Games that changed your perception of genre

what games made u become a fan, or increased your interest, of a genre u previously had no interest in? for me it would have to be the following:

uncharted: i had played tomb raider and indianna jones when i was a kid but i hated the platforming elements so i avoided those type of action/adventure games in the future but i heard a lot of praise for uncharted so i gave it a try. im still not a huge fan of platforming but i can tolerate those segments now thanks to uncharted. now im hyped for tomb raider/uncharted sequel

splinter cell conviction: i found stealth games to be a bore and very difficuilt but a friend recommended this game and i instantly became interested in stealth games. usually stealth games just involve alot of waiting around but in conviction i could play as jason bourne and just kill everyone swiftly. i have become sort of a perfectionist in stealth now and seek to complete levels as a 'ghost' in splinter cell blacklist. so this game not only made increased my interested it got me playing a stealth game how it should be played

UT '99 and COD

explain. also ut tournament was awesome, i found doom too hard but ut was probably the 1st game i liked in fps

Two of the games that turned me on to FPS games, and really stick in my memory.

Metal Gear Solid 3: I hated the incredibly prevalent forced stealth sections in games because they always seemed to rely on an "oh you got spotted, game over!" system. A whole game of that sounded like hell to me. I can't remember why I specifically chose MGS3 over other stealth games, I think a friend told me it was the best MGS and well worth playing, which I now agree with. It basically showed me that you could have stealth where being spotted wasn't instantly game over and since playing it any time I get a choice to approach things stealthily in a game I will.

Fallout 3: I only played it because it was bought for me as a birthday present and I'd just got my Xbox so I didn't have many games. I'd never really taken much notice of western RPG's and JRPG's have never been my thing so the RPG genre in general always passed me by. I can't say Fallout 3 turned me into an RPG fan but it at least made me appreciate them more and I'm much more willing to try them out.

FF7 for JRPG's.

Modern Warfare for FPS.

FFXIV for MMO.

KotOR for WRPG.

Gran Turismo for Racing.

MGS for TPS/Stealth.

-----

Can't think of any more.

MUSHA - I didn't used to like shmups at all, but the sheer brilliance of MUSHA changed my entire perception of the genre. Even though I'm still not very good at these type of games, I do love playing them.

Chrono Trigger - I really have no patience for jrpg combat, but this game (along with Panzer Dragoon Saga) have made me give these type of games more of a chance. Then again, I think both of them are pretty special, so I don't think I can ever become a real fan of this genre.

FTL - First (semi) RTS game Ive played... can play for hours on end "just one more jump....."

Teleglitch Die More Edition - First rouge-like I got into... and probably the best survival horror game Ive played in years. Hard as nails tho, never beat it.

Strange... My experience with Uncharted had no platforming in it and it was most definitely a TPS...

Anyways, on topic: I used to be heavily in to top down adventures and RPGs, until I really gave Super Mario World a shot. It made me fall in love with pure gameplay and translated my movement and skill straight to the screen. I've been hooked on platformers ever since.

World War 2 Online. It showed me what an FPS and an MMO can really be. Everything since has felt shallow and small compared to it.

Even Planetside 2 doesn't have the persistence that World War 2 Online did.

Chrono Cross- JRPG's

Morrowind- WRPG's

Warcraft 3- RTS's

FF11- MMO's

RE4- TPS

RE2- Survival Horror

MGS3- Stealth

Diablo 2- ARPG

Everquest for RPG. I still remember playing that game, frustrations and all, and loving it as a game, experience, and social networking. Even though WoW was more refined, EQ holds the stronger place in my heart.

Positive: I had never played an RPG of any variety until Oblivion. I already had an inclination towards open world/sandbox games, so it was only natural that I would enjoy Oblivion. I don't think I would enjoy a Japanese-style RPG though.

Negative: A buddy of mine had a LAN setup in a spare bedroom of his house and we were both, at the time, marijuana enthusiasts. I went over for some "snacks" and some games. We played Unreal Tournament 2 (I think), and it was my first competitive multiplayer experience with a FPS on M+KB and I was terribly awkward with that control scheme. I had Wolfenstein 3D, Doom I, and Doom 2 on my PC at home, but always single player. I got crushed and it has forever soured my on competitive FPS, especially on PC.

Half Life and its use of scripted events to tell a story and show things happening around you. It really made much more interested in games as a medium than I was before.

RTCW and team based online competitive shooters. It was both really competitive and skill based, but it also rellied heavily on Teamwork. I haven't seen this in an FPS in a loooong time. Except for maybe Team Fortress 2. People in RTCW healed you becuase it helped the team. People in BF heal you because it gets them some XP.

the latter COD games where people started playing competitive online FPS to unlock stuff and earn XP.

i completed the trilogy within a week so i might be getting confused between the games but im pretty sure uncharted 1 had lots of puzzles and platforming because i remember being happy about solving the very first puzzle in the game which involved smashing the ground by moving the large rock over it or something like that. previous to that i was literally stuck and gave up playing indianna jones because i couldnt work out where to go next within the first 2min of the game haha (1:40) im dead serious, thats how far i got in this game

Goldeneye was the first FPS that I was able to really get into.

Age of Empires 2 turned me on to RTS.

Civ 2 was my first TBS.

Battle Arena Toshinden - 3D fighting

Wipeout - 3D racing

Super Mario 64 - 3D platformer

Resident Evil - survival horror

Final Fantasy VII - RPG

The Curse of Monkey Island - point & click adventure

Shadow of Memories - 3D adventure

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty - Stealth

Unreal Tournament 2004 - online FPS

Clannad - visual novel

Resident Evil 4 - TPS

Final Fantasy Tactics: Tactical RPG

Persona 4 Arena: Fighting

I never liked racing games but NFS: Burnout Paradise made me play for hours on end. It's still the only racing game i own.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. I played FPS games then but when I played MW2 and then played an FPS online for the first time, I fell in love with FPSs. I fell out of it with CoD though. I'll buy it when it gets a price drop but other than that, ugh.

Grand Theft Auto III. I remember it like it was yesterday. I remember I went over to a friends house and we were playing some games. He popped in GTA III and let me try it. I only got to play for 5 minutes because he had to eat dinner but right then and there, I instantly loved the series. I couldn't find GTA III so I got Vice City and loved it.

Megaman/Meta slug ---> platformers/side-scrolls

Gears ---> TPS

Half-Life ---> FPS

Soul Sacrifice ---> mp-jArpgs

Fallout New Vegas - RPG's

Grand Theft Auto San Andreas - Open World Action games

Burnout 3- Racing games

Final Fantasy X when it comes to RPGS

Assassin's Creed for action adventure games

Mario Kart/Gran Turismo for racing

Battlefield 1942/Goldeneye for FPS

MGS 1. Stealth action, Snake is still one of the coolest game characters of all time, awesome use of music and setpieces. Interesting story and characters with nods to realism but still heavily maintaining it's action packed stance.

Symphony of the Night. Metroidvania, you played as the son of Dracula, It's never been more cool.

FF7. JRPG and my first videogame crush, Tifa had dem breasts!

Morrowind. Openworld RPG with an extremely interesting, alien like setting especially compared to the elder scroll games that came after it which opted for high fantasy.

Starsiege Tribes. Competitive skill based FPS that went beyond just shooting a gun, you had to learn movement even through the use of jet packs effectively. This game gave me some of the most memorable matches even to this day.

Half Life. Heavily atmoshperic shooter with horror elements and heavy use of scripting to tell it's story and immerse you in the world. I actually played the demo of this through PC gamer which was called Uplink, and was so damn impressed as a kid.

Counter Strike 1.6, competitive skill based FPS that also gave you one death per round, meaning you had to have some skill if you had a shitty team.

Diablo 2, ARPG, Made me realize just how addicting a game can be.

Big Rigs: Over The Road Racing - This game not only changed my perception of the truck racing genre it also changed my perception of life itself. This game showed me that I can be winner no matter how long it takes me to reach the end, and there is no barrier that can stop me. It also taught me that sometimes going backwards is faster than going forwards.

I real life changing experience.

I never really liked 3D platformers until I played SMG.

SF2 got me into fighting games.

Phantasy Star got me started on JRPGs. FFIV got me hooked.

MGS1 was my first go at a stealth game.

I think LoZ was my first action adventure.

SMB for 2d platformers.

Shadowgate NES for adventure.

Double Dragon 1 for beat em ups.

Wolfenstein for shooters.

.. all I can think of for now.

@Renegade_Fury: Good call. Panzer Dragoon's combat was amazing and very unique. Man what I wouldn't give to see that remade on this gens hardware. That game easily has my all-time favorite combat in any RPG. Music made it all the better.

Titanfall ---> Multiplayer FPS. Never thought an old guy like me would enjoy one.

Yeah, I really love the combat in Panzer Dragoon Saga. It's so fast and fun, and it's not overly complicated in the slightest. I'd love to see it be remade for newer platforms too, but I don't think SEGA would be willing to build it from scratch. It's such a shame that this masterpiece can only be played by a few gamers.

A ton of Valve games had that effect on me. Yeah they weren't the most unique but it's just the fact that I heard a lot of weird quirky things from them all over the net that I just had to try them out. I rarely if ever played any FPSs before that, and the ones I did I got bored of quickly, but suffice to say the Orange Box taught me that the FPS genre isn't all that bad.

I was never a big RPG fan until I played Witcher 2. Great game!