I started a post on games for the Christmas season way back on December 9 but it never got finished so here is my 2005 games wrap up a little late.

2005 was a memorable year for games - the first year I can remember where i was unable to find a game that i wanted for Xmas. I had break from classes and was ready to binge out on gaming and there just wasnt anything to buy that i didnt already have. I feverously played a ton of demos and they all stunk. Going to the store was kind of sad :) Eventually I did purchase Rome:Total War on eBay (it wasn't available in any stores) but the game never arrived so now i am learning the joys of eBay scammers. Perhaps it was a sign?

Although most of the games in 2005 were uninspired sequels and copy-cats, there were a few great picks.

Civilization 4

Civilization was one of my favorite games back in college and i spent many hours playing Civ3 when I should have been studying last year. The end of 2005 saw the release of the long-awaited Civ4. I had heard the game was all about "3D graphics", which is usually a sign it will stink, and my initial impressions were not positive. (Heh heh)

But after getting the game to work and spending some time with it, I am really impressed. Except for the installation weirdness, the game has yet to crash on me. The graphics are indeed 3D, whatever, but the gameplay is totally revamped and much improved. The AI's play very well and the game seems to balance itself nicely. I have spent a lot of time playing it and had a blast doing so.

It was also nice to see the game developed with open-source technologies (python and XML) and include an option for starting mods. I look forward to seeing neat things from the mod community.

Half-Life 2

2005 was memorable because of Valve. This past year Valve released their long-awaited sequel to Half-Life and it was worth the wait. A strong story, beautify graphics and a real attempt at realistic physics. Valve makes the kind of games that I love and they make a surprising amount of money doing it.

One of the very interesting things to watch will be Valve's development of Steam, their online distribution system. Instead of annoying CD-copy protection schemes, i think online distribution is the way to go and i expect Steam to shake up the industry a bit because of how it changes the relationship between publishers and developers. Go Valve, go!

Day of Defeat:Source

Years after finishing the original HL game, I am still having fun with these online multiplayer mods which are a blast and free! So even more than HL2, I was waiting for DoD:source, the next version of Day of Defeat built on the HL2 platform. I played regular DoD most of the year and was not disappointed with the new version. The game plays very differently from the original but i love the game. I have not had time to play in any Battle for Europe tournaments but look forward too when i have the time.

Everquest2

Although it was actually released at the end of 2004, I pretty much blew off EQ2 until this year. I played the beta but found the game to be pretty lame. Overall they took all of the hard bits and challenge out of EQ1 and added fancy graphics and virtual houses, seemingly in a desire to appeal to a broader audience (of 7 year olds and interior decorators). But my guild moved to EQ2 and they love it, so I have stayed (and paid) and give it an honorable mention here.

Earlier in the year, I played about 25 levels with a friend but I got busy with school and he got bored of the game (going back to WoW). Since I didnt have anything new for Xmas, I did spend some time playing EQ2 and got into it a for a while. There have been many rule changes - some of them good and some bad - and i keep waiting in vain for changes that will make the game more to my liking ;)

Sony has a loyal following here but its not clear to me where they are taking this game. And it is definitely not as good as EQ1. (Expect more details on this in future posts.)

The others

As with every year, I tried a lot of demos and played a few games that didnt make this list. A friend bought me World of Warcraft so that i would play it with him but i disliked the game. It was too cartoonish for my "realism"-filter and as a long-time basketball player, I just couldn't get over that 6' vertical leap. Ugh.

I was very impressed with City of Heroes (but that might have been 2004?). At last an online RPG with a sense of humor and something other that Dungeons & Dragons on the brain. I eventually stopped playing the game but it sure was fun to wear spandex and fly around the city. Im hoping their PvP system is good (although none of these RPG games get PvP right) but have not had a chance to check it out yet.

The Battlefield2 demo was a lot of fun for a while but not enough to get me to buy the game. America's Army is still a pleasure and free. (I couldnt figure out how to fly those planes and helo's in BF2 anyway :) The FEAR demo was promising but im not into horror flicks so I passed.

2005 was the year of the World War 2 game. I tried a whole bunch of WW2 demos and actually bought Call of Duty2 before coming to my senses within a few levels - Bo-ring! The graphics are nice but you get infinite reinforcements and how many German's can you kill without saying "enough already"? Not enough to finish the game, it seems.

2006

Well that was it for 2005. Bah humbug. Im hoping we see some more interesting and innovative stuff this year. Valve keeps pumping out new maps for the Mods, adding games to Steam, and threatening a HL2 sequel/next chapter. The online RPG market is making a lot of money but not showing much innovation but i am eternally hopeful. (Hoping for an FPS-RPG that is better supported than Neocron and something turn-based I can play with my age-challenged friends.)