The year of 1998 is one that many gamers remember fondly. Whether you owned a Nintendo 64, Playstation, or PC, you had plenty of top-tier options from January through December. It was a pinnacle year of gaming that remained unchallenged for nearly a decade.
That changed when 2007 was over and done with. While the first half of the year wasn’t very notable, a few gems appeared in the earlier months with God of War II, G.R.A.W. 2, and The Burning Crusade. Amazingly, those gems are completely overshadowed from August 21st on, when, Bioshock, the first of many Triple-A titles was released.
Follow the jump to see my comparisons between 1998 and 2007, plus what I think 2008 has in store for us when we look back on it years from now. It’s a hell of a time to be a gamer.
In 1998, we were barraged with a number of triple-A titles through the entire year. Titles we still reference today were released with Resident Evil 2, StarCraft, Pokemon, Half-Life, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Baldur’s Gate. It wasn’t until a decade later that gamers’ wallets were so stretched thin when Christmas came. The holiday season of 2007 brought The Orange Box, Call of Duty 4, Rock Band, and a number of other top notch titles. Of course, 2007 also brought us the gems known as Hour of Victory, Vampire Rain, and Two Worlds. We can’t all be winners.
The key difference between the years would of course be the number of top games released. Over the last decade, more and more titles have been released on average, and for a long time most of those titles turned out to be crap. Although there’s a number of great titles to be found in the last 10 years, a majority of them turned out to be less than stellar. I don’t know if the stars aligned or game developers got a hold of some sort of alien technology, but the last quarter of 2007 had so many quality titles that even games like Assassin’s Creed that would normally have been praised by the media were pushed under the rug to shine the spotlight on better titles.
2008 is starting to look like it’s going to be just as good, and it’s off to quite a start. Even though the top titles so far were pushed back from Holiday ‘07 (imagine what it would’ve been like if they weren’t delayed,) GTA IV, Smash Bros Brawl, and the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 4 are top-tier releases that seem to be just paving the way for the year to come. We still don’t know everything that we’ll be seeing this holiday, either, since Nintendo has been extremely quiet with E3 right around the corner.
The games that we do know about; The Force Unleashed, Fable 2, Resistance 2, and Halo Wars would be enough for most years as far as top titles go, but I have a feeling that today’s game developers aren’t going to sit on their laurels. While the “next gen” started years ago with the Xbox 360, I think we’re just now starting to see the full effects of the generation change. Developers are getting comfortable with the systems they’re writing for, and the quality of games is really starting to show itself. What would once be considered a blockbuster game is seen as lackluster because of the number of quality titles released alongside it.
I don’t see 2008 or even 2009 slowing down in term of the number of quality titles that will be released. Microsoft and Sony are throwing the best of the best they have at each other. Nintendo is selling their system like hotcakes, and third-party developers are riding the train and making the most out of it.
After a decade, it’s the best time to be a gamer.
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13 responses so far ↓
1 Jolley22 // May 21, 2008 at 10:08 am
It can and will with all those great games coming out this year.
2 JakubK666 // May 21, 2008 at 10:35 am
Contrary to popular claims, GTA 4 is not,in fact, the best game of the last decade.
Just had to say that in case anybody felt like bringing this up.
3 smellmyface // May 21, 2008 at 10:46 am
i think ‘07 gets points taken away for the sheer amount of shovelware on the wii…
4 killer bonnar // May 21, 2008 at 10:56 am
Obvisuly it will beat 1998, because of the new game engine’s and the cutting edge graphics.
5 Cod In The Pocket // May 21, 2008 at 11:11 am
@ killer bonnar
Yeah, but at the time, these games were the best there were, and the fact that they are still really fun to play means that they have a lasting factor…
Lono can show you what I feel about this topic… you know what I’m talking about Lono…
6 balaamsafe // May 21, 2008 at 11:34 am
@smallmyface
completley agree, however, i still think it was the best year yet
7 Turian209 // May 21, 2008 at 11:46 am
I thought 2004 was one of the best years in gaming
8 asd // May 21, 2008 at 11:57 am
in my opnion 08 will easily beat 07 i want really too mch into gaming in 98 so ill hold judgement and for 09 ive already got like5+ tittles i want
9 Tenudin // May 21, 2008 at 12:36 pm
@ killer bonnar
Just because the games of today look better don’t mean they are better. I’d still rather play through Ocarina of Time or Resident Evil 2 again than play half the garbage that was put out last year. Last year had some great titles but it also had a whole lot of garbage.
This year really is shaping up to be a killer year though. June will be a big month for me with Ninja Gaiden 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4.
10 Animathias // May 21, 2008 at 2:04 pm
@JakubK666: I mentioned GTAIV once.. just once.. and only for a second. It also shared the spotlight with Smash Bros and Metal Gear..
11 footnmouthtard // May 21, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Yea graphics and gameplay - 2 different things completely needed. I just hope Too Human is great, and Ninja Gaiden 2.
And Don’t forget about NFL Head Coach,
AAA titles falling of the shelves
12 Chupa // May 21, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Don’t forget that Thief and Metal Gear Solid were also released in 1998.
13 tomcards5 // May 21, 2008 at 4:22 pm
yea i hope it can top 1998 because that means theres gonna be great games .hopefully somebody comes out with a game that me and my dad can play 2gether and easy enouh controles that he can get use to. that might sound weird but not for me seeing as im only 14 years old lol.
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