Re: Year in Review: 2004

* Doom 3

   My favorite of the franchise.  Treat it as a survival horror game:  No UI, hardest difficulty, original version (not BFG) and a tiny mod to enable projectile dynamic lighting (I believe I still have this file around) and you're good to go.

* Viet Cong: Purple Rain

   Unbelievably good.  Unmatched player stance and weapon handling options, wonderful AI, etc.  I played the Defend The Hill level so many times just to glory in it.  Not sure if I still have the disc around, alas.  Tried to play the sequel but had stutter/pausing issues that I couldn't resolve and gave up.

* Farcry
"Farcry" was a fun game and a great technology demo.

   FC2 was more my jam, FC1 was decent.

* Thief Deadly Shadows
designed for console rather than any serious flaws in its implementation.

   console level size and controller limitations killed this and DX:IW

       * Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena

   When VinDiesel was on, he was great; his voice acting, the atmosphere and menace in this title really stood out.  I also played it through again with Developer Commentary on, which was great.  If you happened to snag the GoG version before it was delisted, it includes the DC.

       * Syberia 2

   I've said this before:  All the cutscenes in the game are available from the menu, and make a great story just by themselves watched in a row.  I enjoyed this game quite a bit for it's resolution of the search for the mammoths
rms