Top 5 console games that defined last generation

[Shinobi-san]

OP i think your list is pretty good as it is. Mine is fairly similar:

1. Wii Sports - by far THE game that defined last gen. An instant hit with record sales. This game revived motion controlled gaming and single-handedly won Nintendo the generation and made the Wii a money making machine. Prompting Sony and MS to invest in their own motion controllers, and even having a major impact on the designs of all next gen consoles. You could even attribute MS and the XB1's initial failure to the success of the Kinect and ultimately the Wii. Its impact has been profound in every sense. (Not to forget the wide audiences this game reached!)

2. COD 4 MW - this was the game that kicked off the generation for me personally and it seems to have had that same effect on others as well. Playing that opening scene was a profound gaming moment, something i shared with everyone in my household! It was like i was playing a movie...not to mention the graphics were insane! A lot of people talk about the MP aspect but what really got peoples attention initially was the single player campaign of MW. The muliplayer simply took things to the next level. Competitive console gaming had never been more alive! This prompted just about every developer to add a multiplayer component into their game with some sort of progression system. It is now an expectation for a game to have multiplayer rather than the exception.

3. Gears of War - another game that truly highlighted the power of the generation. Insane visuals, engrossing and visceral gameplay, awesome storytelling, movie like set pieces and atmosphere. This game was everything we expected from the generation to come. Raised the bar in what was expected of a 7th gen game in both single and multi player. Not to mention this game was responsible for much of the 360's success in the gen. This is what made Xbox a global brand mentioned in the same breath as Nintendo and Playstation. It was gears that caused so many die hard ps fans to turn their back on Playstation. Undeniably fun, satisfying, additictive and truly a NEXT GEN game.

I'll be quite honest, I dont think the list needs to go on from there. The above games had the biggest impact on the generation and on the industry as whole. To this day you can still see the industry standards that were adopted almost directly because of these games. BUT OP asked for 5! And these are some great games as well with major impacts on the industry:

4. Demon Souls - what an experience. In an age of gaming obsessed with hand holding, simplicity and direct story telling - demon souls was a big FU to all of those trends and a love letter to old school gaming. The best part of it was despite not adhering to all the accepted modern gaming structures that supposedly make for a successful game, the game became a cult hit and extremely successful. The souls series has become its own genre! So many games and developers are inspired by demon souls its influences can be seen in so many games today.

5. Uncharted 2 - If i had to pick a no.5 id go with uncharted 2 - why not GTA, Halo, Mario Brothers, Mass Effect etc.? Because imo those games have not impacted the industry or changed the course of the generation in any meaningful way. Are those successful, great and popular games? Sure they are, some of them id say are probably better than the uncharted games. But what i think Uncharted symbolises is the complete shift towards cinematic gaming and gaming as an "experience". While COD and Gears touched on this above, and did it well, uncharted was truly a movie like experience. This played a massive role in determining where the focus would be next in the industry. Single player games are now almost immediately dismissed if they dont have insane production values. Everything about Uncharted screams AAA. The seamless cutscenes, insane motion capture and the general atmosphere Uncharted has. Not to mention uncharted played a big role in the revival of the PS3. While most people thought GT5 or GOW3 would do the job it was uncharted that really got the momentum going again along with a nice price cut.

There are some PC centric games which i have purposefully left out, but those games have had a bigger impact on the PC scene than the console scene imo and this thread is focusing on consoles so i left them out. (Minecraft, DayZ etc.)