Game of the Year

*cough* So it's Diablo vs MoO2 vs Civ2...
 
*cough* So it's Diablo vs MoO2 vs Civ2...

*crickets chirping* Civvver please give us the final tally!

Moving on... 1997 nominations:

Goldeneye 007
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Fallout
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy Tactics
The Curse of Monkey Island
Total Annihilation
Blade Runner
Dungeon Keeper
Star Fox 64
 
vote = Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
 
For 1997:

Nomination: Age of Empires

age-empires.jpg
 
Nominate quake 2

I actually think this is the weakest year in the 90s. There are some good games, but not many groundbreaking ones. Thats why im nominating quake 2. Because it was really the first game where dedicated 3D technology/hardware was utilised. This allowed for the biggest jump in graphics technology that i think there ever has been./ I still fondly remember my voodoo 2 graphics card.
 
It seems so indeed... I am not sure if i will vote for anything, but probably i will vote for the original AOE given that i played it a lot at the time and it had a cool atmosphere :)

Castlevania SOTN had excellent music. I never played it though (only had Super Castlevania IV, and some title for the Gameboy).

So, for the time being:

Vote: Age of Empires
 
So, 1997...
Yeah, as said above, it's not one of the strongest years. At the same time, it still hold some of the biggest legends of the video game history, so it kinda counterbalance it ^^

Let's go with my nominations :
- Quake II : one of the major multi-player and FPS title.
- Wing Commander Prophecy : the last of the line, and one of the last story-based space simulator.
- Dungeon Keeper : a classic.
- I-War (not to be confused with a game sharing the same title from some years before, still a completely different game) : one of the most underrated (and downright unknown) game. Not a classic, but definitely ahead of its time and quite good space sim.
- Age of Empire : in all honesty, it's a pretty average game (the IA and pathfinding are just disgraceful) from one of the most overrated serie, which was always very inferior to its main rivals, but it's a big enougn game to get the nomination.
- Ultima Online : the father of all MMO, still alive today.
- Final Fantasy VII : the best-known Final Fantasy, and really one of the best console game ever.
- Total Annihiliation : the most ground-breaking RTS in history, with the best interface that influenced everything made after it, and one of the very few actual STRATEGY game. A big classic, which was FAR ahead of its time.
- Fallout : one of the biggest name in the RPG department, and deservingly so.

For the vote, it's very hard to chose between Total Annihilation, Fallout and Final Fantasy VII. Nothing else even come close, but these three have all left a huge mark on their respective genre, and are timeless classics.

I think I'll give a (very slight) edge to, and vote for Total Annihilation, due to the revolutionnary design (and considering the truckload of legendary RPG coming in the next years, in order to vote for something NOT a RPG :p).
 
vote=Final Fantasy Tactics

It's about as well-rounded a game as you'll find: the music, plot and gameplay are all excellent.
 
I agree with Akka on Total Annihilation. Still no one has duplicate the amazing way it handles resources, other than the spiritual sequel, Supreme Commander.

Some ground breaking things duplicated though, real physics and terrain elevations. Thus if you have a laser tank that shoots in a straight line it won't be able to hit stuff on a hill above it. You need to bring artillery to lob bombs up there. The planes fly around with actual acceleration and turns, they have to setup bombing runs etc.

The resource system was truly amazing wherein time was a resource. For example a mine might mine metal at a rate of 5 a second, and a factory would be producing a tank that cost 500 metal but it's over 200 seconds so only uses 2.5 a second, so you have a surplus of 2.5 metals. However if you want you can assign more engineers to the factory to speed up production and drain those extra metals per second. Or you can add them to surplus in containers or build more factories etc. It's one of the few games where time acts as a real resource. I guess it's implied in other ones but there's generally not a way to speed up production by spending more per second, other than buying more factories or more workers.

Anyway it gets my vote easily. 1997 is kind of a down year I feel.
 
Dungeon Keeper had a great concept and I enjoyed it very much, but it was a pretty flawed game. I wish they made a sequel to it. Not sure if I'd be interested, but still...

I enjoyed Need for Speed 2.. High Stakes, I think it was. Also, Outlaws -

Link to video.

..and Carmageddon were fun games.

Interstate '76 might be my pick.
-
Link to video.
 
Dungeon Keeper had a great concept and I enjoyed it very much, but it was a pretty flawed game. I wish they made a sequel to it.

You mean something like Dungeon Keeper 2?

Because Dungeon Keeper 2 is one of the all time greats, and my personal favorite out of all the amazing Bullfrog games released in the 90s. I still go back and play it again every few years; it is simply brilliant. And yes, it exists; I think GOG actually has it now (not sure).

Bullfrog was working on a Dungeon Keeper 3, but EA yanked the team from the project so they could work on video games off their recently purchased Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings IP rights and DK3 died in development. Of all the mistakes, blunders, and bone-headed decisions EA made in their lengthy history, that is the one I despise them most for.

Of course, DK2 was released in '99 so we haven't gotten there yet.
 
97 is going to be an easy yer for me: Vote = Fallout

Maybe i will add my nominations later if i have the time, but my vote goes to Fallout in any case.
 
Dungeon Keeper had a great concept and I enjoyed it very much, but it was a pretty flawed game. I wish they made a sequel to it. Not sure if I'd be interested, but still...

Spoiler :
I enjoyed Need for Speed 2.. High Stakes, I think it was. Also, Outlaws -

Link to video.


..and Carmageddon were fun games.

Interstate '76 might be my pick.
Spoiler :


Interstate!!!! Are you serious? :crazyeye:

that game sucked! :sad:
 
can i still vote Civ 2 for 1996?

anyone, sadly i've only played Fallout 1 among the above list of 97's games... mildly hated it. heard FF tactics was more unbalanced than Tactics Ogre and had a boring plot, so i never checked it out.

i'll abstain for 97'.
 
You mean something like Dungeon Keeper 2?

Because Dungeon Keeper 2 is one of the all time greats, and my personal favorite out of all the amazing Bullfrog games released in the 90s. I still go back and play it again every few years; it is simply brilliant. And yes, it exists; I think GOG actually has it now (not sure).

Bullfrog was working on a Dungeon Keeper 3, but EA yanked the team from the project so they could work on video games off their recently purchased Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings IP rights and DK3 died in development. Of all the mistakes, blunders, and bone-headed decisions EA made in their lengthy history, that is the one I despise them most for.

Of course, DK2 was released in '99 so we haven't gotten there yet.

Yes, GOG has Dungeon Keeper 2, that's where I got it last year.

I am also sad that DK3 didn't happen, and thank you for sharing the history which I wasn't fully aware of. However, there is War for the Overworld, which is a spiritual successor currently in what they are calling "Bedrock Beta", and looks pretty good to me so far. Has the original voice talent from DK2. https://wftogame.com/
 
Vote = Final Fantasy VII

JRPGs aren't normally my genre, but to me this one simultaneously defines and transcends the genre. The story was quite good by contemporary standards, there was reasonably interesting tactical depth in picking Materia mixes and combat decisions, its musical score had some wonderful pieces, the setting was interesting and well-developed, and it had a number of added challenges both obvious and hidden to keep things interesting for players who wanted to dig deeper into the game.

Pair that with its impact on the genre and the industry as a whole, it's hard for me not to give it the nod for '97.
 
Nominate: Riven - The Sequel to Myst (October 1997)

51YQA2ZB34L.jpg


Best game in the series and one of the all-time classics.
 
Back
Top Bottom