Top 5 Revolutionary Games

Which games make the VideoGamer.com list?

Game industry legend Peter Molyneux revealed his top five revolutionary games last week at BAFTA’s Annual Video Games Lecture. The brains behind Fable picked Dune 2, Mario 64, Tomb Raider, Halo and World of Warcraft - all wonderful choices indeed. Inspired by Molyneux's illustrious list, we racked our brains and came up with our very own top five revolutionary games list. All five members of the VideoGamer.com editorial team have had a punt, so read on, enjoy, and let us know your pick in the comments section below.

Tom Orry, Editor - Gran Turismo, PlayStation

Racing games existed before Gran Turismo hit the PlayStation in 1998, but this five-years-in-the-making masterpiece delivered an authentic driving experience to console gamers in a way never seen before. The first game went on to sell in excess of 10 million units worldwide, has spawned more than 10 sequels and spin-offs so popular they have been instrumental in the success of the PlayStation as a brand. Without GT who knows if we'd now be playing the likes of Forza and Shift? It also popularised the idea of racing and collecting real world cars, doing away with stylised vehicles that looked kind of like the real thing, but weren't quite recognisable. I'd suggest that for many young gamers being wowed by the PlayStation, Gran Turismo's emphasis on tuning and upgrading kick-started a passion for cars that has run throughout their lives and is a feature prevalent in almost every racing game released on current hardware.

Wesley Yin-Poole, Deputy Editor – World of Warcraft, PC

Blizzard's massively multiplayer online role-playing game both revolutionised the MMO genre and had a huge effect on the industry. Before WoW (BWOW), the MMO was a niche hobby engaged only by spotty hermits holed up in sweaty bedrooms - that was the stereotype at least. After WoW (AWOW), Blizzard now scoffs at 10 million subscribers. Some might say WOW failed to do anything that hadn't been done before, but this is missing the point. Blizzard delivered at launch a game so polished, accessible and addictive, that it might as well have been the very first MMORPG. Even beyond that, WoW's done more for making gaming mainstream than Sony's PlayStation and Nintendo's Wii. We are now in a world where Jonathan Ross compares WoW characters with Vin Diesel on national television. What about the Emmy Award winning South Park episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft"? Would TV sitcom The Big Bang Theory exist without WoW?