standards

Prey standards—what we must meet and then exceed

3D Architecture

- Quake and Quake 2

Lighting

- Quake 2
- Hexen 2
- BladeRunner (movie)

Texture Art

- Quake
- Hexen 2

Weapons

- Turok (Nintendo 64)
- Hexen 2

Enemies (coolness, power, impact)

- Urotsukodoji (video)
- Doom
- Robotech (Invid)
- Quake 2

Enemy AI

- Descent 2
- MechWarrior 2 Mercenaries
- Half-life

Control

- Duke 3D/Shadow Warrior
- Descent 2
- Quake
- Jedi Knight

Interface

- Duke/Shadow/Quake/Doom (simplicity and functionality)
- System Shock (most information and supported the fiction of the game)

Story (interest, intensity, intelligence)

- Bioforge
- System Shock

Mood/environment

- the Alien movie series
- HardWired (movie)
- System Shock
- Schismatrix stories by Bruce Sterling
- BladeRunner
- Dune (movie)
- Metroid
- Jedi Knight

Central Character (depth, growth, sense of "heroism," individuality, etc.)

- Gabriel Knight
- The lead character of "When Gravity Fails" (book)
- Elric of Melnibone (Michael Moorcock series)
- Thomas Covenant (the reluctant hero from the Stephan Donaldson trilogy)
- Bruce Campbell in the Evil Dead series
- Lara Croft of the Tomb Raider series

Cinematics (excitement)

- MechWarrior 2
- Starcraft

Character Animation/Models

- Tomb Raider
- Turok
- Bioforge
- Diablo
- Tekken 3
- Quake 2

Interactivity

- Shadow Warrior
- Jedi Knight
- Tomb Raider

Single Play

- Duke Nukem 3D
- Shadow Warrior
- Tomb Raider
- Jedi Knight

Multiplay

- Quake
- Jedi Knight

Traps/Puzzles

- System Shock
- Shadow Warrior
- Bioforge
- Tomb Raider

Water and liquid effects

- Tomb Raider, Tomb Raider 2
- Turok

Level/environment design

- Jedi Knight
- Quake 2

Music

- Descent 2
- Quake
- Jedi Knight

Sound Effects

- Quake

Speed of the engine

- Quake
- Jedi Knight

Extensibility

- Quake
- Duke Nukem 3D

Totally cool, "holy shit" moments

- Seeing the T-Rex for the first time in Tomb Raider
- Swimming in Tomb Raider
- Shooting someone in the neck in Turok
- Seeing a CyberDemon for the first time in Doom
- Beating an enemy with his own severed arm in Bioforge
- Telefrags in Quake
- Body growing more and more bloody in Bioforge
- missiles and nukes in Turok
- Shodan’s threats in System Shock
- Seeing GLQuake for the first time
- The guide bot in Descent 2
- The first time underwater in Quake
- Walking through blood and leaving bloody foot prints in Duke 3D
- Seeing the scale of the tubes in the Jedi Knight demo (as well as riding up that elevator)