What do you think is the most groundbreaking game?

I think that the most groundbreaking game would have to be Half-Life. It pretty much defined the FPS genre.

Mass Effect, however, did not forever change cinematic dialog or RPG's, but it came pretty close to doing what it set out to accomplish.

Civilization

Age of Empires 2

Fallout 1

KOTAR

Rouge

Halo

Pong

[QUOTE="Renevent42"] It certainly is groundbreaking, and the games you listed (while amazing for their time) don't come close to what's being presented in Mass Effect in cinematic quality and presentation. It's on a different level than what was technically feasible in 2000 and before. And if you don't agree, please answer this (was in response to the other post) What's so ground breaking about Halflife? It's not the first FPS with a story or strong narrative...or with good puzzles...or with good AI. I can think of many titles prior to it that had pretty much everything Halflife had prior to it's release.pelvist

Your contradicting yourself with the question about Half-Life. Your reasonse for Half-Life not being groundbreaking are the same as my reason for Mass Effect.

Like I said before, your entitled to your opinion just like everyone else.

Half-Life, CounterStrike, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, World of Warcraft

Kinda hard to point one game in specific.

-Final Fantasy tactics were groundbreaking because it was the first strategy FF ever made.

-Vagrant Story was the first (and only till now) action game based on the FF world.

-Splinter Cell and his new stealthy aproach to 3th person modern shooters.

And the list goes on.

I'm not sure what game was the most groundbreaking, but what I can contribute that pioneered great changes in gaming will have to be id Software's Doom.

There are some good reads on the Wiki. Here's just a short summary of the impact Doom had on culture:

"In a press release dated January 1, 1993, id Software had written that they expected Doom to be "the number one cause of decreased productivity in businesses around the world". This prediction came true at least in part: Doom became a major problem at workplaces, both occupying the time of employees and clogging computer networks with traffic caused by deathmatches. Intel, Lotus Development and Carnegie Mellon University are among many organizations reported to form policies specifically disallowing Doom-playing during work hours. At the Microsoft campus, Doom was by one account equal to a "religious phenomenon".

lol...

Half Life.

Doom - this is sometimes credited as being the first game real enough to emerse the player in a different world.

Quake - to my knowledge the first 3D fps in history (and the first real online multiplayer game that really took off in popularity)This set several standards in fps gameplay as well I believe.

Half-Life - First time an fps game was given a cinematic-like story, changed peoples expectations of the genre.

FEAR - I mention this as its AI hasn't really been topped since.. its been matched for a long time now.

GTAIII, This I believe brought the sandbox type game into a favorable light, perhaps the first of its kind to really get noticed.

Although in my mind the biggest groundbreaker wasn't a PC game, I give that to Devil May Cry, it started the action-adventure genre which has almost defined consoles.

Mario 64

Ocarina of Time

Half-Life

take your pick.

Alpha Protocol's dialogue/reputation system is groundbreaking.

Historically, Diablo, Deus Ex, Half Life and Counterstrike, KOTOR, Starcraft.

in pc gaming history i would go for wolfenstein3d/doom

with these games, id invented the fps genre, pretty much groundbreaking if you ask me

Wolfenstein 3D:grand daddy of fps gaming. My first ever FPS, simply put, when I first played it, it was groundbreaking in every aspect.

Quake:for being the most polished singleplayer FPS of it's time, and for having an actual multiplayer experience.

Half-life: most influential game ever made, period.

Doom (*see Gideon's post above)

Halflife (*^)

Quake (*^)

Everquest (First very successful 3d MMO-- helped define the genre)

Thief (defined stealth gameplay)

System Shock
Thief: The Dark Project
Half-Life
Populous
Command & Conquer
Homeworld

JackBurton

i think I love you

Yeah aside from the archaic presentation, stiff animations, the fact the main character doesn't even have a voice over, and others obvious things...yeah you are right...it does nothing different/better lol.Renevent42

Omicron was an example of this genre of videogame (just ONE example) being much older than Mass Effect to support what I said about Mass Effect not doing anything that has not been done already. Yeah Omicron has worse graphics than Mass Effect, there may be no voice overs, what a surprise! Its a game from 1999! Its the same type of game and I enjoyed it much more than Mass Effect when this genre of videogame was still pretty new. So if this genre of game has voice overs then that makes it groundbreaking does it? Didnt Outcast (2000) have voice overs? Im sure there were other games before that which did too. Mass Effect isnt the first and only game of this kind, and its certainly not groundbreaking...

Diablo II - For defining the game genre from which is a part of...did i made any sense?:D

Crysis - Like someone above me said: safe choice...groundbreaking visuals.

GTA Series - you will never find a city more alive bla bla bla

P.S. Mass Effect 1,2 are both great games(i love the first more)but they are not groundbreaking at any capitol...you name it...name something on what you think Mass Effect holds the crown or is the best and ill name at least 2 games that are better(and i dont mean overall better :P)

[QUOTE="Renevent42"][QUOTE="pelvist"]

Omicron was an example of this genre of videogame (just ONE example) being much older than Mass Effect to support what I said about Mass Effect not doing anything that has not been done already. Yeah Omicron has worse graphics than Mass Effect, there may be no voice overs, what a surprise! Its a game from 1999! Its the same type of game and I enjoyed it much more than Mass Effect when this genre of videogame was still pretty new. So if this genre of game has voice overs then that makes it groundbreaking does it? Didnt Outcast (2000) have voice overs? Im sure there were other games before that which did too. Mass Effect isnt the first and only game of this kind, and its certainly not groundbreaking...

Cranler

Marathon for one. In fact, many people consider Halflife more of a spiritual successor to Marathon than Halo ever was.

There's actually a lot of discussions on the web talking about the similaraties between these two games...and there much more than just skin deep.

[QUOTE="Cranler"][QUOTE="Renevent42"] It certainly is groundbreaking, and the games you listed (while amazing for their time) don't come close to what's being presented in Mass Effect in cinematic quality and presentation. It's on a different level than what was technically feasible in 2000 and before. And if you don't agree, please answer this (was in response to the other post) What's so ground breaking about Halflife? It's not the first FPS with a story or strong narrative...or with good puzzles...or with good AI. I can think of many titles prior to it that had pretty much everything Halflife had prior to it's release.Renevent42

Marathon for one. In fact, many people consider Halflife more of a spiritual successor to Marathon than Halo ever was.

There's actually a lot of discussions on the web talking about the similaraties between these two games...and there much more than just skin deep.

What are the similarities?

The things that really wowed me about HL is its the first game I know of where they created a beleivable work environment at the beginning of the game. NPC's complaining about Freeman being late, npc's complaining about the job, using the microwave. Does Marathon have that?

[QUOTE="Renevent42"]

[QUOTE="Cranler"][QUOTE="Renevent42"] It certainly is groundbreaking, and the games you listed (while amazing for their time) don't come close to what's being presented in Mass Effect in cinematic quality and presentation. It's on a different level than what was technically feasible in 2000 and before. And if you don't agree, please answer this (was in response to the other post) What's so ground breaking about Halflife? It's not the first FPS with a story or strong narrative...or with good puzzles...or with good AI. I can think of many titles prior to it that had pretty much everything Halflife had prior to it's release.Cranler

Marathon for one. In fact, many people consider Halflife more of a spiritual successor to Marathon than Halo ever was.

There's actually a lot of discussions on the web talking about the similaraties between these two games...and there much more than just skin deep.

What are the similarities?

The things that really wowed me about HL is its the first game I know of where they created a beleivable work environment at the beginning of the game. NPC's complaining about Freeman being late, npc's complaining about the job, using the microwave. Does Marathon have that?

How about a list of the many titles?Renevent42

Marathon for one. In fact, many people consider Halflife more of a spiritual successor to Marathon than Halo ever was.

There's actually a lot of discussions on the web talking about the similaraties between these two games...and there much more than just skin deep.

What are the similarities?

The things that really wowed me about HL is its the first game I know of where they created a beleivable work environment at the beginning of the game. NPC's complaining about Freeman being late, npc's complaining about the job, using the microwave. Does Marathon have that?

No one mentioned Gothic. The first fully realised open world game. All dialouge is voicedand has npc schedules. Many seem to think Oblivion did it first but Gothic came out before even Morrowind.

Pong.

In the last decade...

Half Life 2

Oblivion

Call of Duty

Warcraft 3

World of Warcraft

Rome: Total War

Dawn of War

Far Cry

Diablo 2

Neverwinter Nights

Baldur's Gate 2

Company of Heroes

It's a game, just hasn't been released yet, SW:TOR no holds barred.

modern warfare 2 and dragon ball z budokai.

they are the most original games EVAR

Civilization

Age of Empires 2

Fallout 1

KOTAR

Rouge

Halo

Pong

CrispyOats93

Halo? Whats next, Lady Gaga the best song-writer of all time?

ME? It's Kotor3 with a better presentation and a lot of missing elements.

As for the question i do not know. Maybe GTAs, it fuse different gameplay styles in an open world.

It certainly is groundbreaking, and the games you listed (while amazing for their time) don't come close to what's being presented in Mass Effect in cinematic quality and presentation. It's on a different level than what was technically feasible in 2000 and before. And if you don't agree, please answer this (was in response to the other post) What's so ground breaking about Halflife? It's not the first FPS with a story or strong narrative...or with good puzzles...or with good AI. I can think of many titles prior to it that had pretty much everything Halflife had prior to it's release.Renevent42

Well, Half Life was the first FPS to implement story within gameplay. What I mean by this is, you didn't just stroll from level to level with guns and shooting bad guys with a story that existed for the sole purpose of completing objectives and picking up key cards. You traverssed friendly hallways, talked to friendly NPCs without weaponry. The crowbar is an iconic weapon because Half Life's first weapon was that - just a close combat weapon and it was surprising how effective it was and how well it was implemented. Every other game before that you began with a gun of some sorts.

This is what makes Half Life so groundbreaking. It was a seamless experience with a story you could sink your teeth into because you were apart of it. The story wasn't communicated to you through walls of exposition text at the beginning and end of levels. Half Life didn't cop out. The story was intrinsically linked to the gameplay and for this, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind it's groundbreaking. Think about EVERY SINGLE FPS following Half Life. They ALL did the same thing and if they didn't, they felt instantly dated. The reason why Half Life no longer feels as groundbreaking is for that very reason - everything after it did the exact same. Half Life is a pioneer. Mass Effect on the other hand.... not so much.

The thing is, gamers are under the false assumption that we are reaching "film" standards now in terms of storylines. Graphics are no doubt getting closer and closer to film - graphics are getting better. We're getting motion blur and depth of field in there to replicate the effects of a camera but in absolutely no way do storylines in video games rival that of films. And Mass Effect is no exception. Any developer that presents a character like this indicates they have a long, long way to go before they get anywhere near close to a film in terms of dialogue and characterization. This is complete dreck. Absolutely horrendous stuff. So if "cinematic quality" is what Mass Effect is groundbreaking for, I'm not sure it's groundbreaking at all.

[QUOTE="CrispyOats93"]

Civilization

Age of Empires 2

Fallout 1

KOTAR

Rouge

Halo

Pong

luke_717

Halo? Whats next, Lady Gaga the best song-writer of all time?

ME? It's Kotor3 with a better presentation and a lot of missing elements.

As for the question i do not know. Maybe GTAs, it fuse different gameplay styles in an open world.

[QUOTE="luke_717"]

[QUOTE="CrispyOats93"]

Civilization

Age of Empires 2

Fallout 1

KOTAR

Rouge

Halo

Pong

V4LENT1NE

Halo? Whats next, Lady Gaga the best song-writer of all time?

ME? It's Kotor3 with a better presentation and a lot of missing elements.

As for the question i do not know. Maybe GTAs, it fuse different gameplay styles in an open world.

[QUOTE="zahyr"]mass effect 1 and 2GeneralShowzer

Ultima online is most ground braking. Entire mmorpg genre would not exist if it wasnt for ultima online. World of warcraft would not exist if it wasnt for Ultima online. And ultima online is still today 12 years later best mmorpg out there. Even thoe pay to play server is a bit ruined, but they are soon fixing it with old school server.

Thief - defined the stealth genre

dos4gw82

I was checking and could find out that Both Tenchu and Thief were released in 1998. I remember playing both but games at that time butonly in Tenchu case I tought "How nobody ever tought about making a stealth game before?". :D

@haris82

Ultima Online was realy groundbreaking for me. Some say other mmorpgs were released before but those didnt catch the atention of the players as UO did.

Elder Scrolls series? all of them were incredible beyond human definition(lol).

Honestly, it's kinda funny how the answers to the OP question become basically folks' favorite game list. Now I don't claim to have the expertise or gaming knowledge of many here and some genres like FPS I don't care for one bit. I missed a large period in the evolution of PC gaming. However, I've played a lot of games over the years and read enough threads and articles to know when something is just a popularity contest.

I would aver that there are certainly no "groundbreaking" games in the last few years as most games are just rehashes or combinations of tried and true formulas. Yeah, a game might look better, have a better story, or sound better, but that doesn't make it groundbreaking. A lot of discussion about Mass Effect. I played it and enjoyed it, but it was also flawed in many ways. Furthermore, it's basically a redone version of KOTOR and I thought KOTOR was a much better game - and I don't consider KOTOR groundbreaking. Oblivion?! c'mon! It was a nice looking game but got old real quick. What exactly about Oblivion was groundbreaking? What did Obilviion do that games like Might & Magic, Ultima, Baldurs/NWN/Icewind, and the prior Elder Scrolls series didn't do before it. Yeah..it looked better...wow!

I think it's safe to say that some of the best and most popular game ever were not "groundbreaking". Games like Starcraft, Baldur's Gate II, whatever...they took a concept and genre and made the most of it. Conversely, some games that could be consider "groundbreaking" would not necessarily be classified in a group of best games ever. By definition...to me...groudbreaking means that a game basically created a whole new genre, concept, technical aspect, etc. the influenced a bunch of future games.

A good question to ask now might be what would it take to make a game groundbreaking in the future? What ground is there to break?

I haven't played a game that really blew me away in a couple of years. The closest i've come to was portal which was just hard to comprehend at the time. Another game that comes to mind is Batman Arkham Asylum which really blew me away because it made me think really differently about how i did things. UT2004 was groundbreaking when i first played it because it was really the first fps that i had ever really played.

Pong.

Groundbreaking to me, is a game that either creates or redefines a genre. A game that inspires others of its kind. Most recent games didn't actually do that, they just repackaged similar ideas. (albeit in a superior way, ala WoW)

Edit: Just read eclarkdogs post, I find myself in complete agreement.

Might and Magic VI and Ultima 7. They are older games but I find myself going back to play them again and again even years later.

Half Life 1

Half Life 2

Portal

System Shock

Theif