Out of those two, Civilization is probably the one to cover in this context. Age of Empires, while a great game, is hardly important to the history of gaming.
The games to cover are IMHO not necessarily just those to introduce a new concept, but those that really introduced one to a large audience. Or many concepts, as the case may be with some games.
yogibbear listed some modern games and I agree with a few of them.
- Half-Life 2 for featuring a professionally developed setting and plot in a video game, and technology for the story's delivery that was very advanced for its time, and also for practically making "digital game shopping" synonymous with Steam.
- Max Payne for introducing the "cinematic gaming" concept to wide audiences.
- Portal is responsible for the modern rebirth of high production value puzzles and also added momentum to the indie game scene.
- Counterstrike for being largely synonymous with "online shooter".
And my additions:
- GTA, like I first said, for introducing the "open world shooter" concept.
- Doom for pioneering the FPS genre.
- Command & Conquer for doing the same for the RTS genre.
- Simcity or Transport Tycoon for creating the "serious game" genre.
Most were not actually the first in their genre (Doom : Wolfenstein, Command & Conquer : Dune, etc.) but were the first to hit everyones hard drive and are the ones remembered today as where it all started.
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