2004 was one of the landmark years in gaming, like 1998, that changed the medium. It had the release of several games that blew away my expectations of what a game in the respective genre could be, and overall it was a year packed with some huge releases, more than making up for the rather tepid 2003.
It was a year that I again spent between my PS2 and Xbox, but my PC got plenty of time and I continued my weakening link with Nintendo via the Gameboy Advance.
In an incredibly competitive year with a list of amazing releases, Halo 2 topped them all. Taking the formula from the first game and increasing the scale of everything was a good start, but Halo 2 also overhauled the controls and mechanics to such an extent that it was hard to believe it was on the same machine. Dual-wielding, greater focus on the story, a surprising character switch to reveal the Covenant side of the story and a thrilling soundtrack were all incredible. The multiplayer was also groundbreaking, and to this day I have probably spent more time on deathmatch in Lockout than on the multiplayer of any other game. The story wasn't quite as engaging as Half-Life 2, but what Halo 2 did have was the most refined and fun shooting that I had ever played, and it set a new bar for me.
I loved the first two Total War games, Shogun and Medieval, but Rome took the whole concept to a different tier with its stunning visuals and scale. A huge array of factions, massive battles with an incredible level of finesse and tactics, and a heart-pumping soundtrack all served to cement Rome Total War as a stunning achievement. I rarely get a platform for just one game, but I bought a new PC for Rome Total War, and I have no regrets about that decision.
I do not subscribe to it being the greatest game of all time, but how could I not have Half-Life 2 on this list. Massively superior to the first game, it is in-arguably a groundbreaking release for its style of organic story, physics based problem solving, and scope. I appreciate the intense focus that it has on telling its story, establishing the genuine nature of its setting and how it smartly distanced itself from the first game while keeping the lore intact. The AI poses a significant challenge, the soundtrack is surprisingly strong and that gravity gun is the icing on the cake. Hail the Freeman!
I love 40k, both for its surprisingly interesting and characterful universe lore and for the tabletop game which I have played for years. Dawn of War took the setting that I love and recreated it with the care and tone it deserves while also replicating the scale of the tabletop game pretty much perfectly. It had the base building RTS elements I loved from Starcraft, had 4 unique factions with a raft of units available and also shifted the focus away from resource collection and over to capturing points on the map in order to build more units, thus encouraging players to get into battle with each other quickly. Great music and a full story campaign were included, and the multiplayer gave me hundreds of hours of fun. There are very few RTS games as good as this today.
GTA was a series that had never grabbed me the same way it did others, but Andreas had the most open and realised world that I had ever seen in the series. Its irreverent tone was quite distinct from both Vice City and III. The shooting was still all over the place and I was not crazy about the visual style, but with that soundtrack and how much my friends exposed me to it at the time it is tough to not be fond of San Andreas.
The original Soul Reaver was among the best games on the PS1, and while I was disappointed with Soul Reaver 2 I was hooked on the incredible story of the series. Defiance made good on that aspect. The combat had not evolved and felt aged compared to its genre rivals, while camera angles were pretty poor throughout the game. However the presentation of the game, the sense of place and the writing made this a pleasure. It finally allowed me to control Kain himself (outside of Blood Omen) and managed to create meaningful gameplay differences between him and Raziel. I sorely wish there had been a sequel to Defiance.
I first heard about Fable in an Xbox magazine, and was hooked by the promises of being able to meld your own world and how your actions would have huge impacts. These things turned out be outright untrue. However, what I did get with Fable was a new game series with a fresh setting, lovely music and a surprisingly dark tone that poured character into what could have been a dull affair. The combat was decent, the enemies were generally beautifully designed and the villain was brilliant in both his terrible actions and the level of threat he posed to the world that you became invested in.
Deception continued to refine the 3D formula for Mortal Kombat. Great attention was paid to the lore and story of the venerable series here. The introduction of Onaga, the expanded Konquest mode and the darker tone of the whole game was right down my street. I felt the majority of the new characters were weak introductions and wished the actual fighting was tighter and more responsive, but overall this is still one I remember fondly.
Hard to believe it came out all the way back in 2004, Battlefront let me live out one of my childhood dreams and actually fight the Battle of Hoth. When I played Shadows of the Empire, my imagination constructed a game that effectively matched this, but Battlefront made it a reality! The battles were not groundbreaking and some missions were very unsatisfying but overall this was an exceptionally impressive game with a huge amount going for it.
I love the main series of Pokemon games. They hold a special place for me as one of my favourite series of all time. When I heard about a remake of them in the style of Ruby/Sapphire and that they would be cross compatible I was thrilled. Unfortunately, the game that released was slow, had a diary tutorial every time it was turned on that enraged me, and was just mechanically stale. Still a very enjoyable game with a huge amount of content, but I was definitely ready for something fresh for the series after this.
