I have been a gamer for the best part of fifty years and over that time I have witnessed a remarkable evolution of video games. No one knows exactly how many titles have been released during that period, but estimates suggest more than a million.

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It is probably fair to say that a significant proportion of that million didn’t raise many eyebrows. We have seen endless games driven by ‘more of the same’, ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’, ‘safe sells’ and many more similar mantras, all presumably printed out and pinned to the walls in the offices of EA Sports. This is an increasing problem; in the early days games were produced by small independent developers with just a few coders. A wide variety of genres were tried, some of which worked and some didn’t, but risks would be taken and gems were created. Fast-forward to 2021 and gaming is a huge industry, worth over $300 billion (more than the video and music markets combined) and with the enormous teams and costs required to produce a single title developers are now understandably more reluctant to venture into the unknown. Gamers have plenty of choice between driving, sports, shooting and role-playing games, but we rarely encounter something that breaks the mould or radically reshapes thinking. 

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However, over the years there have been special moments; games that either redefined a genre or gave birth to one. What follows is a summary of my standout games from 1972 to 1993; those titles that really moved gaming forward and made me say: “wow!” Some you may agree with. Many you possibly won’t. It has been an almost impossible task to try and narrow the list and there are some huge names that I have had to exclude, but this is my list, titles that have shaped my personal gaming journey, not an ultimate selection. So sit back, buckle up and join me on a chronological trip down my gaming memory lane…

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1. Pong, Arcade & Home Consoles, 1972

Pong is frequently credited with being the first video game, but it wasn’t; a similar game was produced way back in 1958. It wasn’t the first commercial video game either, that honour goes to ‘Computer Space’, released in 1971. Pong’s claim to fame is that it was the first commercially successful video game. It was a simple black and white bat and ball game, allowing the player to play against the computer or a human opponent. As well as appearing in arcade cabinets it was ported into the first home consoles. It gave rise to variants that allowed the player to change bat size, bat numbers and goal size, enabling them to play ‘Tennis’, ‘Squash’, ‘Football’ and more. It may have been simplistic, but at the time it was new, magical and fun.

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More importantly though, is that it was the acorn that grew into the gigantic oak that the games industry is today. It showed that home gaming on your TV was not only possible, but that it was a viable market. It is no understatement to say that the games that we enjoy today are a direct result of the success of this title.

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2. The ‘Golden Age of Video Games’, Arcade, 1978 – 1982

This was the period when arcade video gaming absolutely exploded. Until this time arcades were filled with analogue entertainment such as fruit machines, shooting games, coin-shove games and pinball. Then, in 1978, the influx of video games began that changed things forever.

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There is no way I can pick a single title; I am nominating the entire first five years, since so many releases during this time were pushing the envelope. Space Invaders kicked things off in 1978 and was ground breaking. Appearing to be in colour (though it was actually a black and white game with a tinted screen to give the impression of coloured graphics) it was new and exciting. What followed was a series of stellar releases, many of which broke new ground. In 1979 we saw Asteroids (the first title to allow initials for high score tables) and Galaxian (which pioneered the use multi-coloured sprites). In 1980 there was Pac Man (which introduced power-ups), Rally X (the first with an on-screen map and a bonus round) and Missile Command (perhaps the first popular game utilising a trackball). 1981 was a bumper year with Scramble (the original side-scrolling shooter), Defender, Galaga, Frogger and Donkey Kong (the daddy of all platform games that introduced us to the character who later became Mario), and in 1982 we were treated to Ms Pac-Man (one of the earliest games with cut scenes) and Dig Dug.

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To see development at this pace was astonishing, with these titles setting the bar for years to come. The games were simple to play, fun, addictive and, more often than not, pretty damn hard. It says everything that I still often return to many of them today, loving the classic simplicity and the challenge of unadulterated high score chasing. A ‘golden age’? Absolutely.

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3. Battle Zone, Arcade, 1980

Although released during the ‘golden age of video games’, Battle Zone deserves a spot on its own. A fabulous tank battle game that used a dedicated cabinet and unique two-joystick control system; it stood out by utilising striking and futuristic green-neon three-dimensional vector graphics.

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Unique at the time in both looks and gameplay, the early editions of the game came with a periscope type viewfinder, creating a feeling of being right in the middle of the action which took place around you in a full 360 degrees. This led to it being considered by many to be the first ‘virtual reality’ game and others have labelled it the earliest example of a ‘first-person-shooter’. While not a commercial success to match other games of the time, it was hugely innovative and sticks in my memory as being particularly impressive.

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4. Dragon's Lair, Arcade, 1983

Dragon's Lair was created by Disney legend Don Bluth and saw you guiding Dirk the Daring through a series of scenes set in castle locations, whereby Dirk was continually placed in danger and had to evade the threats and escape the area. The game was basically an interactive Disney cartoon played from laserdisc and looked and sounded utterly spectacular.

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Game-play on the other hand, was brutal. To provide a ‘challenge’, the game relied on thwarting the player repeatedly and often unfairly, making this an exercise in choosing ‘continue’ or ‘death’ as a result of some random trial and error joystick waggling. The correct sequences to complete a scene could be learnt, but you needed to take out a mortgage to afford the huge number of credits required to do so. Not my cup of tea gameplay wise then, but nonetheless this makes my list on looks alone; it definitely had the ‘wow’ factor and was truly remarkable for its time.

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5. Tetris, Various, 1984

Tetris was a massively addictive block building puzzle game, created by Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov. Originally released in 1984, it reached Europe in 1986 and really shot to prominence when it was bundled with the Nintendo Game Boy upon its 1989 release. It has since been credited as being the ‘killer’ Game Boy game, most responsible for its popularity (partly by allowing two-player play via a link cable) and was enormously influential in the growth and development of handheld gaming.

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The title holds the Guinness world record for being available on the most devices, (65 different platforms) and as of 2021 had sold an astonishing 202 million copies, racking up 70 million physical game sales and 132 million paid mobile downloads.  

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6. Super Mario Bros, Arcade & NES, 1985

There had been platform games before, but Super Mario Bros absolutely nailed it. If an alien landed tomorrow in Hyde Park and demanded to know what a 2D platform game looked like, you would show it Super Mario Bros. It seems incredible that the title was released just three years after Ms Pac Man and Dig Dug; the rate of development at this time was remarkable. The game boasted varied levels and gameplay, character power-ups, hidden secrets, level shortcuts and more, and was enormously playable thanks to strikingly clear and colourful visuals and brilliant design.  

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Super Mario Bros was fundamental in the success of the Nintendo Entertainment System (Nintendo’s first home gaming console) and was later ported to the arcades. It was tight, rewarding and brilliantly programmed arcade fun and indisputably a title that deserves its place in gaming history; it is the sixth highest selling video game of all time and is quite possibly verging on 2D platform perfection.

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7. The Secret of Monkey Island, Various Platforms, 1990

The Secret of Monkey Island was a point-and-click adventure game, originally developed by LucasFilm Games for the Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS and Macintosh and later ported to other platforms. You play as a young Guybrush Threepwood who finds himself on Melee Island and sets out with a wish to become a fully fledged pirate.

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The game was easy to pick up and play. The point-and-click interface worked extremely well and it was hard to go wrong. The story was a beautifully constructed enjoyable jaunt featuring a great selection of memorable characters, with genuine humour; ranging from moments that made me smile, to those that caused a chortle and a few which genuinely had me roaring with laughter. The sword fighting game mechanics were nothing short of a work of genius, with encounters being won by the protagonist with the sharpest wit in a battle of insults. It was clever, extremely funny and worked brilliantly. 

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This was a landmark game which has rightly cemented its place in gaming history. It wasn’t just an evolution in adventure gaming, it completely broke the mould and set the standards by which similar games would be judged for decades to come. It has regularly been voted as the best Amiga game ever made and has also been voted the best P.C. adventure game ever.

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I am not the most skilled gamer and rarely complete a game. This was so good it is one of only a handful of titles in my entire life that I have played to a conclusion, which tells you everything. (The others are, in no particular order: Voodoo Castle, Crash Bandicoot 1, Gods and Slap Fight, thanks for asking!)

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8. Lemmings, Various Platforms, 1991

Lemmings was produced by DMA Design and released for multiple platforms in 1991, being a 2D action/puzzler that was simple to pick up and play but far more challenging to master. Each level saw you having to safely guide one-hundred lemmings from a start point to an exit. If left alone the lemmings would keep walking until blocked by an obstacle or the landscape, whereupon they would turn and reverse direction. Without help your lemmings would eventually fall from heights that would kill them, wander into lava pits or traps, or they might simply get stuck within a level. By well-timed intervention your task was to guide sufficient numbers to the exit and if successful you earned progression to the next level.

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Using the mouse you could assign special abilities to individual lemmings, allowing them to block others, dig through or climb obstacles and build bridges. You could allow some to parachute long drops and turn others into bombers, detonating after five seconds and destroying anything within the blast radius. All abilities were applied in real time and careful timing was often essential. The game really excelled on MS-DOS, Amiga and Atari ST as the speed and precision needed for success strongly favoured mouse control. While it was ported to other platforms, it was not nearly so easy to play using a joypad.

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Lemmings was a relatively simple idea, brilliantly executed. It was a standout game of the time, thanks to clever design, a great interface and a perfect difficulty level and learning curve. It frequently features in ‘20 greatest games of all time’ type polls and in 2020 was one of only six games featured by the Royal Mail on a series of stamps celebrating the United Kingdom’s early video game history.

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9. Sonic the Hedgehog Sega Megadrive, 1991

Sonic the Hedgehog is not only a game and a gaming character; he also carries the scars of being the figurehead of a vicious corporate war. In the early 1990s Sega set out to go toe to toe with Nintendo, with an audacious strategy to overhaul their seemingly unassailable market position, particularly in North America. Seeking a rival to Super Mario Bros 3 on the SNES (which at the time was the best selling video game in history), Sega held an internal competition in an attempt to create a suitable character that could spearhead their challenge to Nintendo’s crown. This resulted in the creation of Sonic, the distinctive pointy blue hedgehog that we all know, who went on to become Sega’s mascot and one of the most recognisable game characters of all time.

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Sonic the Hedgehog was released for the Sega Genesis (or Megadrive if you were European) in 1991 and soon after became the packaged game with Sega’s 16-bit console. A platform game, requiring the traditional negotiating of levels and collecting gold rings (as opposed to coins), the game’s unique selling point was the speed of gameplay. Sonic could move at great pace, navigating springs, slopes and ‘loop the loops’, making Nintendo’s Mario look decidedly pedestrian in comparison. The game was accompanied by a hugely aggressive, edgy and personal advertising campaign, specifically targeting young adult gamers: “To be this good takes AGES” and: “SEGA does what NINTENDON’T” captured the imagination of the buying public. This was accompanied by a significant price drop of the Genesis console.

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Nintendo were far too slow in taking the threat from Sega seriously, ultimately resulting in a massive swing in market share; Nintendo held 90% of the US market in 1990, but by 1994 SEGA had captured 65%.

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It is a sad postscript that within a few years SEGA had been killed off by the Sony PlayStation (the PS1 outsold the Saturn by 10-1 and the PS2 trounced the Dreamcast by 17-1) while Nintendo rode out the PlayStation storm, continued to trade punches with Sony and Microsoft and has made a comeback in recent years with the Switch being the highest selling console in 2020. But for a few glorious years, Sonic was the plucky underdog that led the Sega charge that ultimately gave Nintendo a bloody nose.

 

If I had to choose I preferred Mario to Sonic, but there is no denying our small blue pointy friend’s impact or place in gaming history.      

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10. Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, Arcade and Various Platforms, 1991

Street Fighter II: The World Warrior was a 2D fighting game developed by Camcom and released in 1991. Featuring twelve diverse characters, in the single-player game you would fight each one in turn over the best of three bouts. Each fighter had an energy bar, when the energy was exhausted the character would be knocked out. If you successfully defeated a fighter you would travel the world map to find your next opponent, with a mini-game challenge appearing after every three bouts won. 

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By using a joystick to control your fighter’s movement and six buttons to deliver various kicks and punches (three for punches and three for kicks, each of varying strength and speed), a large number of attacking and defensive moves were available. Certain combinations of joystick movements and button presses would unleash spectacular special moves, some of which were particularly tricky to pull off, but enormously satisfying when you did.

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The real beauty of the game was the two-player mode. The fighters all had strengths and weaknesses in terms of speed, reach, power etc., but in general were exceptionally well balanced. This made for fabulous one-on-one battles with a friend. Indeed, the two-player mode was so engaging it was one of the first games that led to professional competitive video gaming tournaments.

Street Fighter II is credited with reigniting the games industry and was directly responsible for the spike in the popularity of fighting games during the 1990s.

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Originally an arcade release, the game was subsequently ported to more than twenty platforms and was enormously successful. It became the best selling video game since the ‘golden age of video games’, selling over 15 million units and grossing over $10 billion in total revenue, making it one of the top three highest grossing video games of all time by 2017.

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11. Doom – MS DOS and Various Platforms, 1993

Doom was the game that redefined 1990s gaming and changed the landscape forever. In the late 1980s and early 1990s personal computers boasted more processing power than other console gaming platforms. Astonishingly it was a team of just five people that took advantage of this and produced Wolfenstein 3D, an early ‘first-person-shooter’ game, allowing the player to explore a three dimensional environment.

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Even more incredible was that it was predominantly just one of that team, John Romero, who used the same game engine to create the first Doom. Exploring three dimensional maze-like levels with eight different weapons to unleash all manner of hell against the waves of bad guys who would come at you with dogged determination, the game elevated the idea to an all new level.

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Originally released as a single level on shareware, it was massively popular and the demand led to the production of the full game. The first full instalment went on to sell over a million copies and defined a new gaming genre, ultimately paving the way for the likes of Quake, Unreal Tournament and, later on, colossal titles such as Halo, Call of Duty and Counter Strike.

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That brings me to the end of the first half of my list. A remarkable period of gaming development, with enormous steps being taken in short periods; indeed 1990-1993 certainly seems to have a more than reasonable shout as being the ‘second golden age of video games’!

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Catch the next edition of Pixel Addict for the conclusion, where we explore my standout titles from 1994 to the present day, covering such classics as Resident Evil, Grand Theft Auto, Forza and many more.

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In the meantime, if you disagree with any selections you can send your thoughts to: magazine@pixeladdict.media.

 

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AG 17/10/2021

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Featured in Pixel Addict magazine, issue 2.

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© Words and pictures copyright grapeswriting.com

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Things that made me say ‘wow’… (Part 2)

Reminiscing over almost fifty years of landmark gaming moments

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In the last issue of Pixel Addict I covered the period 1972 to 1993, selecting the most striking and remarkable gaming landmarks that I have encountered in almost fifty years of gaming, referencing such classics as Pong, Space Invaders, Super Mario Bros, Sonic the Hedgehog, The Secret of Monkey Island, Street Fighter II and Doom, among others.

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In this edition I am picking my personal highlights from 1994 to the present day; predominantly focusing on those games that either redefined a genre or gave birth to one. In essence, games that made me say: “wow”. It has been an almost impossible task to try and finalise my choices and I have had to exclude some massive titles. You may or may not agree with all (or indeed any) of my selections, but this is my list, not an ultimate list. So grab a cuppa, sit back, relax, and take a trip with me down my personal gaming memory lane…

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12. The Settlers, Commodore Amiga, 1993, MS-DOS, 1994

The Settlers was a real time strategy game, simulating the building and expansion of a medieval type settlement. It was the first game of its type on any platform, the IBM-PC release not following for another year. You started with a castle which you had to place on a map taking into account the terrain, the proximity to trees (which would provide you wood), mountains (for mining raw materials; coal, granite, iron ore and gold) and water (for fishing). Once sited, you had access to a ready stock of raw materials to get you going and a number of villagers who were ready to carry out your wishes.

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You could then select from a variety of buildings which, once commissioned, the villagers would build for you in real time, providing you had sufficient raw materials in stock. You didn’t directly control the villagers, you simply placed the footprint for each building and they did the rest. Each building had a specific purpose (Forrester’s Hut, Tool Maker, Armourer, Farm, Butcher etc.) with the output of each essential in helping the settlement grow. Once a building was complete a villager would move in and go to work. You also had to ensure that everything was connected by a network of roads.

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The game looked and sounded utterly fantastic, but the most impressive thing was how it was all interconnected. Everything had to balance and to help achieve this you had a series of supply and demand displays and options that helped you manage things. Once your settlement reached a certain size you could train knights who would fight the opposition's knights to win territory and eventually the game.

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The game could be played on a variety of map sizes depending on the machine’s capabilities; a game on a powerful Amiga could handle up to an incredible sixty-four thousand settlers all acting individually and autonomously.

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This was an absolutely magnificent title. Nothing is perfect, but The Settlers was extraordinarily close. To produce something so detailed, so clever, so atmospheric and so interconnected, that worked so well, even running on a basic level Amiga was nothing short of astonishing.

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13. Need for Speed, Panasonic 3DO, 1994

Need for Speed fans probably have no idea that the franchise originally appeared on the lesser known Panasonic 3DO. The 3DO wasn’t a huge commercial success, hitting the market only months before (and therefore being completely buried by) the Sony PlayStation; the 3DO sold 2 million units, the original PlayStation shifted over 100 million. Nevertheless there were still a few titles that stood out, none more so for me than the original Need for Speed.

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We had seen many driving games before, but this was the first that I had encountered where the vehicle behaved realistically in three dimensions, with the car flipping and rolling impressively when you crashed. It was so much fun I found myself ignoring the main gameplay and trying instead to reach high speeds and create spectacular crashes (I should have patented the idea, as Criterion Games did rather well out of it eight-years later with the Burnout series of games!) Maybe a slightly left-field choice, but this was brilliant fun and always stuck with me as being a real step forward in the development of driving games.  

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14. Launch and early release games, Sony PlayStation, 1994/1995

The release of the original PlayStation in 1994 was the first venture into the gaming market for Sony, who were taking on hugely established players such as Sega (Saturn) and Nintendo (N64). To compete they needed stellar launch titles, and they had them.

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Two in particular were astonishing; Wipeout (a futuristic hovercraft racer with weapons) and Ridge Racer (an arcade racer) were arcade quality games dropped straight into your living room. Three months after the European launch we were treated to Tekken (a stunning 3D fighter) and the die was cast.

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The inclusion of CD music functionality certainly made the PlayStation a desirable choice, but without a fabulous games lineup it is doubtful that it could have held its own against the enormously powerful competition. All three games were followed by numerous superior sequels, but in the early days it was these titles that proved that the PlayStation could mix it with the big boys; the rest is history. 

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15. Resident Evil, Sony PlayStation, 1996

Resident Evil was a weird game. There was quite a lot wrong with it, such as extended trekking back and forth, some shockingly bad voice acting coupled with a poor script, an irritating save system and somewhat annoying and clunky controls.

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Conversely, it was also utterly magnificent. It was essentially a three-dimensional third-person adventure game set in an abandoned mansion, but, with the twist that virtually all other occupants of the mansion were zombies and other assorted monsters, all of whom were trying to kill you. The whole thing was wrapped up in an unsettling and foreboding atmosphere which made it the first video game that I found to be genuinely scary. It defined an entirely new genre in gaming, that of ‘survival horror’. The game provided many landmark moments, maybe none more memorable than the first time the dogs came through the window (if you know, you know!).

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The series has spanned twenty-seven releases across multiple platforms right up to the present day, but it is the original game that should receive the accolades for its genius and innovation. Brilliant and terrifying in equal measure; it became Capcom’s biggest selling debut game and more than deserves its place in history.

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16. Sega Rally Championship 2, Arcade & Sega Dreamcast, 1998

If I had a chart showing how much money I had put into various arcade machines over the years, I'd bet that Sega Rally Championship 2 would be close to the top of the list. This was a fabulous sit-in arcade rally simulation, requiring you to complete stages, overtake other vehicles and reach checkpoints in order to gain extended time. There were six cars to choose from, each offering marginally different driving performance and a choice between manual and automatic gears. Nothing particularly different to a dozen other arcade racers that I could mention, so what made it special?

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Firstly, the feel and handling was absolutely spot-on, accompanied by virtually perfect feedback through the steering wheel (a system first pioneered by ‘Hard Drivin’ in 1989). This meant that the driving experience felt far more accurate and realistic and you would spend a significant time on ‘opposite lock’ going round corners sideways, which was always brilliant fun. A number of courses had to be negotiated, each providing distinctly different feel and feedback from the various road surfaces. The arcade cabinet included a handbrake too, enabling the player to pull off handbrake turns around the tighter hairpins. 

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Secondly, the difficulty curve was magnificent, enabling you to progress just a little further with every attempt as you learnt the optimum lines, gears and speeds for the corners.

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Daytona USA (a far less realistic game, but fabulous in four player mode with its extreme ‘rubber banding’ always making the racing tight and competitive) deserves an honourable mention, but Sega Rally Championship 2 was arcade driving perfection.

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17. Grand Theft Auto (GTA) III, Various Platforms, 2001

I doubt that any game has improved so dramatically between the second and third instalment as the GTA series. GTA 1 and 2 were fun but fairly simple two dimensional PlayStation games viewed from directly above. GTA III, developed by DMA Design and published by Rockstar Games in 2001 for sixth generation consoles, bore only a passing resemblance to its previous incarnations. Now it was a three dimensional, third-person, open-world title set in a realistic city environment and was completely mind blowing.

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The game saw you control a criminal on the streets of Liberty City, completing missions, collecting weapons, stealing cars, attacking and robbing innocent members of the public and generally acting like an utter hoodlum. Behave too badly and your ‘wanted’ level would rise, resulting in the police targeting you, ever more vociferously as the level increased. If you could hide (out of their line-of-sight) or get your car resprayed the level would reduce. This provided a great balance of gameplay, mixing heart-pumping criminal action with exciting passages of chase and escape.

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The soundtrack was exceptional, with a number of realistic radio stations to choose from when driving, featuring real DJs and assorted music, advertisements and dialogue.  

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GTA III was a seismic step forward in gaming; the title shifted over 14.5 million copies and was the best selling video game of 2001, with the series becoming one of the most popular of all time. I personally have a soft spot for GTA Vice City with its wonderful 1980s soundtrack, but it was GTA III that laid the foundations for all that was to follow. More exciting than a lottery win and more controversial than a Jonathan Ross answer-phone message, it completely broke the mould and can stake a resounding claim to be one of the most influential game releases of all time.

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18. Wii Sports, Nintendo Wii, 2006

The Nintendo Wii offered something utterly new by introducing motion-sensor controllers which were both innovative and simple to use. Graphically it could not match its rivals; the PS3 or the Xbox 360, but for pure gameplay it provided a unique experience and one that no other machine could equal until Microsoft launched the Kinect in 2010.

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Wii Sports was a launch title and offered the user a choice of five sports: simplistic but fun versions of baseball, ten-pin bowling, boxing, golf and tennis. Each could be played individually or, as was far more fun, against friends and family. The games were all easy to pickup and play, with most of the control movements being completely intuitive. This was a game that appealed to gamers and non-gamers alike; it was a common sight for your Gran or Grandad to grab a controller and launch into a game of tennis or bowling at the Christmas family get together, with many an ornament being sent flying as a result!

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Wii Sports Resort (2009) deserves a mention, featuring twelve ‘sports’ including table-tennis and archery along with some more unusual options such as wakeboarding, canoeing, air-sports and my absolute favourite; Frisbee-dog, but it was the original game that made the world sit up and take notice. Wii Sports is the fourth highest selling game of all time having sold nearly eighty-three million units and holds the record for the highest sales of any game for a single platform.  

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19. Madden NFL 25, Various, 2013

There would be no prizes for guessing that the best selling sports game series in history is FIFA, selling an astronomical 260 million units. Madden NFL (EA Sports’ longstanding American Football title) sits a distant second in the list, having sold only half as many copies. Yet for me, FIFA is just ok, whereas Madden is completely stellar.

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Why is Madden better than FIFA? Well for me it is really simple. FIFA always feels like a computer game. It looks like football, it sounds like football, but it never really feels like football. Despite the zillion remakes and endless motion-capture sessions with the world’s leading players, the player movement never feels properly realistic, always seeming to come with slight but perceptible lag as the different motion-capture movements are electronically stitched together. It doesn’t flow like a proper football game and this takes away from the experience for me. But with Madden, as well as the wonderful slickness, depth, sound and stunningly realistic visuals, you really feel like you are playing American Football. It is hard to pinpoint exactly why this is. Perhaps the stop-start nature of the game makes it better suited to computer play, I don’t know. What I do know is that a two player game of Madden plays out EXACTLY like a real game of American football and that easily makes it one of the best two player games that I have ever played.

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For the purposes of my list I have picked Madden NFL 25, the twenty-fifth anniversary release from 2013, but any title from the seventh generation onwards has the 'wow' factor for me.

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20. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Various, 2017

Normally when we board a plane, we are heading for a well earned break, armed with nothing more than some loud shirts and a couple of gallons of suncream. But imagine instead that you and your travelling companions are all choosing the right moment to parachute down to the landscape below; whereupon everyone will forage for guns, grenades, ammunition and additional equipment such as vehicles, first aid packs, armour and telescopic sights. And then try to kill each other.

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This is the essence of PUBG (as it is more affectionately known) which was originally released for MS-Windows in 2017 and later for the Xbox One and PS4, but it was the Android and IOS release in 2018 that elevated it into the stratosphere. 

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It follows the classic battle royale format, where the playing area continually contracts forcing players to move ever inwards. Those that remain outside of the play zone for any significant period of time lose energy and will eventually die. One by one the players dispose of each other and the last one standing wins.

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Matches can be played individually, in pairs or in teams of four, in either first or third-person perspective. Players can communicate with all others or just their own team-mates, making for a great multiplayer experience with friends. The game comes alive when used with headphones, as they provide an invaluable 360 degree sound-scape.

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Some of the combatants are A.I. controlled but a significant number are real players. The A.I. players tend to get picked off early in a match, setting up exciting climaxes with the real players being squeezed together by the ever decreasing play zone. Different maps and alternate game variations are available, but even a game on the largest map normally only takes about thirty minutes, giving the game a great ‘pick-up-and-play’ feel and, since the playing area contracts to a different and random point every time, massive replay value.

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There had been numerous battle royale and first and third person shooters before. But the IOS and Android release made the game accessible to a vast audience and in doing so PUBG has elevated the genre to previously unseen heights. It is the fifth highest selling video game of all time and the mobile version had grossed over $6.2 billion by August 2021.

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Exceptional fun then. And in case you were wondering, while there are plenty of loud shirts available in game, you may find the Groza Assault Rifle marginally more deadly than a suncream attack!

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21. Forza Horizon 4, Xbox One, 2018

From this list you will know that I enjoy a driving game, so I had to mention Forza Horizon 4.

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The Forza series launched in 2005 on the original Xbox and eleven incarnations later we were introduced to Forza Horizon 4, one of the most remarkable open-world gaming experiences it has ever been my pleasure to enjoy. Play takes place within the United Kingdom with representations of areas such as the Lake District, the Cotswolds and Edinburgh. Each play area supports seventy-two real players simultaneously, allowing custom races and other events. The environment is absolutely huge and completely open for exploration with no requirement to stick to the roads; indeed many vehicles and races encourage off-road activity. You can race across fields, through forests, across (the shallower parts of) lakes and even along railway tracks. With seasonal weather that advances weekly, the whole package is utterly stunning.

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There are hundreds of races and events to enter, each awarding credits to enable the purchase new vehicles with a massive selection available. This is the most complete driving game I have ever played, but the cherry on the icing on the cake are the utterly sensational visuals. There are times when it genuinely looks like real-world video footage, the first time I could ever say that with absolute sincerity about any game. This article was entitled: ‘Things That Made Me Say “Wow”’. Forza Horizon 4 ticks that box completely, being one of the most stunningly beautiful and engaging games I have ever played. It has won countless awards and with very good reason; it is unbelievably good and in my view it is worth buying an Xbox One just to play it.

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22. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, PC and XBox Series X 2020/2021

This is the game that redefined the term ‘open-world’. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 didn't just make me say “wow”. It unhinged my brain and made me collapse into my tea gibbering quietly, because it is utterly and truly ASTONISHING. Not only do you have a wonderfully complex, detailed and accurate flight simulation with a good and diverse selection of aircraft to master, but you also have (and this is the thing that makes your brain melt completely) the whole world, mapped, accurately and in 3D. I'll say that again. THE WHOLE WORLD. This includes over two million cities and towns, one and a half billion buildings, two trillion trees, and thirty-seven thousand real-world airports. 

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You set a flight plan by selecting your aircraft, choosing any departure and arrival airport and setting the time of day and conditions. Once in the air you have a completely free reign to go anywhere and look at anything. Each aircraft is incredibly detailed and there are a huge number of ‘assist’ options that can be used or turned off as required. The realism is enhanced by convincing dialogue with Air Traffic Control before, during and after each flight. The game includes realistic weather (you can choose your conditions or opt for 'live' weather), has water flow driven by wind direction, accurate road mapping with traffic, and even wildlife that can be found and viewed from ground level, including: flamingos, geese, elephants, giraffes and bears. But despite having the wonders of the entire world reproduced in magnificent detail to explore, the first thing everyone does is to locate and crash into their own house!

 

This is an utterly stunning title. There just aren’t enough superlatives in the English language to even begin to convey just how jaw-droppingly impressive the whole package is and it is indisputably a ‘must-have’ for anyone with a high spec P.C or an XBox Series X. We have certainly come a long way from Pong...

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So that concludes my list. Perhaps unsurprisingly it is slightly loaded towards the earlier part of the period as innovation inevitably became harder as time went on. “But wait” you cry, “you haven't covered x, y or z?”. And yes, there are many others that I wanted to include, but ultimately couldn’t. I wanted to talk about Virtual Reality, but while it is jaw-droppingly impressive, in truth I have hardly played it as it makes me nauseous. I wanted to mention Mario 64 (N64), but have only ever played it for a short time so it didn’t make my cut. Zelda or Final Fantasy would probably deserve to appear in an ultimate list, but role-playing games have never really been my thing and this is a personal selection.

 

Others that came very close but just missed out include: Pole Position, Track and Field, Sensible Soccer, Crash Bandicoot, Gran Turismo and Command and Conquer. If I weren’t affected by motion sickness when playing first-person titles, I am sure that Call of Duty, Uncharted and The Last of Us would have been fighting for inclusion too.

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Those that remain are my personal standout picks from the last fifty years, a truly incredible period of gaming development.

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I wonder whether the next fifty will be as remarkable...?

 

If you disagree with any choices, you can send your thoughts to: magazine@pixeladdict.media.

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AG 31/10/2021

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Featured in Pixel Addict magazine, issue 3.

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© Words and pictures copyright grapeswriting.com

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