1999, (Runoff) Game of the Year

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The_Liquid_Laser said:

Zkuq said:

At first glance, it didn't seem like a great year (only a solid one). However, reading some of the posts here, there are actually some very notable releases: FreeSpace 2, Jagged Alliance 2, Crash Team Racing, Age of Empires II, among others... I should probably vote for Heroes of Might and Magic III, but since I haven't played it (yet!), I'll go against my better judgement and vote for FreeSpace 2 instead. There seems to be a surprisingly strong case for HoMM3, but I can't bring myself to vote for it since I haven't played it (the same goes for Jagged Alliance 2), and while I love Crash Team Racing, I don't think it's as significant a release as FreeSpace 2 was (it's still very highly regarded in its genre, more so that CTR, I think).

If you haven't played a Heroes of Might and Magic game, I would make it the next game you play.  My personal favorite is HoMM 2, but HoMM 3 is also a fantastic game, and it's the one that is easily the most popular.  Basically if you have ever liked a fantasy themed strategy game, then you should definitely play one of these HoMM games ASAP.

I'm probably in the minority when I say that HoMM 4 is the best one for me. They added so many quality of life things (flaggable external unit production buildings, getting units in a daily slow drip instead of weekly all at once...) and other things I like (The Heroes are actually playing their part and actively fight instead of just being like generals, staying on the sidelines). The only negative things are the reduced amount of recruitable troops and the fact that you have to choose between several troops during production. While this would in theory allow you to specialize your cities, the fact that conquered cities can't be rolled back if they went another way is a serious bummer in that regard. Had they solved that in the subsequent updates I believe HoMM 4  would have become the favorite HoMM for many more players, but NWC possibly died before they could do so.