2002
ok I can pretty easily say that my GOTY 2002 is The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.
I didn’t play a large variety of the new games that year. So, some of the other games which other people might suggest, I probably didn’t play. That year was my first PC build.
I did eventually try Metroid Prime…and didn’t really get along with it.
argwah The Typing of The Dead also came out in 2001!
Part 1:
| Year | Game | Platform |
|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Berserk | Arcade |
| 1981 | Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord | Apple II |
| 1982 | Ms. Pac-Man | Arcade |
| 1983 | Xevious | Arcade |
| 1984 | Elite | BBC Micro |
| 1985 | Makaimura | Arcade |
| 1986 | The Hyrule Fantasy: The Legend of Zelda | Famicom Disk System |
| 1987 | Out Run | Arcade |
| 1988 | Dragon Quest III | Famicom |
| 1989 | SimCity | Macintosh |
| 1990 | Super Mario World | Super Famicom |
| 1991 | Lemmings | Amiga |
| 1992 | Virtua Racing | Arcade |
| 1992 | Super Mario Kart | Super Famicom |
| 1993 | Doom | MS-DOS |
| 1994 | Mother 2 | Super Famicom |
| 1995 | King’s Field II | PlayStation |
| 1996 | Wave Race 64 | Nintendo 64 |
| 1997 | Final Fantasy VII | PlayStation |
| 1998 | Shadow Tower | PlayStation |
| 1999 | Silent Hill | PlayStation |
i lied about the justifications, though, i’m lazy
1997: final fantasy tactics
1998: xenogears/metal gear solid/serial experiments lain/radiant silvergun
1999: shenmue
2000: vagrant story/persona 2: eternal punishment
2001: metal gear solid 2/ikaruga
2002: resident evil remake
2003: silent hill 3/drakengard
2004: shin megami tensei: nocturne (maniax)
2005: killer7/digital devil saga 2
2006-2007: ??? there are a few games from this period that i want to play but none that i already love. weird years.
2008: armored core: for answer
2009: persona 3 portable
i might change some of these later
2003
GOTY 2003 is Jak II. I had more pure sustained fun actually playing this game, than anything else that year. Tons of variety and all of it is really good. Tons of character. Actually challenging. Very impressive for a PS2 game.
notable games
Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic For me, the atmosphere was spot on, very immersive. The writing and types of scenarios you get into were great. However, the combat system never pushed me. I found myself just smashing buttons through he combat, so that I could see the next place and experience more scenarios and writing. This one just missed the mark for me, as GOTY.
Silent Storm take the gameplay of Jagged Alliance 2 and make it even better. 3d graphics engine with multi-tiered and Destructible environments. If you loved Jagged Alliance or that style of game, you probably loved this. A certain twist in the game sort of weakens the gameplay a bit. But even without mods which ignore the twist, its still a great game.
Call of Duty This game really shook up the single player FPS. It puts you into some incredibly immersive scenarios which almost communicate a physical quality to you/your body. And its basically always pushing the action to 11. Its a non stop experience in visuals, sound, and gameplay. It does devolve at the end, however. To just throwing the kitchen sink at you. I also liked the expansion United Offensive, even more I think. but it also had he same sort of B.S. de-evolution, at the end.
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne take a great video game and make a sequel which is exactly as great and you----still have a great video game. Great script. Amazing graphics. Same amazing presentation. Same gameplay with some small but effective improvements. One of the first showcases of object physics and ragdolls and it very naturally enhanced the gameplay. No gimmicks here. Its just so similar to the first game that I didn’t feel like it was a GOTY, at this point.
The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker Although flawed, I really enjoyed playing this. Although the graphics are amazing and timeless-----the overall gameplay didn’t wow me like some other games that year.
Mario Kart: Double Dash is my fave Mario Kart. It really shines through, when you’ve got a room full of people to play with.
Splinter Cell did not hold a candle to Metal Gear Solid’s story telling, characters, or presentation. However, althought it was at times a bit repetitive, the core gameplay here was pretty legit.
Beyond Good & Evil charmed the hell out of me. Its got flaws. But, its lots of fun. Looks amazing. Has tons of character. has some brilliant moments. And is somehow my only triple dip purchase in gaming history.
Soulcalibur II the slightly faster, even prettier sequel. Now with the benefit of being released on every console. While not a lot different than the 1st. everyone could easily play it and everyone was playing it. It became a party game of sorts and even non-gamers were enjoying it.
Disgeaa: Hour of Darkness I was really excited for this and it didn’t dissapoint. Super fun twist to tactical JRPGs. Very funny script. Awesome voice acting. Not too cringey with the Anime stuff.
Donkey Konga this is the one which require the kongo bongo drum things peripheral. And its SUPER fun. Albeit, a bit repetitive. A little more variety woulda been nice. But, I can’t deny the base execution. Really slick graphics.
2004
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater There are some other games this year, which are definitely worthy. But Snake Eater is it, for me. I feel its sneaking and CQC gameplay still has no peers, to this day. The gameplay is incredibly detailed and it has many setpieces which allow you to potentially use every bit of that detailed gameplay. It really does nail the feeling of sneaking through the forest/jungle, making your way to enemy outposts and eventually, their main base. Strong characters and story, which actually grips your interest and emotions in ways which few games do. Its sense of humor in Ocelot’s characterization and the emotional grip of your relationship to The Boss, are landmark achievements in games writing. Amazing PS2 graphics.
Is the stuff with The Sorrow during cutscenes considered breaking the 4th wall? whatever you call that stuff, that was great. The game is jam packed with amazing little uses and flourishes on the gameplay. And once the game locks into its groove, it doesn’t let up. It takes you through an unprecedented series of amazing setpieces and scenarios, for the bulk of the game.
noteable games
Katamari Damacy That song. A game which is basically all game and little else. And
what game that is. Deserves GOTY. Also noteable for being happy and bright and non-violent.
Unreal Tournament 2004 another GOTY contender. This one is up there for some of the most mileage I’ve ever gotten out of any game. The best LAN game of all time. Tons of great game modes. The different modes here drastically change the gamepaly. Such that its almost like a few different games in one. But they all feel well realized. Nothing feels like the odd mode out. It ran well. I’d be happy to play this game right now today.
Worms 3D Its Worms: Armageddon (great), but in 3D with a 3D camera. And its nearly perfect. I played a lot of the gamecube version with friends.
Burnout 3: Takedown I was a Gran Turismo guy. So, I never really cared much for the racing. But, crash mode is super great and made for a good party game. The PS2 version is graphical wizardry.
Silent Hill 4: The Room is my fave Silent Hill. I love The Room concept and think it was executed rather well. The visuals are top notch. Some of the gameplay additions went a long way to making me feel more involved in playing. They really found ways to pump more creepyness into the game, without feeling like a retread. SH4 defiinitely has its own look and feel.
RalliSport Challenge 2 this is the best rally of the PS2/Xbox generation. An Xbox exclusive. It uses that power form some great graphics with lots of little details like reflective mud puddles. scattered leaves. shiny, bumpy mud, etc. Great driving physics. Great courses. Cool crashing.
2005
A tough year to rate. Lots of good games. But difficult to identify a clear standout.
Battlefield 2 Probably my personal GOTY. I played. it. a. lot.
I hadn’t played a BF game until this one (BF:1942 and BF: Vietname preceded it). Playing it was like a revelatory experience for me. UT2K4 had already done an excellent, newer version of a large scale game type. But Battlefield had a bunch of extra elements and a different pacing, which really sets the two games far apart. And BF2 found a really good place with the feel for most of your actions in the game. I.E. best keyboard/mouse based jeep driving ever.
A real problem with the game is that despite being heavily marketed for its 60 player multiplayer----it plays best when servers are limited to about 40 players. Battlefield still has that problem, to this day. But most people want to play with 60. So most servers offered the full 60. It could occasionally be tough to get on a 40-ish player server.
Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening may also be my game of the year?. Put the game in “Swordmaster” mode and its one of the best character action games ever made. Much deeper than DMC1. It starts great and stays great for a long time. In retrospect, it has a lot of parallels with how someone would describe Dark Souls. You have to be deliberate and pay attention, to be successful. And the original release only has one or two check points per level. Every boss is great. The game is only falters a little, with a couple of late game missions and a completely unnecessary, forced boss-run of bosses you’ve already fought. Later DMC haven’t really gotten technically better. Only melding this game’s separate combat styles together. And maybe in the case of the DMC reboot: more effective level design? The first God of War released this year and DMC3 showed it who’s the genre veteran.
Gran Turismo 4 the level of polish in this game is insane. They somehow took one of PS2’s historically best looking games, and made it look even better. They really upped the ante in effective camera angles and other skills of photography. The road driving is even better. The special scenario chase missions are awesome and really showcase the subtleties of the driving physics. Even though it seemed to be flexing the PS2 for all its worth-----somehow manages to offer a 1080i output mode. Much can be said about any GT game to this point. But GT4 somehow managed to make them all feel a whole lot less relevant. However, even though the rally looked amazing, it didn’t play nearly as confidently as GT3’s rally. GT is such a good Gran Turismo----that I haven’t felt so compelled to dive as deeply into the later games.
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap: Its 2D Zelda. But its got a little twist to it. Fresh graphics style. And its overall one of the best Zeldas.
F.E.A.R. Imagine if Max Payne was an FPS (so, An FPS with bullet time) great A.I. and solid horror elements, but without the cool narrative.
Jak X: Combat Racing Its absolute high octane. They tweaked the buggy racing from Jak 3, near enough to perfection. And the racing rarely ever lets up. Cool soundtrack, too.
Shadow of The Colossus All the hallmarks of ICO (amazing atmosphere, minimalist story much of which is communicated through the player’s experience with the game. Rather than telling you or even blatantly showing. adventurous and dream-like). Now with colossi and set in the open countryside. They managed to bond you to another partner character. And this time it was a little less obvious, until they smacked you in the face. I like this game a lot. But, I have trouble loving it without reservation, as I do ICO. I wish there were slightly more to do. Like maybe some stuff to actually uncover, as reward for exploration. Something… Its a consequence of having such a large space to move in. I wanted a little more. And two pairs of the Colossi are a little too similar to eachother. 1 pair is basically the same, just big version and small version. And another pair seems more different, but the method to first mount them is the same (wait to grab beard). Its a real negative for me, since 2 pair is half of the Colossi, The Colossi are the featured gameplay element, and present most of the consequential gameplay. Seems like they could pretty easily have come up with a couple more ideas, there. Still, major achievement in the art and craft of video game.
Star Wars: Republic Commando is basically the gameplay of the original Ghost Recon, adapted to Star Wars. Its a huge turn for a Star Wars game and its also a solid game. Not quite as grueling as Ghost Recon. But, such a surprising use of the license.
Yoshi Touch & Go is crack, administered via your Nintendo DS.
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory This fixed some of the issues the first two Splinter Cell’s had, where you felt a little too often that you were simply moving from dark spot of the screen, to another dark spot of the screen. The missions are mostly very well designed. Feeling less funneled and allowing you to flex the gameplay more. And the multiplayer mode was unique and freaking awesome. Also, super great Xbox graphics----which were kind of amazing on a nice PC.
SWAT 4 Amazing graphics and art direction. Rooms in levels look and feel like real places. Much of that feeling is because they are filled with lots of little props. The effect is still convincing, in 2019.
Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict A strangely effective tweak on Unreal Tournament games, where you have a 3rd person mode and melee combat options. Not as ambitious with game modes. Sticking more to classic deathmatch type stuff. But the melee stuff was fresh and still is. they could release this game today and it would be well received.
The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction You can see the influence this game had on the Edward Norton Hulk movie. The physicality and the way he moves through space, is without a doubt influenced by this game. It kind of fakes open world settings via large “open” levels and gives you exhilarating control over The Hulk. It also gives you satisfying evil hulk enemies and things to smash. As greate as the controls and core gameplay are: the game overall is a bit shallow and unsubstantial. But when its firing, its really firing. Unfortunately, a more substantial, proper sequel was never made. Later Hulk games missed the mark.
Ninja Gaiden Black I’ve only ever played Sigma. which is this game with a very slick PS3 slick graphics upgrade and tweaks to levels and item locations, for better and worse. And Black itself, is a patched and improved version of Ninja Gaiden. So, kind of a strange history on this game. Either way, its pretty excellent character action. And certainly deserves praise along with DMC3.
Resident Evil 4 as I sort of mentioned before, I wasn’t ever totally in with Resident Evil games. I liked 2 and 3, but always used gameshark codes for ammo. Dino Crisis I liked better and didn’t use codes. However, that game didn’t offer a lot of variety. RE4 did lots of things which got me into it. The camera perspective change it turns out, really opened up gameplay possibilities. Its generally a lot more interesting than just zombies (I’ve never really enjoyed zombie stuff). and the pacing is very good, with a steady stream of set-pieces and variety. I think its a little bit too long for its own good. But it does still keep feeding you fun stuff. The graphics were amazing for the time and very surprising, as a Gamecube game and exclusive. What are you buyin’?
We <3 Katamari It doesn’t have the natural build up and crescendo as Katamari Damacy. This is basically as much iteration as possible, on the gameplay of Katamari Damacy. I prefer this game, for when I want to go back and play some Katamari. Its basically a giant post-game content pack.
Geometry Wars (Xbox 360) Amazing, trance inducing visuals. Great, smooth gameplay. Arguably the best early 360 game.
DK Jungle Beat this is the action platformer which requires the kongo bongo drum things peripheral. And its SUPER fun. Albeit, a bit repetitive. A little more variety woulda been nice. But, I can’t deny the base execution. Really slick graphics.
When browsing games by year on MobyGames, every year back to 1950 has at least one game associated with it. I was tempted to start my GotY list all the way back then – however, since (1) I am a coward and (2) electronic games didn’t start becoming interesting until somewhere between 1969-1972 (when the technology became commercially viable), I am going to refrain from doing that. Instead, I’m just going to just look at the 1950s as a whole, but only by referencing MobyGames (certainly incomplete) list (because life is short).
Most of the electronic games in the 1950s would not qualify under the pedantic definition of video game. It’s hard to tell from the lack of screenshots or photographs, but several games either displayed their output on an array of lights, or as text printed on paper. Less than a third of the games MobyGames lists from that decade have screenshots confirmed that they used a CRT as output.
As for the hardware these games were made for, 17 of them were computer mainframes, 3 used bespoke designs using digital electronics, and 1 used a bespoke analog design (namely, Tennis for Two). Thus we see how electronic games were mainly curiosities of researchers, businesses, and governments. Only a handful of these games were ever playable by the general public.
By genre, MobyGames lists 5 different implementations of Tic-Tac-Toe, 4 different implemenations of chess, 2 implementations of checkers, an implementation of nim and also of craps. The site also lists 3 different military training simulations, and 2 different business training simulations (though Wikipedia claims that there were already over 80 of these by 1961).
Now with those games out of the way, I would like to put forth 3 candidates for the Game of the Decade (1950s edition)
#3 Pool (1954)
A real-time pool situation that ran at a blazing fast 40 frames per second. Mentioned in this article about games in the 1950s:
I don’t think any videos of this exist (maybe not).
#2 Tennis for Two (1958)
Pong but with a side view and more realistic physics. Implemented using analogue hardware (pretend I’m saying “analog circuits are valid computational devices” with the clapping emoji everywhere like a dork). You already knew what this is.
Here’s a video:
#1 Mouse in the Maze (1959)
You create a maze with walls and cheese, and then watch a computer-controlled mouse try to navigate the maze. It might be classified as a “non-game” by some definitions, but it’s an immensely charming concept. (Later revisions allegedly replaced the cheeses with martini glasses, in case you wanted to see an increasing inebriated mouse navigate a maze.)
Painfully flickery video:
The original code to this game is believed to be lost, though I’m sure plenty of games from this era were lost with even less evidence of their existence out there.
2006 is a bit easier to rate.
GOTY is Okami I loved it. Amazing graphics engine. Super fun zelda-like gameplay and the celestial brush mechanics were unique. Fun, funny, adventurous, quirky. Lots of little sidequests and stories. Long…but never feels like it hits a lull. Lots of visually interesting and inventive areas. Only negatives are the combat was too easy, I wished I could turn of the vocalized gibberish, and 3 major boss fights are basically the same.
Final Fantasy XII very nearly GOTY. But, it definitely has a mid-game lull. Otherwise, its gorgeous. Has good characters. Has really good voice over with a mostly solid script. Directing is mostly great. Gambit system is actually really cool once you figure it out and makes the MMO style combat more palatable. Even though its not a continuous game world----it feels like it is. Unusually large feel for a PS2 game.
other noteable games for me
Resistance: Fall of Man Overall, a solid FPS game very much a product of its time (Halo + Call of Duty). Similar to Halo, its got co-op for the campaign, which elevates the experience. Has some cool guns with fresh mechanics.
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey Gorgeous, brightly colored graphics and art direction. Which are still pleasing, to this day. Solid, intriguing story. Good presentation. Good voice acting. Very slim on gameplay or puzzles. The game lives entirely on you being interested in seeing what happens next.
Prey This is a solid FPS with great graphics and some novel gameplay elements. Not quite the amazing experience which was hoped for. But, I definitely enjoyed it that year. A little more than Quake 4.
Titan Quest is a Diablo clone. Which manages to be basically as good as Diablo games, while staying fresh enough by focusing its aesthetic on greek gods. Critical hits initiated a rag-doll effect. Being as good as Diablo is pretty noteable, so that’s why this is here.
Everyday Shooter similar to Geometry wars in that it banks on its crazy visuals. Has solid shooter gameplay. Excellent, rockin soundtrack. And the sound effects add to the music.
Damn this thread is good
I’ve always been a bit curious as to whether I should give DMC 3 a shot or not (I played the original a few years back and… it does not hold up) and I think this may have effectively scared me off of it forever. Boss rushes of this kind are just the worst, and in this kind of game… no please.
Plus the game of this year (non-SotC edition) is clearly Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat.
Damn I always get DK Jungle Beat and Donkey Konga mixed up! *now corrected and re-added to my list
With the boss rush, there is some sort of puzzle element to the progression. So, its possible to only fight a couple of bosses, if you get the order correct. So, you know, look at a guide I guess.
2007 Competition ain’t so stiff this year
GOTY is Portal. No doubt. Its a sublime mix of incredibly fresh gameplay combined with an incredible complexity curve. Combined with a fantastic narrative hidden in your actual playing of the game and how you feel about what you’ve been doing.
noteable games for me
Half-Life 2: Episode Two is the best Half-Life since Half-Life.
Unreal Tournament III is not as good as UT2K4. However, its not a lot worse. And it does look very good. And the PS3 port was pretty cool. Not only did it look surprisingly good, it allowed mods. Epic released a tool which IIRC, was a one click conversion to get a mod working from PC to PS3. And IIRC, people were pretty much only limited by the PS3’s RAM/VRAM size. I played a bunch of maps and even added some new character models. Including direct dumps of the Gears of War characters and enemies.
Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection Tekken 5 was a pretty big leap for Tekken. As it was arguably the start towards their current aesthetic and gameplay style. But, Dark Resurrection made it feel totally irrelevant. They added a bunch of new moves and refinements to the game. As well as some characters which are very recognizeable, now. Tekken 5 felt kind of unplayable, after that. Also, first Tekken in HD.
Odin Sphere Obviously, the game looks beautiful. This was one of the first games I remember finally delivering on the age old dream of large, high detail 2D graphics. Which nearly looked like you were playing someone’s artwork. Not a pixel approximation of it. And they managed it on PS2. Crazy how late PS2 games were still coming out. Pretty deep combat and spell system. It didn’t just look pretty. There was plenty to chew on. Sometimes could feel a little over-reliant on certain attacks. I honestly don’t remember much about the story. I think it was probably serviceable.
The Darkness Based on the comicbook series from Top Cow. Which often crossed over Witchblade (which was drawn by the late Michael Turner), The Darkness also often had guest cover art by Michael Turner (the focus here is that I was a fan of Michael Turner. Not necessarily the comics he created and/or drew for): My interest in this game was automatic. Its got some ruff edges. But its one of those games which present you with a bunch of toys and its actually quite fun to play with. Fairly innovative for an FPS derivative. Its also got a solid narrative and presentation.
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men I was completely hooked by the aesthetic and presentation, here. Most of the levels feel recreations of actual places, rather than game levels which are dressed to appear like real places . And even though the shooting was really simple (think max payne with no bullet time and a basic cover system)—the presentation went a long way to making you feel like you were in the cinematic thick of it. In this game, you basically play as the bad guys from all the classic action/heist movies you’ve ever seen. Like there’s a scene where you are in a real looking diner which is getting rained with bullets and its the most convincing scene like that I’d ever played in a game. The bank vault was another great one. There’s a boss fight with an earthmover dump truck, in a dark and rainy construction site. Another one, where you kill a bunch of dudes in a business meeting and then fight your way down several floors, to the ground floor. and then have to run down the street a few blocks to get away. I actually didn’t play it until 2010 and was still swept up by it.
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune This game is a fun pulp action movie with really fun enemy A.I. which dodges and weaves and flanks and flushes you out with grenades. It also looked real pretty for 2007 and has a fun twist. I’m also a fan of how the final boss fight plays out. The climbing sections got old as soon as I realized that they are practically automatic.
2008 was a banger
I’ll give GOTY to LittleBigPlanet its just shy of fantastic. and is very original. Its got a great personality and whimsy to it. the graphics are great. It controls well (No really, it does!). They really nailed the feel of playing with toys/dolls. The base game levels are all fun. The level creation really worked as advertised, resulting in lots of fun player generated stuff. It had super fun expansion packs, such as a Metal Gear Solid 4 character pack and brand new paintball gameplay with a paintball gun and levels in the MGS4 expansion DLC pack. As successful as it was, I also felt like a lot of people slept on this game.
runner up
Battlefield: Bad Company has the most fun single player FPS campaign of the generation. And also some of the best multiplayer action. To this point, Battlefield had only ever been multiplayer. Battlefield is known for large maps. So the singleplayer game has large levels where you are traversing large distances as you come up to enemy bases and whatnot. Vehicles everywhere. So, you’ve got rocket launchers and grenade launchers and bombs and ----- a very good destruction engine. So you can blast through a wall or drive a tank into the lower level or blow a hole in the terrain. The story is popcorn action flick with…actually fun characters. And they managed to also create more focused and intense moments, like a Call of Duty game. And that destruction engine just drives it all in harder. The final result has character, is more varied than its competitors, and somehow reminds me of older games, such as Goldeneye. And 60’s rock is all over the place for some reason and its great. You hop into an armored transport and its got crunchy rock tunes playing on the radio. Likewise, a golfcart.
On the multiplayer side: Rush mode was new to the series and was excellent. Made even better by that destruction engine. It just played that much more dynamically and intuitively than other shooters. Because you could no longer count on walls and shallow cover, forever. All that battlefield gameplay just got much more tense and varied. And Rush mode kept things more focused. Especially good since the player count was lower for the consoles. All of the Rush maps were good, if not really good. Conquest mode never quite felt right, due to the lower player counts. But, still fun. There are flaws here. But there is also whole lot of greatness.
other noteable games for me
Mirror’s Edge I liked this game the minute I started it. Its really a pretty striking mix of visual art and a fresh twist on first person gameplay. The plot is whatever. This one is all about the play. Although it kinda feels like its not quite nailing it, there are plenty of sublime moments here. And its always skirting around the typical shooter gameplay of first person games. Which was and still would be, a neat thing to do.
Resistance 2 is a strange game. Because its like two separate games. And one of them doesn’t exactly learn from the other. The multiplayer component comes on a separate disc and is like an entirely different thing. It takes the base components of the single player (fun variety of guns, many of which have alternative firing modes, highly varied assortment of enemies) and shoves it into a class based affair where you and a squad of friends attack/defend various levels from A.I. controlled enemies. And the maps are painstakingly created to flex the various attributes of the many different enemy types. Thus causing you the need to create a balanced team with the various character classes. And actually think and coordinate about how you move through the levels. There are also some entirely new mechanics, such as a character class which features heavy armor and a shield to draw and absorb enemy fire.
The single player is solid. Its got a pretty good story which reminds me a lot of Half Life 2: Episode 2. And the game has you going through all sorts of different locales, not unlike HL2: Episode 2. And there are lots of fun guns. Nothing ground breaking. But good parts make a solid game. Overall it reminds me of a mixture of Halo and HL2:Ep2. However, no co-op this time around. Which made Resistance 1 kind of special. And Halo, before it. and the singleplayer rarely really pushes you like the multiplayer co-op mode does. There are some moments, but its mostly a little too easy.
Fallout 3 is worth the price of admission, simply for the opening segment in the vault. The first few excursions out into the wasteland, were also great and still in my memory today. I think VATS is cool. It certainly has some weak points. But it really did a lot right. At the time of release, I was saying it felt more like a good successor to Morrowind, than Oblivion ever did.
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows is what happens when a talented and ambitious team is not afforded enough money and time, to really deliver their vision. This game has the best combat ever in a Spider-Man game and its also got very enjoyable swinging. The scale of the city felt good. It didn’t feel “alive” like GTA4 did. Instead, it was populated more like an MMO would be. But, that worked well enough. As there were eough scripted possibilities to keep things moving and fun. The symbiote infection story was cool and fun and utilized the “open world” cityscape in novel ways. The game starts with like regular spider-man superhero stuff. And then the symbiote infection slowly spreads around the city. So some people willl start to go crazy and attack other people and slowly transform. climbing up walls and being weird. and there ends up in-fighting and stuff with the regular enemies who were already present. Pretty cool things going on.
Unfortunately, the first 1/3 of the game is tutorial and padding. And there are some glaringly obvious rush jobs on art and assets for some of the characters and bosses.
That combat though.
Spidey had his regular suit and his black symbiote suit. Each suit had its own separate move list and combos and webbing style. Borrowing a page from Devil May Cry games: you could switch between the suits on the fly, mid-combo. To create some very delicious combos. The special sauce was the crazy awesome webslinging system integrated into the combat. It allowed you to close distance on enemies like a slingshot, pull them towards you like Scorpion, bounce off of them and flip your sights to another enemy, tie them up, etc. and it was all animated super cool and acrobatic, just like the comics. And they really gave you opportunities to utilize it. Some of the boss battles really flexed the gameplay system. But also, badguys around the city were varied enough that these abilities often came into play. I still dream of another Spidey game from these same people. RIP Shaba games.
Bionic Commando Rearmed in an age when FPS ruled and games were still trying to be more 3D than all the others: Rearmed I think helped slowly usher in the reminders that we can still do games other ways. Even if riffing on classics. Its just a fun mix of classic style, with modern physics, A.I., and effects.
Persona 4 I love the soundtrack. I would never have guessed, but man do I love the soundtrack. The voice acting is some of the best ever. It absolutely nails small town Japan and makes me so nostalgic. The incredibly realistic setting and strong characters helps make the social link system feel fun and difficult to balance. Because you want to do it all. But you can’t. Its quirky. The whole concept surrounding the broadcasts from a murderer and the TV world, is very cool. The card system for collecting monsters is deep and fun. Its got very solid turn based combat. The dungeons are pretty lame. Also, its a PS2 game in 2008 WTF and its one of the best.
Valkyria Chronicles take western style strategy RPG gameplay which is nearly as detailed as Jagged Alliance and adapt it to a 3D engine and camera. Set it with fun Anime character which isn’t TOO Anime. Also, the first 1/2 of the game is actually a surprisingly touching story about war and loss and finding your footing amongst all that. More Anime elements come into play later on. But its not crazy and feels cool. My only real problem with the game is that there were a few missions which you had to play near exactly a specific way, in order to win. But it didn’t tell you that. So I died a lot until I figured out exactly what it wanted.
Mass Effect is somehow every bit as engrossing as KoTOR was. Despite creating its own original universe, rather than leaning on one already well established. Shifting more active control to the player during combat, was cool. And there’s some really punchy directing for some of the scenes. the overall visual aesthetic was cool. I even liked the film grain effect. All hail Jennifer Hale’s voice acting. Its got flaws but so does KoTOR.
| Year | Game |
|---|---|
| 2000 | Dragon Quest VII |
| 2001 | Silent Hill 2 |
| 2002 | Morrowind |
| 2003 | F-Zero GX |
| 2004 | R-Type Final |
| 2005 | Devil May Cry 3 |
| 2006 | Dead Rising |
| 2007 | Portal |
| 2008 | Armored Core: For Answer |
| 2009 | Monster Hunter Freedom Unite |
2000: Look, if I am being honest, this was the year of the Dreamcast for me, and I loved the shit out of it. Pretty much every other game I listed off when thinking about 2000 was a Dreamcast game, and it was certiainly what I played at the time, but I have long been a defender of DQ7 and I will continue to be, even if I will never finish it due to a memory card dying that left me feeling depressed about it. But it is still the amazing last gasp of the original DQ style of game, with an art style that I wish had gotten more traction (it did in the PS2 remakes of DQ games, but that is about it). Its story is ridiculously long, but divided into Saturday morning cartoon length little pieces. Its so good.
2001: So many options here, but I have to be honest with myself and pick one of The Games That Actually Matter so it’s Silent Hill 2.
2002: The actually games I played the most this year were Smash Melee, Sega Soccer Slam, and Radiant Silvergun, but Morrowind is too much to ignore here. Special shout out to playing Radiant Silvergun on a burned disc on my front porch in college, sitting on a couch I got from a tree lawn, with my dirty old man landlord looking over my shoulder and being fascinated by them weird games.
2003: An obvious choice for like a million reasons.
2004: Weirdly my hardest year to choose so far. I had Neo Contra as my kinda choice here for awhile before finally settling in on R-Type Final, which is such a lovely museum piece about a series that I had never really cared about before that. Yes, MGS3 or Nocturne are the more obvious choices here, but whatever.
2005: Look, I want it to be Killer 7, Yakuza 1, The Warriors, or We <3 Katamari, but I also know what game I played way too much of and realized I had carpal tunnel issues because of, so here we are. DMC3 is still just so good. I would play it more if my hands still worked.
2006: The game that made me move to a new generation and still just a fun as hell chaotic mess with all sorts of ideas that got ruined in later iterations because gamers can’t deal with consequences. Shout out to 2006’s game that kinda led to Hinge Problems, Marc Ecko’s Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure.
2007: The only Valve game I care for at this point, mostly because it was small enough as a project for them that it didn’t have all the interesting parts sanded off (see Portal 2) and it still felt like something interesting to explore. Still weird lack-of-a-body issues like most Source stuff, but the fresh puzzles and just-enough-of-a-story made it work well enough that I could overlook that. Runner up is probably Skate, just for being a game about how skateboarding isn’t actually easy at all, jeez.
2008: Miyazaki’s best game don’t @ me. Ridiculous speed, a forking story where every ending is the bad ending, gigantic bosses aplenty, a subplot that involves killing the protag from the previous game, and so much time tuning a mech in a shop to do a minute of ridiculous combat. I love this game. I want this to get ported so I can play it again.
2009: When Monster Hunter finally clicked for me. The combination of the right time, the almost right hardware, and a group of friends meant 300 hours of hunting and gearing up, all on a now sadly lost PSP. RIP my save.
Demon’s Souls was actually 2009 but it is so good it should cover multiple years if you ask me
not if it replaces acfa!!
rough draft, not great with the dates on a lot of stuff and looking at wikipedia lists kills me
sneer at all the normige i put on here
83 - the portopia serial murder case
84 - ?
85 - space harrier
86 - outrun
87 - ???
88 - super mario bros 3
89 - ys book i & ii
90 - dragon quest iv
91 - a link to the past
92 - sonic the hedgehog 2
93 - doom
94 - super street fighter 2 turbo
95 - cho ren sha x68k
96 - quakeworld
97 - fallout
98 - metal gear solid
99 - third strike
00 - deus ex
01 - halo: combat evolved
02 - dragon quarter
03 - outrun 2
04 - shin megami tensei: nocturne
05 - shadow of the colossus
06 - mother 3
07 - lol this year was garbage
08 - way of the samurai 3
09 - demon’s souls
10 - dog days vanquish
11 - virtua fighter 5 final showdown rev. a
12 - max payne 3
13 - dragon’s dogma: dark arisen
14 - original sin
15 - witcher 3
16 -
17 - original sin 2
18 - dragon quest xi
19 - sekiro
honestly the late 00s were so rough i was pretty close to ignoring new releases entirely… and then ncsx shipped demon’s
Oops!
I guess then I’d give it to BC1. I’ll fix it later!
