What is your favorite year in gaming, ever?

Mine is still 1998. Metal Gear Solid. Ocarina of Time. Starcraft Broodwar. Pokemon Red and Blue. Half Life. Resident Evil 2. Xenogears. Some of the most influential games ever on that list. Can't believe next year will officially be 20 years :( I'm old. But anyway.. what about you, SW? What is your favorite year in gaming history?

I can't give you a defined year as there's been several, but I can damn sure tell you it's not been one during this generation.

@SolidGame_basic: the year The Secret of Monkey Islamd released.

2005, 2010, 2011, and 2016 immediately come to mind. 2013-14 aren't spectacular for their own titles for me as much as the sheer mileage I got out of the Vita those two years.

1998.

Halflife.

1996,1998, 2002, 2007 and 2008. Some of my favorite games of all time

OOT, METROID PRIME, Mario Galaxy,LBP, super mario 64 etc

1992-1993, 1997-1998, 2001, 2005

@SolidGame_basic: I'll second that. Took gaming to another level.

This year triumphs all years by far. There has been a Game a Month so far that feels like a "Must Play".

I don't think there has been a year before that felt like this one.

1994 - Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Streets of Rage 3, Mega Man X, Super Metroid, TIE Fighter, Castlevania: Bloodlines, Contra: Hard Corps, Crusader of Centy, Sparkster, Grind Stormer, Mega Turrican, Virtua Racing (Genesis ver.), Virtua Fighter (Saturn JP ver.), and Wing Commander III.

1997 is my favorite year. My friends and I played Goldeneye 007, Mario Kart 64, and WCW World Tour so much that year and created some of my most cherished gaming memories.

Some of the other years that stick out in my mind are 1994, 1998, 2000, and 2005.

Still 2009 for me.

Uncharted 2, Resident Evil 5, The Saboteur, Assassins Creed 2, etc... etc...

The years that stick in my mind are 1997/1998 and 2000. So many great games (and several of my all-time favourites) were released in those years.

It'd be pretty tight between the late late 90s and early 2000s.

Off the top of my head I'm thinking 2000. In JP, The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask, Paper Mario, and Pokemon Crystal were all released in that year. Also Kirby 64, another one of my other favorites. Also The Sims 1 was released, beginning The Sims series.

December 1996- December 1997

I got my Diamond Monster 3D (3dfx Voodoo)which came with a humongous amount of bundled games and game demos, all showing the glory of 3d acceleration.

The 3dfx driver for Quake wasn't released until I think, January 21, 1997. The Rendition Verite guys had their Quake drivers a week prior. So, they were kinda lording it over us Voodoo owners on the 3D forums. GLQuake, Tomb Raider, Dungeon Keeper, EF2000, and others. All were suddenly very much playable with framerates beyond 30 fps at SVGA and higher. Prior to that, getting 24 fps on SVGA Quake was considered decent. Tomb Raider wouldn't even get that much framerates at SVGA. Low teens at most at 640x480. 3dfx changed all that.

Prior to 3dfx, I also used to overclock my CPUs out of sheer desperation to eke out a few more frames per second and get it at or above the 30 fps threshold. Once 3D acceleration became the norm, I saw no need to overclock.

2007 was pretty awesome... Bioshock, Halo 3, Orange Box (with the debut of Portal, Team Fortress 2 & of course, HL2 Episode 2!), Mass Effect, COD 4: Modern Warfare, Assassin's Creed, Forza Motorsport 2, Super Mario Galaxy, Uncharted, God of War 2, Metroid Prime 3... plus more.

• 1994
• 2001
• 2004
• 2005
• 2007
• 2010
• 2013

It's hard to pick one. 2017 is most likely gonna be another one of my favorite years.

2010-2011 in recent memory.

1992

Alisia Dragoon, Alone in the Dark, Dragon Quest V, Dune II, Fatal Fury 2, Fate of Atlantis, Final Fantasy V, Flashback, Landstalker, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Lunar, Mario Kart, Mortal Kombat, Mystical Ninja, Ninja Gaiden, Robo Aleste, Snatcher, Sonic 2, Street Fighter II Turbo, Soul Blazer, Streets of Rage 2, Turtles in Time, Ultima VII & Underworld, Virtua Racing, Wonder Boy in Monster World, World Heroes

1993

Aladdin, Breath of Fire, Daytona USA, Day of the Tentacle, DBZ VRVS, Doom, Fatal Fury Special, Final Fight CD, Gabriel Knight, Gunstar Heroes, Illusion of Gaia, Lemmings 2, Lands of Lore, Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Lufia, Mario All-Stars, Mortal Kombat 2, Ridge Racer, Rocket Knight Adventures, Samurai Shodown, Secret of Mana, Shinobi III, Sonic CD, Star Fox, Super Street Fighter II, Tower of Doom, Virtua Fighter

1997

Age of Empires, Alundra, Breath of Fire III, Castlevania SOTN, Curse of Monkey Island, Diablo, Diddy Kong Racing, Dungeon Keeper, Exhumed, Fallout, Fighters Megamix, Final Fantasy VII & Tactics, GoldenEye, Grandia, ISS Pro, Mario Kart 64, MDK, Saturn Bomberman, SFIII: 2nd Impact, SFEX Plus, PaRappa the Rapper, Princess Crown, RayStorm, Soul Blade, Oddworld, Tekken 3, Tomb Raider 2, Virtua Fighter 3tb, Wild Arms, YU-NO

1998

Baldur's Gate, Banjo-Kazooie, Cotton Boomerang, Daytona USA 2, DDR, Fighting Vipers 2, F-Zero X, Grim Fandango, Guardian Force, Half-Life, HOTD2, Lunar 2, Metal Slug 2, MGS, Marvel vs Capcom, SF Alpha 3, Ocarina of Time, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Pokemon Yellow, Radiant Silvergun, Resident Evil 2, Sakura Wars 2, Sega Rally 2, Sonic Adventure, Soul Calibur, StarCraft, Star Ocean 2, Suikoden II, Tales of Destiny, Xenogears

2001

Ace Attorney, Advance Wars, Blurred Line, Burnout, Capcom vs SNK 2, Daytona 2001, DOA3, DMC, DQ7, FFX, GTA3, GT3, Guitar Freaks, Halo, Ico, Ikaruga, Max Payne, MGS2, Monkey Ball, PES, Phantasy Star Online 2, Pikmin, Ridge Racer V, Rogue Leader, Sakura Wars V, Shadow of Memories, Shenmue II, Silent Hill 2, Smackdown 2, Smash Bros Melee, Sonic Adventure 2, Soul Reaver 2, SSX Tricky, Tekken 4, Typing of the Dead, VF4

2005

DMC3, DQ8, Dungeon Fighter, Ever 17, Forza Motorsport, Geometry Wars, GT4, Guild Wars, Guitar Hero, HOTD4, MGS3 Subsistence, Metal Slug 6, Naruto: Gekito Ninja Taisen 4, Ninja Gaiden Black, PES5, Prince of Persia: Two Thrones, Psychonauts, Resident Evil 4, Rogue Galaxy, Sangokushi Taisen, Shadow of the Colossus, Soul Calibur 3, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, VF5

1989, Genesis was released.

1998, just a slew of amazing games.

Those are the two that stand out the most for me, but there have been MANY great years and it would be impossible to remember them all.

Every year that i can play games is my favourite :)

2005 is my favorite year.

97 or 98 for me.

Couldn't have said it better myself!

98 was pretty awesome.

1998, 2004, 2007, 2016.

all amazing years give us some of the greastest games of all time.

Definitely 1998. Some of the most revolutionary and greatest games ever that year.

Witcher 3 was a BIG highlight for me, but instead of a certain year I choose this current time. I can get almost everything I want when it comes to gaming. When I was a kid I wanted (but never got) a Nes, then the Snes, then Megadrive, then finally I got the Dreamcast as a Christmas present. We had a Master System II before that and a couple of computers, so there still was a lot of games I could play... Still I would have liked to have the real thing.

Played a lot of DOS and emulated Nes/Snes/Megadrive games as a kid. When we got a decent rig to emulate the N64 I played A LOT of Mario 64 and OOT. OOT ran like shit though and I broke the game with cheats and such :( Didn't know any better back then. Still got to experience the OOT magic, on a PC and it's still one of my most cherished gaming experiences. Of course when I got older I bought the system used and finally beat the game there.

I take this current time with the real consoles, instead of those emulated crap years when it comes to gaming. There's always something cool to look forward to.

If it is not 1998, you're doing it wrong.

Won't disagree. But 2000 was pretty great for PC gamers - Baldur's Gate II and Diablo II

As I'd probably say ever year: the current year is the best.

Look at all the shooters we're getting:

Day of Infamy, Rising Storm 2, Battlefield 1 Expansions, Wolfenstein, Destiny 2, Call of Duty, Battlefront 2, Lawbreakers, Quake, Sniper Ghost Warrior and Metro was announced.

And I truly believe RTS will be making a return with stuff like Northgard, we got Cossacks and Age of Empires is coming back.

Not to mention a whole bunch of interesting indie games like Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice and Cuphead... I can't even begin to list all the interesting games of this year.

your opinion is also aided by the fact that you have a fresher memory of the current year than the past. If we're talking about 15 years or more ago, only the most memorable games will withstand the test of time. The other releases faded into obscurity. However, how many of the games you mentioned will truly be remembered 15 to 20 years from now. In all honestly, some of them...like Lawbreakers, will struggle to even be remembered by the end of this console generation, let alone 15 years from now

2005

Just... insane

Resident Evil 4

Shadow of the Colossus

Gran Turismo 4

Tekken 5

Devil May Cry 3

God of War

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

Psychonauts

Killer7

Burnout Revenge

Ninja Gaiden Black

Fahrenheit

Ratchet: Deadlocked

GUN

Dragon Quest VIII

I mean, 4 games out of my top 5 of all time came out this year

1997 - Blood, Total annihilation, Age of empires, Carmageddon, Quake 2, Hexen 2 , Fallout, interstate 76 ,GTA ( the first on the top down ), Tomb raider 2, xcom, Dungeon keeper, jedi knight

2007- Witcher 1 , Portal, Stalker, Crysis, Bioshock 1, world in conflict , the orange box ( sure a compilation from games of past but still ) , Mass effect 1 ( imo the best by far in the series, Half life episode 2

2015- Witcher 3 ( nough said) , cities skylines, pillars of eternity, dying light, rise of the tomb raider, Mad max, bloodborne ( a game that i might actually buy a used ps4 to play it again ), divinity,

This year

No, I'm just saying a lot of great games are releasing this year.

Hence I believe this year to be a great year for games.