I get Minecraft. Many won't agree as its not for them, but it is genre defining. It basically invented the genre [Not really, but it bought it to mainstream].
Wolfenstein? Never played it. I'll assume its one of those "Helped define modern FPS" games. If that's the case, perhaps Halo: CE or CoD: Modern Warfare would be more appropriate, not that I'm a fan of either.
GTA? I guess. Never really been my thing, but I get it for 'genre defining' open world gameplay.
Diablo II? I guess, 'genre defining' dungeon crawler gameplay.
Fallout 3? Haven't played it, but don't we already have genre defining open world? Maybe F3 does something different and deeper. Can't entirely agree, but W/E.
Portal? I can understand. One of the only modern puzzle games, and the only one that's become mainstream. A largely unique game, I can accept it.
Red Dead Redemption? Ok, we've already had 2 open world things. This seems to get on the list because "Open world, AND WILD WEST =D", so I'm gonna have to disagree. If we're talking games people need to play, with part of the reason being 'transcending their genre', 3/8 aren't gonna be open world.
Skyrim? Ok, hell no. Not only is it a thoroughly mediocre game, and not at all genre defining, it is also the fourth open world game on this list. Half the list is open world games. Now if they were truly deserving, fine, but 'transcend their genre'? 4 games don't transcend the same genre, and I'm sure I'd probably find it very similar playing Skyrim, then Fallout, then Red Dead, then GTA. Specifics may be different, but by and large I'd enjoy them for much the same reason, find they had much the same faults, and feel rather similar playing them.
Maybe I'm wrong, someone correct me if I am, but it seems very... Eh.
Games to replace 3 of our open world ones:
-Mass Effect. The first, as its not only the one that introduced them, but also the one that featured them most prominently due to the lackluster other gameplay elements. I'm talking about the dialogue wheel, and choices. Playing the dialogue was half the game in Mass Effect [It got progressively lesser the more the series has gone on], thereby transcending classical shooter and CRPG games. Its also not terribly unforgiving for it to be on a "Everyone must play list". Really, any of Bioware's games could probably go here, but Mass Effect is probably the best I can think of to showcase this point.
-A game from the Tycoon Series, or the Civilization series, or the Age of Empires series, or an old RPG game, old Flight Sim - ect, ect, ect.
-Kerbal Space Program. Making a game out of rocket science. Not everyone's cup of tea, but something different and worth trying.
-If we MUST have another open world RPG, Dragon Age Inquisition does it the best I've seen. Lots of stuff to do, well made world, the distractions still tie in, though sparingly, to the main plot, and story is still a big focus in the game. The world reacts to what you do, you have a customisable stronghold where friends you make along the way can meet you, and all over its the best put together open world game I've played. Well, pseudo open world anyway. Maybe that'll change when the Witcher 3 comes out.
-On that note, the Witcher 2. A game where planning and thought is important, as well as an action RPG, where your choices actually change things in a big way. I guess this could be a toss up for Mass Effect really, as both are kind of about the dialogue and choices. Where Witcher does the choices really well, as well as some nice gameplay and a brilliantly built world, and Mass Effect does the dialogue as a whole brilliantly, but fumbles a bit on gameplay, though with a better written story.
I can see a heavy open world bias in this list, Bethesda and Rockstar in particular. Seems more of a "Games I like" than "transcending their genre" list because of this IMO.
