Your 5 most influential games

[Commissar Sae]

1. Baldurs Gate II: Really made me appreciate RPGs as a teenager. The depth and open feel of it made me replay it numerous times and it still stands as one of my favorite games of all time.

2. Mount & Blade series: Goddamn but this game sucks up too much of my time. No matter how long i put it down, I always come back for some good old fashioned medieval/renaissance/Napoleonic mayhem. The modding community is also fantastic and the variations on gameplay they offer is great.

3. The secret of Monkey Island: My first real adventure game, introduced to me as a kid by my uncle I got sucked in and have kept a fond spot for adventure games ever since.

4. Left 4 Dead: The game that introduced me to steam and pulled me into a world of digital distribution and great savings. I probably have a lot more games now than I would otherwise thanks to steam, and while I regret some impulse purchases, Left 4 Dead was a ton of fun to play with my friends and I have a lot of fond memories of joining my first clan and playing in organized events with them.

5. Perfect Dark : The game that cemented a few of my long standing friendships. Sitting around and blasting vengesim every time he came to kill you was a great way to spend an afternoon with friends in as a young'un.

 

[nyankaty]

1) Earthbound. My favorite RPG of all time. Unsurpassed in its uniqueness, I have always had the utmost love and respect for this game. The music is incredible and deserves a genre all its own because it's so special. I can play it a thousand times and the ending still gets me every time.

2) Final Fantasy VIII. Probably the first game that I was REALLY passionate about when I was in middle school. I wanted to change my name to Rinoa (thank goodness I didn't) but this game was the first to ever really light up my imagination and appreciation for games. It also had amazing graphics for its time.

3) Kingdom Hearts. The game that made me buy a Playstation 2. I knew from the second I saw the commercial for it that I needed it because it combined two of my greatest loves - Squaresoft and Disney. I was not disappointed though I haven't cared for any of the Organization XIII spin-off games; only the Sora-Kairi-Riku storylines really interest me.

4) Skyrim. The game that made me finally move to one of the "newer" consoles. Until then, I'd sworn I had no interest in ever getting anything higher than a PS2 but I saw some videos of Skyrim glitches and I needed it. I've dumped probably at least 300 hours into that game and I've loved it every hour.

5) The Last of Us. The game that made me buy a PS3 - I got it for no other reason than this game which I desperately wanted to play. Also the only game/movie/anything I have EVER specifically avoided spoilers for because I wanted so badly to experience it myself. It really touched my heart and the music was amazing.

Honorable Mentions:
i) Mother 3. An absolutely stunning sequel for a game that I felt could never be matched. It's a very short game but it utilizes every single second of gameplay to mix into a beautiful, heartwrenching final product that stays with you forever.

ii) Animal Crossing: New Leaf. The only game that has ever made me feel truly, personally connected to the denizens inside of the game because everything I do has a direct effect on them and when they leave, it really feels like losing family. The game is truly pointless in that it hasn't really got any ultimate goals; no real endings, but that makes it like life. It's the journey, not the destination.

iii) Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. A game that is fun on either the front of following and completing the missions or just running around running people over on your Faggio. A classic that I never get tired of.

iv) Final Fantasy X. A mixture of beautiful music, gorgeous graphics, and some lovable and some annoying characters, FFX is a potent blend of ingredients that make for an emotional, enjoyable game. Though Tidus and Yuna can both grate on one's nerves, you can't help but to love them for all their naivety, hope, and love.

More Honorable Mentions that I don't feel like elaborating on:
Super Mario Brothers, Ren and Stimpy: Veediots, Kingdom Hearts 2, Legend of Zelda: OoT, TP, LA, LttP, MM, Pokemon: Red and Blue.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I agree with the age thing
1. Mines of Mars - The first RPG I played. I didn't understand it all that well but I spent a heck of a long time with it and there were just so many options and builds for each character (C64)
2. Pirates - The open world was amazing, the graphics were amazing and I could spend hours just plotting my route on the cloth map which was included (C64)
3. EverQuest - The first online MMO I played. First time I popped outside Qeynos a whole new world opened up for me. (PC)
4. Wings - This was my pick of the Cinemaware games, the first games that had an amazing story and superb graphics (Amiga)
5. Baldur's Gate - It was just so different and wonderful, unlike anything I had played before. (PC)

Could pick a lot of games really but these 5 stand out at the moment.

Awww...thanks for reminding me of Cinemaware. I loved Defender of the Crown.

 

[Zeraki]

1. Mega Man X - The game that got me into the hobby in the first place. Up until this all I had ever played was Mario. It's such a well designed game. Between the dashing and wall jumping mechanics, to the brilliant way the game teaches you everything you need to know in the first level without you even realizing it. The developers put a lot of love into this game, and it shows.

2. Final Fantasy VI - My first Final Fantasy game and my first experience with JRPGs in general. This is pretty much the game I compare all other JRPGs to. It was the first game that affected me on an emotional level, making me realize games can be more than just a good time blowing things up. It also has one of the greatest soundtracks I've ever heard in video games. It is also one of the few games that has no set main character, because the writers wanted to make sure all the characters were all equally important.

3. Ocarina of Time - There isn't much I can say about this that hasn't been said by others. This game dominated my early teens. It's a fantastic game, even by today's standards... especially by today's standards. I probably spent more time in this than just about any other game I've ever played.

4. Mass Effect - Mass Effect surprised me, because I was not expecting to love it as much as I did. It felt like I was a kid again, getting into Star Wars for the first time. The combat in the first game was terrible, but the characters, world and story made me push on and see what was coming next. When I got to those end credits, I felt like I had just experienced something special. The sense of awe would follow me into the next two games in the series. While the ending of the series as a whole was a MAJOR disappointment, it is still one of the best experiences I've ever had with video games.

5. Super Smash Bros. Melee - This was the ultimate "hang out and bond" game I have ever played. My cousin and I would play this game for hours just having fun. At family gatherings we would play it and it would be one of the few times I actually felt like I fit in with my family. I still remember how everyone cringed and sighed when I picked Fox, who was my best character. It made for great memories and I'm hoping that Smash Bros. U can continue that trend.

Honorable mention goes to World of Warcraft. I haven't played the game in almost 3 years, but for half a decade it was a major part of my life. Good times.

 

[SilverUchiha]

1. Pokemon Yellow - My introduction into both gaming and anime. I would still love a modern-visuals remake of it because of just how much fun I remember having on that as my 10 year old self. Pokemon still remains one of my favorite franchises to this day and I always go back to it when I have the time.

2. Super Smash Bros. - It was because of this I gained an interest in Zelda, Metroid, F-Zero, and the rest. It was a game that had Pikachu, which is why I initially played it. Then when I learned about the other characters, I checked their games out too and loved all of them... save for Zelda. Those games were always hit-n-miss for me. Hell, Melee is what got me (and many other westerners) into FIRE EMBLEM which is still one of the better turn-based strategies AND one of Nintendo's best titles out there.

3. Metroid Prime - I'll go down fighting in the battle for GameCube vs. PS2 vs. Xbox, but I still hold that the GameCube was an excellent system that didn't get the praise it truly deserves. The GameCube era was (arguably) when Nintendo made the biggest risks with most of their games. Examples: Luigi's Mansion, Pikmin, Pokemon Colosseum, Wind Waker,Kirby AirRide, StarFox Adventures, as well as bringing in MANY great 3rd party classics like Eternal Darkness & Killer 7. Despite all that though, Metroid Prime stands out as their riskiest idea for a Nintendo property and how well it paid off in spades. For me, personally, it was my first experience with an FPS game on consoles and allowed me to understand the control scheme of FPS games better because of it's pacing. Plus it gave me an appreciation for world building using the world and making much of the story optional rather than forced in with cutscenes and pointless bland narration (looking at you OTHER M).

4. PORTAL - I don't hold that Portal is the greatest game of all time, but it is certainly one of the best games out there. For me, it was my first step into PC gaming on my own and my first good experience with a PC FPS game. I won't go into detail, but I loved every second of it. It is what gave me the will to try something more fast-paced like Left4Dead. It was also my first jump into Steam and now the majority of my game library is Steam.

5. Walking Dead - This is my personal favorite game of all time. Prior to this, I felt cutscenes were just in the way. Before this game, I felt like QTE-based gameplay was mostly pointless. Before this game, I questioned whether I'd find a game with such compelling characters and narrative to make me give a damn about all of them like they were real people. This is one of those few games I can put alongside some of the best films, movies, and novels for the amount of surprises it threw my way in just how good something so simple can be. Truth be told, I had a tough time with this slot, but this is the one I settled on.. lol

 

[Kinitawowi]

Think I've got this pinned down, but damn it was hard.

1: Space Harrier (Arcade, 1985)
Pretty much where it all began. Yeah, I'd played games before then, but none of them really stuck with me until I was a five-year-old kid staring through the windows of the Thomas' Amusement Arcade in Hunstanton at the most awesome thing I'd ever seen. The cabinet moved! The gameplay was so quick! This was when I realised that games were a thing that would always hold my interest, and it's never gone away; Bayonetta's epic tribute to the game 25 years later had me in tears.

2: Wolfenstein 3D (PC, 1992)
It's sad that the lone wolf-style FPS has died out (Serious Sam has vanished and Doom can't be arsed any more). This game set the trend for me of what the FPS should be; one bloke unleashing the biggest gun he's got against hordes of grunts. There's a great moment in E4M5 (I think) when there's a load of SS behind a row of barrels, and the best way to beat them isn't to sneak round the corner with a sniper rifle; it's to pull out the minigun, charge straight up to them and open up. Those moments are gone now, but they still define for me what the genre should be and is capable of.

3: Command & Conquer (PC, 1995)
As much for the circumstances surrounding our first attempts to install it as the actual game itself. The fourteen hours my Dad, his mate John Morgan and I spent trying to get a shitty two-speed CD-ROM drive to work just so we could play this game cemented a developing interest in the actual internals of computers, of components, of technical problem solving and system building that pretty much are my life now. Game's pretty good too, even if the wags were right to nickname it Dune III. The original Warcraft probably had a more lasting impact on my love of the RTS, but C&C gets the nod for the effect it had on me as a technician.

4: Chrono Trigger (SNES, 1995)
Five years and an emulator late to the party (stupid UK), but when a uni mate showed me this it was the doorway to frickin' Narnia. I'd never had a console (or a PC worth a damn - it was always my Dad's) so the Final Fantasy phenomenon passed me by entirely; this is why I've never had any love for FF7 (because by the time I came to it the entire story was virtually public domain and the graphics, doubtless revolutionary at the time, weren't cutting it any more). But Chrono Trigger showed me what that genre was capable of; related later exposure to FF9 had me deciding that later console decisions would be dictated by "whichever system got the new Final Fantasy". This was the one that got me to that point.

5: Guitar Hero (PS2, 2005)
Nearly half of my XBox 360 library - a library swollen by games that I'm unlikely to ever play but they were cheap off the Microsoft ExpertZone - is rhythm games. But more important was its influence on my music collection; I'd grown a bit tired of music, it wasn't grabbing me any more, etcetera, when suddenly I was exposed to a load of music that I originally hadn't cared about or even known. Guitar Hero, and particularly its first sequel, got me out of a slump and back into being interested in music again, and it still dominates my console gaming time. Other musical funks would come (it took the TV series Skins to break me out of the last one), but the death of GH was for me symptomatic of everything the industries - music and gaming - were doing wrong.

Honourable mentions: Sensible Soccer (Amiga, 1992); Nethack (PC, 1987)

 

[zehydra]

1. Super Mario Bros 3. I've been playing it since I was 5.

2. Ocarina of Time

3. Pokemon Blue

4. Megaman 6

5. Fallout 3

 

[Scarim Coral]

Let see -

5 Guild Wars- I what got me into MMORPG and in turn addicted to it!

4 Pokemon Red- The sole reason why I wanted to buy a Gameboy Colour.

3 Street Fighter 2 Turbo- It what me and my bro tend to compete over and I was a sore loser!

2 C&C: Red Alert- It what got me into statergy game and getting me to think about in a game!

1 Escape from Monkey Island- I never knew a game can be so funny!

 

[Random Argument Man]

1. Super Mario World and Super Mario 64.

World was the first game ever that I've ever played. If something needed to get me hooked on gaming for starters, it doesn't get much better than this. However, 64 is the one I always go back to when I want my Mario fix.

2. Legend of Zelda: Link to the past, Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask.

Do you want a franchise that makes you feel like you're on an epic adventure? It doesn't get better than these three games. Link to the past for a good old classic feel is what you need. Ocarina of time was my definition of adventure when I was a kid. Majora's Mask made me realize that this franchise has the potential to make you feel like you've met great characters.

3. Donkey Kong Country trilogy on SNES.

It's hard to not love this franchise. My personal favourite is no.2 where atmosphere truly made the game. Then again, atmosphere in a Donkey Kong game is pretty much its highest point.

4. Final Fantasy 9

Oh, no.6 and no.7 gets a close spot. 6 was my first. However, 9 is what the essential Final Fantasy game should be. Great characters, good story and a fantastic world. Only drawback is the random encounters takes a long time to finish.

5. Halo

No, it's not the best story, not the best gameplay and not the best thing out there. However, it's one of those games where I met good amount of my friends and even my ex girlfriend (Who I could never beat). However, the biggest bond with this game was with my brother. We always got in fights when we were kids. When we were teenagers, it's was where we settled disputes.



Problem with only 5 lists is they don't make you include enough.

 

[Seracen]

These aren't necessarily my favorite games, just games that defined gaming culture. My top 5, chronologically...

Super Mario Bros - Everyone's first game of the original NES era, and the gateway for things to come. I don't care for Mario, but there's no denying the influence it had on the market. The NES made the console market, as only true die-hards played Atari, etc. But every kid had to have the Nintendo (and later, a Genesis).

Final Fantasy 7 - the killer app for PS1 that also brought JRPG's to the forefront of gaming. It forged a reign that would last until the end of the PS2 era, and a genre which would define gaming culture for decades, and still does to some extent.

Halo - ostensibly the only reason XBOX survived, and has a console today. It was the only reason to buy and keep an XBOX (although for me, I broke down and bought one b/c of Shenmue 2) for over a year. Also started the trend of the modern FPS.

Wii Sports - like Mario before it, the game that everyone bought the Wii for, and was responsible for turning non-gamers into gamers. Ostensibly, the most obvious start of "casual gaming" trends, barring tablet gaming.

World of Warcraft - no explanation needed, save that it displaced "Evercrack" on this list through sheer force of will.

****************************

Honorable Mentions:


Mass Effect 3 - the series redefined interactive storytelling, whereas the controversy of the last game redefined how developers look at crafting a product for consumers (to a certain extent, this happens to every game series, but none were more publicized).

Wolfenstein 3D/Doom (interchangeable), Quake, and Half-Life were all stepping stones for the FPS genre.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare became the litmus for modern FPS, usurping Halo.

Pong and Solitaire were the first games that all the computer geeks got when they bought the Atari or their first home PC's.

The Elder Scrolls and GTA series redefined open world experiences.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

1. Pokemon Blue/Red
It was my very first handheld game that I actually couldn't stop playing. I've played several before then, but when I was done with them I was done. This one kept me coming back and playing with different teams, and playing around with types. I adore this game and I go back to it every so often and play it. Always gotta go with Charmander.

2. Diablo II
This is a game I go back and play a lot. When I first played it I literally had a notebook filled with notes that I've made about my character's stats and loot, and how I can make my character badass. It's...quite sad really. I'm really good with numbers and I was doing a lot of number crunching since it just clicked with me. Plus, the music is just amazing.

3. Silent Hill 3.
It was the first time I've ever played a game where the main character was not only my gender, but my age as well. I play that game a lot and I do it on auto-pilot because of how many times I've played it. The atmosphere sucked me in and it's just as scary as Silent Hill 2, another game I love to bits, and had some really well-rounded characters like Vincent. Music is amazing and fit rather well.

4. The Walking Dead.
First game to ever make me cry. I've played some games that have tried to make me do that, and some have even come close to it, inFamous 2 came damn close. This one made me cry my eyes out, and I don't think I can play that part again without crying like a baby.

5. Final Fantasy XIII.
It was my very first Final Fantasy game, and it was the one that has gotten me to try the others. I don't care what other people have said about that game, considering I have no reference point, I just enjoy it. And liked it well enough to play the sequel, and replay FFXIII to get that last damn trophy.

1. I Have No Mouth and I must Scream- The first point and click game (I think) that gave us a mature story, throwing hard topics that people didn't think video games could even have. The first game to ever make me cringe and get too scared to stop playing.

Honorable mention goes to that.

I freaked out at the ending, and immediately closed the game without touching it ever again. I was in Junior High when I played it and I remember stopping and replaying it after some time has passed. It told a very good story, and I "enjoyed" it, but it did a number on me when it was all over. My parents were confused for a while until my dad played it and understood why. Great game though.

 

[C. jejuni]

- Klonoa: Door to Phantomile for getting me into platformers.

- CS (1.3-1.5), which was the only game to trigger a real kind of addiction in me, with the whole "sneaking down at night to play it even more in secret" thing.

- Diablo because the atmosphere is still the most convincing and creepiest of any RPG to this day, and thus it remains my benchmark to this day. Nothing beats a big rhinomonster running up to you out of the dark. The snakes in the dark forest of Path of Exile Act 2 are pretty close though. Such a wonderful part.

- Rome: Total War, it got me into the Total War series which is probably the franchise I have played most of all throughout my entire gamer life. Here I would like to make clear that I wouldn't even accept Rome 2 as a present. I'd rather have dry and cold pommes frites and pay for them.

- Commander Keen 4 because it was my first video game ever.

 

[MrDumpkins]

In no particular order:

Morrowind: First RPG other than pokemon I ever played. I didn't even understand the concepts of anything. Through trial and error I learned how to play the game. It was so satisfying to figure out what enchantmetns did, how to make them, spellmaking, armoring. And the world was so huge and varied. I remember first taking a boat to sadrith mora, I had never seen the Telvanni houses before, and I was amazed. So much diversity and culture in that game. Makes skyrim and oblivion seem stale in comparison.

Dark Souls: I played this after I had been a gamer for a while. I thought I had seen it all, but the bare bones approach to everything really created an awesome world and the multiplayer community was just great. Even when you are traveling down the dark depths of the catacombs, you still see messages of people that have come before you. It makes you feel like you're never alone in the dark journey that game makes you take. Also Sif after saving him in DLC, the cries.

Half Life 2: First PC game I ever played and after only playing games with static objects, seeing a good physics engine was just unbelievable. I didn't even know about the gravity gun until I got there. The first time I picked up an object and killed an enemy with it was glorious. Good story and environments as well, but the pales in comparison the gravity gun.

Halo 3: The best multiplayer game I've ever played, slow, methodical, it was exactly at the right speed, took only 4 shots to kill on standard weapons. Pacing was great, maps were great. Campaign was nice but alright. Forge created even more crazy game types and such. The amount of things they added into that game from halo 2 was astounding.

Walking Dead: Showed me how great just interactive storytelling could be. Instead of focusing on gameplay they focused on choices and the consequences they make. Great game and I walked out of it thinking about games in general in a different light.

 

[Ron Alphafight]

1.Mass Effect
I've sunk more time in this franchise than any other (with the exception of WoW). The series has been over for almost 2 years, and I'm playing through it again for about the 8th time. And that's something I don't see changing anytime soon.

2.The Last of Us
I think this was the only game I've played where I immediately started another play through upon finishing it. Great characters and story.

3.Fallout 3
Good story, but to me, it was all about the environment. I loved being in the wasteland. I systematically walked from one side of the map to the other because I wanted to discover everything.

4.Legend of Zelda: OoT
My first (and favorite) Zelda game.

5.Mario Kart 64
This is the peak of Mario Kart games for me (Potential blasphemy, but I didn't have an SNES, okay?). I'm really good at it, so it's fun to just thrash my friends and gloat.

 

[CarlsonAndPeeters]

--Spoilers for some games below--

1. Super Mario 64

It remains my totem of precise and perfect design for platformers. A variety of gameplay elements, clarity of mechanics, rewards for exploration, charming and humorous visuals, and difficulty without being punishing. Its the full package and reminds me of that every time I replay it. (shout outs to "modern" [PS2] variants Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, and Kya: Dark Lineage)

2. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask

This one is a two-parter because both had a similar formative effect on my childhood love of games, but they have opposing tones. Ocarina of Time was the original sandbox for me, a massive world that you really felt a part of. I would spend hours walking around Kokiri Forest and Kakariko Village just taking in the environments. Majora's Mask, then, took that joy and subverted it; the familiar was there but distorted, giving me my first lesson in how manipulative--and wonderful--game design can be

3. ICO

It frustrated me at first, but the hand-holding between Ico and Yorda, I believe, is a truly beautiful thing. Its brilliant. It fosters an emotional connection like no other. And the game is just never afraid to be unique; it makes the escort quest work by making Ico invincible (meaning protecting Yorda is not an extra objective, but the only one), and fear you feel when leaving Yorda is made real by the threat of her being abducted and terrifying when she is gone and you must go forward blindly.

4. Shadow of the Colossus

Yeah, another Team Ico game (or I guess, THE other), but they are two of my all-time favorites. Shadow of the Colossus is the greatest video game story in my opinion. Wander is a tragic hero in the classic sense, a character described so minimally yet so perfectly. His arc matches the gameplay; he will do anything for this girl who he loves, even as it destroys him and perverts his being. And at the end, holding on to the stairs, being sucked into oblivion--eventually the player, and Wander, has to let go.

5. Super Crate Box

Super Crate Box taught me my most important game design lesson: unique simplicity is wonderful. Yeah, massive worlds are great, but a rewarding experience can be made just by taking classic designs and subverting them slightly. Scoring based on weapon pickups rather than enemies killed seems like an almost irrelevant detail, but it completely changes the way the game plays and makes the risk-reward element so strong. (shout outs to other indie games that consistently amaze me with their simplicity and challenge like Binding of Isaac, Spelunky, and N)

Honorable Mention: Minecraft. Because no game ever made the lack of compulsion so compelling.

Horrible Mention: Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness. Seriously, if you want a lesson in game design, go play this game (super cheap on Steam) and note to never do anything it does. Terrible story, offensive characters, awful controls, awful combat, awful platforming, visual design that makes it impossible to separate interactive vs. non-interactive pieces of the environment, tacked on mechanics, unintuitive level design, and so many insta-kill spots that you spend more time reloading saves than playing. Animation is okay, though.

 

[Brian Tams]

Hmmm, this is going to be interesting. Most influential huh? Might take a bit of thought...

1. Pokemon Red and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

These are going together because they were my first video games. Ever. My parents had gotten a pair of gameboys for themselves as a curiosity, but they eventually ended up in the hands of my brother and I. They had two games for them at the time; a Super Mario game (can't remember which one), and Zelda. They gave them to us one Christmas, and had us choose between Pokemon Red and Blue. I got Red, he got Blue, and we even followed that up by selecting the version mascots as our starters. This part in particular is interesting, as it has spawned a little rivalry between the two of us that has lasted almost fifteen years now, and was continued when I selected Charmander as my second starter in X and he chose Squirtle. Man, I love my brother.

2. Final Fantasy X

I grew up on Nintendo consoles, with my parents following up the purchase of gameboys with an N64. So when my brother got a PS2 for Christmas, I was excited about the prospect of a whole slew of new games I'd be able to enjoy.
One of the first I played was Final Fantasy X, and was also my first JRPG of that nature, and introduced me to... games of that nature, if you catch my drift.

3. Kingdom Hearts

This game, right here, taught me that a great game can be made even from the silliest of ideas (like a Final Fantasy x Disney Cross over event).

4. Halo 2

This is the game that introduced me to online multiplayer and the whirlwind of emotions that comes with it. I loved this game's multiplayer.

5. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

I saved the most influential game for last. This is a game that has had a more profound effect on me as I've grown up. Its one of those rare stories that its effect on a person changes from year to year, and it is, truly, the first game I ever considered a work of art. This is a fantastic game that has taught me about the more subtle intricacies to story telling and gameplay that can take a good game and make it great. I love this game, and it will always hold a special place in my heart.

 

[Guilen-]

I'm going to cheat a little and use ties. There are too many significant games in my life not to.

5. Shining Force 1/2 (I prefer the first)
4. Phantasy Star 4
3. Demon's Souls/Dark Souls
2. The Secret of Monkey Island/Monkey Island 2
1. Final Fantasy 6/Chrono Trigger

I'm definitely an old fashioned gamer, and hope to be a game designer at some point. As much as I truly do love modern games, I loved how earlier eras of games were less influenced by mainstream sensibilities and stood their ground as their own medium. These days everybody competes for the sexiest graphics, sexiest engine, etc. etc. Back then people had no maps and were trying to make things as beautiful as they could with the limited resources they had, and as a result made works of timeless resourceful ingenuity (I often like to compare the original 16-color artwork of the Secret of Monkey Island to the great impressionistic painters). The Souls series, on the other hand, stunned me with its abstract world building and adult immersion, and the underlying feeling that the atmosphere a game is capable of creating can easily rival that of great film (as compared to so much of gaming that is tongue in cheek and too content to play its "un-serious" role in society). I still consider both FF6 and Chrono Trigger to be among the greatest works of art made my man, as important in their respective mediums as the Beatles were to music (I almost compared them to Shakespeare, but Shakespeare created so much of the English language that it's hard to compare him to anything - yet the temptation to make the comparison is there). It was those games that alerted me to the fact that art is profound and worth dedicating your life to, and at the time they came out they made a medium-defying statement about the potential of video games to be more than simply what society viewed them as.

 

[the_great_cessation]

I'm restricting it to a single game per franchise (where applicable) and not listing anything more recent than 2011 or else this might turn into a favorite games list. I found it hard to seperate "nostalgic" and "influential" but I feel I did a pretty good job of that. With that said...

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) - For better or worse, this game changed my life. It became one of the defining moments of my childhood and almost single-handedly shaped my interest in video games, art and story telling more generally. I won't go into too much detail on this one (as I've waxed nostalgic over this series to death) but suffice to say it completely enraptured my imagination at 9 years old and implicitly influenced both my aesthetic sensibilities and my value systems growing up. While Twilight Princess is probably the most nostalgic game in the series for me, if it weren't for Ocarina of Time it's arguable that those nostalgic memories would exist. Ocarina of Time wasn't the first video game I played, not by a long shot, but it was the first piece of fiction I ever really fell in love with and to this day is the only work to completely immerse me in it's world for years of my life.

2. Beyond Good and Evil (GC) - Beyond Good and Evil influenced my tastes in two majors ways. 1) It showed me the value of character and symbolism in video games. I was about 12 or 13 when I first played Beyond Good and Evil. Up to this point in my life, I had never engaged with a game, movie or book that I would call subversive. The fiction I engaged with was largely archetypal and generally had little value outside of moralizing or existing for escapist reasons (on the surface at least). However, Beyond Good and Evil actually challenged me and my viewpoints. Granted, the subversivness of the game is actually rather tame, but to a pre-teen version of my self it was revolutionary. 2) Beyond Good and Evil showed me that good art is often poorly advertised. Prior to playing Beyond Good and Evil, I almost exclusively engaged with ether a) what my peer group dictated or b) what was advertised best by the mainstream media. However, with Beyond Good and Evil I took a chance with something that is a little more fringe and was rewarded greatly for it. I feel as if BG&E was a watershed moment in this respect as it opened me up into more experimental and out there artistic expressions which could explain my current love of Russian post-modernism and ambient electronica.

3. Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) - Shadow of the Colossus showed me the potential of video games to revolutionize art by holistically blending narrative and mechanics. I won't go too into detail on this one as it is predicated on a discussion of the games ending and structure that could ruin the experience for anyone who hasn't played this game. Add to that the fact that it has a distinctly sad and mysterious atmosphere accompanied by a darkly tinged but gorgeous soundtrack and you have a game that hasn't left my thoughts almost 9 years since it's original release.

4. L.A. Noire (PS3) - L.A. Noire reinvigorated my interest in video games and showed the potential "cinematic" games have in delivering satisfying and engrossing stories. While not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, L.A. Noire impressed me with the sheer scope of it's narrative vision and the confidence in which it reworked the adventure genre. It proved to me that "games" as a medium are still very much in a growing process and it further highlighted to me why it is that video games are perhaps the most exciting medium today.

5. Lastly, I'm going to give the final spot to Yoshi's Story (N64) for the virtue of simply being one the first games I ever owned and being the first I ever played to completion(a bit of a cop out but I had too many other choices fighting for that fifth spot and couldn't choose).

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

1.Worms. Playing this 4 player with my mates convinced me to buy a Playstation. Such fun. I still play on occasion, for old times sake.

2.Dawn of War. Got me back into playing games in the late 2000's...40K without having to paint the little bastards? Sign me the fuck up!

3.Goldeneye. Doom etc never really did it for me, but this got me into FPS' for a good long time although I'm not so keen on them now.

4. Streetfighter 2. Convinced me to buy a SNES. It was the cool game of the time that everyone played.

5.Neverwinter Nights. I like fantasy but all the games I'd played prior to this I really hadn't enjoyed and gave up on pretty quick. Same could be said of the vast majority of 3rd person fantasy games I played after, but I keep buying them because maybe I'll enjoy them as much as NWN.

Dishonourable mention: FFVII. Convinced me not to play JRPGs. Other things over the years have compounded my dislike, but this was the first turn me against them.

 

[JasonKaotic]

Alien Trilogy - Definitely gotta include the first game I ever played. Well, that I remember playing. For a film-licensed game Alien Trilogy is pretty damn fantastic. Scared me shitless as a 2-year-old but I loved it all the same. And still do. <3

Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus - Should also include the first game I ever owned. This was it. Love it. Love it so much. If I didn't I wouldn't have kept getting more games. This one's also my favourite platformer.

Final Fantasy VIII - First story-driven game I ever played, at about the age of 4, and I was in love with it. This game is pretty much the reason I go for story-driven games over gameplay-driven games. The series is also the reason my standards of JRPGs are so bloody high. It's still my favourite game of all time today, although that's mainly down to nostalgia.

Persona 3 FES - This is a pretty recent one for me. Went through a bit of a stage where I was starting to lose interest in games because it had been forever since I'd played a game that I genuinely loved. I'd been trying to get hold of it for ages but I finally got it last June and I'm so obsessed with this game it's not even funny. Got me excited for games all over again, especially since Persona is still going and it's still good. Played Persona 4 not long after and I love that one with all my heart too, but I personally sliiightly prefer Persona 3. It made me question whether FFVIII was still my favourite game after finishing it, and you guys have no idea how insane that is to anyone that knows me. If I wasn't so nostalgia-blind this would easily be my favourite game.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - Got me into the massive open-world WRPG scene, which is another of my favourite genres. Although I've never really found anything quite like TES, so I'm not sure what exactly it got me into. But fuck it, this game's great and everyone should experience it, just try to ignore the brokenness of the combat. Or avoid it altogether. You'd be surprised how much of a good time you can have with this game without ever even drawing your weapon. At least, back in its day. Admittedly it's aged pretty poorly.

That was easier than I expected it to be. Heheh.