My turn. The main Joystiqers have been wrapping up their thoughts on 2004, noting the products, news and gossip that got us hot under the mousepad. We may consider the same items list-worthy, and that's fine. As long as we give it our own twisted perspective…
2004. Fastest year ever. Minus that whole election thing, which seemed to last forever. All of us anticipated the
release of many top-tier games at the end of the year. Starting in January we talked about them, yelled about them,
gossiped about them and then bought them, played them, praised them, blasted them, yelled about them some more, and
then moved on. It?s all quite exhausting when you think about it. And playing the actual game usually ended up being
around 43% of the fun.
Let?s take a look at the year-end titles which, taken individually, would have made for a tasty Christmas:
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Halo 2
Half-Life 2
Doom 3
Everquest 2
World of Warcraft
Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II
Chronicles of Riddick: Developer?s Cut (?Developer?s Cut?,
BAH!)
Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
I mean lordy, lordy. That list is astonishing (and probably incomplete, right?). Everyone expected the titles to be
amazing, and sell like the dickens. Which leads us to my #5 item ? most of the holiday ?AAA? titles were indeed
amazing, and all of them sold like the dickens. That?s a nice combo for gamers, and the industry.
Look at it this way, the best games to come out for each game platform this season will go down in history as some of
the finest ever made. Half-Life 2 and World of Warcraft for PC, Halo 2 for Xbox, San Andreas for Playstation 2 (though
I?m sure I?ll hear some feedback on that one), and Paper Mario for Gamecube. And if you don?t like that list, then take
a look at the best of 2004?s ?B? titles, and you?ll see even more classics. Katamari Damacy, Tales of Symphonia, Astro
Boy: Omega Factor, Chronicles of Riddick (for Xbox), Burnout 3: Takedown. The list goes on and on.
It was a breakout year for our favorite hobby. Sure, the mainstream took a look at our sales figures and declared us
one of them (which we?ll certainly live to regret). But the kicker is this; right when the world was paying
attention we delivered the best pack of games ever seen by the whole darn planet. Ever. 1999 comes close, but, man oh
man, 2004 was the perfect storm.
