10: Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis
The godfather of the “battlefield simulation” genre, Operation Flashpoint (OFP) simulates infantry on the ground. The game’s plot takes place during the 1980s on a fictional island whose name English Lit majors will love, and pits the player as an American infantryman against the Soviet Union. Instead of individual levels, the whole island is one huge level, while the game itself is split up into discrete missions. The island can be traversed in various vehicles as well. The open level design and the huge open space were revolutionary at the time.