"Unofficial" 2003 PC Games of the Year

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

With the end of the year soon coming, we have already read "Best Of" lists for 2003. and we are all sure to read many more in the upcoming weeks. I never like / trust / go by these lists, as I cant help but always think some how, some way, politics or bias play a role in the making of them.

So, I am curious to see my fellow peers own lists for PC Games of 2003.

Since it is truly hard to pick just one game, I propose the following 6 Topics for voting (and yes there could have been many more).

1) Best Overall - Best All Around Game period.

2) Best Graphics - What game looked the best and /or most unique visually.

3) Best Gameplay - What game played the best and /or kept you coming back for more.

4) Best Concept - Might not have been the best game of the year, but it was the most original idea.

4) Biggest Suprise - Game that recieved little hype and / or looked ass but made you say damn thats a good game

5) Biggest Flop - A game you were really looking forward to and /or heard so much about and wound up sucking...

Thanks to all that participate for the fun of it, and maybe if enough people do contribute the results can be tallied in early january and make the final "unofficial" list of PC Games of 2003 according to Neowin Members. (Y)

and for the record this is my first official "end of the year" as neowinite, so if this is usually done sorry for doing it. Also lets try to avoid flaming and / or trolling, or just off topic comments on a whole, as this is all a matter of opinion, so respect other peoples' as you would your own, i.e. no need for saying "are you crazy that game sucked," etc. etc..

My own list is as follows:

1) Call Of Duty (although the single player was a bit short, near perfection imo)

2) XIII (i'm a sucker for cel shading and graphic novel style anything)

3) Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (no matter what I can always play this game)

4) Tron 2 (in my top 5 games of the year for sure)

5) Prince Of Persia (defines the 3rd Person Adventure genre period. "rewind" such a killer concept, just plain fun gameplay)

6) Enter The Matrix (truly the worse game of the year, so much potential but just a poor game all around)

[nekrosoft13]

1) Best Overall - Call of Duty

2) Best Graphics - Max Payne 2

3) Best Gameplay - Rush Hour

4) Best Concept - Hordes of Underdark

4) Biggest Suprise - Fifa 2004

5) Biggest Flop - Halo!!

[sanctified Veteran]

1) Best Overall - Max Payne 2

2) Best Graphics - Max Payne 2

3) Best Gameplay - Max Payne 2

4) Best Concept - Deus Ex: IW

4) Biggest Suprise - Prince of Persia

5) Biggest Flop - Enter the matrix

[Billthy]

1) Best Overall - Call of Duty

2) Best Graphics - max payne 2

3) Best Gameplay - C&C Generals (Zero hour aslo) just love the game! can play it has such a long play time!

4) Best Concept - Deus Ex: IW

4) Biggest Suprise - HL2 leak i mean XIII i thought it looked dumb as hell but when i played it i really enjoyed it!

5) Biggest Flop - Enter the Matrix

[DsnBehind]

Biggest Flop - Halo PC and Enter the Matrix tie :shifty:

[ze-newie]

Biggest Flop - Halo PC and Enter the Matrix tie :shifty:

Definitely. :pinch:

My votes are as follows:

1) Best Overall - Call of Duty

2) Best Graphics - Max Payne 2

3) Best Gameplay - Call of Duty...or Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (I mean, for a free game, it's awesome. I'd pay money for it.)

4) Best Concept - Prince of Persia

4) Biggest Suprise - XIII

[DigitalN.]

1) Best Overall - Call of Duty

2) Best Graphics - Max Payne 2

3) Best Gameplay - C&C Generals: Zero Hour

4) Best Concept - Deus Ex: IW

4) Biggest Suprise -XIII

5) Biggest Flop - Enter the Matrix (Halo wasnt that bad for ppl that have great @$$ machines to run it)

[Nova_rock]

1) Best Overall - Call of Duty

2) Best Graphics - max payne 2

3) Best Gameplay - Call of Duty

4) Best Concept - Prince Of Persia

4) Biggest Suprise - Halo

5) Biggest Flop - Enter the Matrix

[velocity3k]

1) Best Overall - SW:KOTOR

2) Best Graphics - Max Payne 2

3) Best Gameplay - Homeworld 2

4) Best Concept - Prince of Persia

4) Biggest Suprise - Prince of Persia

5) Biggest Flop - Halo/ETM

[BananaMan]

1) Best Overall - A tie between Call of Duty or WC3: The Frozen Throne for me

2) Best Graphics - Max Payne 2

3) Best Gameplay - WC3: The Frozen Throne

4) Best Concept - FFXI Online (MMORPG refined & done right for once)

5) Biggest Surprise - Prince of Persia

6) Biggest Flop - Enter the Matrix

[Chode]

1) Best Overall - Max Payne 2 (loved the story and the music)

2) Best Graphics - Max Payne 2 (first game I ever ran using Pixel shaders :D )

3) Best Gameplay - Vice City (Played it for months)

4) Best Concept - Deus Ex: Invisible War (Received a lot of negative comments, but I still like it)

5) Biggest Surprise - Halo (I didn't even know it was slated to come out this year!!!!)

6) Biggest Flop - Enter The Matrix (I'm a 3D modeller, and this game made me want to throw up!)

[nekrosoft13]

(Halo wasnt that bad for ppl that have great @$$ machines to run it)

not really

its just badly optimized

look at max payne 2, i'm getting between 60-80fps in it

in 1280x1024 2x aa, 8xaf and max setting with eax

and trying to play halo with the same settings and i get about 18fps (7fps in combat)

and look how ****tty halo looks compared to max payne 2

[SimplyPotatoes]

1) Best Overall - COD

2) Best Graphics - cod

3) Best Gameplay - tetris 3d

4) Best Concept - FFXI Online

5) Biggest Surprise - FFXI Online

6) Biggest Flop - Curmet de frogs wild adventure (such a disapointment)

[Nightburn]

1) Best Overall - Chaser (check it out if you haven't)

2) Best Graphics - Tron 2.0

3) Best Gameplay - Tron 2.0

4) Best Concept - Prince of Persia The Sands of Time

5) Biggest Surprise - Lord of The Rings The Return of The King

6) Biggest Flop - Enter The Matrix

[.KICK]

1) Best overall - Max Payne 2

2) Best Graphics - Dues Ex 2:Invisable War

3) Best Gameplay - Call of Duty

4) Best Concept - Prince of Persia

5) Biggest Surprise - XIII

6) Biggest Flop - Unreal 2

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

AWESOME

keep em coming everybody this is exactly what i wanted it to be... for example im going to go check out Chaser since it made nightburn's best overall game and i never even saw screenshots (Y).... this is exactly why i wanted to do this list not only to see what people thought were the best games but to get some ideas for other games i or others may have not played...

and so far "unofficially" Call Of Duty is leading for Best Game of 2003 Overall, with Max Payne 2 right behind it ...

[djgramma]

1) Best Overall - Tron 2.0 (I'm a sucker for dem graphics and wicked gameplay)

2) Best Graphics - Max Payne 2 (blew me away the first time around, this defies the nature of sequels)

3) Best Gameplay - NFS: Underground (I'm still playing this bad boy, so damn happy)

4) Best Concept - Prince Of Persia (I gotta get it!)

4) Biggest Suprise - Chaser (believe me & nightburn, this is a great game and enthralls you in the atmosphere)

5) Biggest Flop - Enter the Matrix & Halo

[orrm]

umm here's my list but almost each game could be some place else on the list too imo.

1) Best Overall - Call Of Duty (best game of the year definetly, superb sound, exc. graphics and fantastic gameplay - a must have for any gamer)

2) Best Graphics - Max Payne 2 (the story creates the game, and the graphics perfect it - again a must have imo. )

3) Best Gameplay - NFS: Underground (the best racer i played in a couple of years maybe ever, outstanding gameplay and design - esp. the customizing cars)

4) Best Concept - XIII (who would've thought about a game played like a big comic book with cell shading only graphics? only a genius can - best concept for sure!)

4) Biggest Suprise - Prince Of Persia (installed out of boredom, found myself stuck to the pc for hours playing - cheers to the "rewind" inventor)

5) Biggest Flop - Enter the Matrix, Halo (one can only agree with all the above - hugeeee expectations - even bigger dissappointments on both)

i would like to add to the list "Grand Theft Auto Vice City" for being the most time passer game lol, just played it on and on when i was bored.

PS - for those of you who aren't familiar with Elasto Mania - was and still is the best game ever :D

[Jon]

1) Best Overall - CoD (But I think it has a very low replay value)

2) Best Graphics - Lock On : Modern Air Combat

3) Best Gameplay - CoD

4) Best Concept - Rise of Nations

4) Biggest Suprise - NFS: Underground (IMO all other NFS games sucked big donkey d1ck)

5) Biggest Flop - Enigma Rising Tide

[ANova]

1) Max Payne 2

2) Unreal 2

3) C&C Generals: Zero Hour

4) XIII

5) Prince of Persia

6) Enter the Matrix, Halo

[DigitalFreedom]

1) Best Overall - Max Payne 2

2) Best Graphics - Max Payne 2

3) Best Gameplay - Vice City

4) Best Concept - Need for Speed: Underground

5) Biggest Surprise - Freedom Fighters

6) Biggest Flop - Enter The Matrix/Halo

[Trust]

1) Best Overall - Star Wars Jedi Knight Jedi Academy

2) Best Graphics - Unreal 2 Expanded Multiplayer / Need for Speed Underground

3) Best Gameplay - Unreal 2 Expanded Multiplayer

4) Best Concept - AirStrike 3D Operation W.A.T

5) Biggest Suprise - Unreal 2 Expanded Multiplayer / Need for Speed Underground

5) Biggest Flop Halo, MAX PAYNE 2 (basically they use the same of MP1 there is no improvements in graphics and story. Actually I think that MP1 is a lot better than MP2), Spy Hunter, TERMINATOR 3 War of the machines, Enter the matrix. Most of this games are here because they need a lot (nothing is enough) of hardware to run them. Except Max Payne 2, that engine rocks! but the story sux.

[sanctified Veteran]

MAX PAYNE 2 (basically they use the same of MP1 there is no improvements in graphics and story. ...Except Max Payne 2, that engine rocks! but the story sux.

let me see, you are complaining about mp2 graphics and then you say that the engine is good, :rolleyes:

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

wow i thought this thread was dead and gone it made it to page 2 last week.... so now that its on page 1 again, cmon people we are truly coming towards the end of the year, so cast your votes for all of the categories.

so far 19 people have voted and i know there are way more people in the pc gamers forum than that no?

again the categories for voting are:

1) Best Overall - Best All Around Game period.

2) Best Graphics - What game looked the best and /or most unique visually.

3) Best Gameplay - What game played the best and /or kept you coming back for more.

4) Best Concept - Might not have been the best game of the year, but it was the most original idea.

4) Biggest Suprise - Game that recieved little hype and / or looked ass but made you say damn thats a good game

5) Biggest Flop - A game you were really looking forward to and /or heard so much about and wound up sucking...

if over 75 people vote (double posts will not count), i will take the time to compile the best of list to be posted in january.

[castcast]

What about Freelancer?