|
There
have been many great games in 2004. Every format has had its fair
share of great games but we thought we’d take a look back
at what we consider to be the two best games on each format. Some
of our selections will surprise a few people and I daresay that
some of you will completely disagree with what we’ve picked.
In the end of course it all comes down to personal opinion but from
the many games we’ve seen this year there’s only a select
few that we constantly pull out to play again and again. Let’s
take a look then at what we consider to be the best games of 2004.
PC
First
Choice - Half-Life 2
We
said in the introduction that some of selections may surprise a
few people but our PC game of the year will surprise no one. Not
only a class act when it comes to being a FPS, Half-Life 2 has taken
provision for deaf gamers to a whole new level. Valve were heavily
criticised for not subtitling Half-Life but instead of just ignoring
those complaints, they obviously took them to heart and made sure
deaf gamers could fully enjoy the sequel. I don’t think I
can recall a game ever being captioned so well. Deaf gamers were
even notified of approaching and nearby enemies through the use
of captions. Character dialogue was colour-coded making it even
easier to follow conversations. In a nutshell then Valve have set
a standard by which all other games will be measured against for
not only the quality of Half-Life 2 as a FPS but also how a game
can be accessible for deaf gamers.
Second
Choice – Football Manager
2005
Whilst
picking the first choice PC game was straight forward, picking the
second choice required more thought. In the end though I had to
pick Football Manager 2005. Sports Interactive were going to have
to create a game that could convince everyone that it was the work
of their collective genius and not the name ‘Championship
Manager’ that football fans had been enjoying for over 10
years. Thankfully though they managed it and combined with SEGA’s
excellent backing and promotion of the game, they’ve left
no one in any doubts about this new games true heritage. Football
Manager 2005 surpasses all of the previous football management games
and is definitely the best title the genre has seen to date.
Xbox
First
Choice – RalliSport
Challenge 2
Xbox
gamers are well provided for when it comes to driving games and
the console has it’s fair share of classics. 2003 saw the
release of the super Project Gotham Racing 2 and the first half
of 2004 saw the release of RalliSport Challenge 2, which is just
as impressive. Everything about this sequel improved upon the first
game. The handling was improved upon but the real jump came with
the graphics, which were absolutely first class. Everything from
the car models to the environments you raced in were probably the
best on any console to date. Online and offline RalliSport Challenge
2 is superb.
Second
Choice – The
Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
Take
a movie and make a game based on it and the result is usually a
game that leaves an unpleasant aftertaste in the mouth. This wasn't’t
the case with Escape from Butcher Bay though as Starbreeze Studios
created a FPS that was second only to Half-Life 2. As the title
suggests you had to help Riddick escape from the Butcher Bay Triple
Max prison, a feat which had never been accomplished before. The
game looked and played superbly and unlike Halo 2 the game was fully
subtitled so you enjoyed everything that was going on, which is
excellent. If you are into FPS games and haven’t picked this
one up yet (on PC or Xbox) then it definitely should be next on
your list.
PlayStation
2
First
Choice – Disgaea: Hour
of Darkness
As
you well know we see more games for the PlayStation 2 than for any
other format and you would think that choosing our PlayStation 2
game of the year would be a difficult task. Thankfully though this
hasn't been the case and the one game that gets played more than
any other is Disgaea: Hour of Darkness from NIPPON ICHI and KOEI.
Disgaea is a tactical, turn-based RPG in a similar vein to games
such as Final Fantasy Tactics. What makes the game so good? Humour,
tactical options and hilarious characters are just some of the reasons
why this game is a classic. It takes everything a tactical RPG should
have and multiplies it by ten. Characters can level up to insane
levels for instance. Combination attacks and gob smacking spells
make the battles quite unlike anything else you’ve ever seen.
I’ve been playing the game for months now and still haven’t
had enough of it. Some gamers might take a look at the screenshots
of the game and comment on the graphics not looking as impressive
as they could do. To be fair the graphics aren’t brilliant
but they are good enough, which is all you could ask for when the
game play is this impressive. If I could only pick one game from
last year this would be it.
Second
Choice – Star Ocean:
Till the End of Time
When
it comes to RPG’s I prefer ones that have turn-based battles.
Usually I don’t get on with those that have real-time battles
but 2004 saw the release of two RPG games with real-time battles
that really appealed to me. One of these was Star Ocean: Till the
End of Time. Playing as Fayt Leingod you’ll begin on holiday
on the planet Hyda. Soon though the planet is attacked by a race
know as the Vendeen. Fayt and his friend Sophia only just escape
the planet. The spacecraft they escape on though is also attacked
and they part ways as they leave the spacecraft in escape pods.
Throughout the course of the game you meet a variety of cultures
and get to fight alongside a variety of characters. During battles
you’ll control one character (from a choice of three) whilst
the others will perform admirably under control of the AI. You can
alter their battle strategy though if you wish. It’s a great
game that is as good as anything Square Enix have released to date.
-----
Unfortunately
we’ve received little in the way of GameCube and Game Boy
Advance titles during 2004. Essentially this is for two reasons.
Nintendo has no promotional copies of their games for PR companies
to give out for review and it would be an expensive task for these
PR companies to send out retail packs to every gaming website there
is. Secondly the PR company for Nintendo here in the UK are now
only given enough copies of a game to hand out to print media such
as magazines and newspapers. This is a poor state of affairs and
with Nintendo falling behind Microsoft and Sony, it seems an illogical
move to make. It’s also a fair bet that we’ll never
receive many DS games too. I do buy the odd GameCube game from time
to time but I make it a policy of only reviewing games that we receive
review code for so as to be fair to all those PR companies that
take the time and effort to look after us in this respect. Below
I’ve included the best two games for the GameCube and the
GBA that I have played in 2004. Reviews won’t be appearing
for these games though.
-----
GameCube
First
Choice -
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Paper Mario
was an absolute classic on the Nintendo 64 and now thanks to Intelligent
Systems, the developers of Advance Wars and Fire Emblem, we now
have a sequel on the GameCube. Mario’s back to his paper thin
self and can change into all manner of objects such as paper airplanes
and tubes. The turn-based battles are absolutely superb. Graphically
the game is very charming and it’s easily one of the most
aesthetically pleasing games on the GameCube. Don’t be put
off by it’s cutesy appearance. It’s an excellent RPG
that’s full of humorous dialogue and there isn’t a game
quite like it on any other console.
Second
Choice -
Tales of Symphonia
Yes
it’s another RPG but seeing as it’s genre that’s
been poorly catered for on the GameCube it was great to see two
great ones arrive in time for Christmas. Like Star Ocean, Tales
of Symphonia has real-time battles and these battles don’t
just randomly occur. Instead you’ll have to walk into the
monsters to initiate a battle. Whilst this does cut down on some
of the frustration of random battles occurring when you’re
low on health, it doesn’t mean that you can avoid battles
altogether. After all battling is the only way you can level up
your characters and not leveling up can lead to major problems when
you encounter the bosses. Whilst the story in Tales of Symphonia
isn’t exactly memorable the graphics, with their beautifully
cel-shaded characters, certainly are. The game isn’t quite
up to the level of Star Ocean but it’s a great game nevertheless
and RPG fans should definitely pick this up.
Game
Boy Advance
First
Choice –
Fire Emblem
Another game
from Intelligent Systems and another game that’s got classic
written all over it. As you probably know the Fire Emblem series
is a long standing one that dates back to the early Nintendo consoles.
Until recently though it’s been released only in Japan, much
to the disappointment of turn-based connoisseurs. Some have described
it as Advance Wars with a medieval flavour to it and that description,
whilst not totally accurate isn’t too far from the truth and
those who have played Advance Wars will feel at home with Fire Emblem.
Here’s hoping the GBA sequel and GameCube version of Fire
Emblem make it to Europe this year.
Second
Choice -
Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green
It was a tough
decision between these Pokemon remakes and the enhanced versions
of Final Fantasy I & II that’s known as Dawn of Souls.
In the end I decided on the Pokemon games because they are just
so incredibly addictive and take an absolute age to complete. Even
when you have completed the game you’ll be able to take your
team of six Pokemon on to Pokemon Colosseum for a further challenge.
They may only be enhanced versions of games that were released on
the Game Boy but classic games of this calibre deserve a remake
and the sales figures of the games prove that the Pokemon phenomenon
is far from over.
Well
that’s it for our quick look back at 2004. The year produced
a lot of great games and if you are a fan of RPG’s it was
particularly memorable. Valve showed us that a FPS game can be as
deaf gamer friendly as a game from any other genre whilst NIPPON
ICHI demonstrated that state of the art graphics are not needed
to produce a gaming classic. What does 2005 have in store? Well
there’s two more games from NIPPON ICHI and KOEI, La Pucelle
Tactics and Phantom Brave (two games I can’t wait to play),
Final Fantasy XII, Gran Turismo 4, the new Metal Gear Solid game,
Forza Motorsport and much, much more. From a gamer’s point
of view at least, 2005 should be another great year.
|
