Greatest Gaming Ideas Of All Time

Many of today's current games are products of a great deal of creative brainstorming and inspiration, based in large part on the foundations laid by the titles that came before them. A few key games over the last several years have provided major changes in the direction of game development. As we get ready for the next round of new games for the fall season, we thought we'd take you down memory lane and present some of the greatest gaming moments of all time.

Games such as Castle Wolfenstein , Doom , Dune 2 and Monkey Island set the tone of what was to come, while games such as Half-Life and Ground Control changed utterly the way in which their descendants played. Doom was the genre-defining first person shooter, and Half-Life turned it from a run and gun to an intelligent run and gun with brains - by which we mean not just the type splattered all over the walls. Then Myst and its sequels created the most engaging puzzles and world-beating graphics, which are still a standard for the industry. (Not that I liked Myst , mind you, but the big badass boss does, so you can thank Mr. Strom for it being included here.)

So, without further ado and with great anticipation of our trip down to see Myst in the loony bin, let's look at the handful of the games that had the most influence on today's titles.