I figured this would be a good resource for me, and hopefully others too, who are looking out for the same thing, so I figured I'd create a thread asking about it.

Lots of games come on sale, many you've never heard of, some old, some new, when you look them up, they have good reviews, so sometimes it is hard to decide.

What I'm basically asking for is for each genre of game (it is fine if you get as specific and exclusive as you like), what would be the iconic game that most fully represents that genre. So if someone asks about a specific genre, you can just mention that they should play that game for the fullest and most satisfying experience of what that genre is.

For example, if someone asked me about offensive racing games, I'd suggest they play Carmageddon 2.

If someone asked me about 4X games, I'd (not being a particularly big fan of them, so I may be wrong) suggest Civilization V with the Brave New World DLC.

And so on. But if someone asked me about racing games, I'd have no idea (my last noteworthy foray into non-offensive racing was Lotus 3 and 4D Sports). If someone asked me about football games, I wouldn't know which FIFA to recommend to them. If someone asked me about fighting games, I wouldn't know what to say (last one I played on the PC was probably one of the Mortal Kombats). If someone asked about music library driven rhythm games, I'd suggest Audiosurf or Beat Hazard (those being the only ones I've played).

So perhaps the good people of gog can fill in all these genres, and even more, as a sort of reference?
Again, I am not asking your personal favourite, or the one you feel had the best implementation of X feature, but the games that most comprehensively and enjoyably represented the genre they were of.

Adventure- Secret of Monkey Island. THE iconic point'n'click adventure game. My favourite is actually the third one, Curse of Monkey Island, but the first one is the most iconic and classic example.

Turned Based Strategy- Heroes of Might and Magic III. The classic perfected. A flawless example ofthe ganre. Again, my favourite is actually Disciples 2, but it's HoMM that defines the genre.

RPG- that's a tough one. Not only many great games, but it can mean many different thing, from classic dungeon crawlers to action RPGs like Mass Effect. Olso many games that defined the genre are now very dated, like the first Ultima games. Most people would probably point at the Baldur's Gate games. I'm not a fan, but they are pretty much iconic.

Hack'n'slash- Diablo. THE hack'n'slash.

RTS- Warcraft II. It was Dune 2 that made the genre, it was the first Warcraft that spearheaded the iconic series, but it was Warcraft II that forever cemented RTS as what we know. Sadly, today the genre has been almost killed by MOBA and tower defense.

The problem, as far as I see it, with RPGs and Adventure games is that they're often heavily story-focused, so you can't really name a definitive game of that, because each and every one would have to be different. I do agree with you about Monkey Island, though (except about 3 :D).

Best invertebrates military sim: Worms 2

Best 4x: Distant Worlds: Universe

Basically: My favorite game in each genre?

No, the "defining" one, so to speak. For example: my favourite RPG of all time is probably Divine Divinity, but I can't claim that it somehow defined the genre or is representative of it a as whole. I love it, and I never liked Baldur's Gate much, but I have to admit that it is BG that influenced the genre and is much more of a milestone. Many games tried to emulate what BG did, be its "spiritual succesor" and so on.

Shmup - Tyrian.