Ahead of it's time

Spunkey said:
Quake 3 Arena.

Id had the vision that multiplayer was the future, and they were right. The only downside was that most people at the time only had 56k modems and it turned into a complete lag fest. Those who complain about COD:BO lagging now - you have NO idea :)

At a LAN party it was fantastic.
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Quakeworld, surely?
 
Top Gear Rally N64 was impressive at the time. One of the first games that had some real driving feel in it.
 
One for the oldies: Hunter on the Amiga. A 3d, completely open world on a couple of 880kb disks. You could 'play the game' and do the missions or you could lark about with all the vehicles (Jeeps, Tanks, Bicycles, Speedboats and Helicopters) trying to kill others (and yourself!)

Think of it as GTA3 but 12 years earlier!

 
Another vote for the Dreamcast in general

I remember being absolutely blown away with the graphics in Soul Calibur and Resident Evil Code Veronica. Considering what the PSone was packing those days I really cant fathom why the Dreamcast never took off especially when it catered for the casual gamer as well with the likes of Crazy Taxi.

I dont remember too much about Shenmue tbh only that I never passed the final boss :(
 
for me it was when i'd been playing tekken & ridge racer in the arcades, then a month later it was almsot the exact same experience in my home - the PS1 closed the gap between arcade & home consoles imo.

Hunter (on the ST) was indeed impressive...
 
Ultima VII (both parts) for me (and other old timers out there).

Got me into PC gaming in a big way

(Edit, sorry, forgot this was console section)
 
Wipeout and for myself more (as it was the first one I played) Wipeout 2097, It was so fast, so hard (later on) and the soundtrack was like nothing else I'd come across in a game before.
 
i think the original medal of honour on the psx deserves a bit of a mention too. i know there were fps like doom etc before it but i remember i was blown away by it.
 
Remember this is "Ahead of it's time". To me that means something different from revolutionising the genre like Half-Life or GTA3 did. To me that means it was big and different, and nobody appreciated what it did until some other game took a hint from it and became Half-Life or GTA3 years later.

I'd say games like Thief or Deus Ex. Really different games that, while important and popular, weren't really built upon until years later. After GTA3 came out loads of games tried to ape it (though it really kicked off after Vice City).

Maybe Shadow of the Colossus and Ico. At the time brutally simple and artistically driven games weren't really on people's radar. It's only been the last few years with the rise of the Indie scene, or rather the Indie scene breaking into the mainstream, via Steam, PSN, and XBLA that "different" games are recognised an praised.
 
yeah, but you can also include games which were very ambitious as well, GTA3 was unlike anything before it and was a trend setter. it took a leap forward.

i would say that the games i mentioned earlier like parrappa the rapper could be called ahead of their time though, as they were basically like guitar hero, which was very popular like 10 years later (although the bubble seems to have burst now- RIP Guitar Hero)
 
Codename Droid on the Acorn Electron for so many reasons.

Also, Shenmue is right up there. Way ahead of its time in just about every respect and re-wrote the rulebook for modern style rpgs in my eyes.

The original Test Drive Unlimited. When I was a kid I dreampt of a game where you could drive anywhere or take a journey from a start point to a finish in an open world taking whatever route you fancy. Coupled with the fact there are real people driving around with you, the beautiful enviroment, the little touches like leaves in the wind, planes flying overhead, flocks of birds in the sky and the fact you can buy awesome supercars, sit in them, visit virtual showrooms and even take them for a test drive before choosing to buy or not is an awesome concept that was realised.

Agreed with the original Tomb Raider and Mgs.

Donkey Kong Country on the Snes. The graphics were amazing (especially on a 16 bit console), the way the hud would scroll off the screen after a few seconds (first game I played with this feature), and the smooth flowing gameplay made for not only a great game, but a practical revolution that set new standards and in my eyes (in the world of 2d platformers) still hasn't been beat today.

And Acornsoft Maze on the Acorn Electron (also on the BBC Mirco). First Fps I ever played (and very possibly the first Fps ever) and that was back in 82" !
 
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Pighardia said:
yeah, but you can also include games which were very ambitious as well, GTA3 was unlike anything before it and was a trend setter. it took a leap forward.
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Well it's semantics. I'm not saying that everyone else's choices weren't valid.

Rockstar North (DMA Design as it was then) cut their teeth on 3D open world gaming with the N64's Body Harvest. while not a sandbox crime game like GTA3 it featured an open 3D map with missions dotted about the place and the ability to get in and out of various vehicles lying about. Features that would go on to define a whole genre after GTA3 was released 3 years later.

What's good about games over, say, TV or Movies is that there is a lot less "Ahead if it's time". History is full of really ambitious Film and TV projects that were, in retrospect, groundbreaking and amazing, but were rejected by their audiences for being too different. In gaming since it's such a personal experience and founded on innovation a lot of new concepts are embraced by developers and audiences alike.
 
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