With the news that a GAME survey today saw gamers confirm 1996 as the most memorable year for video games - something we wholeheartedly agree with - we take a look back at a twelve months that was truly vintage.
One modder produced an unofficial, modern-day take on the Game Gear.
Skewed and Reviewed have written an Opinion Piece covering issues in the gaming industry, how current issues were issues years ago, and what can be done to help restore consumer trust.
Nothing. It's up to the gamers to stop consuming content from companies that they don't agree with.
How do you know if you agree with it or not unless you play it? Which without conventions forces gamers to rely on trailers. Perhaps Demos should be made more frequently. But companies need to do better as well.
But is that not what they have now? Tons of gameplay or are you talking about watching actual gamers play it versus the trailers and streams? The big issue is that some companies pay streamers and influencers and they create content but for me; that is hardly a fair, unbiased, and factual look at a game.
They usually are attached to the money sadly. It would be nice to have gamers in charge but you have so much money invested that business people are needed. Hence the issue; you need people who know business but are also gamers who know have an eye to the community. It sounds simple in theory that if you give gamers quality games that they want to play; money will be made. But that is not always so.
Marie Dealessandri speaks to Borislav Slavov and Gustavo Santaolalla about “the new golden age of games music”.
I still remember when Tomb Raider came out, it has to be the first video game that people want to watch you play, even people that don't play video games
I got TR a a 13 year old all those years ago, still best TR game out, followed closely by the rebbot IMO
Wow? 96? My friends across the pond have a much different view than I do. 96 might have been the best year of the decade, and to me that's a big might. The best year of the 90s, IMO,would be 1998
Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, Daggerfall, Red Alert, Diablo.. pivotal year in gaming. It was also the year I got absolutely hooked on online gaming with Duke3d and the Total Entertainment Network.
And remind yourself of some of (my) highlights of the following years (I'll stop just before the year of the sequel 2004 - look it up just how many sequels there were in that year). Years are for PC / console release, not arcade release and generally European release.
1997- The Curse of Monkey Island
Quake 2
Tomb Raider 2
1998 - Banjo Kazooie
Ocarina of Time
Half Life
Resident Evil 2
1999 -
Crash Team Racing
Donkey Kong 64
Quake 3 Arena
Rayman 2
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
Seaman
Shenmue
Silent Hill
System Shock 2
Tomb Raider : The Last Revelation
2000 - Banjo Tooie
Jet Set Radio
Perfect Dark
Timesplitters
American McGee's Alice
Crazy Taxi
2001 - Alone in the dark : The New Nightmare
Conker's Bad Fur Day
Devil May Cry
GTA3
Halo : Combat Evolved
Ico
Luigi's Mansion
Max Payne
Silent Hill 2
Sonic Adventure 2
Wave Race : Blue Storm
2002 - Eternal Darkness
Jet Set Radio Future
Kingdom Hearts
Metroid Prime
Resident Evil remake
Resident Evil Zero
2003 - 1080 Avalanche
Beyond Good and Evil
F Zero GX
Grabbed by the ghoulies
Gregory Horror Show (very niche).
Mario Kart : Double Dash
Max Payne 2
Legend of Zelda : the Wind Waker (very late 2002 in Japan)
Outrun 2
Prince of Persia : The Sands of Time
Rayman 3
Silent Hill 3
Viewtiful Joe
From 1996 to 2003 it was a truly great run of gaming years.
2004, the year of the sequel, arguably saw a shift to games companies playing safer and, after that there only seemed sporadic numbers of great games before the next generation e.g. Resident Evil 4 in 2005 and it took a few years, perhaps until Bioshock and later Uncharted 2, until we started to see the quality of those earlier years which were largely formed by the brief life of the Dreamcast, the early blossoming of the Gamecube and some artsy games on the PS2.
Looking at the above years, 96 may have had Mario 64, Tomb Raider and Resident Evil, the source of the future of gaming really, but how could you overlook 1999, 2001 , 2003 (or the years inbetween, smaller in great games but sometimes of very high quality)?