1996, Game of the Year

[SvennoJ]

Another great year, difficult choice.

First there it the game that decided my career path, or rather got me my full time job, Duke Nukem 3D

The game was revolutionary with it's over the top humorous campaign and multi player game play. It expanded on the DOOM engine by making it possible for geometry to overlap. It didn't actually have a 3D map, instead a clever system that allowed sections to overlap each other and connect through 'portals'. The first level you go up a winding staircase to the projection booth which blew my mind as that shouldn't have been possible.
Water worked the same way, you teleported to another section when crossing water boundaries (going underwater)
Also mirrors worked by trickery, replicating the same room in mirror form behind the mirror and replicating the enemies and your character model in there.

The story was funny as heck, the quotes became early 'memes' "You're an inspiration for birth control", the level design was great especially for the multiplayer maps and the weapon selection was terrific with freeze and shrink ray making multiplayer tons of fun. And that multiplayer is what landed me my job.

It was 1996, I was 22, quit university and was looking for better work than data entry. I got pointed to this little company "Palmtop Software" by the "Arbeidsbureau" which I was directed to by signing up for unemployment benefits after my summer data entry job ran out. I didn't have much of a resume, I could program but my only 'experience' besides hobby projects was that I worked with Lego at the university creating a few campaigns for Lego Mindstorms at the time. I was the 7th to join the company which consisted of friends and family until I joined. They weren't quite sure what to make of me or whether to take a chance on this rookie. It came down to hobbies and interests and they actually asked if I knew of and played Duke Nukem 3D since they played that in LAN at the end of the day to blow of steam. I did and was hired.

Multiplayer was hecti and amazing in LAN. You could hear the taunts coming from all the offices and the sound always gave away in what sections people were. The levels were brilliant. Cornering someone under water, you can't see them, but can throw pipe bombs and shoot rockets while the person hiding in the water can shoot out guessing where you are. One level had an elevator which you could recall by pressing the call button, the elevator would turn around. The best elevator scenes of any game ensued, just knowing there's someone waiting at the door ready to chuck in a pipe bomb as soon as the doors open.
The shrink ray was of course tons of fun to use, turning the opponent into the size of a mouse and then trying to stomp on them while they try to avoid your boots. You could also booby trap the levels with trip wires. Ultimate chaos, always a laugh, always spamming taunts over the network.


Quake also came out that year. While technically superior and introducing Mouse look, the color palette was rather drab and the game missed the humor from Duke Nukem 3D, so we stuck with the Duke. "Your face, your ass - what's the difference?" Quake was great to run around in, just not as fun.


1996 I also saw this little game at a PC convention in the RAI

It's the first game I actually bought, the first of many to come. Tombraider was the first 3rd person action game I played, a new genre that instantly clicked. The tank controls are unpopular yet to me it made the game. It fit perfectly in the world and allowed careful measurement and finding the right sequence to solve jump puzzles. Hold shit down for half steps to position correctly, then input the sequence of jumps and steps to complete a series of jumps.
The movements were graceful with show off moves like hand stands and fancy dives, fighting looked fluid, the deaths were gruesome and the enemies fun to fight. The early game kept the encounters to a minimum which made the main mode of the game exploration and puzzle solving. Atmosphere was great and the trailing camera was brilliant to heighten the atmosphere. The camera followed the path you walk, easy solution for it never to get stuck. The result is that you would go around a corner first for the camera to turn the corner a second later, giving you quite the jump scare if Lara ran into a bat, wolf or worse just around the corner. Unintended maybe, but brilliant.
The levels themselves were all memorable, different, huge, open and just a joy to navigate. Climbing that massive sphinx was amazing.

Resident Evil also started in 1996. I can't remember if I played the first one, definitely played the second but have no good recollection of one. I'm looking forward to played the RE4 remake in VR though, patch is coming soon for PSVR2.

Another amazing game of 1996 is Metal Slug, another start of a great series.

Over the top arcade action which I later played using MAME, or rather was my favorite game series on MAME

Then there's SimCopter where you could do rescue missions in cities you build in SimCity 2000

An awesome game, one I wanted to play a lot more but suffered from random crashes on Windows. Not very stable. It was a lot of fun though, rescuing people from runaway trains and putting out fires. And of course seeing your own creations by flying through them.

Command & Conquer gained popularity with the Red Alert series, thanks to the over the top and suggestive cut scenes. The game play was solid as well, fast paced, all emphasis on fun.

Master of Orion II also improved on everything of the first game and is the best 4X game I've ever played. From the selection of wildly imaginative races

to the tech tree, diplomatic options, battle options and unit type customization, resulting in the most polished 4X game I know. Space fights were always a joy to watch, playing out as 2D battles stacking your units against the enemy units. But you could also bombard planets from orbit, biological warfare and all. Very intense game which kept you on the edge of your seat dealing with so many other races every turn.

Civilization II also gained in popularity. Now in isometric view, more options and all values in easily edited config files so you could customize everything in the game. Just as Master of Orion II, Civ II perfected Civilization and non of the later entries have been able to top it for me.

!996 also saw the release of Descent II, improving on the first one with another great campaign.

Descent II is the first game I played in 3D. After getting hired I suddenly had a big paycheck every month while still living in cheap student housing. Basically my living costs were only 10% of my income. And thanks to University still being pretty much free at the time, while getting paid by the government for attending, I had no debts. My first big purchase was a second hand CRT projector which I hung from the ceiling, projecting a 72" screen on a white plaster wall in my small room. I had a GeForce card with s-vhs out which I connected to the projector to play PC games on the wall.

Then GeForce 3D Vision came out, wireless shutter glasses.


These worked perfectly with the CRT projector and Descent II was a perfect match for it. It worked so well the wall seemed to disappear with bullets flying through my room and beyond. It made it much easier to dodge projectiles and immersion was through the roof. It only ran at 320x240 (per eye) in 3D, yet it felt like 640x480 thanks to the stereoscopic projection. It's what convinced me VR was going to be the future of gaming, little did I know it would still take decades before VR would catch on.

I played plenty other games with the shutter glasses yet unfortunately, without parallax / reacting to head movements, the 3D effect became less pronounced over time. My mind started rejecting the fake 3D I guess, just like 3D movies on PSVR weren't working all that well for me. Plus the higher and higher refresh rates on CRT monitors caused more ghosting and double images in 3D. So I grew out of it after a while, but damn it was awesome, room scale Descent II!

1996 had some more great adventures as well with Discworld II, often breaking the 3rd wall

Yes I am missing this stuff

And the incredibly charming The Neverhood, unique claymation adventure with great slapstick humor

I backed Armikrog on Kickstarter which came through and turned into a great sequel to The Neverhood, a spiritual successor to The Neverhood, and is developed by many members of the same team. Loved it.

I bought N64 that year as well, drawn in by Super Mario 64 demo running in the shop. While SM64 looked fun and was fun to play, I didn't get on well with the 3D conversion. The camera sucked and I found it hard to judge distances and see where you would land. Maybe unpopular opinion but the move to 3D wasn't a great one. I never completed the game since I kept getting frustrated with the controls and camera.

What redeemed my purchase of N64 was Waverace 64, the water physics were ahead of its time.

An incredibly fun racer, Rare really delivered. Sea of Thieves in the making!

But my goty for 1996 has to be Wipeout 2097

It's perfection in every way, from the font to the music selection. Plus you could play the music in any CD player starting from track 2. The level design was awesome, fast, fun, rewarding to take risks. So much style in one game, a perfect blend of style, music and game play.
I'm still hopeful for a true next gen Wipeout. The last we got were essentially Vita ports. Dunno why Wipeout was pushed to handhelds to die there with PS Vita :/ It's a big shame. It did come to ps3 and later even PSVR, but in essence still based on what the PS Vita was capable off. A true VR sequel with HDR visuals will be amazing to play. Maybe one day.