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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
1999 for me because of Age of Empires II and Quake III Arena
Q3A was released October 22, 2000.
2000 is a contender for retro gaming “best year”.
Diablo 2 (still the best one, imho)
Q3A
Jet Set Radio
Baldur’s Gate 2
Deus Ex
Paper Mario
No One Lives Forever
Counter Strike
Legacy of Kain Soul ReaverAnyway, late 90s early 00s had a lot of banger years with awesome new IPs dropping regularly. The last 5-10 years have been amazing for indie games, but AAA games are just fancier versions of what we already have, for the most part.
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).
Indeed, it’s pretty surreal. Working on my Diablo 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 though tbh. Haven’t played one since 10. They’ve all looked kind of interchangeable and generic since then. 9 was special for me.
Nothing will ever top FF6-9. It was such a great time in Final Fantasy story telling.
For my fellow space lovers: 2003
EvE + Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
You are welcome 😄
2000 had Diablo 2, so, 2000
2014 the year Titanfall came out, it was basically everything I wanted in FPS. I could wall run, shoot and then hop in my giant robot and rain hellfire down with a 40MM or hoop out and let it follow while I jump onto the enemies Titan, shoot it with my machine gun and then plant satchel charges. When the pilot hops out to try and kill me jump off set off satchel charges killing the Titan and its pilot.
I know I’m basic.
'93 had Doom and we’re still installing Doom on things.
If it doesn’t run doom, is it even a computer?
In computer science we should say that a machine is DOOM complete
2023 -Street Fighter 6 -being able to play Hunt: Showdown on Linux -Cyberpunk '77: Phantom Liberty -Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure -BattleBit -games I haven’t played yet, but looking forward: Zelda Totk(?)
I would agree this has been the best year in recent times. It feels like we’re finally pushing past the impact of COVID, and the industry is getting used to being remote, or dragging everyone back to the office.
I’m not completely in the loop, but off the top of my head we’ve gotten:
AAA:
- SF6
- RE2
- Hogwarts Legacy
- Diablo 4
Indie:
- Battlebit Remastered
- Dave the Diver
And we still have the holiday season to look forward to. Maybe not the best year ever, but still a fantastic one, and especially so given how slow the last few years have been,
The King of Fighters
