I'm a little late, I think it's Day 2 or something...but GameFAQs is hosting a tournament of opinion as to what people think is the best year in gaming history. Not the best game, or best level, or best soundtrack, character, console, none of that. The actual year itself, which I personally never thought of in terms of gaming.

You might think, "Oh that's easy, it's this one!" But I guarantee you, when those interactive poll buttons scroll through the examples of that certain year, each one will make you say "Oh, man...I forgot about that one!!"

Right now it's 2001(Halo 1, FFX) vs. 2014(Destiny, Smash 4) and 2008(Fallout 3, SSBB) vs. 2009(Minecraft, Arkham Asylum)

Go vote(if you can actually bring yourself to choose), then let's talk about it here!

Which do you think is the best year in gaming?

I'm a little late, I think it's Day 2 or something...but GameFAQs is hosting a tournament of opinion as to what people think is the best year in gaming history. Not the best game, or best level, or best soundtrack, character, console, none of that. The actual year itself, which I personally never thought of in terms of gaming.

You might think, "Oh that's easy, it's this one!" But I guarantee you, when those interactive poll buttons scroll through the examples of that certain year, each one will make you say "Oh, man...I forgot about that one!!"

Right now it's 2001(Halo 1, FFX) vs. 2014(Destiny, Smash 4) and 2008(Fallout 3, SSBB) vs. 2009(Minecraft, Arkham Asylum)

Go vote(if you can actually bring yourself to choose), then let's talk about it here!

Which do you think is the best year in gaming?

Well, 2001 was pretty amazing. You had:

Pro Skater 3
Grand theft Auto 3
Max Payne
Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction
Ico
Silent Hill 2
Metal Gear Solid 2
Jak and Daxter
Civ 3
Halo
Gran Turismo 3
Devil May Cry
Oni

Every one a masterpiece. So yeah. That's pretty hard to beat. Deus Ex came out the year before, and it's like, the best game ever. But 2001 had a bunch of games that came pretty close. The other years kind of look like crap in comparison.

Problem for 1993 is that it's up against 1998, a close third. It may lose in this round.

Problem for 1993 is that it's up against 1998, a close third. It may lose in this round.

1993, let's see:

Doom
Day of the Tentacle
Myst
NBA Jam
Link's Awakening
Sonic CD
Sam and Max Hit the Road
Gabriel Knight: Sins of our Fathers
Super Street Fighter 2
Megaman 6

Not bad either.

Games just keep getting better and better. Last year was absolutely packed with amazing titles, and this year started at the same pace and doesn't look like it's slowing down. When you account for sheer variety, I don't even see how it can be argued that gaming is better now than it ever has been.

This is just another dive into nostalgia like we were talking about in that other thread.

Design trends change. Expanding production budgets mean a narrower range of fiction and mechanics get explored.

Plus, people have heterodox tastes. Let's say I'm a big fan of Brood War and Homeworld. What do I have to be excited about this year?

Well, there's the fact that Brood War was just updated for modern PCs and released for free.

Snark aside, I do understand your point. I happen to like rally racing games, and until Dirt Rally came out, there had been a 10-year gap since the last really good rally game I had seen on a console. Not to say there hadn't been any, strictly speaking, but not any I thought were worthwhile.

... and 2017 has Horizon Zero Dawn, so it wins this contest by default :)

... and 2017 has Horizon Zero Dawn, so it wins this contest by default :)

And Persona 5, which I was really enjoying, but had to stop playing until I can get past Atlus' disabling of the Share button (it outright inspired me to finally fix my computer after years without it, just to get to use the capture card, if that's any indication).

And Persona 5, which I was really enjoying, but had to stop playing until I can get past Atlus' disabling of the Share button (it outright inspired me to finally fix my computer after years without it, just to get to use the capture card, if that's any indication).

For me it's irritating just because of the notification multiple times while playing that I can't share. I've been playing for 40 hours, I get it, I can't share anything!

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Expanding production budgets mean a narrower range of fiction and mechanics get explored.

That is just factually incorrect.

What low budget game brought raids and integrated co-op play to FPS like Destiny did?
What low budget game gave us the storytelling and narrative freedom of Until Dawn?
What low budget game did open world as well as MGS V, Horizon Zero Dawn, or Breath of the Wild?
What low budget game is telling a story as rich and believable as Uncharted 4?

Where are these games with small production budgets that do interesting things that last?

If what you say is true, then Kickstarter would be flooded with cool, interesting, low budget games. No publishers, and you answer only to the fans right? And what are we getting from kickstarter? What are former masters of their craft like John Romero and Tim Schafer using it for?

Retro games. Oh…

Large developers and big publishers can take more risks, not fewer. They have the resources to follow up with cool new ideas, but more importantly, they can absorb failures. Just look at the history of games.

Plus, people have heterodox tastes. Let's say I'm a big fan of Brood War and Homeworld. What do I have to be excited about this year?

Uh, the Starcraft HD re-master? :-p

... and 2017 has Horizon Zero Dawn, so it wins this contest by default :)

Still not better than 2010 with Vanquish or 2013 with Metal Gear Solid Rising Revengence.

And Persona 5, which I was really enjoying, but had to stop playing until I can get past Atlus' disabling of the Share button (it outright inspired me to finally fix my computer after years without it, just to get to use the capture card, if that's any indication).

For me it's irritating just because of the notification multiple times while playing that I can't share. I've been playing for 40 hours, I get it, I can't share anything!

I'm pretty sure you can turn off notifications in the settings. I know Until Dawn disables sharing too, but I never saw a popup message since I disable that stuff.

... and 2017 has Horizon Zero Dawn, so it wins this contest by default :)

Still not better than 2010 with Vanquish or 2013 with Metal Gear Solid Rising Revengence.

You know Vanquish and Metal Gear will never convince me of anything ;p

Problem for 1993 is that it's up against 1998, a close third. It may lose in this round.

1993, let's see:

Doom
Day of the Tentacle
Myst
NBA Jam
Link's Awakening
Sonic CD
Sam and Max Hit the Road
Gabriel Knight: Sins of our Fathers
Super Street Fighter 2
Megaman 6

Not bad either.

Really? You're gonna skip Pathways into Darkness?

You're dead to me.

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Problem for 1993 is that it's up against 1998, a close third. It may lose in this round.

1993, let's see:

Doom
Day of the Tentacle
Myst
NBA Jam
Link's Awakening
Sonic CD
Sam and Max Hit the Road
Gabriel Knight: Sins of our Fathers
Super Street Fighter 2
Megaman 6

Not bad either.

Really? You're gonna skip Pathways into Darkness?

You're dead to me.

I hope you have the yellow crystal then.

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And just how many points do I need to win? 41? 42? Or is it 44?

... and 2017 has Horizon Zero Dawn, so it wins this contest by default :)

Still not better than 2010 with Vanquish or 2013 with Metal Gear Solid Rising Revengence.

I see your Vanquish and Metal Gear Rising Revengence and raise you a Red Dead Redemption in 2010 and a The Last of Us in 2013.

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I notice that a lot (or, almost all of you) are basing your entire favorite year based on one single game. Do you guys really want to cast that huge of a net? o.0

But, GameFAQs is a garbage website that nobody should visit.

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Assassin's Creed, BioShock, & Mass Effect all started in that year. We also got Portal through the Orange Box & Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Oh...and there was that Halo 3 thing. Small game. No one played it. Had a new thing in it called ...uh...Forge, I think. Fancy new feature. Too bad it didn't catch on.

I've been sitting here waiting to see if anyone would chime in, but to my surprise...well. No love for 2007?

2007 set the trends. There is yet to be a year with the same original I.P impact, quite like what was seen in 2007 for gaming.

Assassin's Creed, BioShock, & Mass Effect all started in that year.

Sucked, sucked, and sucked.

We also got Portal through the Orange Box

Pretty good.

& Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

Sucked.

Oh...and there was that Halo 3 thing.

Halo 3 was good… but not game changing.

This is why 2007 shouldn't win.

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Assassin's Creed, BioShock, & Mass Effect all started in that year. We also got Portal through the Orange Box & Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Oh...and there was that Halo 3 thing. Small game. No one played it. Had a new thing in it called ...uh...Forge, I think. Fancy new feature. Too bad it didn't catch on.

I've been sitting here waiting to see if anyone would chime in, but to my surprise...well. No love for 2007?

2007 set the trends. There is yet to be a year with the same original I.P impact, quite like what was seen in 2007 for gaming.

Unless I'm getting my dates mixed up, 2009 was AC2 and ME2, both of which are generally considered large improvements on their predecessors. Plus Bad Company 2 (still the best Battlefield game, for my money) and ODST.

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If it weren't for the NES in 1985 when would we have seen the return of console gaming? I'm sure we would have, but I suspect not nearly as soon.

plus Goonies, Back to the Future, & Better Off Dead.

30% loss against 2002.

Lost against 87.

Zelda.

2007 beat 2012(Journey, ME3, Borderlands 2, Dishonored) yesterday. It's next opponent: 1997(Goldeneye.)

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To say nothing of the games themselves,

Halo 2 essentially single handedly created modern online console FPSs, and Half-Life 2 pioneered a lot of tech we have been seeing in games since, from HDR to weird subsurface scattering on peoples' faces, to guns made to manipulate physics. WoW, more than games like Everquest, brought MMORPGs to the mainstream. My MOM knows what WoW is, and she doesn't know the difference between Sony and Nintendo.

These games introduced these things to the public and did them so well that the industry was changed.

Sonic and Knuckles wasn't even a very good game, and the thing it introduced to the world was being able to play Sonic 2 with a new character...which admittedly is very cool.

Sonic and Knuckles wasn't even a very good game

And you don't have very good taste. :-p

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Unfortunately I missed Round 1(2001 beat 1995) but right now, you have 23 hours to vote for what definitely might be the hardest decision ever:

1997(Final Fantasy 7, Castlevania SOTN, Goldeneye, Mario Kart 64, Parappa the Rapper) vs. 1996(Crash Bandicoot, Super Mario 64, Super Mario RPG, Resident Evil, Quake)

Cast your vote, and talk about it here!

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2001 vs. 1997

One-sided, right?

Nope.

Of course not. Both have pretty revolutionary stuff.

Last day of the tournament. It all comes down to these last two!

vs.

Make your vote--if you can--for all the marbles, so to speak.

https://www.gamefaqs.com/