Fun though Goldeneye was, the Nintendo 64 was somewhat stuck in the past. Playing games on cartridges? Keeping a cap on violent or mature titles? That doesn't sound like the video games we play today. It was Sony's first entry into the home console market with the Playstation that caused the real revolution that we're still feeling the effects of today, with CD technology allowing for cheaper and better games, and a loosening of the reins that allowed developers to go off in all sorts of interesting and inventive directions with the titles they put out.
9. GTA Rules Everything Around Us
We would have to wait until the Playstation's follow-up to get the next big revolutionary wave in the history of video games, but boy was it a doozy. The Grand Theft Auto titles on the PS One had been a bad taste bit of fun, a top-down curio whose violent gameplay made up for its graphical shortcomings. There was no such issue when the third in the series arrived on the PS2, becoming a sale juggernaut which has since inspired a blockbusters series of sequels and countless spin-offs and knock-offs hoping to get in on the lucrative open world exploration dollar. Many have tried, but only a few have come close, and its influence can still be felt in games made today, over ten years later (yeah, we just made ourselves feel old too, sorry).
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
