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30 Greatest Games of 2005
Next Generation continues its end-of-year celebration with a treatise on the 30 finest games of the year. From the article: "Some may remember 2005 as a year of financial shortfalls, rising game production costs, depleted Xbox 360 stock, political soap-boxing, or over-exertion in Korean Internet cafes. Forget all that stuff for now. 2005 wasn't a year to be remembered for one great gaming breakthrough or innovation, but it did produce some remarkable products. It was a year marked with some of the best games of the fading generation. "
Christmas Lights for Celiac Disease
Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
i've been playing since even before the first patch, and have never had any problems--even in the late game. Things get slightly slower, but it's barely noticable. ANd this is on a 3 year old 2 GHz computer with 1 gig of RAM. My brother plays on an ever older/shittier computer, and his gameplay is fine as long as he keeps the graphics toned down.
Here's text only version - very slow site:
30 Greatest Games of 2005
By Kris Graft
Let's end the year on a positive note. Next-Gen.Biz has picked through the year's best games, by genre, and come up with the 30 stand-outs. You know, these past 12 months really did host some very fine games.---
Make sure you start your working day with Next-Gen.Biz - the essential read for game industry professionals.
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ImageSome may remember 2005 as a year of financial shortfalls, rising game production costs, depleted Xbox 360 stock, political soap-boxing, or over-exertion in Korean Internet cafes.
Forget all that stuff for now. 2005 wasn't a year to be remembered for one great gaming breakthrough or innovation, but it did produce some remarkable products. It was a year marked with some of the best games of the fading generation.
Here are 30 of the year's best games, sorted by their genre and release dates (there is no order of merit). Let the hatemail flow like the black blood of a colossus.
Note: This list is for mainstream console platforms, handhelds and commercial PC. We'll be looking at the best in mobile and 'casual' entertainment in a separate feature.
Action/Adventure
2005 was a banner year for the action adventure genre. It started out with a huge bloody bang, the spring season ushered in a tormented Greek soul, and fall introduced some truly colossal characters.
Resident Evil 4
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
GC: Jan 11, 05; PS2: Oct 25, 05
Resident Evil 4 revitalized the stagnant franchise with quicker enemies, more responsive controls and an improved over-the-shoulder camera. It took what we love about the franchise and improved on it, doing away with what we hate in the process.
God of War
Publisher: SCEA
Developer: Sony Santa Monica
PS2: Mar 22, 05
Incog's God of War sets the standard for action games, period. With an excellent story, fluid and brutal fighting system, lovely enemies and great visuals, God of War will be remembered many years after '05.
Image Shadow of the Colossus
Publisher: SCEA
Developer: SCEI
PS2: Oct 18, 05
Superb boss battles defined Shadow of the Colossus. Forget Bowser and Mother Brain, SotC's bosses are the most insanely huge and powerful enemies you'll encounter. Just stop with the comparisons to Ico. SotC is a stellar game on its own merit.
Other notable entries in action adventure this year are Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, Ninja Gaiden Black and The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap.
Role-Playing Games
The year in RPGs was respectable. Bioware tried its hand at the martial arts with excellent results, a new quality MMORPG arrived with no subscription costs, and American gamers are reminded why traditional Japanese RPGs can still show the way.
Jade Empire
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Developer: Bioware
Xbox: Apr 12, 05
From a galaxy far, far away to mystical ancient China, Bioware has proven that its got major RPG chops. Jade Empire combines action and RPG elements and manages to give both aspects due respect. Bioware knows kung fu, and delivered the best RPG on Xbox this year.
Guild Wars
Publisher: NCsoft
Developer: ArenaNet
PC: Apr 26, 05
Guild Wars gives you much more than what you pay for, which is nothing. Outside of the initial retail cost of the game, there are no monthly fees for the MMORPG. Guild Wars boasts combat that's actually fun, great graphics and entertaining online play.
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Level-5
PS2: Nov 15, 05
Dragon Quest VIII is the latest title from the developers of the Dark Cloud series. The latest game got the full Level-5 treatment with an enamoring presentation, accessible and fun combat, a good story, and dozens of hours of gameplay.
Other notable entries in RPGs this year are X-Men Legends II, Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich and Digital Devil Saga II.
First-Pers
Civ 4 patch 1.52 was released yesterday. It fixes many of the hardware problems associated with the original release and has much improved performance.
Guild Wars was alright but as a MMORPG, I have to say, it was lacking in replayability in the extreme. Diablo 2 at least had random levels and such (and I classify the game as a 'MMORPG' insofar as Diablo 2 was... since it was essentially Diablo 2 without random levels, a much less impressive magic item system, and completely BEAUTIFUL graphics...) ... but once you get through once, it's just not fun.
... but you can lure agg mobs (to use MUD terminology), exit once you are in the mission (especially annoying in the middle of a mission) ... and the other people who have to restart the mission. This is EXCEPTIONALLY annoying when people decide to grief play on missions that take 30 minutes to do. ... I played it for a couple of months... and I had a griefer every other day, sometimes more, sometimes less... it really made the game undesirable, to me, on top of the fact the replayability was null...
To be honest, what makes it not fun is the MMORPG aspect... there is no single player, and a lot of the players are the sort you'd expect to find in this sort of game... idiotic kids who are just out for themselves... the game accounts for it by making treasure specific to random players in the party (no one else can pick it up)
MoM++ - A Classic Expanded - [Master of Magic 1.5]
http://mompp.sourceforge.net/
Checking on gamerankings.com, Gun received an average of 80% or so in reviews across all platforms (the shoddy XBox 360 port being about 5 percentage points below that). Nintendogs received an average of 85%.
Just because you don't like a game (and I personally have no intention of buying Nintendogs) doesn't mean it's not good.
++ Say to Elrond "Hello.".
Elrond says "No.". Elrond gives you some lunch.
If you're able to get the game to run (that's a big if), and then keep it running, you'll find that it's not that big of an improvement over previous civs when it comes to game play. I have a brand new computer with a top-notch ATI card that runs _every_ game I throw at it... except civ4.
Um, take a closer look and then don't overreact. They broke thier list down into genres and came up with three games for each genre. If you think Gun belongs on the list, then it would have to be better than one of the three games in the FPS category. Is it better than Brothers in Arms, Battlefield 2, or F.E.A.R.? Alternatively, if you categorize it as Action/Adventure, it has to be better than Resident Evil 4, God of War, or Shadow of the Colossus.
For the "other" category, they listed six titles. If Nintendogs doesn't belong on that list, then name six games better than it that aren't Action/Adventure, RPG, FPS, Driving, Fighting, Platforming, Strategy, or Sports.
this: http://www.monkkonen.net/notrium.php
Small, free, interesting and original.
SMAC is the better game by far. Sid Meier has been trying for 6 years now to achieve the same feel that Civ2 had (which had Brian Reynolds as the lead designer), when SMAC (which was also designed by Brian Reynolds) is the only game to have done so.
Incidentally, Rise of Nations is a Brian Reynolds game... which explains why it rocks.
GT4 seemed like just another rehash of the series to me. Don't get me wrong, graphics were excellent for the PS2, and the controls were tight, but I didn't see much in terms of improvement over the previous incarnations...
But then again...I can't say Forza was that great of a game either...
What I do know... is that Mario Kart DS rocks, and next gen got one title right anyway!
Deja Vu
n. 1. The sensation that you've read this very article before.
*ahem* read the article again. It WAS considered...
Other notable entries in the driving genre this year include Gran Turismo 4, Project Gotham Racing 3 and Wipeout Pure.
I too found it strange that GT4 didn't make the list. But I have yet to play it or its contemporaries so I can't say whether or not the other games deserve the title more or not.
-Shawn "If the Name Don't Rhyme It Ain't Mine" Conn