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2004 Indie Games of the Year
cyrus_zuo writes "For all those who think that the best games that came out this year were all sequels Game Tunnel presents a different angle on things with their 2004 Independent Game of the Year awards. For those who believe that the best game this year was that badly named expansion pack that they have the nerve to call Halo 2, check out the awards for a different side of gaming than you are used to."
DID YOUR MOM SERVE YOU AN EXTRA HELPING OF DUMB TONIGHT?
The server is just crawling after just one comment.
I think the mirrordot mirror will work better.
I didn't see any ads.
And it feels so good.
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
If anything, it shows the power of marketing : these all appear to be good, original and fun games (except for the 3-4 rehashes of old games such as Marbles and Arkanoid), but I NEVER heard of them ANYWHERE. Which doesn't help me to buy them... which doesn't help the independant programmers of these gems... which doesn't help them to pay for marketing I guess. Vicious circle indeed.
I managed to get to the end of the list before a complete Slashdot (happened while I downloaded a top10 game... BreakQuest. Irony?). GISH, the Tarball adventure game is first, and it deserve it. Fun, VERY original gameplay and VERY challenging. Free demo available too.
Eureka Science News - automatically updated
Halo 2 had more hype than any other game there was no way it would live up to the hype so I just ignored all the hype. The game was brilliant, heaps better than the first one. There was almost vehicles in every level. There were a few too many ghosts but that was a good thing I got to hijack lots of people. It is playable online with a ping of 300 to a US server and it also has awesome LAN play. I don't see how that could let anyone down!
Have you metaroderated recently?
For those who believe that the best game this year was that badly named expansion pack that they have the nerve to call Halo 2...
Oh for god's sake. Halo 2 had revamped graphics, sound, a completely new single player campaign and XBOX Live support. What is your definition of a sequel anyways?
I didn't see any ads either. Well, except for that "500 Internal" company. For some reason, a lot of the sites Slashdot links to have their ads. :P
Self published? Made by a non public company? Made by part time developers? Published by a company with revenue of less than x per year? No advance/royalties only? Budget of less than y?
Slashdot: News for Nerds, Stuff that matters only to them
Some of us like big-budget games made by major studios (*cough* World of Warcraft *cough*) because the artwork, sense of "success" and even gameplay is plain old better. Same reason why we flock to New Line's version of Lord of the Rings instead of watching the old hobbit cartoon -- it's just higher quality.
Although sequels certainly abound, anyone who complains that the major publishers produce nothing original obviously never played Katamari Damacy. It's probably much more original than any of the indy games this year.
For all those who think that the best games
that came out this year were all sequels Game
Tunnel presents a different angle on things
with their 2004 Independent Game of the Year
awards. For those who believe that the best
game this year was that badly named expansion
pack that they have the nerve to call Halo 2,
check out the awards for a different side of
gaming than you are used to.
Translation:
Please visit my site, it is only 8 pages full of pictures and I think I can survive a slashdotting.
10. I of the Enemy
9. Revolved
8. Smugglers 3
7. Global Defense Network
6. Anito: Defend a Land Endangered
5. BreakQuest
4. Outpost Kaloki
3. Hamsterball
2. Wik & The Fable of Souls
1. Gish (by the fantastic Chronic Logic)
That's the REAL list. Gish is the only one I've heard of, though some of those look interesting (and many have GREAT graphics). The one game I wish was on there is N by metanet software. I was addicted to that game for weeks. Very cool little game - "play as a ninja trapped in a world of well-meaning, inadvertantly homicidal robots. " Give it a try!
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
to see Spiderweb Software's Blades of Avernum tactical RPG missing from the list. I am getting a tad tired of the re-use of the old Avernum engine, but the plots of Jeff Vogel's scenarios and the overall gameplay are just fantastic. Avernum 2 remains my favorite, if only for some of the ridiculous battles that you could face off in the end (one of which had the enemy turns lasting a good twenty times longer than mine simply because there were so many of them). You could keep yourself occupied for hours just playing the various demos available from their site - since each demo is about a fourth of its respective game, there's literally about the equivalent of a game and a half there to play.
--- Bwah?
At the forum for the warez .NFO site I frequent, the developer of that game actually asked people for their opinions about it. I'm not sure if he realized that everyone there was a software pirate, but either way he managed to guilt-trip a few people out of downloading his game. Brilliant idea, far better than most copy protection.
Rob
And my stance is I refuse to get opinions or advice on what is appropriate behaviour from anyone named "Pussyjuice". Or who uses the expression "is The Suck", for that matter.
You, sir, need to get out of the basement.
Spine World