The most ambitious games of this era so far

[NeoZeedeater]

What do you think are the most ambitious games/series so far this era in terms of what the developers hoped to and did accomplish? These are some of my picks:

Morrowind - Possibly the most open-ended game ever made. The pacing might be too slow for some but I'm in awe at what Bethesda accomplished in terms of player freedom. The only reason I have stopped playing it is one very frustrating part.

Grand Theft Auto 3 - No game has ever made such a huge and well-designed city to explore. It's amazing how everything just gelled perfectly with this game.

Deus Ex - I know I won't shut up about this game but I'll just say that no game has ever mixed several genres so well.

Shenmue series - While they definitely fail at being FREE, the Shenmue games still managed to be adventure games unlike any other. Exploring the cities, basking in classic Sega games, and enjoying the atmosphere. They felt like something new.

[AaronChance]

Tekki - the controller alone makes it ambitious... but now they're adding online play complete with clan support? Crazy.

[Jeremy]

Jet Grind/Set Radio- popularized cel shading, and made damned good games with it was well.
Shenmue series- went above and beyond most RPGs by trying to put you in a living, breathing world that the player could relate to.
Grand Theft Auto III- tried to do many things at once in the game, and succeeded more often than not.

[Tracer]

I'm going to agree with Morrowind, and Deus Ex. GTA 3 did alot and I would like to see alot of things it does done elsewhere (imaging its level of well designed exploreable cites in Morrowind!) but as a whole I think it lacks real innovation. You may already know what I think about Shenmue.

I would nominate something else but all I can think of is Dark Age of Camelot. It really did a whole lot for Player vs Player combat working within the game system. Shadowbane seems to do more for it but it lacks the more RP (role-play) side of the game. A perfect hybrid is yet to be made.

ºTracer

[James]

Rez- abstract games are totally extinct, and then UGA gives us one of the best ones ever.

James

[Regus]

A Tale in the Desert

You start as a lowly immagrant somewhere in Egypt, but soon you meet new people who will offer to become your mentor, and show you how the game works, guiding you on the path to citizenship, after which you can choose to study one of the seven disciplines, such as Diplomacy and Art. Each discpline requires you to undertake 7 tests to become a master in this skill, the first art test for example has you searching the country side for materials which you can use to create a statue, which you must design, but in order to past the test you must have 20 differnt people look upon your statue and praise it. The religion discipline has you offering a sacrafice to a god, the things you can do are staggering.

Players who become politicians can create laws which effect the game, and players must vote wheter the vote will pass or not, and if it does pass, the game's programmers add it into the game, such as, you must pay a fee in order to take items from another players treasure chest, etc. Players must be careful, for in the past, players have voted sneaky and manipulative laws that only hurt them in the long run.

With the exception of a few buildings everything in the game is created by the players. In order to build things you must learn skills, trade items, and harvest materials. Because of this, people to flock to mineral rich areas, such as lakes and rivers. There are buildings as far as the eye can see on the Nile.

New inventions and scientific formulas are being found all the time. These discoveries help egypt advance as a society. Recently they discovered how to genetically engineer plants, and have found new and interesting plants to grow, which can be used to find other discoveries. Finding such things can yeild profitable results, such as the time when a player figured out a formula to create a rare form of wine, since he was the only one who knew this, he sold his wine for a lot items (currency not being invented yet).


I could go on and on.
Be sure to check it out.

[Green]

I'd add to the list-
Metroid Prime- 3D Metroid. It works!
Panzer Dragoon Orta- Purty. Real purty.
Ico- For making you care about what happens to the characters.
Wind Waker- Yes, it's mostly Ocarina again. Still, it gets my vote because of the sailing aspect.
MGS2- For presentation alone.
ZOE2- Ditto.

[gamevet]

Shenmue 1 and 2 defineatly get my vote, but another Sega game that really did it for consoles is PSO.


PSO is the most succesful and enjoyable online console game on the market. The variety of character designs is in the 100's, with all the costume changes and different classes combined. Then you have the fairly unique aspect of nurturing a mag, to complememt the character you're playing with. The gameplay is fairly straight forward, but combine it with a group of friends online and the experience becomes more than any offline gamer could imagine. Just an incredible experience and a great game to introduce a gamer to online gaming.

[magnifiedplaid]

Dead Or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball was ambitious for striving to make a Volleyball game without much Volleyball, for striving to spell extreme the "cool" way, and for striving to be the worst game I have played this year. Somehow it succeeded at all of these.

In all seriousness though I think one of the most ambitious games of this generation was Illbleed for the Dreamcast. It was ambitious for creating a horror game that bucked all the boring horror genre trends. Illbleed is one of my all time favorite games because it strived to be bizarre and it was. I want a sequel.

[Changeling]

Battlefield 1942 for certain. My love for this game has no boundaries. Everyone else in the FPS genre is playing catch-up to this game. Not only do you control soldiers with different class-based atributes, you have complete control over dozens of vehicles that go onver land, sea , and air as well. On top of all that love, you can play with 63 other people at the same time. If your connection can't handle it, you can play offline with 63 bots. It is a truly beautiful game that really has no rival in its class. Hell, it was the reason that Wolfensteiin: Enemy Territory was cancelled. I can't wait for the second expansion pack as well as the sequel called battlefield 1943(how friggin' clever!)

I also have to include GTA3 in that catigory as well. IT was the first game that I didn't mind wasting time in the game. Hell, sometimes I'd even find a quiet place and just listen to the radio, esp. Laslo's talk show. Too bad they made him some heavy metal DJ in the second one.