What a bonkers year. I have at least four 2004 games in my top 50.

My pick is Half-Life 2. Just an absolute roller coaster of a game. And one of the prettiest, most immersive, and most thoughtful when it comes to storytelling and game design.

Second place would go to Snake Eater, my pick for best Metal Gear title. Third place would go to Zero Mission.

Damn, what a year.

You can't beat Half-Life 2. You just can't. Even by todays standards it is still one heck of a game. It also had a serious impact on the industry as a whole. Although there were quite some heavy hitters released in that year, none of them comes even close to the brilliance or significance of Half-Life 2 if you ask me.

Of course the choice is always subjective. But for me, this is an easy one.

Oh, such a great year.

Half-Life 2, GTA: San Andreas, Fable, KOTOR II, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, Far Cry, Rome: Total War

The two I like the most most are The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay - not only it was fantastic game in itself, but to this day probably still the best "game based on movie IP".
Other one is favourite of mine from that year, and one of mine all time favourites, Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines, the very definition of flawed masterpiece. RPG with lot of choices that really alter how you play the game, with great system powering it and soaking in World of Darkness atmosphere. Swan song of Troika Games, but what a song it was.

But not matter what is my favourite, this is the year that brought to life juggernaut that is World of Warcraft, so my vote goes there.

Third year in a row with one of my all-time favorites, technically two this time around with both Half-Life 2 and World of Warcraft. Half-Life is definitely the winner though. My top 5 for the year:

1. Half-Life 2
2. World of Warcraft
3. MGS: The Twin Snakes
4. MGS3: Snake Eater
5. Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen

Other: Xenosaga Episode 2, it’s my least favourite of the Xeno-games, but I enjoyed it more than any other game that year. #2 is probably Shadow hearts 2, #3 Cave Story, and #4 is Dragon Quest 8.

While Xenosaga Episode 2 is undoubtedly a decline from the first game in most ways, it was actually the first one of this series I played. The characters were fairly good, but after playing the first one I began to see its shortcomings more clearly: the character art style was not nearly as good as the original by Kunihiko Tanaka (Xenogears, Xenosaga Episode 1, and Xenoblade Chronicles X), the cutscenes were shorter and less spectacular than the first game, features were removed (such as the UMN, which is great in the first one). Xenosaga Episode 1 felt like a work of art, the second was more gamey and less interesting to me.

That said, I still liked the game quite a lot, the world was interesting, as were the characters, and I liked the villain - although that final battle against the Patriarch was madness - a gigantic difficulty spike.

This is certainly not the intended sequel to the first game - missing staff, missing features, different pacing and feeling - but it’s still one I felt was enjoyable. If you’re looking for a game that is more gamey and less arty, then you might even like XS Episode 2 more than the first - but for those who see the potential of the first game unfulfilled in the second (which wasn’t my first experience with it), then it’s much more likely the second won’t be as enjoyable.

Nevertheless, it’s the one game released from this year I’ve played multiple times through and is overall my favourite.

This is not my year. Most of the games I played from this year was a step down from prevoius entries in thier respective series. Fire Emblem Sacred Stones is imo the black sheep of the GBA Fire Emblem games.
Minish Cap is okay, but I enjoyed the oracle games a lot more.
Metroid Zero Mission was not as good as fusion.

I might add that I have not played any of the games listed in the poll any significant amount. Tried a few but not more than a couple of hours.

I think my vote will go to Other, Warioware: Touched.
It is my favorite in the series and it was a very good match for the DS system using its features well.
The Sims 2 get an honorable mention as my runner for the year.

2003 have a lot of giants that I simple never played for one reason or other. Never ever tried WoW, Half Life 2 or Dragon Quest.

Finally I can choose from the poll, lol.

Metal Gear Solid 3, such a brilliant game.

Torn between Halo 2 and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes.

Both carried the mantle of their superb predecessors forward in new directions, while living up to the legacy those games created.

Halo 2's multiplayer remains legendary, and it boasted an epic campaign to boot. It was one of the forerunners (heh) of the larger than life blockbusters that would go on to dominate the console space, and in everything from music to graphics to gameplay it delivered in spades.

Prime 2 is every bit as atmospheric and immersive as the first game, and crafted with the same meticulous attention to detail. It's an artistic and technical masterclass.

World of Warcraft was my teenage addiction.

I first played the game after watching the South Park episode about it when I was 13. I made a human character and started in Northshire. I opened my map and saw the area and thought it looked pretty cool. Then I saw that you could zoom out. So I did and I saw Northshire was just a small part of a place called Elwynn forest. So I zoomed out further and saw the whole map of the Eastern Kingdoms and thought "Omg, this world is huge! I can never explore all this... wait a second, I can zoom out again?!!!!" When I zoomed out again and saw FOUR continents (during MoP) my mind was literally blown and then ofc I found out there was a whole other planet too :000

That moment has always stuck with me. I played the game for a couple years but, like most, I gradually fell off of it. The way that Blizzard have ruined the lore now also makes me sad, but nothing can erase the fact that WoW was a titan of gaming and needs to be recognised as such