HF Retro Game of the Year - 2000 - Diablo II Wins!

[Painful Quandary]

I'm probably going to vote for AoE II, but I did enjoy Super Smash Bros. and Rollercoaster Tycoon as well. I still have to get around to play System Shock 2, it is in my GoG library.

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

Ooookay, 199 list:

Age of Empires II

EverQuest

Heroes of Might and Magic III

Planescape: Torment

Quake III Arena

Rollercoaster Tycoon

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

Silent Hill

SoulCalibur

Super Smash Bros.

System Shock 2

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater

Unreal Tournament

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Other Potentials:

Driver

Final Fantasy VIII

Gran Turismo 2

Grandia

Homeworld

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

Mario Golf

Mario Party

Medal of Honor

Rayman 2: The Great Escape

Syphon Filter

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

What should stay, go , good enough?

Everquest was a big deal and an important historical game but I'm not sure it has many fans around here, could be wrong.

I'd say Mario Party is pretty historical.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it the first game to involve mini-games and possibly the first "party" game as well? It also was a cool intersection between board games and video games.

 

[Osprey]

I never played Everquest, but as you say it's a historically significant game - the first successful no-subscription MMO I believe?

EverQuest used a subscription model. Its legacy is that it was the first massively successful 3D MMO. The previous (and first) massively successful MMO was Ultima Online, but it was 2D with an overhead camera (similar to Diablo) and wasn't as immersive as EverQuest's 3D engine and 1st-person perspective, so the latter quickly surpassed it in subscriptions and became the MMO to beat until World of Warcraft came along.

I'd say Mario Party is pretty historical.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it the first game to involve mini-games and possibly the first "party" game as well? It also was a cool intersection between board games and video games.

Games with mini games have been around since the 80s, though they've usually been sports games, like all of the Olympics games, California Games and such. Mario Party might've popularized non-sports mini games, though; I'm not sure.

 

[Tonneau]

What ^ said.

 

[SniperHF]

EverQuest used a subscription model. Its legacy is that it was the first massively successful 3D MMO.

Also its expansion model.

But same with Mario Party, I'm more interested if people are gonna vote for it or not.

 

[Osprey]

Also its expansion model.

I'm not sure that it was any different than Ultima Online. UO's first expansion was in 1998, the year before EverQuest was released, and it's had eight more since. EverQuest might've pioneered digital distribution of expansion packs, though, if that's what you're referring to.

 

[SniperHF]

I'm not sure that it was any different than Ultima Online. UO's first expansion was in 1998, the year before EverQuest was released, and it's had eight more since. EverQuest might've pioneered digital distribution of expansion packs, though, if that's what you're referring to.

EQ's expansions were a borderline software as a service conveyor belt, releasing 1 at least every year and sometimes 2. I'm not sure any game to that point had done that.

 

[Osprey]

EQ's expansions were a borderline software as a service conveyor belt, releasing 1 at least every year and sometimes 2. I'm not sure any game to that point had done that.

I'm not sure that any game since has done that, either. I see what you're saying. That was more extreme than UO's expansion model, especially early on. In fact, it's probably due to EverQuest updating its game with expansions so frequently that UO released new expansions every year, instead of every other year, starting in 2000.

 

[Ceremony]

Ooookay, 1999 list:

Age of Empires II

EverQuest

Heroes of Might and Magic III

Planescape: Torment

Quake III Arena

Rollercoaster Tycoon

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

Silent Hill

SoulCalibur

Super Smash Bros.

System Shock 2

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater

Unreal Tournament

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Other Potentials:

Driver

Final Fantasy VIII

Gran Turismo 2

Grandia

Homeworld

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

Mario Golf

Mario Party

Medal of Honor

Rayman 2: The Great Escape

Syphon Filter

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

What should stay, go , good enough?

Everquest was a big deal and an important historical game but I'm not sure it has many fans around here, could be wrong.

Crash Team Racing should be on the list as well.

 

[NyQuil]

It is funny how big the Everquest footprint is but I never played it.

 

[Osprey]

I bought EverQuest and played it for the first, free month. It was an exciting experience because the 1st-person 3D engine was so immersive, but it was very unforgiving, partly by design and partly because it was laggy (net code, not 3D performance) and unpolished, even though it had already been out a few years. I have countless memories of venturing outside of the safe, starting zone, dying because I was hit only a few times while lagged or without seeing what was hitting me (1st person perspective has its downsides) and then having to start all over again from the starting zone. World of Warcraft was so much better in these respects, even at release. Blizzard was just so much better at game balance and polish than anyone, especially compared to the people behind EverQuest, who were relatively inexperienced and learning as they went along.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

I'd say Mario Party is pretty historical.

Pretty historically bad.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Deus Ex didn’t win this? Wow

 

[Emperoreddy]

EQ's expansions were a borderline software as a service conveyor belt, releasing 1 at least every year and sometimes 2. I'm not sure any game to that point had done that.

Isn’t that basically what The Sims does?

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

Pretty historically bad.

 

[The Noot]

This theme haunts me to this day

 

[belair]

I played the hell out of PD but I couldn't vote for it. It was an obvious attempt to try and replicate the success they had with Goldeneye. The addition of the counter-op mode was awful. Still love it and the Sim Challenges are something that I remember vividly giving me migraines trying to complete.