WinBack, an unassuming N64 game from 1999, has the distinction of somehow being the most influential game since Mario 64. Okay, Mario wasn't THAT long before Winback, but hey, remember when games were rapidly progressing? Console generations every four years? Those were the days...
Thinking about it, I suppose Halo is the MOST influential since then, but for entirely bad reasons. Regenerating health and 2 weapon limitations are not something to be celebrated.
Anyway, Winback was the original cover shooter (Do not mention Time Crisis to me, that's different). Without it, there would be no Gears of War, no RE4, you name it. What appeared to be a simple MGS ripoff was in fact a Trojan horse to deliver revolutionary game mechanics. You aim using the weapon's laser! Sure, in this, when your aim is close to an enemy or object you get a standard lock-on reticle, as a sort of acquiescence to the primitive-brained sapiens that were playing games on the Nintendo Sixty-Four, but that was crazy at the time!
Kill.Switch would later evolve these mechanics a bit, and take most of the credit, but its only real addition was adding blindfire. WinBack was the progenitor. The Modern Prometheus. It stole ambrosia from the heavens and handed it to us mere mortals, and what did we do with it? We made goddamn Dead Space 3.
The game itself is pretty good too.
Thinking about it, I suppose Halo is the MOST influential since then, but for entirely bad reasons. Regenerating health and 2 weapon limitations are not something to be celebrated.
Anyway, Winback was the original cover shooter (Do not mention Time Crisis to me, that's different). Without it, there would be no Gears of War, no RE4, you name it. What appeared to be a simple MGS ripoff was in fact a Trojan horse to deliver revolutionary game mechanics. You aim using the weapon's laser! Sure, in this, when your aim is close to an enemy or object you get a standard lock-on reticle, as a sort of acquiescence to the primitive-brained sapiens that were playing games on the Nintendo Sixty-Four, but that was crazy at the time!
Kill.Switch would later evolve these mechanics a bit, and take most of the credit, but its only real addition was adding blindfire. WinBack was the progenitor. The Modern Prometheus. It stole ambrosia from the heavens and handed it to us mere mortals, and what did we do with it? We made goddamn Dead Space 3.
The game itself is pretty good too.