HF Retro Game of the Year - 1999 - Age of Empires II Wins!

Game of the year back in 1999?


  • Total voters
    95
  • Poll closed .

PK Cronin

Bailey Fan Club Prez
Feb 11, 2013
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Either people need to look up the word "revolutionize" or y'all were playing different games than I was.

Ocarina's the only one here that that word actually applies to, and its influence is still 100% relevant today.

Uh, StarCraft was the most successful PC game for a very long time, in terms of sales, growth, and popularity. It established e-sports as a thing, which is what tons of PC games focus on now. Also, it's probably the only game that is still played competitively from '98 (though I suppose it's actually Brood War). That's a pretty massive and revolutionary impact on the gaming industry.
 

Osprey

Registered User
Feb 18, 2005
27,090
9,352
You can say the same about Half Life, Starcraft and Baldurs Gate. Throw in Grim Fandango which was the glorious last entry in a dying genre, I have no idea where this vote is going.

Grim Fandago was great, but I wouldn't say that it revolutionized point-and-click adventure games. It did the opposite: it killed them off :laugh:.

Either people need to look up the word "revolutionize" or y'all were playing different games than I was.

Ocarina's the only one here that that word actually applies to, and its influence is still 100% relevant today.

If you're going to criticize people's arguments, you should be willing to explain why; otherwise, your criticism is weightless. Since you feel so strongly that Thief didn't revolutionize its genre, I'd love to hear your explanation for why.
 
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Frankie Blueberries

Allergic to draft picks
Jan 27, 2016
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Either people need to look up the word "revolutionize" or y'all were playing different games than I was.

Ocarina's the only one here that that word actually applies to, and its influence is still 100% relevant today.

Depends on how you're applying the word 'revolutionize.' For example, it's easy to make a case that Half-Life was revolutionary for the FPS in the aspect of telling a compelling storyline in the first person perspective without cut-scenes (I don't recall many other FPS doing that at the time). You can also make a case for other aspects of the game like the map design and whatnot.
 

RandV

It's a wolf v2.0
Jul 29, 2003
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It's funny but the game that sort of revolutionized that aspect of gaming for me was Carmageddon. ;)

Yeah I never took an interest in Grand Theft Auto 3 because if I wanted crazy vehicular mayhem I'd just go back to Carmageddon.

Don't think it's really worth putting up as a poll option though. How about some JRPG love instead: Final Fantasy Tactics, Xenogears, and Suikoden II. I know it has no chance of winning but of all the great games this year my vote would be for Suikoden II.
 
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Trap Jesus

Registered User
Feb 13, 2012
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I'm basically 50/50 between Smash Bros. and Roller Coaster Tycoon. I sunk so many hours into those two games. Ultimately went with Smash Bros. though.
 

syz

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Jul 13, 2007
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Uh, StarCraft was the most successful PC game for a very long time, in terms of sales, growth, and popularity. It established e-sports as a thing, which is what tons of PC games focus on now. Also, it's probably the only game that is still played competitively from '98 (though I suppose it's actually Brood War). That's a pretty massive and revolutionary impact on the gaming industry.

Thresh was winning Ferraris at Quake tournaments before StarCraft existed.

StarCraft: good entry in a genre that already existed (but is now dead)
Half-Life: overrated entry in a genre that already existed
Grim Fandango: possibly the best entry in a genre that already existed (and died shortly after)
Thief: a twist on a genre that already existed (but then saw limited growth)
Ocarina: established a genre that remains the most popular genre in gaming 20 years after the fact.

The only thing that can claim to be Ocarina's contemporary was Mystical Ninja Goemon, which came out a few months earlier.
 

Osprey

Registered User
Feb 18, 2005
27,090
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Ocarina: established a genre that remains the most popular genre in gaming 20 years after the fact.

What genre did Ocarina of Time establish? It wasn't the first action-adventure game or the first RPG. It wasn't even the first in the Zelda series.
 
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crowi

Registered Loser
May 11, 2012
8,173
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Helsinki
Glad to see Heroes 3 getting a decent amount votes here. I feel it's probably, by HF terms, the most underrated game on list.
 

Mount Suribachi

Registered User
Nov 15, 2013
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Grim Fandago was great, but I wouldn't say that it revolutionized point-and-click adventure games. It did the opposite: it killed them off :laugh:.

Um, that's what I said?

I didn't include it as a revolutionary game, I included it as a great game deserving to be discussed alongside revolutionary games like StarCraft, BG and HL.
 

PK Cronin

Bailey Fan Club Prez
Feb 11, 2013
33,827
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Thresh was winning Ferraris at Quake tournaments before StarCraft existed.

StarCraft: good entry in a genre that already existed (but is now dead)

Tournaments aren't necessarily the same thing as e-sports. Starcraft is still played today by thousands of people last I checked, which is pretty good for a 20 year old game. But, I guess we can save that discussion for the next poll. ;) Tons of great games out there.

Glad AOE II is on top right now, since I'm a big fan of RTS games.
 

The Nuge

Some say…
Jan 26, 2011
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The original "Grand Theft Auto" would get my '98 vote as it was released in North America back in 1998.

Plus it was the game I specifically wanted a PS1 for. :)

2nd this. Also, MediEvil

All these votes for an RTS, wonder if there will be an upset in '98 :popcorn:

Also THPS quietly caught up a bit :laugh:

AoE had a lot more mass appeal though. Everyone played it. I don’t know a single person who played Starcraft
 

Rodgerwilco

Entertainment boards w/ some Hockey mixed in.
Feb 6, 2014
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Off-topic... but I preferred Age of Mythology to Age of Empires. The way they followed the mythological stories was so tight. I actually built the basis of my mythology knowledge from this game and branched out from there.
 

Osprey

Registered User
Feb 18, 2005
27,090
9,352
Um, that's what I said?

I didn't include it as a revolutionary game, I included it as a great game deserving to be discussed alongside revolutionary games like StarCraft, BG and HL.

Well, I said that Thief was revolutionary and you replied with "you could say the same about" and "throw in Grim Fandango," so it did seem like you were including Grim Fandago as a revolutionary game. I guess that we just had a miscommunication.

AoE had a lot more mass appeal though. Everyone played it. I don’t know a single person who played Starcraft

I've never really understood the praise for StarCraft, myself. I get that it was well-balanced and, perhaps, the first RTS with 3 factions that all played very differently, but I saw nothing remarkable about the general gameplay. It felt like generic RTS gameplay to me, only refined and polished. I played through the human campaign 20 years ago and have never had any inclination to re-play it or play the other factions' campaigns. It seems a lot like Diablo II in that the core gameplay was nothing special for its time, but gets endless praise for being an addictive multiplayer experience in spite of it.
 
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SniperHF

Rejecting Reports
Mar 9, 2007
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AoE had a lot more mass appeal though. Everyone played it. I don’t know a single person who played Starcraft

I dunno. Starcraft was on the shelves in big box form for a decade +
It had the marketing of Blizzard behind it with integration into Bnet that advertised directly to Diablo and WCII players.

They were both pretty popular on release but SC had the much longer tail. AoE had nearly died out until the revival a few years ago with the HD edition.
 

The Nuge

Some say…
Jan 26, 2011
27,330
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British Columbia
I dunno. Starcraft was on the shelves in big box form for a decade +
It had the marketing of Blizzard behind it with integration into Bnet that advertised directly to Diablo and WCII players.

They were both pretty popular on release but SC had the much longer tail. AoE had nearly died out until the revival a few years ago with the HD edition.

Absolutely, but it was more a core diehard audience. AoE appealed a lot more to the casual gamer. At least in my experience. Plus, Starcraft has half of its sales in Korea, and I doubt there’s a lot of Koreans on a hockey forum.
 

Painful Quandary

Registered User
Mar 22, 2015
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Absolutely, but it was more a core diehard audience. AoE appealed a lot more to the casual gamer. At least in my experience. Plus, Starcraft has half of its sales in Korea, and I doubt there’s a lot of Koreans on a hockey forum.

I dunno, South Korea having a hockey team at the Olympics and IIHF may give HF a boost in Korean users.:sarcasm:
 

PK Cronin

Bailey Fan Club Prez
Feb 11, 2013
33,827
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Well, I said that Thief was revolutionary and you replied with "you could say the same about" and "throw in Grim Fandango," so it did seem like you were including Grim Fandago as a revolutionary game. I guess that we just had a miscommunication.



I've never really understood the praise for StarCraft, myself. I get that it was well-balanced and, perhaps, the first RTS with 3 factions that all played very differently, but I saw nothing remarkable about the general gameplay. It felt like generic RTS gameplay to me, only refined and polished. I played through the human campaign 20 years ago and have never had any inclination to re-play it or play the other factions' campaigns. It seems a lot like Diablo II in that the core gameplay was nothing special for its time, but gets endless praise for being an addictive multiplayer experience in spite of it.
Both of those games were all about the multiplayer experience. The balance between completely different races is what made that game great. It's so hard to replicate as well. Don't think I've ever played a more balanced game without mirror matchups.
 

SniperHF

Rejecting Reports
Mar 9, 2007
42,631
21,042
Phoenix
Lists for review:
Locks:
Baldur's Gate
Crash Bandicoot: Warped
Fallout 2
Gran Turismo
Grim Fandango
Half-Life
Metal Gear Solid
Resident Evil 2
Starcraft
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
[TBODY] [/TBODY]
Possibles:
Banjo-Kazooie
Descent: FreeSpace
Grand Theft Auto
MechCommander
MediEvil
Might and Magic VI
Spyro the Dragon
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
Thief: The Dark Project
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six
[TBODY] [/TBODY]
TBH I think the shorter list of locks is probably good enough. With a few exceptions I think most of the people who suggested some of the possibles are actually voting for one of the locks anyway.

Of the possibles I like Thief and maybe Freespace/Banjo. GTA 1 winning would be like that woman Sandra Bullock (not that one) winning the primary.
Also it's debatable that it's a '98 game at all.


Also I think the 95 votes is a record for the retro polls. Usually had been around 75.
 

MetalheadPenguinsFan

Registered User
Sep 17, 2009
63,699
16,746
Canada
If we're going with just that "Locks" list than I gotta vote for Gran Turismo. I played the hell out of it after getting it for Christmas in '98

However if GTA 1 makes the list then I'd go with that by a tiny margin.
 

Bjorn Le

Hobocop
May 17, 2010
19,590
605
Martinaise, Revachol
I almost guarantee most people on these forums didn't play any of the pre-3D GTAs. They weren't that well-received at the time, and it's not like people look back at them with nostalgia. GTA 1 has a Metacritic of only 78, and really the story/gameplay is quite bland.

The 1998 lock list has several games which have stood the test of time. Baldur's Gate, StarCraft, OoT, Half Life and Grim Fandango are some of the greatest games ever made. We really don't need any other games on the list.
 

Pilky01

Registered User
Jan 30, 2012
9,867
2,319
GTA
I played GTA 1, 2 and UK expansion pack thing them at the time and really enjoyed them. I wouldn't vote any of them GOTY though.

1. OOT
2. MGS
3. GT

edit: f*** I hate typing on my iPhone. The keyboard is so bad and I dont understand why because it used to be very accurate.
 
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