Most Influential Games from this Generation

The next generation is upon us! I thought it would be a perfect time to go back and think about this generation of games. Going back made me realize that some games from this generation changed the way we played games. Here are some that influenced most games from this generation.

Gears of War

• It was not the first but it standardized how cover systems work in third person shooters.

Influenced:

• Binary Domain
• Quantum Theory
• Army of Two

Wii Sports

• Help introduce motion controls to most people.

Influenced:

• Most motion controlled game
• Kinect
• PlayStation Move

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

• Made the modern military genre go Oscar Mike. (See what I did there?)
• Made the “left trigger, right trigger” the basic layout for most first person shooters.
• Started the prestige crazy seen in most multiplier games today.

Influenced:

• Crysis 2
• Medal of Honor (2010)
• Homefront

What games do you think influenced games from this generation?

Isn't it at least a little too early for this? We haven't seen much of the next generation, have we?

I'd say Gears, just because I play more 3rd person shooters than 1st so I know how many games have copied Gears.

Also I think Battlefield 2 popularized modern shooters, I never played it but I remember people going nuts for that game.

Gears of War, for sure. I think Demon's Souls/Dark Souls will influence many games in the upcoming generation with its seamless online integration (though, games have probably done this before those games).

Maybe BioShock for player choice?

Portal

• Magrunner: Dark Pulse
• Q.U.B.E
• Antichamber
• The Swapper
• Gateways
• Quantum Conundrum
• The Ball
• Kairo
• Perspective
• Erm...Portal 2...

It's CoD 4 and it's not close.

The only other one that could be argued is Gears.

Call of Duty, bay far. I don't like it, but unfortunately it set the standard for a lot of things.

Temple Run, followed closely by Minecraft. There's countless clones out there for both.

EDIT: Actually, Words With Friends is pretty damn influential.

Yep, especially Modern Warfare.

Call of Duty 4.

Guitar Hero/Rock Band.

Call of Duty 4 by a mile.

Yep, CoD 4 had a profound impact, especially with the way multiplayer games are set up.

Oh, and Geometry Wars made twin stick shooters the rage for several years.

And Uncharted 2 did a lot in terms of cinematics. Although Heavenly Sword and Andy Serkis had some influence with its performance capture before that.

In my opinion, Braid and Minecraft are almost solely responsible for the tidal wave of indie games that we've seen in recent years.

@chaser324: Braid crossed my mind, as well. One of the first megaton indies.

Wappy Dog.

But really, Amnesia. It wasn't the first of its kind, but it definitely kicked off the popularity of "run away from a thing" style horror games.

Batman. So many games have used that combat system for fluid melee combat.

the more I think about it, the amount of diversity in this generation is amazing. Angry Birds, MMOs, Minecraft, Rock Band, Dark Souls, Tower Defense games, Free to Play model, Paid Early Access games, Kickstarter games, Episodic games. These are off the top of my head, no, there isn't just ONE game or genre that defines EVERYTHING this past gen.

Call of Duty 4 popularized XP based multiplayer and unlockables

Arkham Assylum popularized the counter-based melee combat

I'd probably be tempted to stick WoW on that list, refined the defacto MMO experience, and became the 'All Game' for a lot of people.

Call of Duty 4 (maybe the outcome of its influence isnt so great, but it still had a massive impact)

Braid was also extremely influential, ushering in a shitload of indie platformers and cementing independent games as an important part of the industry (in terms of storytelling, meaning, self expression, etc).

They were an integral part, but I'd say audiosurf was the catalyst for indie games becoming successful. Though, braid cemented indies as a viable means of self expression, storytelling, and finding depth in the medium and Minecraft popularized user creation in games, more so than any other game before it.

Audiosurf, while not revolutionary in terms of gameplay, would definitely be the first game I'd list if I were coming up with a timeline for the current stream of independent success.

Braid is definitely up there. Ryan mentioned one about how indie games today, especially in the sense of the more meaningful ones, wouldn't exist without Braid. So that, COD4, and Gears of War would all be up there. Also, counter based combat was first don by Assassin's Creed, not Batman, although Batman certainly perfected it.

Demon's/Dark Souls

> MP-in-SP integration which seemingly is becoming pretty huge right now.

Mine might be a bit of a stretch, especially now when the genre is mostly dead (though a couple of games still try to carry that torch) I'm going to say the Rock Band franchise, especially with drums and then the pro instruments. I would imagine that playing drums on Rock Band, specifically on Expert, got some people interested in learning to play drums. You at least get some pretty good patterns down as you start to really get into the more difficult songs. Then the Pro Instruments came into play in Rock Band 3, which may have eased people into learning to play other instruments (though obviously they likely won't be amazing at it). From what I've heard, it seems Rocksmith really expands on the Guitar/Bass stuff as well, so you can at least learn to play some songs and get your fingers adjusted to playing either, though it helps to learn some theory or something from a teacher elsewhere.

Edit: I would possibly list Guitar Hero as well, but that's a bit tricky since the first game was a PS2 exclusive, thus not exactly this gen.

CoD 4. No question.

@avantegardener WoW came out in 04, xbox came out in 05.

Uncharted 2

-Made everyone want Nolan North in their game

-A lot of games follow the plot design/archetype now, including various games not in the same genre

-Trains now in everything

Rogue

-Because nothing says next gen like Roguelike... like

MGS4

- Made everyone want their game to have as little gameplay as possible

@raven10: No one wanted to copy AC though, that first game was a piece of shit. Batman was probably most influenced by DMC/God of War and so on, they just figured "why not do that but make it not feel awkward at all?"