This is like arguing which cast of SNL was best. It's more about you & what age you where at the time, then the games themselves.
100%. The best year will probably be what you grew up with, which is why I was curious as to what other people thought
1998 was so sick. Just a few more:
The list goes on and on, I still play games from that year today.
My top 3 games of all time:
All in 2000. Oof. I didn't even realise this until you asked OP. What a time to be 12 that was.
Then 2023 has got to be a pretty good year for you too, with the releases of Final Fantasy 16, Baldur's Gate 3, and Diablo 4. I have enjoying Diablo 4 and am really looking forward to Baldur's Gate 3 (I haven't played the early-access).
Comparing these franchises then to now makes my head spin…
Indeed, it's pretty surreal. Working on my D4 Druid as we speak, whilst happily awaiting BG3. The fact my daughter is due to arrive the same month it releases makes the nostalgia extra surreal.
Honestly haven't given FF16 much thought tbh. Haven't played one since 10. They've all looked kind of interchangeable since then. 9 was special for me.
Honestly I genuinely think that 2017 might be the best year of gaming, ever. Breath of the wild, nier automata, mario odyssey, fortnite, cuphead, horizon zero dawn, hellblade: senua's sacrifice, destiny 2, xenoblade chronicles 2, prey, sonic mania, injustice 2, divinity original sin 2, nioh, splatoon 2, hollow knight, middle earth: shadow of war, night in the woods, pubg, pyre, yakuzas 0 and kiwami, even tekken 7's console release and persona 5's western release if you want to count those. And that's not mentioning the smaller indie games that were acclaimed within their circles like Absolver or the expansions for games that were critically acclaimed like Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire or Final Fantasy: Stormblood. Like, '98 is legendary for a reason but I think that as far as just, number of incredible games released we've never seen a year like 2017.
2004 was also a really good year
August-November of that year was headlined by a slew of all-time greats: Half-Life 2, San Andreas, MGS3, Halo 2, The Sims 2…
If you were into video games in any way in that time period, you had something great to play, regardless of platform.
World of Warcraft too if you’re EU.
It's obviously too early because two of them aren't out, but this year could shape up to be way up there for RPG fans if we get what we're being advertised. Final Fantasy XVI is a significant step into action that's been pretty well received, Baldur's Gate 3 has a lot people have already seen and looks like it may well be the next-generation standard for crpg open world games, and Starfield is a new IP that looks to me like it might be modernizing Bethesda gunplay in their trademark massive scale 3D open worlds.
If Bethesda isn't completely blowing smoke we could very realistically have three absolutely huge different styled RPGs that are the new standards for their genres.
Oh and Diablo 4. Damn. That one's not really my thing because I hate the online structures, but it's got to be on the list too.
It blows my mind how many iconic games came out that year, looking at that list... Also Sonic Adventure, Goldeneye and Ocarina of Time all came out in the same year??
It reminds me of how Weird Al's wonderful movie UHF didn't do great in theaters, being released in the summer of 1989. That meant it was competing against the following blockbusters:
Not to mention Metal Gear Solid, Spyro the Dragon, Turok 2, and Gex: Enter the Gecko
Not to mention? Imo, Spyro, MGS, Half Life, and Pokémon should be the main arguments for GOAT. The rest mentioned are just supplemental.
Goddamn I was OBSESSED with Goldeneye.
I mean… 2023 is shaping up to be pretty dope so far. FF16, Pikmin 4, Diablo IV, Armored Core (assuming it’s good), Tears of the Kingdom…
Baldur's Gate 3, Starfield
Street Fighter 6 is shaping up to be a landmark title for fighting games the same way Street Fighter 4 was in 2009.
I agree. TotK is probably one of the few games I consider to be almost perfect. Hogwarts Legacy was also great, and I'm currently hyped for Starfield (hoping it lives up to the hype).
The biggest downer of the year is for me Kerbal Space Program 2, as the early access has been extremely bad in performance and low on content with no big content updates in the forseeable future.
For my fellow space lovers: 2003
EvE + Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
You are welcome 😄
Jedi Academy was that year too! Though Need for Speed : Underground was probably the one I connected the most with
Holy fuck, didn’t realize eve was that old. Somehow I got into a beta or alpha test for it and there was barely any people. I remember it being a hot cup of garbage in terms of net code but the concept and gameplay was addicting. Never played retail and would never have expected it turn out so well and loved.
Here are some more:
That´s actually insane for one year!
Back then, studios had to actually make new games to make more money. Nowadays, you make one game and then just milk it for a decade.
Good answers but 2004 is the correct one
Fallout 2 was 1998 as well. I loved that game, and I bought Louie Armstrong greatest hits because the song in the opening credits was great.
2000 had Diablo 2, so, 2000
My favorite was 1997, I only owned a PS1 at the time, and here's some really good games that was released that year:
Some other non PS1, but notable games that came out that year:
1998 was also very good
It's harder and harder to get a year that can produce a large number of hits, especially since AAA has become so expensive and time consuming. Even great indies take longer than usual now. The explosions of hits released between late 2022 and this year, is probably caused by Covid delaying multiple projects.
With more game devs consolidation, and Embracer stumbling, I'm not too sure about the near future.
2003 or 2007 for me. The early Halo and CoD years were the formative years of online gaming while also having a single player experience that was as replayable as any of the 80's and 90's hit games.
2007 for sure. Mass Effect, Bioshock, Crysis, STALKER, The Witcher, Assassins Creed, and a bunch more I'm forgetting. I also played a ton on PSP back then that probably released that year that I'm forgetting.
2007 PSP games that stand out to me are Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters, Monster Hunter Freedom 2, and Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron.
1999 for me because of Age of Empires II and Quake III Arena
Q3A was released October 22, 2000.
2000 is a contender for retro gaming "best year".
Diablo 2 (still the best one, imho)
Q3A
Jet Set Radio
Baldur's Gate 2
Deus Ex
Paper Mario
No One Lives Forever
Counter Strike
Legacy of Kain Soul Reaver
Anyway, late 90s early 00s had a lot of banger years with awesome new IPs dropping regularly. The last 5-10 years have been amazing for indie games, but AAA games are just fancier versions of what we already have, for the most part.
'93 had Doom and we're still installing Doom on things.
If it doesn't run doom, is it even a computer?
In computer science we should say that a machine is DOOM complete
The original Doom and Doom II still unironically kick arse. There are updated engines that allow fancy things like looking up and down the the mouse but other than that (and maybe making the graphics prettier) there's very little you could do to improve those games
98 was very strong, but I would argue until like 2005 every year was pretty amazing.
I was born in 99’ so 2007 was my year.
2014 the year Titanfall came out, it was basically everything I wanted in FPS. I could wall run, shoot and then hop in my giant robot and rain hellfire down with a 40MM or hoop out and let it follow while I jump onto the enemies Titan, shoot it with my machine gun and then plant satchel charges. When the pilot hops out to try and kill me jump off set off satchel charges killing the Titan and its pilot.
I know I'm basic.
Oh boy, I'm going to have to think about that one...
We need something like boxofficemojo.com for games listing everything by year.
For movies, 1982 was HUGE.
https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/1982/?ref_=bo_yl_table_42
For games? Imma need to do research...
2023 -Street Fighter 6 -being able to play Hunt: Showdown on Linux -Cyberpunk '77: Phantom Liberty -Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure -BattleBit -games I haven't played yet, but looking forward: Zelda Totk(?)
I would agree this has been the best year in recent times. It feels like we're finally pushing past the impact of COVID, and the industry is getting used to being remote, or dragging everyone back to the office.
I'm not completely in the loop, but off the top of my head we've gotten:
AAA:
Indie:
And we still have the holiday season to look forward to. Maybe not the best year ever, but still a fantastic one, and especially so given how slow the last few years have been,
Tekken 3 was good evolution of tekken games, big deal and very fun to play. I think 1998 is a console gaming year, cd-base, while still PC system have to deal with hardware improve.
I can't say if it was the best year as I haven't looked through every year, but 2011 was a pretty strong year that sticks out in my mind
Some notable titles (for me) were skyrim, portal 2, LA Noir, ocarina of time 3D, star fox 3D(do these two count? They were technically remakes for the 3DS), skyward sword, Dark souls.
Other titles that might be notable (there might be more that I don't list, I'm just skimming quickly) Amnesia, battlefield 3, COD MW3, Catherine, Crysis 2, dead space 2, gears of War 3, hatoful boyfriend, little big planet 2, Mario kart 7, mortal kombat (2011), no more room in hell, red orchestra 2, saints row 3, SMT devil survivor 2, tekken tag tournament 2, terraria, track mania 2.
Again there might be some i missed(especially playstation releases, I think i maybe missed a resistance game or something) but those were some notable ones I saw.
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