Half Life 2. The quality is undeniable.

Thousand Year Door and Pandora Tomorrow pretty much tie for second.

Touhou 8: Imperishable Night. I just adore this game... the weird characters, music, content/replayability, atmosphere, gameplay, difficulty, accessibility, lore (counting manga and light novels)... it's a special indie SHMUP to me.

Touhou Project and Final Fantasy are similar to me in that:

1. I played more games from them than any other series.
2. I started both with the 8th main entry.
3. For my taste, no other series I played has better OSTs (When quantity is factored in).

GTA San Andreas

Most of my time playing it was trying to beat that god awful toy plane thingy mission and my reaction when i beat it... brings me to tears ;-;

"23 hours ago"

Why do I crash VGC each time I attach a video? (hyperbole intended) lol what is it I'm doing wrong?

Unreal Tournament 2004

Half-Life 2
Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen

In the poll - GTA San Andreas, Metal Gear Solid 3 and Dragon Quest VIII were all amazing. I voted for San Andreas.


Though Paper Mario TTYD is fantastic too.

Cultural Impact: I mean the honest answer is obviously Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, both for its depth of realism in an array of respects and, more than any other game, making "life of vice" adventures a defining feature of the remainder of the decade and to some extent beyond. And need we even mention the "Hot Coffee" drama? Few video game controversies did I ever hear more about.

Favorite Games: I hate to be boring, but I must agree with the consensus here and name Half-Life 2 as my top favorite of the year as well. I think we here all know what makes Half-Life 2 a masterpiece (which is everything), so I'll move on the runners-up:

I actually have several in mind. Foremost among them though is the very unique and open-ended indie RPG Yume Nikki, which I first discovered more than a decade later after learning that it was an influence on the development of Undertale (which is my favorite RPG of all time). It's got a very distinctive and oppressive atmosphere that drew me in instantly. And I related A LOT to what its story was about.

But in addition to these, also Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean (which was released in 2004 here in the U.S.), and Tales of Symphonia (which was an '04 release Stateside). In addition Metroid Prime 2 and the very clever and addictive Katamari Damacy. 2004 substantially was a year that revived my waning interest in JRPGs.

I'll give The Thousand-Year Door a little extra attention here since I know I've been a bit stingy with the Mario love up to this point compared to many. In spite of its fairly obvious pacing problems, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is my favorite Mario game ever of any genre. As was very much in style at the time, the game features a somewhat edgier choice of backdrop in the aptly-named Rogueport, setting something of a darker tone that actually felt like a bit of a welcome course correction in the direction of a healthier balance for this franchise to me. The lovable characters are what make this game, in my opinion, the best in the franchise. I felt a particular connection to Vivian emancipating herself from an abusive relationship and Admiral Bobbery's struggles with a sense of guilt over the loss of the love of his life especially. While theirs and others were surface-level sub-narratives deployed with a light touch appropriate to this franchise, there was a fundamental sweetness and sensitivity to their inclusion that elevated this game above other Mario titles for me. And I don't think I need to explain Goombella being the best, cutests, and most endearing traveling companion Mario has shared his adventures with to date, nor do I need to expand on the hilarity with which Luigi and Bowser insert themselves into this game. And yes, I'm eagerly anticipating the remake. It looks amazing!

You are now appeased, Mario bros.

(I think this might also be the first time that me and Archbrix have been more or less fully on the same page. )

Note on Spider-Man 2: I don't think PC (and possibly some others) should be listed among the platforms because the PC version (which I just recently happened to play) is so completely different game than the console versions.

This is somehow a year with very few games I've actually played. Though I fear that'll become more common, my expertise is 90's.
My candidates:
Sims 2: I did get much joy out of it, but despite that I still refuse to consider it a "game"
Tekken 5: best fighting game I've actually owned
Colin McRae Rally 2005 and Xpand Rally: two fine rally games
Star Wars: Battlefront: if I hadn't already voted Battlefield 1942, I might lean to this one
Myst IV: had the best story since original

I doubt it'll get a second vote, but I'll give it to Colin McRae Rally 2005, in some ways (of content and general structure) the best driving game I've played.

Sneaky, Colin McRea Rally 2005 indeed came out in 2004! September already.
That game was awesome, the whole Colin McRea Rally series was until Dirt came along.

Colin McRae Rally wasn't as unforgiving as Dirt Rally (latest series), it had the perfect balance between the feeling of speed vs danger. Going fast with jumps and corners coming up really got the adrenaline going. (Dirt kinda ruined that with magic brakes taking the danger away). The stages were also long enough to offset the loading times. The rival rally game at the time (WRC series), and DirT series later, felt like you spend more time loading than actual driving with their 2-3 minute stages.

And lots of variety: 70 stages spread over nine countries: Australia (loose gravel), Japan (tarmac), Finland (gravel), Greece (rough rocky gravel), UK (tarmac, mud, and gravel), Spain (smooth tarmac), USA (gravel/dusty tarmac), Sweden (snow and ice), and newcomer Germany (abrasive tarmac/light gravel).

And no rallycross :) To get this kinda content nowadays you need to buy lots of DLC :/
Dirt Rally 2.0 has CAD 144 in DLC listed on Steam in over 44 items, plus seasons. (But you can play in VR, PCVR only though)

I didn't buy into the hype of HL2 at the time, I didn't like the more serious tone it took compared to the original and I hated the slimy alien spiders and some of the other monsters. I think HL3 was never made because the expectations were too high and Valve were clueless where to go with HL3 - the ceiling of this (sub)genre had been reached.

I voted for Spider-Man 2 although I played it for the first time just a couple of years ago on emulator, it is a very special game and IMO is better than 2018.