The most important titles of all time - your picks?

[DeludedGuy]

PC Platform

Baldurs Gate - Tales of the sword Coast - This is the best RPG ever. This was the original, and my favorite. I spent over 8 months playing it, and I still play it now and then. It made a great platform for the brilliant sequels.

Re-Volt - If your looking for a fun LAN racing game, you will not find anything better. The wacky cars, levels and weapons make this easily the most fun racer of all time.

Hitman 2: Silent Assasin - Amazing game! The various ways of completing missions is what makes it so great. Really fun game

Ultimate Soccer Manager 98/99 - Best football manager game ever made! I still havent come across a better football managing game than this. The ability to rig games, and rig players made it so good. You had the options of controlling your stadium, the prices of tickets, the shops outside the stadium, everything!


Playstation Platform

Resident Evil 2 - This was my favourite game for a long long time, I never got bored of it. It really set the mark when it came out.

Tekken 2 - Still my favourite 2 player beaten up game, I honestly think its the best tekken game ever made.

Tony Hawks 2 - Had a lot of fun with this game, and now and again I bring it out for some fun.

Silent Hill - This was one scary game, my god, it really did scare me a lot back when I first played it. Really spooky game, classic.

[beanbandit]

Atari 2600
Pong, Asteroids, Space invaders. The start of console gaming, without these games/console the gaming world would be very different.

Gameboy
Tetris. Just proves that games don't need flashy graphics, widescreen display and short battery life to be a classic.

SNES
Mario Kart. Still the best version on any platform, takes a minute to learn, takes an age to perfect.
Starfox. The first attempt at 3D gaming on a home console with the help of the Superfx chip.
Secret of mana. The game that introduced Square to me, 3 player RPG, class.

Win 3.1
Doom. First use of shareware. Showed that the PC was more than an office machine. Was a good reason to stay late at work and play this.

Sega Saturn
Vitua Fighter. The start of 3D beat-em ups, worth splashing £400 for? Yep
Sega Rally. Still the best arcade racer i've ever played.

Sony Playstation
Wipeout. Racing at stupid speeds with Leftfield, Orbital & The Chemical Brothers pumping out through the speakers. First real use of licensed music.

N64
Mario 64. Mario goes 3D, some said it couldn't be done, Nintendo knew otherwise.
Goldeneye. An FPS on console, it can't be done. Oh my, how wrong is that statement. One of the best FPS games ever.

Dreamcast
Nothing to see here, move along.

PS2
Rez. Turn the lights off, turn the volume up and crank the bass up for the best game on PS2.

Xbox MS make a console, you must be having a laugh. Now look who's laughing.
Halo/Halo 2. Welcome to Xbox, the best multiplayer console game ever. Either online or 4 consoles networked with lots of friends this title takes a lot of beating.
Steel Battalion. How bigs that controller. Capcom shows the world the largest(expensive) console controller, but it still sells out in hours.

Win XP
Battlefield 1942. The game that changed the FPS market. Now you could control anything, and it worked.

All this is based on games/equipment i have owned.

[afraser2k]

1) Half-Life (PC)

It really changed the FPS genre and made developers think more about their games. At that point I don't think many games had a decent story or character interaction on that level that Half-Life did. Then of course the importance of mods like Counter-Strike to the online gaming community.

2) Command & Conquer (PC)

Another genre-defining game with fun maps and FMV sequences to keep people wanting more.

3) World of Warcraft (PC)

A simple introduction to MMORPG's and what it can bring to gamers, especially making developers take note of the interest in that area of gaming. Although I found it boring after a while it's still newbie-friendly with a decent enough group of players willing to help out.

4) Zelda: Ocirana of Time (N64)

At the time of release it was one of the few games that made me go "wow" when looking at someone playing it. Fun story and RPG setting for the N64 that made the console worthwhile for me. Good way of showing new players about third-person views and different camera modes.

5) Tetris (Gameboy)

Such a simple game yet very popular and addictive for most that play it.


These games are probably my favourites of each genre mentioned so should give a new PC gamer hours of fun and understanding of why I play them so much.

[herulach]

Wtf is with everyone pulling out wipeout on the ps2? It clearly can only be played in its best glory in the original PC version (p100 w/ 8mb ram ftW!)

Anyway, Back in the day games:
Elite. Ace, nothing else can describe it

Super Mario World for obvious reasons.

Tetris the ultimate example of good gameplay over everything else.

Lemmings.

Wolfenstien 3D. The Daddy of all fps

Mario Kart (any version, but particularly gameboy advance and SNES) one of the best multiplayer games of all time.

Command And Conquer. PLayed this for hours at a time, super fun.

Uplink, Fantastic concept, brilliantly executed.

Q3 Arena, best deathmatch ever bar none.

Homeworld, completely redefined what made a great RTS.

Far Cry. Gorgeous loking, first game with proper HDR, wonderfully open ended. Love it.

[Totem]

Diablo ruled. Also, well for me privateer the darkening.

[Paul Adams]

As Win9x was a shell rather than a full OS, and games from that time mostly didn't require Windows, I've bundled together DOS & Win9x eras and just made a distinction for 2000/XP where it became a system requirement.

I have also based my decisions heavily on originality, so something that took an idea and made it better isn't rated as highly to me unless it adds a significant amount more (not just polished graphics & larger scale).

From the MS-DOS & Win9x era:

1. Lemmings
My first ever PC game, purchased second-hand on 5.25" floppies, and an absolute classic.
Simple concept, simple graphics but excellent result.

2. Doom
Ground-breaking graphics and atmosphere and one of the few games to live up to its expectations - I remember fondly waiting for "Doomsday" when the FTP mirrors across the world would get their freeware copies.
Beyond the game itself there was the amazing extensibility through modified or additional .WAD files, and head-to-head/cooperative play via a network or null modem cable.
While it wasn't true 3D (no proper concept of a Z-axis other than falling too far meant you died), it was still more original than Quake.

3. Syndicate
While the 3D pre-rendered backdrops were static and the animations also pre-rendered, this game sucked up hours of my youth with its addictiveness and flexibility when it came to selecting & arming your team (and the hassle to get sound drivers & enough expanded memory to make it work ).

4. Ultima Online
The daddy, and yes this needed Windows for the Internet connectivity.
My first MMO(RP)G that I played day-in, day-out for 18 months almost 10 years ago.
I had never played any of the single-player Ultima titles before then, but the MMO aspect of this makes it an entirely different game anyway.
Developing the characters and having the driven desire to improve them to the level of "Grandmaster" in a field was an incredible amount of fun.
Crafting, combat, treasure hunts, fishing - you saw it here first in glorious isometric 3D.


Moving into the 2000/XP era we have a much larger selection and of course it is current, so it's difficult - plus there aren't that many games that had genuine originality any more, so I could only think to add a couple:

1. Half Life
That which Doom created with its 16-bit engine, Half Life took to a new level with the first "real" attempt at AI, less of a "darkness on an alien planet" approach (for the most part!) and a storyline that was a bit more coherent and engaging.
None of the Doom or Quake sequels IMO have brought anything new to their field other than graphics.

2. Civilization 4
Yes, yes, it's not the first of its ilk but I used up my 4 "DOS" era game slots and this is the most engrossing and graphically impressive example - not only adding a lot more depth and a realtime 3D engine but also for removing some of the more niggly annoyances from previous versions.
I load this up, start to play a game and 5 hours later I'm considering if I really need that much sleep even though I have work in the morning.


Don't like sport sims, flight sims have limited appeal to me too.
The titles above aren't necessarily the best examples of their kind, but I believe them to be landmarks in PC gaming.


For the Amiga I didn't have that many games, but I would say:
1. Xenon 2 : Megablast
Most amazing soundtrack heard at the time, given only 512KiB of memory, and incredibly simple yet addictive shoot'em up.

2. IK+
The humour added into this game was just the icing on the cake (ever read the scoreboard or do the key combination to make their pants fall down?) - best played with 2 players in turbo mode.

3. Sensible Soccer
Okay, I don't play sport sims, but this game was fun only head to head anyway.

4. Bubble Bobble
Not original to home computers of course, but again with 2 players this was heavily addictive (though you would hear the theme tune in your head for days afterwards).

[TheBuZZard]

PC

World of Warcaft - first MMORPG for the mass market
HL/Counterstrike - Just so huge and popular
Doom - because.

Spectrum

Most of the Ultimate games.

Amiga

Sensible Soccer - footy, footy, footy!
Dune - birth of the modern RTS

Mega drive

Virtua Racing - £70 or somthing stupid for a game and people still bought it!!!

NES

Super Mario Land - our princess is in another castle!

Gameboy

Tetris - Even your mum knows what this game is.

SNES

Super Mario Kart - 4 player heaven.
Starfox - Stunning
Chrono Trigger - The RPG with the mostest

PS1

Wipeout - gaming becomes "cool"

N64

Goldeneye - FPS can be done on consoles, yes it can
Mario 64 - Platforms game go 3D (still the be bettered)

Dreamcast

Phantasy Star online - online console gaming before it existed.
Soul Calilbur - Worth owning a DC just for this and Powerstone.
Metropolis Street Racer - Stupid title, but realtime night/day and peferct controls.

PS2

Burnout - games should be fun
GTA3 - gaming becomes cool again.