Video games have been in production for over forty years, and in that time we've seen some truly amazing advancements in graphics, sound and gameplay. Who can forget that insane feeling you got the first time you saw the brilliant physics used in Half Life 2? What about stepping out of Vortex Rikers into the outside world of Epic Games' original Unreal, or when Link went from muddy low-res 3D in Ocarina of Time to crystal clear cartoon cel-shading in Wind Waker? New game elements come along and we grin like Cheshire cats at each technical marvel: ragdoll physics, stealthy mechanics, free-roam maps, intelligent AI, network multiplayer and so much more. With each generation of consoles, CPU speed increases and superior PC graphic cards herald in these new elements that blow all the previous efforts away. The jump from 2D to 3D that we witnessed with Mario, the mind-bending multi-dimensional wormholes created by Portal and the vertigo-inducing heights afforded by Mirror's Edge. Not just graphics evolve though - gameplay too is changing fast, and even lower budget games like Braid and World Of Goo bring something new to the table. All the same it's worth paying a debt of gratitude to some of the earlier games that came before these modern masterpieces, and in doing so perhaps we'll find the signature innovations of contemporary games aren't quite as original as they first seemed.