HF Retro Game of the Year - 2004 - San Andreas Wins!

[MayDay]

Epic was working on a new Unreal Tournament but they've shelved everything in favour of Fortnite. The lowest common denominator wins again.

That's a shame.

I have many fond memories of some epic matches of UT Capture the Flag, sometime around 2001-02.

 

[NyQuil]

Not to rudely question your choices or anything, but I'm curious why you prefer sports and driving games on console? Availability, since they apparently only make FIFA for PC now for some reason?

Some of it is simply the controller (I don't use a controller with my PC and I do with a console) and the fact that I'm sitting on a couch with my big screen TV instead of at my desk with mouse/keyboard and my two-monitor set-up.

My buddy plays with his mouse and keyboard on the couch but I've never really gotten it to where I'm comfortable.

I think the game design corresponds somewhat to that reality as well.

I find with sports/driving/platformers there are fewer settings and micromanagement required so it's easier to play in a less formal setting. I can sit up, lay back, move around. More importantly, those are the types of games typically I will take advantage of hot-seat, co-op, split screen functionality with a buddy in the same room.

When I'm playing RPGs, shooters and strategy games, I need a straight-backed chair with a desk to put my elbows on because I'm constantly cycling through menus and I require very careful, pin-point movements with those games. If I'm playing with someone else, they aren't in the same room.

 

[Commander Clueless]

Some of it is simply the controller (I don't use a controller with my PC and I do with a console) and the fact that I'm sitting on a couch with my big screen TV instead of at my desk with mouse/keyboard and my two-monitor set-up.

My buddy plays with his mouse and keyboard on the couch but I've never really gotten it to where I'm comfortable.

I think the game design corresponds somewhat to that reality as well.

I find with sports/driving/platformers there are fewer settings and micromanagement required so it's easier to play in a less formal setting. I can sit up, lay back, move around. More importantly, those are the types of games typically I will take advantage of hot-seat, co-op, split screen functionality with a buddy in the same room.

When I'm playing RPGs, shooters and strategy games, I need a straight-backed chair with a desk to put my elbows on because I'm constantly cycling through menus and I require very careful, pin-point movements with those games. If I'm playing with someone else, they aren't in the same room.

Makes sense.

I use an Xbox controller with my PC for many games and also quite often hook my PC up to my TV, so I find it pretty versatile in that sense.


For me it all comes down to if I'm playing with friends and where they are playing it. Otherwise, it defaults to PC because the (expensive) hardware tends to produce better results.

 

[NyQuil]

Makes sense.

I use an Xbox controller with my PC for many games and also quite often hook my PC up to my TV, so I find it pretty versatile in that sense.

For me it all comes down to if I'm playing with friends and where they are playing it. Otherwise, it defaults to PC because the (expensive) hardware tends to produce better results.

I find that the hardware requirements for those types of games that lend themselves to consoles aren't as stringent in terms of impacting on my game experience.

Otherwise I might put more of an effort to do more on the PC.

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

Halo 2 being the most voted FPS game in a poll with HL2 and UT2004 is really hilarious btw.

Not really.
All three of those games are great. I've played through Half-Life 2 a handful of times. It's a great game with a compelling storyline that had state-of-the-art graphics and physics at the time of release. But it's also just a single player FPS, which only have so much replay value. I personally liked the original Half-Life a bit more (better level design and more revolutionary for its time).

UT2k4 was an awesome game but different style of game. It's like comparing Battlefield to Halo, it's a pointless comparison to make.

 

[KingBran]

For me, I got a 144hz QHD monitor with a 1ms response time. My 55" 4K TV is great but the refreshrate / Hz isnt nearly as good so there is lots of ghosting. Whats funny is I never really noticed it or anything until I got this PC monitor. Now when I play games on my Xbox / PS4 they just look so... crappy. A monitor with those specs is so much cheaper than a TV with those specs. Games look great in 4K on my TV but they are so much better looking on my monitor with a (slightly) smaller resolution because of the response times and Hz. Plus all the extras on my PC (SSD, 32GB Ram, i7) make games load a ton faster.

its funny in Overwatch and R6:Siege I always seem to be the first to pick my hero because I am usually the first one in the game.

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

That's a shame.

I have many fond memories of some epic matches of UT Capture the Flag, sometime around 2001-02.

I remember loving the UT games growing up. Then I got Unreal Tournament 3 on PC a few years after it was released and the community was pretty dead. Disappointing how that series went out on a low note.

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

I didn't play it online and didn't have anybody to play it online with because everybody I knew thought Halo played like ****. Didn't really have anything to do with the archaic multiplayer features.

Well that explains why you didn't enjoy the game much, you didn't even try the best part of the game.
Damn, that game was some of the best times I've had online. The map design was amazing too, maps like Zanzibar and Lockout are some of the best in the FPS genre.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Epic was working on a new Unreal Tournament but they've shelved everything in favour of Fortnite. The lowest common denominator wins again.



I didn't play it online and didn't have anybody to play it online with because everybody I knew thought Halo played like ****. Didn't really have anything to do with the archaic multiplayer features.

Isnt unreal also a free to play game?

 

[syz]

Well that explains why you didn't enjoy the game much, you didn't even try the best part of the game.
Damn, that game was some of the best times I've had online. The map design was amazing too, maps like Zanzibar and Lockout are some of the best in the FPS genre.

In 2004 I was still playing in Quake 3 tournaments, just starting UT2k4 tournaments, and then I got into the WoW beta. Playing with friends can make bad games feel better than they actually are, but I don't think that would've helped Halo in my case. Legit never liked anything about the way those games played. The guns were boring and the movement was way too floaty.

Never liked Xbox Live at all, either. The people on it seemed... special. I remember finding the Xbox version of Return to Castle Wolfenstein at a Blockbuster for like $5 and thought I'd try it since I played it competitively on PC. I played like 10 games and got vote kicked from at least half of them for "cheating" and "camping"... in an attack/defend game.

 

[NyQuil]

RTCW was the first real shooter that I played online with any great regularity.

I played UT (Morpheus map FTW), Quake, RoTT, Doom, Duke Nukem etc. but that was always 1 on 1 via modem or in a group LAN environment.

I must have done that beach map 10,000 times. LOL.

Don't snipe on the top of the hill! Snipe from the side. No one looks there.

And if you're playing on the other side, snipe from the camouflage netting. Really hard to see you. Not from the damned windows.

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

In 2004 I was still playing in Quake 3 tournaments, just starting UT2k4 tournaments, and then I got into the WoW beta. Playing with friends can make bad games feel better than they actually are, but I don't think that would've helped Halo in my case. Legit never liked anything about the way those games played. The guns were boring and the movement was way too floaty.

Never liked Xbox Live at all, either. The people on it seemed... special. I remember finding the Xbox version of Return to Castle Wolfenstein at a Blockbuster for like $5 and thought I'd try it since I played it competitively on PC. I played like 10 games and got vote kicked from at least half of them for "cheating" and "camping"... in an attack/defend game.

Maybe a bit, but not really. But that's beside the point as Halo 2 is a great game and most would agree with me (see Metacritic - 95 for critics reviews, 82 for users).

It was definitely floaty. But I loved dual wielding and using the Battle Rifle.

 

[RandV]

Maybe a bit, but not really. But that's beside the point as Halo 2 is a great game and most would agree with me (see Metacritic - 95 for critics reviews, 82 for users).

It was definitely floaty. But I loved dual wielding and using the Battle Rifle.

As far as Halo goes I've only played a little bit of the first on PC, at a gaming cafe years ago... felt just like Goldeneye to me so I was right at home with it. I mean there are obviously significant difference but it was just that subtle feel or pace, would this be the case with other Halo games?

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Who voted for Doom 3??? I'd seriously love to hear why.

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

As far as Halo goes I've only played a little bit of the first on PC, at a gaming cafe years ago... felt just like Goldeneye to me so I was right at home with it. I mean there are obviously significant difference but it was just that subtle feel or pace, would this be the case with other Halo games?

I don't think so, I think it has its own feel and pace. It's slower paced than twitch shooters like Unreal Tournament and Quake, but has similar ambiance in the weapons and teleporters and whatnot. IMO, it requires more skill than most current console FPS games like CoD (although the bar has been set low).

It's a mixture of arena type FPS games like Unreal Tournament and Quake (when it comes to map design for the smaller maps) and Battlefield when it comes to large scale maps and objective-oriented gameplay.

The game rewards aiming more than most console FPS. For example, 9 out of 10 times the person that can headshot better will win a 1-on-1 encounter. Whereas games like CoD and Battlefield, it is based on whoever saw the other person first (you can body shot them and still kill them quickly). Halo, especially the first two games, is based on learning to headshot with the pistol/battle rifle. It's also based more around team-work than most console FPS games (outside of class based games like Overwatch). If you play CTF, the team that gets a couple of people in a Warthog and coordinates a synchronized attack will likely win the game, as opposed to a team that dicks around and goes in opposite directions (like most CoD games).

 

[Osprey]

Maybe a bit, but not really. But that's beside the point as Halo 2 is a great game and most would agree with me (see Metacritic - 95 for critics reviews, 82 for users).

Most Xbox users would probably agree with you, since those are the Xbox version scores that you gave. Most PC users, like the person that you're replying to, probably wouldn't agree with you, since the PC version has a 72 for critic reviews and a 5.6 for users. It's probably pointless to argue over which side is right. Both are probably right when speaking for their own platform. A console gamer who declares that it's a great game is speaking relative to what console gamers were used to and liked and a PC gamer who declares that it's not a great game is speaking relative to what PC gamers were used to and liked.

Who voted for Doom 3??? I'd seriously love to hear why.

I wonder the same thing whenever you 8/10 reviews to obscure, B-picture, grindhouse horror films on the Entertainment board .

 

[bambamcam4ever]

I don't think so, I think it has its own feel and pace. It's slower paced than twitch shooters like Unreal Tournament and Quake, but has similar ambiance in the weapons and teleporters and whatnot. IMO, it requires more skill than most current console FPS games like CoD (although the bar has been set low).

It's a mixture of arena type FPS games like Unreal Tournament and Quake (when it comes to map design for the smaller maps) and Battlefield when it comes to large scale maps and objective-oriented gameplay.

The game rewards aiming more than most console FPS. For example, 9 out of 10 times the person that can headshot better will win a 1-on-1 encounter. Whereas games like CoD and Battlefield, it is based on whoever saw the other person first (you can body shot them and still kill them quickly). Halo, especially the first two games, is based on learning to headshot with the pistol/battle rifle. It's also based more around team-work than most console FPS games (outside of class based games like Overwatch). If you play CTF, the team that gets a couple of people in a Warthog and coordinates a synchronized attack will likely win the game, as opposed to a team that dicks around and goes in opposite directions (like most CoD games).

100%. It's a shooting game, not a game determined on who is better at camping.

 

[RandV]

I don't think so, I think it has its own feel and pace. It's slower paced than twitch shooters like Unreal Tournament and Quake, but has similar ambiance in the weapons and teleporters and whatnot. IMO, it requires more skill than most current console FPS games like CoD (although the bar has been set low).

It's a mixture of arena type FPS games like Unreal Tournament and Quake (when it comes to map design for the smaller maps) and Battlefield when it comes to large scale maps and objective-oriented gameplay.

The game rewards aiming more than most console FPS. For example, 9 out of 10 times the person that can headshot better will win a 1-on-1 encounter.

People may not have noticed because the controls are so crappy but that's actually the same with Goldeneye. If you can manage the archaic controls and effectively zero in on the head you'll win most encounters.

Goldeneye is pretty much the only FPS I've ever been get at in multiplayer, but in my limited time with Halo:CE I was able to step in and immediately dominate. Anything else, from Quake 3 to Counter Strike to Call of Duty, I've always sucked at.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

I wonder the same thing whenever you 8/10 reviews to obscure, B-picture, grindhouse horror films on the Entertainment board .

Such as??

Name a flick and I'll tell you why.

It's not my fault 99% of horror today is garbage.

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

Most Xbox users would probably agree with you, since those are the Xbox version scores that you gave. Most PC users, like the person that you're replying to, probably wouldn't agree with you, since the PC version has a 72 for critic reviews and a 5.6 for users. It's probably pointless to argue over which side is right. Both are probably right when speaking for their own platform. A console gamer who declares that it's a great game is speaking relative to what console gamers were used to and liked and a PC gamer who declares that it's not a great game is speaking relative to what PC gamers were used to and liked.

Not necessarily. The XBox reviews include anyone that cares to review it, including trolls and other fanboys that want to lower the score.

The PC version is lower for many reasons. It was released 3 years after the XBox version, standards change over that time. Not much new content was introduced. There was no split screen or co-op modes. It was a blatant attempt to get people to upgrade to Windows Vista.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

Decided to start replaying San Andreas on my PS3 (for the gazillionth time) this afternoon because of this thread.

 

[Osprey]

The PC version is lower for many reasons. It was released 3 years after the XBox version, standards change over that time. Not much new content was introduced. There was no split screen or co-op modes. It was a blatant attempt to get people to upgrade to Windows Vista.

Three years is not that long. I played San Andreas ten years after it was released and really enjoyed it. A good game stands up to the test of time. The lack of new content makes no difference when we're talking about PC gamers who didn't play the Xbox version. The lack of split screen co-op also doesn't matter to PC gamers. That's almost entirely a console feature. If it had been released in 2004 with all of the features of the console version, it might've received higher scores, but it wouldn't have been considered revolutionary like it is on consoles.

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

Three years is not that long. I played San Andreas ten years after it was released and really enjoyed it. A good game stands up to the test of time. The lack of new content makes no difference when we're talking about PC gamers who didn't play the Xbox version. The lack of split screen co-op also doesn't matter to PC gamers. That's almost entirely a console feature. If it had been released in 2004 with all of the features of the console version, it might've received higher scores, but it wouldn't have been considered revolutionary like it is on consoles.

The three year gap and not having many new features were actually the main issues reviewers had with the game (you cited review scores in your previous post).

 

[Osprey]

The three year gap and not having many new features were actually the main issues reviewers had with the game (you cited review scores in your previous post).

Those were the main issues from the professional reviewers who, in order to be qualified to do the reviews, likely played the Xbox version and, so, naturally, focused on the differences or lack of differences from that. The main issues from the user reviews were more about the quality of the gameplay, the controls and so on.

 

[SniperHF]

Looks like GTA has pulled away, it was close for a while. Still some time left though.

Anyway, how's this looking for a preliminary 2003 list?

Call of Duty

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

Final Fantasy XI

Fire Emblem

Freelancer

Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

NHL 2004

Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time

Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield

Rise of Nations

SOCOM II: US Navy SEALs

SoulCalibur II

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

[TBODY] [/TBODY]