Game of the Year

[sherbz]

Vote = Warcraft 2. For the music, for the progress it made to the multiplayer RTS scene, for the ridiculous lines units got sometimes, and for the exploding sheep.

Haha, i forgot about the exploding sheep, and the pigs, lets not forget the pigs

 

[Loppan Torkel]

Vote: Warcraft II

 

[Kyriakos]

And the ogre's bloodlust

Since obviously WCII will win, i will vote for my own nomination out of respect towards it

Vote= ClockTower

(edit: it seems i had voted already, all fine then )

 

[Heart Break Kid]

So we're trying to currently figure out what GOTY in 95 was? How long do we have before we move onto 96?

 

[sherbz]

So we're trying to currently figure out what GOTY in 95 was? How long do we have before we move onto 96?

I think so, although it looks as though WC2 is going to be the first run away winner. 1996 is a tough choice for between Master of Orion 2 and Duke Nukem 3D

 

[Kyriakos]

Hm, isnt Age of Empires from 1996? (or was that 1997?)

edit: wiki says 1997.

 

[civvver]

I'll try to tally the votes for a 1995 winner tomorrow or this weekend. Generally we go two weeks per vote, one to get a bunch of nominations and exposure to titles out there and one to place final votes.

 

[Loppan Torkel]

Nominees for 1996, plucked from some ranking:
Super Mario 64
Mario Kart 64
Resident Evil (1996)
Duke Nukem 3D
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Crash Bandicoot
Diablo
Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Tomb Raider (1996)
Quake
Sid Meier's Civilization II

 

[Red Key]

Now that Loppan started nominees for 1996 I can't resist looking too (I'm using videogamegeek's advanced search). Here are some more 1996 nominees:

Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares
Tetris Attack
Heroes of Might and Magic II: The Succession Wars
...
Pokémon Red and Blue (Wow the first Japanese versions were released in 96, but NA versions weren't until 98. What is the final decision on release year regional differences like this?)

 

[sherbz]

Nominees for 1996, plucked from some ranking:
Super Mario 64
Mario Kart 64
Resident Evil (1996)
Duke Nukem 3D
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Crash Bandicoot
Diablo
Command & Conquer: Red Alert
Tomb Raider (1996)
Quake
Sid Meier's Civilization II

Hmmm. Mariokart 64 is on the list, I might have to add that to my dilemma: Duken Nukem 3D, Master of Orion II and now MarioKart.

Although some people consider Quake to be one of the best games ever made, I have to disagree and say that I thought Duke Nukem was actually a better game. There was more of a narrative to it, which is something ID have never really excelled at and I tend to prefer.

Master of Orion 2 is an awesome strategy game. I would go as far to say that it beat Civilization 2 into the ground, and stayed at the summit of empire wide strategy games until civ 3 came along some 5 years later.

As for Mariokart 64, I played that to death when I was at university. I never really appreciated just how old it really was. I think at one point my friends and I racked up about 200+ races in a single sitting. Its slightly amusing in that the company where I work held a mariokart 64 competition. The objective was to get the best time, and the winner got a £50 bar tab at a classy bar in central London. Hundreds of people entered, and I rocked up on the final day of the week (having not known at all of the competition throughout the week), sat down, paid my £1 entrance fee, and dominated the track and the leading time. So I am currently the reigning mariokart champion of my company. Who said university was a waste of time . That gives me serious considerations for my vote. Hmmmm

 

[ls612]

I vote for civ 2, that was the first civ game I ever played and at the time it was the most amazing thing I'd ever played. Ah, the memories.

 

[civvver]

Results done for '95. Yes, wc2 was a run away winner. I voted for dark forces, couldn't vote for wc2 having not played it!

Good nominees for '96 thus far. I had a feeling in the back of my head when I began this thread months ago '96 would be a hard year.

Civ2 - Obsessively played this. In hind sight it's maybe not that good compared to newer civ titles but in its day the best thing I ever played.

Red Alert - Best c&c title still to this date in my view.

Mario kart 64 - still the best mario kart game imo.

Heroes of might and magic II - Now this is how you make a sequel! Takes everything good about the original and makes it better. Better sprites, bigger battle map, better spell points mechanics, more hero types. It's just plain awesome.

Lords of the realm II - This will most likely be my vote. As much as I loved civ2, I still replay lotr2 to this day. The combination of economic management and rts battles is so good. The economy side makes sense, is not overly complex but still needs to be managed. It's just a damn fun game.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

Buf! things are going to be hard between Civ 2 (best civ ever IMO) and Quake for me.

More nominations:
The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall (because its huge world)
Lighthouse: The Dark Being (because the ambient)
NASCAR Racing 2 (Papyrus´s sims physics were ahead of its time)

I will vote Quake however. First real 3D graphics and the music by NIN was impressive.


Link to video.

 

[KMRblue1027]

Civ II was 96? All right then I wasn't gonna vote this year but Civ II it is.

 

[civvver]

I think civ2 is going to run away with 96 just like civ did for 91 even though in hind sight it hasn't held up that well over the years. Tons of nostalgia and of course this is a civ forum, but civ4 and 5 are vastly better than civ1 and 2, I just feel like there are much more deserving games in the 90s. Civ was a good 4x series but it didn't become epic and in the pantheon of pc games for me until the fourth release.

 

[Loppan Torkel]

For me, I think civ2 might have been the peak of the series. I may have played civ3 more, but by civ4 I kind of lost interest and I've barely touched civ5. I'm not sure how the games can be compared to each other in a fair way, but for me when voting, I'll go with the games I had the most fun with or regarded the best experience at the time I played it.

It's either Quake, for the mp, or civ2 for me. Not sure yet.

 

[civvver]

Well that's how you should vote, for whichever game gave you the best experience. The difference for me is, with gog and steam and digital games, plus dosbox and windows7 compatibility modes for my old disc games, most of these old games are very replayable today. So I'm not only making my votes based on my experience back in 1996, which is hard to be objective about because it's just an emotional memory, but also based on how I feel about the game now. I'm still making votes on the game experience but I can update the experience. It's not like I'm comparing civ2 graphics to civ5 and saying 2 sucks, but when I play now it's just not as fun as other stuff. For me I remember playing civ2 hours and hours and it being such a great game but when I replay civ2 and lords of the relam 2 today, I prefer the lords of the realm experience. If I were to go through my votes, most of them are games I've played recently- Link to the past and super mario world I play on gameboy advance, Tie Fighter I have old discs I play through dosbox, dark forces is on steam now.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

I dont vote only for how much i enjoyed a given game but also for how much significance the game had at its moment and how much it has influenced other tittles and the gaming world in general. So while personal experience may be the main reason, success and influence are the reasons because finally i voted Quake over Civ2 for instance.

 

[Red Key]

Vote= Civ2

Civ2 was the first Civ game I played. I'm glad some friends introduced me to it because it helped me discover turn-based strategy is my favorite game genre. I never played Civ3 because I think I was more into console games during that period of time. Civ4 is one of my favorite games. I'm one of those who finds Civ5 a disappointment.

 

[Loppan Torkel]

Well that's how you should vote, for whichever game gave you the best experience. The difference for me is, with gog and steam and digital games, plus dosbox and windows7 compatibility modes for my old disc games, most of these old games are very replayable today. So I'm not only making my votes based on my experience back in 1996, which is hard to be objective about because it's just an emotional memory, but also based on how I feel about the game now. I'm still making votes on the game experience but I can update the experience. It's not like I'm comparing civ2 graphics to civ5 and saying 2 sucks, but when I play now it's just not as fun as other stuff. For me I remember playing civ2 hours and hours and it being such a great game but when I replay civ2 and lords of the relam 2 today, I prefer the lords of the realm experience. If I were to go through my votes, most of them are games I've played recently- Link to the past and super mario world I play on gameboy advance, Tie Fighter I have old discs I play through dosbox, dark forces is on steam now.

Okay. ..but still, it's difficult to update a 15 year old experience. It's just not the graphics that evolve. It's also very subjective. I'm sure I was less picky about games 15-20 years back. civ5 might be a vastly better game than civ2, but I don't have the same passion for games any more. Playing games 20 years ago was more fun and my take on the games will be skewed toward mostly older games of certain series or genres.