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From: Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Re: Year in Review: 2004
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2024 07:57:35 -0700
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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

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