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What games are essential to play?

killatopak

Gold Member
What are those games that are landmarks in gaming that one should play in order to appreciate the medium?

The question came to me when I saw my sister playing Half Life 2. I have never played Half Life 2 or finished Half Life 1. I know it's a game important not only as because it plays well but because it also revolutionized the industry in engine tech and lighting and such.

I'm asking cause I want to know and play about games that did the same.
 
Gothic 1&2
Morrowind
E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy
UnderRail
Age of Decadence
Divinity Original Sin 1 EE/2
Dark Messiah of Might & Magic
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. SoC/Clear Skies/Call of Pripyat (and Call of Chernobyl to combine all three in an open world)
 

NoKisum

Member
I feel like I need better details as to what qualifies a game as "essential". What makes a video game the digital equivalent of "required reading" before literally touching anything else in the medium?
 

Crayon

Member
Daytona USA was very popular. If you can ever find an at least 4-cab deluxe setup, I would say you have to try that. This was the baddest loudest thing in any arcade for awhile and it's still impressive today.

The Dave n Buster's in Milpitas used to have a very nice 8-cab setup on an elevated stage. That would be cool if they still had it.

Everyone should try some multiplayer arcade Daytona and I mean everybody. You don't need to play videogames or even know how to drive a car. Its a sort of elemental game that anyone can understand.
 

hobozero

Member
Top of my head, chronologically.

Classics:
Pong
Pac Man
Dig Dug
Centipede
Asteroids
Pitfall

NES:
Super Mario Brothers
Mega Man
Final Fantasy

SNES
Super Mario World
Street Fighter II (pick a version)
Zelda LTTP

PC
Doom
Quake
Half-Life (2 is not necessary)
A Civ Game
A Sim City Game
A Diablo Game

Misc
At least one FMV game (Phantasmagoria, etc)
At least one light gun game
At least one arcade game that moves (Outrun, Afterburner, etc)

I am old school, so once you get past the 16 bit era I feel like you kind of get out of "classic" territory and into modern classics - still great, but they built on what came before. I am sure I missed a few out there, too.
 

Crayon

Member
God, they were both so fucking crazy and mind blowing.

Doom was Super Mario, and quake was Mario 64.

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Neway, kilatopak I have this thick coffee table book. You might like it.


1001videogames.jpg


This one was a gift so you have to get your own. 😗
 

120v

Member
a little broad, no? "what are some essential movies? i saw somebody watching godfather 2 and wondered what else is there..."
 

killatopak

Gold Member
Doom was Super Mario, and quake was Mario 64.

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Neway, kilatopak I have this thick coffee table book. You might like it.


1001videogames.jpg


This one was a gift so you have to get your own. 😗

1000... O_O

a little broad, no? "what are some essential movies? i saw somebody watching godfather 2 and wondered what else is there..."

Maybe I need to categorize them like shooter, platformer and bullet hell games?
 

Novocaine

Member

low-G

Member
Depends on how thorough and how to sort importance.

Do you want to pick games that influenced later games? Do you want to play the best of genres? Do you want to play the best of specific eras? Do you want to play games that advanced with hardware? How much detail do you want to experience?

Half Life 2 was impressive for its physics and AI design, I'd say. Not visuals, although it was very very good looking too. I mean Vampire Bloodlines used source and was already out for a while. Can't recall clearly but wasn't CS Source out too?

Doom, Quake, Unreal Tournament 1999, Halo 1... those are hallmarks in much the same way Half Life 2 was. That's just 94-2001 in mainstream influential graphical hallmark FPS.

Branch out a little and you have incredible games like Deus Ex. Very different but nonetheless incredible and important. Same era. I could go on and on.
 

hobozero

Member
Doom was Super Mario, and quake was Mario 64.

.
.
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Neway, kilatopak I have this thick coffee table book. You might like it.


1001videogames.jpg


This one was a gift so you have to get your own. 😗

The preface says there are 3000 games listed in this book, and they change every time you read it. Also the first person to read to the end will get a prize that will CHANGE THEIR LIFE.

(sorry, had to do it :)
 

Crayon

Member
The preface says there are 3000 games listed in this book, and they change every time you read it. Also the first person to read to the end will get a prize that will CHANGE THEIR LIFE.

(sorry, had to do it :)

If Peter Molyneux put his name on it... You know it's good.
 

Xenoblade

Member
It's a silly question, but I'll bite. I'd say everyone should play Super Mario Bros. at least once. Even if you don't like it, it has a certain degree of historical significance that you should experience if you want any hope to ever call yourself a 'gamer'
 

Indelible

Member
Just go by series, Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy, Castlevania, and Mega Man all have multiple essential games to play.
 
RPGs:

FFIX
Chrono trigger
FFVI
Dragon quest VIII
FFX
Persona 5


Platformers:

Jak and daxter
Super Mario
Sly cooper.
Maximo
Sonic 1-3/knuckles

Horror:

Silent Hill
Fatal frame
Resident evil

Racing:

Gran Turismo
Forza
Mario kart
Burnout
Ridge racer
Need for speed.

Shooter:

Doom
Wolfenstein.
Quake
Halo
Gears of war


Hack and slash:

Bayonetta
Devil may cry
God of war
Ninja gaiden.
 

Aters

Member
LMAO. I never played 95% of the titles listed in this thread so far. There is absolutely no essential videogame. Some games are indeed very important and influential, but there's no guarantee that you will enjoy them.

Play what you enjoy.
 
Lots of good games on that 1001 list, but lots of questionable choices as well. Like why would you include a dozen different Final Fantasy games and include Dissidia, but not include the original? Why include DKC3 over the fan favorite DKC2 or the blockbuster DKC1? Why include Breath of Fire 2 over any of its much better sequels (especially Dragon Quarter). If it's truly "Required playing games" why include 4 different Civilizations - surely 1 will suffice? Do we really need 3 Banjo-Kazooie games on the list? And I don't think there's a single Sega CD game mentioned - Lunar: Eternal Blue or Sonic CD would have been an easy choice.
 
It's a silly question, but I'll bite. I'd say everyone should play Super Mario Bros. at least once. Even if you don't like it, it has a certain degree of historical significance that you should experience if you want any hope to ever call yourself a 'gamer'

Yeah I don't think there's really can essential list but Super Mario Bros. is one game I kind of think every should play a little of.
 

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
My now deceased father got to play Super Mario and Skee-ball. Everyone should play skee-ball at least once.

Any game that has defined a genre.
Chrono Trigger - RPG
GTA - Sandbox
Half-Life 2 - FPS
Space Invaders - coin op
etc.
There's a new list every year. There sure a lot of great must play games, but it changes a lot.
 

hobozero

Member
It's a silly question, but I'll bite. I'd say everyone should play Super Mario Bros. at least once. Even if you don't like it, it has a certain degree of historical significance that you should experience if you want any hope to ever call yourself a 'gamer'

Ah, it's not really a silly question if you think about it. Games today have a common language they use, and like any language its elements had to be established, get copied and reused, and survive the tests of time.

Think about something like a "pick-up". Some iconography that you interact with by touching with your "body" which then has a beneficial effect. Someone had to come up with that - then other games had to iterate on it to the point where it became ubiguitous, and now you just know running over ammo picks up ammo.

So you start with something like Pac-Man, moving over a power pellet to eat ghosts. Then Adventure, where you have to pick up keys and treasure. To something like Super Mario brothers, with multiple items like Mushrooms, flowers, etc. which change in effect based on context (picking up while small vs large, etc). You begin to see this iterative process that starts with an incredibly simple idea like a power pellet, that eventually leads to a complex system like Fallout 4's inventory/crafting system.

I think it's super valuable studying how ideas begin and spread/change. Be it in music, film, technology, games, etc. So kudos for wanting to find "essential" games to play.

That's also why I recommend playing this stuff in chronological order where possible, just so you can see context and complexity build out of simple ideas.
 

hobozero

Member
My now deceased father got to play Super Mario and Skee-ball. Everyone should play skee-ball at least once.

Makes an awesome point - if you can, be sure to play the kinds of "boardwalk" games that existed before stuff went digital. Like skeeball, pinball, those weird pachinko lookin machines with the baseball bat :)
 
Essential to play:

Super Mario 64
Minecraft
Breath of the Wild
Morrowind / oblivion / Bethesda open world

I put emphasis on 'play' here because the goal of 'play' is joy, or fun. There are certainly games I think you should experience that aren't fun (e.g. amnesia, the last of us) so my mind went to mirthful games that let you 'play' in their world.
 

Crayon

Member
Lots of good games on that 1001 list, but lots of questionable choices as well. Like why would you include a dozen different Final Fantasy games and include Dissidia, but not include the original? Why include DKC3 over the fan favorite DKC2 or the blockbuster DKC1? Why include Breath of Fire 2 over any of its much better sequels (especially Dragon Quarter). If it's truly "Required playing games" why include 4 different Civilizations - surely 1 will suffice? Do we really need 3 Banjo-Kazooie games on the list? And I don't think there's a single Sega CD game mentioned - Lunar: Eternal Blue or Sonic CD would have been an easy choice.

It's a fun and nice book but you are correct the list is not that great.
 

Aters

Member
Lots of good games on that 1001 list, but lots of questionable choices as well. Like why would you include a dozen different Final Fantasy games and include Dissidia, but not include the original? Why include DKC3 over the fan favorite DKC2 or the blockbuster DKC1? Why include Breath of Fire 2 over any of its much better sequels (especially Dragon Quarter). If it's truly "Required playing games" why include 4 different Civilizations - surely 1 will suffice? Do we really need 3 Banjo-Kazooie games on the list? And I don't think there's a single Sega CD game mentioned - Lunar: Eternal Blue or Sonic CD would have been an easy choice.

The original was included though. There are 12 Final Fantasy games in that list.

edit: oh I made a mistake, the original was not there.

It's a silly question, but I'll bite. I'd say everyone should play Super Mario Bros. at least once. Even if you don't like it, it has a certain degree of historical significance that you should experience if you want any hope to ever call yourself a 'gamer'

What? No! What makes me less of a gamer if I never played SMB? It's not the most popular one (I'd go with tetris, minesweeper or space invader), nor the most influential one (its influence is limited in the platforming genre, and that's not a big genre today).
 

Freddo

Member
Top of my head, chronologically.
I agree with most of these, good list.

With the classics covered, I'm moving on to some genres.

Metroidvania
Super Metroid
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Ori and the Blind Forest

JRPGs
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy VII

WRPGs
Planescape: Torment
Morrowind
Witcher 3

Action
Bayonetta
Nex Machina
Vanquish

Immersive Sims
Deus Ex
Thief (from 1998, not 2014)

EDIT: Shadow of the Colossus should be in there somewhere too.
 

psyfi

Banned
Metroid Prime
Metroid: Zero Mission
Portal
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Halo CE
Overwatch
F-Zero GX
Yoshi's Island
Tetris
Dark Souls
Zelda: Breath of the Wild
and you should probably try a MOBA
 
I'd even go so far as to say that the only "Essential" Final Fantasy game to play is FF7. Even though I'd argue that many of the other games in the series are better & more enjoyable, FF7's influence on the gaming industry far outstrips any of the other games.
 
What? No! What makes me less of a gamer if I never played SMB? It's not the most popular one (I'd go with tetris, minesweeper or space invader), nor the most influential one (its influence is limited in the platforming genre, and that's not a big genre today).

Nah, SMB1 is influential for the entire medium, not just platformers. SMB1 1-1 design school analyses are so common that they're practically a cliché.

And hey, no one is "less of a gamer" if they haven't played a specific game. I've never played Minecraft, because it holds no interest to me but at the same time, I would never argue that it isn't a massively influential game. There are far too many games to play in one lifetime - play what you want.
 

Freeman76

Member
LMAO. I never played 95% of the titles listed in this thread so far. There is absolutely no essential videogame. Some games are indeed very important and influential, but there's no guarantee that you will enjoy them.

Play what you enjoy.

Its GAF though, threads like this are where people want to name obscure shit and claim its essential lol.

Essential games for me have been Red Dead Redemption, Trials HD, PSO, BoTW, Mario 64, Demons Souls, Arkham City, Witcher 3 and i could go on and on but not even sure what platform you play on.
 

JCHandsom

Member
LMAO. I never played 95% of the titles listed in this thread so far. There is absolutely no essential videogame. Some games are indeed very important and influential, but there's no guarantee that you will enjoy them.

Play what you enjoy.

pretty much
 

NinjaBoiX

Member
A nice spread over a few genres, and nothing that's aged terribly:

Super Mario 64
Street Fighter 2 Turbo
Burnout Paradise
skate 3
CoD4
Red Dead Redemption
Ikaruga
Limbo
Tetris
Gothic 1&2
Morrowind
E.Y.E. Divine Cybermancy
UnderRail
Age of Decadence
Divinity Original Sin 1 EE/2
Dark Messiah of Might & Magic
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. SoC/Clear Skies/Call of Pripyat (and Call of Chernobyl to combine all three in an open world)
These are essential? I've never even heard of a third of these, and some of the rest are super niche, really hardcore "for genre fans only" kind of games.

Bad list.
 
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