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Love this thread! And nice to see MGS3 and HL2 on several posts this page. In my top games ever for sure. I remember when HL2 came out, I had just graduated from High School, living the life, downloading and playing that while the sun came up. Fun to see this same experience mentioned above, cool that we all had these touchstones. It was so insanely ahead of its time, it was next gen and then some in design. It was like being in a movie. And MGS3 knocked my socks all the way off and was my fav game ever when I played it in Jan 2005. I played the whole MGS series starting with Twin Snakes that month, so that was a memorable gaming experience. Also makes me very happy to see 1996 represented with Duke 3D, Quake, and Mario 64. Was thinking I may post that myself too! Tough to pick, plus like with movies I didn't experience all these key things in the years they came out. I pretty much caught up on 3D PC gaming in '99 for example. But here we goooo (as Mario would say)! 1. 2018. Such an incredible year for games! Nice to see 2018 represented a couple posts up too, and it's so good we picked different games too. For me I gamed more than ever in 2018, looking back it was a peak of the modern game era. Insanity for me how good it was, any year in that range at the end of the decade. Yakuza 6 and Yakuza Kiwami 2 came out. Yazuka mania was running wild! Plus I caught up on Yakuza 0 and Kiwami at the beginning of the year, so I was all in. Those four games, and the bit I played of 5, just an insane experience. Kiryu is a legend. And it's not often I play hundreds of hours of one series like that in a year. So unique and cool that they released two a year while catching up. Red Dead Redemption 2, hot drat I love that game. Now I say "Sure" with an Arthur Morgan accent sometimes, to amuse myself, and as a tribute. A one of a kind game. Maybe a swansong for that style of Rockstar game, time will tell. Pretty terrific. Soul Calibur 6. I hadn't had fun fighting gaming with my friends and fam like that since the Dreamcast days. Countless fun nights playing that, and my top rival moved to China! So that was a special time, and not to get bittersweet here, but I don't know if that degree of local couch fighting game mania will happen again in my life. But it's always special when it happens, and this was really special. Also by rival I mean he annihilated us all with his Mitsurugi mastery, but I won maybe 33% of the time, and nights when I was on a hot streak and won were always fun. We'd do best out of 30, best out of 50, stuff like that. Smash Bros Ultimate hit in December, had a lot of fun playing that with friends too. I was never a big Smash fan, more into 2D arcade fighters, but I dabbled in the previous one. And this time they showed me the ropes and we played more, and I really found the fun of it and "got it". Good stuff 2. 2001. A great period for games, me and my bro got a PS2 for X-Mas that year too. Last console we got was a Dreamcast in 99 which we love too of course. And PC gaming was piping hot. And fun to see that with different games posted too. GTA3 blew me away. I had that Tetris effect kind of thing, seeing a blue trashcan outside I thought of those blue objective cones from the game. It was one of the all time great games, an insane mix of fun elements and pizazz. And genre defining. I sure love it. Max Payne. Just drat, one of my fav games ever, and got me into film noir too. The writing is so sharp, and the gameplay is magnificent. I've replayed this a bunch of times. Had the mousepad for many years too. Fun trivia that came up in a photo recently, Robin Williams also used the Max Payne mousepad. One of the best ever. MGS2, holy moly, legendary. I didn't get into the series until Jan 2005, and I actually played it right after 3, but I ate it up. Lore, experimental kookiness, lots of fun, pure Hideo gaming. So invested in that world. Solid Snake is my fav character, go figure! Whatta guy. Plisken I should say. Silent Hill 2. The best survival horror game ever to me. With the easy caveat of RE4 being my fav action-y one, with SH2 being the old style done to perfection. And it's so surreal, Lynchian and dreamy, plus it's one of the most depressing games ever. But in a very enticing way. And that music is so good. Love it. Capcom vs. SNK 2, oh yes. Had that imported Dreamcast disc, Millionaire Fighting 2001! Such an incredible fun game, and just a great representation of that incredible time. Playing fighting games all night with my friends, just so magical. Mark of the Wolves also hit that year, what a time. 3. 2013. Tough to pick the last year here, so many great candidates. Usually I'm looking at maybe five or six games I liked, and seeing what represented a vibe and place and time. '13 seems like it's a special bit worth mentioning. Super Mario 3D World, that's the system seller killer app for me for the Wii-U. It rules, I loved it so much. The thing is I was a really hungry Mario fan, I hadn't loved a 3D one since Mario 64. To me this was finally a follow-up that was up my alley. It was just about everything I love about Mario in a slick package, and I'd been waiting nearly 20 years for it. Hot drat that is satisfying. Grand Theft Auto V. Again, to me this is by far the best GTA since Vice City, though I liked them all. I hadn't felt that immersed and impressed by the series since those teenage days, and man, just so good. I love all the little moments like we see in RDR2, people asking for a ride and having a nutty story, all that stuff. And just a pleasure to explore the world. And I love Lazlow, JB Smoove, and those cats. Just a classic. Some other 2013 games I really liked were Saints Row IV, Tomb Raider '13, Bioshock Infinite, Deadpool, Borderlands 2 for co-op, FC3 Blood Dragon, and The Last of Us. I said that last like when opening credits say "And Anthony Hopkins" at the end. And there you have it. So many great years to choose from. And naturally 2017 was incredible, Breath of the Wild, Yakuza 0, Mario Odyssey, that's up there for me too. And like mentioned above, 2004 and 96 are great ones for me too. 97, 98, too many cool years. And these days two or three meaty games I love make for a nice gaming year, say Doom Eternal and Cyberpunk in 2020, or 2019 with Control, Death Stranding and RE2R. And if I wanted to get wild I could look up what a great NES year is, I appreciate people doing that, played those in stacks from yard sales and video stores in the early 90s. Good thread folks. Heavy Metal fucked around with this message at 06:27 on Aug 10, 2022 |
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Aug 10, 2022 06:10
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It's all fun, though I find nostalgia gets a bad rap lately. Plus, on youth vs recency bias, I don't think picking stuff from the past 5 years is inherently more legit. If anything you'd wanna be able to fully appreciate decades of stuff for its time, if you're selecting the finest years ever. If the latest greatest is always ranked highest, kinda takes the art out of ranking a longer time period. (I did do that though, but tried to spread out the three picks.) But games do age a bit differently than other mediums, and it is an interesting phenomenon. I tried to include a mix of eras, but it all ended up being from this century. I do love 90s and NES games though naturally. Heavy Metal fucked around with this message at 17:58 on Aug 24, 2022 |
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Aug 24, 2022 17:53
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Stux posted:gaming is too new for that, everything is recent I mean recent as in recent years of your life compared to earlier years. Though gaming isn't much younger than rock 'n' roll in the grand scheme of things. It's older than punk rock anyway.
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Aug 24, 2022 19:05
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I don't know what that is, but as a 2018 voter I will take all comers. We need numbers for this movement. 2017 is gobbling up all our demographics. May I interest you voters in Yakuza Kiwami 2 and Yakuza 6? The Dragon engine? It is more floppy and physics-y, and has more detailed food simulation.
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Aug 24, 2022 23:43
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Good to see King's Quest on there, but my loves are Space Quest and Quest for Glory! They got rolling in 86 and 89 respectively. Mega Man, just typing those words grants one a certain je ne sais quoi, much love for ol' Rock.
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Aug 25, 2022 23:44
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Half-Life is one of my fav things ever, and Action Half-Life is my most played game of all time. So for multi and mods alone I'd go with a 10. For single player I could see a 9, I think it's kinda known that HL1 is front loaded, a lot of people lose interest somewhere before the end of the campaign. But still, one of the greats.
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Aug 27, 2022 00:21
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2012 was pretty ok for me, but I think every year for 20 or 30 years has at least 5 good games I really like. And 2021 had a few. I felt like some of the early Xbox 360 years were the slowest of my major gamer years, and the Wii too, but even those have some hits and gems. 2006 and 2007 say. And it's tough to judge some years in say the early-to-mid 90s when I was a kid renting memorable shovelware. But it is different for everybody, which is always interesting to see. 2010 is so strong for me, I've mentioned a couple times lately how Alan Wake, Red Dead Redemption, and Alpha Protocol all came out in one month. That was freakin' good stuff. 2011 had some of my favs too. And 2013 is on my list at #3. Heavy Metal fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Aug 27, 2022 |
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Aug 27, 2022 18:19
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2012 has a lotta cool stuff. XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Dishonored, Mass Effect 3 (ending aside), Max Payne 3, Mark of the Ninja, RE Revelations, I really dig Hitman: Absolution though not a fav on here, CS:GO, some dig Diablo 3 and Far Cry 3, I liked Borderlands 2 co-op, Kingdoms of Amalur, Hotline Miami, Alan Wake's American Nightmare, Orcs Must Die 2, Sleeping Dogs is good, etc. Yakuza 5 in Japan. But it's different for everybody. I see 2012 is somebody's #1 on here too. Heavy Metal fucked around with this message at 19:26 on Aug 27, 2022 |
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Aug 27, 2022 18:41
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(not a bad thing)
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Aug 28, 2022 23:45
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A gamer is never late, they arrive precisely when they mean to.
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Aug 29, 2022 20:47
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That's an awesome, beautiful post right there, gotta love games. A couple tidbits, Duke Nukem 3D had laser tripmines before Half-Life, and the Daigo Street Fighter moment is from Third Strike not Alpha 3. Also Duke did make a Half-Life joke or two, he said "not another Valve puzzle" one time. All great games though! Here's to Half-Life 3, and the future of games.
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Aug 30, 2022 01:35
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That's not kosher. (Rock the casbah)
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Aug 30, 2022 01:43
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Yoda: mmMMm, 1998 will fail, it will. Agreed XCOM is a masterpiece too.
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Aug 30, 2022 01:53
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Especially the Dreamcast version they called Dream Match '99! Also love 99 aka Evolution. KoF is the best.
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Aug 30, 2022 18:32
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That Wikipedia page seems pretty bizarre looking at it. But it also goes to show that those kind of arbitrary metrics aren't that interesting for selecting stuff. It only has two games for 2017, that's just kooky. And my fav for 2008 is MGS4 of course.
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Sep 10, 2022 22:05
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Righteous! FF7 is like a thunderbolt in your cheerios, it's a hell of a game.
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Sep 12, 2022 08:17
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Half-Life 3 for example. Don't stop believin' (Metroid Prime 4) (Duke Nukem 5) (GTA6)
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Sep 15, 2022 02:41
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I liked Hitman Absolution and Doom 3 a lot respectively, and 8 is a snub for MGSV (I still remember gamespot snubbing MGS3 with an 8.7), but that's the beauty of everyone digging different stuff. 8s are a great rating for a movie, but for a Hideo Game that is like a gloved slap from a duellist (like that Harvey Keitel movie.) Kudos on writing about games, and we should all get paid frankly. We deserve to be paid here on SA, our posts are our art.
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Sep 15, 2022 22:00
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It is quite good I find, the compelling beginning, the revelation video ending (tucked away after a mission replay) is one of my fav cutscenes ever, I found it did well. It was part of what I noticed as the minimalist movement in storytelling for Japanese franchise games. FF XV and Zelda BOTW being another couple, a lot more sparse, a lot more filling in with your imagination. But as a change of pace I loved all three.
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Sep 15, 2022 22:07
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A pint of bitter for 96, please. 96 is well hard.
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Sep 16, 2022 03:35
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That is interesting for sure. 2015 had a good few fan favs too. On the 80s, the late 80s and early 90s ruled as we all know, NES classics all over the place etc. Mega Man going ham. Though Mega Man 2's US date is represented, via 89 getting voted in.
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Sep 26, 2022 00:36
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Excellent thread, cool countdown, good gaming. Was happy to see 2018 make the top 10, and all sorts of great years there. Our #1 year includes Levelord, as does 96, he is the lord of levels. 1998 is a goat for anime as we know with Cowboy Bebop and whatnot too. And a nice year for movies. Good year for metal, had a Blind Guardian album. Good stuff folks.
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Sep 27, 2022 01:13
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