Revolution in PC Gaming

[vignesh2k9]

Dear friends,

Only Few Games were highly praised by Critics and Players. Some of them say Half Life is the Revolution in PC Gaming, Half-Life received critical acclaim upon release, critics hailing its overall presentation. Some say GTA is best, because Grand Theft Auto series has been a huge success both critically and financially. Select your Game and reply why it is Revolutionary in PC Gaming?

 

[Satanic 666]

I vote for the sims because I never playing games like that before. It open a new genre and still dominate it, with lot of expansions, no other PC games had so many expansions like the sims especially sims 2 (correct me if I m wrong).

 

[vignesh2k9]

Sims is the best selling pc game. Sims sold more than 6.3 million copies worldwide. Since its initial release, It has several expansions and sequels. It won Gamespot " Game of the year Award " in 2000.

 

[ToreTrygg]

I've voted for Civilization, but I prefer Half-Life among them. But my favourite is Bioshock!

 

[DJRWolf]

If it was not for games like Half Life I would not be able to rub Counter Strike in the faces of those who say PC gaming is doomed.

 

[daniloesi]

i think Hakf Life isn´t a revolution for pc games. For first person games for pc Doom is number 1.

 

[LePhuronn]

None of them are revolutionary.

Half Life was (and is) a very basic shooter at its core and added nothing other than a flashlight and alternative fire modes to a few weapons to the game mechanic. However it is the narrative, the immersion and the overall impeccable delivery that made it such a phenomenon.

But telling a great story is hardly revolutionary.

Grand Theft Auto 3's shift into 3D was sensational, and being able to create a living, breathing city with personality just blew my mind.

 

[vignesh2k9]

Why no one vote for need for speed ?

 

[Morton]

Wolfenstein 3D was quite revolutionary because it was one of the ancestors of the "first person shooter" genre. ID Software made Wolfenstein 3D 3-4 years before Doom 1. By the way, the first truely 3D first person shooter game was Terminator: Future Shock (many people think it's Quake 1). It was also among the first FPS games where you could use vehicles.

Diablo 1 launched the hack 'n slash fantasy game genre on a big scale. The "Ultima" series have influenced the fantasy, RPG and MMO genres quite a lot in many ways too.

Dune 2 was an important ancestor for real-time strategy games. Command & Conquer and Warcraft were released a few years later and reinforced some conventions of this genre.


There are many other revolutionary games with less obscure influence on future games but the ones I mentioned are some of the most well-known examples.

 

[cappster]

I voted for half life as the story just grabbed a hold of me and sucked me in. I think its really difficult to nail down one game as revolutionary as gaming is steadily evolving. I also loved the battlefield series and it really opened the world of online gaming for me.

 

[OvrClkr]

Where is Call of Duty? lol

by far the best FPS game made to this date. Gameplay is everything....

 

[vignesh2k9]

Wolfenstein 3D was an instant success and is generally credited with inventing the first person shooter genre proper, but it was very much repetitive especially in levels and storyline was poor.Half-Life has no "levels"; it instead divides the game by chapters, Progress through the world is continuous.Many magazines claimed that it was the "closest thing to a revolutionary step the genre has ever taken".

 

[vignesh2k9]

Call of Duty is similar in theme and gameplay to Medal of Honor, as it is made out of single-player campaigns and missions. But it include many features " Shell Shock " However, unlike Medal of Honor, the war is seen not just from the viewpoint of an American soldier but also from the viewpoint of British and Soviet soldiers.

 

[vignesh2k9]

i think Point and Click Adventure games are less popular among pc gamers. Myst was the bestselling PC game throughout the 1990s, until The Sims exceeded its sales in 2002.it was widely regarded as a killer application that accelerated the sales of CD-ROM drives.The game's success also led to a number of games which sought to copy Myst's success, referred to as "Myst clones".

 

[alexj022]

You forget Far Cry

 

[Morton]

Wolfenstein 3D was an instant success and is generally credited with inventing the first person shooter genre proper, but it was very much repetitive especially in levels and storyline was poor.Half-Life has no "levels"; it instead divides the game by chapters, Progress through the world is continuous.Many magazines claimed that it was the "closest thing to a revolutionary step the genre has ever taken".

There were other earlier games, such as System Shock and Deus Ex, which utilised the concept of continuous progress in the world. System Shock was considered to be quite a revolutionary game at the time, but most of the concepts were basically borrowed from fantasy counterparts, such as Ultima Underworld 1 or Arena 1 (the first game in the Elder Scrolls saga). Those games were revolutionary too because they introduced "nice" 3D graphics and first person perspective combined with smooth turning (compared to 90 degree turns in games like Ultima 5, Eye of the Beholder, Lands of Lore etc.)

The "Thief" series were influential too because Thief 1 played a great role in introducing stealth gameplay to first person shooters and role-playing games. On the other hand, there were a few older games for consoles which had stealth gameplay too (for example, some game with Snake Plissken).

Aliens vs Predator was slightly revolutionary too because it allowed people to play as monsters. Nowadays you can find a similar aspect in Left for Dead. However, there were earlier games, such as Dungeon Keeper, which used a similar concept.

In the department of space combat simulations it was Wing Commander, X-wing and Tie Fighter that launched the genre into a new age.

 

[purplerat]

I voted the Sims because there was no early 3D game included and only Warcraft and not World of Warcraft.

When I think of revolutionary I think of something that really changed things across the board. There are tons of games that had great innovations and influence but only a few that really changed the way things were down nearly across the board. You can argue on the specific title but I pretty much look at it like this:
1.) Early 3D shooters and the likes i.e. Wolfenstien which made people look at gaming in an entirely new light. The wow factor of these games changed opinions of what video games were all about. You could show somebody with no previous interest in video games just a few minutes of these games and they were hooked.

2.) I picked the Sims because it essentially changed what people thought video games could be. They didn't have to be goal or skill oriented, you could just play them and have fun. There are other titles that you could argue for this but not on the scale of the Sims. You could also argue for the Sims contributions to the expansion packs and now DLC model. Once again other games did it before the Sims but not on that scale.

3.)WoW because of what it did for social gaming. Playing games socially prior to WoW considered the domain of nerds and people who had no other social life. Maybe the reality of WoW is closer to that perception, but perception is everything and WoW made social gaming what it is now and what it will be going forward. Social gaming might just be the future of gaming and WoW would be a big reason why.

 

[Morton]

I hate WoW! It was a huge boost for the development of MMO games where people grind for exp, levels, money and loot. There are so few decent MMO games which don't focus on these aspects.

By the way, Neverwinter Nights had one revolutionary feature, the DM client and tools, which will hopefully appear in some more games in the future.

 

[purplerat]

I hate WoW! It was a huge boost for the development of MMO games where people grind for exp, levels, money and loot. There are so few decent MMO games which don't focus on these aspects.

By the way, Neverwinter Nights had one revolutionary feature, the DM client and tools, which will hopefully appear in some more games in the future.

I said WoW not so much for what it did with MMOs but rather for social gaming in general. Before WoW most people didn't consider integrating gaming (especially online gaming) into their social lives. Those who did were considered to be somehow socially lacking. Pre-WoW saying you belonged to a clan or a guild would probably get you some odd looks or snickers even from gamers who knew what that meant. But I think WoW really changed that in the gaming world.

 

[SpinachEater]

I agree with that purplerat. I think Wow set the bar for the social aspect of online play. Also, look at how they draw in Mr.T for the commercials and how South Park made a show about it. I think in a general sense, it has made a big splash in cultures around the world. It is all a question of how much does a game influence others, not necessarily how good it was.

I am not sure if WoW revolutionized PC gaming as a whole though. I have to lean towards Doom for having a hand in it actually. Wolfenstein3D was huge but I think Doom was more popular.

I think GTA3 is a runner up but for console gaming, not PC. It raised the bar for sex and violence in games and made quite a big splash as well. Speaking of consoles, Halo made the xbox IMO. I think the xbox would have flopped without Halo so that should get a mention as well.

 

[KRAYCHIK]

Hi vignesh,

Judging from your list, you're a younger gamer. I'd go even further back to decide on revolutionary games. Instead of Warcraft, for example, analyze the game Dune, which I am quite certain was the first RTS. Instead of Half-Life (which was a great leap forward for its time), select Wolfenstein 3D... or even DOOM. More recently, in the FPS scene, we saw Quake (although I think we saw true 3D earlier from flying games such as Descent and StarFox, but I can't recall exactly) I am surprised that WoW isn't on the list, although it's more recent. Considering the huge impact that purplerat and SpinachEater have already mentioned, no list of 'most revolutionary' games is complete without WoW. I also think some of the original side-scrolling fighting games were breakthroughs, such as the Double Dragon series, and then of course fighting games, which were brought in via Street Fighter. Bottom line - I think your list is weak if you're really trying to identify truly revolutionary games.

 

[bhagat666]

hw can u forget cod series

 

[purplerat]

hw can u forget cod series

What about them? What was revolutionary about any of the COD games? Honestly I've only really played COD2 so maybe I'm overlooking something, but I think if there was something truly revolutionary about such a game most people would still know about it even without ever playing it.

 

[bhagat666]

hmmmm..........
good point bro

 

[scione]

right cod was ok not revolutionizing. with that said i vote for age of empires, I loved the second one played it all the time when i had it