f13.net

So, before we at f13.net unveil our "best of/worst of/huh wtf who funded this?" list, we'd like to hear what everyone's favorite games of 2005 were. It was a pretty big year despite what the New York Times said and easily better than 2004. So, give us the what and the why because everyone likes summaries. Right? Right.

I haven't played many games this year actually, but I'll give it a go...

God of War

Resident Evil 4

Ninja Gaiden Black

I haven't finished RE4 (PS2) yet, but I'd say God of War is the better game so far. It's just a matter of genre/pace preference, I suppose. God of War is classic beat 'em up action, which I prefer, while RE is more cerebral and horror based. Both are great though.

Ninja Gaiden Black is still basically Ninja Gaiden, so I'm not sure if it should mentioned here. Either way, enough has been said about it. It's the best game on the X-Box to say the least.

Psychonauts

This one made me sick (physically) in one of the end levels and I had to give up....But I still think it's great. It's not like one of the classic Tim Schaefer adventure games of old, but his humor and art design are still the same, and it all shines through in a genre he's never written for before. Lucky for him, I like platformers and beat em up's too.


Civilization 4

...Kind of a no brainer.

The Movies

Even a hardened gamer would admit that Lionhead has great ideas. The difference with this one though is that it actually works. The gimmick sets it apart and makes it a breath of fresh air as well. If you like movie history and/or the technical aspects of filmmaking on some level, then there's fun to be had here. If you just want the "game" part of it though (which is fun in and of itself), then I'd suggest to hold off until it's price drops a bit.

Battlefield 2

Great game -- shitty grind (not to mention a very demanding engine and very large population of shitty people to play with). And now that the grind has been adjusted, I'm not sure that I care about that either. The expansion makes me lose even more interest, just like expansions did with BF1942.

That being said, Battlefield 2 matches are still the best FPS experiences one is going to get these days. Nothing competes with it. Everytime I shed aside my dislikes and launch BF2, I'm reminded just how addicting and it can be.

Rebelstar: Tactical Command
Nothing more needs to be said than "Mostly X-Com in portable format".

Day of Defeat: Source
The least reasonable of my choices, probably, because I am pretty much a DoD whore and rarely go a day without playing either version.

Resident Evil 4
Yeah, right, like this wouldn't make the list.

Empire Earth 2
Learning curve can be a supreme pain in the ass, but it's probably the most satisfying RTS game I've played since Starcraft.

My opinions are mostly useless.

Crono Trigger.

Did a new Chrono Trigger come out or something? I'm confused.

I think he's just living in the past, poor old sod.  I feel sad for him.   :cry:

I guess out of games that haven't been mentioned yet:

Shadow of the Colossus

Stubbs the Zombie

Destroy all Humans

Not really because they're all just such great games (they have their faults), but they've all got pretty original concepts.

I don't know if you're going by category but Dragon Quest 8 was a great console style RPG, I have to think way back to Xenogears and earlier Final Fantasy to remember an RPG which I enjoyed so much.

Battlefield 2 was a huge amount of fun while it lasted, not that I think anything affiliated with EA will be getting any nods here  :-P.

I have a terrible memory, I'm sure there were more games I actually enjoyed than that, damn.  Did Grand Theft Auto: SA come out this year or last?

Last year. Else I would have mentioned it ;).

It came out on the PC this year though..

There are things I have not played so I can't comment on them, such as Rebelstar.  Sounds like my kind of thing but it hasn't come up in the list yet.  Ninja Gaiden Black doesn't count in my mind; even though it is undeniably awesome, it is still a re-release.

God of War.  Great production values, great controls, fun combat, and most importantly it showed everyone else how to do fixed-camera.

Resident Evil 4 might as well have just now invented the survival-horror genre as far as I am concerned.

Pirates! really gave me a reason to turn on the Xbox... was that 2005?

I am glad that there was a demo for Dungeon Lords.  So, so glad.

Most of the other things that I have been playing that deserve a comment are not from 2005.

Pirates! was given best remake in 2004 to the PC version. The xbox version was a tad...late.

GTA:SA for the PC. Wins my GotY easily. Fun game, supports hd and my wireless pad easily, no hacks needed. Girlfriend loves the humor and soundtrack.

BF2 was great...but the bunnyhoppers and smacktards brought it down to basically unplayable for me.

Civ4 is great...but very difficult to play without the bottom UI. Sure, it's just the 1280x720 resolution I have to play in, but it hurts, baby. The utter lack of support knocks it out of GotY.

I think Santa is bringing me RE4, I might earn my heathen label from what I've seen of the game so far. More on that next year!
OMGWTFSOEWHOREBITCH!

 :-P

edit: Ugh, I just nominated 3 sequels. Sad.

God of War for ps2.

Summary? Well, for starters it humiliates every other ps2 game. It runs better, loads faster, looks better, and plays better than everything else on the system. The good story and great action is just the frosting.

A distant 2nd place would be Space Rangers 2 for PC. Summary would take too long, but I have more fun with it than I do with Civ4, and they are pretty similar games. Check it out if you've never heard of it.

Star Force. And just like last year, anything with Star Force is disqualified.

My overall favorite game this year has probably been Gunstar Super Heroes.

Basically, the perfect way to do a sequel.  Take the original game, axe what didn't work but KEEP WHAT DID, add some new variations on that theme to the gameplay.  Improve the graphics and update the controls. 

The game's real short, but I still ended up playing it over and over.  Tricky to master, but not frustrating.  Plenty of action, guys exploding all over the place, machineguns and general chaos.  I love it.

Aside from that...

God of War I thought was pretty fun.

Guild Wars I liked.  Not having to pay a monthly fee is real, real nice.

SW: Battlefront II I also had a lot of fun with, even though it would have been priced as an expansion pack in any sane world.

Edit:  Ooh, forgot one:  Legend of Zelda:  The Minish Cap came out back in January.  Excellent game.

I've been irritable, gaming-wise, ever since I figured out my laptop (with un-upgradeable integrated card) can't handle BF2.  Thus all BF joy enrages me.

RE4 came out in 2004, didn't it? I could swear it was a christmas gift last year. For someone or another.

Shadow of the Colossus
We  :heart: Katamari
Psychonauts
Dragon Quest VIII

and I'll go ahead and give a wussup to Minish Cap, but I don't necessarily think it was The Best.

I also think that if the game was only released for one system in 2005 (but had actually been released on other systems earlier) then it shouldn't count. I'm looking at you, GTA:SA and Fable.

Sky, brother?  Cut it the fuck out, thanks.

Every single post you make now revolves around whether or not a particular game works on widescreen HDTV.  At first it was cute, now it's fucking old.  I love ya man, but please, just let it go.

Can't you edit the .ini and set it to windowed mode?

my docs\my games\civ4\civilizationiv.ini

Civ 4 is the best video game ever made.

You will get people disagreeing with you loud and long on this one.  I, however, will not be one of them.

Sky, I'm not even sure which resolution you expect the game to play in if you do widescreen....

Indigo Prophecy.

This is probably the first and last time I'll ever agree with StGabe. The rest of you fuckers should be smacking yourself for not playing the shit out of that title.

Sorry, I was too busy having sex with my boyfriend.

Back then he was the husboyfriend, I think. Unless we're talking about two different people. That would be awkward.

If your boyfriend isn't Lucas Kane, you were playing the wrong game.

I have no idea wtf any of you are babbling about.

I still prefer "husboyfriend" to "fiance", but it doesn't quite roll off the tongue as nicely.

This is an example of a post you shouldn't make. It adds nothing to any discussion and we'd all be better off without having read it. May God have mercy on your soul.

I don't need any mercy from your God. If you weren't so weak, you would not need him either.

Strazoplaz! They're talking about Indigo Prophecy. It has SEX. That's all you need to know.

I see we're batting 1000 today.

Civ is for old people.

FPS:
F.E.A.R. - Brutal system demands and shitty multiplayer, but the single player experience was just awesome. We need more horror FPS titles. Especially more Ringu/DarkWater/etc type ones.

Call of Duty 2 - Basically a much prettier version of the previous one, which is the best WWII FPS ever made. The multiplayer alone is worth the money. Iron sights for the win.

Battlefield 2 - EA and game-wrecking patches and a shitty server browser = Me not playing it, despite it being nice looking and actually quite fun (when it ran).


Action:

Resident Evil 4 - Duh.

God of War - Also duh. This one came out of nowhere and surprised the hell out of me. It looked like another mediocre action title and basically ended up out Devil May Crying Devil may Cry.

Devil May Cry 3 - Was this 2005? Best in the series, even if it wasn't quite as good as God of War. Best bad dialogue ever.


RPG:

Dragon Quest 8 - I just picked it up late last week. Extremely good. Game of the year material for sure. Oh yeah, the FF12 demo makes me think FF12 is going to suck.

I can't think of anything else at the moment.

Geez, why is everyone saying that FFXII is gonna suck? The characters look awesome (so do the monsters) and I personally like being able to see monsters from a distance and having the choice of engaging in battle or continuing on my way to whatever I was doing. It's why Paper Mario was so good for me (among other reasons). I can't wait for it. So nyah nyah nayh on you.

Final Fantasy XII will suck ass like no final fantasy has. Noobler.

No it will not, get off the bandwagon.

You need to come up with something better. How about this:

Hey schild, how's that Dead or Alive 4 for the 360?

Ooooo, burn.

Everyone took to the fucking streets with pitchforks and banjo music when the screen shots for Wind Waker came out, and what happened? BEST. GAME. EVAR.

You must have quit playing when you got to the triforce hunt. Even the devs said it wasn't as good as it should have been, and this is "we can do no wrong" Nintendo devs talking.

I'm a completionist, so I didn't mind (I usually am one of those people who goes after every heart piece). The only part that annoyed me was the "shoot the huge birds then turn into a seagull and hit the switch to get the map to the triforce piece part".

I used to love just about every game Square released (except for those Saga Frontier games on the PS).  Kingdom Hearts though is the only Square game I've really enjoyed in the past 5 years or so.  The last game of theirs before that I liked was Vagrant Story.  They haven't done anything in the PS2 era to bring RPGs to the next level.  No company really has for that matter, leaving the RPG genre fairly stagnant right now, with the possible exception of Bioware's stuff.

Despite how good the dialog and stories were in most of their recent games, all of Bioware's stuff has felt like tweaked versions of Neverwinter Nights. No matter what they do to it every new game has felt like the Aurora Engine with stuff bolted on.

Then look out for that good stuff they have coming down the pipe.

Oh boy, I'd love to see the smoke come out of my computer if I tried running Civ 4 windowed.

I'd really like to think it's a great game, but I don't know for sure as I have yet to complete one fucking game of it. I shouldn't have to play at reduced graphics, reboot every 2 hours, alt-tab every hour to correct the graphics, wait ten fucking minutes at a time while it decides to get stuck on another fucking animation, and get down on my fucking knees and give my god damned computer a blow job in a fucking desperate hope that I'll get to play past 1500AD just fucking once. GODFUCKINGPISSOFFCUNTBITCH.

Oh, and don't anyone fucking dare tell me its my machine, which is well above the specs. When I (and every other pesrson I know with the game, no exageration) have these kind of issues with only one game out of 20 or so on the system, it's the fucking game.

I think I'd been building that up for a while. Thanks.

Read that mem-leak patch thread over at CivFantatic that was posted in the Civs 4 thread.  Looks good, and has some tweaks that shouldn't bork the game and uglify it while giving good performance.  I'm gonna try it tomorrow, tis late now.

BEAN GO!  Anyone remember the text "you must gather your party before venturing forth" in KOTOR?  Huh?  Huh?  Do ya?  They even managed to make Jade Empire feel like Baldur's Gate, how the fuck do you even do that on purpose?  At the very least it was reskinned KOTOR.  I think some of the "Old Tongue" was actually just remodulated alien-talk from KOTOR.  It's just the Bioware smell, it gets into everything they do, like curry.

I am not hoping against hope that FFXII will somehow reverse the downward trend in FF games, but I figure a single-player MMOG has to be worth a whirl in the caddy.

Dungeon Lords needs to be the example of how to fuck up everything in 2005. I should know. I wrote the goddamned review.

Bolding mine.

I don't think these are neccessarily bad things.

Some people like curry.  Every day.

Hey, some things can be nice to have on a daily basis, like boobies.

Hurray!

(http://www.mcnews.com.au/motorcycleracing2005/motogp/rnd_8/gallery_e/images/hooters.jpg)

Those women look mean.  Especially the one on the left.  She'd kill you just as soon as look at you.

This is supposed to be a serious thread, no?  How come Paelos doesn't get yelled at for posting boobies and I get censored for Christmas furries, Hobbit pr0n and the word "first!"?

Everything is so unfair. 

That one on the left has the hands of a 60 year old. Scary.

And even more scary, her face looks lots younger!  I cower.

Come on, it's not even close to every post, and it's a perfectly valid complaint that keeps it from playing properly on my monitor, thus keeps it from being a contender for my GotY. Imagine playing the otherwise great game without the UI along the bottom. This isn't 2001, there is no reason to not support widescreen, and I'm not just talking my hdtv by a long shot. Look at Dell's flatpanels flying out of the factory and the amount of widescreen laptops. Few people have hdtvs on the widescreengaming forum.
We should discuss this in the Civ thread...but yeah, I've been all over that ini file. The game engine won't support any vertical resolution under 768 (it forces 1280x768) and my monitor is 1280x720.

So the problem is you, then. 1080p, bitch.

It's funny that the girls' outfits say "for tuna".

So does Ellen Muth. It didn't make Dead like Me suck. 60 year olds can still turn the lights off.

Im not sure what I played that was new in 2005 that counts.

Sure Advance Wars DS is up there, but its Advance Wars, God's gift to videogaming.

That's about the only great game I could safely put on the list.

Haven't played Pathway to Glory Ikusa Islands yet but it would probably be on there (and being an N Gage game nobody would care).

I haven't made it far enough in Dragon Quest 8 to say it belongs.

Everything else I played tended to be an older game or was a late 04 release.

Or simply isn't "best of the year" material.

My favorites:

Shadow of the Colossus - Perhaps my favorite game ever.  Great pacing, epic battles, and it felt like I was participating in a work of art.

God of War - Brutal fun.

GTA:SA  - Can't say I was a big fan of thug-life, but by the end you are more like some kind of Vin Diesal XXX super-agent.  The scope and size of the world was great.

City of Villains - I'm biased

I was looking at CoV on the shelf while xmas shopping yesterday.

I just can't justify $50 for it, even though I know it's a fun game. It just dies at level 20, and it's CoH, musical-chair style. Fix your grind.

Re: Shadow of the Colossus... I am going to have to lean toward schild's take on it.  It is a great game, no doubt, but it is essentially a series of boss fights spread across a painting.  Not really GOTY material, in my opinion.  I think it is great, but the gameplay is rather narrow and my GOTY pick has to have some comprehensive gameplay to it.  This is one of the big reasons I rate most things against Ocarina of Time.  My personal bias with SotC is that there should be more climbing and puzzling-out the environment itself.  The few times I had to work my way into some ruins were nice, but short and simple and I wish they had put more into that aspect of it.  Plus, Arrow pisses me off.

Guitar Hero

RESIDENT  EVIL




FOUR

Best gaming experience I've had in a long, long time.

As much as I'm enjoying City of Villains, I don't feel it deserves a nomination.  Maybe if there's an expansion category.

I struggle to think of much released this year that was any good.

Vampire and Rome:TW from last year would still pwn anything from this year. But from what we have I'd call out...

City of Villains. At the start of the year, CoH was the best/most-fun diku-mud there was. CoV is CoH only better. Ergo it is now the best diku-mud there is. If you hate/are-bored-of diku-muds do not apply. Obviously.

FEAR. This has two things going for it, first off it melts everyones PC except my shiny new machine, and so I get to show off. Secondly the AI doesn't suck; which makes it unlike EVERY OTHER FPS IN EXISTENCE. FEAR is worth playing just to support non-shitty AI.

Finally, Ravnica. Yeah, a Magic Online set. It's a turn based strategy game, you all keep telling us how there should be more turn based strategy games and enough with the real-time already; well magic is turn based, and Rav kicks all kinds of ass compared to other recent sets.

Clever girl.

(http://www.msstate.edu/Images/Film/Jurassic.jpg)

Have to second - or third - this. While i'm enjoying BF2 and FEAR, this is an innovative and fun game that even my mother thought was cool. Guitar Hero made me buy a console, i played it once at a buddy's and bought one the next day just for this game. Very cool, more plz. And Shadow of the Colossus gets a nod for superb art direction imo.

For those who care about silly shit like "best of" here's a list I compiled of games in 2005. At the very least it's a snapshot of the whole year.

PS2
-
Cold Winter
Devil May Cry 3
Digital Devil Saga 1/2
Dragon Warrior VIII
Fatal Frame III
Genji
God of War
Guitar Hero
Haunting ground
Magna Carta
Makai Kingdom
Metal Slug 4/5
Radiata Stories
Resident Evil 4
Romance of the Three Kingdoms X
Shadow of the Colossus
Shadowhearts 2 (I think, way early in the year)
Soul Calibur 3
Stella Deus
Suikoden Tactics
Trapt
We :heart: Katamari

PSP
-
Ape Escape
Archer Maclean's Mercury
Frantix
Gripshift
Hot Shots
Infected
Kingdom of Paradise
Legend of Heroes
Lumines
Metal Gear Ac!d
PoPoLoCrois
Prince of Persia Revelations
Ridge Racer
Tokobot
THUG2 Remix
Twisted Metal
Untold Legends
Virtua Tennis

GBA
-
Final Fantasy 4
Fire Emblem
Rebelstar Tactical Command
Sigma Star Saga

Gamecube
-
Chaos Field
DDR: Mario Mix
Killer 7
Resident Evil 4

DS
-
Advance Wars: Dual Strike
Animal Crossing
Battles: Prince of Persia
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Lost in Blue
Lunar: Dragon Song
Mario Kart DS
Meteos
Nanostray
Nintendogs
Phoenix Wright
Shogun Empires
Trace Memory
Trauma Center: Under the Knife

Xbox
-
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
Dai Senryaku VII
Fable: Lost Chapters
Jade Empire
Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks
Ninja Gaiden Black
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath
Phantom Dust
Psychonauts
Raze's Hell
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Still Life
Stubbs the Zombie
The Warriors

Xbox 360
-
King Kong
Call of Duty 2
Everything Else

PC
-
Age of Empires 3
Battlefield 2
Call of Duty 2
Civilization 4
Dungeon Lords
FEAR
Guild Wars
Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheit
The Movies
Quake 4

Wow, I have played a total of 3 of those (and I hated one of the 3!). Sad time to be a PC gamer. Goddamned console kiddies with their enormous trousers and hip hop music and such.

Here's a list I compiled of PC releases in 2005:

Hearts of Iron II
Street Racing Syndicate
The Punisher
Playboy: The Mansion
COPS 2170: Power of Law
Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic II
Will of Steel
EverQuest: Dragons of Norrath
NASCAR Simracing
Second Sight
Nexus: The Jupiter Incident
The Settlers: Heritage of Kings
Robots
MVP Baseball 2005
The Sims 2: University
Star Wars: Republic Commando
Domination
The Moment of Silence
Mortyr 2
Judge Dredd vs Judge Death
Freedom Force vs the Third Reich
Supremacy: Four Paths to Power
Psychotoxic
Silent Hunter III
Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30
Project: Snowblind
Act of War: Direct Action
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Melee
The Matrix Online
Driv3r
Falcon 4.0: Allied Force
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Gary Grigsby's World at War
Cold Fear
CT Special Forces: Fire For Effect
Combat: Task Force 121
Elite Warriors: Vietnam
DOOM 3: Resurrection of Evil
SWAT 4
LEGO Star Wars
Obscure
Ford Racing 3
Kult: Heretic Kingdoms
Close Combat: First to Fight
Stolen
Still Life
Stronghold 2
Delta Force: Xtreme
Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars
Area 51
Empire Earth II
Psychonauts
Guild Wars
GTR: FIA GT Racing Game
Pariah
Asheron's Call 2: Legions
Dungeon Lords
Necromania: Traps of Darkness
Knights of Honor
TrackMania Sunrise
Supreme Ruler 2010
Imperial Glory
Garfield
Madagascar
Star Wars Galaxies: Rage of the Wookiees
Restricted Area
Gun Metal
Boiling Point: Road to Hell
ER: The Game
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Juiced
Battlefield 2
Rollercoaster Tycoon 3: Soaked!
The Bard's Tale
Fantastic Four
Echo: Secrets of the Lost Cavern
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
FlatOut
Asheron's Call: Throne of Destiny
Codename Panzers: Phase Two
BloodRayne 2
1944: Battle of the Bulge
Advent Rising
Dungeon Siege II
Madden NFL 06
MotoGP 3: Ultimate Racing Technology
NIBIRU: Age of Secrets
Squad Assault: Second Wave
NHL 06
Mall Tycoon 3
EverQuest II: Desert of Flames
The Sims 2: Nightlife
Battle of Britain II: Wings of Victory
Warhammer 40.000: Winter Assault
World Series of Poker
Myst V: End of Ages
Fable: The Lost Chapters
X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06
Neuro Hunter
NBA Live 06
Rome: Total War - Barbarian Invasion
Blitzkrieg 2
Bet on Soldier: Blood Sport
Ultimate Spider-Man
Fahrenheit
Dragonshard
The Suffering: Ties That Bind
Black & White 2
Cold War
Conflict: Global Storm
NHL Eastside Hockey Manager 2005
Total Overdose
FIFA 06
Brothers in Arms: Earned In Blood
Diplomacy
Serious Sam II
Medieval Lords
Evil Dead Regeneration
Quake 4
Sniper Elite
Age of Empires III: Age of Discovery
F.E.A.R.
Worms 4: Mayhem
Shattered Union
Zoo Tycoon 2: Endangered Species
Bratz Rock Angelz
SpongeBob SquarePants: Lights, Camera, PANTS!
Disney's Chicken Little
Call of Duty 2
Vietcong 2
Heroes of the Pacific
Rollercoaster Tycoon 3: Wild!
Taito Legends
Namco Museum: 50th Anniversary Arcade Collection
Land of the Dead: Road to Fiddler's Green
Civilization IV
City of Villains
The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer
Star Wars: Battlefront II
Shrek Superslam
The Movies
And Then There Were None
The Matrix: Path of Neo
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
GUN
X3: Reunion
The Chronicles of Narnia
Cross Racing Championship 2005
Need for Speed Most Wanted
Ed, Edd n Eddy: The Mis-Edventures
Earth 2160
Counter-Strike: Source
Maximus XV Abraham Strong: Space Mercenary
Battlefield 2: Special Forces
Peter Jackson's King Kong
Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse
Chrome: SpecForce
Dangerous Waters
Hammer & Sickle
Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
Heavyweight Thunder
80 Days
Legion Arena

Source: tothegame.com

Couldn't expecting someone to actually read through that list constitue griefing?

My source was my bookshelf you bastard. If I wanted to list every game I would've nabbed it from somewhere else and posted all the shitty ones also. The Gameboy Advance list alone would have broken the damned forum software.

I played Dungeon Lords, WoW, and AoE3 this year. I also played a few that aren't new. I will buy Civ 4 when it hits $30 next year. I think it probably has the chance to win Game of the Year though, based on the crap 2005 gave us.

Hey, there was some good stuff in there I forgot came out this year. 80% shit still meant 20% good stuff, some of which hadn't been mentioned!  :-D

If I went by my shelf, it'd be exactly what I listed earier. I'm not good at being helpful?

I've got to get that new Freedom Force game, totally slipped my noggin.

Lights, Camera, PANTS!