6. Gears of War
Far removed from Wii Sports is Gears of War, the 2006 third-person shooter that changed almost every third-person shooter since. Epic Games built the Xbox 360-exclusive on its Unreal Engine 3 which became the de-facto development engine for damn near every third-party developer for several years after Gears reached the stratosphere. The story followed Marcus Fenix and his friend, Dom Santiago, as they shot and chainsawed their way through a desolate, grimy, post-apocalyptic wasteland on the fictional planet Sera.
Gears of War influenced the visuals and mechanics of subsequent shooters' grey and brown color palettes became the norm as did a one-button cover system and cooperative campaign play. Unfortunately, what worked for Gears became tired and worn out by the time Gears 3 hit in 2011. The color palette that so effectively conveyed the desolation and hopelessness in Epic's magnum opus became formulaic thanks to other developers refusing to forge their own ground. Cover systems implemented by less technically-adept developers were frequently poorly-designed (i.e. Mass Effect). And the excellent co-op became so ubiquitous, gamers were elated for any game that offered isolation. But Gears of War still stands confidently as an early, and great, example of doing all of those things right.
