Best year of gaming in the past decade?

[Zephos]

'98 for sure. Wasn't Grim Fandango released that year as well?

 

[joule]

Yessir.

 

[Cormeh]

Having only a 64 at the time, it's a toss up between '97 and '98. I'll give '98 the push though, because of Ocarina of Time. Which I still play.

 

[Unfocused]

Do yourself a favor and rent/borrow/steal GTA III. It was, by far, the best of any 3D GTA. Vice City sucked ass and San Andreas sucked more plus a little ball.

In terms of atmosphere, yes. In terms of gameplay, it's the other way around for me. VC and SA were simply the same idea with more stuff in it (SA is huge) = win!

 

[Bad^Hat]

VC has the best city to drive in and awesome bikes = win.

 

[Asknoone]

Best atmosphere.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Dungeon Keeper Rocks my socks, so it'll have to be 1997

 

[-I(!113R 7-]

2 WORDS(well...abreviations, but they both end in 7!)'97 FOR FF7!!!!YEA GURRLLLL YEAAAA COME ON WATS GOOD!!! jkjkjk but ff7 kicks soooomuch ass its not even funny

1 more thing...2nd is w/e X-Com came out...I was sooo hooked on that sh!t, honestly it rocked. If u dont have it, buy it!!! its sooo underrated w/all these "better" RTS's if u give it a chance u'll like it

 

[Bob_Marley]

1999 - Jagged Alliance 2. There was probubly some other stuff, but who cares?

Mind you, as said before, '97, '98 and '04 came close. But not close enough.

 

[Beerdude26]

Hell Yeah.​

 

[-I(!113R 7-]

correction...HELLLLLSSSS YEAAAAAHHH!!!

 

[Hazar]

heh, that looks nothing like they were in the game

 

[NightBlade2011]

Got to be 98, if it was just zelda OoT then 98 would still be one of the best

 

[kupocake]

1999. The Wikipedia entry doesn't do it justice. Two of my lasting absolute favourites in one year, (Homeworld and System Shock 2) and what was surely the online gaming explosion. Don't believe? The Unreal Tournament versus Quake III Arena debate? Then there was Everquest. Sure it wasn't all that, but it is certainly a milestone. And let's face it, though 1998 was the year that gave us Half-Life, it wasn't the year in which Half-Life mattered, 1999 was. Single Player was revived by the release of Opposing Force (it's not perfect, but how many expansions are ever of that calibre?) and Multiplayer modding exploded with Counter-Strike fever. Also: Final Fantasy 8. Not a grounbreaker, but a good game nonetheless.

Add Metal Gear Solid to my list too. Europeans always finish last.

1998 sure is popular. It was a good year, but personally, I didn't play Fallout or Grim Fandango, and I never saw what was apparently so great about Starcraft (a good RTS, but only really a highly polished example of the genre at that moment) and Zelda (yuck).

As for 2004... err. There was Half-Life 2 at the end of it. Sure it's my favourite game ever, but the whole year was otherwise pretty un-noteworthy.

the graph proves my prediction!

there will be a number of shitty years before another good one (hopefuly next year) arrives! D:

I wouldn't get too hopeful. The two years considered the best also happen to be the two years there was a major Half-Life game released. On a HL fansite? get out of here!

 

[Gorgon]

2004

 

[Baal]

2004 - Half-Life 2, Far Cry, Doom 3, World of Warcraft, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, The Sims 2 (got boring for me, but I played it for quite a while, as did millions of others), Burnout 3 - which is just simply the best racing game I've probably ever played.

All I can think of right now.

1997 gets an honorable mention because of Goldeneye.

 

[Hazar]

need more votes!