The best year for vidya, ever

[dirtydeanna96]

Next year!!
I'm a retrofag and stopped buying new systems with the Megadrive/Super Nintendo.

With things like FPGAs, ODEs, cycle accurate SNES emulation (RIP Byuu) microSD enabled flashcarts - the future is the best time to play the past.

 

[Broseph]

I would argue it was 2004, just in that year alone we got:
-Halo 2
-Half Life 2
-GTA San Andreas
-Metal Gear Solid 3
-Doom 3
-Vampire the Masquerade
-World of Warcraft
-Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door
-Burnout 3
-Def Jam Fight for NY

 

[Solid Snek]

I would argue it was 2004, just in that year alone we got:
-Halo 2
-Half Life 2
-GTA San Andreas
-Metal Gear Solid 3
-Doom 3
-Vampire the Masquerade
-World of Warcraft
-Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door
-Burnout 3
-Def Jam Fight for NY

Yeah, the 04-05 season is probably where I'd go, too.

Put these two things together and it's easy to cherry pick release dates to make it seem like it was a none stop stream of high quality new releases that you wonder how people had time to play them all. But back then, most of the games I played were either via rentals, Christmas, birthdays, and anything found at a car boot sale.

O get what you're saying, but I don't think it's pertinent to the question - at least, not how most people would interpret the question.

The question is not "during which year did you, personally, or the average gamer pursuing his hobby in a typical fashion, play the best games?"

The question is "in what year did the best games get released?"

The fact that you may not have played Starcraft until the summer of 2000, doesn't change the fact that it was released in 98, and qualifies as a 98 game for purposes of this thread,

It's like when people talk about the crash of 83 as if it were a wasteland where no games existed, but when someone points out that classic games like Chuckie Egg, Dragon's Lair, Mario Brothers, and Elite were released that year, they go ape shit. They want the myth (the feelz) that gaming was completely erased until Nintendo revived the industry with the NES.

The crash of 83 was absolutely a real thing, and we have extensive historical records to prove it. That's the reelz.

The feelz is that maybe you, personally, like a few games that came out between 83 and 85? And that's fine, you're totally entitled to enjoy dogshit games like Dragon's Lair, if you're so inclined. But the crash of 83 was no "myth" - there really was a crash, the industry really did lose over half of its global revenue (home consoles losing over 90%), and the industry objectively did not rebound until Nintendo stepped in.

Subjectively, there may have still been some good non-NES games coming out in 83, 84, 85. But objectively, the American home console market effectively ceased to exist, and consumer confidence did not return until the release of the NES.

It's kinda the same theory on how man became such a succesful animal;, it's not just our unique qualities, it's also that after the ice age there was large room in biospheres due to most animals dying. And if you have one that has a lot of curiosity/ wanderlust and is adaptable to different environments it does very well in a world depleted of large organisms, but now plentiful in vegetation.

Proposing a causative correlation between 98 Games and the proliferation of home PCs is an interesting theory. But are you talking about good games, or simply successful games? Would you even draw a distinction between the two?

Also, why 98, specifically? Home PCs were not a new and novel concept in 98; their market share had been increasing for years prior, and continued to increase for years afterwards. Are you proposing that a 40%ish household penetration is the sweet spot for quality gaming? If so, how would you prove this?

 

[I.B. Niggin]

I cant pinpoint a year but the years I enjoyed the most were probably:

1994
1995
1998
2004
2007

 

[Dom Cruise]

2001 is my personal fav, Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid 2, Grand Theft Auto III, Devil May Cry, Ace Combat 4, Gran Turismo 3, Jak and Daxter, Final Fantasy X, Halo, Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, Super Smash Bros Melee, Luigi's Mansion and Pikmin, all of which came out within the fall and winter, that is just insane.

All of which provided some much needed escapism after 9/11, reality has only gotten worse in the 20 years since, but at least we have the virtual world to escape to.

2007. It had:

Halo 3
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
Rock Band
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Portal
Bioshock
Super Mario Galaxy
Team Fortress 2
and the greatest video game of all time:

Spoiler

Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga

2007 was the last truly great year, with the closest being 2017, but 2007 felt like the culmination of gaming's golden age.

2002
morrowind, vice city, and especially warcraft 3 which was insanely influential over the next two decades

2002 is an interesting one, I wouldn't pick it as a favorite, but like 2003, it's still really special to me.

In fact every year from 2001-2008 were each great in their own individual ways even if some stood out more than others.

 

[Product Placement]

2017 was a strong year I haven't seen brought up, won't say it's the best year but it's a very strong year and the best year of the 2010s for sure even if some of the games are just well done remasters.

Spoiler: games of note for 2017

RE7
Yakuza 0
Nioh
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Nier Automata
Got remasters of KH games at 60fps
PaRappa the Rapper Remastered
Persona 5
Bayonetta and Vanquish finally came to the PC
The Silver Case
Little Nightmares
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Prey
LocoRoco Remastered
Divinity: Original Sin 2
Injustice 2
Tekken 7
Arms
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
South Park: The Fractured but Whole
Wipeout Omega Collection
Hollow Knight
Total War: Warhammer 2
Nex Machina
Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age
Splatoon 2
Sonic Maina
Ys 8
Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Cuphead
Golf Story
A Hat in Time
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
Super Mario Odyssey
Metroid 2: Samus Returns
Hellblade
Pyre
The Evil Within 2
Gravity Rush 2
Destiny 2
Horizon Zero Dawn
Forza Motorsport 7
Rime
and Knack 2

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

I can't remember which year it was but I remember looking into it and it was definitely a late 90's year, probably '99. It was because PS1, N64, Dreamcast, Game Boy Color, and Neo Geo Pocket Color were all releasing games at once; it was a very competitive time and a launch year for next gen.

90's were just incredible in general. From SMB3 in Feb '90 to Sonic Adventure in Nov '99, they never stopped blasting out great games.

 

[dirtydeanna96]

The question is not "during which year did you, personally, or the average gamer pursuing his hobby in a typical fashion, play the best games?"

The question is "in what year did the best games get released?"

1994. Final Fantasy 3, Sonic 3 (and Knuckles), Earthworm Jim, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, (the end result of three years spent refining the system) Daytona USA, Earthbound, Super Metroid. Streets of Rage 3, Donkey Kong Country. Alien vs. Predator (arcade) X-Men: Children of the Atom

 

[Overcast]

Probably 98 or 2004, although I have a fondness for 2005 as that was when Shadow of the Colossus was released.

 

[SpaceMovie1992]

2011 was pretty damn good:

LA Noire
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Saints Row 3
W40K: Space Marine
Dead Space 2
Terraria
Fucking SKYRIM
Total War: Shogun 2 (literally the best TW game ever)
Dark Souls, love it or hate it
Bastion

It felt like all of the big legacy devs and publishers were firing on all cylinders and really getting the most out of the PS3/X360 and getting really bold when it came to pushing the envelope on what you could do on a PC. You also saw a lot of indie devs springing up and making really good and novel games around this time. FTL came out the next year

It's almost depressing to compare releases in 2011 to releases from 2013-2015. The scourge of the walking simulator arose in the indie scene. Sequels became formulaic or were tanked by executive dysfunction. Destiny was the most overhyped and disappointing thing ever. Total War Rome 2 was completely broken on launch and CA started making awful warhammer games afterwards. Mass Effect 3 (which I still really like) got buried under controversy and a botched crunch time rewrite of the ending. Gaming was cool and fresh in 2011. Four years later, the shine had come off

 

[cummytummies]

I was thinking. What was the best year for vidya ever?

I read this and instinctively said "1998"

For me, I'm thinking 1998. You google "1998 in gaming" and the number of titles thrown up by this are astounding....

well there you go.

Also your list leaves out a ton of good games from 1998 like Thief, Metal Gear Solid, Zelda: OoT, MediEvil, Banjo-Kazooie, Crash: Warped, Spyro and Gex.

 

[cummytummies]

Exactly. The "reelz" was that these games came out often years apart, and there were large differences between platforms.

Instead, we're expected to ignore all that so millennials/gen-x can wallow in nostalgia for a year that never actually existed. Taking a 4 year span of gaming, removing all the chaff, and pooling the best together to give a false impression of a time where classic games were released every other week, usually with the unstated premise that gaming since then was shit.

ONE. One game on this list came out "often years apart" and that was Pokemon Red & Blue. ONE GAME out of a list of ~20 bangers. Fuck outta here.

Even that's not fully honest since the Japanese games are entirely different and the "Red and Blue" everyone nostalgically remembers was unquestionably first released in 1998.

I knew when I saw the title someone was going to say "1998".

Every time I roll my eyes because the mythical 1998 people rave about relies on two things people forget about (or deliberately ignore).

1. Staggered release dates. Pokemon was released between 1996 and 1999, depending on where you live. If we add in Pokemon Yellow, the year 2000. Many console games worked like this.
2. People rarely bought games on release day until the latter days of the PS1 lifespan, at least where I live.

Put these two things together and it's easy to cherry pick release dates to make it seem like it was a none stop stream of high quality new releases that you wonder how people had time to play them all. But back then, most of the games I played were either via rentals, Christmas, birthdays, and anything found at a car boot sale.

MGS and Pokemon might technically share a release year if you skim wikipedia, but in practice it didn't feel that way. Likewise, Half-Life was sort of a sleeper hit, a slow burn that gained popularity over time. Not like today where a game comes out and two weeks later everyone has forgotten about it.


To be fair to you guys, this is the first time I've seen people actually not fall into this trap. OP lists mostly PC games, while @Lemmingwise specifically says the year pokemon came to the west.

True, games had a lot more staying power. But this isn't a question of "what year did you play the best games?". It's "what is the best year for game releases?". If you went back now to play Deus Ex would you count it as a 2021 title? Of course not.

Also Half-Life wasn't a "sleeper hit". Maybe compared to today's market... actually scratch that, even that's not true. What are the most played games right now? PUBG? Dota 2? CS:GO? Games almost a decade old.

By 1999 Team Fortress Classic was huge and by 2000 literally anyone and their grandma was playing Counter-Strike. Our family got its first proper gaming PC and broadband internet that year just to play Counter-Strike. The few boys in my class whose computer couldn't run it would spend all day after school at someone else's house who did have Counter-Strike.

Half-Life itself got 10/10s from every major publication, back when those scores really mattered. Before Twitch and Twitter and whatever, it was magazines and word of mouth. And Half-Life had both on its side from release.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Also Half-Life wasn't a "sleeper hit".

Then what's the correct term? It don't blow the doors off of PC gaming on release day. You say yourself.

Before Twitch and Twitter and whatever, it was magazines and word of mouth.

It took a while. Add in that PC specs were way different back then, and it all goes to my point that it wasn't a release day hit people like to pretend.

Now, this could just be me, but I remember the Half-Life Generations release was the one most people had. Which is 1999-2002 according to the Half-Life wiki.

If you went back now to play Deus Ex would you count it as a 2021 title? Of course not.

Deus Ex? No. But Warframe or Rocket League? Yes.

This is why I defend the post 2000 answers over the pre 2000 answers. I think buying habits and when something "went mainstream" is important. I know this isn't a flawless argument, and a lot of it might be my own nostalgia for the 2000s when I'd spend hours in GAME or Game Station, browsing the "3 for £15" shelves, when I wasn't picking up my pre-order of Metal Gear Solid 2 or Resident Evil 4.

I have an irrational hatred of hipsters. The kind of people who got into Eldar Scrolls with Oblivion or Skyrim, only to claim they'd been playing since Daggerfall. The idolisation of 1998 is kind of like that. Most of this thread has been fine to be honest. It hasn't fallen into the usual problem of "I was playing Half-Life and Starcraft on my PC, then I'd stand up and play Pokemon on my way over to my PlayStation to play MGS and Spyro while I waited for my parents to come home with Panzer Dragoon." type shit which, as I said, this thread has avoided almost entirely.

 

[Titos]

2007 was pretty great as a year. It's one of the few years where I actually had to make a decision in what game I wanted because I only had 120 bucks and for once there was more than 2 games I wanted. Ended up getting Mass Effect and Assassins Creed which were awesome to me. Ended up getting Halo 3, CoD4, and The Orange Box later in the year due to trade in deals at GameCrazy which were all great fun as well. Ended up playing an ungodly amount of Halo 3, CoD4, and Gears multiplayer that year.

 

[cummytummies]

Then what's the correct term? It don't blow the doors off of PC gaming on release day. You say yourself.

It took a while. Add in that PC specs were way different back then, and it all goes to my point that it wasn't a release day hit people like to pretend.

I think it was just a standard successful game. These giant launch events with $100M marketing campaigns simply didn't exist back then. Every popular game grew slower than they do now when the industry and the technology is completely different. So I'd just call it a hit.

Deus Ex? No. But Warframe or Rocket League? Yes.

This is why I defend the post 2000 answers over the pre 2000 answers. I think buying habits and when something "went mainstream" is important. I know this isn't a flawless argument, and a lot of it might be my own nostalgia for the 2000s when I'd spend hours in GAME or Game Station, browsing the "3 for £15" shelves, when I wasn't picking up my pre-order of Metal Gear Solid 2 or Resident Evil 4.

I have an irrational hatred of hipsters. The kind of people who got into Eldar Scrolls with Oblivion or Skyrim, only to claim they'd been playing since Daggerfall. The idolisation of 1998 is kind of like that. Most of this thread has been fine to be honest. It hasn't fallen into the usual problem of "I was playing Half-Life and Starcraft on my PC, then I'd stand up and play Pokemon on my way over to my PlayStation to play MGS and Spyro while I waited for my parents to come home with Panzer Dragoon." type shit which, as I said, this thread has avoided almost entirely.

I understand what you're talking about, I definitely spent my youth in electronic stores (and weirdly book stores) browsing the endless bargain bins and buying cheap ass PC games based on the back of the box. But for me the sentiment about 1998 is simply a technicality, it's not reminiscing about 1998. It's that I look at the list of games:

Half-Life, Starcraft, Baldur's Gate, Fallout 2, Thief, Metal Gear Solid, MediEvil, Crash 3, Spyro, Gex, Pokemon Blue. These are all games I've played at some point in my life and loved. I didn't play them because they came out in 1998, I played them based on the usual factors of game reviews, word of mouth, box art etc. that I used to pick any video games.

Only later on I realized that all these seemingly unrelated games I have such high opinions of happen to share a common characteristic: being released in 1998. It's not nostalgia for the year 1998, it's just a recognition of a statistical pattern. A bunch of great games released in 1998, more so than in any other year I believe, even if I played most of them after the year 1998.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

I think it was just a standard successful game. These giant launch events with $100M marketing campaigns simply didn't exist back then. Every popular game grew slower than they do now when the industry and the technology is completely different. So I'd just call it a hit.


I understand what you're talking about, I definitely spent my youth in electronic stores (and weirdly book stores) browsing the endless bargain bins and buying cheap ass PC games based on the back of the box. But for me the sentiment about 1998 is simply a technicality, it's not reminiscing about 1998. It's that I look at the list of games:

Half-Life, Starcraft, Baldur's Gate, Fallout 2, Thief, Metal Gear Solid, MediEvil, Crash 3, Spyro, Gex, Pokemon Blue. These are all games I've played at some point in my life and loved. I didn't play them because they came out in 1998, I played them based on the usual factors of game reviews, word of mouth, box art etc. that I used to pick any video games.

Only later on I realized that all these seemingly unrelated games I have such high opinions of happen to share a common characteristic: being released in 1998. It's not nostalgia for the year 1998, it's just a recognition of a statistical pattern. A bunch of great games released in 1998, more so than in any other year I believe, even if I played most of them after the year 1998.

Likewise. I didn't play FUCKING ALPHA CENTAURI until 2011 when I got it off GOG.com in a sale.

I also think 2004 was another good year. Half Life 2, yes, but also VTMB, San Andreas, and Need for Speed Underground 2 (which is way better than any obvious cash in on the original Fast and Furious with really cringeworthy attempts at urban slang has any right to be. My inner autist loved tweaking all the tuning sliders, turbo curves and ECM maps and throwing it round the test track, tweaking some more, and so forth.)

 

[Seven Costanza]

1994

Donkey Kong (Game Boy)
Donkey Kong Country
EarthBound (Mother 2 release)
Emerald Dragon (trust me on this one)
Final Fantasy III
Legend of Xanadu: Kaze no Densetsu Xanadu (trust me on this one too)
Super Metroid

 

[Jason Wynn]

1999:

Planescape: Torment
Silent Hill
System Shock 2
Age of Empires 2
Heroes of Might and Magic 3
Dungeon Keeper 2
Everquest

I had a lot of fun that year