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Failed to connect to MySQL: (1203) User howardkn already has more than 'max_user_connections' active connectionsPath: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Justisaur Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action Subject: Re: Year in Review: 2004 Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2024 07:57:35 -0700 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 138 Message-ID: References: <71reviptvf8gora0j92u5lilvemmac1s9q@4ax.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2024 14:57:38 -0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="22638c5a6b1f653e723dfe94bf515002"; logging-data="253163"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/a2jwnfjYct8vWd2HXPwb/RsMSCu7fJzk=" User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird Cancel-Lock: sha1:A5eFfsiWgRP83NqlTWYXmbtLYrs= In-Reply-To: <71reviptvf8gora0j92u5lilvemmac1s9q@4ax.com> Content-Language: en-US Bytes: 5673 On 3/17/2024 7:23 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote: > > 2004 is probably most remembered for the release of both "Half Life 2" > and "Doom 3", so let's get those two out of the way first. > Sadly almost nothing stands out here. Either I didn't play the games, or I did and they didn't grab me. There's at least one though. > > The Games: > ---------- > * Half Life 2 /agree - while HL was awesome, and I hated the bit where you could fall off to your death, HL2 felt very underwhelming. I didn't care for the other characters, and the levels felt far flatter, and I don't remember much about it other than the gravity gun was interesting, and kind of led the way toward Portal. > * Doom 3 FPSs were never really my favorite, there's some standouts like the original Doom, Redneck Rampage and Half Life and Counterstrike, but I never got into Quake or anything else other than those mentioned. > * Baldurs's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 I liked this better than the PC BG. Or maybe that was the original? Good game, very 'console' and 'Diablo' but fun none-the-less. > * Viet Cong: Purple Rain > * Onimusha 3 > * The Suffering > * Katamari Damacy > * Battlefield Vietnam > * Thief Deadly Shadows > * Full Spectrum Warrior > * Myst Uru > * Alpha Black Zero: Intrepid Protocol > * Call of Duty United Offensive > * Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone > * Total War: Rome > * Kill Zone > * Halo 2 > * Nexus: The Jupiter Incident > * Prince of Persia: Warrior Within > * Tribes: Vengeance > * Unreal Tournament 2004 Never played and weren't on my radar, and don't look to be anything I'm interested in. > * Farcry I really should try this one. The Farcry series has a better record with me than AC, of which I've only completed Black Flag. Primal and Blood Dragon were both great and I did complete them (though it took a 2nd attempt at BD months or even years after I tried it initially.) Was it 3 or 4 that I found boring though? > * Red Dead Revolver Better than 2 IMHO, while I didn't complete it, I did get much further. > * WH40K Dawn of War I think this might actually be my favorite RTS. The units are so varied and there are so many of them, and the backgrounds of them were great. Sure TA & WC were great, but you only have 2 factions and the stories and backgrounds with them were pretty average. SC had a good story and at least 3 factions, which is the only contender I can think of. I feel like I need to replay this at some point and get all the DLCs and see if the sequel(s) are any good. > * Star Wars Battlefront Never played it at the time, but B2 was pretty fun not long ago. > * Bards Tale I liked this one better than DA, or really even the original on PC. Much more character. I loved the trapfinder :) I wouldn't mind a sequel. > * Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines Amazing CRPG *IF* you have Werner's patch. Up there with other legendary ones like SWKotOR. Too buggy and actually impossible to complete if a certain bug takes effect without patches. Like many games, it peters out by the end, feeling unfinished. > * Star Wars: Knights of Old Republic 2 Didn't get very far, while the original is legendary, what little I saw felt like a game from 20 years before. > * Second Sight > Another overlooked classic, this third-person shooter > from Free Radical Design featured a strong story, > interesting level design, and some really fun psychic > powers. Mechanically, it wasn't their best game, but > it still ranks up there as one of the more memorable > titles of 2004. At least this one sounds like something I might like. I've got too much to play still though so I just added it to my wishlist on steam. It's on sale for $2.50 right now. > * X-Men Legends I missed this one, sounds like fun, too bad it's console only. If I do go back to PS+ sub I'll try to remember this one. > * Evil Genius Dungeon Keeper for Bond villains. Unlike DK which I love, this one just didn't grab me. > * Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena I'd always heard this and the first Riddick game were great. I loved Pitch Black and always wanted to give them a a try (3rd movie was good, 2nd movie was tollerable.) Neither are available on Steam/Gog though, so I assume they're console exclusives. Another to try to remember if I go back to PS+. Really they're too old for me to bother just for those two though. -- -Justisaur ø-ø (\_/)\ `-'\ `--.___, ¶¬'\( ,_.-' \\ ^'