Welcome to the pub, those came along when I was 14
As the year 2023 gives away to 2024, yours truly cannot help but think about the bygone time that was 2004. It was the year when I had finally learnt of the anatomy that allows us homo sapiens to fuck face to face after all. It can also be seen as the pivot point in many ways for the video game industry with its influential outing. As you scroll down you might find the last item to be an early 2005 release. So, allow me to explain the method to this madness. My birthday is January, 18th. Everything listed here was released between January 18th, 2004 and January, 17th, 2005, when I was 14 years old.
I was too young to touch any of the software here at the times of their releases, but they did come into my life eventually. Looking back at those makes one think that video game industry was not exactly taking “one step forward and two steps back” during the two decades between back then and the time of writing. It just took a few meaningful steps forward in terms of “quality of life improvement” then sidestepped even more towards some horseshit, excuse my French, in term of monetization. All software listed here can be seen as “shooters”. Oh well, my 2023 list does have its upper sixty percent taken up by games with firearms after all. Well, let’s meet those who are nearly old enough to drink, shall we?
Far Cry
Release date: March, 26th, 2004 on PC
The last time I beat the bloody thing: April, 2013 on PC
On a Beastcast, Dr. Austin Walker once compared Metal Gear Solid V the Phantom Pain to 2008’s Far Cry 2, an odd favorite of his. Similarly, I don’t think I could stand Phantom Pain for those 77 hours had I not played through 2004’s Far Cry. Both those games have empty space that just would not stand after Ubisoft made “First person Assassin’s Creed” with Far Cry 3.
The first Far Cry is a very odd duck, with designs resemble both PC and console games yet did not mix those well. Being a PC game played with mouse and keyboard, it sure took advantage of having 26 lettered buttons. With its limited weapon slots, there is one dedicated button for picking up guns and another dedicated to drop them. Horror of horrors, this game somehow dropped manual save and picked up checkpointing in the console way. It would have been fine if developer Crytek could tighten their combat encounters up the way say, Bungie and Vavle did. But man, those Krauts were no Yankees based in Seattle.
Sometimes “new IP” feels like a myth in this industry and comparing Far Cry to the 4 groundbreaking sequels down the list is certainly one of those times. The very first Far Cry just feels so boring, safe and unpolished compared to some of the best games of all time. Still there is pity to be felt seeing Call of Duty series’ stale world became the way forward while Far Cry’s more dynamic space was left out. The so-called sandbox can be boring for the most part, but the thrill of getting got by one single enemy rifleman here is still irreplaceable. And, what do you know? The late Ryan Davis feeling the Uwe Boll movie with the same name being “all right” was no symptom of Stockholm Syndrome. That was the only Boll joint I’ve watched, while I would not call it “good”, it’s at least watchable in a “I don’t regret this rent” kind of way.
Doom 3
Release date: August, 3rd, 2004 on PC
The last time I beat the bloody thing: April, 2020 on Steam
I typed “4 groundbreaking sequels” up there but Doom 3 is not among those. In many ways, this polygonal Doom buried id Software for a full Chinese Zodiac circle, which contains 12 years, until another polygonal Doom dug a very different id out. Let’s not think too hard about DOOM (2016) here and focus on Doom 3. The game had its screenshots shown as early as 2001, and boy didn’t those knock socks of people back then with its lighting and high-poly models. The final product released in 2004 at least looks as advertised, but the gameplay leaves a lot to desire. That marketing strategy did not change much in the last 20 years, did it?
To clarify, the version I chose to play back in the early days of lockdown was the original PC version not the BFG version Brad Shoemaker gave 3 stars to. The either flashlight or gun thing is a chore and waste of bullets, but at least manageable with manual save. Then the quick save here is bit off as it would take a full second, even with the rig I played DOOM Eternal on while Half-life 2 on Xbox 360 does not take that long. The evolution of hardware was even too much for Carmack and team, I guess. 2005’s F.E.A.R, another far better game than Doom 3, has that quick but not that quick save and load as well.
Halo 2
Release date: November, 9th, 2004 on Xbox
The last time I beat the bloody thing: May, 2020 on Steam
Here comes groundbreaking sequel number one, though the ground it broke for console online multiplayer would not be covered by yours truly.
Before Youtube became its end-all-be-all self, Gamespot had its own user video upload program. When I started to visit the site in 2006, Halo 2 speedruns were frequent there. “Grenade jump one’s way out of mandate combat encounters then hop on a vehicle and drive towards the end of the stage” was the name of game. It gave me the impression of Halo games being about fight or flight, something 2021’s Halo Infinite lacks.
The last time I played through Halo 2’s campaign, its Anniversary Edition had just come out in Steam. While I was not skilled enough to grenade jump out of fights, but once I found a fast enough vehicle, I hopped on and drove towards the ends. That was great fun. Something Halo Infinite would not offer. The 2021 disappointment would demand one to kill everyone around before it allows one to push a button or open a door. It would have been fine if combat encounters were better but Infinite got them worse than even Halo 4. Infinite is just a far cry, no pun intended, from the fight or flight form Bungie established in Halo 2. And anyone who hailed it as Halo’s return to form clearly had not gone back to older installments of the series lately. The 2021 game has a dedicated sprint button yet it feels sluggish as fuck compared to its 2004 predecessor for crying out loud.
Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater
Release date: November, 16th, 2004 on Playstation 2
The last time I beat the bloody thing: February, 2023 on 3DS
Groundbreaking sequel number two.
The endings of Fate/ Samurai Remnant left me a bit cold. Its marketing would list the feats and death of a couple of its star historical figures beyond the scope of 1651 Common Era, when this game takes place. I somehow wanted to see those listed before the credits roll in the game, with an ominous “The Three Houses learnt the truth regarding Edo and started cooking in a remote place called Fuyuki” at the end teasing a visual novel titled Fate/ Stay Night. Then I think “Oh well, not everything has to be Snake Eater, with that ominous ‘Sons of Big Boss were born’ before credits roll”.
Despite its third-rate-at-best historic fiction writing, Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater still has enough heart and soul to be regarded as the best MGS story and Hideo Kojima’s finest hour overall. After 4 bloody point-and-click adventure games disgust as action games, Snake Eater finally allow a Metal Gear player to become the shadow warrior they want. Even on the no kill runs, one can even the odds by blowing up enemy food storage and arsenal. And I guess the series won’t again until the too-big-for-its-good Phantom Pain. I still recommend the modern audience to that 3DS port, one cannot be a shadow warrior without efficiently using their firearms if you ask me.
Half-life 2
Release date: November, 17th, 2004 on PC
The last time I beat the bloody thing: April, 2015. With that Update mod on Steam.
Groundbreaking sequel number three.
In many ways, Half-life 2 is the perfect blend of pre-three Far Cry games and the Calls of Duty. It has both the fully interactable moveable objects of the former and the scripted events of the later, which was started by 1998’s first Half-life of course. Then of course there are Valve’s trademark well-tuned combat encounters and gravity gun.
Alas, the gravity gun. It seems like the future back then and had become a path rarely taken now. In 2007’s Bioshock, the Telekinesis allowed one to pick up items without risking enemy fire across a distance like gravity gun. But by 2013, Bioshock Infinite’s Telekinesis counterpart is only about grab and toss enemies around, the only times one picks item across a distance are the companion tossing at one. Video game as a digital media is getting, well, more digital in the 0 or 1 sense for the last decade. The more considerate analogue fashion became few, far between and usually locked behind some long ass game yours truly would not even bother to pick up. Oh the times it had been changing.
Playstation Portable
Release date: December, 2004
The last time I touched the bloody thing: May, 2009
I owned a PSP briefly between December, 2008 and May, 2009. My inability to get into them Monster Hunter games eventually made me sell it. The system’s selling point to me was its ability to play PSOne classics and as the little twat hungry for the “cutting edge” as I was, those could not hold my interest long either. I thought to myself “Would it be nice if Sony makes a portable PS3 in the future?”
Fast forward to March, 2017, when Sony gave up on handheld completely, but I did get a PS3/Xbox 360 level hardware on the go. Enters Switch, a very different animal for a very different jungle. By 2017, smart phones had already become the all-in-one multi-media hub in one’s palm for many. So, Switch was wise not to follow in PSP and Vita’s step of well, other functions. It just needs to be a good enough dedicated video game console for us who just cannot getting into gaming on the phone. And thank Nintendo for the dedicated screen capture button, quite the thing for a video game critic wannabe like yours truly. One just would not appreciate things like that until they went back and tried Vita or 3DS out again.
Resident Evil 4
Release date: January, 11th, 2005 on Gamecube
The last time I beat the bloody thing: May, 2013 on Xbox 360
Groundbreaking sequel number four.
For some odd reasons, yours truly had always wrongly believed that Biohazard 4 came out on Gamecube in Japan late 2004 before Resident Evil 4 came out in U.S. Then “January, 27th, 2005” as the release date of Biohazard 4 stared back at me across Giantbomb, Fandom and Wikipedia. Oh well, at least Resident Evil 4 came out a full week back my 15th birthday, so I got the excuse to write about it here.
Released four full years into the 21st century, Resident Evil 4 serves as one of the century’s definitive pieces when it comes to interactive media so far. While it was not the first one to include over-the-shoulder shooting, you did not hear Cliff B mentioning Splinter Cell as inspiration for Gears of War. The frequency of trigger-pulls is key here, and then everything under the umbrella “action adventure with guns” got that over-the-shoulder thing to handle precise shooting. RE4 is admirable in handling its inability to move and shoot at the same time, as this game was tuned for that limit both in terms of both aesthetic and design. Resident Evil 5 with its gun-and-run body count and bombastic orchestral would never.
