4. Flashback
The funny thing about Flashback is that what made it so ground breaking then is seeing a revival now. Games like Heavy Rain and the upcoming Beyond: Two Souls use motion capture for character animations that sports sims are more accustomed to touting. Flashback was very much a platformer, but shined in its own right using slick motion capture graphics supported by extremely realistic gameplay mechanics. The game was way ahead of its time, with a compelling storyline that was largely wasted on a generation of gamers who just wanted to shoot, stab or beat the crap out of everything (including inanimate floating objects and horrified fantasy creatures that were usually just minding their own business, pacing for no reason) in sight. The complementary comic book that came with the game was really a white flag admitting that to include that much back story into the game itself would likely trigger a 1984-esque cartridge burning in most city centers. But that was then, and this is now where The Last of Us makes paying attention worthwhile.
Update: Flashback could be the game that finally puts all its cards on the table. Hyper realism at its finest. Want to get shot and still function properly? Get a bulletproof vest! Wait, is that an AK-47? Oops youre dead anyway! Thanks for playing! Next time try a disguise instead of kicking in the door solo with gun a blazing (thats not a typo, no one fires two guns and actually hits ANYTHING, despite what John Woo would lead you to believe)! Video game companies work over time to make a game difficult while adhering to archaic videogame conventions, this is why the most dangerous close quarters combatant on a game called Modern Warfare is the damn sniper (you know, the guy who typically has to hide in reality). It seems like no one has considered that true realism would actually deliver on the promise of difficulty in ways that would be mind-blowing, or we can keep making Red Dead Redemption, a game that literally shoots itself in the foot.