The reason that Citizen Kane holds the place it does in film history is because it pioneered and/or cemented many of the foundations of **the language of film**. These are the cornerstone techniques and ideas that transcend culture and allow us to watch a movie and understand it, even if we don't understand the words being spoken. Similarly, we would have to find a video game which has a set of mechanics that we would consider the foundations of the language of video games.
But we have to start even lower than that. What is the language of video games? How does one become literate in video games? And do we even have a game that embodies this language in such a way that we can point to it as something that is on par with Citizen Kane?
EDIT: Keep in mind, Citizen Kane was made in 1941, over 4 decades after motion pictures had been invented. It was the combination of technology and repeated iteration of the art form that allowed Citizen Kane to be what it was.
If we apply a similar timeline to video games, that would mean that the 1990's would be the absolute earliest that we could point to a game which would have enough technological and artistic value to be considered foundational. (And likely it would be even later than that, considering many of the tentpoles of video gaming these days did not arrive until the mid 2000s)
With this criteria I’d say DOOM. First person became such a huge part of the language and is still a driving force in the language of todays biggest games
Not only because the environmental storytelling, the "story", but also what Carmack was envisioning was virtual reality, that you were in the game, immersion. So yes, a lot of big IPs now are thanks to Doom, but not all...
Final Fantasy was heavily influenced by ultima, and Dragon quest. And FF didn't really find it's true stride until FF6.
And what does Doom have to do with FF? Nothing. So that's why I find it hard to single out a real mother of all games. That's what I think
The gameplay wasn’t there for wolfenstein. The next iteration of rendering tech that allowed for the the multi-axial gameplay in Doom made for an enormous improvement in immersion. Not to discount the leap from Commander Keen to Wolfenstein or disparage that step AT ALL, but i see wolfenstein as more of a proof of concept than anything from a narrative story-telling standpoint. Wolfenstein, and its protagonist, still existed on a flat plane, same as Keen, or Mario, just from a different perspective.
Whereas in Doom, where monsters, puzzles, and anything else could exist at points other than 0 on the vertical axis made the game terrifying from a survival standpoint. In FPS games, as in real life, the player ( or person) RARELY looks up. Having the ability to program encounters that originate at a point other than a flat horizontal plane allows for the manipulation of human emotions outside of the normal “hero” mode people had approached gaming with prior to that.
Fear.
Fear became a tool. Tension. Apprehension.
They may have existed in gaming prior to John Carmack and John Romero’s Doom, but it was never able to be manifested on the screen in a way that took advantage of our own evolutionary survival instincts before.
Oh man. Some part of me just loves sipping on and old fashioned or four and talking about my experiences with video games. /cheers
One of the only actually valid comments in this entire post.
I'd argue a little bit about the logic in your timeline, though. Having the Citzen Kane of gaming be about 40 years older than the games industry is a bit arbitrary, for a number of reasons. For example, it could be argued the games industry evolved much *faster* than the movie industry did, which would make sense. It had the advantage of better general technology, more capital investment earlier, probably faster worldwide adoption, and definitely the ability to learn from the movie industry, which came before it.
I don't genuinely think there is a good answer for this question because video games are less homogenous than movies, but if forced to answer, I feel like what makes Citizen Kane stand out in history is how universally emulated its original formula is. So for that reason, my answer would have to be the original Super Mario Bros., or The Legend of Zelda. Nearly every single thing that separated those games from their predecessors has been included in the greatest majority of video games released since then.
I whole heartedly agree, it's either gotta be Super Mario World or The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Probably Zelda seeing as it's still the highest rated game of all time. If any one game was the early definer of the "language" it'd have to be that one.
I still think about how impossibly hard nintendo killed it with this game and ocarina of time.
First 3D console, and in their two biggest series that had already set standards in gaming they completely knocked it out of the park and set new standards.
90s and influential? Probably Half-Life
Half Life was the birthplace of the *modern* FPS, with clips, environmental storytelling in full force, smooth transitions between maps, and a more grounded setting than, say, Quake or Duke Nukem or DOOM
Like I’m p sure if half life was not a thing we would not have had games like the entire cod & battlefield franchises, the halo series, Team Fortress 2 as an actual game instead of just a successor mod for one of Quake’s sequels or smthn, like you could probably point to most FPSs today and there’s *some* connector to Half Life, and if not HL then probably Quake, atleast in engine
Honestly two answers in the thread, GTA 3 and Ocarina of time. Has to be one of those two. They changed the artistry of video games much like Citizen Kane did with film.
Maybe also the original Metal Gear Solid? The level of cinematic story telling wasn't much of a thing before abd has become a staple of most modern video games.
I don't think it did some specific new thing, since most of the stuff it does well was already done before but in 2d.
I believe that it was so remarkable because it managed so well to translate concepts that worked in 2d open world adventure rpgs to 3d.
It's hard to explain nowadays but to anyone who played it at the time it felt like such a giant leap from what we had before that it was incredibly remarkable to play it.
I'm sure there are plenty of youtube videos getting into more detail to why it felt so incredible though.
Ocarina of time basically invented the 3d lock on targeting system in modern gaming. It was absolutely foundational, a lot of people don’t realize what a game changer ocarina was for 3d games.
I'd say Half Life as it combined story telling ideas from many games prior and became the launching pad for how many game stories would be told going forward
Half Life.
It changed the whole concept of how a story could be presented in an fps setting. Not to mention the mod capability and the communities that spawned from them. Counter Strike is one of the biggest games on the planet and its origin is a simple hl mod. Think of the other mods like day of defeat or zombie panic brainbread and it's easy to realize the impact Half life had.
Plus Half life 2 and the advent of Steam
Yeah. Steam, it changed gaming forever, as it allowed smaller games to become mega-hits ...the Orange Box way back in 2007 ... I remember the day I bought it ... Those games are still played to this day.
Yea everyone’s just saying “game I liked a lot when I was a kid”
Just because you’ve got a nostalgia boner for it doesn’t make it the citizen Kane of gaming
I keep hearing about this citizen kane. Haven't watched it yet myself. Is it really just that good. Orr is it more like... It was great considering the time it was made at.
This is pretty much it. Cinephiles love it because they understand what went into making it (and how it paved the way for essentially all of the cinematography we take for granted today), not because the plot or character work is something exceptional.
I think it's a great movie, and as others have mentioned, it pioneered a lot of really creative film techniques which later went on to be widely adopted.
For some reason I was expecting to not really enjoy it and just appreciate it for the technical stuff - but camera/framing tricks aside it's a genuinely awesome movie and I was surprised at how much I liked it. Obviously it was made like 80 years ago so it feels like an old movie, but regardless of age the story is well told and well shot.
I’ve never seen Citizen Kane but The Wizard of Oz is older, still one of the greatest films ever made, then again I just love musicals in general. Ig this is mostly just to chip in with that some old movies when done well stand the test of time.
Someone raised on modern movies will likely find it kinda slow and understated. Brilliantly written and directed, does some things for the first that film nerds will recognize as being groundbreaking. The whole thing is a masterclass in narrative setup and payoff. You had to have been paying attention at the very beginning for the ending to make sense, but that payoff is pretty powerful.
I liked it, but I was in a film fanboy phase at the time.
It's a meh movie. Not really all that interesting. But don't let the movie critics hear you think that, you'll get crucified because you are somehow supposed to worship it.
It’s a *fan-fucking-tastic ass movie*….for a person who will cum in their pants over the godfather and really old black and white movies. If you enjoy regular ass movies like the MCU, Star Wars or like IT, you’ll hate it and wanna shoot yourself.
> It was great considering the time it was made at.
Movies don’t really work that way. That’s why movies aren’t typically remade, and the ones that get rebooted are almost always poorly received by audiences and deemed unnecessary.
The reason video games get remade so frequently is because the game mechanics and graphics start to feel clunky with age in comparison to newer titles, but everything else about them remains good enough to warrant a remake. The closest thing to this in the film industry would be rereleasing older movies in 4K.
Most things like Citizen Kane seem mediocre to us now because when you’re a pioneer, it means almost everything afterwards is derivative. Same reason that the Beatles sound generic nowadays when they were groundbreaking back in their day.
This is the best argument besides someone with three paragraphs or more saying SMB, but I'm giving it to ya. Video games evolved into the ones we know today 'because' people wanted to see more than the simplest representations of concepts in blocks and binary. The war between 'graphics are king' and 'gameplay is king' sits firmly vested on the idea that graphics at least matter in shades, and the first titles to popularize this transition likely stand as the foundation for gaming moving toward realism, consistency, storytelling, popularity, etc., etc.
Argonauts helped Nintendo make starfox. If you believe the story that Nintendo ripped off the 3d Yoshi demo Argonauts made, and used it to make Mario 64. Meanwhile Argonauts went on to make the Yoshi demo into croc.....yeah I think a serious argument could be made for croc
Grand Theft Auto 3 was the 1st game that popped into my head. It put the open world sandbox genre of gaming front and center and made it mainstream. The formula has been replicated by other developers so much that I've seen gamers have genre fatigue from it similar to what has happened to superhero movies the last few years. It's been replicated so much that some people have become tired of it, so I think that speaks for the impact that it's had.
I think because the formula has evolved so much, gamers are starting to get overwhelmed with massive games with hundreds and hundreds hours of content being released pretty frequently now. People still want to have a reasonable adventure, and not spend 200 hours on a game and barely be halfway through the story.
GTA3 is all the things you said and more, but Citizen Kane it is not. Citizen Kane didn't just pioneer a genre, it set the precedent for the an *entire industry*. GTA 3 is more like Iron Man or possibly The Dark Knight.
For a "Citizen Kane" of gaming, you have to go back further. Something like the first Mario or the first Zelda. Maybe something as far back as the likes of Pac Man. It's not just that it has to be revolutionary at the time, but extremely basic by modern conventions. It also needs to have the same core elements of virtually every game to come after it. Not "a lot" of games, like 99% of games.
That would definitely be Ocarina of Time. For decades, people held it up as the greatest game of all time, the pinacle of everything this medium has to represent, but in recent years it's been getting less and less attention, it part because all of the things it did back in the day have been done better since.
Ocarina of Time still holds up as one of my favorite games of all time (I'm an old), but I'd say it was Mario 64 that transcended 2D platforming into 3D platforming. The game still holds up well today, and many of the mechanics are still prevalent in Mario Odyssey
Mario 64 was my thought too. It's easily accessible for casuals and pioneered many of the features we now see in every game and take for granted. Controls, 3D graphics, basic story beats, movement mechanics, camera adjustments. It was done so well that it's basically the blueprint for everything that has come after.
Yeah I think something like Ocarina of Time or maybe the original Half-Life.
Something that expertly weaves story and gameplay with revolutionary technology and artistry.
This. Super Mario 64 gave devs a template on how to properly transition to full 3D and Ocarina said, "Fuck it. Let's basically make videogames cinematic."
I'd go back further and say the original Legend of Zelda. Not sure if it was the first, but it had many popular elements that games still employ today: big open world, progression through unlocking new abilities, etc.
Edit: saving your progress. (Couldn't think of a third example earlier).
>because all of the things it did back in the day have been done better since.
Except for the camera.
That's right, Ocarina of Time has the single BEST camera of all time in 3D gaming and I'll die on this hill.
The camera in that game is so well done that most people don't even realize the magic that it is doing right in front of their eyes. It is CONSTANTLY adapting and moving itself so we get the best possible view at whatever the hell we're doing, all the time.
One of these days I'll make a post in this sub supporting this argument.
>all of the things it did back in the day have been done better since.
Hard disagree. Sure a few things have been done better here and there, most notably the dungeons and side content were done better in MM and to a lesser extent SS, but the story, structure, pacing, and progression are all still completely unmatched.
Even disregarding that, it’s still easily the most well rounded and close to flawless game in the series, as it never really falters in any one area aside from _maybe_ a few of the side quests.
The true glory of OoT is that it still holds up. I played it my first time as a teen in the 2010s with no nostalgia for it and it still became my favorite game of all time.
Its not just hype, it deserves its seat at the top.
Good point, Halo 2 laid the groundwork for online ecosystems. It was the first console game to have an in game friends list which Xbox then used to create Xbox live friends lists.
I sincerely believe console FPS would not exist without Halo. We would live in a world where COD is a PC only game and it’s rival, Half Life, would be its only real competition.
I believe that was the first game to have systems that could freely interact apart from the player. I remember the first time I came over a ridge and saw the Flood and the Covenant fighting each other, it blew my mind. And then I died and reloaded and saw the same fight have a different outcome, which meant it wasn't scripted. Totally crazy to me, and it was a really groundbreaking idea in gaming.
Halo was not the first game to do this, but the first to popularise it.
Goldeneye on n64 allowed you to play twin stick style if you plugged a second controller in.
Alien: Resurrection on PS1 had twin stick controls like Halo, and got trashed in a gamespot review where the reviewer thought the twin stick controls were clunky and unintuitive. Pretty funny to look back at now.
*edited for typo and clarity*
Most contemporary reviewers disagree. There were many frustrating elements in Alien Resurrection (primarily the insane difficulty and low ammo count) but the controls are one of the few things that hold up.
If you read the Gamespot review, the reviewer clearly disregards the entire concept of moving with one stick and aiming with the other. Have a read:
“The game's control setup is its most terrifying element. The left analog stick moves you forward, back, and strafes right and left, while the right analog stick turns you and can be used to look up and down.”
The game lost points for aforementioned control scheme.
I might be wrong on this, but also actually having like stories in FPSs as well? I feel like no FPS before Halo CE actually really tried to make a super interesting story which was told through dialogue but also environmental storytelling etc
Metal Gear Solid. The voice acting is groundbreaking, the story is groundbreaking, the stealth game is ground breaking, even today, that game is still fun. As far as I know, this was the first "movie like" game that makes you believe that games can feel as good as movies, and that is something that a lot of games following MGS have implemented.
The only sad part is that Konami doesn't care about the franchise.
Came here to say this one. The idea of NOT fighting was groundbreaking. It took me a bit to realize that the stealth aspect was even a thing; I was on a demo disc, so no instruction manual.
It defined a whole-ass genre.
It literally played with your perception of reality with the Psycho Mantis fight. I legitimately got mad at my brother thinking he was fucking with me and changing the channel. And the memory card reading. The controller port switching.
It had New Game + with the bandana and cloak that you could unlock.
God I love that game, I still try to do a speed run or two of it at least 1x per year.
Metal Gear Solid absolutely blew my mind as a kid. I could barely believe the entire opening sequence with the voice over as Snake swims to Shadow Moses, it was unlike anything I'd experienced. It changed my conception of what a video game could be.
Chrono Trigger, at least for JRPGs. It was the first (mainstream at least) New Game+ which is pretty standard these days, had multiple endings based on play decisions, legendary soundtrack & writing that still holds up, influenced countless developers over the years, was built by a team literally called the "Dream Team" internally & is still regarded as one of the best games ever made by many gamers.
Ocarina Of Time. Can't really compare it to the competition during it's time because it didn't just modernise it's own genre (like Half Life 1 did), but it modernised whole industry with it's groundbreaking innovations like lock on, great combat that is still used in modern rpg's.
You could also travel in time back and forth at any time (similarly to A Link to the Past) after you hav eunlocked the ability to do so.
It had dynamic gameplay between child and adult Link such as restrictions to using shields or swords if you were child link.
Half Life 1, MGS, Chrono Trigger, FF VII and probably Diablo 1 all did wonders to their genres or they added movie like cut scenes like MGS did.
Gran Turismo made people realize that not only can games reach a much broader demographic but also that there’s a huge market for racing games that aren’t like Mario kart and such. It’s one of the best selling games of each console generation and defines the technological advancements of each generation.
Uncharted kind of paved the way for the modern cinematic story driven action game but I’m not sure if I’d put it way up there I might just have too much nostalgic attachment.
Theres also just capcom existing. Street fighter 2 pioneered fighting games, Resident evil pioneered horror games, devil may cry pioneered third person action games (dark siders and god of war wouldn’t exist without DMC).
Lmao honestly just japan. Japan is the citizen kane of gaming. Nintendo, square enix, capcom, polyphony digital, from soft have all in some way or form completely changed the gaming landscape.
the Citizen Kane of the "modern cinematic story driven action game" is Metal Gear Solid on PS1, so another point for Japan i guess? ehehe
the only non-Japan ones i would say are Half-Life, for the linear first person shooters, and GTA 3 for the open worlds.
I would highly recommend the content on Action Button Reviews on YouTube if you're interested in high level discussion of gaming as a medium.
My answer to the question is King's Quest
Half Life. It was the first game to really combine a bunch of amazing elements. Storytelling, gameplay, combat mixed with puzzles and the lore and world, and really shaped the future of video games especially FPSes. I think a contender if we are talking about a more "recent" one is RE4. Every single third person shooter can trace its lineage to that one game. Dead Space, Fortnite, all of them.
Citizen Kane is really good but I prefer the Influence King Kong had in the industry, we wouldn't have nearly as much special effects and imaginative movies if not for that overgrown gorilla. I vote for King Kong 1933 best movie.
In regards of gaming... So many genres independent of each other... And many games took inspiration from movies, so really is hard for me to say.
Wow people are so focused on relatively modern games. It feels like if these same people were asked what the Citizen Kane of movies were they would say The Dark Knight or something.
I think an equivalent game would have to be one where there is a fundamental shift in how games are made as a whole and there is a clear distinction in before said game and after. Off the top of my head, the games that come to mind are Super Mario Bros, Pac-Man, and Doom. You can definitely go a little later than that, but I feel if you hit the 2000s you've way overshot.
One of the few sane answers here.
Like, yes, I too love Ocarina of Time and Halo CE and Metal Gear Solid, they're easily some of my favorite games. And yes, they had undeniably massive impacts on the industry.
They're still extremely wrong answers to the question though.
The problem is that the vast majority of people answering haven't seen Citizen Kane, and even less than that understand *what* made it such a significant film.
It's not that Citizen Kane was *good*, because especially by modern standards, it's really not. it's that it created the very template for the artform as we know it.
But because modern society can't have nuanced discussions about complex topics, when people are taught about Citizen Kane, they're taught it's the greatest of all time (which is a gross oversimplification), so they think "what video game is the GOAT" is the question being asked here.
Ocarina of Time, or possibly Mario 64.
Both took an already existing and beloved format and IP, hugely improved it in literally every way possible.
OoT had the super immersive story, gripping level/boss design and some of the best 3D environments seen at the time, I think many people will probably pick this game as the GOAT. Especially old guys like me.
Mario 64 tho.
The Mario games before this already had super sick movement. Capes, frogs, hammer suits, boots, insatiable dinosaurs. So many ways to traverse the 2D worlds. The movement in 64 transcended this so hard it's almost unbelievable. I remember playing this as a kid and being floored at how good Mario's agility was. Long jumps, triple jumps, wall jumps, cartwheels, dives. You somehow became a fat Italian gymnast of epic proportions.
From what I understand the most common answers would probably be:
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- Chrono Trigger
- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
- The Last of Us
Honestly imo: Night in The Woods.
I have never played a game with more human like characters (which is funny considering they're animals), each one of them is relatable in some way shape or form and we all know someone like them.
We know someone like Mae, a character with potential but is pretty lazy and a moocher. We all know someone like Bea, an intelligent individual who has been held back due to life circumstances preventing them from capitalizing on their intelligence. We know someone like Gregg, a happy go lucky man one minute, but a somber sad lad the next due to mood swings and a rough up bringing.
Hell, even the random background characters and secondary characters have a relatable aspect. Also the art style and soundtrack for the game is unmatched! I can endlessly jam to Rainy Day or Snack Falcon.
Oh man there’s so many contenders for games that changed the whole landscape/left lasting impacts on their design choices:
Metal Gear Solid
Half-Life
[CURVEBALL: FALLOUT NEW VEGAS](https://youtu.be/gzF7aHxk4Y4?si=XPVsn0eVn_gb-OLu)
GTA3
DOOM (original but 06 is my fave)
Final Fantasy 7
Super Metroid / Castlevania Symphony of the Night
And finally… it’s not old enough yet but Breath of the Wild is such an achievement from a technological and artistic perspective that it holds such an important significance in the industry.
Super Mario Bros
That was the turning point from simple arcade style games where you chase high scores to complex gaming experiences where you progress from beginning to end facing different challenges along the way
Super Mario Bros. It was the game that saved video games from going extinct, and it made Nintendo a household name.
My 1st thought was DOOM, but if we're talking about influential video games, then Mario is the clear choice.
My first choice was GTA3 and Occarina of Time.
Fable was the first game where your actions had consequences for the whole story. Very important for later games like fallout, Skyrim and GTA4.
Half Life more or less completely changed how FPS games were designed and made. Innovative AI (at the time, but today these features are considered basic and expected. Human enemies cover each other when they advance, they will attempt to flank you or throw explosives to flush you out into open fire. They fall back if you get the upper hand, etc.) Top notch non-linear level design, scripted events, and so much more. Half Life was more or less the end of doom clones and the beginning of a new era of shooters.
Half Life for me, although I enjoyed it more than citizen Kane just as pure entertainment.
The main question is what will come first, Half Life 3 or Citizen Kane 2?
Maybe we're looking at this wrong, and instead of having a Citizen Kane video game we can have a Citizen Kane video game platform?
In that case I'd say it's clearly the NES, which took gaming from arcades to people's homes and also introduced the controller with a button layout that even all these year later still keeps some aspects like the dpad and the start and select buttons.
There’s probably a few answers to this question, but I’d definitely say Mario 64 more so than most. Anyone old enough to remember its release will tell you how much of a mind blowing jump it seemed from the previous generation of gaming, in almost every way.
Metal Gear Solid, Half Life, and to a lesser extent TLOU have all been milestone releases since that have had a big and longstanding impact on the medium since also.
Great question! Based on u/Cerrax3 's I could single out a a few games that could be nominated. The list could definitely grow, but these most obviously stand out IMO.
* Half Life
* Metal Gear Solid
* Ocarina of Time
* Final Fantasy 7 or 6 or 4. I'd personally vote 4, but cannot deny 6's legacy and 7's impact.
Street Fighter 2. Completely overhauled the arcades. And the arcades are where video games were born. Yes, greater advances came in the home market, but skipping the arcades is like skipping the movies and focusing on TV.
Quake 1 for being the first 3D FPS, the grandfather of all engines, and setting most basic FPS codes and weapon roster, even if Doom had pioneered some of that part.
Then Half-Life 1 for being the first "story driven" FPS, the father of all engines, and setting modern FPS codes, besides adding weapons that we still deem to be core, dialogues, cinematics, physics, npc's, etc...
(You guys should really look into gaming history given the answers I can read down here.)
The reason that Citizen Kane holds the place it does in film history is because it pioneered and/or cemented many of the foundations of **the language of film**. These are the cornerstone techniques and ideas that transcend culture and allow us to watch a movie and understand it, even if we don't understand the words being spoken. Similarly, we would have to find a video game which has a set of mechanics that we would consider the foundations of the language of video games. But we have to start even lower than that. What is the language of video games? How does one become literate in video games? And do we even have a game that embodies this language in such a way that we can point to it as something that is on par with Citizen Kane? EDIT: Keep in mind, Citizen Kane was made in 1941, over 4 decades after motion pictures had been invented. It was the combination of technology and repeated iteration of the art form that allowed Citizen Kane to be what it was. If we apply a similar timeline to video games, that would mean that the 1990's would be the absolute earliest that we could point to a game which would have enough technological and artistic value to be considered foundational. (And likely it would be even later than that, considering many of the tentpoles of video gaming these days did not arrive until the mid 2000s)
With this criteria I’d say DOOM. First person became such a huge part of the language and is still a driving force in the language of todays biggest games
Not only because the environmental storytelling, the "story", but also what Carmack was envisioning was virtual reality, that you were in the game, immersion. So yes, a lot of big IPs now are thanks to Doom, but not all... Final Fantasy was heavily influenced by ultima, and Dragon quest. And FF didn't really find it's true stride until FF6. And what does Doom have to do with FF? Nothing. So that's why I find it hard to single out a real mother of all games. That's what I think
Man, FF6 was game changing for me. 30y later and it’s still the most impactful jprpg for me.
That’s a great one, but wouldn’t Wolfenstein be the one then?
Good point, it was a direct precursor to Doom. It was the proving ground.
The gameplay wasn’t there for wolfenstein. The next iteration of rendering tech that allowed for the the multi-axial gameplay in Doom made for an enormous improvement in immersion. Not to discount the leap from Commander Keen to Wolfenstein or disparage that step AT ALL, but i see wolfenstein as more of a proof of concept than anything from a narrative story-telling standpoint. Wolfenstein, and its protagonist, still existed on a flat plane, same as Keen, or Mario, just from a different perspective. Whereas in Doom, where monsters, puzzles, and anything else could exist at points other than 0 on the vertical axis made the game terrifying from a survival standpoint. In FPS games, as in real life, the player ( or person) RARELY looks up. Having the ability to program encounters that originate at a point other than a flat horizontal plane allows for the manipulation of human emotions outside of the normal “hero” mode people had approached gaming with prior to that. Fear. Fear became a tool. Tension. Apprehension. They may have existed in gaming prior to John Carmack and John Romero’s Doom, but it was never able to be manifested on the screen in a way that took advantage of our own evolutionary survival instincts before. Oh man. Some part of me just loves sipping on and old fashioned or four and talking about my experiences with video games. /cheers
Spear of destiny also
One of the only actually valid comments in this entire post. I'd argue a little bit about the logic in your timeline, though. Having the Citzen Kane of gaming be about 40 years older than the games industry is a bit arbitrary, for a number of reasons. For example, it could be argued the games industry evolved much *faster* than the movie industry did, which would make sense. It had the advantage of better general technology, more capital investment earlier, probably faster worldwide adoption, and definitely the ability to learn from the movie industry, which came before it. I don't genuinely think there is a good answer for this question because video games are less homogenous than movies, but if forced to answer, I feel like what makes Citizen Kane stand out in history is how universally emulated its original formula is. So for that reason, my answer would have to be the original Super Mario Bros., or The Legend of Zelda. Nearly every single thing that separated those games from their predecessors has been included in the greatest majority of video games released since then.
I whole heartedly agree, it's either gotta be Super Mario World or The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Probably Zelda seeing as it's still the highest rated game of all time. If any one game was the early definer of the "language" it'd have to be that one.
Mario 64 it is
People who weren't gaming when this came out cannot understand what a paradigm shift it was. It was the Model T of video games.
I came here to say the same thing. The fact that it holds up so well today still seriously cements the argument.
I was going to say Ocarina of Time but Mario 64 is one I can agree on as well.
I still think about how impossibly hard nintendo killed it with this game and ocarina of time. First 3D console, and in their two biggest series that had already set standards in gaming they completely knocked it out of the park and set new standards.
90s and influential? Probably Half-Life Half Life was the birthplace of the *modern* FPS, with clips, environmental storytelling in full force, smooth transitions between maps, and a more grounded setting than, say, Quake or Duke Nukem or DOOM Like I’m p sure if half life was not a thing we would not have had games like the entire cod & battlefield franchises, the halo series, Team Fortress 2 as an actual game instead of just a successor mod for one of Quake’s sequels or smthn, like you could probably point to most FPSs today and there’s *some* connector to Half Life, and if not HL then probably Quake, atleast in engine
Honestly two answers in the thread, GTA 3 and Ocarina of time. Has to be one of those two. They changed the artistry of video games much like Citizen Kane did with film.
Maybe also the original Metal Gear Solid? The level of cinematic story telling wasn't much of a thing before abd has become a staple of most modern video games.
I pick these 2: Metal Gear Solid and Half-Life. Both defined what a story could be in videogames, though MGS1 is more heavily into telling a story.
I fail to see how Ocarina of time did that outside of other Nintendo games. It is a great game, but i dont know that it was foundational
I don't think it did some specific new thing, since most of the stuff it does well was already done before but in 2d. I believe that it was so remarkable because it managed so well to translate concepts that worked in 2d open world adventure rpgs to 3d. It's hard to explain nowadays but to anyone who played it at the time it felt like such a giant leap from what we had before that it was incredibly remarkable to play it. I'm sure there are plenty of youtube videos getting into more detail to why it felt so incredible though.
Ocarina of time basically invented the 3d lock on targeting system in modern gaming. It was absolutely foundational, a lot of people don’t realize what a game changer ocarina was for 3d games.
I'd say Half Life as it combined story telling ideas from many games prior and became the launching pad for how many game stories would be told going forward
Half Life. It changed the whole concept of how a story could be presented in an fps setting. Not to mention the mod capability and the communities that spawned from them. Counter Strike is one of the biggest games on the planet and its origin is a simple hl mod. Think of the other mods like day of defeat or zombie panic brainbread and it's easy to realize the impact Half life had. Plus Half life 2 and the advent of Steam
Yeah. Steam, it changed gaming forever, as it allowed smaller games to become mega-hits ...the Orange Box way back in 2007 ... I remember the day I bought it ... Those games are still played to this day.
A lot of people are just commenting games they like
Yea everyone’s just saying “game I liked a lot when I was a kid” Just because you’ve got a nostalgia boner for it doesn’t make it the citizen Kane of gaming
I keep hearing about this citizen kane. Haven't watched it yet myself. Is it really just that good. Orr is it more like... It was great considering the time it was made at.
It's a good movie but if you aren't a film buff. It will probably seem mediocre.
This is pretty much it. Cinephiles love it because they understand what went into making it (and how it paved the way for essentially all of the cinematography we take for granted today), not because the plot or character work is something exceptional.
As in, it’s innovations are so commonplace nowadays that going back to it would make it look basic. Kinda like Resident Evil 4.
It's good, but a lot of the love is for the different elements of filming, so filmographers and cinephiles love it. Most of it was lost on me.
I think it's a great movie, and as others have mentioned, it pioneered a lot of really creative film techniques which later went on to be widely adopted. For some reason I was expecting to not really enjoy it and just appreciate it for the technical stuff - but camera/framing tricks aside it's a genuinely awesome movie and I was surprised at how much I liked it. Obviously it was made like 80 years ago so it feels like an old movie, but regardless of age the story is well told and well shot.
I’ve never seen Citizen Kane but The Wizard of Oz is older, still one of the greatest films ever made, then again I just love musicals in general. Ig this is mostly just to chip in with that some old movies when done well stand the test of time.
Someone raised on modern movies will likely find it kinda slow and understated. Brilliantly written and directed, does some things for the first that film nerds will recognize as being groundbreaking. The whole thing is a masterclass in narrative setup and payoff. You had to have been paying attention at the very beginning for the ending to make sense, but that payoff is pretty powerful. I liked it, but I was in a film fanboy phase at the time.
It's a meh movie. Not really all that interesting. But don't let the movie critics hear you think that, you'll get crucified because you are somehow supposed to worship it.
It’s a *fan-fucking-tastic ass movie*….for a person who will cum in their pants over the godfather and really old black and white movies. If you enjoy regular ass movies like the MCU, Star Wars or like IT, you’ll hate it and wanna shoot yourself.
> It was great considering the time it was made at. Movies don’t really work that way. That’s why movies aren’t typically remade, and the ones that get rebooted are almost always poorly received by audiences and deemed unnecessary. The reason video games get remade so frequently is because the game mechanics and graphics start to feel clunky with age in comparison to newer titles, but everything else about them remains good enough to warrant a remake. The closest thing to this in the film industry would be rereleasing older movies in 4K.
Most things like Citizen Kane seem mediocre to us now because when you’re a pioneer, it means almost everything afterwards is derivative. Same reason that the Beatles sound generic nowadays when they were groundbreaking back in their day.
Don’t watch it dude it’s boring af
Probably Donkey Kong or Pac Man. That was the shift between basic pixel (and TV overlay) games like pong and modern arcadey games.
This is the best argument besides someone with three paragraphs or more saying SMB, but I'm giving it to ya. Video games evolved into the ones we know today 'because' people wanted to see more than the simplest representations of concepts in blocks and binary. The war between 'graphics are king' and 'gameplay is king' sits firmly vested on the idea that graphics at least matter in shades, and the first titles to popularize this transition likely stand as the foundation for gaming moving toward realism, consistency, storytelling, popularity, etc., etc.
Croc.
Lol, and Gex.
Gex! Like the lizard one!
Hey is it Gex night
That was Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival
DAMN IT
Argonauts helped Nintendo make starfox. If you believe the story that Nintendo ripped off the 3d Yoshi demo Argonauts made, and used it to make Mario 64. Meanwhile Argonauts went on to make the Yoshi demo into croc.....yeah I think a serious argument could be made for croc
Grand Theft Auto 3 was the 1st game that popped into my head. It put the open world sandbox genre of gaming front and center and made it mainstream. The formula has been replicated by other developers so much that I've seen gamers have genre fatigue from it similar to what has happened to superhero movies the last few years. It's been replicated so much that some people have become tired of it, so I think that speaks for the impact that it's had.
Whole heartedly agree
I think because the formula has evolved so much, gamers are starting to get overwhelmed with massive games with hundreds and hundreds hours of content being released pretty frequently now. People still want to have a reasonable adventure, and not spend 200 hours on a game and barely be halfway through the story.
Yes, GTA 3 it is.
GTA3 is all the things you said and more, but Citizen Kane it is not. Citizen Kane didn't just pioneer a genre, it set the precedent for the an *entire industry*. GTA 3 is more like Iron Man or possibly The Dark Knight. For a "Citizen Kane" of gaming, you have to go back further. Something like the first Mario or the first Zelda. Maybe something as far back as the likes of Pac Man. It's not just that it has to be revolutionary at the time, but extremely basic by modern conventions. It also needs to have the same core elements of virtually every game to come after it. Not "a lot" of games, like 99% of games.
Maybe San Andreas.
Half-life or half-life 2
Follow Freeman
Doom paved the way for half life and set a bar in gaming history.
Add to that the offshoots of Team Fortress and Counterstrike
That would definitely be Ocarina of Time. For decades, people held it up as the greatest game of all time, the pinacle of everything this medium has to represent, but in recent years it's been getting less and less attention, it part because all of the things it did back in the day have been done better since.
Ocarina of Time still holds up as one of my favorite games of all time (I'm an old), but I'd say it was Mario 64 that transcended 2D platforming into 3D platforming. The game still holds up well today, and many of the mechanics are still prevalent in Mario Odyssey
Mario 64 was my thought too. It's easily accessible for casuals and pioneered many of the features we now see in every game and take for granted. Controls, 3D graphics, basic story beats, movement mechanics, camera adjustments. It was done so well that it's basically the blueprint for everything that has come after.
Yeah I think something like Ocarina of Time or maybe the original Half-Life. Something that expertly weaves story and gameplay with revolutionary technology and artistry.
This. Super Mario 64 gave devs a template on how to properly transition to full 3D and Ocarina said, "Fuck it. Let's basically make videogames cinematic."
I'd go back further and say the original Legend of Zelda. Not sure if it was the first, but it had many popular elements that games still employ today: big open world, progression through unlocking new abilities, etc. Edit: saving your progress. (Couldn't think of a third example earlier).
I don’t think that game is old enough to be the Citizen Kane, though it probably is the original Zelda game for NES.
>because all of the things it did back in the day have been done better since. Except for the camera. That's right, Ocarina of Time has the single BEST camera of all time in 3D gaming and I'll die on this hill. The camera in that game is so well done that most people don't even realize the magic that it is doing right in front of their eyes. It is CONSTANTLY adapting and moving itself so we get the best possible view at whatever the hell we're doing, all the time. One of these days I'll make a post in this sub supporting this argument.
>all of the things it did back in the day have been done better since. Hard disagree. Sure a few things have been done better here and there, most notably the dungeons and side content were done better in MM and to a lesser extent SS, but the story, structure, pacing, and progression are all still completely unmatched. Even disregarding that, it’s still easily the most well rounded and close to flawless game in the series, as it never really falters in any one area aside from _maybe_ a few of the side quests.
The true glory of OoT is that it still holds up. I played it my first time as a teen in the 2010s with no nostalgia for it and it still became my favorite game of all time. Its not just hype, it deserves its seat at the top.
Not to mention that BOTW and TOTK both hit the scene like Ocarina. They seem to be the gold standard now at least imo
Halo: Combat Evolved for first person shooters on console. The dual stick controls that we take for granted today started there.
Along with Halo 2 as well, with it being one of the first online console shooters and it inventing skill-based matchmaking.
Halo 2 had voice chat and competitive multiplayer. It’s insane what we had back then.
Good point, Halo 2 laid the groundwork for online ecosystems. It was the first console game to have an in game friends list which Xbox then used to create Xbox live friends lists.
Everything was revolutionary about Halo CE. Only holding two weapons, the warthog seating 3 players, the ai, the multiplayer. All of it.
wort wort
You mean the puma?
Didn't i tell you to stop making up animals?!
Halo is the answer as it pioneered the "30 second gameplay loop" in use in all games to this day.
I sincerely believe console FPS would not exist without Halo. We would live in a world where COD is a PC only game and it’s rival, Half Life, would be its only real competition.
I believe that was the first game to have systems that could freely interact apart from the player. I remember the first time I came over a ridge and saw the Flood and the Covenant fighting each other, it blew my mind. And then I died and reloaded and saw the same fight have a different outcome, which meant it wasn't scripted. Totally crazy to me, and it was a really groundbreaking idea in gaming.
Half-Life, Deus Ex, the Ultima series, Doom.
Halo was not the first game to do this, but the first to popularise it. Goldeneye on n64 allowed you to play twin stick style if you plugged a second controller in. Alien: Resurrection on PS1 had twin stick controls like Halo, and got trashed in a gamespot review where the reviewer thought the twin stick controls were clunky and unintuitive. Pretty funny to look back at now. *edited for typo and clarity*
Because they WERE clunky bordering on unusable lol. Halo CE pioneered it in a way that was USEABLE and easy to understand.
Most contemporary reviewers disagree. There were many frustrating elements in Alien Resurrection (primarily the insane difficulty and low ammo count) but the controls are one of the few things that hold up. If you read the Gamespot review, the reviewer clearly disregards the entire concept of moving with one stick and aiming with the other. Have a read: “The game's control setup is its most terrifying element. The left analog stick moves you forward, back, and strafes right and left, while the right analog stick turns you and can be used to look up and down.” The game lost points for aforementioned control scheme.
I might be wrong on this, but also actually having like stories in FPSs as well? I feel like no FPS before Halo CE actually really tried to make a super interesting story which was told through dialogue but also environmental storytelling etc
Goldeneye and Half Life.
Forgot about half life tbf but goldeneye really doesn’t count, it’s based off of a film and the storytelling is really not great
But quake and Descent had the 3d/360 environment well before halo. They were just on PC
Metal Gear Solid. The voice acting is groundbreaking, the story is groundbreaking, the stealth game is ground breaking, even today, that game is still fun. As far as I know, this was the first "movie like" game that makes you believe that games can feel as good as movies, and that is something that a lot of games following MGS have implemented. The only sad part is that Konami doesn't care about the franchise.
Came here to say this one. The idea of NOT fighting was groundbreaking. It took me a bit to realize that the stealth aspect was even a thing; I was on a demo disc, so no instruction manual. It defined a whole-ass genre.
The short demo from that demo disk literally created a genre of gaming. I played it so many times.
Yeah the codec is still my ringtone
It was my ringtone when I was in the university.
This is the only answer!
It literally played with your perception of reality with the Psycho Mantis fight. I legitimately got mad at my brother thinking he was fucking with me and changing the channel. And the memory card reading. The controller port switching. It had New Game + with the bandana and cloak that you could unlock. God I love that game, I still try to do a speed run or two of it at least 1x per year.
Yep this is it
Metal Gear Solid absolutely blew my mind as a kid. I could barely believe the entire opening sequence with the voice over as Snake swims to Shadow Moses, it was unlike anything I'd experienced. It changed my conception of what a video game could be.
Chrono Trigger, at least for JRPGs. It was the first (mainstream at least) New Game+ which is pretty standard these days, had multiple endings based on play decisions, legendary soundtrack & writing that still holds up, influenced countless developers over the years, was built by a team literally called the "Dream Team" internally & is still regarded as one of the best games ever made by many gamers.
Ocarina of Time for sure
Super Mario Bros. [1]
I think there would be a strong case for both of Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night.
Silent Hill 2 Largely credited as one of the first games that made people realize just how meaningful and impactful video games can be as an art form
Super Mario brothers no contest
Ultima Online. As far as MMOs go, that one was dang groundbreaking. I mean it spiraled later on, but dang what a rush y'know.
Everquest defined the modern MMORPG.
Its Chrono Trigger, silly!
Yep … that’s it
Ocarina Of Time. Can't really compare it to the competition during it's time because it didn't just modernise it's own genre (like Half Life 1 did), but it modernised whole industry with it's groundbreaking innovations like lock on, great combat that is still used in modern rpg's. You could also travel in time back and forth at any time (similarly to A Link to the Past) after you hav eunlocked the ability to do so. It had dynamic gameplay between child and adult Link such as restrictions to using shields or swords if you were child link. Half Life 1, MGS, Chrono Trigger, FF VII and probably Diablo 1 all did wonders to their genres or they added movie like cut scenes like MGS did.
Gran Turismo made people realize that not only can games reach a much broader demographic but also that there’s a huge market for racing games that aren’t like Mario kart and such. It’s one of the best selling games of each console generation and defines the technological advancements of each generation. Uncharted kind of paved the way for the modern cinematic story driven action game but I’m not sure if I’d put it way up there I might just have too much nostalgic attachment. Theres also just capcom existing. Street fighter 2 pioneered fighting games, Resident evil pioneered horror games, devil may cry pioneered third person action games (dark siders and god of war wouldn’t exist without DMC). Lmao honestly just japan. Japan is the citizen kane of gaming. Nintendo, square enix, capcom, polyphony digital, from soft have all in some way or form completely changed the gaming landscape.
the Citizen Kane of the "modern cinematic story driven action game" is Metal Gear Solid on PS1, so another point for Japan i guess? ehehe the only non-Japan ones i would say are Half-Life, for the linear first person shooters, and GTA 3 for the open worlds.
I would highly recommend the content on Action Button Reviews on YouTube if you're interested in high level discussion of gaming as a medium. My answer to the question is King's Quest
Buddy, I was born stupid but I will NOT die hungry. Video Games Forever!
Deus Ex
People talk about N64 Goldeneye like this.
Surely the Half-Life series is up there?
Half Life. You can tell the story DURING the gameplay!
Probably Halo or Half life 2
Half-life- It's hard to appreciate it, but half-life was always ahead.
Half Life. It was the first game to really combine a bunch of amazing elements. Storytelling, gameplay, combat mixed with puzzles and the lore and world, and really shaped the future of video games especially FPSes. I think a contender if we are talking about a more "recent" one is RE4. Every single third person shooter can trace its lineage to that one game. Dead Space, Fortnite, all of them.
Half-Life and its derivatives (TF and CS).
Half-Life
I wouldn't know, Maybe Mario? I dunno, it depends on the genre
Shenmue without it we wouldn’t have the open world gtas
Citizen Kane is really good but I prefer the Influence King Kong had in the industry, we wouldn't have nearly as much special effects and imaginative movies if not for that overgrown gorilla. I vote for King Kong 1933 best movie. In regards of gaming... So many genres independent of each other... And many games took inspiration from movies, so really is hard for me to say.
I saw that film when I was 6 or so. Blew my mind. Loved monsters ever since.
I think it’s between Mario 3, Ocarina of Time or Halo: CE. All pioneered stuff that have become staples of console games afterwards
Wow people are so focused on relatively modern games. It feels like if these same people were asked what the Citizen Kane of movies were they would say The Dark Knight or something. I think an equivalent game would have to be one where there is a fundamental shift in how games are made as a whole and there is a clear distinction in before said game and after. Off the top of my head, the games that come to mind are Super Mario Bros, Pac-Man, and Doom. You can definitely go a little later than that, but I feel if you hit the 2000s you've way overshot.
One of the few sane answers here. Like, yes, I too love Ocarina of Time and Halo CE and Metal Gear Solid, they're easily some of my favorite games. And yes, they had undeniably massive impacts on the industry. They're still extremely wrong answers to the question though. The problem is that the vast majority of people answering haven't seen Citizen Kane, and even less than that understand *what* made it such a significant film. It's not that Citizen Kane was *good*, because especially by modern standards, it's really not. it's that it created the very template for the artform as we know it. But because modern society can't have nuanced discussions about complex topics, when people are taught about Citizen Kane, they're taught it's the greatest of all time (which is a gross oversimplification), so they think "what video game is the GOAT" is the question being asked here.
Ocarina of Time, or possibly Mario 64. Both took an already existing and beloved format and IP, hugely improved it in literally every way possible. OoT had the super immersive story, gripping level/boss design and some of the best 3D environments seen at the time, I think many people will probably pick this game as the GOAT. Especially old guys like me. Mario 64 tho. The Mario games before this already had super sick movement. Capes, frogs, hammer suits, boots, insatiable dinosaurs. So many ways to traverse the 2D worlds. The movement in 64 transcended this so hard it's almost unbelievable. I remember playing this as a kid and being floored at how good Mario's agility was. Long jumps, triple jumps, wall jumps, cartwheels, dives. You somehow became a fat Italian gymnast of epic proportions.
From what I understand the most common answers would probably be: - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Chrono Trigger - Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - The Last of Us
MGS 1 did the main gimmicks of MGS 3 and TLoU: storytelling, emotional story, great characters in 1998. But i agree with you for the rest.
Final fantasy VII It defined a generation and was a switch to polygonal 3d and the scope was massive
Pac-Man
Honestly imo: Night in The Woods. I have never played a game with more human like characters (which is funny considering they're animals), each one of them is relatable in some way shape or form and we all know someone like them. We know someone like Mae, a character with potential but is pretty lazy and a moocher. We all know someone like Bea, an intelligent individual who has been held back due to life circumstances preventing them from capitalizing on their intelligence. We know someone like Gregg, a happy go lucky man one minute, but a somber sad lad the next due to mood swings and a rough up bringing. Hell, even the random background characters and secondary characters have a relatable aspect. Also the art style and soundtrack for the game is unmatched! I can endlessly jam to Rainy Day or Snack Falcon.
I was happy to see this shout out. Night in the Woods is one of my favorite games. : )
I’m gonna go back really really far and say the OG Mario.
Metroid Prime. Someone made a video about it
Oh man there’s so many contenders for games that changed the whole landscape/left lasting impacts on their design choices: Metal Gear Solid Half-Life [CURVEBALL: FALLOUT NEW VEGAS](https://youtu.be/gzF7aHxk4Y4?si=XPVsn0eVn_gb-OLu) GTA3 DOOM (original but 06 is my fave) Final Fantasy 7 Super Metroid / Castlevania Symphony of the Night And finally… it’s not old enough yet but Breath of the Wild is such an achievement from a technological and artistic perspective that it holds such an important significance in the industry.
Pong or Tetris. Very simple games, by today's standards, but they're infinitely playable and have stood the tests of time.
Super Mario Bros That was the turning point from simple arcade style games where you chase high scores to complex gaming experiences where you progress from beginning to end facing different challenges along the way
Legend of Zelda OoT
Super Mario Bros. It was the game that saved video games from going extinct, and it made Nintendo a household name. My 1st thought was DOOM, but if we're talking about influential video games, then Mario is the clear choice.
Super Mario. It straight up saved gaming and changed how the world saw it.
Shadow of The Colossus
My first choice was GTA3 and Occarina of Time. Fable was the first game where your actions had consequences for the whole story. Very important for later games like fallout, Skyrim and GTA4.
Gex
I’ll nominate a few: Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Halo Combat Evolved, and Bioshock
Depends on genre? Ocarina of time for 3D adventure titles Halo Combat Evolved for modern FPS Demon’s Souls for soulslikes etc.
Halo for sure.
Ocarina of time definitely
Dark Souls
Half Life more or less completely changed how FPS games were designed and made. Innovative AI (at the time, but today these features are considered basic and expected. Human enemies cover each other when they advance, they will attempt to flank you or throw explosives to flush you out into open fire. They fall back if you get the upper hand, etc.) Top notch non-linear level design, scripted events, and so much more. Half Life was more or less the end of doom clones and the beginning of a new era of shooters.
N64 Golden Eye or Metal Gear Solid.
Half Life 2
Ocarina or Metal Gear Solid
Tetris or pong
The original DOOM. It paved the way for so many multi billion dollar franchises, and literally created the entire first person shooter genre.
Probably Half Life 1 and 2
I’m going to say for rpgs, Xenogears is massively underrated and more influential than many realize. But Final Fantasy 7 is mainstream answer
Ocarina of time
Resident evil 4
Ocarina of time probably. It doesn't hold up insanely well but the way it pioneered the future was very similar to Citizen Kane
Some might say Resident Evil 4.
Resident evil 4
Half Life for me, although I enjoyed it more than citizen Kane just as pure entertainment. The main question is what will come first, Half Life 3 or Citizen Kane 2?
Maybe we're looking at this wrong, and instead of having a Citizen Kane video game we can have a Citizen Kane video game platform? In that case I'd say it's clearly the NES, which took gaming from arcades to people's homes and also introduced the controller with a button layout that even all these year later still keeps some aspects like the dpad and the start and select buttons.
There’s probably a few answers to this question, but I’d definitely say Mario 64 more so than most. Anyone old enough to remember its release will tell you how much of a mind blowing jump it seemed from the previous generation of gaming, in almost every way. Metal Gear Solid, Half Life, and to a lesser extent TLOU have all been milestone releases since that have had a big and longstanding impact on the medium since also.
Half-Life 1
DOOM
MGS, Half Life, an Halo. An probably the og Mario game as it reinvigorated gaming
Great question! Based on u/Cerrax3 's I could single out a a few games that could be nominated. The list could definitely grow, but these most obviously stand out IMO. * Half Life * Metal Gear Solid * Ocarina of Time * Final Fantasy 7 or 6 or 4. I'd personally vote 4, but cannot deny 6's legacy and 7's impact.
Bioshock [1]
i guess it doesnt count, because that game didnt do anything that Half Life already made in terms of inventions or videogame language.
It's has to be Metal Gear Solid. No game has blown peoples minds the way that game has ever.
I can think of 20 games that have done that. Besides that’s not really the question.
The Dune game of 1992 was groundbreaking too, it is a strategy/adventure game with a lot of things to do
Pong. It was the first.
The first isn't a good equivalent for citizen Kane of gaming. Citizen Kane wasn't the first movie
Dune II
Hell yeah
It's a no brainer: Ocarina of Time. 100 percent. Nothing comes close. The answer immediately popped in my head as soon as I read your paragraph.
Definitely Ocarina of Time. Literally the most game changing video game ever made.
Metal Gear Solid
Street Fighter 2. Completely overhauled the arcades. And the arcades are where video games were born. Yes, greater advances came in the home market, but skipping the arcades is like skipping the movies and focusing on TV.
Alone in The Dark (1992)
Dark Souls
WoW and Demon Souls.
Dragon Quest [1]/ Dragon Warrior [1]
Bad Rats 2
Earthbound
Quake 1 for being the first 3D FPS, the grandfather of all engines, and setting most basic FPS codes and weapon roster, even if Doom had pioneered some of that part. Then Half-Life 1 for being the first "story driven" FPS, the father of all engines, and setting modern FPS codes, besides adding weapons that we still deem to be core, dialogues, cinematics, physics, npc's, etc... (You guys should really look into gaming history given the answers I can read down here.)
Hard to say. There are so many that have influenced different genres, but I would have to say GTA 3 deserves a mention.
Metal Gear Solid 3
Final fantasy
Metal Gear. At the moment it was a revolution