*POLL* 1997 (1 of 2) - PC floodgates open: Which is the best game on the Poll?

IMO one of PC gamings finest years, a second Poll of games tommorrow. By the way, Quake has snuck past Diablo and is winning my 1996 Poll, vote in that one if you haven't.

In 1997 the PC floodgates opened for developers and the growing PC Gaming population. All were primarily Windows '95 games (though often DOS versions existed), and many could be enhanced with 3dfx cards (the new king of video chips). A then little known company called Nvidia made a couple video cards, nothing much then, not very popular, but their time would come.

Here is the contestants for the first of 2 Polls for 1997:

Here's some gameplay samples of each game:

Blood - Mall of the Dead lvl(hilarious in a sick sort of way)

The Curse of Monkey Island - on the Pirate Ship near the beginning(lag on this guy's PC late in the video)

Dungeon Keeper - epic battle at the end of Level 12(if you ever wanted to play as the bad guy, this is your game ;) )

Fallout - in Necropolis

Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II - beginning of Double-Cross on Nar Shaddaa

Enjoy!

Even tougher Poll for me than 1996, but man, I will ever so slightly vote for Jedi Knight....so many memories on that one (but the others too!)

fallout, but blood was a close second.

MDK :P which you'll probably include in P2, but from this list...The Curse of Monkey Island.DanielDust

stay tuned......MDK will be on the next Poll :)

you are correct sir!

Ive played none of these I feel so...young :/

Ive played none of these I feel so...young :/

scotty992

You got to get on it!

j/k, though some of these play on modern systems.

I wasted hours playin that dumb Jedi game... so my vote goes to that! :P

I wasted hours playin that dumb Jedi game... so my vote goes to that! :P

Curlyfrii87

awwww.....dumb? I love that game! It was PC Gamer's GotY that year as I remember as well. Tough to get it to play right on todays systems though, I hear.

[QUOTE="Curlyfrii87"]

I wasted hours playin that dumb Jedi game... so my vote goes to that! :P

AFBrat77

awwww.....dumb? I love that game! It was PC Gamer's GotY that year as I remember as well. Tough to get it to play right on todays systems though, I hear.

[QUOTE="AFBrat77"]

[QUOTE="Curlyfrii87"]

I wasted hours playin that dumb Jedi game... so my vote goes to that! :P

DanielDust

awwww.....dumb? I love that game! It was PC Gamer's GotY that year as I remember as well. Tough to get it to play right on todays systems though, I hear.

Starts off slow, the graphics are way blocky, but at some point after the first couple levels.....it gets so good and addicting, at least it did then. The Gameplay sample is from an early level, but its one of those games that just keeps getting better and better IMO. The worst part of the game IMO was the absolutely horrible acting in the cut scenes, ugggh!

By the way its obvious in the gameplay sample that the guy who made this video will likely be going to the dark side and getting dark powers (different ending).

Fallout for sure.

Blood was fun as hell too.

Didn't you do this a few months ago?gamer620

a few months ago I went through a series of polls to reach my final 1999 - 2005 Polls, I believe Half-Life 2 won, followed by Diablo 2, followed by Deus Ex.

Looking at the box covers of the games reminds me of my days spent strolling around in CompUSA, but that store is gone now :(

where's my "i was just a wee baby then" choice:(

where's my "i was just a wee baby then" choice:(

nofriekinlemons

sorry bro' figured they are a year older now from '96 and out of their diapers :P.

Actually if I was just going to have 2 Polls for 1997 I needed 10 choices, the final Poll will have "wee baby" choice ;)

In other news, Fallout is one tough hombre!

Wow, looking over this Poll, those first 3 games have such a sense of humor, gameplay was so fun back then.

Between Blood and Duke Nukem 3d, you can tell where the guys at CroTeam got their old-school sense of humor for Serious Sam.

Awww, not enough love for Jedi Knight! Well, to be fair i havent ever played Fallout 1, so i probably missed a good one based on these votes.

For me. It was GLQuake along with 3dfx patches for so many games. I still have my original 2D Dungeon Keeper cd. But, GLQuake was it for me. The only other game I played was Close Combat 2: A Bridge Too Far. I still have the cd and still play that one too.

1997...... Hail the mighty Pentium 2!!! I remember paying $500+ just for the cpu and that was cheap for a P2-266. I still remember the motherboard:

ASUS P2L97.

P2 - Pentium 2

L - LX Chipset

97 - 1997

He He He. Actually, that was just a wild guess.

I also have to add GLQuake also marked the start of optimizing graphics settings through the console or ini/cfg files as we do now. Overclocking was already fairly widespread because of SVGA Quake.

For me. It was GLQuake along with 3dfx patches for so many games. I still have my original 2D Dungeon Keeper cd. But, GLQuake was it for me. The only other game I played was Close Combat 2: A Bridge Too Far. I still have the cd and still play that one too.

1997...... Hail the mighty Pentium 2!!! I remember paying $500+ just for the cpu and that was cheap for a P2-266. I still remember the motherboard:

ASUS P2L97.

P2 - Pentium 2

L - LX Chipset

97 - 1997

He He He. Actually, that was just a wild guess.

jun_aka_pekto

Jan. 1997 I got my first PC, had already bought the original Diablo as my very first PC Game..... MY PC was:

Windows '95 (of course)

17" Samsung Syncmaster 700b Monitor (still the monitor I use to this day! It outlasted several PC's!)

Pentium 200 MMX (remember when MMX was supposed to be a big thing?), I overclocked it to 233 in '98

32 MB System RAM (if I recall correctly, I upgraded it to 64 in '98 )

8 GB Hard Drive

ATI Card with 2 or 4 MB card memory, added a Diamond Monster II card (3dfx chip) in '98

On another note: Close Combat: A Bridge Too Far isn't going to make my '97 Polls, unfortunately its one of several excellent games that won't :( .

Fallout is out to an early lead but there is plenty of time......vote if you haven't.

...and here's the 1996 Poll if you haven't voted there:

http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=27197433&tag=topics;title

Monkey Island, by far my favourite one of the series.

I was thinking 'if it's not fallout, I will kill myself' as the poll results loaded.kdawg88

I love Fallout, but I don't think it's all that clear-cut....all 5 games have something to recommend them.

But if I think this one's tough, the next Poll has got some heavies as well!

Hints for the next Poll:

1) Perhaps the most tragically overlooked (maybe the most overlooked ever!) yet outstanding Sci-Fi RTS game, this game scored a 9.2 at GS and corrected any flaws in the previous years' Red Alert formula, whilst taking the RTS genre a bit further. Has a cult following (should be much greater) and with some luck it will do well in the Poll.

2) FPS Shiny Entertainments' first 3d game, this sci-fi 3rd-person action game had one of the most powerful software-based engines of the time, thus it was one of the first PC games that required a Pentium processor but didn't have a GPU requirement.

3) Sequel to the leading game in my 1996 Poll, the engine for this game set the standard for graphics and was used by many other games.

4) Starcraft or Red Alert the best RTS games of the 90's? There are many who would argue this classic is better than either game. Sequel was finally made in the late 00's under a different name.

5) This games the 4th (and I believe final) in the series, one of the last great space combat games outside Freespace series. One of the last PC games to use FMV (full-motion-video) cutscenes as well.

JKDF2 definitely. That game was too perfect. I still have fond memories of force pulling stormtroopers' guns out of their hands and then grenade spamming them as they ran for cover.

JKDF2 definitely. That game was too perfect. I still have fond memories of force pulling stormtroopers' guns out of their hands and then grenade spamming them as they ran for cover.

guynamedbilly

haha, yeah once you took the guns away, they'd run around like chickens with their heads cut off.

Used to scare me when I'd run in to these big beasts, what were they called? Ah, Kell Dragons. Scarce, thankfully.

Imperial Walkers were imposing as well.

Dungeon keeper. Total Annihilation better be in the nest part or i'll chuck a fit. :Pillmatic87

check out the hints. What do you think the 4th game is? ;)

Your game is covered.

Vote on if you haven't....off to bed for me, ciao.

Top 2 games from this Poll move to the final 1997 Poll.

Tough call between Blood and Jedi Knight. I think Jedi Knight, but I'm not sure.

Since fallout is the only game from that list I have actually played and beat I will have to go with it. Loved fallout 1 and 2 so much and will never forget them.

Still plenty of time....get your vote in

Hopefully we can break the tie for 2nd place here, but only vote if you've played these.

I don't think this forum has enough older people to not make this biased. People see Fallout and the disregard all the other great games in this poll. Dungeon Keeper 1 is definetly one of the BEST games ever. Blood was also a kick ass FPS, but Dark Forces does beat it.

I don't think this forum has enough older people to not make this biased. People see Fallout and the disregard all the other great games in this poll. Dungeon Keeper 1 is definetly one of the BEST games ever. Blood was also a kick ass FPS, but Dark Forces does beat it.

simardbrad

a bit easy for me - fallout (and yeah, other games are great but there can be only one best)

So close between Dungeon Keeper, Fallout and DF2. But I've got to give my vote to DF2. Nar Shaddaa level is still burned into my mind 10 years after. It's the only one I sill manage to have my disks for. Also, one of the only games I played so much as to still rememeber the cheats. Red5 and raccoonking stand right up there with iddqd and idkfa.dlindenb2000

Hopefully you saw my Gameplay clip of a bit of Nar Shaddaa, but then you probably didn't need it if you remembered it well.

All 5 of the games in my next Poll are Sci-Fi type games, I suppose an improvement in Graphics meant an increase in futuristic visuals ;)

I won't be able to start my next Poll 'till about 10:30 tonight Eastern Time.....work :?

Dungeon Keeper is creeping up on the 2 second place games, trying to knock out good guys Guybrush and Kyle ;).....whoever finishes in 2nd also moves on to final 1997 Poll.

Dungeon Keeper is SUCH an original game, I just wish the gameplay video showed the individual units more clearly, well at least you can hear the bile demons' fart attack.

[QUOTE="kdawg88"]I was thinking 'if it's not fallout, I will kill myself' as the poll results loaded.AFBrat77

I love Fallout, but I don't think it's all that clear-cut....all 5 games have something to recommend them.

But if I think this one's tough, the next Poll has got some heavies as well!

Hints for the next Poll:

1) Perhaps the most tragically overlooked (maybe the most overlooked ever!) yet outstanding Sci-Fi RTS game, this game scored a 9.2 at GS and corrected any flaws in the previous years' Red Alert formula, whilst taking the RTS genre a bit further. Has a cult following (should be much greater) and with some luck it will do well in the Poll.

2) FPS Shiny Entertainments' first 3d game, this sci-fi 3rd-person action game had one of the most powerful software-based engines of the time, thus it was one of the first PC games that required a Pentium processor but didn't have a GPU requirement.

3) Sequel to the leading game in my 1996 Poll, the engine for this game set the standard for graphics and was used by many other games.

4) Starcraft or Red Alert the best RTS games of the 90's? There are many who would argue this classic is better than either game. Sequel was finally made in the late 00's under a different name.

5) This games the 4th (and I believe final) in the series, one of the last great space combat games outside Freespace series. One of the last PC games to use FMV (full-motion-video) cutscenes as well.

Fallout

uh oh....a tie for 2nd place, we can't have that, or I'll have to have a runoff Poll for the games :(

Blood.

Monkey Island for me. so many LOL moments in that game :D

[QUOTE="gamer620"]Didn't you do this a few months ago?AFBrat77

a few months ago I went through a series of polls to reach my final 1999 - 2005 Polls, I believe Half-Life 2 won, followed by Diablo 2, followed by Deus Ex.

Looking at the box covers of the games reminds me of my days spent strolling around in CompUSA, but that store is gone now :(