What games were ahead of their time?

I think there are two categories: those that really pushed the boundaries on game design or introduced a new genre, and those that are still good after a long time. The latter definition is debateable, I suppose, but my view is that a game that is timeless or had elements we still find appealing now is inherently ahead of its time. I split them like this because the former doesn't necessarily hold up well, and the latter didn't necessarily introduce the novelty or timeless quality it is notable for

Stealth thread to praise Sony's failed FPS offerings due to recent impressions of Halo.

Definitely halo combat evolved way ahead of its time for console.

@pc_rocks: exactly

Metal Gear Solid.

Lone Echo in 2017.

• First VR game to nail a fast-paced movement system that can only work in VR, and rarely causes sickness.
• It had the best full body avatar IK at the time of release.
• It was the biggest VR exclusive game at the time of release.
• Handled UI exceptionally well in VR.
• Potentially the first VR E-Sport with it's multiplayer mode.

Still unsurpassed in several areas (if we ignore it's sequel).

Battlefield 2042

MAG.

Crysis. Not only a technical achievement, but the overall gameplay was pretty next level. A lot of the mechanics, such as customizing your weapons on the fly, weren't really adopted until much later by other games. Level design was top-notch, too; perfect blend of sandbox freedom and focused level design. The interior aspects of the levels were every bit as impressive as the tropical exterior.

The whole series, really. I Look back and I was overly harsh on Crysis 2 and 3 but when I replay them now, they are pretty amazing games relative to what we get these days.

Wow! Talk about a game I haven't heard about in a long time

Yeah that game was great, loved customizing units. And the 3D graphics were really great for its time.

Both MAG & Starhawk... Both just came a gen too early for most gamers I think....plus they could have used the more power a gen later.

Yes, that's how I see it too. You have games where they are still fun today, and yet, some of the stuff in those games still aren't matched by newer games today.

Silent Hill 2 - One of the first ps2 games to be released and does horror better than titles released today.

Electro-mechanical arcade games:

• Periscope (1965, Namco/Sega) - first-person submarine simulator
• Duck Hunt (1968, Sega) - first-person light-gun shooter with projection screen
• Indy 500 (1968, Kasco) - first-person racing game with projection screen
• Jet Rocket (1970, Sega) - free-roaming first-person shooting flight simulator
• Wild Gunman (1975, Nintendo/Sega) - live-action cinematic FMV light-gun shooter
• Gun Smoke (1975, Kasco) - holographic light-gun shooter
• Ninja Gun (1970s, Kasco) - holographic light-gun shooter
• F-1 (1976, Namco) - first-person racing game with game over screen
• Heli-Shooter (1977, Sega) - first-person shooting open-world flight simulator
• The Driver (1970s, Kasco) - live-action cinematic FMV driving game

1970s arcade video games:

• Computer Space (1971) - space combat game
• Playtron (1973, Kasco) - underwater action game with colour sprites
• TV Basketball (1974, Taito) - basketball sports game with human sprites
• Speed Race (1974, Taito) - racing game with vertical scrolling, sprites and collision detection
• Western Gun (1975, Taito) - free-roaming multi-directional shooter with human sprites and violence
• Interceptor (1975, Taito) - first-person flight simulator with sprite-scaling and multi-directional scrolling
• Road Race (1976, Sega) - third-person racing game with pseudo-3D forward-scrolling and sprite-scaling
• Bomber (1977, Sega) - side-scrolling shooter
• Super Speed Race (1977, Taito) - vertical scrolling racing game with multi-colour sprites
• World Cup (1978, Sega) - football sports game with trackball controls

@mrbojangles25:

I still have it installed and play it. There is still a whole active community that keeps the game updated with a lot of improvements, it can even be played online and the terrain has new graphics (not units and structures). You can download it for free from the community page: 
https://wz2100.net/

1980s arcade games:

• 1980 - Samurai (Sega) - hack & slash action game with multiple enemies and boss fight
• 1981 - Flash Boy (Data East) - multi-directional scrolling action game with energy meter and combos
• 1982 - SubRoc-3D (Sega) - first-person shooting game with active-shutter stereoscopic 3D display
• 1983 - Interstellar (Funai) - third-person rail shooter with pre-rendered 3D polygon FMV graphics
• 1984 - SWAT (Coreland) - scrolling shoot 'em up with flying hoverboard
• 1985 - Splendor Blast (Alpha Denshi) - third-person futuristic racer with space shoot 'em up elements
• 1986 - Rolling Thunder (Namco) - run-and-gun shooter with cover system and two-floor scrolling levels
• 1987 - Rastan (Taito) - side-scrolling hack-and-slash game with double-jumping and wall-jumping
• 1988 - Winning Run (Namco) - first-person racing simulator with real-time 3D polygon graphics board
• 1989 - Last Survivor (Sega) - free-roaming third-person arena shooter with 2-4 player deathmatch mode

Shenmue(1999), I think having an open world where you could work, sleep and eat like in real life made it interesting for it's time.

Metal Gear Solid(PS1)

I'm going to say the Sims 3, even though it sold bucketloads and reinforced some of EA's worst tendencies when it comes to endless lightweight expansions. It had a big huge open world with the AI residents (all of which you can fully interact with) going about progressing their lives, creating new generations like the player wasn't the center of the universe. The game was single threaded and 32 bit (thus had a hard limit of 4GB memory usage) so it always ran poorly, even today, especially the bigger busier maps like the Late Night City and The Island Paradise map. But man, if the first time my sims wen cruising past neighbors across a vast sparkling blue-green ocean in their houseboat or elevator-ing up into a bustling after-work nightclub all without loading screens weren't wonderous unique experiences of 2010 video gaming, I don't know what is.

It was so ahead of the hardware at the time that EA took huge leaps back in scaling down Sims 4, bringing back areas separated by loading screens and jettisoning "story progression" of uncontrolled Sims.

So glad to see this one mentioned. You have to admire the ambition and sheer gall the developers had to try something like that with the limitations of 1998 hardware.

Joke aside, Far cry series was way ahead of its time.

Surprised only one other person has mentioned Shenmue. That game is was way ahead of its time. Also, MGS2. One of the best games ever made imo.

- Red Dead Redemption

- GTA: San Andreas (The level of customization for things like gaining/losing weight, hitting the gym, your clothes, etc introduced new gameplay mechanics that are still being used today in games like RDR2.)

- Metal Gear Solid 2

- Final Fantasy X (It seriously upped the ante for JRPG's at the time.)

- Grand Theft Auto V (It's so ahead of it's time that we don't even need the next game)

M.U.L.E.

Dandy

Pitfall 2

I'd probably say Homeworld. Played differently from every other RTS at the time and still does. 3D RTS games never really took off, which is a shame considering how well Homeworld pulled it off along with a stellar musical score, story, and voice acting. It was a complete package that was largely passed over.