HF Retro Game of the Year - 2005 - Civilization IV Wins!

[Trap Jesus]

Great year. RE4 and SotC are 2 of my favorite games ever. Almost impossible to compare the two as they're completely different experiences, but I just feel like RE4 brings more to the table.

Civ 4 and God of War, which I loved, are more or less afterthoughts after those 2.

 

[Pilky01]

I cant wait till these polls get back to the 90's!

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

I forgot how great 2005 was for games.
Out of the list, I've played:

Battlefield 2
Call of Duty 2
Forza Motorsport
God of War
Guitar Hero
Resident Evil 4
Star Wars Battlefront 2

I'd say Battlefield 2 was the best. It's arguably the best of the Battlefield series. Probably my favourite modern FPS of all time (just edges CoD 4, Counter-Strike, and Battlefield: Bad Company 2). Then it's a tie between Forza, Guitar Hero, and RE 4, as they are all amazing in their genres.

 

[S E P H]

Easily Chaos Theory. Guitar Hero is amazing, but gets behind repetitive as all casual games go. RE4 might have been "da bomb", but previous models failed where they had to make up for it. and Civ IV is trash to Civ V.

Chaos Theory has the best game mechanics, story, and coop.

 

[The Nuge]

I forgot how great 2005 was for games.
Out of the list, I've played:

Battlefield 2
Call of Duty 2
Forza Motorsport
God of War
Guitar Hero
Resident Evil 4
Star Wars Battlefront 2

I'd say Battlefield 2 was the best. It's arguably the best of the Battlefield series. Probably my favourite modern FPS of all time (just edges CoD 4, Counter-Strike, and Battlefield: Bad Company 2). Then it's a tie between Forza, Guitar Hero, and RE 4, as they are all amazing in their genres.

Goes to show just how much these things come down to personal taste. In my opinion, 05 is probably one of the worst years all time for gaming, and Battlefield 2 is hands down the worst in the entire series. I loved Forza, Guitar Hero, and MVP Baseball, but they were all been done much better shortly afterwards by their sequels/competitors. The rest, I just couldn’t get into.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

I cant wait till these polls get back to the 90's!

Ditto

 

[Hullois]

I played BF2 for a shameful amount of hours. Best game of the series for me. I miss that game

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

Goes to show just how much these things come down to personal taste. In my opinion, 05 is probably one of the worst years all time for gaming, and Battlefield 2 is hands down the worst in the entire series. I loved Forza, Guitar Hero, and MVP Baseball, but they were all been done much better shortly afterwards by their sequels/competitors. The rest, I just couldn’t get into.

It seems that we have different perspectives on what makes a great game. See, I think if something is new and innovative (i.e. Guitar Hero making a new genre; Forza introducing damage to a realistic racing sim, etc.), it's the first of its kind and during that time, it blew me away. So I give it points for being a fresh breath of air during its time. I realize sequels often improve on them, but I'm more looking at the game when it came out rather than in hindsight.

Also not sure how Battlefield 2 is the worst in the series. The original Battlefield Vietnam takes that title IMO. The original Bad Company was also rough around the edges with strange map design and a grainy filter that was annoying.

 

[SniperHF]

I don't think The Show surpassed MVP on its first release. Maybe 08 or 09.

I'd be voting for MVP if not for the presence of CIV.

Lots of games I liked that don't quite make the cut for the list though. The Brothers in Arms games. SWAT 4. Guild Wars ( didn't like the expansions unfortunately). F E A R (almost included it but I'm trying to keep the list around 12-13)

The '06 (05 release) version of Tiger Woods Golf was actually really good too. Empire Earth II. AoE III. LOMAC.

 

[dr robbie]

SWBFII is still the best FPS I've seen. Everything just flowed so well. I don't disagree with any votes for guitar hero though - that thing carved out a nice little nitch for the next decade.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

I don't think The Show surpassed MVP on its first release. Maybe 08 or 09.

I'd be voting for MVP if not for the presence of CIV.

More or less what I was going to say. MVP was, IMO at least, far and above the other baseball games until The Show really hit it's stride around '09 or so. I'd still kill for The Show to have a franchise half as good as MVP had. I want custom stadiums again, damn it!

Civ IV triumphs, though, as arguably my favorite PC game ever.

 

[WarriorOfGandhi]

man, 2004 is going to be a bloodbath. I think it's a foregone conclusion that WoW wins it but there's also San Andreas, Halo 2, Half-Life 2, Far Cry, Doom 3, Rome Total War, NHL 2k5, Kotor2, Counterstrike Source, Fable, Star Wars Battlefront, MGS3...so many great games

 

[SniperHF]

This is the first game on the entire list of games we've voted for that I thought actually was the game of the year, got to vote for it, and it won.

 

[Pilky01]

man, 2004 is going to be a bloodbath. I think it's a foregone conclusion that WoW wins it but there's also San Andreas, Halo 2, Half-Life 2, Far Cry, Doom 3, Rome Total War, NHL 2k5, Kotor2, Counterstrike Source, Fable, Star Wars Battlefront, MGS3...so many great games

Of that list my vote goes to San Andreas, easy.

WoW obviously has had the biggest influence, but I have never played it so it won't get my vote.

 

[Osprey]

This is the first game on the entire list of games we've voted for that I thought actually was the game of the year, got to vote for it, and it won.

It's also the first PC-only game to win. Until now, the only games on PC to win have been ones that were also released on consoles. Such cross-platform development really picked up after the Xbox 360 was released in 2005, since the 360 and Windows PCs shared so many similarities, so it's likely not all coincidence that it's also the first year that a PC-only game is game of the year. We could even see it again with WoW... though it'll face a very stiff fight from San Andreas, which was released on PS2, Xbox and PC. In fact, my guess right now is that San Andreas will win if only for that fact.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

man, 2004 is going to be a bloodbath. I think it's a foregone conclusion that WoW wins it but there's also San Andreas, Halo 2, Half-Life 2, Far Cry, Doom 3, Rome Total War, NHL 2k5, Kotor2, Counterstrike Source, Fable, Star Wars Battlefront, MGS3...so many great games

Incidentally, this year was a big reason I started to grow away from games later in high school. Lots of great games there...and only 2 of them moved the needle for me.

• WOW - Shouldn't be a surprise given my hatred of all things online. I lost a ton of friends to World of Warcraft, and it's probably a big reason why my gaming dropped off immensely.
• Halo 2 - Genuinely loved it.
• Half-Life 2 - I didn't have a computer that could run it for years, and once I finally gave it a try everything that made it special and unique was industry standard, so...eh.
• FarCry - Would have melted any computer I had until 2010.
• Doom 3 - I loved Doom so much that I went in on buying this with a friend (who got to keep it because his computer could run it). I played it once and that was that. Standard too serious for it's own good mid-oughts stuff.
• Rome Total War - Despite my love of strategy and RTS games, Total War is a package that had never moved the needle for me. Plus, again, this would have melted my computer in 2004.
• NHL 2k5 - While damn good, my appetite for hockey was minimal in the lockout year.
• KOTOR 2 - You can't market Star Wars anything to me. After dozens of attempts to 'get' Star Wars I'm done trying.
• Counterstrike Whatever - PC shooters weren't a thing in my life until...okay they're still not a thing in my life, nevermind. Carry on.
• Fable - A damn good game that I sadly remember more for not being the greatest anything ever concocted. I was 16, I used my one free pass on believing Molyneaux here. Despite the fact that I genuinely enjoyed the game, I haven't picked up anything with the Fable moniker on it since I beat the original.
• Star Wars Battlefront - See KOTOR 2.
• MGS3 - After the bait and switch of 2 I completely ignored the series until 5. I was never fond of stealth games anyway, and the original MGS is somewhere around my 35th favorite PlayStation game, so...yeah. I'll concede it's probably a great game, just not for me.

Unfortunately for me one of the games that probably would have finished in my top 3 that year was stuck on a console I didn't own (Tales of Symphonia).

 

[SniperHF]

Okay, preliminary 2004 list:

There are A LOT of quality games in 04, narrowing this down might be a tad difficult
Though I think the potential winner is already on the list above so probably not a huge deal.

Counter-Strike: Source

Doom 3

Far Cry

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Half-Life 2

Halo 2

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Paper Mario: The Thousand-year Door

Pikmin 2

Rome: Total War

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II

Unreal Tournament 2004

World of Warcraft

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

I'm only including KOTOR II because I think a number of people might vote for it. Were I writing the list from scratch I probably wouldn't include it. It wasn't as highly thought of at the time as it is now and it was made better later by substantial patching both from devs and fans.

If there's something not on there ya really wanna vote for let me know, cause I can easily see cutting 3-5 of the games on the list above and swapping them out.

 

[RandV]

An alternate option for PC strategy games would be Rise of Nations... but not sure if it gets votes here. Considering there are 6 FPS on that list though I don't think Doom 3 and maybe Far Cry hold up to the others.

Metroid Prime 2 came out that year as well.

 

[Jasper]

An alternate option for PC strategy games would be Rise of Nations... but not sure if it gets votes here. Considering there are 6 FPS on that list though I don't think Doom 3 and maybe Far Cry hold up to the others.

I would second this nomination. But I think it was the Thrones and Patriots expansion released in 2004.

 

[RandV]

I would second this nomination. But I think it was the Thrones and Patriots expansion released in 2004.

Oops you're probably right there, I was just glancing at the metacritic by year ratings chart the other day and saw. I did think it came out earlier than that, but I seem to have a bad memory for dates with the games in this decade.

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

Okay, preliminary 2004 list:

There are A LOT of quality games in 04, narrowing this down might be a tad difficult
Though I think the potential winner is already on the list above so probably not a huge deal.

Counter-Strike: Source

Doom 3

Far Cry

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Half-Life 2

Halo 2

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Paper Mario: The Thousand-year Door

Pikmin 2

Rome: Total War

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II

Unreal Tournament 2004

World of Warcraft

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

I'm only including KOTOR II because I think a number of people might vote for it. Were I writing the list from scratch I probably wouldn't include it. It wasn't as highly thought of at the time as it is now and it was made better later by substantial patching both from devs and fans.

If there's something not on there ya really wanna vote for let me know, cause I can easily see cutting 3-5 of the games on the list above and swapping them out.

Needs Burnout 3: Takedown.
You could also make an argument for Ninja Gaiden, Katamari Damacy, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher's Bay, and Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines as well.

 

[crowi]

I've been playing WoW since the EU release with only around 1 year worth of breaks in total and will vote for it.

With that said, San Andreas and Half-Life 2 are much more popular games and I expect one of them to win.

Edit: My bet would go to San Andreas to win this one.

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

I've been playing WoW since the EU release with only around 1 year worth of breaks in total and will vote for it.

With that said, San Andreas and Half-Life 2 are much more popular games and I expect one of them to win.

Edit: My bet would go to San Andreas to win this one.

San Andreas was great. It was the pinnacle of that generation of GTAs. Similar to what GTA V is now.

I'm hoping Halo 2 wins. It single handedly revolutionized online console gaming with a great matchmaking system, party system, clans, custom games, etc. It was the first game to introduce a lot of these elements to online multiplayer for consoles, which have become staples for games since its release.

The single player campaign gets too much hate. I recently replayed it (albeit the remastered version) and the storyline is pretty decent. It's actually better than what I remember. And its definitely long enough for a FPS, especially where the industry standard is now 5-6 hours. My only knock on it was the cliffhanger ending, but at least you got some closure on the Arbiter's storyline. And people got way too upset about playing as the Arbiter instead of just as the Master Chief the whole time; I found the Arbiter to be an interesting character to explore.

Halo 2's multiplayer was just too good at the time. I haven't matched that feeling, that sense of community and competitiveness, since playing it.

All of the candidates are worthy of winning it, to be honest though. That year was the golden year for video games. Burnout 3: Takedown is the runner up for me. My all time favourite arcade racing game, with a phenomenal soundtrack to boot.

 

[Bocephus86]

Okay, preliminary 2004 list:

There are A LOT of quality games in 04, narrowing this down might be a tad difficult
Though I think the potential winner is already on the list above so probably not a huge deal.

Counter-Strike: Source

Doom 3

Far Cry

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Half-Life 2

Halo 2

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Paper Mario: The Thousand-year Door

Pikmin 2

Rome: Total War

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II

Unreal Tournament 2004

World of Warcraft

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

I'm only including KOTOR II because I think a number of people might vote for it. Were I writing the list from scratch I probably wouldn't include it. It wasn't as highly thought of at the time as it is now and it was made better later by substantial patching both from devs and fans.

If there's something not on there ya really wanna vote for let me know, cause I can easily see cutting 3-5 of the games on the list above and swapping them out.

I hope Rome: Total War stays as I am 100% voting for it but I'm unsure how popular it is vs some of the monsters on that list (given genre and PC only). If it's dropped, then GTA: SA; not a bad "second place" now that I think about it...

 

[SniperHF]

I hope Rome: Total War stays as I am 100% voting for it but I'm unsure how popular it is vs some of the monsters on that list (given genre and PC only). If it's dropped, then GTA: SA; not a bad "second place" now that I think about it...

It probably will be, Medieval TW got a lot of votes and it's pretty similar. Plus I might even vote for it though between it and UT is pREEEEETY tough.