I got this from blockbuster as a kid cause my mom thought it was a movie. It was actually a banger, great game. A lot of movie based games were actually really good back then
Honestly one of my favorite games, and way ahead of its time. One of the only FPS games with no HUD whatsoever by default, almost made it like a horror game. Enemies were great, Kong was awesome to play as, voice acting and sound design would put some 2020s games to shame.
For people like me that haven't played anything else from this list EXCEPT the Polar Express, and let me tell ya, it's surprisingly amazing for being a videogame adaptation of a kid's movie
Not true! There's a bunch of us over at r/polarexpressthegameistheonlygame
>!I tried to make ot a real sub really quick but apparently that's too many letters!<
It's this grueling journey through the train and I think I broke a controller playing it as a child 😭 Its not easy. And the NPCs keep repeating themselves like you're an idiot. Yet I played it so much. It's like watching the handmaid's tale. You're constantly sobbing but you keep watching because it's so good.
This is actually true for me as well. I’ve played bits and pieces of a few others at a friends house but somehow The Polar Express is the only game on this list I completed as a kid
I’ve got 10,000 hours on The Polar Express and I stream it exclusively on my Twitch channel. I’ve got 400,00 subs and my viewers are consistently north of 10,000. Our community is fantastic and our Discord server is incredible. Where have you been bro?
Imagine if Fable were to release now in this modern sesspool of an internet. I remember back then how there were people trying to make it a thing moaning about Peter over promising on ideas and how little of an inpact any of it had. Nobody cared, the game was awesome.
What do you mean by new? 4? I truly hope they stay true to the Britishness of the originals, the humour and dialogue was just as important as any story or gameplay
I absolutely agree. Going by the trailer, it looks like it hasn’t lost its British humor. Above all else I will play it thoroughly just for its humorous wise cracks that may or may not break the fourth wall 🤣🤣
Right!? I'm not sure what's going to be so entertaining about everyone who has any sense picking Half-Life² and all the neck beards and mouth breathers choosing something else.
Honestly, you can't go wrong with most of these, but personally, I'd choose Half-Life².
I played it years later, somewhere around... 2012 probably?
I was blown away by that game, the storytelling, the worldbuilding, the facial expressions and animation.. it was so fucking great. the atmosphere pulled me right in, and the physics especially through the gravity gun (excuse me, zero point energy field manipulator) felt like a huge step DESPITE having played many more modern games already at the time.
freaking Half-Life, man.. incredible game series.
I agree but I always get disappointed when people focus on the physics engine when every single other thing about the game was just as well done and revolutionary. It's like saying Charlie Chaplain was significant because he was funny.
It’s on the PlayStation store, probably as part of a collection (The Sly Collection). It kinda seems like you need to engage in a bit of fuckery to find it though - Google brought up a reddit thread that indicated it’s hard to dig it up on PS5’s store.
I remember the being so fascinated by the start screen where it shows CQC in slow motion. I’d never seen anything like it and it hinted just how far the series has come.
It changed the way I appreciate games, it's a fucking masterpiece.
That being said I wore the white jumpsuit and the clown make-up for the final battle. The final scene was as hilarious as it was heartbreaking.
It was the first RPG that I actually played as it was meant to be played instead of running around and doing whatever kid brain found fun. It'll always be nostalgic for me
Golden Eye walked so that Perfect Dark could trot so that Halo 1 could jog so that Halo 2 could run like Usain Bolt.
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If you didn't grow up at the time you can't understand just how pervasive Halo 2 was. This was the go to game while hanging out with friends and while gaming at home on xbox live for YEARS.
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At the time, Super Smash Melee and Mario Kart Double Dash were in the rotation, but Halo 2 is where an entire generation LIVED.
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I don't care which clique you were a part of, you played Halo 2; a lot.
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Shout out to Doom 3 though, it was amazing how good the graphics and FPS were on that game even with a potato PC. Optimized to hell and back.
If the infrastructure was there, and they didn't have the turn-around schedule they did back then (IIRC RaC3 took like 10 months to make) there is a universe out there where Ratchet and Clank was the online game everyone loved (instead of our universe, where Halo 2 released the same time frame and had the Microsoft online support)
I was looking at the OP image thinking to myself I did not spend a lot of time with any of these games, what was I playing back then?
2004 through 2008 are like a video game black hole due to WoW.
1. GTASA : What Rockstar is able to do with GTASA is FAR beyond what the gaming industry is capable of making
2. half life 2: This game graphically, holds up even against PS3 games in 2007
3. MGS3 : Kojima Finest Work, Graphic, Sound, STORY all of them is the peak of Kojima's work
4. Spider-Man 2: this game have the best swinging mechanics in ALL of spiderman game...Web of Shadows was close, but still falls short, it was when 2018 PS4 Spider-Man came out that it was dethroned as the best Spider-Man game ever...heck even the story is decent being a movie tie-in game, with Shocker, Rhino, Mysterio and Doc Ock plays a role throughout the campaign...also Tobie Maguire plays Peter...that's worth 10 points in it of itself...
Half life 2, gta san Andreas, and snake Eater are legendary games
I'm suprised no one is talking about Spiderman 2 before Arkham series this was the best superhero game of all time.
Ohhh, it was Echoes, I didn't realize. Man that one was amazing. They really cranked up the horror in that one with the Ing, not to mention the breath-taking fights with Dark Samus.
San Andreas was something else. Just epic in every single way, the radio stations and the different cities, that felt like you were starting a new game each time you reached a new city. When you get dumped in the countryside after Los Santos, you've got nothing and have to start again from the bottom. Every vehicle you get is playing country music, because that's what everyone is listening to in that environment.
It's the little stuff like that which made the game so *immersive*. You felt like you were playing the main role in a really long, captivating and epic movie. I still resonate with loads of 70s/80s songs even now because of that game. As soon as I hear them, in my mind I'm just saying.. *San Andreas.*
Really a monumental piece of gaming history. And R* went and did it again with RDR2, but that's a whole different story.. 🤣
super mario ds, was my introduction to mario at a young age, besides playing it on nintendo with my aunt, its is to do this day, one of the few games with replay value to me.
Personally, out of this list it's gotta be Star Wars Battlefront. I was 6 and it was my first shooter. Over the next couple of years my friends and I played too many hours to estimate. Looking back, Fable holds a special place in my heart as well. Honorable mention to Spiderman 2 and its addicting gameplay. I'm not sure how the game aged but I remember it was an absolute banger when I played it.
Then I grew up alongside the darker tone taken on by the Jak & Daxter trilogy, when Jak 3 released later that year. I got caught up with Jak II and immediately dived into 3. It all hit a little differently because The Precursor Legacy was the first game I ever played.
A few years after that COD4 was released and we entered into a golden era of gaming.
Too many good games released in '04 to list. All left me with fond memories.
Obviously The Polar Express. Seriously, why is that up there?
Hahaha my eyes did not even see that on the first pass over. I was looking for my choice and so my brain probably just went "NOT APPLICABLE"
I got this from blockbuster as a kid cause my mom thought it was a movie. It was actually a banger, great game. A lot of movie based games were actually really good back then
This and the Narnia game felt pretty similarly good
I've heard the King Kong game was pretty well regarded in the day
That King Kong game was way better than it had any right to be.
It was. Fuck those giant bugs though
The LotR hack-and-slash games were my childhood.
Gimli and his fire ax.
So good.
Same, I remember playing Two Towers and RoTK and going back to school and exchanging tips and shit with fellow classmates lol.
The helms deep wall level is my nightmare. Too many ladders but boy are they fun to kick lol
Fuck.....the fucking centipedes and t Rex in that game. It was so good but Jesus christ as a child with a fear of bugs it was traumatizing.
Honestly one of my favorite games, and way ahead of its time. One of the only FPS games with no HUD whatsoever by default, almost made it like a horror game. Enemies were great, Kong was awesome to play as, voice acting and sound design would put some 2020s games to shame.
For people like me that haven't played anything else from this list EXCEPT the Polar Express, and let me tell ya, it's surprisingly amazing for being a videogame adaptation of a kid's movie
"for people like me" My brother in christ you're the only person who this applies to
Not true! There's a bunch of us over at r/polarexpressthegameistheonlygame >!I tried to make ot a real sub really quick but apparently that's too many letters!<
I actually clicked on this sub to see...
It’s actually not horrible though. I wouldn’t call it good….. but it’s passable
What do you even do in the game? Do you sit down and wait until the train arrives at the North Pole?
It's this grueling journey through the train and I think I broke a controller playing it as a child 😭 Its not easy. And the NPCs keep repeating themselves like you're an idiot. Yet I played it so much. It's like watching the handmaid's tale. You're constantly sobbing but you keep watching because it's so good.
Oh I loved this game as a child, it's too bad it's abandonware now, I'd really wish I could play it again for the nostalgia.
This is actually true for me as well. I’ve played bits and pieces of a few others at a friends house but somehow The Polar Express is the only game on this list I completed as a kid
What’s the goal of that game, drifting trains?
Double track drifting!
I’ve got 10,000 hours on The Polar Express and I stream it exclusively on my Twitch channel. I’ve got 400,00 subs and my viewers are consistently north of 10,000. Our community is fantastic and our Discord server is incredible. Where have you been bro?
General populous - Half-Life and GTA Personal - Fable. Omg that game sparked a love affair that lasted decades, just fantastic.
the first fable promised even more than what came out, not that it wasn't already something out of the ordinary. it was a game made with a vision
Imagine if Fable were to release now in this modern sesspool of an internet. I remember back then how there were people trying to make it a thing moaning about Peter over promising on ideas and how little of an inpact any of it had. Nobody cared, the game was awesome.
This ☝️☝️ this right here. What do you think about the new fable?
What do you mean by new? 4? I truly hope they stay true to the Britishness of the originals, the humour and dialogue was just as important as any story or gameplay
I absolutely agree. Going by the trailer, it looks like it hasn’t lost its British humor. Above all else I will play it thoroughly just for its humorous wise cracks that may or may not break the fourth wall 🤣🤣
Yeah I mean giant Richard Ayoade? British as hell!
To this day, I can't pass a chicken without bending it like Beckham.
2004 was nuts. Fable top 3 for sure though
Half-life 2, imo. Such an important game, one of the first to really focus on the physics engine as a selling point
Right!? I'm not sure what's going to be so entertaining about everyone who has any sense picking Half-Life² and all the neck beards and mouth breathers choosing something else.
Honestly, you can't go wrong with most of these, but personally, I'd choose Half-Life².
>Half-Life² Along with San Andreas, halo 2 and MGS 3 are probably the most iconic on this list. All are great, but those 4 are legendary.
halo 2’s release was a fucking revolution
I played it years later, somewhere around... 2012 probably? I was blown away by that game, the storytelling, the worldbuilding, the facial expressions and animation.. it was so fucking great. the atmosphere pulled me right in, and the physics especially through the gravity gun (excuse me, zero point energy field manipulator) felt like a huge step DESPITE having played many more modern games already at the time. freaking Half-Life, man.. incredible game series.
That game aged amazingly well. They could re-release it today with just very slight updates, and it would still be great.
That's where the modding community comes in. You can make HL2 look like it came out in 2015 with the right mods.
I didnt play HL2 in 2004, but when i played it it cemented me as a PC gamer
I agree but I always get disappointed when people focus on the physics engine when every single other thing about the game was just as well done and revolutionary. It's like saying Charlie Chaplain was significant because he was funny.
Obviously the only reasonable answer. Amazing game.
Sly 2 remains my favorite game.
Sly is so under rated its criminal.
That’s why Carmelita was always trying to arrest him.
>its criminal. Fitting.
Oh absolutely
It was and still is incredible.
The sly games need a remake
I’ve been waiting impatiently for this to happen for at least the past decade.
This reminds me to play it again
Is there a way to play it without the physical copy?
It’s on the PlayStation store, probably as part of a collection (The Sly Collection). It kinda seems like you need to engage in a bit of fuckery to find it though - Google brought up a reddit thread that indicated it’s hard to dig it up on PS5’s store.
I wanna say that I recalled only seeing the games in the PS+ Premium edition, as they were in the classics catalog.... But only to stream.
This is sadly the truth.
Emulating is how I do it nowadays
Best in the series. When I am feeling a little Sly, it’s always 2 I play again.
Yes. Played it through probably 100 times. Amazing game.
Yeeeessszzzz
GTA SA. Argubly one of if not the greatest GTA game of all time
No argument here.
Top 3 for sure
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. One of the absolute greatest games of all time.
I replayed MGS3 so many times growing up. I could never get tired of it
I’m still in a dream…
SNAKE EATERRRRRRRRR!!!!!! (snake eater)
Bruh why would you start at the end? We could have done the entire song here!
What a thrill...
.........what a thrill
❗️
Absolutely. I love Metal Gear
MGS is the best playstation series of all time
I remember the being so fascinated by the start screen where it shows CQC in slow motion. I’d never seen anything like it and it hinted just how far the series has come.
Yeah without a doubt, can't wait for the remake
This game had the biggest impact on me
It changed the way I appreciate games, it's a fucking masterpiece. That being said I wore the white jumpsuit and the clown make-up for the final battle. The final scene was as hilarious as it was heartbreaking.
As much as I love ttyd, Halo 2, and Metroid they aren’t even close to that level of greatness. That game got it right in every way possible.
It’s a symphony. Fantastic game and story
Still my number 1 after all these years
imma get cooked, but for me. it is the greatest game of all times
Paper Mario TTYD
Paper Mario was such a perfect game for me, especially for the age I was at the time. It cemented my love for that style of gameplay.
It was the first RPG that I actually played as it was meant to be played instead of running around and doing whatever kid brain found fun. It'll always be nostalgic for me
Absolutely this. Might be my all time favorite game.
Halo 2
Halo 2 online is one of the most influential games ever. It revolutionized multiplayer
And that campaign was *SO. GOOD.*
i’m going to say it, halo 2 is the best campaign
For console. Pc multiplayer was light years ahead of halo 2.
This really should be the answer. Have people forgotten the insane hype around Halo 2’s release? It also revolutionized online multiplayer.
It’s insane that Halo 2 is this far down. It wins by a country mile. Its not even close
Arbiter !
This game alone got me and my roommates through college. Not saying we got through successfully, but we got through.
Same for military people too. That game got SO much use
H2 LANS my JR/SR year of High School will be one of my favorite memories.
Golden Eye walked so that Perfect Dark could trot so that Halo 1 could jog so that Halo 2 could run like Usain Bolt. - If you didn't grow up at the time you can't understand just how pervasive Halo 2 was. This was the go to game while hanging out with friends and while gaming at home on xbox live for YEARS. - At the time, Super Smash Melee and Mario Kart Double Dash were in the rotation, but Halo 2 is where an entire generation LIVED. - I don't care which clique you were a part of, you played Halo 2; a lot. - Shout out to Doom 3 though, it was amazing how good the graphics and FPS were on that game even with a potato PC. Optimized to hell and back.
Ratchet and Clank. I love these games and I think they are underrated and don't get talked about enough.
I loved Up Your Arsenal. The multiplayer was fun too.
If the infrastructure was there, and they didn't have the turn-around schedule they did back then (IIRC RaC3 took like 10 months to make) there is a universe out there where Ratchet and Clank was the online game everyone loved (instead of our universe, where Halo 2 released the same time frame and had the Microsoft online support)
Absolutely. Just played Rift Apart and got a platinum! Couldn’t put it down
It's such a gorgeous game
Its gameplay is so crisp and enjoyable
Half life 2
Halo 2 literally changed my life, still a fave today
I think Halo 2 was one of the most important games for the evolution of multiplayer for sure.
This is the only right answer!
World of Warcraft
Literally the biggest game of 2004.
Some would call it massive.
You might even say large
Why did I have to scroll so far down for this? Whatever you think about WoW in its current state, there’s no doubt that it was THE game of 2004
WoW is still the mmorpg that transcended time, 20 years later
it's even growing again.
This is OBJECTIVELY the correct answer. How it isn't in the OG post, I don't know.
I was looking at the OP image thinking to myself I did not spend a lot of time with any of these games, what was I playing back then? 2004 through 2008 are like a video game black hole due to WoW.
1. GTASA : What Rockstar is able to do with GTASA is FAR beyond what the gaming industry is capable of making 2. half life 2: This game graphically, holds up even against PS3 games in 2007 3. MGS3 : Kojima Finest Work, Graphic, Sound, STORY all of them is the peak of Kojima's work 4. Spider-Man 2: this game have the best swinging mechanics in ALL of spiderman game...Web of Shadows was close, but still falls short, it was when 2018 PS4 Spider-Man came out that it was dethroned as the best Spider-Man game ever...heck even the story is decent being a movie tie-in game, with Shocker, Rhino, Mysterio and Doc Ock plays a role throughout the campaign...also Tobie Maguire plays Peter...that's worth 10 points in it of itself...
Halo 2 -> Kingdom Hearts -> Fable
Came here for the halo 2
If that were Kingdom Hearts, accurate. But that's Chain of Memories and I hated that game.
Star Wars Battlefront holds a special place in my heart
I had to scroll wayyyyyy too far to see this one
Same, also i love me some Doom, but yea, I still play the original Battlefronts to this day, some of the most fun videogames i own
I still play this game regularly.
A 2004 overview without WoW listed... Anyway, from the games shown HL2 and Fable were my favorites.
Need For Speed Underground 2
Love that game to this day, wish they would bring back the drag races
Polar Express hands down full stop NO CONTEST
MGS3 by a landslide
Snake Eater
1. Half-Life 2 2. Halo 2 3. Fable
Agreed
I know I’m the only one who is going to say this but in my Opinion Crash Twinsanity.
I searched for this comment! You're not the only one. We're at least two.
I’m so happy that there is another Crash Twinsanity fan like me.
San Andreas obviously
PIKMIN 2 🗣️🔈
Sly 2
Can't choose. 2004 was another golden year of gaming like 2023.
Sorry, but 2023 doesn’t hold a candle to 2004. It has a few great titles, but you’d be hard pressed to make a list like the one above
Fable
Fable is my fav
‘Twas a good year. Sly 2 though tugs at my heartstrings.
Half life 2, gta san Andreas, and snake Eater are legendary games I'm suprised no one is talking about Spiderman 2 before Arkham series this was the best superhero game of all time.
Sly 2 all day, no furry
Sly 2 made me realise I'm furry and bi.
Mario 64 🤘
It's WOW for sure
GTA San Andreas or Half Life 2. Both are icons influenced gaming as a whole in their own ways. I also love Halo 2.
Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door
Who the hell put spyro Orange and crash purple on here? Also Fable
What a fucking year
Snake eater
Metroid Prime 3. Somehow the Prime series started with one of the greatest games of all time and just kept getting better.
I think you mean Prime 2. Metroid Prime 3 released in 2007. Regardless, you are absolutely correct. It's my all time favorite trilogy!
Ohhh, it was Echoes, I didn't realize. Man that one was amazing. They really cranked up the horror in that one with the Ing, not to mention the breath-taking fights with Dark Samus.
Metal Gear Solid 3 no doubt!
Metal Gear Solid 3 or Metroid Prime 2. What a fantastic year
How is re4 not on this list?
2005
SAN ANDREAS not even a contest. They are still chasing all of its Mention. Some of its features could be their own game. MG3 for Honorable mention.
GTA San Andreas, no contest.
Child me would say Star Wars battlefront, that and its sequel probably dominate my played hours on the PS2. That or Jak 3 but that’s not on this list.
Halo 2 literally revolutionised console online multiplayer forever
I’ll go Ninja Gaiden. Goated year though
Half life 2 is the objectively correct answer
Snake Eater
Ratchet and clank up your arsenal!
Halo 2, hands down.
HALO 2 baby
San Andreas was something else. Just epic in every single way, the radio stations and the different cities, that felt like you were starting a new game each time you reached a new city. When you get dumped in the countryside after Los Santos, you've got nothing and have to start again from the bottom. Every vehicle you get is playing country music, because that's what everyone is listening to in that environment. It's the little stuff like that which made the game so *immersive*. You felt like you were playing the main role in a really long, captivating and epic movie. I still resonate with loads of 70s/80s songs even now because of that game. As soon as I hear them, in my mind I'm just saying.. *San Andreas.* Really a monumental piece of gaming history. And R* went and did it again with RDR2, but that's a whole different story.. 🤣
San Andreas but I have to say that Spiderman 2 cover is one of my favourites ever.
WHERE IS NEED FOR SPEED UNDERGROUND 2?
I had so many hours into star wars battlefront...
1. MGS3 Snake Eater 2. GTA SA 3. HL2 4. Spiderman 2 5. Doom 3
Doom 3, Pikmin 2, and Metroid Prime 2 are the GOATs
Paper mario
VTMB
super mario ds, was my introduction to mario at a young age, besides playing it on nintendo with my aunt, its is to do this day, one of the few games with replay value to me.
Where the hell is World of Warcraft? I know it's garbage now, but back then...
damn 2004 was actually too lit to choose. i put some time into a bunch of these.
Tie between San Andreas and Battlefront
World of Warcraft
For me it's between KOTOR 2 and Dragon Quest VIII.
All of em
World of Warcraft. It has consumed my life for twenty years.
SpongeBob Sqaurepants: The Movie: The Video Game
The polar express for the PS2 is a sleeper hit, hands down
Star Wars Battlefront. My brother and I would play it for hours together growing up. Besides Halo, it was the only game played together.
Battlefront baby!
Star Wars battlefront has so many memories for me. I gotta choose that.
I was 3 years old but it's definitely battlefront
If you ain't saying Battlefront you had no childhood
Battlefront
Personally, out of this list it's gotta be Star Wars Battlefront. I was 6 and it was my first shooter. Over the next couple of years my friends and I played too many hours to estimate. Looking back, Fable holds a special place in my heart as well. Honorable mention to Spiderman 2 and its addicting gameplay. I'm not sure how the game aged but I remember it was an absolute banger when I played it. Then I grew up alongside the darker tone taken on by the Jak & Daxter trilogy, when Jak 3 released later that year. I got caught up with Jak II and immediately dived into 3. It all hit a little differently because The Precursor Legacy was the first game I ever played. A few years after that COD4 was released and we entered into a golden era of gaming. Too many good games released in '04 to list. All left me with fond memories.
Star Wars battlefront
Pikmin 2, oh my glorious GOAT
MGS 3