Daniko’s “Top 10 Most Influential Games of All Time!” Part II

HeyDaniko // February 20th, 2023

Thank you very much for caring enough to check out the second part of this article. Unless of course this is the first part you have seen. In which case, please, start at the beginning!

5) Call of Duty 4 – Modern Warfare:

[Infinity Ward – November, 2007 European release]

Say what you will about what the Call of Duty franchise has become over the last decade, but I will not hear a bad word said about the original Modern Warfare trilogy!

Before Modern Warfare, first person games were something that I actively went out of my way to avoid. Quite angrily. And, whilst I still confess to having little to no love for the perspective, preferring third person cameras in absolutely every scenario, first person games are something that I have learned to live with. This being, mostly, thanks to Call of Duty 4 and my old housemate, Dave, who managed to talk me into trying it when no one else could. There was something about FPS games that I had never been able to warm to and, as a result, the control scheme always felt alien and counter-intuitive to me. I would take a single step forward or backward with the left stick and then stop, hesitate, and turn left or right with the right stick. It took me quite some time to pair both the movement and camera controls into a single, fluid action at the front of my mind. But I did eventually get there… until I had to learn it all over again when I moved to PC years later.

But the reason that CoD4 will always be extremely important to me is that it opened up access to so many of my now-favourites – games that I would have likely completely skipped otherwise. If not for Modern Warfare, I would have never picked up Fallout 3, Borderlands, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and possibly not even Skyrim (though I do refuse to play it in first person.) All of these games have left impressions on me in some small way or another, and so the idea that I would have intentionally overlooked them had I never been convinced to play CoD4 is quite a harrowing butterfly effect. So cheers, Dave!

Though not typically one for competitive multiplayer at the time, my housemates and I did rack up a good number of hours in the early days of those now infamous CoD lobbies. The game even became something of a staple as we prepared for nights out – pre-drinking from mid to late afternoon whilst smashing shots for every death we collected. And this usually made for a pretty cheap evening out as I was never very good.

6) Fallout 3:

[Bethesda Game Studios – October, 2008 PAL release]

Fallout 3 took me by absolute surprise. Similarly to how I had felt about starting Final Fantasy ten entries in, the idea of starting the Fallout series on episode three really did not sit well with me. I had also had some less-than-favourable experiences with Bethesda’s earlier games, Morrowind and Oblivion, that further hindered my excitement for the game. But one evening, whilst still living with the lot that introduced me to Modern Warfare and teenage alcoholism, I decided to sit and watch my housemate, Steve, play a few hours of Fallout 3. And I was intrigued. I ended up borrowing the game from him to begin my playthrough once he had finished, but had to return it a few weeks later at the end of the semester when it came time to move out. I remember hurrying to my local Gamestation and grabbing a preowned copy so that I could continue almost immediately. I even ordered the expansions on Amazon the same day, back when expansions could still be bought on disc. Good old 2009.

Fallout 3 was, looking back, the first time that I ever found myself with a genuinely disruptive addiction to a video game.

It’s obliviously happened again since, though. You know me.

I had so much trouble concentrating on anything else whilst I was away from my 360. Even at my old part time job in the local supermarket, I walked around like a heroin-addled zombie, daydreaming of sneaking around the wasteland with my sniper rifle loaded. Or looting abandoned schools, taking on gangs of Super Mutants, contemplating whether or not to nuke an entire town! It was a real problem, but there was no f*cking way I was going to admit it back then.

Finishing Fallout 3 was a real emotional shredding, as I had such an incredible hankering for more, but there was simply nothing available at the time that would quench my thirst.

So, ‘why is this on your list of most influential games?’ I hear you ask. Well, I think dependency counts as “influence” to some degree. Plus I’ll mention it again a little later, and you’ll see.

7) Borderlands:

[Gearbox Software – October, 2009 PAL release]

There have been many slow burners in my gaming history—games that I tried out only to take an immediate dislike to, or just find them a little tough to engage with, only to revisit them several months or years later and discover an unexpected appreciation that I never saw coming.

But no game compasses this quite like the original Borderlands.

I bought the game as a new release in the weeks after it first launched. I hadn’t been in much of a hurry given its middling reviews at the time, and the idea of an RPG being solely playable in first person. Boo. But a few friends of my mine managed to talk me into trying it out so that we could play co-op together. And those initial few sessions in a group were certainly a lot of fun as the game always was praised for its cooperative experience, but slated for how empty and sluggish it could feel alone. Sadly though, as the other two live in the States and I do not, our time-zone differences often meant that sessions together were few and far between. As a result, the game often found itself shelved for weeks at a time, as playing solo just wasn’t something I was particularly interested in doing.

But around a year after its release, I found myself trying Borderlands out once again, though I cannot actually remember who or what spurred me into doing so. And this time, something about going in and knowing what to expect, as well having seen public opinion swing slightly more in its favour, made the game a notably more enjoyable solo experience than I had found it those months before. But I wasn’t playing solo for very long. Over the following weeks, thanks to a combination of Xbox Live and Facebook oversharing, I discovered that a few more of my friends whom, at this point didn’t even known each other, were also playing the game. What came next was something of a bizarre collision of social circles as I found myself in a daily group made up of; someone I had met on a night out, the ex-fiancé of a girl I knew in university, an estranged friend from primary school and, occasionally, a guest appearance from the latter’s step father. So it really was quite the motley bunch, but our core group genuinely grew quite close over the busy months that followed.

Unfortunately though, our little crew didn’t manage to stay overly intact for the sequel due to life getting in the way for several people. One friend moved from Xbox to PlayStation, another moved house and had no internet access for what felt like forever, and I don’t even think the last one ever got around to even playing Borderlands 2. His step dad probably did though.

Still, the memories and friendships remain which… something, something… along the way!

8) The Elder Scrolls V – Skyrim:

[Bethesda Game Studios – November, 2011 Global first release. And then again on October, 2016; November, 2017; and November, 2021]

By now you’re probably tried of hearing me talk about how I hate not starting a series with its first entry but somehow managing to get over it and hop in later down the line anyway. So just insert those previous comments here and I’ll save us both some time.

Skyrim was not a game I was even remotely excited for. My previous attempts, years before, at playing the earlier games in the Elder Scrolls series had left a really sour taste in my mouth. And I don’t mean to intentionally belittle or slander either Morrowind or Oblivion, as they are both incredibly well-loved games and fully deserving of the fanbases that they have. But the gamer that I was at the time needed considerably more hand-holding than they were ever designed to offer, and this would quickly lead to a combination of frustration, confusion and, ultimately, boredom. Although, I do believe that if I were to revisit them, knowing what I know and with the experiences that I have with both open world RPGs and the Elder Scrolls lore, I would have quite a different opinion of them now.

That said, have you seen how badly Morrowind has aged? You could probably cut yourself on every NPC.

Thankfully, however, a good friend of mine made quite the flattering comparison between Skyrim and my much beloved, slightly addicted-to, Fallout 3. In his eyes, Skyrim felt much more akin to the previous Fallout games than it did to prior Elder Scrolls entries. And really, that was all I needed to hear to give it a spin. It had been a few years since my severe Fallout 3 addiction at this point, and sadly New Vegas just hadn’t hit the same high for me, which I am aware is a controversial statement on its own. So something to fill that void, and pick up where even another Fallout game could not, was extremely welcome.

And guess what…

It became a problematic addiction.

Nowadays I have lost count of how many Skyrim playthroughs, and partial playthroughs, I have had. But that first run, back in late 2011 into early 2012 – that left a bloody mark, man. And at this point in history Skyrim wasn’t yet the mega moddable, four-time released juggernaut that it would become. The mods were certainly out there and in development, but not in the way they are now, and certainly not on the old Xbox 360. I was just one guy, psychologically dependant on a Bethesda game for the second time in his life, and largely unable to function whenever removed from it. Again. Thankfully, at the time, I was working for a local video games store, which meant that I had no shortage of colleagues or customers with whom to brainstorm and rabbit-hole. Better yet, talking a game up to a customer who would then go on to buy that game from your store was actively appreciated by the management!

Skyrim is, to this day, still a game that I regularly revisit, and if you have not yet read my previous article on the game, I shall slam the link in right about here. Your eyes giving it a good oogling would be most appreciated. I shall not descend into frivolous justification for my Skyrim love here, as I am sure I’ll have nothing new to say that wasn’t already covered in the previous piece. So, if you wish to ingest further ramblings on this particular title, that’s where you’ll want to be.

And so ends Part II of an article doubtlessly responsible for numerous grey hairs around my chin. Part III will be available once I have finished trimming some of the fat. Its only two entries long but, my God, it’s wordy…

Lots of love,

Daniko