What is the PC Game of the Year 2003?

[Andy]

Dominions II is also my favourite PC game of 2003, followed by Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic

[ January 26, 2004, 21:11: Message edited by: Andy ]

[aldin]

I'm gonna go with Temple of Elemental Evil as a long time D&D addict and a Troika fanboi. Mind you I've played a lot more Dominions II, so draw your own conclusions...

~Aldin

[Arryn]

Best RPG: Knights of the Old Republic
Best FPS: Call of Duty
Best Wargame: Highway to the Reich
Best Strategy Game: Dominions II

Best game overall? (tough choice) Knights of the Old Republic. All four games listed above are excellent.

Greatest Disappointment: MOO3 (SWG runs not far behind)

Deus Ex Invisible War is Deus Ex Lite. Pay full price for a game that only gives ~14 hours (by the game's own record-keeping) playtime. The original was over triple the length and much more challenging and intriguing. Deus Ex was Game of the Year for 2000. In 2003 the sequel isn't even a contender.

Aldin, I cannot believe you had the temerity to mention ToEE as a contender? ROTFL. YUCK! What a piece of junk. You'd be by far better off getting Neverwinter Nights and the various expansions to it. Heck, even Lionheart, with all its flaws, is a better game than Temple.

BTW, if people are going to include expansion packs to good games as contenders, then the Morrowind series would have to be rated pretty darn high. Morrowind is arguably the best FRPG of all time. The only real problem with Morrowind is that the critters don't keep pace with your character in terms of being a challenge to you. But you be hard-pressed to find a game that's more immersive or comprehensive, even in other genres (excepting Dominions II, of course).

[ January 26, 2004, 21:56: Message edited by: Arryn ]

[aldin]

Originally posted by Arryn:
Best RPG: Knights of the Old Republic
Best FPS: Call of Duty
Best Wargame: Highway to the Reich
Best Strategy Game: Dominions II

Best game overall? (tough choice) Knights of the Old Republic. All four games listed above are excellent.

Greatest Disappointment: MOO3 (SWG runs not far behind)

Deus Ex Invisible War is Deus Ex Lite. Pay full price for a game that only gives ~14 hours (by the game's own record-keeping) playtime. The original was over triple the length and much more challenging and intriguing. Deus Ex was Game of the Year for 2000. In 2003 the sequel isn't even a contender.

For the person who had the temerity to mention ToEE as a contender? ROTFL. YUCK! What a piece of junk. You'd be by far better off getting Neverwinter Nights and the various expansions to it. Heck, even Lionheart, with all its flaws, is a better game than Temple.

Fine, mock my choice, see if I care Seriously, ToEE was an amazing port of the 3.5e tactical sombat system to a computer screen. If Hasbro hadn't eviscerated it a month before it shipped (and some of that content can be recovered with the unofficial Circle of Eight patch) it would certainly have been even better. My response to NWN is somewhere between a yawn and a yelp at the misery they inflicted on the D&D rules. The response to Lionheart is a lot of crying over a great concept that was a pathetic game and a horrible misuse of SPECIAL. ToEE was simply gratifying in a "I knew someone could get D&D tactical combat right" way.

I've never met a FPS I liked, but the rest of your noms seem reasonable. I guess I'm a little suprised you didn't give the nod to HttR. DomII is a sequel and hard to name over an otherwise good "new" game. KotOR is one of those good but not great games that'll be forgotten as soon as the next bit of halfway decent fluff hits the market. HttR, on the other hand, is an amazingly different game that suffers only from it's limited scope.

Just my two bits.

~Aldin

[Potatoman]

My top picks would have to be:

Dominions II
Deus Ex: the Invisible War
Soul Calibur II

Other than that... I think 2003 was a pretty poor showing for gaming in general. The only games I purchased the entire year were Dominions II, Deus Ex, MOO3, Soul Calibur II, and some older used software (Freedom Force, System Shock 1, etc.; good stuff for mere pocket change). Nothing else is even interesting enough that I'd buy it bargain bin at >$10 prices.

Despite my stinginess I didn't feel ripped off by either Deus Ex: IW or MOO3; I cut more slack to games that aim high but are brought low by flaws than ones that are mediocre to their rotten cores.

[ceremony]

DomII is a sequel and hard to name over an otherwise good "new" game. KotOR is one of those good but not great games that'll be forgotten as soon as the next bit of halfway decent fluff hits the market. HttR, on the other hand, is an amazingly different game that suffers only from it's limited scope.

Highway to the Reich is also a sequel (to Airborne Assault: Red Devils Over Arnhem). That was the game with limited scope (no XXX Corps, no 101st or 82nd Abn). I assume you mean by HttR's limited scope that it has no grand campaign.

I preferred Korsun Pocket to HttR.

[Breschau]

I'm trying to recall exactly what I bought in 2003. To be honest, it wasn't a very good year for me and computer games.

I don't play many action games (used to, but they fell by the wayside) and didn't buy any in 2003.

RPGs are one of my favourite genres, but again didn't buy any in 2003. Not that I can think of any RPGs that I've really enjoyed since BG2.

So it's down to tactical and strategy games. Bought a few that turned out a real disappointment (UFO: Aftermath), though I wasn't that disappointed by MOO3 so much as I was the lack of continued support for it - I actually kinda enjoy the game. Also bought a few that I just couldn't get into, and may retry sometime (Republic the Revolution, Galactic Civilisations).

So the competition for best of 2003, based on my own purchasing/playing experiences, is not very steep. It's basically a decision between Dominions II and Age of Wonders: Shadowmagic. I'm gonna go with Dom2 because, although I'll probably ultimately get the same amount of enjoyment longterm from each, Dom2 brings the kind of game I've been wishing someone would make.

So Dominions II for me.