1998 - the greatest year of video gaming

sherbz

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So I have been doing a spot of history, and I truly find it astounding just how good and important 1998 was for video games. A brief look at the list should tell you why:

- half life
- unreal
- zelda orcania of time
- thief
- star craft
- baldurs gate

Any one of these games is special. But to have all of them in a single year is quite remarkable, especially when you consider the future significance of many of them:

- half life was valves debut game and set it on the road to half life 2 and steam
- baldurs gate was bio wares debut game and made it one of the premier rpg makers
- thief gave birth to the stealth survival game
- zelda was the epic translation of a classic into the 3D world
- unreal gave birth to the unreal engine, an engine which spawned a plethora of other triple a titles
- Starcraft gave birth to the online competitive leagues we see today in things like Dota and LOL.

For me it seems as though to get a year like this you have to have three things:

1- an established set of games in a recognised format (unreal, zelda)
2 - a giant leap forward in technology (unreal, zelda, thief)
3 - innovation (half life, star craft, baldurs gate)

This sort of leads to the question what will bring the next great year of video gaming? Many of you have probably seen that oculus rift has just started shipping. I think give it a year or two and we might just be in for another year of greatness.

My own personal opinion is that consoles have held gaming back for many years. But recently you have seen a resurgence in PC gaming as enthusiasts on the console market have switched to PC because the likes of Microsoft have increasingly tried to appeal to the mass market. Which means they kind of ignored their hardcore support. This is a good thing as the PC is by far the most innovative market. Maybe we are due a new greatest year of gaming. My personal hope is for half life 3 on oculus rift and a plethora of other games in the side.
 
Rogue Squadron probably deserves a mention to.

And, though it was released two years earlier in Japan, 1998 did unleash Pikachu and his 151 251 386 493 649 721 ??? minions upon an unsuspecting West.
 
The best year of gaming is the current one because you can still go back and play all of those games.

Except maybe some like OoT which have aged extremely poorly, which can be an issue.
 
The best year of gaming is the current one because you can still go back and play all of those games.

Except maybe some like OoT which have aged extremely poorly, which can be an issue.

That is about the silliest thing I think you have ever said!

It certainly isn't a case of "the current step is the most important". It is all relative. Therefore, in relative terms, 1998 was the best year of gaming. Otherwise what is the point of top games and best games ever lists? By your metric we would only ever say that the most recent game is the best, which patently isn't true.
 
That is about the silliest thing I think you have ever said!

It certainly isn't a case of "the current step is the most important". It is all relative. Therefore, in relative terms, 1998 was the best year of gaming. Otherwise what is the point of top games and best games ever lists? By your metric we would only ever say that the most recent game is the best, which patently isn't true.

to jerk about the games you played as a child
 
Otherwise what is the point of top games and best games ever lists?

Well they do largely exist to generate clicks and view counts for ad revenue because they're easy clickbait... :p

By your metric we would only ever say that the most recent game is the best, which patently isn't true.
That is not at all what I said.
 
I find them entertaining though. I made a thread like this a while ago and asked for votes and stuff but I got busy and couldn't tally results in time so it fizzled out.

I remember 2008 as being a pretty robust year, just a few, Dead Space, Left for Dead, Fallout 3, mario kart for wii, super smash bros for wii.
 
to jerk about the games you played as a child

Whilst nostalgia is great, I like to think I can look beyond my rose tinted spectacles. After all, I was a student of history. It is something I am considering writing a book on, if you must know.
 
04 and 07 are way up there.

2004 was:
Ninja Gaiden
Unreal Tournament 2004
Far Cry
Fight Night 2004
Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots
Thief: Deadly Shadows
Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
Spider Man 2
Doom 3
Pikmin 2
Burnout 3: Takedown
Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen
Fable
Sly 2: Band of Thieves
The Sims 2
Star Wars: Battlefront
Katamari Damacy
Rome: Total War
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Counter-Strike: Source
Killzone
Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal
Halo 2
Half-Life 2
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
World of Warcraft
Alien Hominid
Knights of the Old Republic II
Battle for Middle Earth


2007 was:
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Europa Universalis III
Jade Empire
God of War II
The Shivering Isles expansion for TES IV
Command and Conquer 3
Guitar Hero II
Super Paper Mario
Pokemon Diamond and Pearl
Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword
Bioshock
Halo 3
The Orange Box
The Witcher
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Assassin's Creed
Mass Effect
Rock Band


2005 wasn't bad either:
Legend of Zelda: THe Minish Cap
Reisdent Evil 4
Mercenaries
Gran Turismo 4
Star Wars: Republic Commando
Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30
God of War
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Psychonauts
Guild Wars
Battlefield 2
Destroy All Humans!
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
F.E.A.R
Age of Empires 3
Shadow of the Colossus
Civilization 4
Star Wars Battlefront 2
Guitar Hero
Mario Kart DS
Perfect Dark Zero
Call of Duty 2
 
If dragon age origions was two months later or mass effect 2 a month earlier then either 2009 or 2010 would be my top year ever. Those are easily two of my favorite video games of all time and release three months apart (november 2009 for dao and january 2010 for me2).
 
Hm, didn't 1997 have Broken Sword, Age of Empires and some other ones? Or 1996. Anyway, many massively great games were released in those years. It also is an issue of age, for example at 1998 i was in my first year at uni, so was not very active re games. Europa Universalis was 1997 too iirc. :)

Then again, 1997-98 is more associated with the first era of the internet. It pretty much started at the time, or started to be something people paid money to have access to.
 
uh what franchise would that be? cus civ is before that and idk what else you'd be getting at on a civ forum.

It's kinda hard for one person to make a big list cus I know when I was a kid my parents didn't just buy me every game I wanted, so I'd save my money and buy maybe one or two a year, or get older discounted ones. So you say 1998, a lot of those I revisited later or never played. I did play ocarina of time and star craft when they came out, but I still have never played half life or baldur's gate. Heroes of might and magic I never played any of the series until about two years ago. Master of orion I didn't play until a few years ago off gog as well.
 
uh what franchise would that be? cus civ is before that and idk what else you'd be getting at on a civ forum.

It's kinda hard for one person to make a big list cus I know when I was a kid my parents didn't just buy me every game I wanted, so I'd save my money and buy maybe one or two a year, or get older discounted ones. So you say 1998, a lot of those I revisited later or never played. I did play ocarina of time and star craft when they came out, but I still have never played half life or baldur's gate. Heroes of might and magic I never played any of the series until about two years ago. Master of orion I didn't play until a few years ago off gog as well.

Dude you really ought to play half life and baldurs gate. Both are exceptional. Get black Mesa and it's like playing a modern game.

But yea, like you I saved for my games as a kid and bought only one or two. And the only premier triple a title I bought full price was Warcraft 2. The rest were usually budget titles as I never had a decent rig as a kid. So older games worked better.
 
ha sorry never played fallout :p

I actually think I'm going for 1996 though. Looking back at it the amount of hits is massive. Kinda funny, most of these are sequels.

-Civ2
-Lords of the realm 2
-Heroes of might and magic 2
-Super mario 64
-Command and conquer Red Alert
-Master of Orion 2 (came out 10-31, same day as red alert. Happy Halloween!)
-Star Wars Shadows of the Empire
-Conquest of the new world (underrated pc game, it's on gog and it's good)

Four big ones I didn't play:
-Tomb Raider
-Diablo
-Quake
-Duke Nukem 3d
 
I find them entertaining though. I made a thread like this a while ago and asked for votes and stuff but I got busy and couldn't tally results in time so it fizzled out.

I remember 2008 as being a pretty robust year, just a few, Dead Space, Left for Dead, Fallout 3, mario kart for wii, super smash bros for wii.

Was that the thread where we had a single year to choose a best game and you could vote for one title? And each week we had a new year? That was a good thread. I remember it died when we reached 2001 or something though. We should finish it.
 
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