GAMING'S TIME TRAVELERS: WHEN GAMES ARRIVED TOO EARLY FOR THEIR OWN GOOD
Remember when your friend tried to convince everyone that kale would be the next big thing in 2005? That's basically what happened to these games, except instead of questionable salad ingredients, they were packing features that wouldn't become industry standards for years to come.
CRYSIS: THE GAME THAT MADE PCs CRY
Before "Can it run Doom?" became a meme about running games on toasters, we had "Can it run Crysis?" - a legitimate question that made gaming PCs shake in their metaphorical boots. But beyond melting graphics cards, Crysis was secretly smuggling features from the future: modular weapons, dynamic environmental destruction, and even language changes based on difficulty levels. It was like someone from 2015 traveled back in time and made a game, but forgot that 2007 computers were basically calculators with attitude.
RED FACTION: BREAKING WALLS AND CONVENTIONS
While modern games still struggle to let you break a wooden fence, 2001's Red Faction let you tunnel through entire mountains. The game's Geo-Mod engine was so ahead of its time, it makes today's "destructible environments" (read: pre-scripted wall segments falling over) look like they're playing with Legos. Unfortunately, like many visionaries, it was largely ignored in favor of games where walls remained stubbornly intact.
DEUS EX: CHOICE BEFORE IT WAS COOL
Before "multiple paths" became marketing buzzword bingo, Deus Ex was out here letting you solve problems any way you wanted. Break in through the roof? Sure. Talk your way past guards? Why not. Hack the planet? Go for it. Modern games still struggle to match its level of freedom, probably because they're too busy rendering individual beard hairs to worry about actual gameplay choices.
ROLLERCOASTER TYCOON: THE ONE-MAN CODING MIRACLE
Imagine writing an entire theme park simulator in assembly language. Now imagine doing it alone. That's what Chris Sawyer did with RollerCoaster Tycoon, creating a game so efficiently coded it could run on a potato while simulating thousands of park guests. Modern games using engines that require 32GB of RAM to render a puddle, take notes.
the future
These games weren't just ahead of their time, they were practically time travelers, showing up to the party years before anyone was ready for them. While some features eventually became industry standards, others are still waiting for the rest of gaming to catch up. Looking at you, actually good destruction physics.
Maybe in another 20 years, we'll finally get a game that combines all these features. Just make sure your quantum computer can run it.