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15 Years Later, November 2004 Might Still Be One Of The Best Months In Video Game History

Deleted member 13370

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
683
As the singular greatest month it won't ever be topped. Games as influential as Half Life 2, Halo 2, World of Warcraft and Snake Eater are rare, less than a few every generation, and they will only keep getting rarer. To have 4 released in the same month is straight up insane.
 
Arithmetician

Arithmetician

Member
Oct 9, 2019
1,983
2004 is when I started following online video gaming media and forums... what a time to be alive. The build up to November 2004 was pure hype, and the peak of the console wars with MGS3/GTA vs MP2 vs Halo 2 vs Half-Life 2 for PC. I remember GameCube owners being mad MP2 wasn't rated as high as the others, and the. Breathing a sigh of relief when RE4 came out in January
 
Tetrinski

Tetrinski

Banned
May 17, 2018
2,915
GamerJM said:
It's probably the most stacked month ever for AAA releases. Which I'm not super into usually. Not sure what my most stacked month ever would be, maybe September 1999? DreamCast launch and a bunch of other stuff.

In November 2004, I was playing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, which I had just gotten back from my friend who borrowed it. I think I also rented LotR the Third Age, which was trash.
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How do you remember a month 15 years ago so clearly? I don't remember what I got for Christmas last year.
 

Deleted member 13101

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
17,973
A thread about a single month somehow turned into a contest of whole years.

Still, the article is burying the lede of that month, which was "Why am I forced to install this Steam thing?"
 
mreddie

mreddie

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Oct 26, 2017
44,004
PSP in Japan launch
Steam getting introed, the biggest month of releases plus GTA SA and the biggest sports year in games
 
MilkBeard

MilkBeard

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Oct 25, 2017
7,778
I can see the opinion, but those games in the OP don't really mean much to me. 1998 was bigger, personally.
 
Nessus

Nessus

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Oct 28, 2017
3,907
Huh. It's weird to think that Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2 (barely) both came out before Half-Life 2.
 
Xevross

Xevross

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Oct 28, 2017
2,048
I was way too young to be aware of games like this at that age, but this makes me wish I was. What an insane month, I can't imagine what it was like.
 

Deleted member 17210

User-requested account closure
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Oct 27, 2017
11,569
The article lists a bunch of games and many are worse than Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines which also came out in November 2004.

I had just bought a new PC around that time, just before for Half-Life 2. Good fun.
 
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jwhit28

jwhit28

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,048
Those games had some pretty glaring flaws that month. I don't know if the rosey memories people have with them are from release. Steam and WoW problems are well documented. MGS3 is probably best remembered as Subsistence. Halo 2's cliffhanger is a tiny complaint.
 
ClydeBonFrog

ClydeBonFrog

Member
Apr 17, 2018
295
I was 11 at the time, so I couldn't really buy all of those, but I got Halo 2 and a DS for Christmas, we didn't have A PS2 at the time because it broke, so I actually didn't play those PS2 platformers like Jak until like 2008 when I got a PS2 slim for Christmas. Metriod Prime I never really played until the Trilogy on Wii, and I played the port of Half life on original xbox. Also my brother and I got Fire Red and Leaf Green that christmas as well. So, what I remember from that fall is getting an xbox with Halo 2 and Fable and playing those, playing my DS with Super Mario 64, and pokemon Fire Red. I really wish I was kind of older at the time so I could of appreicaited the wider breadth of the industry at the time. Hell I didn't play God of War until 2009, and that was because I got the PS2 copies for my birthday, which funnily enough I would get a PS3 in the summer of that year, and the HD collection came out in the fall of that year. lol
 

Green Marine

Member
Oct 25, 2017
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El Paso
Today is fifteen years to the day since Half-Life 2 and MGS3 came out. Still my favorite single release day that isn't associated with a platform launch.
 

Dark Cloud

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
61,087
Why do people keep bringing up years? The article is about one month...singular month...not the entire year
 
Akumatica

Akumatica

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Oct 25, 2017
2,746
That was a great month for releases! Another month that was great (from my perspective) was September 2006. My birthday, my favorite game of all time(Okami) and the start of one of my favorite series(Yakuza)-

-Okami
-Yakuza 1
-Locoroco
-Mega Man ZX
-Rule of Rose
 
GamerJM

GamerJM

Member
Nov 8, 2017
15,602
Tetrinski said:
How do you remember a month 15 years ago so clearly? I don't remember what I got for Christmas last year.
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I have a weird memory like that. Especially when it comes to gaming shit.

That being said, I was so depressed in 2015 that some parts of that year are a complete blur. I know there was like an entire month that year where I didn't play a single video game but I can't remember what specific month that was for the life of me.
 
Temp_User

Temp_User

Member
Oct 30, 2017
4,691
November 1998 would like to have a word.

November 20 – Half-Life ('nuff said)
November 21 – The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time ('nuff said)
November 30 – StarCraft: Brood War (the standard for expansion/extended game content. The base game was released on March 1998)
November 30 – Starsiege: Tribes (the granddaddy of your Battlefield and Battle-royale games)
November 30 – Thief: The Dark Project (if you ever played a stealth game or section that involve listening, distracting AI, taking out light sources and/or observing shadows, this set the standard)
 
Artdayne

Artdayne

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Nov 7, 2017
5,015
Still haven't played Half Life 1 or 2. MGS 3 was transcendent for me back then. I didn't play WoW at release, not until 2005 but it's one of my favorite games ever so...
 
MrNewVegas

MrNewVegas

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Oct 27, 2017
10,704
Those were the days. Verbally scrapping the Halo boys over the god of gaming HL2. Going on to HL2 world with the crew to talk about how great it was going to be. Reading magazines for the upcoming WoW and how revolutionary it was going to be. Hell of a time.
 
TheSpaceBetween

TheSpaceBetween

Member
Jan 11, 2018
9,653
Absolutely, and I seriously doubt this month will ever be beaten. Four of my top 25 games of all time released in this month: Metroid Prime 2, Half-Life 2, MGS3, and R&C Up Your Arsenal. And while not my personal favorites, there is no denying other titles like Halo 2 and WoW were massive releases.
 
Annoying Old Party Man

Annoying Old Party Man

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Oct 29, 2017
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Moist_Owlet said:
Nothing is beating 1998. Metal gear solid, ocarina, starcraft, half-life, pokemon red/blue, banjo-kazooie, spyro. It was ridiculous and at the time almost all these were interesting and doing new things. 2004 is easily second though.
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That year was INSANE.

Metal Gear Solid
Ocarina of Time
Starcraft
Half-Life
Pokemon R/G
Banjo Kazooie
Spyro
Baldur's Gate
Thief
Grim Fandago
Unreal
Resident Evil 2
Xenogears
F-Zero X
Sonic Adventure
Panzer Dragoon Saga
Fallout 2
Tenchu
Turok 2

You could make a top-10 best games of all time just from 1998's list and no one would complain.
 
chrominance

chrominance

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Oct 25, 2017
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Half-Life 2 and World of Warcraft alone would put it up there, but holy shit I forgot that some of the games listed there launched in the same month. Whew.

That said, it's not quite that weird if you think about it; November is traditionally a huge month for video games. 2004 was an unusually stacked year in general, but I bet if you look at really great months in video game history a lot of them will end up in October or November just because that's how the market works (much more so in the past than recent years).
 
LavitzSlambert

LavitzSlambert

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Nov 8, 2017
845
No argument here. It was such an amazing month for all gamers no matter what platform, everyone had something amazing to play.
 
Diarrhea Day-Lewis

Diarrhea Day-Lewis

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Oct 27, 2017
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I was 17 and for some reason only just got back into gaming. I only played NBA 2K and spider man 2. I had friends who tried to get me to play halo 2 but I didn't "get" it. Wish I had my tastes today then!
 
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