Operation Flashpoint
YEAR 2001: War isn't about pretty explosions, nor is it about regenerating health: it's about patience and getting killed from a very, very long way away. Like a grumpy-faced single-player Battlefield holding a tank manual, Flashpoint has trapped countless gamers in its cruel embrace. A legendary title.
X-com UFO defence
Developer: Mythos Games
Publisher: Microprose
Year Released: 1994
This game was one of the game genres that you do not see every day but, was a great genre that could've had a lot of possible options for later on.
In the game you had to place a station in which you could then buy items, recruit scientists soldiers, and hold your space craft, the aim of the game was to stop an oncoming alien invasion and ultimately destroy there base on planet earth. There are 2 main game modes, global view and battle mode. In global view you could control everything from where you send your space fleets from finances to attacks on alien infested cities.
This is an old game and the have been a few titles similar to this game that have been released with better graphics and supposedly better game play, but none can match this game. It is a game I will never forget.
Other games influenced by Duke Nukem 3D: Shadow Warrior, Kingpin, Half-Life, Soldier of Fortune, Deus Ex
Half-Life
Developer: Valve
Publisher: Sierra
Year Released: 1998
Synopsis: Half-Life is, hands down, the most impressive game that has shipped in the years that IGNPC has been around, and it nearly shut down the office for about a month when we first got our hands on it. Not only is Half-Life a near perfect action game, but it pushes story-telling to a whole new level and may have been in part responsible for consumers' refusal to buy more traditional adventure games in the months following its release. While we're at it, we should probably mention the game's ability to make us jump every time a face-hugger leaped at us, the enemy AI that was far smarter than any intern we've ever had here (those marines were real bastards), an excellent selection of realistic weapons, and a multilayer mode that completely and totally rocked. Even after two years, no action game has ever come close to eclipsing Half-Life's single player experience. A must for every serious gamers library.
Other games influenced by Half-Life: Any cinematic action game like Soldier of Fortune. While there haven't been all that many games directly affected by Half-Life yet, it's safe to say that every first-person shooter in development right now will probably be an eventual candidate.
Star Craft
There are many real-time strategy games that could arguably take Star Craft's spot on this list. After all, it was WarCraft II that made multilayer RTS gaming popular through Kali. Red Alert made internet gaming even easier and was arguably the first true internet RTS, and Total Annihilation made the first use of 3D, not to mention truly combining land, sea and air.
Yet if you look at popularity both among mainstream and hardcore gamers, if you look at the numbers of people who play and own Star Craft, there's no comparison. Even Blizzard's follow up, War Craft III, isn't as popular. No other game has three completely unique races that don't share a single unit. Heck, no two units even resemble each other. Yet, despite the drastic differences between the Zerg, Terran, and Protoss, they remain balanced. The balance hasn't always been maintained, but even at the height of Zerg imbalance,, Terran and Protoss players still stood a chance.
This balance is tricky and always changing, people come up with new tricks all the time and recycle old ones. Styles of play that grew unpopular a year ago can be reintroduced due to their effectiveness against the latest fad. Sure, the pace of development has slowed down, but the competition remains furious. Even those who simplify StarCraft down to the "rushing will beat a hard tech, hard tech beats balanced, and fast teching beats balanced" maxim are often the very same who play the game to this day.
As with its other games, Blizzard has extended continuing support to StarCraft over the years. After the Brood War expansion pack came a host of balance patches, patches that Blizzard delivered after much research and often against the objections of its players because more often than not, what Blizzard did was right. However, the balance changes aren't all. Demo recording was implemented to satisfy the online crowd and this has led to a revolution in how quickly strategies and tactics are picked up by new players.
