Game Changing Ideas!

So I've been gaming for nearly 20 years now. In all that time I've seen many changes from graphical to gameplay. I've seen consoles come and go. Companies fail only to replaced with a new breed of company. So I thought I do a piece on games that changed for the better. Not just graphically but also gameplay and even model in general. I could stick to graphics and show how good the graphics of the elder scrolls have become in the last 10 years alone or how medal of honour went from WWII to modern day in story. But I really want to focus on the best gameplay changes so without further ado lets plod on with the first and most obvious, grand theft auto.

In 1997 a small Scottish company called DMA design and later renamed as rockstar created Grand theft auto and due to it's violence level it got of attention from the media and thrust into the public eye. It was 2D top down game where you would race around three separate cities liberty city, vice city and san andreas. The game was huge and open a first in many eyes of sandbox gaming. It allowed a level of freedom not seen anywhere else since the legend of Zelda. The success of the game meant it spawned many sequels in the 14 years since. Though it has officially released it fifth title in the series it is in fact the eighth game in series and one expansion. Never playing as the same character twice the series got a huge overhaul in 2001 when it went from top down to a fully fledged 3D world and it blew our minds. With still the huge open world that it was once was. The game also came with hard copy of the map in the case something Rockstar was to continue with it's red dead games. Though each game now focused on one city. The size of the game was still huge, with miles of roads to travel. Grand theft auto showed how big a 3D world could be. This was only increased when it became HD improved graphics and again a larger liberty city.

Next we have Doom. Created in 1993 often regarded as the father of the first person shooter. It spawned many copycats but not that many equals. It wasn't until Golden eye was released on the N64 had a game in the genre it helped it create actually surpass it. It did spawn a sequel in 1995 to much praise. It was until the third game that that it updated the series from a run and gun pixelated shooter that started to age badly, to a first person survival horror. Using the new unreal engine and a fully fledged story that put you in the dark and relied on scares to improve the gameplay. Though often regarded as sub par first person shooter, I think it is a great survival horror game that is best played with headphones and in the dark. The series also released many spin off including a mobile RPG version to mixed responses the series remains in the hearts and minds of many gamers today. Though doom remained in the first person angle. one game decided that using that method of game play was the best to bring the series forward.

That series is one of my favourites Fallout. the series unofficially started back in the commadore 64 days. With a game called waste land. After a lot problems with a sequel like not having enough colours to corporate issues it wasn't until interplay made fallout in 1998 that series officially started. An isometric role playing game set in the 22nd century it was doing well until 2004 when the brotherhood of steel game released for consoles to poor reviews from critics, that the series almost died. Then hope came in the form of Bethesda studios, released in 2008 fallout 3 came with praise and a new gameplay mechanic gone is the isometric view point and the individual screens of the map to travel to. To a first person open world game much like it's elder scrolls brother. Where you could go any where from the start. Plus the game is so big that if you were to walk from one side of the map to the other, with out doing quests it would take 4 hours! Much of the original remained like the super mutants and bandits the low level cap was found to restrictive, but it wasn't until New Vegas that fans thought fallout 2 had a true sequel bringing back the NCR (new California republic) and Caesars legion.

But one game not only changed camera view, gameplay style or genre. But changed all three and became highly successful with it. That seriesis warcraft starting from a real time strategy in 1994 to again full open world MMORPG changing not only the style of gameplay with click and move of an RTS, the camera angle of and rts but also the genre itself. To third person rpg world of warcraft with only being online to the community it has produced. Warcraft has not only changed it's series genre to the whole gaming community as a whole. It made multiplayer more accessible to everyone, it made a game that almost every gamer knows about and has probably played. Mixing sci fi with fantasy in story and a lore that goes over the whole series. Expansions that a games on there own. The gaming world didin't know what hit it until warcraft was released from a cult classic to a mainstream success. Being able to play as the alliance or horde. Having so much choice from profession, wether you are good or evil or to auction your goods to real players. World of warcraft has even inspired real world economics.

#games #doom #gta #xbox #wow #mmorpg #changers #retro #oldschool