Today I would like to present to you some of the games that changed the way we play right now. Games that did not invent a certain mechanic but rather improved upon it and was an inspiration to most games we play now ( hence the word re-innovative)
Regenerating Health: Halo 2 (2004, Xbox)
Some people credit the original “Halo" for introducing the generating health to the video game world but this is not true, because in the first “Halo" it was the shield that got regenerated over time and not the player's health, but “Halo2" was the one that truly had a regenerating health system which 99% of the games follow to the day.
Cover-System: Winback ( 1999, N64 - PS2)
“Winback" wasn’t the first game to introduce the idea of hiding behind cover to avoid damage in video games, but it was the first to introduce the cover-system mechanic we are familiar with now, where you stand behind cover, you lean out to shoot and get back. No doubt that this mechanic revolutionised games and was crucial for certain type of games like stealth-based ones, and that’s why two years later “MGS2: Sons of Liberty” not only borrowed this mechanic but upgraded upon it with the introduction of its own interrogation system and the ability of using it in first person mode. Later "Gears of War" once again upgraded upon it with the ability to vault over covers and that’s how most games are using it right now.
Police Chase Race: Driver2 (2000, PS)
When you think about racing games that had multiplayer police chase mode in them “Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit” will instantly come to mind, but the truth is it’s not the first game to introduce this mode to video games, it was “Driver2” back on the original Playstation. The game was not a racing game in a sense, meaning you can’t compare it with “Gran Truism” or any “Need for Speed” it’s more like an action game which is somewhat similar to “Grand Theft Auto”. “Driver2” had about 4 multiplayer modes (local, of course) including police chase where one player controls a police car and tries to damage the other player’s car completely.
Quick Time Events: Shenmue (1999, Dreamcast)
Like it or hate it, this gameplay mechanic is a huge part of most video games we play now. There even entire games built around it. “Shenmue” was the first game to introduce this mechanic the way we know it now. And if for some reason you are not familiar with what a quick time event or (QTE) is, it’s basically a trigger appears on screen and you have to press a certain button quickly enough in order for your character to perform a certain action like dodge something or attack someone, usually during a cut-scene.
PS: I tried to make the post look nicer by adding images and making bullet points bold, but there is really no text editor to work with. Apologies for that.
Halo2
Winback
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
And Mordor will be credited for the Nemesis system.
The Getaway was the first game to bring clutter free screen that we know hate/love today. Basically no health bars,no maps, no grip bar,etc on screen. Everything was done via gameplay like use the lights of the car to guide the player, hide away from baddies to heal, etc. Not a masterpiece but it was the game that brought screen free gameplay.
Portal first puzzle game not to be related at all with Tetris.
Nice little list, Winback used cover for a protection, not shooting from cover; when you shot in Winback, you were fully uncovered unless you stood behind an object, which you could do in quite a few games.
https://www.youtube.com/wat...
In Kill.Switch you shot from cover whilst keeping your vitals protected behind an object, making your demise less likely, and the firefight more realistic in respect of a military-style engagement.
https://www.youtube.com/wat...
Oh, yeah; and the first game where you actively shot from cover would be space invaders. Yeah, I went there. :)
Cel shading- Jet Set (or Grind) Radio.
The game was also one of the first games to be set in a very modern city that was greatly explorable in 3 dimensions.
Like a precursor to Mirror's Edge and, certainly, to Sunset Overdrive.
Neither Halo 2 nor Halo: CE brought about regenerative health. Hydlide, an older Wolverine game, and others had that system in place. It just remained dormant in less popular, or even downright awful, titles before making big with Halo.
I think Dragon's Lair would be considered the first with doing QTE's too.