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."

Comments

Unneeded comment

[Albert Pussyjuice]

"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."

cyrus_zuo, Save the comments on the article for the comments section please.

Re:Unneeded comment

[saltydogdesign]

For all those who think that the best games that came out this year were all sequels...

Strike this -- you can't know who this list is meant for.

Game Tunnel presents a different angle...

"Different angle" is a matter of opinion.

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...

Opinions have no place here.

check out the awards for a different side of gaming than you are used to.

How can the writer know what side of gaming I am used to?

Finally, my edited introduction:

Game Tunnel presents their 2004 Independent Game of the Year awards.

Wouldn't Slashdot be so much better like that? Then we wouldn't have to skim the comments of some boob nitpicking the editors for trying to produce non-cardboard prose.

Re:Unneeded comment

[nz17]

You know, we often hear the old hash of a joke about Slashdot readers not reading the linked articles. On one hand I can understand this, because they are often Slashdotted. However, just because they can't be read by a viewer does not mean that those said viewers should then make comments about the article site unseen.

For example, Albert Pussyjuice (675113) here gripes about "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," being a comment by cyrus_zuo. Well, Mr. PJ, if you were to even cursorily glimpse the actual article you would seen that this is a direct quotation from the first paragraph in the linked article. Amazing, isn't is, what an ass a minor convenience has made you to be!

Then there is saltydogdesign (811417)'s comments in a sister post where he breaks down the initial paragraph of the article into pieces and lamblasts the author. Well let's read that paragraph in whole again:

"For all those who think that the best games that came out this year were all sequels prepare to open your mind. 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, you are about to see a different piece of gaming than you are used to."

As one can see when he stops to obsorb the actual meaning of this paragraph, he can see that the author is addressing those whom believe the best games of this year were sequels such as _Halo 2_. saltydogdesign somehow takes this personally though he is obviously not the group that the opening paragraph is addressed to. The point of the linked Web site's author's writing of the column is to hopefully "wake up" those he considers "in the dark" about the other side of gaming, the small, independent studios' games rather than the large juggernaut publisher's games.

Albert Pussyjuice, saltydogdesign, and others like them would be better off if they would not attack Slashdot for posting opinions in the article summaries when they themselves don't read the article. Often the articles summaries are either partially or in whole taken from the original article anyway.

So I propose we all make a deal: when we as the Slashdot viewers start reading the featured sites' content before posting comments then we can complain about the admins duping and posting false stories and opinions because they did not RTFA themselves.

Server dying

[kschawel]

The server is just crawling after just one comment.
I think the mirrordot mirror will work better.

Independant

[FiReaNGeL]

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.

Re:Independant

[stratjakt]

Why doesnt the games section in slashdot cover this kind of stuff?

All it discusses are Doom 3, Half Life 2, Halo 2, and the odd update to WineX that lets yet another big commercial Windows title run under linux.

I guess I don't understand what motivates /. in general. They have a lot of eyes watching, but don't really use that to the general advantage of OSS.

To me, new and good indie games, or hell - any good game I've never heard of is true "news for nerds". SCO v IBM is "news for IP lawyers".

Halo 2 Rules

[Agret]

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!

get off it

[mikeg22]

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?

Meh

[SilentChris]

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.

Re:What's the exact definition of indy?

[ggambett]

We usually mean "self-funded", in essence. This more or less captures the "indie" spirit in that publishers don't control you or impose creative limitations, which is what most people complain about the retail industry.

This definition is somewhat problematic, because you don't usually think of Id Software as an indie developer, although it is, according to this definition. For most indies the definition is accurate though.

TROLL ALERT - MOD HIM DOWN!

[MBCook]

This is a troll. Those are NOT the top three games. Those are NOT EVEN ON THE LIST. The site seems to be working now, but here is the REAL LIST anyways:

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!

Re:TROLL ALERT - MOD HIM DOWN!

[MBCook]

Sorry. Meant to give a link to "N". You can find it here. I don't know how they came up with it, but it's just so much fun (and the graphics are very simple in a clean and elegant kind of way).

Interesting anecdote about I of the Enemy

[Pluvius]

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

Re:Game Tunnel is The Suck

[Kristoffer Lunden]

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.