Four thousand years before the films, a Jedi with a secret; BioWare's Star Wars and the twist.
The Arbiter, dual wielding and Xbox Live multiplayer; the console shooter online.
Sixty minutes to save the princess, rotoscoped animation and the first cinematic platformer.
Master Chief on the ring world, the warthog and the Flood; the Xbox is launched.
Guybrush hunts the treasure of Big Whoop; the sequel with the ending fans still argue about.
The 1997 top-down original: Liberty City, Vice City and San Andreas as three flat maps.
The Facility, the watch menu and four-player split-screen; the N64 shooter that changed consoles.
Sixteen giants, a horse and an empty land; nothing to do but the impossible.
Zone, tax, build a stadium and watch it burn; the city builder that defined the genre.
Digitised fighters and fatalities; the game that created the ESRB.
Two minutes to hit the goals, Superman by Goldfinger; the best-reviewed sports game ever.
Cure Bloaty Head and Slack Tongue while the patients queue; Bullfrog's comedy management sim.
An island of puzzles and books that are doorways; the best-selling PC game of the 1990s.
A travel agent for the dead in an Art Deco afterlife; Tim Schafer's noir.
Wumpa fruit and a marsupial running into the screen; Sony's answer to Mario.
Strippers, pigs in cop uniforms and "it's time to kick ass"; the Build engine shooter.
Liberty City in 2001: the first open-world 3D city, and the reason the genre exists.
Naked Snake in a 1964 jungle, the Boss and the ladder; the series peak.
JC Denton, nano-augmentations and every conspiracy at once; the game that let you play it your way.
From a settler to Alpha Centauri, one more turn at a time; Sid Meier's masterpiece of 1996.
Terran, Zerg and Protoss in perfect balance; the national sport of South Korea.
The BFG, the imps and the shareware episode that ran on every office PC in 1993.
Dante clears Mallet Island of demons while a meter grades every combo from Dull up to Stylish.
Anywhere City, three gangs to play against each other and a respect meter.
Leon in a Spanish village with a chainsaw man; the over-the-shoulder camera every game copied.
A purple dragon glides through pastel worlds; Insomniac's first hit.
SHODAN on the Von Braun; the immersive sim that BioShock remade in the sea.
A horned boy leads a girl by the hand out of a castle; Team Ico's minimalist masterpiece.
Tesla coils, Tanya and full-motion video generals; Westwood's alternate Cold War.
Four fighters, a Yuzo Koshiro soundtrack and two-player co-op; the best beat-em-up of its era.
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