Under The Influence

[Guest Cephaler]

I agree with gamespot on most of that, except diablo--diablo is quite recent, and nowhere near the beginning of any kind of genre. The only thing diablo managed to spawn was a big turnout on battle.net, which itself was full of cheaters and 1337455es bulging w/ hax0r. gamespot overlooked the older games that themselves inspired diablo, those being the roguelikes, or rogue itself. rogue not only created a genre of literally hundreds of different games, but also influenced other types of games, such as tilebased rpg's. And what about ADVENTURE?!?!?!?! hehehe
ceph out

[TheProphet]

I would also put Pacman and Space Invaders on the list - they defined the action genre.

[Guest q.pixel[rex]]

Since when did keyboard setup matter in how influential a game was?

Dune 2 and C&C were "mass production and massacre" games...Many new RTS do everything possible to AVOID being such including Westwood's own RedAlert2.

[wavelength]

I'm going to have to stick up for good old StarCraft. It DOES beat the crap out of any other Strategy game. Not only is everything perfectly balanced and the missions awesome, but it actually has a REALISTIC PLOT, political issues, and teaches kids about the Revolutionary War, as the Terrain Campaign in SC was basically all symbolic of the Revolution, but deep in space and in the future. The Cinematics are the best in any game, and the graphics are crisp and the multiplayer flawless.

[NiGHTMARE]

Yes, but what games have Starcraft or Warcraft actually directly influenced? I can't think of any, whereas Dune 2 and C&C 1 basically started out the entire genre (kinda like with Wolf and Doom).

BTW, Starcraft might have the best rendered cutscenes, but have you seen the filmed footage in C&C: Tiberian Sun? Really clear quality, it could almost be shown on TV.

Oh, I thought of another influential game. Well, it's only really started to be influential really, but anyway. The game in question is Thief, without which Deus Ex, and a number of other games that are still in production, most likely wouldn't have existed (or at least, been very different).
It had cool cutscenes too (gotta love that intro music :) )

[Squashfoot]

15 most influential games of all times? What about Global Thermal Nuclea War. Now i remember that game. And what about Jurassic Park the board game, or that game you play with a knife and your hand, now that was quality gaming