Currently Online 
Oh, 2002. It's one of those years for me.
Plethora of really great games: Wind Waker, Warcaft III: Mafia, GTA Vice City, Metroid Prime, Ratchet and Clank
Crapload of great PC RPGs:
Gothic II - Gothic, but bigger and better
Morrowind - for many still the best Elder Scrolls (though Daggerfall fans would probably disagree)
Neverwinter Nights - Bioware's first 3D DnD game, based on 3e ruleset
Arx Fatalis - first Arcane's game, heavily influenced by Ultima Underworld, with fun "draw with mouse" magic system
Dungeon Siege - action RPG, but with actual party and skills that upgrade as you use them
But in the end, for me, it comes down to choosing something that did something quite different - Battlefield 1942. It was team-based, WWII FPS on large maps, all with infantry, tanks, artillery and planes, 32vs32, which was massive at the time, with AI bots for training and focus on online (or LAN) multiplayer. Sure, WWII Online came a year before that, it was the first MMOFPS, and it simulated West European WWII theatre with all units plus command structure, with thousands of players playing on the same server, but most people never even heard of that game, let alone play it - Battlefield 1942 was "mainstream" version of a sort, and it got its recognition.
EDIT: I completely missed that Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin (tactical war strategy) is from that year, which automatically makes it my favourite game from that year, given that I still play it to this day. BF1942 still as my vote for GotY.
Last edited by HoloDust - on 01 November 2023
