Time Magazine's Top 10 Games of 2004

AstroZombie · Nov 2004

TIME's Top 10 Games of 2004

1. The Sims 2

2. Rome: Total War

3. Half-Life 2

4. Katamari Damacy

5. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

6. Battlefield: Vietnam

7. Halo 2

8. Burnout 3: Takedown

9. Fable

10. Pirates!

Not sure I agree with the list but I worked on two of those. Not bad for my first year in the industry

(although, to be honest, I only spent two days doing production work on Sims 2)

Mishra · Nov 2004

battlefield vietnam?

what an interesting choice to say the least.

the order which they are in i dont completely agree with, but i own 7 of those 10 and love them.

JKMakowka · Nov 2004

Where is Doom3 ????

D3 is better than at least 3/4 of those games listed

Soul_Reaper · Nov 2004

I'm surprised to see Battlefield Vietnam on there, and I'm surprised to see that Ninja Gaiden is not.

Other than that, a solid list though I would classify it as a 'Ten best games of 2004' rather than a 'Top ten games of 2004'

MoP · Nov 2004

How about "Ten games that sold the most of 2004"

Between me and my flatmates, we own 7 of the 10 there. They are all enjoyable games.
I would have put HL2 above Rome TW though... and IMHO Call of Duty should be on there instead of BF:Vietnam (or did CoD come out in 2003, i can't remember)... Still a list of games worth having for sure though

Cannon · Nov 2004

No Ninja Gaiden...lame.

CheapAlert · Nov 2004

Doom3's not on the SpikeTV GOTY awards either, LAME

TelekineticFrog · Nov 2004

Yeah not so sure if I agree with the list in whole but i do own 8 of the 10 listed and enjoy them. The two I don't have being Rome Total War and Pirates!. I saw Pirates on tuesday at work and honestly wasn't all that impressed. I am glad to see Katamari Damashii get recognized though as it very well should be. I think my favorites for this year have to be;
1.Dead or Alive Ultimate
2.World of Warcraft
3.Katamari Damashii
4.Ninja Gaiden
5.Burnout 3
6.Grand Theft Auto San Andreas
7.Otogi 2
8.Sly Cooper 2 Band of Thieves
9.Metroid Prime 2
10.Prince of Persia 2 Warrior Within (most likely will make my top 10 once I get it on Wednesday)

Other notables being Front Mission 4, Phantom Brave, La Pucielle Tactics, Disgaea, Ghost Hunter, Fable, Gradius V, Metal Gear Solid 3, and Alien Hominid. Actually there are a few more. This has been a great year for video games. Can't wait to see what comes next.

Sett · Nov 2004

Come on guys this is 'Time' magazine. Not what I'd call an authority on gaming in any respect.
This is a mag that routinely runs puff pieces like 'Are angels real?'

Excluding tuboy, if a polycounter posted a review on a game I'd give it much more weight that any other source.

How about Polycount's top x of 2004? By people who know,play & make games?

Neo_God · Nov 2004

I still need to try out Katamari Damacy, maybe I'll get my brother it for christmas.

I dunno, I think World of warcraft should be up, I just went through a 3 hour straight long gaming session with it, that usually does not happen to me with MMORPGs, and I actaully want to go play it again. But I refuse to let myself get drawn into it completely, haha.

Scott Ruggels · Nov 2004

C'mon, guys. Doom III was pretty, but not very good, like Brittany Spears. HL@ should have been higher on the list. and Katamari Damacy is good, but evenmore importantly, girls like to play it, so it will rank higher than many would think.

Scott

JKMakowka · Nov 2004

[ QUOTE ]
C'mon, guys. Doom III was pretty, but not very good, like Brittany Spears.

[/ QUOTE ]

Have you actually played it past the first few hours? It gets a lot better later on, and if you play it in a dark room you get adjusted to the darkness too, and it is actually possible to see where you go

Seriously, there is a lot of unjustified Doom3 bashing. It might not be 'the best game ever' tm (can't be, because Valve says HL2 is

), but it is better than most people say.
And the story... well it might be generic, but there IS at least one, which can not be said about 100% of the WW2 shooters out there (they just have a setting).

Sometimes I have the feeling people bash D3 because it doesn't run well on their year old, then very expensive, computers

Daz · Nov 2004

It runs smooth as a babies arse on my poota and its still boring as hell compared to HL2

Sorry man, it just lacks any kind of depth for my liking.

This is an odd list though. Is Pirates even out yet?!

Mojo2k · Nov 2004

i played doom3, and withhte settings at a decent level, and i was full on about how awesome it was at first, but unlike you, the more i plyed it the worse it got, no thought at all into the level design, i mean when it gets to where every baddie leaps out of secret walls, then the designers are not even trying

Voodoo · Nov 2004

that and the fact that in every room there is a guy in the pitch black shadow in the corner. I didn't have to use a gun, just the grenades, threw them in all the corners or cubby holes and walked my way through the room...

adam · Nov 2004

The question is - how many of the games did people from the polycount community have to do with? I could 3 from what I know.

ElysiumGX · Nov 2004

My thoughts of Time's top 10:

1. The Sims 2 - Awesome! Constantly playing on gf's PC.

2. Rome: Total War - Never heard of it. How'd it get here?

3. Half-Life 2 - Impressive! Immersive! Innovative! Released!

4. Katamari Damacy - Most original. Unique.

5. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - LAME! 3 was enough, give it a rest.

6. Battlefield: Vietnam - Needed to be done. Too many WWII ripoffs.

7. Halo 2 - Good. But not great.

8. Burnout 3: Takedown - Highly addictive, fun racing experience. Great sense of speed. Better than NFS: Underground.

9. Fable - Disappointing. But OK.

10. Pirates! - Innovative use of several game platforms. Looks fun. Released?

...

25. Doom3 - Dark, Scary, Sluggish, Ugly, Predictable, Limited, Ebay.

Seyiji · Nov 2004

[ QUOTE ]
Doom3's not on the SpikeTV GOTY awards either, LAME

[/ QUOTE ]The only thing lame about the SpikeTV GOTY awards is the SpikeTV GOTY awards I'm not even gonna watch after what I bare witness to last year.

AstroZombie · Nov 2004

Well, to be honest my thoughts about Time Magazine declaring a top 10 games of 2004 is like PC Gamer declaring a "Man of the Year." I was almost as surprised to see that Doom 3 was not among the top 10 as to see that BFV was. Maybe that was Time magazine's attempt to be "hip" and "with the times".

Malekyth · Nov 2004

[ QUOTE ]
i played doom3 ... the more i plyed it the worse it got

[/ QUOTE ]

Me too. I started off pleased with D3, then quit after I realized I'd "gotten the idea" two hours earlier. Once it got into its very narrow groove, it never wriggled into anything else.

I'm glad to see Rome: Total War on that list! It's not weird enough to be a niche game, at least not compared to the previous installments in the series, none of which I'd expect to get sales from any but the semi- and completely-hardcore, but I'm still surprised it showed up in a non-game industry magazine. Hmm, if it weren't 4:30, I'd like to go play right now ...

Steve Schulze · Nov 2004

Rome is well deserving of its position on the top ten. Dunno whether I would have put it at number 2, but it definitley should be on there.

JKMakowka · Nov 2004

Well, maybe I am just too hardcore (

) but I finished Doom3 in the hard modus the first time I played it... and you pretty much have to count every bullet in that modus.
It was: Dark, Scary, Sluggish, Ugly with its own sense of beauty, sometimes Predictable, and lots of fun!

Maybe I liked it because it is very close combat, since I absolutly hate those 'open field' shooters, where you can't take cover or strafe behind the next wall, or maybe because it was 'old school' gameplay...

Oh and those
[ QUOTE ]
i mean when it gets to where every baddie leaps out of secret walls, then the designers are not even trying

[/ QUOTE ]

Well it was sometimes annoying, but it keept you on the 'edge', and or course it made Doo3 more similar to Doom1, which it was supposed to be a remake of

NuclearTes · Nov 2004

Hehe, any game on that list probably would have eaten up all my hard drive space and would have burned my processor to the ground.

I'm still playing and developing stuff for Quake 3...

nitzmoff · Nov 2004

Burnout 3 is numero uno in my book. Jeezal it is so fine. Fable should be off that list as well as Vietnam.

JKMakowka · Nov 2004

[ QUOTE ]

I'm still playing and developing stuff for Quake 3...

[/ QUOTE ]

Not the worst choice, since I bet that Q3 editing will get a big boost as soon as it gets open-source at the end of this year

rawkstar · Nov 2004

Rome Total war kicks major ass, although multiplayer seems slightly unballanced with certain units.

Doom 3 should definitely be there... right where battlefield vietnam is... WTF is that doing there anyway? I mean D3 wasn't super original and didn't have the nonstop addicting waste of time gameplay like sims 2, but it was very good while it lasted, it should be there.

Fable shouldn't be in the top 10, its not that good of a game, if you're looking for an RPG then at least put in Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines. I also think World of Warcraft deserves a mention, I'd put that instead of fable.

And why is Pirates! #10? is it that good??? Has anyone here even played it?

Bronco · Nov 2004

Pirates got 88% in the latest edition of PCZONE UK...pretty solide game I belive,no multiplayer though.havent played it myself..
john

RageUnleashed · Nov 2004

Is this based on sales? Seriously, what credentials does Time Magazine have to make judgements on games?

Malekyth · Nov 2004

Time is a magazine with articles about stuff. Games constitute Stuff.

Time Magazine's Top 10 Games of 2004

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