Gal Civ II is almost as good, but I can't find a way to win without having to do some bashing along the way. The scoring in Gal Civ II isn't as fair to honest players, due the the fact that so much "cheesiness" can come into play. I have close to 800 hours tied up in the two versions.
And what game has been on my hard drive for the longest time? Diamond Mind Baseball, versions 1-10. I have played 4000 or more baseball games, going as far back as the 1930's. The original designer, Ton Tippett (sp?) sold the game, and went to work for the Red Sox, as did Bill James. The game has not been the same ever since. No graphics, but a superior game machine, stats, and the very best play-by-play results. I know APBA and S-O-M fans might disagree, but DMB is still the best baseball simulator out there...but it could be better.
Elemental? Well, I have 350 hours tied up in the game, and probably as many crashes. It really isn't in the class of Gal Civ I or II , as much as I try to like it.
After the long post above, I realized that I forgot to mention Morrowind and Oblivion. Both state-of-the art (and then some) at the time, and still able to hold interest years later. I just went back to Oblivion to complete the Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles add-ons. What a lot of fun, even thought the game is 4-5 years old. Sneak, bash, cast spells, ...you choose the way to progress.....and it never crashes......
The Diablo series kept my attention for a long, long time, but I don't feel it is on par with the games mentioned in the previous post.
Baldur's Gate also merits praise.
Starflight goes way back, but I thought it was one of the most innovative games of its era.
X-COM...How could I forget that one. Original, brilliant, and opened a whole new genre of computer games.
taikourissiden from koei (series)
not really ground breaking or anything like that per se.. just memorable... it's a mix of rpg/strategy. basically you control a samurai and work your way to the top by fulfilling tasks every month.
it got broader in the later entries, but can't say i liked those minigames that represents learning talents. (or for that matter performing certain actions)
core concept has lots of potential.
Lords of midnight (they crammed how much story into 48K!)
Populous (first time I ever played P vs P)
Gauntlet
Planescape/Baldurs gate
Magic the gathering (cards not PC - when released it was truely groundbreaking)
Sim city
Go
Lords of Midnight!!! ... oh my, I remember being on a programmer's summer camp, one of my friends dumped the map data, creating a huge paper map, and we were playing the game on the old Spectrum, using the map to navigate and placing little paper figures on it to mark enemy known positions.
Oh... those were the days.
Ah...Magic the Gathering. Truly was ground breaking. The good old days. *Sigh*
Love those Alpha cards.
add praetorians to that list. imo a fast paced rts that has no embumberance to resources gathering. centers around strategic combat. you control units of groups of 30 from ancient armies of rome gaul eygpt. you can pretty much down the game free on the web and play it on gameranger. the version everyone pretty much plays at is 4.1 imperial mod which has even more nations to command. greeks,carthagineans,persians. in anywise the replay value is awesome due to the multiplayer community online. everyone should check out the demo to see what i mean. imo this is a classic game that vie been playing since 2003 and still is super fun as hell to play online.
Myth is another one missing from here. Have yet to see another tactical strategy game like that one...
StarFox 2. At least, if it had actually been released...
1. Twilight 2000 ; 20 years ahead of its time, with one of the best character creator I've ever seen and a huge open ended map covering whole of Poland. Not only was it a great military game with open ended world but also had a build in driving simulator which allowed one to drive vehicles ranging from humvees, to 1½ tonne Trucks, to various battle tanks. Damn those M2-Bradleys were .
2. X-COM- Enemy Unknown;
3. Fallout Tactics (multiplayer);
4. Medieval Total War II- Stainless Steel mod (still playing it from time to time);
5. Genghis Khan II (which led me to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series also great).
Hidden and dangerous 2.
Even to this day military shooter cant do 1/10 of the things this game offered. Freedom to do missions in many many ways. Plus RPG elements.
Can't belive how much fun I am getting from dungeon crawl stone soup. It is probably the closest to those old good gameplay games. (of course I need to play the tiles version so I can actually see what is going on.
https://crawl.develz.org/tavern/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=304&start=100
for some decent screen shots.
The Games that come to mine are truly original and ground breaking, above all were FUN to play. It seems that the Dev's of yesteryear were from the old gaming school, the games had to be FUN. Fun games survive and with stand the test of time. Just look at he game of Monopoly for example, it has been around for decades. I have heard tales that the game of Monopoly still prints more money than the U.S. Government. Fun seems to be the main ingredient that is missing from most PC games today. I hope one day that PC games will return to being fun again.
This being said I will list the PC games that I feel were original, ground breaking and FUN!
1) Orion
2) X-Com
3) Alpha Centauri
4) Doom
I am setting here racking my brain trying to think of more PC games that I have played that I would honestly list that fit in all three categories, sadly I can't think of any more. I have a boat load of games that I have tried.
I did follow EWOM long before I bought the game. I felt this game had the potential to be an interesting and fun game. I liked most of what he game offered, I just found myself getting bored of playing it, I think because of a lack of AI competition and the game became too repetitious.
I have very high hopes for FE.
If I owned a PC gaming company, which I never will, I would focus on developing a strategy game similar to my game choices with one thing in mine - Competitive AI that seems to have some common sense!
I would venture to say that the game company that develops a strategy game that achieves this will solely corner the market!
The first one that comes to mind is Ultima Online. But thats probably due to the fact that it was my first MMORPG that wasn't a MUD.(not including neverwinter nights the AOL game which i didn't get into really after the initial neato factor wore off)
That pretty much says everything about the ground-breaking nature of MUD right there.
Reluctantly, I have to add Dragon Age Origins to the list. It's true that the costumes and weapons are ridiculous (the worst of fantasy - huge armors, unusable super-large weapons), the combat is downright terrible mess of running around, the two-handed animation are laughable (go see Witcher how sword is used), however, the game has several strong areas that make it incredible - writing, rich lore, atmosphere, npc depth and architecture - Orzamar or those ruins in Bracilian forest are trully wonderfully done.
Chrono Trigger. I remember renting that game over and over, and despite playing through the first few hours of it over and over, never being tired of it. I was so happy when my parents finally bought it for me for Christmas, and I was able to beat it the whole way through.
That game just captivated me, and still does. I replay it at least once a year.
1. Oregon Trail (only cause it was my first ever PC game I played, I had a Nintendo when it came out but I was like four years old.)
2. Where in the World is Carmen Sandiago? (It may have been a kids game, but I was a kid, and it was quite informative.)
3. TES Daggerfall (my first RPG and first true addiction)
4. Command & Conquer (One of two of the best RTS games ever, coupled with...)
5. Starcraft (I'll include the Warcraft games here as well.)
6. Everquest (say what you will but this game was revolutionary for me.)
7. Chrono Trigger (found this gem years later through the use of Emulators. Still play this one from time to time.)
8. All of the Zelda games I've played (the first and second one on NES, A Link to the Past, the first one for original gameboy, OOT/MM, Windwaker, Twilight Princess.)
9. Xenogears (most in-depth, all encompassing story, as well as fantastic RPG gameplay. I consider this one even better then FFVII and still play it to this day.)
10. MoM (was too young to appreciate it at the time but looking back that game was great.)
11. WoW (don't want to but I feel compelled to put it up here. Anything you spend six plus years on better be great.)
12. Halo Combat Evolved (this needs no justification to be here.)
13. Civ IV (best 4x game out there, the complete package for the genre.)
To me, everything I've played since these games has been filler until something equally as great or better is released. Given the current climate of the industry however I fear I only have Blizzard to look to for this. I hope I'm wrong with Fallen Enchantress coming as I still enjoy the hell out of E:WoM somehow so FE should be at least close to the next great game for me.
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