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
+ 1 for Dominions 3 - a game I've spent many many rewarding hours playing, particularly the brutal multiplayer.
The various 'Mount and Blade' and 'Total War' games - for pushing the envelope in the TBS/RTS genre. This blend has lots of potential once the TBS elements (of both games) are improved- particularly diplomacy.
I have to add a little old gem I have discovered recently - King of the Dragon Pass.
A hybrid between tribe-management and gamebook-style decisions. Heavy emphasis on lore and story (countless events, decisions and disasters), no animation however, only static screens with (beautiful) artwork and text.
Recently released for iOS.
First of all, the most groundbeaking games were, without a single doubt, the following:
1) Pong
2) Pacman
3) Tetris
4) Breakout/Arcanoid
5) Tron/Snake
6) Lode Runner
Groundbreaking games for me (and just me) were the following:
1) Commander Keen E4: Goodbye Galaxy
(Commander Keen was the first side-scrolling platform on PC and a really famous platfromer of the good, old, DOS times. However, it was Episode 4 that was by far the best of the series, if you ask me, not that the episodes 5 and 6 were worse, but they lacked the variety of the 4th episode in both enemies and environment.)
2) Jetpack
(Truly amazing lode runner clone, but with much-much more features than the original, like a jetpack with witch you could fly, and a tremendous easy-to-use level editor!)
3) Wolfenstein 3D
(First pure FRS ever!)
4) Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines
(The king of stealth games, if you ask me!)
5) Serious Sam 2
(I love its arcade FPS style combined with cartoonish graphics and a good sense of humour!)
6) Praetorians
(It was the first RTS which had a serious tactic system, an excellent simulator of the Roman legion!)
7) Pandemonium!
(Lovely platformer with 3D graphics, but 2D gameplay)
8) Knigts & Merchants
(Very well-made strategy game, where resources gathering was as important as the combat.)
9) Total Annihilation: Kingdoms !!!
(Best RTS ever, period! It belongs to the few 14 years old games which has stil an active community! http://kingdoms.heavenforum.org/)
10) Worms 2, Armageddon, 3D, 4 Mayhem etc.
Well, that's all folks!
Virtua Fighter 5FS !!! This game is awesome - with the purchase of PS3, I have rediscovered the arcade passion of my youth.
There are sadly few fighting games on PC, but their popularity is on the rise now, and Virtua Fighter is the deepest of them... no fireballs, no super-duper meters, no magic, just hands and feet and two people duking it out.
So many great games listed here but there's one that I think only one other person mentioned... ULTIMA ONLINE. The MMO before MMO's. Absolute classic. My brother still plays it on private servers and I would give anything for a new sequel.
Homeworld, hands down for me. When I bought it in 2002 it was the 1999 game of the year edition I found in the 9.99 bin at the store I worked at. It had space ships on the cover, I like spaceships.
By far one of the best video game purchases I ever made. The graphics/aesthetics were amazing, this game flawlessly put the atmosphere and mood in the storyline, they set each scene with grace. The music score was probably the best I've ever heard for a space game. The 3-D RTS / multiplayer element was (as I recall) was groundbreaking at the time. And the storyline, oh the storyline. They should have made a movie about it, but honestly hollywood would F it up. You can't beat the original. Some of my favorite scenes were Return to Kharak and The Gardens of Kadesh.
Tiny spoiler if you've never played (and totally should), Return to Kharak is one of the more heartbreaking and/or moving moments in any game I've ever played. Third mission after the 1st/tutorial mission and the second mission where you test the hyperspace drives by jumping out to the edge of the Kharak system. Aside from the prologue telling you how the Kushan discovered an ancient starship buried in the sands of their home planet with a guidestone inside with a galactic map and an ancient word, Hiigara, that all the clans understood meant 'our home' This is pretty much the real beginning of the Homeworld story.
Good to see that others love Homeworld too. I mentioned it on the first page, and was very pleased when it was mentioned on other pages.
*Face-palm*. The originals, yes. Not so much with the recent ones. CoD has become rather formulaic.
Company of Heroes. There's just something about being able to launch an artillery strike across the entire map. Holding points instead of gathering resources (Warhammer did it first though) is what makes this game accessible to people like me. I can make combat units, and use them, and they also get my resources for me! I could never balance when to shift from economy to fighting... now I can just fight!
Tropico. Build a city had been done before, but pay your workers? Setting wages and prices and issuing edicts, along with the ability to turn your island into a warzone... Individuals live on your island, not just a number.
Frozen Synapse. Turn based, real time combat. 5 second turns that you plan out the actions of your people, with unlimited time to do the planning? It is the replacement for RTS that I have always been looking for. One of the best games of all time.
Container (board game). This is the ultimate game of supply/demand, pricing... and also, timing and tempo. It's not epic in scope, but it does what it set out to do in such a streamlined, easy-to-understand manner that I can't help but adore it.
Harvest Moon and Harvest Moon - A Wonderful Life. Harvest Moon because it brought chore-based gaming to consoles. Watering crops and taking care of animals can be fun! A Wonderful Life took it out of the day-to-day mold and took it into actual time, with cows giving milk twice per day based on the time, and crops needing watered twice as well.
Pro Evolution Soccer (Wii) brought in the Playmaker controls that every sports game SHOULD have. Control your guy with the stick, but point and click on other players to move them into position to receive a pass or defend better. Brilliant. Made soccer an RTS.
Magicka - Combinations
Guild Wars - Builds/Synergy
Galactic Civilizations - Customization
Age of Empires 2 - Economic Options
DoTA - Competitive RPGish
dayZ - Survival
Company of Heroes - Tactical Action RTS
Dungeon Siege 1 - First streamlined Diablo-esk game
Path of Exile - Dat Skill tree
Elemental War of Magic - Customization, Combat
Rome Total War - Strategic action RTS
Frozen Synapse - Tactical Action Turn based game
Oh, hell. Let's see:
King of Dragon Pass: 600+ plots, any two thirds or so of which won't appear in a given game. Fine simulation of running a barbarian tribe in a fantasy world. Great strategy in developing that tribe, its expansion, friends and foes. Really unique game.
Master of Magic: Yes, I know it was Civ II with magic, but it's all done so well, and the five unique spell systems were such a kick.
Hidden Agenda: The only nation-governing sim I've ever played that really felt like the culture was real, and its inhabitants were individual human beings. Clever game mechanics, too.
Crusader Kings II: Traits. If you program all the rulers with traits then create events and interactions emphasizing these, you can really get something that looks and feels human.
Guns and Butter: Chris Crawford's object lesson in diplomacy and war. Very nicely worked out.
Betrayal at Krondor: Very innovative RPG, and one of the very few I've played that didn't assume the player was 12-years-old. And no, I don't mean as regards sex and violence. I mean in terms of plot and character sophistication and object interaction.
Morrowind: An interactive world that really felt interactive, with a lore that permeated it. Too bad most of the NPCs were generic, but the game is still addicting.
Darklands: How to implement a fantasy RPG using the medieval German States as your source. Brilliantly done.
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