[TheSlyMoogle]

From the Website:

The second Halo is the weakest game of the original trilogy but, bizarrely, it’s arguably the most important. While Combat Evolved was Microsoft’s Xbox system-seller, allowing the PC giant to gain a foothold in the console market, it was the follow-up that popularized online gaming on consoles, finally fulfilling the promise that earlier titles like Chu Chu Rocket had shown back in the Dreamcast era.

While Halo 2 was by no means the first game to include modes like King of the Hill and Oddball, these multiplayer variants helped to set the game apart from other, more vanilla shooters that just offered deathmatch or team deathmatch modes. Without Halo 2, Xbox Live might have never found its footing.


1. Spacewar! (1961)
Programmed by Steve Russell in 1961, Spacewar! pitted two players against each other, each controlling a tiny ship that spun around a gravity well in the center of the screen. Both ships had limited ammo and fuel, as well as a "hyperspace" ability that could be used as a last-ditch attempt to avoid an enemy's shot--pretty complex for a game running on a computer only marginally more powerful than a sun dial.

What, you haven't played Spacewar!? That's fine, we won't hold it against you. It's not like you have a Programmed Data Processor-1 computer sitting in your basement or anything. But despite being relatively unknown in 2013, it's unarguably significant to the history of video games for one, important reason: It's the very first one to gain any semblance of popularity. Like, ever. Spacewar! wasn't a replica of a real-world sport, either--it was its own thing, and that originality inspired development of future games like Computer Space, Tank, and Combat. It laid the foundation for our industry, and earns its place as the most important game ever made. Though there were some experimental game-type-things before it, Spacewar! is the one that's most directly related to the foundation of the game industry.