It is a game about love and identity, but it also has forklift truck races. It is a game about bloody revenge, but while you're waiting to retaliate, you can buy lottery tickets and visit the arcade. When Bafta recently asked gamers to vote on the most influential game of all time, I'm not sure even the most ardent Sega fans would have gambled on the success of an idiosyncratic Dreamcast adventure from 1999. Yet the results, released on Thursday morning, show Shenmue at No 1, with perhaps more predictable contenders Doom and Super Mario Bros coming in second and third respectively. How has this happened, especially considering the game was considered a financial failure at the time of its release, falling short of recouping its then staggering development costs (a reported 70m, which would now get you about a third of Horizon Forbidden West or Star Wars Outlaws)?

Grand Theft Auto III, 2001 Building on the cult success of DMA Design's first two gangster adventures, GTA III takes the series into 3D, filling the Liberty City streets with drug smugglers, thieves and corrupt cops and letting the player find their own way through the chaos. The structure and style of the game inspired countless imitators, with its division between main story missions and optional side-quests. The collision between action adventure, shooter and RPG conventions would later be refined by Ubisoft with its fast travel and "tower unlock" mechanics, but GTA III is the godfather.