What was your last/next "ground breaking" game you played?

Oblong

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So what is it that makes a game "ground breaking" in the first place? A completely new game-play mechanic? Or a new mode of play for a tired old genre? Visuals that are off-the-charts like nothing seen before? Maybe a new topic/story which has never before been broached in the video game world? Whatever it may be, to land into the "ground breaking" zone, it has to have been a video game that made you say, "Wow! Now that is something I've never seen before!"

I am interested to hear what was your last experience that qualified for you as a "ground breaking" video game.

And while you are in this thought pattern, let's hear what you feel will be the next "ground breaking" game you play that has yet to be released.
 
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Life is Strange felt new. I also think of Rocket League and Until Dawn. I don't know if they were "ground-breaking," but they seemed new and original. I don't like the term "groundbreaking" so much, because it sounds like a marketing/hype term that leans toward the big and flashy. Originality doesn't have to be (in fact often isn't) big and flashy.

Most of the VR games would fall in this category, too -- certainly a new experience.

p.s. Valiant Hearts.
 
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In recent times, possibly CoD 4!?!?

- Set the stage for modern warfare gaming. yeah, some other games may have done it, but CoD 4 did it great and everyone copied
- Killstreaks and perks
- Awesome campaign
- Lots of maps and modes
- A very balanced game where the maps and gear lead to people playing all game styles... run and gunner, camper, sniper. No CoD game has matched it's variety in gameplaying style
- Was it the first shooter to charge people money for map packs? Not sure
- Nice visuals, sound and voice acting
- Not ground breaking for PC gamers, but for console gamers it was...... 60 fps
- The foundation for setting the whole CoD franchise into the stratosphere. Consistently the best selling game every year with tons of gamers..... with exception of perhaps GTA selling more when it comes out..... but you know what I mean. It's been a top seller with a big following for 10 years
 
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Well Andy we are certainly on the same page.

For me the last groundbreaking games I played were:

Rocket League - Psyonix has created the best fun anyone can have in 5 minute bursts. Not that you can only play 1 match without wanting another. It's a gamer's game, something that takes me back to when games were solid, clear objectives, strategic, and just plain fun. Odd that you would consider that groundbreaking but too many games miss those simple checkmarks that this one stands out.

Until Dawn - Such a cleverly woven tale where the characters are straight out of a "B" horror movie yet by controlling their actions and decision trees have you rooting for or against each of them in a more personal manner than you've ever experienced. This game is unique enough that it may well be the 1st of a new genre in gaming.

Tearaway Unfolded - This quirky platformer does things with the DS4 controller and PS4 camera that I have never experienced in gaming before. Media Molecule is a groundbreaking studio in itself between this, Little Big Planet, and the coming Dreams.

Which leads me into what I believe will be my next groundbreaking experiences:

Dreams - Top of my list. I cannot wait to see what lurks in others minds and how well I can portray the things lurking in my own.

Cuphead - Actually playing an old-school cartoon is unlike anything I have seen before.

No Mans Sky - The delays have me concerned that they may have tried to overstep their bounds, but if the bounds remain and they have just fine-tuned it all then this could be something that finally truly lets gamers to boldly go where no man has gone before.
 
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Probably Mass Effect 1, Morrowind, GTA3, or Metroid Prime. Those were the last games I think I truly felt like I had not really seen before or took an old genre and changed its perspective.
 
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Probably Mass Effect 1, Morrowind, GTA3, or Metroid Prime. Those were the last games I think I truly felt like I had not really seen before or took an old genre and changed its perspective.
Yeah, ME 1 was a sweet game. But man that motion blue and frame rate.... ugh.

It was groundbreaking.... literally. Stumbling with the Mako at a whopping 8 frames per second pretty much made be break my controller on the ground.
 
Gears of War; first game with good cover mechanics and Horde mode.

Mass effect; Space, 3D, tons of voice options, different paths (I guess I should say KoToR).

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter - Amazing sound, UAVs, ect.
 
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With VR coming around, which ever game is first to successfully have a good game which has your scanned face in will be huge. Have the game scan in your face for 10 situations..... normal, scared, pain, happy, yelling etc.... or even better implement a lip-synching system where what you say is converted to proper lip motions...... is that even properly invented yet?

Surprisingly, with all these new powerful systems and cameras, you'd think there would be more games you just scan in your mugshot. Instead, devs prefer to usual create-a-character screen. Some are better than others.

I thought this would be the gen, face scanning really took off as there's lots of cameras and Kinects out there. And most PCs should have a built in camera. My 5 year old laptop even has a cam.
 
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Gears of War; first game with good cover mechanics and Horde mode.

Mass effect; Space, 3D, tons of voice options, different paths (I guess I should say KoToR).

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter - Amazing sound, UAVs, ect.
Oh yeah, Gears! For sure. Some snazzy features it had.
 


I figured people would have a variety of high and low requirements on what would be considered groundbreaking in the first place. We've already seen some games listed that make are like, geez yeah Mass Effect, GoW, KOTOR, etc were all groundbreaking games...but is your bar that HIGH that it really has been 10 years since you've had a groundbreaking experience?!??

And then you come in Kassen with what may be the lowest bar possible for groundbreaking. Must have been difficult to decide between this and Goat Simulator. :laugh::laugh::laugh:
 
I figured people would have a variety of high and low requirements on what would be considered groundbreaking in the first place. We've already seen some games listed that make are like, geez yeah Mass Effect, GoW, KOTOR, etc were all groundbreaking games...but is your bar that HIGH that it really has been 10 years since you've had a groundbreaking experience?!??

And then you come in Kassen with what may be the lowest bar possible for groundbreaking. Must have been difficult to decide between this and Goat Simulator. :laugh::laugh::laugh:


Lol. Yea I listed only games I felt were watershed moments to me. If I listed games that I thought refined, exemplified, evolved a genre... it would be a long list that would bake my noodle thinking about. :D

ORI is groundbreaking in 2D artistry though.
 
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Gears of War 1 - was probably the last time I played a game that I felt was ground breaking. Which is kind of sad, because 12 years of games since and nothing else has really felt that way for me. Gears of War felt special. Was full of quality, and owned my time like very few games could.

Next - Hard to tell. Some games show promise, like No Mans Sky, but not sure how anybody could state which upcoming game will be ground-breaking for them.
 
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With VR coming around, which ever game is first to successfully have a good game which has your scanned face in will be huge. Have the game scan in your face for 10 situations..... normal, scared, pain, happy, yelling etc.... or even better implement a lip-synching system where what you say is converted to proper lip motions...... is that even properly invented yet?

Surprisingly, with all these new powerful systems and cameras, you'd think there would be more games you just scan in your mugshot. Instead, devs prefer to usual create-a-character screen. Some are better than others.

I thought this would be the gen, face scanning really took off as there's lots of cameras and Kinects out there. And most PCs should have a built in camera. My 5 year old laptop even has a cam.
I'd love to see more face scanning. I still remember how cool it was to put my face on my character in rainbow 6 and fight night :D
 
Candy Crush Saga.

Its amazing how they made a simple crystal swapping puzzle game to a world wide behemoth.
 
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Wii Sports.

Wii Sports broke convention from typical control methods and mechanics and in doing so appealed to people who had never played a video game before in their life.The impact of this game and its influence in making video games acceptable and welcoming to a demographic that previously had no interest in gaming cannot be understated.

This a last game where I thought 'I haven't played or experienced anything quite like this before and I'm getting beaten by my fricking Nan...'

Next?

I would expect it to be VR or AR based as I think pretty much everything else is so highly iterative that it is very difficult to break new ground there. VR is a space that developers are still trying to figure out the basic design fundamentals and are having to go back to the drawing board as many traditional standards no longer apply.
 
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We've already seen some games listed that make are like, geez yeah Mass Effect, GoW, KOTOR, etc were all groundbreaking games...but is your bar that HIGH that it really has been 10 years since you've had a groundbreaking experience?!??

That was my reaction, too, reading through a lot of these nominees. Those games were from over 10 years ago, two generations back. It says something about the state of gaming -- or at least the state of big-budget, mainstream gaming -- that people have to go back that far in time to think of examples of games that feel new/original.
 
Yes, you have to go back a long way to get true groundbreaking. If you've been around enough these "new" groundbreaking games aren't all that.

The one new game I would include is Rocket League. Such a simple concept but really they invented a sport.

My others:

Battlefield 1942 - took a tired FPS genre and added large scale battles but still with a simple pick up and play style. If there were some way to check the game I've played the most, I would bet 1942 is at the top of the list by far. If you look back at what makes fun, objective shooters good, they probably stole ideas from BF.

Planetside - MMO shooter (WW2 Online was technically first). Huge battles with massive online players in an FPS genre. There was nothing like having 20 guys holding off hundreds in a vain attempt to hold a base a little longer.

Civilization - I could go on and on about that. You can lose hours even days in that game.
 
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I think people have different definitions of "groundbreaking." It's a vague term. How much newness is required before something is "groundbreaking," i.e., breaks new ground? Some? A lot? Does it have to be a big game? Does it have to sell well and be popular? Does it have to create a sea change in the gaming landscape? What about games that introduce things that are new, and yet fail? They broke ground, too, just not the right ground.

I don't know ... in the end, it's a vague term open to a lot of different interpretations. When I was answering the question, I was thinking, "What's the last game I played that brought something new or original to the table?" That's how I chose to interpret it.
 
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I actually thought of a new game.

Mirror's Edge - The First Person parkour game-play coupled with the fantastic artistic style, and the unusual choice to make guns the least effective way of completing objectives, made it a very refreshing and unique experience.

Also, no other game has done parkour as good or as exciting.

I think people have different definitions of "groundbreaking." It's a vague term. How much newness is required before something is "groundbreaking," i.e., breaks new ground? Some? A lot? Does it have to be a big game? Does it have to sell well and be popular? Does it have to create a sea change in the gaming landscape? What about games that introduce things that are new, and yet fail? They broke ground, too, just not the right ground.

I don't know ... in the end, it's a vague term open to a lot of different interpretations. When I was answering the question, I was thinking, "What's the last game I played that brought something new or original to the table?" That's how I chose to interpret it.

I don't think it needs to break new ground. I mean Gears Of War technically didn't bring anything new. What it do was bring those game-play mechanics and modes back to the forefront of gaming and created a fantastic experience that hasn't been matched since.
 
That was my reaction, too, reading through a lot of these nominees. Those games were from over 10 years ago, two generations back. It says something about the state of gaming -- or at least the state of big-budget, mainstream gaming -- that people have to go back that far in time to think of examples of games that feel new/original.

Personally I don't think its a bad thing, its just that gaming has matured to the point that its whole a lot more evolution than revolution. Actually I don't think gaming has really ever been better, there are so many good to great games its ridiculous.

Other mediums that have matured are the same way, movies are telling the same story with the same character archetypes over and over again in different ways its just a question of how well they do it, games are the same way now. Unfortunately, for those who craves that feeling of something new this is a problem.
 
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I figured people would have a variety of high and low requirements on what would be considered groundbreaking in the first place. We've already seen some games listed that make are like, geez yeah Mass Effect, GoW, KOTOR, etc were all groundbreaking games...but is your bar that HIGH that it really has been 10 years since you've had a groundbreaking experience?!??

And then you come in Kassen with what may be the lowest bar possible for groundbreaking. Must have been difficult to decide between this and Goat Simulator. :laugh::laugh::laugh:
You are just not a fan of PC games. That's all. There isn't much of groundbreaking regarding a game whose main gameplay mechanics is just firing behind cover and reaping the benefits of fast auto-heal, which are definitely not "a completely new game-play mechanic." But your opinion is your opinion.
 
Journey, maybe.

I mean I'm glad we don't have an abundance of 2 hour games that tell its narrative completely through gameplay. But it felt new and did help pave the way for a few similar games.

I haven't played Firewatch yet. I want to. But I like the direction it took for an adventure game.

LBP was groundbreaking imo. At least in terms of user created content on console.
Project Spark was as well. But not the best execution with that one.
Dreams looks like the next step.
 
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Gears 1. Made my jaw drop as to what consoles could do. It set a standard that wasn't surpassed on consoles for years, if ever, last generation.

Project Gotham Racing 3. Showed how seamless, and integrated, online play can be.

Full Spectrum Warrior. Never has there been a shooter that required as much tactical thought than that series. Nothing comes close to it. The score is also, possibly, the best in video game history.
 

LOL. This game is awesome!*








* In case you have a cognitive disorder, this is sarcasm**
** Sarcasm means saying something that is often the opposite*** of the fact or situation
*** Opposite means contrary to, or contradiction
 
I'd love to see more face scanning. I still remember how cool it was to put my face on my character in rainbow 6 and fight night :D
I don't know what the first face scan game was, but in terms of just putting your mug in a game, I know NHL 99 or 2000 allowed it. You could upload a jpeg and the game would attach it to a blocky head. It looked stupid from close up, but if you saw a replay from a distance at the right angle (straight on), it didn't look too bad.

I think recent NBA 2k games allow face scanning.

I guess either nobody cares enough to have the feature, or It's too hard for many devs to implement in the game properly. Yet they add create a character options with a full slate of options.
 
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