A whole bunch of companies dumped a whole lot of money down the next-gen sinkhole, and the number of publishers that could be counted on to deliver bleeding-edge entertainment without going broke in the process dwindled to just a few.

Meanwhile, many more publishers came to the belated realization that all those simple, accessible games from days gone by weren't obsolete; in fact, there were untold millions of people playing Solitaire on their computers, just waiting for something better to come out.

Our list of the most influential games of the past decade includes, therefore, many games that made big leaps and defined what would come to be traditional aspects of the big-budget grand adventure, and others that pushed the reset button on game design.