98 has some of my favorite games to ever come out, like:
- Marvel vs. Capcom
- 1080 Snowboarding
- NFS3 Hot Pursuit
- Tekken 3
- Starcraft + Brood wars
- Commandos
- Fifa 99
- Pokemon
- Fallout 2
- Half Life
- Ocarina of Time
- Baldur’s Gate
And many more
This is like arguing which cast of SNL was best. It’s more about you & what age you where at the time, then the games themselves.
100%. The best year will probably be what you grew up with, which is why I was curious as to what other people thought
1998 was so sick. Just a few more:
- Metal Gear Solid
- Resident Evil 2
- Turok 2
- Thief: The Dark Project
- Banjo-Kazooie
- Goldeneye 007
- Tomb Raider III
The list goes on and on, I still play games from that year today.
My top 3 games of all time:
- Final Fantasy IX
- Baldur’s Gate II
- Diablo II
All in 2000. Oof. I didn’t even realise this until you asked OP. What a time to be 12 that was.
Then 2023 has got to be a pretty good year for you too, with the releases of Final Fantasy 16, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Diablo 4. I have enjoying Diablo 4 and am really looking forward to Baldur’s Gate 3 (I haven’t played the early-access).
Comparing these franchises then to now makes my head spin…
Indeed, it’s pretty surreal. Working on my D4 Druid as we speak, whilst happily awaiting BG3. The fact my daughter is due to arrive the same month it releases makes the nostalgia extra surreal.
Honestly haven’t given FF16 much thought tbh. Haven’t played one since 10. They’ve all looked kind of interchangeable since then. 9 was special for me.
Nothing will ever top FF6-9. It was such a great time in Final Fantasy story telling.
Honestly I genuinely think that 2017 might be the best year of gaming, ever. Breath of the wild, nier automata, mario odyssey, fortnite, cuphead, horizon zero dawn, hellblade: senua’s sacrifice, destiny 2, xenoblade chronicles 2, prey, sonic mania, injustice 2, divinity original sin 2, nioh, splatoon 2, hollow knight, middle earth: shadow of war, night in the woods, pubg, pyre, yakuzas 0 and kiwami, even tekken 7’s console release and persona 5’s western release if you want to count those. And that’s not mentioning the smaller indie games that were acclaimed within their circles like Absolver or the expansions for games that were critically acclaimed like Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire or Final Fantasy: Stormblood. Like, '98 is legendary for a reason but I think that as far as just, number of incredible games released we’ve never seen a year like 2017.
The fact that botw and Mario Odyssey came out in the same year is wild. What a great year. Plus Nier on top of that? Damn.
Yeah it’s wild to me that 2017 isn’t brought up more often in these conversations it’s an absurdly stacked year
2004 was also a really good year
August-November of that year was headlined by a slew of all-time greats: Half-Life 2, San Andreas, MGS3, Halo 2, The Sims 2…
If you were into video games in any way in that time period, you had something great to play, regardless of platform.
World of Warcraft too if you’re EU.
It’s obviously too early because two of them aren’t out, but this year could shape up to be way up there for RPG fans if we get what we’re being advertised. Final Fantasy XVI is a significant step into action that’s been pretty well received, Baldur’s Gate 3 has a lot people have already seen and looks like it may well be the next-generation standard for crpg open world games, and Starfield is a new IP that looks to me like it might be modernizing Bethesda gunplay in their trademark massive scale 3D open worlds.
If Bethesda isn’t completely blowing smoke we could very realistically have three absolutely huge different styled RPGs that are the new standards for their genres.
Oh and Diablo 4. Damn. That one’s not really my thing because I hate the online structures, but it’s got to be on the list too.
It blows my mind how many iconic games came out that year, looking at that list… Also Sonic Adventure, Goldeneye and Ocarina of Time all came out in the same year??
It reminds me of how Weird Al’s wonderful movie UHF didn’t do great in theaters, being released in the summer of 1989. That meant it was competing against the following blockbusters:
- Ghostbusters II
- Back to the Future Part II
- Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
- Lethal Weapon 2
- Batman
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Not to mention Metal Gear Solid, Spyro the Dragon, Turok 2, and Gex: Enter the Gecko
Not to mention? Imo, Spyro, MGS, Half Life, and Pokémon should be the main arguments for GOAT. The rest mentioned are just supplemental.
Goddamn I was OBSESSED with Goldeneye.
I mean… 2023 is shaping up to be pretty dope so far. FF16, Pikmin 4, Diablo IV, Armored Core (assuming it’s good), Tears of the Kingdom…
Baldur’s Gate 3, Starfield
Street Fighter 6 is shaping up to be a landmark title for fighting games the same way Street Fighter 4 was in 2009.
I agree. TotK is probably one of the few games I consider to be almost perfect. Hogwarts Legacy was also great, and I’m currently hyped for Starfield (hoping it lives up to the hype).
The biggest downer of the year is for me Kerbal Space Program 2, as the early access has been extremely bad in performance and low on content with no big content updates in the forseeable future.
For my fellow space lovers: 2003
EvE + Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
You are welcome 😄
Jedi Academy was that year too! Though Need for Speed : Underground was probably the one I connected the most with
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Holy fuck, didn’t realize eve was that old. Somehow I got into a beta or alpha test for it and there was barely any people. I remember it being a hot cup of garbage in terms of net code but the concept and gameplay was addicting. Never played retail and would never have expected it turn out so well and loved.
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Here are some more:
- Falcon 4.0
- Rainbow Six
- Unreal
- Battlezone
- Gran Turismo
That´s actually insane for one year!
Back then, studios had to actually make new games to make more money. Nowadays, you make one game and then just milk it for a decade.
Good answers but 2004 is the correct one
Fallout 2 was 1998 as well. I loved that game, and I bought Louie Armstrong greatest hits because the song in the opening credits was great.
As a person who likes that kind of music and knew it before playing Fallout, it was such a pleasant surprise to me to hear this older music pop up in a much-more-modern video game.
Think it’s worth saying that I hate FPSes but I have and enjoy Fallout anyways.
2003 or 2007 for me. The early Halo and CoD years were the formative years of online gaming while also having a single player experience that was as replayable as any of the 80’s and 90’s hit games.
2007 for sure. Mass Effect, Bioshock, Crysis, STALKER, The Witcher, Assassins Creed, and a bunch more I’m forgetting. I also played a ton on PSP back then that probably released that year that I’m forgetting.
2007 PSP games that stand out to me are Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters, Monster Hunter Freedom 2, and Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron.
2000 had Diablo 2, so, 2000
My favorite was 1997, I only owned a PS1 at the time, and here’s some really good games that was released that year:
- Gran Turismo
- Final Fantasy 7
- Castlevania Symphony of the Night
- Crash Bandicoot 2
- Final Fantasy Tactics
- Parappa the Rapper
- Vandal Hearts
- Mega Man X4
- Breath of Fire 3
- Mega Man Legends
- MDK
- Oddworld Abe’s Oddysse
- Tomb Raider II
- Grand Theft Auto
- Klonoa
- MK Mythologies Sub Zero
Some other non PS1, but notable games that came out that year:
- Diablo
- Mario Kart 64
- Turok
- Goldeneye 007
- Star Fox 64
- Fallout
- Panzer General II
- Age of Empires
- Mortal Kombat 4
1998 was also very good
It’s harder and harder to get a year that can produce a large number of hits, especially since AAA has become so expensive and time consuming. Even great indies take longer than usual now. The explosions of hits released between late 2022 and this year, is probably caused by Covid delaying multiple projects.
With more game devs consolidation, and Embracer stumbling, I’m not too sure about the near future.
