NZGamer Roundtable Vol. 4

By Staff

The staff sounds off their favourite games of 2003 in this special edition

Welcome to the NZGamer Roundtable. Every other week members of the NZGamer staff will volunteer to give their respected thoughts on a particular topic or question relating to the videogame industry.

This week's Participants:
-Shaun Hunter (a.k.a. Phoenix)
-Reuben Duff (a.k.a. supermario)
-Daniel SR (a.k.a. Dannyboy)
-Finn O'Keefe (a.k.a. FDFO)
-Tom Blundell (a.k.a. FaPo)

Question: With the year 2003 well and truly over its time to discuss the best of the best of last year. What were your favourite games of 2003 and your overall pick for game of the year?

Shaun: As a PS2 owner, I must admit that the year of 2-double o -3 was a year of sequels, although a few titles did shine through and caught my attention. Each of the following games had their pros and in my views were some of the best of 2003.

SSX 3 bought an unbelievable experience of snowboarding down a mountain three times larger than Mount Everest. Great graphics and awesome sound mixed in with the fact that it takes half an hour to go from the top of the mountain to the bottom created a great playing experience.

If you enjoyed the Fast and the Furious, or just car racing games in general, Need for Speed: Underground was a must-buy. Circuits, drags, drift modes, sprints, and tournaments gave this game incredible replay ability. You could customize your car to how you wanted, changing spoilers (front, rear, and back), adding vinyl, and of course all the performance modifications.

Smackdown! Here Comes the Pain is the 5th game in the Smackdown series, and was a huge leap from previous games. It featured a new grappling engine, and submission meter which made it more impressive to watch in action. New to the series was blood, limb specific damage and new modes such as the Elimination Chamber and First Blood. The season mode was also redone, so players felt more immersed in the game.

Jak II, what I played of it was really great. It controlled fairly well and wasn't finding myself annoyed with the camera. The new weapons and increased go-anywhere-do-anything feeling created an amazing gaming experience.

I can't say I can choose a best of 2003. These four games would have been right up the top though, and I'll go on the record and saying that these four games can enjoy a quarter of the PS2 game of the year trophy each. Bring on 2004!

Reuben: 2003 was good to me, well the gaming was good to me, everything else...yeh well. My game of the year is tough... I'm torn between 3 titles all for very different reasons.

The first is The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, this game is in a word, fantastico, its not regular fantastic, its fantastico. When I first saw the cel-shaded graphics I wasn't too sure what to make of them, but when it had Link hanging off a lantern winking at the camera I was sold. I pre-ordered my copy and waited...I remember the day it came, I raced down to Gamesman like a spoilt child huffing and puffing quickly asking for my copy then clutching it tightly I ran out. When I finally got home (about 2 hours later as I had stuff to do) I played it for 3 days straight until I had completed it, needless to say afterwards I was sleep deprived and in need of food but it was worth it.

The second is Metroid Prime. I have very low expectations for this game before it was released, I had only played the SNES Metroid game and thought it was ok, and given my lack of Metroid know how I wasn't expecting much, so when I actually got it I was blow away by its completeness, not even TWW has the sense of a complete adventure that Metroid Prime has, you can tell that Retro put everything they had into this game and then some to make sure it was everything it could be, and it was, it was more than it could of been in my mind.

And the third is WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne. This game is pure evil in the amount of my life was stolen by it in the closing months of 2003. I brought it shortly after release, and actually upgraded my computer just so I could play it. Like Metroid Prime and Zelda, Frozen Throne was also touched by the glove of completeness, I loved every minute I've played of it, and probably will for years to come as well, from playing Sheep Tag with mongoloids on Battle.net to playing Line Tower Wars against friends at a LAN I enjoyed my time, not many other games can claim that from me.

All three of those games could be my game of the year, but if I have to choose one it would have to be Frozen Throne, even if it is an expansion pack I've had the most fun out of all games and when it comes down to it fun is what matters, and Throne was the most fun I had all year.

Daniel: Honestly Shaun. A quarter of the PS2 game of the year trophy each?! What craziness is this, the point of GOTY is to name the best of the best, you just named the best. Gah.

I think the truth is that PS2 shared a bit of a lacklustre year in terms of killer apps for 2003, by which it had none. GameCube on the other hand managed quite a few absolutely stand out titles.

In short: Metroid Prime, Zelda The Wind Waker, F Zero GX, Animal Crossing, Super Monkey Ball 2 to name just a few. But the game the game that really stood out for me was Viewtiful Joe.

If there are two games that better deserve the GOTY crown for GameCube, or for perhaps overall GOTY, it has to be Viewtiful Joe or Zelda the Wind Waker. On one hand one was and is a beautifully crafted masterpiece which is as engaging as its style is charming, but on the other was a game that offered a play style so utterly addictive, clever and stylish that it was hard to put down.

Wind Waker was fun, but flawed to me. The bosses were too easy, the sea too boring to cross and had some very monotonous collection segments. Viewtiful Joe I had more fun with. This is why I give VJ my Daniel Seal of approval as the awesomest of the awesome of 2003.

Shaun: "Honestly Shaun. A quarter of the PS2 game of the year trophy each?! What craziness is this, the point of GOTY is to name the best of the best, you just named the best. Gah.

I think the truth is that PS2 shared a bit of a lacklustre year in terms of killer apps for 2003, by which it had none. GameCube on the other hand managed quite a few absolutely stand out titles." - Daniel

I found that there were many 9/10 games for the PS2, however the 10/10's just didn't seem to come. I'm going to leave those four games I mentioned as co-winners of my PS2 GOTY, as I can't decide which should win, and If I were to make a choice it would be by the method of randomness. I'd probably change my mind again the next day anyway. So I will in fact just leave the 4 best games of 2003 share the trophy. Heh.

Finn: Last year was a great year for gaming, mostly for the GameCube.

I play all four systems and I try to play the top rated games to get a taste of what's the best, so I divided my choices into three categories, each corresponding with one of the current generation consoles.

First up the mighty Xbox. Now I don't actually own an Xbox but I do get to play them on a regular basis. Two standout titles grabbed on the Xbox last year. One was Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. This game is honestly the best Star Wars game I have ever witnessed. Its gameplay and story were astounding, and its freedom was most excellent.

The other game was Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge. This game is a great Arcade Type flying game with great controls and great gameplay. Combat is a breeze and very enjoyable. It also had great colourful characters to aid the story.
My Best Pick for Xbox- Star Wars: KOTOR

Second Console, the PS2. The PS2 had some great games last year all though none seemed absolutely stellar. WWE Smackdown: Here Comes the Pain is now the best wrestling game money can buy. Silent Hill 3 is another great game from last year, its graphics pushed the PS2 limits and it rivals a lot of games on the other graphically superior consoles. This game has the best lighting effects every in my honest opinion. As a fan of the series this game did not fail to impress, excellent.
My Best Pick for PS2- Silent Hill 3

The third and last console the mighty GameCube. Last year in my opinion the GameCubes game line-up destroyed that of all the other consoles, releasing excellent titles all year. First up we have Resident Evil 0, although not as breathtaking as the original remake this game rocks and definitely has the scare power. Metroid Prime was another absolutely awesome game, innovative style of breeding FPS with Adventure and the results were definitely worth it, an excellent game. Now we have The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. This game took my breath away, the best use of cel-shading yet, awesome story awesome gameplay from start to finish (Multiple times). Absolutely amazing, I cannot express how awesome this game is in words. This game alone justifies a GameCube Purchase. Lastly we have Viewtiful Joe, a nod to the old skool and it does it in great style. Addictive gameplay with innovative play mechanics, definitely another great GameCube title. These games made me happy that I bought my GCN.
My Best Pick for GCN- The Legend of Zelda- The Wind Waker.

Another Great game of 2003 that was on all 3 systems was- Soul Calibre II, this game is the best Fighting Game ever Buy it today.

So my pick for the best game of 2003? Well it would have to be The Legend of Zelda- The Wind Waker. A true masterpiece.

Tom: had a great year for gaming, mainly because I started off with a GCN, and ended out with an Xbox, and more recently a dreamcast. A fair few of my mates own PS2's and I do go around there a fair bit.

Like FDFO I have a few one for each console and an overall one.

PS2 - I played a whole host of titles, and shrugged at the fact that the graphics weren't too bad (much much tastier on my Xbox) at the end of the day id have to do a toss up between need for speed underground and medal of honour : rising sun. *flips coin* oh look need for speed has won. The gameplay is great (as long as you don't hate rice boys) the graphics are great, the whole goddamn package is sexy; the only downfall is the console I happened to play it on.

GameCube - Once again I played a fair few titles on this console, problem is my knowledge became limited after I sold my little square beauty, anyways ill just go for what everyone else does and say zelda wind waker, the game took some time, the graphics where great (once I got over the childish new link) and the game was fun.

Xbox - now to my Xbeast, I must have hired every game in the shop this year, and bought a few as well. Mainly console FPS, admittedly. Anyways this is where I actually become confused when it comes to my GOTY selection, I played 3 or 4 great titles, Rainbow Six 3, Crimson Skies HRTR (even if its short) KOTOR, for 3 days non-stop. Need For Speed underground, Thug, Top Spin tennis, were also addictively fun all on my tasty piece of M$ kit.

At the end of the day it would have to become a battle between Crimson Skies HRTS, I may have clocked in about 2 days, but I also managed to get some multiplayer going on in there, and it showed where the games true strengths are, the graphics where tasty, the storyline, although a bit "cheesy b grade" was also good, and the gameplay... ahhhh that gameplay, like lylat wars on the n64, in "all range mode" except with more space to fly.

And then there was KOTOR, once again the game reeked of greatness, you could play it with ease, even with the slight slow down ins some places, the real time battle system made for some great times, and choice of being on the light or dark side made me drool. Editing your light sabres when you collected the right crystals also made me drool and then slicing some Jedi arse made water and mucus pour from my mouth. The game really is that good, and it would have to pick up my Xbox GOTY, as well as my overall GOTY.

That's it for this week's roundtable. Stay tuned for the chaos that will be the next NZGamer Roundtable.

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