There are objects that define the way we think about videogames, structures and shapes that we could not imagine our gaming world without. Then there are others that get used so often they become cliché, and snobbish journalists write top ten lists defaming them.

If you can think of any more, add them in the comments section below.

The Health Pack

Taken too many bullets to the face? Demons hacked at your arms and chest for a bit too long, leaving you a mess of stringy flesh and bone? Fear not, brave explorer, for help is at hand in the cuboid form of the health pack! It's good for what ails you.

Sure, the actual form of the health pack is open to wild interpretation, from whole chickens stored in bins to ATM-style, wall mounted dispensers that spew out the get better juice to anyone wearing the right suit.

Nowadays, they feel a little outdated, but back when gaming was young, the health pack was a must have accoutrement.

The Red Explosive Barrel

In a world of greys and browns, the red barrel sticks out like a hammer smashed sore thumb. An agent of flaming carnage, a few sweet pistol shots should be enough to send the barrel, and any enemies unlucky enough to be around it, all the way back to hell.

More modern interpretations of the explosive barrel include the toxic gas-filled barrel, the explosive crate and the smaller, less explode-y explosive cylinder. The rule, as ubiquitous as the object itself: if it's red, shoot it.

The Chest High Wall

It's lucky that the architects of the far future had the good sense to base their structures entirely on the accurate positioning of chest high walls. Had they not, then humanity would have fallen, their soldiers mown down by enemy gunfire whilst wandering aimlessly around an open space.

The chest high wall is the most modern object of ubiquity, a trope begun by Gears Of War and copied by its copy cats until it became a joke.

The Crate

It is a fact that the vast majority of First Person Shooters from the mid-to-late-90s are built almost entirely out of brown crates. Even in the distant future, crates are still made out of wood, shattered with a single blow and contain odd but markedly useful items within.

An adventurer needs not just brute strength, but also a fortuitous nature, otherwise how will they choose the path littered with items that can help them?

The Ammo Drop

Guns. Without them, where would this industry be? But as we all know, it's not guns that kill people, it's bullets. Or rockets. Or arrows. Projectiles, really. Those are the things that do the damage.

As luck would have it, when an enemy dies, not only will their body miraculously disappear, they'll also leave their ammunition pouch behind, allowing you to rifle through it and take the best bits for yourself. A murderer and a thief. Shame on you.

The Ball

Not all games are about murder and hiding and shooting. Some games are about making balls go past lines, or keeping them off the ground. In tribute to those games, which are apparently based on things called 'sports', balls make it onto this most illustrious of top tens.

Before graphical fidelity ruined everything, balls were squares, because smooth edges were too hard to make. Nowadays, though, balls are just balls, flying around pitches, stadia and grounds for our amusement. Well done, balls.

Breasts

As unfortunate as it is, the videogame medium is far from a progressive one. Perhaps its biggest flaw is the way it still thinks 'mature' and 'naked writhing flesh' are synonymous. Women are rarely portrayed as well rounded characters, although 'well rounded' is still an apt term.

Lingerie, nightwear, metallic push up swimsuits that look as uncomfortable as they do impractical, women are the objects of teen-idealised lust, presented as anatomically impossible lumps of eye candy, whose jiggling defies the laws nature.

Women are more than chests, and the sooner the videogame industry, and the buying public, realise that, the better.

The Mask

One of the most important steps in creating an enemy is dehumanising them, making them seem less like our protagonist and more like evil, faceless killing machines.

Obviously, if they're evil, faceless killing machines already then that job's pretty easy, but if you want to pit your hero against humans, then sticking a mask/balaclava/sock/helmet over their face is a good way to go about it. Now you don't have to look in their eyes as you fill them with hot lead. Or hot laser.

The Computer

Everywhere you look there's a screen glinting, doing nothing in particular, ready to be destroyed in order to fulfil the cathartic urge. Sometimes these desktops contain incriminating evidence or important plot points. More often than not they're just background noise, with indecipherable green lines scribbled onto them for no reason other than 'authenticity'.

My computer never has green lines on it, except when I'm looking at The Matrix, and that doesn't happen very often.

Quite often these computers can take more damage than barrels. The videogame world is a strange one indeed.

The Invisible Wall

The illusion of freedom is often guarded by these see-through sentinels, allowing a player to glimpse a world beyond the one they're allowed to play in, but never granting access. At least not until certain parameters have been filled, and even then it's a case of relocation rather than destruction.

Sometimes these walls take on cunning disguises: locked doors, guarded exits, big lakes, collapsed bridges, but they're there, always watching, always waiting to catch out anyone who dares try and do something the designers don't want them to.

Add your own suggestions in the comments...