2000, Game of the Year

[S.Peelman]

From here on out it gets a little harder, with the exception of some years. The year 2000 is still a part of it, but the Golden Age is now on its way back and I'd slowly grow out of console-gaming for a while during these years.

Still, this was the year of Zelda: Majora's Mask of course, which is an amazing sequel and still is a very unique game and one of my all-time favourites. By now the legendary N64 was on its way out as well though and this was now the time when the Dreamcast was at its peak. Though these had an Arcade release in 1999, so they're not eligible for this year, the Dreamcast ports of Crazy Taxi and Virtua Tennis that came out this year were my favourites. This is the year we as a family would have a lot of multiplayer 'parties' at home with friends playing various Dreamcast games. A fun time. I also played the likes of Jet Set Radio or Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2.

The PC however would gain more and more traction. I played Diablo II of course, some Red Alert 2, the expansion for SimCity 3000 came out, Zeus Master of Olympus (a city builder in the Caesar series) and I also very much loved the fps Star Trek Voyager Elite Force. Probably the best, or maybe, along with its sequel, the only Star Trek game that's really good. Then came The Sims well, and this was huge. It was something new, and I was quite addicted to this for a while, though I also grew out of it fairly quickly.

However none of these would win, because in 2000 there was also a little game called No One Lives Forever. This fps was unique, had a fun story with great locations that were consciously ridiculous like a 60s Bond movie, and memorable characters and items. It would become one of my all-time favourites as well and I'd say this game deserves a modern remake. So that means this year is down to Majora's Mask, and No One Lives Forever. A tough choice, but I'd give the nod to the latter. My vote is "Other" for The Operative: No One Lives Forever.

Last edited by S.Peelman - on 27 October 2023