Required gaming.

[Cranyx]

If you want yourself to be considered well-read, there are certain books you are expected to have read; Shakespeare, Dickens, etc. If you want to be a movie connoisseur, there are certain movies you should have seen, Citizen Kane and what not.


Now that gaming is officially considered an art form, what are some games you should have played to be a "fully versed" gamer?

 

[Still Life]

Total Annihilation.

Command & Conquer and Red Alert.

Doom and Wolf 3D.

Quake.

Descent.

Battlefield 2

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Crysis.

Company of Heroes.

Dues Ex.

Star Craft.

Mass Effect series.

Half Life and its sequel.

Star Wars: Tie Fighter.

Gosh, I can think of lots of games that are important, ambitious and bring something new and/or innovative to the medium.

 

[Stall]

Whatever you have fun playing. Gaming is no where near as lofty or intellectual as literature or even film, and is far too young of a medium to have anything you need to have experienced to be considered a "cultured gamer" or whatnot.

Just play what is fun. That's what games are here for: fun. You're well versed if you play games that make you happy.

 

[hverhey]

Personally I would start with the Mass Effects they were both excellent games, but after playing so many games its very tough to pinpoint the best ones to play. I suggest going through games you have fun with and try some that are different from what you normally play. Also just play some horrible games once in awhile to make you appreciate the well made games more.

 

[NoNameMcgee]

Games age terribly compared to other mediums. So I would say that stamping on arbitrary requirements of playing old outdated games so your opinion on current games can be considered worthwhile is pretty stupid.

 

[Zakarath]

Total Annihilation.

Command & Conquer and Red Alert.

Doom and Wolf 3D.

Quake.

Descent.

Battlefield 2

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Crysis.

Company of Heroes.

Dues Ex.

Star Craft.

Mass Effect series.

Half Life and its sequel.

Star Wars: Tie Fighter.

Gosh, I can think of lots of games that are important, ambitious and bring something new and/or innovative to the medium.

That's a pretty good list, to it I would add:
X-Com
Civilization (uhh... #4 I guess)
Minecraft
And, of course, TF2
Maybe Morrowind too.

 

[Rabish Bini]

Postal 2

It's a gamers version of 'The Room', what's not to love?

 

[zehydra]

Ocarina of Time
Morrowind
DOOM
Unreal
Counter Strike
Portal
Halo (any of 1-3)
Goldeneye 64/Perfect Dark
Super Mario Land 3 NES
Donkey Kong Country 2 SNES
Megaman 6 NES
StarCraft
Civilization (one of them)
Sim City
Rollercoaster Tycoon 1
Grand Theft Auto (one of them)
Minecraft

 

[Secret world leader (shhh)]

Shadow of the colossus.
Okami.
Bioshock.
Half-life and it's episodes.
Portal.
Ico (never played it but when team ico collection comes out i'll be all over it.)
Possibly minecraft as well.
Any mario game (they're all the same anyway)

EDIT: Also L.A Noire, that too.

 

[zehydra]

Games age terribly compared to other mediums. So I would say that stamping on arbitrary requirements of playing old outdated games so your opinion on current games can be considered worthwhile is pretty stupid.

I disagree. It's not so that people can enjoy newer games, but rather to give the games they play now some perspective. An idea of where games have been, and where games are going. Someone who has never played old games before, and thinks a new game is the best game in teh world might think otherwise if he realizes that it's really nothing new in the long saga of good games.

I also disagree that they age terribly. The games themselves don't age badly, the graphics become "outdated". A great game can still be great with bad graphics, for the same reason we have black and white movie masterpieces.

 

[Secret world leader (shhh)]

Games age terribly compared to other mediums. So I would say that stamping on arbitrary requirements of playing old outdated games so your opinion on current games can be considered worthwhile is pretty stupid.

I disagree. It's not so that people can enjoy newer games, but rather to give the games they play now some perspective. An idea of where games have been, and where games are going. Someone who has never played old games before, and thinks a new game is the best game in teh world might think otherwise if he realizes that it's really nothing new in the long saga of good games.

I also disagree that they age terribly. The games themselves don't age badly, the graphics become "outdated". A great game can still be great with bad graphics, for the same reason we have black and white movie masterpieces.

Alternatively you have games like Okami and Katamari that age well because they don't focus on graphical power but on simply making the game look nice. Also there's Half-life 2 which came out in 2004 and yet still makes the graphics of some current games look like ass.

 

[Iconsting]

Okami
Shadow of the Colossus
ICO
Bioshock
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Portal
Kingdom Hearts I
Monster Rancher
Armored Core

I think that makes a pretty balanced set of quality games.

 

[Der_Bradly]

...Pong, anyone?


First off, they must have played at least one casual game and enjoyed it (Angry Birds?). But onto some more mainstream titles:

Portal; for showing how a puzzle game can have depth and be hardcore.
A COD: Most gamers have played COD and even though I dislike COD it is enjoyed by many
Minecraft: Pure exploration fun
All of the Half lifes; for obvious good game reasons.
Team Fortress 2; A personal favorite of mine And plus its F2P now. Double win.
KOTOR; a good (old fashioned?) RPG experience
And Gears of War/Mass Effect/Red Dead; All great 3rd person shooters.

I do not think there are certain titles one needs to have played, but there are a few games that can help one ease into this medium.

 

[NoNameMcgee]

I also disagree that they age terribly. The games themselves don't age badly, the graphics become "outdated". A great game can still be great with bad graphics, for the same reason we have black and white movie masterpieces.

Gameplay has evolved over the years just as much as graphics have. Trying to play a game like Deus Ex, MDK, Tomb Raider, or Resident Evil today (as just a few examples I can think of) when you don't have something like nostalgia to fall back on is painful and clunky as all hell, because their respective genres have changed and been refined so much in only a decade (or a bit more). Since I am lucky enough to have no sense of nostalgia (and think its stupid and detrimental to gaming in all ways) I imagine i'll feel very much the same about today's games in another 10 years.

Movies or music however, are examples of mediums that don't age badly, because they dont have "mechanics" that you are personally involved in, they are simply entertainment you enjoy with no input into the final product. Movies age very well in the sense that movies from 30-40 years ago can still hold up to today's movies in standards (sometimes they are better in fact). The reason is because very little has changed in our standards for movies even after all that time, except for improved visual effects and other aesthetic qualities. You can't say the same about games at all.

and music doesn't age at all because its entirely subjective.

 

[Llil]

Even though most of the games already listed here are good, I don't think something like Phoenix Wright, TF2 or STALKER can be considered "required gaming". Just like with books or movies, you should go with the classics: Super Mario Bros. 1 or 3, some of the old Sierra or Lucas Arts adventure games, Doom or Wolfenstein 3D, Civilization, etc.

Not having played the good old games doesn't make you any less of a gamer, but you just can't claim to be "fully versed" if you've never touched the classics.

 

[Vuljatar]

Deus Ex:
There is a reason that Deus Ex is often cited as the greatest game ever made. A superb roleplaying game disguised as a solid stealth-shooter, with multiple choices that actually make differences in a story you truly care about. It's fucking long, and you never get close to being bored. There are two or more solutions to every problem, and like many RPGs much of it's replay value comes from going back to see how things would change if you took a different approach. This game is at the top of my post because I believe that it is the greatest game ever made, and if you only play one game on this list (or, hell, on this thread) it should be Deus Ex.

Total Annihilation:
This game was so far ahead of it's time it is amazing. It came out half a year before "Starcraft", but if you looked at their graphics and gameplay side by side you would think it was years newer. Ignoring the mediocre story and balance issues, this game is mechanically superior to Starcraft (I will assert this to my grave, though I am certainly the minority), and playing it today it feels much less dated.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (and expansions):
This game is huge. HUGE. I've put over a thousand hours into it and I'm not sure that I've seen it all. It's completely nonlinear and utterly unrestrictive, you can spend days exploring or doing odd jobs for the populace, but you probably won't be able to pull yourself away from the deep, interesting main story. Morrowind is very much a thinking man's RPG, and it requires patience to overcome it's learning curve, but it is well worth the effort. The expansions are must-haves as well, adding hundreds more hours of gameplay. Morrowind has one of the largest, most dedicated modding communities on the internet, and you can download mods that change anything you can imagine.

Other notable must-plays that I don't have time to expand on right now include:
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars: Jedi Outcast
Half-Life
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (and/or Colonization)
Starcraft
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (or San Andreas)
Portal
Red Dead Redemption

 

[Archangel768]

Final Fantasy VII

I feel it's ridiculous this hasn't been mentioned already considering what it achieved back in the day and it's not even my favourite in the series as well.

 

[Filiecs]

Heroes of Might and Magic 3 (and in my opinion 4).

Those games will will never lose their shine as the best turn based strategy games I've ever played. They are also freaking addictive.

 

[Cranyx]

I hope this doesn't turn into a "this is my favorite game" section as opposed to games that are/were extremely influential in the medium.

And people, aside from a few, have seem to have forgotten about games pre-generation 5. What about SMB, Mega Man, Tetris, Pac-Man?

There's a reason that everyone, not just gamers know these titles; they wer so big that they left even the influence of gaming into our general culture.

 

[MercurySteam]

Hmm. A good place to start would be Halo: Combat Evolved/Halo 2, Fable 1/The Lost Chapters, Bioshock, at least one game from the Dragon Age or Mass Effect series, any of the original F.E.A.R. games (including Extraction Point and Perseus Mandate), Portal and at least one Battlefield game.