10 Industry-Defining Video Games That Are Nowhere To Be Seen

Unlike Watch Dogs' Aiden Pierce and his baseball cap, some characters truly are iconic. These guys are at the forefront of the industry, trailblazing the way forward and watching others following behind them. Or at least, they were.

The original series and franchises they came from are considered classics, must plays, essential for any gamer worth their salt to get their hands on. But now? Now most of these series haven't seen the light of day in several years - and that absence is beginning to grate.

These are characters you know and love, but at the same time, will make you realise how long ago it was that you played their respective games. They're series that everybody's familiar with, and yet haven't seen a release in for years. Certain classic old games will still always have that feel-good nostalgia factor, but at the same time, there's nothing quite like seeing a much-loved series getting the update, reboot and general polish it so desperately deserves.

What happened, then? If such fantastic games were industry-defining masterpieces, how could they just be consigned to purgatory?

Well, the only people that can answer are the companies behind them. We can only lament the lack of new titles and hope that somebody, somewhere, decides to finance a revisit to these exceptional games.

For a large number of people, especially to older gamers, Quake was the FPS of the late 90s and early 2000s. With its fast-paced run-and-gun, Doom-style gameplay and revolutionary polygonal graphics, the original was a huge hit when it was released in 1996. In fact, Quake almost single-handedly inspired multiplayer game modes - LAN parties came about basically because people wanted to play it together.

The series has had some pretty blockbuster mods over the years as well; the first being modded so heavily it spawned an entirely different game. The Team Fortress series was based on an original Quake mod, and you don't need to be reminded how successful those games became.

However, it has diminished in popularity over the years, and whilst it spawned a few more instalments which hardcore fans play to this day, it has never quite regained the popularity it once enjoyed. The most recent title in the series was Enemy Territory: Quake Wars in 2007, which was a fairly generic FPS in a market saturated with them. 

The series will always be remembered as iconic for its gameplay, its technological advances in gaming - and for popularising the rocket jump. Not a bad way to be immortalised.