08 Dec 2016 19:13:44
I am interested to know peoples thoughts on the following questions.

What games do people consider to be the real gamechangers in the gaming world , which have pushed the boundaries of a genre or opened up whole new possibilities? Things have moved on so much in such a short time. What makes the ultimate game in your opinions?

{Ed001's Note - good question. Two I would put forward are Championship Manager, the original one, as it changed everything in PC games, made them mainstream. Secondly I would suggest Civilization, as it was a gamechanger in the turn based strategy games.}

1.) 08 Dec 2016
08 Dec 2016 20:53:39
totally with you on Champ Manager Ed001 my fav was Champ Manager 2 the italian leagues, back when Italian footy was the best and you needed a diff version of the game to manage outwith the UK.

Another one I would add to that for the PC was Diablo( to be fair there may be a predecessor to this that I am completwly forgetting) , It did come a little later but think it opened up a new style of game that has been copied across other genres even outside fantasy/RPG titles ever since.

Ive never really played Civilisation, I have played sim city a bit but I know that's not a patch on that so cannot relly comment. I would also add the likes of Command and Conquer in with this in terms of it opening up a new style of gaming and exposing the PC to a new audience.

I mentioned this one in my list in a the post below. But Zelda twighlight princess on the Wii really blew me away, I've not liked Nintendo since the N64 but that game opened up a new style of how a game could be played in the future, when we start seeing more VR titles mixed with that control style we will se games evolve to a new level imo. I can't wait.

{Ed001's Note - C&C is a good shout. Sensible Soccer, the original, has to be in there. When that came out it was the first live action football game worth playing.}

2.) 08 Dec 2016
08 Dec 2016 21:16:42
Sensible soccer god I forgot about that. I remember another game called kick off. That was awesome (or at least it felt that way when I was 8 years old )

All the Zelda are amazing I remember having the gold cartridge on the nes. I was into all the rpgs or jrpgs. Mana series ys series and phantasy star series. Loved dragon quest (love dragon ball z lol ) I have never played final fantasy or any of the tales series (don't ask me why)

Zelda changed it up when it went to ocarina of time! The only one I have never completed is majoras mask and it might be my favourite. I remember having to have some sort of emulator to play it. Never played skyward sword either. going to take a punt on the new Nintendo console even though I know it won't be my thing just for the new Zelda and hopefully the skyward sword will get a release so I can keep up to date

{Ed001's Note - Eye of the Beholder was the RPG I remember most, it was the first I can remember playing that was not a text based adventure (remember them?).}

3.) 08 Dec 2016
08 Dec 2016 21:26:47
Commander and Conquer was brilliant, probably havn't played it for a good 15 or so years but always used to on the PC. Also used to love Final Fantasy, not usually my type of game but was excellent, not tried the modern ones mind.

{Ed001's Note - I quite liked FFVII but I soon got bored of the grind of leveling up and stopped playing. Never bothered with another RPG really until Skyrim.}

4.) 08 Dec 2016
08 Dec 2016 21:28:56
Yes I do ed. and I can remember playing this game that the teacher let us play in primary school 86-91 and you would have to answer questions correctly and I can remember there was a witch and if you failed in your choices her face would come up on the screen and it was game over

{Ed001's Note - I used to love the text based ones. The Hobbit is one I remember.}

5.) 08 Dec 2016
08 Dec 2016 21:42:04
Can't remember that ed! But I do remember that weird lord of the rings cartoon that suddenly stopped half way through for no apparent reason. Later found out that it run out of budget. Speaking of cartoons I just rewatched mysterious city's of gold. Remember that? Slightly off tread but I'm feeling nostalgic

{Ed001's Note - I love the LOTR cartoon and mysterious city of gold. They were quality TV.}

6.) 08 Dec 2016
08 Dec 2016 22:32:47
I think doom has to be mentioned as a game changer and populous.

7.) 08 Dec 2016
08 Dec 2016 22:12:35
It sure was ed. rewatching it still made me feel like I still have so much to learn. It went off a bit at the end but was filled with lots of historical information. Cartoons never seem to tell a story anymore. The episodes of today's stuff never links. That's why I moved to anime /manga

{Ed007's Note - Dungeons and Dragons was by far THE best cartoon ever.}

8.) 08 Dec 2016
08 Dec 2016 23:16:52
In the last 10 years there have been a couple.

League of Legends was the first one to really take advantage of the free to play way. It's business model is also now being implemented in so many games. Not only that, it also successfully cracked the television market. No surprise when you consider there was a $25 million prize pool at one of the events.

Half Life 2 for it's physics engine, which was simply fantastic. I have a real love in for Half Life games as you can probably tell but everything about this game was brilliant, especially the physics.

Counter-Strike:Source simply because it paved the way for TV coverage with tournaments like The Championship Gaming Series(CGS). I believe it was the first professional online gaming event that was televised in the UK. Now, even SkySports are putting up articles about League of Legends, Defenders of the Ancients 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, etc etc. Not only that, Schalke 04(yes, the German football club) have got a League of Legends team!
eu.lolesports.com/en/team/fc-schalke-04

Company of Heroes changed the way RTS games were played completely, adding multiple hitboxes with different damage values to vehichels and buildings. They were also one of the first to replace individual infantry units with squads, as well as introducing a cover system which genuinely works! The latter two changes are quite possibly the reason that infantry squads have become so important in modern day RTS games. If you remember in previous C&C games, infantry was useless after 5 minutes unless they were overwhelmingly out numbering everything else. These days you can take out 3 or 4 tanks with 1 infantry squad, if you use them correctly.

{Ed007's Note - Sorry mate, a bit of topic but I missed SLB mentioning Kick-Off, there's a remastered version called Kick Off: Revival on the PS4 for £7.99....... I've bought it but not tried it yet.
Dino Dini is an absolute legend in the gaming community for bringing us the Kick Off games, wasn't there even a version where you could manage the team and buy and sell players once the 16 bit machines came out?}

9.) 09 Dec 2016
09 Dec 2016 00:34:58
Quite a few cracking games suggested in previous posts.

Gotta agree with the shouts for sensible soccer, everything about that was perfect, from the way the game played to the stupid team and player names. I would still prefer to play that than modern Fifa games.

Another series that although in my opinion brough an end to the platform game as a unique serious gaming experience but was also a gamechanger was Oddworld Abes Odyssey and Abes Exodus. It showed that platforming had reached its limitations and forced studios to head down the route of better modelling and 3d environments if they were going to produce things that were any better in terms of gameplay graphics and story. But the one that really started it of course was the likes of Mario, pitfall etc etc which should be in this gamechanging group without doubt, but for forcing through change and making studios stand up and take notice and advance I think Oddworld just pips our Italian friend as it really finished what mario and the like started and led off into the next generation of games.

Im a lover of racing games and its hard to pick one that really stands out, Pole Position , Sega Rally, F1 official series, Colin Mcrae, Dirt, Forza , Grand Tourismeo etc etc I think its hard to say if any were really gamechangers in terms of what they brought though.

Jayaccounts mentioned doom, totally agree there.

The most obvious game changer in games has to be GTA. I wish they kept the chains of Gouranga (think that's right spelling) monks in the later versions, although other more dangerous cults get a look in these days.

{Ed007's Note - If you're mentioning platform games, James Pond (a pure w@nk bumped me for that for the Mega Drive a couple of months ago that put me off the collecting I was doing) and Zool. Was Another World, Flashback and Prince of Persia platform games?
I can remember skipping school to play Pole Position in the arcade but if I'm honest I've never been that into driving games although there's been some crackers, Turbo Lotus Espirit on the Amiga was a particular favourite of mine.

10.) 09 Dec 2016
09 Dec 2016 01:02:05
The Amiga years was a golden time in gaming, I remember super cars 2 , shadow of the beast , IK+, jimmy whites snooker, operation thunderbolt, kick off 2 and alien breed . All games I spent hours playing when I should of been revising.

{Ed007's Note - I've been looking at buying one for months. My Amiga 1200 was the best machine I ever had and I'm such a dick for giving the whole shebang and thousands of games to the wee apprentice welder I had when I bought my first Playstation.}

11.) 09 Dec 2016
09 Dec 2016 01:37:06
The sheer amount of games that were available made the whole time amazing especially as they were so cheap *cough*. I still have mine packed away in a cupboard with all the disks so if you need some games give me a shout.

{Ed007's Note - Amiga games? Have you got an Amiga too? This page has went crazy lads, brilliant! (clap) I could talk about this stuff all day!}

12.) 09 Dec 2016
09 Dec 2016 01:52:42
I still have my amiga 500+ and it still works , off the top of my head I have still got about 200+ games for it. My friend who I sold my first amiga to still has it set up and uses it daily and he has thousands of games.

{Ed007's Note - Honestly, Jay, if you want to sell it give me a shout as long as it's not crazy money. If you look back I was into buying old machines and games on Facebook btw not here, until I got bumped. Only a £10 I think it was and I got it back from paypal but it kind of put me off a bit. I'm going to get back into it once Christmas is out the way.

13.) 09 Dec 2016
09 Dec 2016 01:00:01
turbo lotus esprit, i'm positive I've still got a copy of that somewhere, nothing to play it on though. spose I could get an emulator and see if someone will give me a few quid somewhere (if my mother hasn't emptied out her loft, i'm sure its still there) , that and RAC rally were all I ever played on the Amiga.

zool and james pond were indeed superb. I would include cool spot and earthworm jim in with those.

I think the original prince of persia was, I know its been redone a few times.

All I want now is to play Knightmare properly with a VR headset, was so angry that my I was never allowed to apply to go on that when I was younger.

Anyways I think I've headed off track from my own original questions.

Not many responses to the 2nd part of it, where can we go from here and what will make/makes the ultimate game?, or have we reached a plateau in terms of the sort of games we can create, Do we just now tell a variety of the same stories within the genres we already have? I would like to think not, but I don't have the answer hence why i'm not a developer/storyboarder at a major games studio!

{Ed001's Note - the answer is we will just get a lot of sequels as they are an easy way to make money.}

14.) 09 Dec 2016
09 Dec 2016 01:10:36
Hang on, out run and road rash are the only racing games I played! Zool wow forgot about that. Revelutionary at the time for some reason. U remember chuck rock? Toe jam and earl? Revenge of shinobi? Ninja gaiden well that was the hardest game I played up until dark souls (sorry ed07) it's mint you just need to put out more! I jest lol. So many good memory's

{Ed001's Note - Road Rash was something special, that was brilliant.}

15.) 09 Dec 2016
09 Dec 2016 09:20:16
Speaking of Amiga's I also have one in my loft, found it the other day getting the Christmas tree out! I had no idea it was up there.

{Ed001's Note - I used to love my Amiga! Best games machine ever.}

16.) 09 Dec 2016
09 Dec 2016 02:12:32
I have kept it for this long I don't think I could sell it for sentimental reasons but you are more than welcome to have any games you want . I have wings I know you are a fan .

{Ed007's Note - If you ever change your mind give me a shout and if I manage to get one I'll definitely be giving you a shout. (yes)

17.) 09 Dec 2016
09 Dec 2016 19:27:23
Ones I remember from growing up:

GTA - can't remember which one it was but first open world type game. Started a whole genre of games and from what I remember first "adult" game

Modern Warfare 2 - Kicked off the whole online FPS, think everyone I knew growing up played it

{Ed001's Note - what about Theme Park?}

18.) 09 Dec 2016
09 Dec 2016 20:53:06
Theme park? That the game where you build a theme park? Think you've lost me sorry!

Also reckon world of Warcraft deserves a mention for creating the massive only rpg game. Saying that is a dc hero game similar to WoW which I wanted to try

{Ed001's Note - yes, but it was a game changer as it brought games to the mainstream in a bigger way. It was the one that most girlfriends used to like, that previously treated games with disdain. At least in the experience of myself and friends.}

19.) 09 Dec 2016
09 Dec 2016 21:52:18
Ah I gotcha, my ex years ago used to like sims. Remember she made a house with us as a couple a couple with a kid and a cat. I was scared

{Ed001's Note - I hated that game, Sims was truly awful.}

20.) 10 Dec 2016
10 Dec 2016 09:31:37
I can't lie at one point I did play sims haha! it was when the first one had come out and was somehow addicted to it, the addiction didn't last long mind and won't be going back to it! - Can't believe I've admitted to playing sims.

Theme park was excellent pure genius at that time, now they have games like that on facebook lol just not the same now.

I remember the first GTA, it was amazing, second one very similar then the 3rd took the whole GTA series to a new level. Great games, love GTA 5 (not played for a while though) but they imo still haven't beat San Andreas or Vice city. When the first one came out, if I remember correctly didn't it originally get banned? and then somehow released, I can't remember what went on.

{Ed001's Note - I have never got the GTA thing, just never appealed to me at all.}

21.) 13 Dec 2016
13 Dec 2016 16:19:57
Call of Duty Modern Warefare 2 didn't kick off the online FPS scene. That was done by a Half Life mod called Counter-Strike and also by a game called Quake back in the 90s.

I mean Counter-Strike came out in 1999 it's still being played now in the form of Counter-Strike:Global Offensive, I believe they peak at around 800,000 unique players online at one time. Which is by far the largest population of any given FPS game. But with large populations come large numbers of cheaters, trolls and keyboard warriors.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned World of Warcraft yet, they pretty much invented the MMORPG genre and were at one time, the most played game on the planet.