Massively Multiplayer: Gaming In The New Millennium

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Capaldi should definitely play Justin Hammer. As much as I liked the Sam Rockwell Hammer Capaldi would be more true to the source material.

Except I cast Ian McKellan in the role, though it would be possible to have McKellan have to bow out form Cap/Iron Man due to another commitment and make Capaldi into a "new" character named Justin Hammer Jr.
 
Except I cast Ian McKellan in the role, though it would be possible to have McKellan have to bow out form Cap/Iron Man due to another commitment and make Capaldi into a "new" character named Justin Hammer Jr.
That'd work. I had the idea of having him play Metron? But I dunno if that'd work.
 
Except I cast Ian McKellan in the role, though it would be possible to have McKellan have to bow out form Cap/Iron Man due to another commitment and make Capaldi into a "new" character named Justin Hammer Jr.
He could also be cast as Silvermane in any potential Spider-Man movie.
 
Fall 2005 (Part 13) - The Rest Of The Games
(Here are the other notable North American game releases from October 2005 to December 2005!)

Nintendo Wave:

Booststream 2

Published by Capcom but developed by a new team, Booststream 2 is a futuristic racing title that can best be compared to an easier F-Zero. The sequel somewhat streamlines the experience, there are 18 tracks, all based on real world cities but with a futuristic twist, while there are less cars to choose from than the previous game, but each car handles in its own distinct way. The game is highly praised for its graphics, its creative tracks, and its excellent musical soundtrack, and ends up being one of the best reviewed racing titles in quite some time, with around an 88% on Gamerankings. Booststream 2 would be the last Wave exclusive installment of the series, as its critical and commercial success would make it one of the Capcom franchises targeted by Apple in their attempt to win exclusives from the company. With F-Zero still under Nintendo's belt, the company doesn't fight all that hard for Booststream, and the third game in the series would ultimately be exclusive to the Katana successor.

Cinder
(Authors' Note: The following game idea was given to us by the reader HonestAbe1809!)

Cinder is an adventure/shooter title with a very dark motif, based on twisted versions of classic fairy tales. The protagonist is Cinder, a take on Cinderella, who lives in a decrepit mansion with her cruel stepmother, Lady Stelazzia, and her two wicked stepsisters. Cinder has a few friends in the form of street urchins who she occasionally sees when she is running errands for her mother out in the market. After witnessing Stelazzia performing forbidden magic, Cinder's life is threatened and she's forced to flee with some of her friends along for the ride, into a world of twisted fairy tales, evil, and darkness. The game, while somewhat of a third person shooter, is more like OTL Ratchet And Clank in playstyle, but with magic. Cinder and her friends jump from world to world via various portals, one step ahead of Stelazzia and Cinder's two stepsisters. As she and her friends explore, they come across a variety of strange fairytale creatures and people, including a version of Alice in Wonderland where Alice has become even more bloodthirsty than the Red Queen, a version of Peter Pan where Peter is an immortal boy who kidnaps dozens of girls in search of the perfect Wendy, a strange hollowed out giant elephant whose corpse is turned into a blimp and who very much resembles Dumbo, a version of Snow White where Snow is a cruel slavedriver in the dwarf mines, a version of Pinocchio where the titular wooden boy is more like Chucky, etc. The game spoofs and twists numerous Disney stories, though because the game is not itself made by Disney, it carefully straddles the line between parody and ripoff, and steers clear of resembling Disney too much. The game's motif is a sort of post-apocalyptic cyberpunk fairytale land, with magic as technology, tending toward horror. It's a very disturbing game and ultimately gets a Mature rating. As Cinder and her friends explore, Stelazzia's power grows. She ultimately transforms her two stepdaughters into hideous beasts to fight Cinder when they outgrow their usefulness to her, but eventually, Stelazzia has to confront Cinder herself, gathering up the power she's stolen through her use of dark magic to become a powerful sorceress. Cinder, with the help of her friends, kills Stelazzia and saves the realm (as much as it can be saved, it's still a crapsack world, but isn't in immediate danger of being wrecked by dark magic anymore).

While favorably received by critics, Cinder is somewhat overshadowed by other major games in the fall of 2005, and its creepy motif and disturbing content make it a hard sell. It still turns a profit, but posts only mediocre sales, ultimately selling more copies down the road as a discounted cult classic than as a full-priced new game. It would eventually see a release for the Xbox 2 and Wave successor down the road with HD graphics.

Eidolon Frei

A JRPG featuring anime cutscenes and strange, magic wielding characters, it's a rather obscure game, made by a rather small and new developer. The main characters are miniature humanoids with pointed ears who are somewhat of a hybrid of dwarves and elves who frequently confront creatures much larger than them known as Eidolons. Some Eidolons must be defeated, while others can be befriended. While the game is a bit on the weird side, with a battle system that's somewhat hard to pick up and a steep difficulty curve, it's one of the better reviewed JRPGs of the year, due to its battle system and large world to explore. It doesn't sell enough to get a sequel but it does help put its developers on the map in terms of RPGs.

Fire Emblem: Sojourn Of The Myriad

The first Fire Emblem game for the Nintendo Wave, Sojourn Of The Myriad plays pretty much like a classic Fire Emblem title, retaining the permadeath systems of the originals while including tactical-based battles and fierce one on one fights. The main plotline concerns a civilization of refugees that were forced out of their homes by the rise of an ancient evil, and now wander the lands in search of a new home. These people, known as the Myriad, are constantly threatened by bandits, enemy armies, and powerful evil creatures, and must be protected by a few brave warriors determined to lead their people to a new home. The Myriad are led by the young general Tashin, who is the main playable character of the story. While there are others amongst the Myriad who can fight, Tashin must also form alliances with members of neighboring kingdoms. The Myriad find an ally in the Kingdom of Lovell, after Tashin rescues their princess, Kaila, from bandits. Lovell's prince Ragna, along with Kaila, become two of Tashin's most valuable allies, though Ragna has enemies, both within his own kingdom in the form of his treacherous brother Blaine and in the form of neighboring kingdoms, small but still dangerous, who ultimately form the Ozatt Alliance to attempt to overthrow Lovell. The Myriad finds itself torn over which faction to support, while at the same time, the ancient evil that destroyed their homeland threatens to surface once more, putting everyone in jeopardy. Sojourn Of The Myriad features the best graphics in a Fire Emblem to date, full voice acting, and full CGI cutscenes. The game's quest is about the same length as The False Princess' main quest in terms of missions, and there are more sidequests as well. The game ultimately has three endings, based on whether or not the player chose to support Lovell, the Ozatt Alliance, or a more neutral path. Supporting Lovell leads to the Tashin marrying Kaila and the Myriad becoming a client state of Lovell, though Ragna is killed and the nations of the Ozatt Alliance are almost completely wiped out, leading to many innocent deaths and the deaths of numerous likable (and potentially playable in other paths) characters. Supporting the Ozatt Alliance leads to an arguably more egalitarian world, where Lovell is subjugated but not wiped out, including the Myriad getting their own independent nation, but Kaila is killed and Ragna is Tashin's mortal enemy, vowing to come back and get revenge. The neutral ending is the “best” ending, requiring the most difficult storyline missions. Pretty much everyone lives and Lovell and the Ozatt Alliance form a lasting peace. It's still somewhat bitter sweet: the people of the Myriad are scattered throughout the realm, and while Ragna and Kaila both live, Ragna is permanently crippled, and while Kaila still loves Tashin, she declines to marry him, instead choosing to stay with her brother to take care of him. In all three endings, the ancient evil, known as Dischord, is the final boss, though the form it takes in the final battle changes slightly throughout the three paths.

Fire Emblem: Sojourn Of The Myriad is one of the more anticipated Nintendo first party titles of the year, even in North America. It performs quite well in Japan, and even though Fire Emblem is more of a niche series in the States, the game still surpasses The False Princess to become North America's most popular Fire Emblem title to date. Ragna, the game's most tragic character, becomes its most popular, and he and Tashin are both considered top candidates to make it into the next Super Smash Bros. game. Sojourn Of The Myriad would later receive a direct sequel, based on the Ozatt ending and casting a vengeful Ragna as the villain.

The Abnormals

A Nintendo-published title developed by David Siller and his studio Daybreak, The Abnormals follows up Avian, which was a mascot platformer that performed decently on the Wave. The Abnormals is a totally different game: it's a superhero/monster-based beat 'em up title that takes place in a world where people have begun to mutate: some of them have become superheroes, revered by the populace, and others have become horrifying monsters, shunned by the world. The superheroes battle the monsters, but of course, not everything is as it seems, as some of the superheroes aren't really heroes and not all of the monsters are truly bad. The protagonist is Salvo, an adolescent boy born into a family of superheroes, who falls in love with a shunned witch named Lenore. Salvo's powers include super speed and the ability to fire projectile energy from his hands, which in the game can be used to take down enemies and obstacles. Most of the early part of the game is spent battling monsters, but after a crucial plot twist in which Salvo begins to protect Lenore and her fellow witches, many heroes turn against him. Eventually, however, Salvo's family and various other heroes rally to Salvo and Lenore's cause, and the lines ultimately become blurred. The main villain of the game is the evil Mayor Machiavelli, who doesn't appear to have superpowers at first, but his real ability is to absorb the powers of both heroes and monsters alike, turning him into a powerful and deadly hybrid who seeks to control all (think of him as Sylar from Heroes crossed with The Mayor from Action League Now). While The Abnormals has a great deal of humor and classic comic book style action, it does have a number of serious parts, and deals with heavy themes such as racism and prejudice. It's ultimately quite favorably reviewed, with an 86% on Gamerankings for both its gameplay and action, and sales are quite strong as well, easily surpassing those of Avian and launching The Abnormals as Daybreak's first real game franchise.

Dragon Quest VIII: The Ancient Princess Curse

Dragon Quest VIII is the eighth title in the acclaimed Dragon Quest series developed by Enix. Visually and gameplay wise, it's quite similar to OTL's Dragon Quest VIII, featuring a cel shaded style and traditional RPG mechanics in a vast world, and a lengthy quest that can easily take 50 hours to complete. The plot of TTL's Dragon Quest VIII combines elements of OTL's plot with elements of classic horror: it still features a curse that transforms a royal into something else, but rather than transforming a king into a toad monster and a princess into a horse, in Dragon Quest VIII, the princess is the only one cursed, and her curse transforms her into a zombie-like being, dangerous and devoid of life, though at times quite lucid. She also plays a significantly larger role in the game, speaking in many scenes, her curse playing a huge part in the game's story. She was cursed by an ancient and powerful king, the Lord of the Dead, who seeks to turn all creatures into his zombie slaves, with the princess as a test subject. The game plays out much like OTL's title: the Lord of the Dead is defeated and the game seems over, but his curse has not ended, and in fact, a greater ancient evil remains: Rhapthorne (same name as OTL's main enemy) the Vile, a powerful god of darkness who wishes to turn the world into his own personal domain after being cast out by the gods. The Hero and his companions must defeat Rhapthorne to at last undo the curse and save the world. Dragon Quest VIII, like its predecessors, is an exceptionally popular game in Japan, selling millions of copies and becoming one of the year's top selling games. But in the States, it does worse than IOTL. It's overshadowed by other popular titles, including Enix's own Full Metal Alchemist, and is a total flop in the West, making Enix seriously consider whether or not they should continue localizing Dragon Quest games, even after all seven previous titles were localized for the West.

Guitar Hero

Developed by Harmonix and co-published by RedOctane and Activision, Guitar Hero is a rhythm-based game utilizing a guitar peripheral that allows players to play rock songs by various bands. Activision wasn't involved with the original Guitar Hero IOTL, but decided to hop on board earlier ITTL, mostly for the purposes of licensing music. Because of Activision's involvement, the game features about ten more songs than the OTL original, including songs by some of the bands that appeared in Thrillseekers such as Bikini Kill. Because of the game's release for the Wave, it looks significantly better graphically than OTL's game. Its sales and reviews would also outpace OTL's game slightly, making it one of 2005's best reviewed games. Its sales started off a bit slow, but word of mouth would help it sell much better throughout 2006.

Perchance

Developed and published by Sony, Perchance is an action/adventure/puzzle game and Fumito Ueda's spiritual successor to Sarasvati, filling the same niche as Shadow Of The Colossus did IOTL. Its protagonist, Somna, enters a mysterious city where he must go into people's dreams in order to find the thing causing their nightmares. Like Shadow Of The Colossus, Perchance is a non-linear game, where Somna can explore the city freely, entering most of the dreams in any order he chooses. Each dream has its own visual motifs and gameplay quirks, some are very peaceful and calm, with few if any enemies in sight, and some are quite action-packed, requiring quick movement and reflexes. Taking inspiration from titles like NiGHTS and Carpathia, but much less action-oriented than those games, Perchance features beautiful graphics and music. Somna is largely on his own in the story, as most of the people he meets are sleeping, but he does interact with a few other humans, mostly within the dreams themselves. This game got a decent amount of hype prior to its release, and got mostly good reviews, though it doesn't reach the acclaim or notoriety of OTL's Shadow Of The Colossus, and is ultimately remembered as a strange but thought-provoking adventure game. It's not a failure by any means, and Ueda is still considered one of the more talented game developers in the business.

Treetoppers

Treetoppers is a platformer/puzzler where levels are grown with various seeds collected by the player and can be chained together, simulation style. Different seeds can grow different types of level structures, for example, Boss Seeds can be used to grow massive monsters, Challenge Seeds can be used to grow more difficult segments of the same level, Bonus Seeds can be used to grow areas where bonus games can be played, etc. It's an interesting concept for a game but the execution isn't quite as good as it could be and the game achieves only moderate success.

Psychonauts

Psychonauts is an action/adventure title developed by Double Fine Productions for the Nintendo Wave. IOTL, the game was originally imagined as an exclusive Xbox title before ending up a multiplatform, but ITTL, Microsoft turned down the title, and it bounced around for a year or two before Nintendo decided to give it a shot as a future Wave franchise. The gameplay and plot are very similar to OTL's game, with a few minor differences such as giving Raz more psychic powers to use, expanding the game's open-ended segments, and including more large boss enemies to take advantage of the Wave's technical power. Most of the main plot points and the core gameplay remain intact, and like OTL's Psychonauts, TTL's game becomes a critical hit upon release, with similar ratings (about 8.5 to 9/10) to OTL. However, Psychonauts manages to sell better than OTL's title, positioning itself as a family friendly game for the Wave at a time when there weren't all that many similar games on the console (there was Haze, but it's a lot scarier and less funny than Psychonauts). It's one of the Wave's better selling titles over the holiday season. It would later be ported to PC after its timed exclusivity expires, but remains exclusive to Nintendo systems for its console version.

Samurai Shodown

SNK's reboot of its classic 2-D fighting game series, Samurai Shodown returns with brand new cel shaded graphics, a ton of new combos and weapons, and a large, 21 character roster. It's released to arcades in early 2005 and ported to the Wave in December with slightly enhanced graphics and three more characters than the arcade version. It gets good reviews and is considered one of the best 2-D fighters of the year, though it doesn't rise to the level of success of Divine Wrath 3.

Game Boy Supernova:

Bomberman Realms

A fairly basic Bomberman game for the Supernova, it features a six world adventure mode and a multiplayer battle mode with online play. The most notable thing about Realms is its beautiful art direction, each world in the adventure mode has its own visual style, and there are more styles in the various battle mode stages. As far as portable Bomberman games go, it's probably the best one ever made, and compares favorably to the better console editions. It's a decent early seller, and has fairly good sales legs as well.

Templar

A tactical RPG developed by Squaresoft, Templar centers around an ancient order of knights and their campaign to help an ambitious princess conquer a kingdom in turmoil. With one of the deepest storylines to date in an SRPG, it compares favorably with Final Fantasy Tactics, though there are significantly less fantasy elements (at least early on in the game). The game has some fairly deep statistical development for its genre, characters develop in 24 different stats, and weapons, armor, and relics can improve those stats in a myriad of ways. The game is fairly low-tech compared to other games on the Supernova but still quite pretty, it's reviewed well but sales aren't as good as those of typical Squaresoft games, especially in North America.

Apple Katana:

Jocko The Shark

A King Crab spinoff featuring one of the more popular side characters in the series, a sports-loving shark named Jocko, Jocko The Shark is a mix of platforming and wacky sports gameplay. The plot is fairly simple, with Jocko trying to make a professional underwater sports team while winning the heart of his mermaid cheerleader love interest, but the gameplay is the real allure, mixing 3-D platforming with tons of fun minigames. It totally ditches the frustrating and awkward stealth gameplay of King Crab 3, letting Jocko pretty much do anything he wants, while the minigames are fairly easy, minimizing player frustration. The game wasn't expected to be a hit but became one of the most popular late Katana platformers, laying the groundwork for the franchise's revivification on the Katana successor.

Shototsu II

The anime-spoofing, fast paced 2-D fighter is back with its second installment for the Katana. It adds six more characters to the mix for a total of 18 (two redundant characters are removed) and features a revamped storyline mode. It's not that big of an upgrade from the first game, but thanks to the popularity of the original, it manages to be one of the best selling 2-D fighting games of the year. It does sell better in Japan than in the States, though that's a given for virtually every 2-D fighter save for Divine Wrath and Mortal Kombat.

Vintage Football Challenge
(Authors' Note: The write-up for this game was given to us by the reader Neoteros, with only the games' review/performance information provided by us.)

Vintage Football Challenge is a sports game developed by Hitmaker as a footballing counterpart to the racing focused Vintage Speed Series; the main selling point of the game is the possibility to play as several legendary football teams - or even as a team made up of several legendary players - and the marked difficulty of the game, a true footballing simulation in which tactics and teamwork are essential to come out on top. The main mode of the game is the Vintage Football Challenge mode, in which the player is asked to repeat the deeds of several teams - both club teams and national teams - from 1930 to 1970, to do the exact opposite and take a losing team to victory, for example Hungary in 1954, or simply to fulfill certain conditions during a match, for example scoring five goals in one match as Johan Cruyff or block ten shots in one match as Lev Yashin without conceding a single goal. This is the mode that allows the player to unlock club and national teams for the other modes. The Vintage Football Championship mode is exactly what it sounds like, a tournament between several legendary club and/or national teams; the Vintage Football Team mode, on the other hand, is a fantasy football mode that allows the player to buy 11 players (at least at first, the number of spots in the squad increases with time as in the actual history of football) from the game's player roster for a fictional football team of their own creation, and play matches of increasing difficulty against other fictional football teams of legendary players picked according to a theme, for example "Best of South America", "Best of the 1970s" or "Best Under-21"; defeating a team allows the player to unlock some of the players of the defeated side and put them in their own team.

There is, of course, a Vintage Football Exhibition mode for single matches between the player and the CPU or two players, and a Vintage Football Online mode that allows players from around the world to challenge each other in single matches and/or tournaments. The game's graphics can be, depending on the player's own choice, realistic or deliberately emulative of old newsreels and TV sets; the game's own commentators (there is more than one of them) can likewise be disabled or enabled - in the latter case, they will emulate the style of the commentators of a certain period, depending on what kind of team is the player playing as. Most notably, perhaps in a deliberate effort to emulate Ayrton Senna's endorsement of Gran Turismo, the coach that gives the player wise pieces of advice during the game is none other than O Rei, Pelé himself. The game sells well enough to warrant a sequel: in fact, even though it isn't as well received as Vintage Speed Series was, it becomes wildly popular among football aficionados and online players, that appreciate the possibility the game gives the player to control both legendary teams and fictional teams of legendary players - up to and including the players' own ideal 22 of the Vintage Football Team mode - in online matches and tournaments. It is however criticized for its at times excessive difficulty, a focus on mainly European events, players and teams, and the lack of the 1980s in the game - a common complaint is, in fact, not being able to play as Maradona. The latter two criticisms are answered in the sequel, Vintage Football Challenge 2, that adds the 1980s and 1990s to the game's timeline - a game in which Pelé's spot as coach is taken by Maradona, to the dismay of the Brazilian fans of the game - and several new challenges, players and teams from around the world; not just South America, but also Africa, Asia, North America and even Oceania: beating the "Best of All Time" team in Vintage Football Challenge 2's Vintage Football Team mode as a team composed deliberately and exclusively of black African players or of the few players from Asia comes to be considered one of the hardest challenges in console football gaming ever, a challenge acknowledged by the game with the "Tigers of Asia" and "Lions of Africa" achievements. But even the sequel becomes infamous for its difficulty.

Vintage Football Challenge is one of the best reviewed soccer titles of all time, surpassing all of the recent FIFA games and Apple's Virtua Soccer as well. Though its sales don't come close to those of the FIFA series, it's one of the best selling Katana games of the year worldwide, topping the charts in Europe, South America, and Africa, and doing quite well in Japan. It even sells decently in the States, though it doesn't come close to its international success.

Ninja Blade 2

The long awaited sequel to 2001's niche fighting title, Ninja Blade 2 is notably released in North America about 18 months after its Japanese release. It features 13 playable ninja characters, all of whom use deadly bladed weapons against their enemies. Like the original, it's known for its heavy degree of difficulty, and unlike the original game, doesn't find quite as much of a foothold in tournaments. Still, it's a surprisingly strong seller in Japan. In North America, it gets overshadowed by Shototsu II.

Melodia's Wish

Melodia's Wish is an anime JRPG featuring lyrical music as a heavy part of the plot and gameplay. One of the most heartwarming RPGs ever made, with sweet characters and lots of romance, it's the kind of game that's beloved by many hardcore RPG and anime fans but really fails to do well commercially. Its reviews average in the 7.5-8.0/10 range and it scores even more highly in a lot of the import magazines, but even in Japan, it's a bit of a flop.

Microsoft Xbox:

California Beach

California Beach is a beach volleyball/water skiing/wave rider game that's sort of like a cross between Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball and Thrillseekers, featuring beautiful scantily clad women and a variety of extreme water-based sports. There's a rudimentary story mode, but it lasts only about an hour and a half and is mostly an excuse to get the characters into sexy situations. Considered a very poor imitation of Thrillseeekers but still achieves a degree of popularity due to its notoriety.

The Witcher II

The sequel to the PC/Xbox RPG The Witcher, The Witcher II continues the story of Geralt of Riven, expanding greatly on the world of the first game and featuring an updated combat system and lots more sidequests. Visually and somewhat gameplay-wise, it has a lot in common with the original Witcher game IOTL, which came out in 2007 and was a highly acclaimed RPG classic. TTL's Witcher II continues from the story of the original game, which itself was based heavily on the OTL stories from Sword Of Destiny and The Last Wish. The Witcher II introduces the character of Ciri for the first time, and chronicles Geralt's struggles to protect her as he is pursued by a mob sent by a cruel king who wishes to obtain Ciri's power. Geralt, along with his allies Triss and Yennefer, must protect and raise Ciri, who may one day become strong enough to overthrow the king and restore freedom to the realm. Along the way, Geralt finds himself in many strange adventures, sending the player on one of the most complex journeys ever seen in a console RPG. The Witcher II is released for the PC in August 2005, and for the Xbox in December, becoming one of the year's most popular games for that system. Reviews for the game would significantly surpass those of the original console version, which was quite dated at the time of its release. Ultimately, the game would get reviews averaging in the high 8s on both the Xbox and the PC, making it one of the best reviewed RPGs of the year. Sales would ultimately come to surpass those of the first game, leading to the third game in the series being put into development shortly afterward.

Game Boy Nova:

Sekai no Monogatari
(Authors' Note: The write-up for this game was given to us by the reader Neoteros, with only the games' review/performance information provided by us.)

Sekai no Monogatari is a god video game/puzzle video game/role-playing video game developed by Gust and published by Koei for the Game Boy Nova. The game plays like a hybrid between one of Kairosoft's business simulation games and Populous; in each level, the player is faced with a bleak landscape split into hexagons and a limited number of turns, during which they have to use the protagonist's divine powers to give life to the land. For example, in the first level of the game the player is tasked with deviating the course of a creek to make flowers, grass and trees grow in 5 moves or less, and in the second level of the game they have to elevate a series of hillocks to a mountain range before doing the same, in 10 moves or less. After an oasis of life is created in this way, people immigrate to the land, and the player is tasked with building a village to house them all, again in a limited number of turns; the game's tech becomes more complex with time, going from Paleolithic to Yamato in the game's 50 levels, with a "jump" every 10 levels. Trade and war are present in the game, albeit in a simplified manner reminiscent of the City Building series by Impressions Games, where enemies appear from the edge of the map and trade is managed through a map of the land, that depicts an archipelago of four islands clearly inspired by Japan, but upside down. The game's protagonist is Hanako, a somewhat archetypal schoolgirl who, upon losing herself in a forest, reemerges in a bleak country where the local Umito people have torn down the idols of their harsh goddess Kirei, who has abandoned them for being too soft, leaving them to starve in a void world. Hanako finds that the Umito began worshipping another goddess soon after Kirei's departure, a goddess that appeared in the dreams of an old hermit, Zochi, 15 years prior, and that bears more than a passing resemblance to her - of course, Hanako discovers she now has budding divine powers, and so the game begins. At the end of each level, the player is rewarded with experience points depending on their performance, with which they can purchase new buildings for the villages, new powers for Hanako, and somewhat less useful things like new clothes and new music. Each level can be completed in several different ways, and it's theoretically possible to beat the last level with just the base buildings and powers, but since it's a truly herculean task it's recommended to beat each level "under-par" and spend the experience points wisely.

Sekai no Monogatari is a surprise critical and commercial hit, considered to be Gust's magnum opus at the time. It's one of the better looking games on the Nova, thanks to its art direction taking advantage of the Nova's limited technological capabilities, while the gameplay some of the deepest and most addictive yet seen in a simulation title. It ends up being one of the best reviewed overall games of the year and is considered one of the best games on the Nova. It does well in Japan, but in the States, it's overshadowed by the release of the Supernova, and sells poorly. It's considered one of the Nova's best cult classics, and sealed English copies become extremely hard to find.

Tommy Tripper

An interesting beat-em-up style game with an isometric view, it's known for pushing the Nova pretty close to its limits, with substantial voice acting and great animation. The gameplay leaves many people comparing it to games like River City Ransom and Major Hazard. The plot is about a guy named Tommy who has to save his girlfriend from a band of mobsters, but has a really over the top, fairly tame style reminiscent of an old comic book. It's a really good game, with reviews hovering around 8/10 or slightly higher, but sales aren't fantastic.

Vampiric Soul

Vampiric Soul is a horror-themed RPG with a vampire protagonist. The game has a definite medieval gothic feel to it, with ornate buildings and a high medieval, aristocratic look to most of the characters. The protagonist is a definite anti-hero who drinks the blood of both the guilty and the innocent to sustain his life force, and the thematics of the game draw some comparisons to the Legacy Of Kain series. It's a high quality RPG, with solid reviews, but the edgy content and difficulty of the game consign it to the ranks of the cult classics.

iPod Play:

Song Rider

A procedurally generated music game with elements of Audiosurf and Amplitude, Song Rider uses the iPod's song library to generate maps that players must traverse on a light-cycle type vehicle. Meant to be a killer app for the iPod Play, it's a bit too simplistic to achieve that but is a pretty good seller. It is more of a commercial/critical success than Songhopper, proving that there continues to be a market for these types of games on the iPod Play, they merely need to be perfected.

Tony Hawk City

A port of the original Tony Hawk City to the iPod Play, with a slightly expanded storyline mode more like the one found in the sequel. Like the console version, it's generally well received, as it's the original game, completely ported to a handheld but with a bit more content, and sales are quite good.

Ulala's World

The latest game in the Space Channel series, this is yet another hybrid rhythm/shooter title, featuring the beautiful space reporter Ulala battling aliens to some killer music beats. This game intersperses freeroam shooting segments between rhythm segments, and while it's nice to be able to play with Ulala on a handheld, it's still a fairly short game and reviews are only mediocre. The Space Channel games would continue on the iPod Play, each one selling just enough to justify making the next one.

Virtua Fighter Infinity

A port of Virtua Fighter 5 to the iPod Play, but taking characters and plot elements from all games in the series to include a sort of “greatest hits” storyline mode, this game joins Soul Calibur II as the second console-quality fighting game to hit the iPod Play in 2005. It's arguably a more impressive technical achievement, with gorgeous looking fighters, plenty of content, and full cinematics and voice acting. Like Soul Calibur II, it's a critical and commercial success, paving the way for the possibility that Virtua Fighter 6 may end up being released on console and handheld at the same time.

Into The Lost

Into The Lost is a 2-D platformer exclusive to the iPod Play. The game features large, expansive levels that can be freely explored, comparable to the levels in games like Yoshi's Island, with plenty of tricks, traps, and people to talk to. The game's main story features 30 levels, with 8 optional side levels unlocked by completing various actions in the game. The controls feature the typical platforming moveset such as running and jumping, while the protagonist has a basic strike and can also equip weapons and later, magic. The protagonist is a young boy named Nobu, who is orphaned and who finds a storybook that sets him off on a quest to achieve his destiny by defeating the forces of darkness. In order to do this, he must venture into the Lost Realm, a land ruled by the darkness, to free its people and become stronger. Along the way, Nobu meets many friends and foes, including an intrepid dwarf boy named Abner, a disheveled but pretty peasant girl named Roni, a dark witch princess named Eloise, and a gruff but helpful miner named Jagger. Into The Lost's visual motif resembles that of a dark storybook, and the graphics are in full 3-D, with beautiful environments and detailed character designs. The game's music is a whimsical mix of orchestral tunes and minimalist pieces. The game doesn't feature any voice acting, unlike many similar games of its genre, but for the most part this isn't seen as a knock against the game. The game's levels play out like individual storybook chapters, with cutscenes sometimes taking place when something important happens. The game's main antagonist is Amalgamat, a powerful, shapeless creature which spreads a dark, hypnotic mist throughout the world. Amalgamat can only speak by possessing the body of another. It frequently speaks through Eloise, using her body and her magic to exert its will, but once Nobu frees Eloise from its control, it takes the body of an ancient guardian mech to use as its vessel in the final battle. Once Amalgamat is defeated, Nobu becomes a hero at last, gaining a family. It's implied that Roni becomes his girlfriend at the end of the game, which slightly disappoints Eloise, but she understands.

Into The Lost is considered by many to be the best iPod Play game to date and one of the most ambitious handheld games ever made. Reviewers call it an achievement in visuals and gameplay, and it becomes one of the driving games behind iPod Play sales in 2006. Sales start off only moderately strong initially, but pick up as the months go by.

Multiplatform:

Ruthless: Contract Killer

A third person shooter for the Wave and the Xbox that features a hitman protagonist, the game is obviously compared to the Hitman titles, but tries to be somewhat more stylistic and less stealth reliant, like the Blackheart games. The protagonist is, like many similar games before it, morally ambiguous, initially starting out as a heartless killer only concerned about getting a paycheck, but after meeting a beautiful woman named Michelle (who he initially meets by taking her hostage during a mission), he softens up somewhat and eventually becomes more of a very light shade of gray in terms of morality rather than a completely edgy antihero. The gameplay is praised for being quite fast paced for a shooter, with a lot of creativity in how to deal with enemies, and quite good enemy AI. It also features a multiplayer mode with both co-op and competitive options, and the online mode is played by a lot of people, at least initially. The game is released for the Wave and Xbox, and though it's overshadowed somewhat by For God And Country and Victory: Parallel Reality at the time of its release, it still sells a considerable amount of copies, due to the hype for the game beforehand and the strong reviews it gets. While reviewers do praise the gameplay, it does receive a good deal of criticism, both for its overly edgy content and its rather poor treatment of women (To quote G4's Morgan Webb, who sarcastically opined: “The picture on the cover shows the main character of the game holding one hand over a woman's mouth and using his other hand to point a gun straight forward. Oh, and that woman, by the way? That's his love interest. Yeah, that's a really romantic first date.”). Regardless of the criticism, the game is considered a critical and commercial success and would spawn a franchise that would compete with Hitman.

The Matrix: Path Of Neo

Like IOTL, the creators of the game Enter The Matrix follow up their effort with a game that chronicles Neo's adventures through the original trilogy. Not too much different from OTL's game, though of course the changes to the movie trilogy itself ITTL are also incorporated into the game. It's released for the Katana, Wave, and Xbox, and the Wave version is the most successful, both critically and commercially.

Through The Breach

Created by Treasure and published by Enix, Through The Breach is an action side-scroller similar to games like Guardian Heroes, with RPG elements and anime-like cel shading. It features massive bosses and takes place over a series of levels, 24 in all, which feature increasingly difficult enemies and more spectacular fights. The game can be played by up to four players at once, both locally and online, though online there is some lag during some of the tougher fights, hampering the experience somewhat. The game takes place in the near future, and chronicles a group of heroes who battle powerful creatures that enter our world through dimensional wormholes. The heroes must defend the world from those creatures, while finding the source of the breach and destroying it. The game's somewhat silly motif gets it compared to the Ghostbusters property, with numerous video parodies made later on that remix Ghostbusters music and quotes with the action of the game. Through The Breach is released for the Wave and Katana in October 2005, scoring great reviews. Though it's somewhat ignored on the Wave, it finds a good sales foothold on the Katana, and thanks to strong sales in Japan, it's considered a slight success.

Medal Of Honor: Vietnam

The Medal Of Honor series visits Vietnam for the first time, putting the player in the role of an American soldier in the Vietnam War. After surviving an ambush during the Tet Offensive, the protagonist's unit is sent on a mission deep into the North Vietnamese jungles, where they come under ambush numerous times as they struggle to survive. The game features more intense skirmishes than previous Medal of Honor titles, with booby traps and ambushes playing a big role in the action, including randomized ambushes during some missions that are impossible for the player to predict. Ultimately, there's no grand victory in the game, simply surviving and protecting most of the protagonist's squad is the main goal of the game. Like previous titles in the series, Medal Of Honor: Vietnam gets strong reviews from critics, though its multiplayer mode, which is improved little over previous games, leaves a great deal to be desired. The game is released not only for the Xbox, Wave, and Katana, but also on the Supernova and the iPod Play with all of its missions and gameplay intact, which is considered a very impressive feat for such an ambitious console title. It manages good sales on all the platforms it's released on, but sales have clearly dropped from those of previous titles, and is clearly not a guaranteed blockbuster like it was earlier in the decade.

Need For Speed Worldwide

Created specifically for the Supernova and iPod Play, Need For Speed Worldwide is a console-quality Need For Speed title with a heavy focus on online multiplayer, but also featuring a decent campaign mode for offline single-player. One of the better looking handheld racing titles, it gets good reviews and posts decent sales, with the iPod Play version selling slightly better than the Supernova version.

Pocket Wars

A cross between Pokemon and Bomberman, Pocket Wars is a game about hundreds of little heroes and villains that run around battling with various weapons. The game's graphical style is very cartoony, sort of like OTL's Plants vs. Zombies. It features a single player mode, with smallish top-down levels where players can pick one of the pocket warriors they've unlocked to battle their way through generic enemies and other pocket warriors to achieve certain objectives, but can also be played in local or online multiplayer, with up to eight people battling it out at once in arenas with various sizes and hazards. The game features strategic and collectible aspects, with each character having their own little quirks. There are fighters of many different disciplines, all sorts of occupations represented including a teacher who fights with a book and ruler, a plumber who uses a plunger or can turn raw sewage against an enemy, a judge who uses a gavel, etc. (though there's not a whole lot to distinguish very many of the characters, preventing the characters from taking on an Overwatch/Pokemon level of memetic popularity since it's hard to write very good backstories/personalities for 200+ characters). Some of the most notable characters include Commando, a Rambo-like berserker with big muscles who fires missiles everywhere, Flora, a gardener who raises killer plants, Ellersbee, a beekeeper who can both fire bees at enemies and turn into a bee, Robobuddy, a toy robot who can turn into a lethal cyborg, and Laeticia, a busty witch who enjoys cackling as she roasts her enemies. The game is frantic and chaotic, and becomes a big hit, selling lots of copies across every platform it's released on and spawning merchandise and eventually an animated series. It's not just released for the home consoles, but the Supernova and iPod Play as well, becoming one of the Supernova's most popular launch titles. Reviews average in the 8.5/10 range, and future sequels would be even more well received.

Psycop

Psycop is a third-person action title for the Wave and Xbox about a futuristic police officer with a telepathic connection to a beautiful female computer hacker. It's got a decent amount of visual style, and the game's voice acting gets a decent amount of praise, but the gameplay is generic and it gets lost amongst the crowd in its genre, selling poorly. The game's visual style would come to be influential on later titles down the road that have a greater degree of success.

Speed Storm 2

The sequel to 2003's arcade-style racer, Speed Storm 2 would see a release for all three consoles and both next-gen handhelds due to the last game's success. It features a clear graphical improvement over the original title (though the handhelds don't get the benefit of this), more licensed music, and the ability to have more cars on the track at once. It looks gorgeous and the Wave and Xbox versions, with dozens of fast moving cars zooming along a gorgeous, highly detailed track, don't seem like they'd be possible on a sixth generation handheld, with the Wave version in particular seeing many reviews labeling it even better looking than Gran Turismo 3. While reviews for the title are quite good, its fairly generic racing style does take away some of its flair, especially when compared to titles like Forza Motorsport which feature more realistic action and many more cars. Still, it's a decent enough hit at the time it's released, becoming one of the best selling racing games for the holiday season.

Top Selling New Console Games In North America (in terms of sales over the first four weeks of release):

October 2005:

1. For God And Country (Microsoft Xbox)
2. Divine Wrath 3 (Microsoft Xbox)
3. Victory: Parallel Reality (Microsoft Xbox)
4. Far Cry (Nintendo Wave)
5. Victory: Parallel Reality (Nintendo Wave)

November 2005:

1. Red Sun 2 (Microsoft Xbox)
2. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (Nintendo Wave)
3. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (Microsoft Xbox)
4. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (iPod Play)
5. Reverie Of Mana (Nintendo Wave)

December 2005:

1. Super Smash Bros. Clash (Nintendo Wave)
2. Battlefield 2 (Microsoft Xbox)
3. Novus Ordo 3 (Nintendo Wave)
4. The Witcher II (Microsoft Xbox)
5. Novus Ordo 3 (Microsoft Xbox)
 

AeroTheZealousOne

Monthly Donor
Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest VIII doing worse than OTL (in the United States, at least)? That is disappointing, and DQ9 *possibly* not making it to the states shows, like numerous other events, that TTL is by no means a utopia. At least the Fire Emblem game is pretty darn good.

Say, how have butterflies affected the Civilization game franchise ITTL?
 
Last edited:
Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest VIII doing worse than OTL (in the United States, at least)? That is disappointing, and DQ9 *possibly* not making it to the states shows, like numerous other events, that TTL is by no means a utopia. At least the Fire Emblem game is pretty darn good.

Say, how have butterflies affected the Civilization game franchise ITTL?

The Civilization games are fairly close to how they were IOTL. There's a bit more voice acting, but other than that they're fairly similar to their OTL incarnations.

However...the next update will be the 2005 year-end/awards update, and something tells me that Civilization IV will find itself doing quite well...
 
The Civilization games are fairly close to how they were IOTL. There's a bit more voice acting, but other than that they're fairly similar to their OTL incarnations.

However...the next update will be the 2005 year-end/awards update, and something tells me that Civilization IV will find itself doing quite well...

Speaking of Civilization, how is Paradox Games doing? I figure if ever Europa Universalis or Victoria ever gave it serious competition?
 

AeroTheZealousOne

Monthly Donor
The Civilization games are fairly close to how they were IOTL. There's a bit more voice acting, but other than that they're fairly similar to their OTL incarnations.

However...the next update will be the 2005 year-end/awards update, and something tells me that Civilization IV will find itself doing quite well...

I am pleased to hear, considering Civilization IV is one of my top ten favorite games of all time, and definitely one of my favorites on PC. I'm very much looking forward to more...
 
2005 In Review
The Xbox 2 had a star-studded showing on New Years' Eve, as Microsoft formally unveiled the console and gave a few details about its capabilities and plans for release. The big show was held at the Los Angeles X-Zone at 8:00 PM local time, or 11:00 PM on the East Coast, and aired live on the G4 TV channel. Microsoft uploaded the video of the half-hour presentation to Videocean soon after it ended.

The console itself is a white rectangular box, about 20 percent smaller in size than the green and black original Xbox. The biggest news about the console is the type of discs it will be playing: rather than the DVDs that the Xbox used, the Xbox 2 will use the HD-DVD medium for its games, and is also capable of playing HD-DVD movies. This was somewhat of an expected move, as Nintendo's next console, which they are confirmed to be developing alongside Sony, is expected to utilize Sony's Blu-Ray format for its games. The announcement strikes perhaps the first major blow in what is expected to be a major format war between the two high definition video playback mediums, one that could impact the industry as much as the war between VHS and Betamax did back in the 1980s. The inclusion of an HD-DVD drive in the Xbox 2 comes at a price: the console's basic version, which includes a 20 gigabyte hard drive, will set you back $399, or $100 more than the launch price of the Xbox back in 2001. There's also a “Pro” version of the console that will include a massive 100 gigabyte hard drive, which has an MSRP of $499. This makes the Xbox 2 the most expensive console to be released since Sega's Saturn back in 1995, and players who spring for the $499 version will be paying prices only experienced by those who sprung for consoles such as the 3DO and Laseractive in the days of the SNES-CD.

Microsoft also showed off a few games, though the key word here is “few”: only three games were demonstrated, and only as a technical demo for the Xbox 2's graphical power: Half-Life 2, Oni: Silent Soldier, and an untitled Spider-Man game. Half-Life 2 was probably the most impressive: the Xbox 2 is clearly a big leap above the original Xbox and Nintendo's Wave in terms of technical ability, and the game looked much like it would on a PC running the game at fairly high settings, with smooth textures and gorgeous water effects galore. The Spider-Man game was also quite good, with the familiar webslinger going from building to building, giving us a glimpse at a New York City that looked incredibly real. Microsoft ended the presentation by announcing a release date for the console: November 21, 2006. That's nearly a year away, but presenter Robbie Bach promised us plenty more information all throughout the year, with a presentation planned for the upcoming Game Developers' Conference, and a big E3 blowout with more than 20 game reveals. 2006 is shaping up to be the year of the Xbox 2, and last night's presentation left us wanting a whole lot more.

-from a Kotaku.com article, posted on January 1, 2006

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Top 25 Best Selling Games Of The Year:
(Note: Multiplatform sales are combined. Only console games are included. Includes pack-in and bundle sales. Includes all North American software sales between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2005.)

1. Madden NFL 2006
2. Blackheart 4
3. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
4. Super Smash Bros. Clash
5. Endotherm
6. Sonic Blaze
7. Pokemon Gamma
8. Tom Clancy's Rendition: Masterminds
9. Fated To Rise
10. Super Mario Dimensions
11. Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec
12. The Covenant 2
13. Velvet Dark: Conspiracy
14. Forza Motorsport
15. For God And Country
16. Super Mario Gridiron
17. Super Mario Shades
18. Tony Hawk City 2
19. Sonic Rover
20. The Legend Of Zelda: Hero Eternal
21. Paradventure 2
22. NFL Play Action 2006
23. Lash Out
24. Soul Calibur II
25. Thrillseekers

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MTV Video Game Awards 2005:

Game Of The Year:

Battlefield 2
Blackheart 4
Civilization IV
For God And Country
Reverie Of Mana

Hardware/Peripheral Of The Year:

Game Boy Supernova
Guitar Hero Guitar
iPod Play
Microsoft Xbox
Nintendo Wave

Handheld Game Of The Year:

Into The Lost
Polymorph
Resident Evil: Desertion
Sonic Blaze
Virtua Fighter Infinity

Action/Adventure Game Of The Year:

Blackheart 4
Endotherm
Fated To Rise
Lash Out
Shieldmaiden

Epic Game Of The Year:

Euclid's Formula
Final Fantasy Online
Full Metal Alchemist
Reverie Of Mana
The Witcher II

Sports Game Of The Year

Madden NFL 2006
NHL 2006
Super Mario Gridiron
Tony Hawk City 2
Vintage Football Challenge

Racing Game Of The Year

American Rally
Biker
Booststream 2
Burnout Revenge
Forza Motorsport

Shooter Of The Year:

Battlefield 2
For God And Country
Medal Of Honor: Vietnam
Tom Clancy's Rendition: Masterminds
Velvet Dark: Conspiracy

Best Graphics:

Battlefield 2
Far Cry
Fated To Rise
Star Fox: Hyperspace
Velvet Dark: Conspiracy

Best Soundtrack:

Forza Motorsport
Guitar Hero
Super Smash Bros. Clash
Tony Hawk City 2
Twin Cities

Best Storyline:

For God And Country
Full Metal Alchemist
Still Afraid
Stranded
Velvet Dark: Conspiracy

Best Original Game

For God And Country
Full Metal Alchemist
Into The Lost
Lash Out
Stranded

Best Licensed Game

Alien: Parallax
Evil Dead
Ghost In The Shell
Gundam Online
Star Wars: Sith Apprentice

Best Online Game

Battlefield 2
Divine Wrath 3
Final Fantasy Online
Gundam Online
Pocket Wars

Villain Of The Year

Father (Full Metal Alchemist)
Janus (Velvet Dark: Conspiracy)
Media (Divine Wrath 3: False Idols)
Russell (For God And Country)
Thomas Whitney (Secret Of Happy Valley)

Badass Of The Year

Duke Nukem (Duke Nukem: Arena Of Death)
John Hagen (For God And Country)
Roy Mustang (Full Metal Alchemist)
Sadira Blackheart (Blackheart IV)
Sam Fisher (Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory)

Holy S*** Moment Of The Year:

The Chimera Scene (Full Metal Alchemist)
The Goodbye Kiss (Blackheart IV)
Marooned (Stranded)
Russell Kills Christa (For God And Country)
Whitney's True Nature (Secret Of Happy Valley)

Best Voice Performance:

Bill Paxton as Billy Bishop (Gun)
Christopher Reeve as Ron (Stranded)
Jon St. John as Duke Nukem (Duke Nukem: Arena Of Death)
Lana Parrilla as Sadira Blackheart (Blackheart IV)
Tony Hawk as himself (Tony Hawk City 2)

Game Company Of The Year

Enix
Microsoft
Nintendo
Squaresoft
Ubisoft

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Rockstar's Upcoming Game Sparks New Controversy

The announcement of Rockstar's upcoming title Bully last year was met with a great deal of controversy from both inside the gaming community and outside of it. The game, which takes place within a private school, is planned as an open world sandbox title in which the player assumes the role of a student, and is able to go back and forth between various cliques, solving problems and getting into fights throughout the school. Many believe that the game promotes a pro-bullying message, though Rockstar has stated that the game itself has the player confronting bullies and not actually being one

Now, a new controversy has arisen with the announcement that an autistic character will play a heavy role in the game. The autistic character's name and exact role in the game itself have not yet been announced, but this has generated new controversy, with many claiming that the game will renew harsh sentiment against autism sufferers that has only recently begun to die down after the 2001 Virginia school massacre committed by a student who many claim to have been autistic. Some are even going so far as to say that this character may in fact be inspired by the shooter, though Rockstar has gone on the record denying any such claims.

The controversy has contributed to Bully being one of the most anticipated releases of the upcoming year. Rockstar plans to release the game for the Wave and the Xbox, and has also announced a version of the game will be coming to the Xbox 2 in 2007.

-from an article on Gamespot.com, posted on January 5, 2006

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Gamespot Awards 2005:

Game Of The Year: Civilization IV
Game Of The Year (Readers' Choice): Battlefield 2
Best Graphics, Artistic (Console): Through The Breach
Best Graphics, Technical (Console): Battlefield 2
Best Original Music: Final Fantasy Online
Best Sound Effects/Design (Console): Battlefield 2
Best Voice Acting: Fated To Rise
Best Story (Console): Full Metal Alchemist
Best Game No One Played: Geist
Most Disappointing Game (Console): Dino Crisis
Best Licensed Game: Alien: Parallax
Most Improved Sequel: Propellerheads 2
Best Action/Adventure: Blackheart 4
Best Driving Game: Forza Motorsport
Best Fighting Game: Super Smash Bros. Clash
Best Role-Playing Game: Full Metal Alchemist
Best Shooter: Battlefield 2
Best Sports Game: NHL 2006
Best Wave Game: Blackheart 4
Best Katana Game: Endotherm
Best Xbox Game: Forza Motorsport
Best Handheld Game: Into The Lost

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Games Over Matter Awards 2005:

Game Of The Year:

1. Civilization IV
2. Blackheart 4
3. Full Metal Alchemist
4. Star Siren Nakama
5. Final Fantasy Online

Best Graphics:

1. Battlefield 2
2. Far Cry
3. Blackheart 4
4. For God And Country
5. Into The Lost

Best Sound:

1. Final Fantasy Online
2. Guitar Hero
3. Blackheart 4
4. Star Siren Nakama
5. Beat Street

Best Gameplay:

1. Civilization IV
2. Blackheart 4
3. Star Siren Nakama
4. Lash Out
5. iKatamari

Best Thematics:

1. Full Metal Alchemist
2. For God And Country
3. Stranded
4. Blackheart 4
5. Still Afraid

Most Innovative:

1. Lumines
2. Guitar Hero
3. Endotherm
4. Lash Out
5. Fahrenheit

Best Multiplayer:

1. Super Smash Bros. Clash
2. Final Fantasy Online
3. Battlefield 2
4. Star Siren Nakama
5. O.R.B.I.T.

Best New Character:

1. Edward Elric (Full Metal Alchemist)
2. Ron (Stranded)
3. Media/Iris (Divine Wrath 3)
4. Scam (Velvet Dark: Conspiracy)
5. Zanna (Reverie Of Mana)

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GameFAQs Best Of 2005 Polls:

Best Of 2005: Best Supernova Game

Super Mario Dimensions: 47.15%
Metal Gear Hybrid: 29.38%
Polymorph: 13.70%
Templar: 6.37%
Lumines: 3.40%

Best Of 2005: Best Nova Game

Mario vs. Donkey Kong: 26.17%
Lunar: Eternal Blue Legends: 19.08%
Sekai no Monogatari: 17.22%
Quixsters Nova 3: 11.34%
Mega Man Zero 4: 10.72%
Ace Attorney 2: The Wright Stuff: 8.87%
Blackheart: 4.95%
Vampiric Soul: 1.65%

Best Of 2005: Best Nintendo Wave Game

Super Smash Bros. Clash: 25.61%
Full Metal Alchemist: 16.60%
Final Fantasy Online: 11.32%
Reverie Of Mana: 10.50%
Velvet Dark: Conspiracy: 9.88%
Stranded: 8.16%
Lash Out: 7.54%
Kameo: The Dreamer: 4.06%
Ballistic Limit Cross: 3.41%
Star Siren: Nakama: 2.92%

Best Of 2005: Best PC Game

Civilization IV: 22.71%
Battlefield 2: 19.81%
Animal Farm: 17.37%
Gundam Online: 10.87%
Call Of Duty 3: 9.44%
Quake 4: 8.62%
Euclid's Formula: 6.55%
The Savage Isle: 4.63%

Best Of 2005: Best Katana Game

NiGHTS: Dream's End: 25.74%
Endotherm: 25.31%
Rome: Total War: 11.8%
No One Lives Forever 3: She Lives For Danger: 10.5%
Runic Convergence: 9.04%
Radiata Stories: 7.6%
Battle Engine Aquila 2: 5.73%
Vintage Football Challenge: 4.28%

Best Of 2005: Best iPod Play Game

Soul Calibur II: 25.20%
Into The Lost: 19.57%
Resident Evil: Desertion: 17.82%
Sonic Blaze: 13.45%
Virtua Fighter Infinity: 9.78%
Commander Keen: Dimensional Destruction: 9.61%
Ghost In The Shell: 3.03%
ZVX: 1.54%

Best Of 2005: Best Xbox Game

For God And Country: 30.35%
Forza Motorsport: 17.41%
Fated To Rise: 13.69%
Tom Clancy's Rendition: Masterminds: 9.54%
Ninja Gaiden Black: 6.58%
Red Sun 2: 5.75%
Divine Wrath 3: 5.58%
The Witcher II: 5.1%
Paradigm Shift: 3.71%
Evil Dead: 2.29%

Best Multiplatform Game:

Blackheart 4: 51.12%
Pocket Wars: 13.04%
Tony Hawk City 2: 9.07%
Twin Cities: 7.60%
Mega Man 9: 6.81%
Star Wars: Sith Apprentice: 5.84%
Through The Breach: 3.55%
Priest Of Ammut-Ra: 2.97%

Best Of 2005: Game Of The Year:

Super Smash Bros. Clash: 36.16%
Blackheart 4: 21.15%
Super Mario Dimensions: 14.83%
Civilization IV: 9.87%
NiGHTS: Dream's End: 6.74%
For God And Country: 4.61%
Soul Calibur II: 4.53%
Mario vs. Donkey Kong: 2.11%

Best Of 2005: Game Of The Year (Final):

Super Smash Bros. Clash: 44.13%
Blackheart 4: 37.65%
Super Mario Dimensions: 18.22%

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December 31, 2005

Steve Jobs and several members of the Apple development team watched Microsoft's live press conference on a large, projected screen at Apple's HQ. They watched as the Xbox 2 was revealed and as its basic capabilities were demonstrated, and when it was over, Jobs clapped. He was genuinely impressed by the new console's visuals, and while the fact that it used HD-DVD technology wasn't a surprise to him, he admitted that it was the smart thing for Microsoft to do, as Nintendo would inevitably have beaten them senseless in the next console generation if they hadn't.

“We've honestly got our work cut out for us,” said Jobs, facing his team. “That console, and, I imagine, Nintendo's console, will have more powerful graphics processors than Project Pippin. Not by much, mind you, I imagine Pippin will be able to play most if not all of the games their consoles will, but... from a graphics standpoint, they have us beat.”

Jobs and his team had been working on Pippin throughout the year, and in fine-tuning the new console and how it would look and play, they'd come to the decision that it would eschew top of the line graphics technology. It would be a powerful console: Jobs insisted that it be able to process 100 gigaFLOPs, and it was likely going to come in at somewhere around 180, but nothing they'd run on it thus far was comparable to the Xbox 2's Spider-Man or Half-Life 2 demos.

“But we're going to have the best games,” said one of the developers.

“Exactly,” replied Jobs, “and people will be able to play them in vastly different ways than they can on the Xbox 2.”

The developers had produced a console utilizing a new type of controller. It would have motion controls, but motion controls wouldn't be the focus of the console, merely an option to augment the traditional control scheme featured in most games. Jobs wanted to give players more options than ever before, all under the umbrella of Apple and their new game device, which in turn would be augmented by Apple's new handheld device that would presumably be released around the same time.

So while Jobs and his team were impressed by the Xbox 2, they weren't intimidated. In fact, Jobs was almost pleased that Microsoft had chosen to go the “Xbox, but more” route with their new console. It left him free to do something completely different.

“About the name,” said Jobs, getting a burst of inspiration. “We were originally going to call it the Pippin, but that's not a good name for a game console at all. We need something iconic, to represent what our new game console stands for.”

Jobs continued as his team looked on, a couple of the developers jotting down notes as he spoke.

“This year at E3, we're going to introduce the world to the Apple iTwin.”

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Interactive Entertainment Awards 2005:

Game Of The Year: Blackheart 4
Console Game Of The Year: Blackheart 4
Computer Game Of The Year: Civilization IV
Action/Adventure Game Of The Year: Stranded
Family Game Of The Year: Super Smash Bros. Clash
Massively Multiplayer Game Of The Year: Final Fantasy Online
Handheld Game Of The Year: Into The Lost
Racing Game Of The Year: Forza Motorsport
Role Playing Game Of The Year: Reverie Of Mana
Shooter Game Of The Year: Blackheart 4
Strategy/Simulation Game Of The Year: Civilization IV
Sports Game Of The Year: NHL 2006
Fighting Game Of The Year: Super Smash Bros. Clash
Outstanding Art Direction: Haze
Outstanding Vocal Performance: Patrick Stewart as Julius Caesar in Civilization IV (Male), Lana Parrilla as Sadira Blackheart in Blackheart 4 (Female)
Outstanding Animation: Blackheart 4
Outstanding Game Design: Civilization IV
Outstanding Gameplay Engineering: Blackheart 4
Outstanding Innovation: Guitar Hero
Outstanding Online Gameplay: Civilization IV
Outstanding Original Music: Civilization IV
Outstanding Sound Design: Battlefield 2
Outstanding Story: For God And Country
Outstanding Visual Engineering: Blackheart 4

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GameRankings Top 25 Games Of 2005 (only games newly released or significantly remade in 2005 are included, multiplatform releases are averaged)

1. Blackheart 4: 94.55%
2. Civilization IV: 93.90%
3. Stranded: 93.77%
4. Lash Out: 93.01%
5. Full Metal Alchemist: 92.72%
6. Fated To Rise: 92.71%
7. Into The Lost: 92.60%
8. Super Smash Bros. Clash: 92.54%
9. Guitar Hero: 92.52%
10. Star Siren Nakama: 92.04%
11. For God And Country: 91.99%
12. Pop-Pop-Po-Pop: 91.86%
13. Velvet Dark: Conspiracy: 91.80%
14. Vintage Football Challenge: 91.74%
15. Endotherm: 91.66%
16. Animal Farm: 91.56%
17. Battlefield 2: 91.51%
18. Haze: 91.40%
19. Sekai no Monogatari: 91.30%
20. Battle Engine Aquila 2: 91.24%
21. Divine Wrath 3: 90.80%
22. Twin Cities: 90.62%
23. Forza Motorsport: 90.54%
24. NHL 2006: 90.41%
25. Quake 4: 90.11%

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2005 was the year when the game industry began to transition from its sixth generation to its seventh. The first of the next-gen consoles, the Xbox 2, was teased that year at E3, and the year also saw many games that pushed the sixth-gen consoles, even the Wave, to their limits. Titles like Blackheart 4, For God And Country, and Velvet Dark: Conspiracy showed just what the Wave and Xbox could do, while largely leaving Apple's Katana in the dust.

And yet, Nintendo showed no signs of slowing down with their Wave. It was the youngest of the three consoles, and still had a lot of potential left to unlock, but even Nintendo was rumored to be working on something new, and with their competition's new consoles looming on the horizon, it seemed only a matter of time before Nintendo, along with their now joined at the hip partner Sony, would unveil something as well.

It was a huge year for handhelds, with the iPod Play continuing to impress and the Supernova releasing to a great deal of fanfare. With 2006 possibly being a transition year, it seemed that one of the two handhelds could step into the spotlight in a big way, and in fact, that's exactly what one of them did, showing perhaps for the first time that handheld gaming had the potential to elevate itself to the epic heights of its console big brothers. The only question was: which handheld would it be?

But even as one handheld would thrust itself into the glorious spotlight, E3 2006 was shaping up to be one for the ages, with a pair of console reveals that would determine the course of not only the next generation, but the next decade of gaming to come...

-”The History Of Console Gaming: Year-By-Year (Part 9)”, Wired.com, posted on July 17, 2012
 
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Deleted member 100251

Wow. Just wow. I am amazed. The Xbox 2 is a beast in terms of hardware.
Microsoft really won the year, it's kind of refreshing.
The iTwin is practically ITTL's Wii and Switch. (Well it's handheld counterpart looks like it's somehow connected to it so...)
Hoping the Blu-Ray still wins against the HD-DVD ITTL.
Spectacular update and year! Can't wait to see what 2006 has to offer!
 
BTW, feel free to speculate on the iTwin, though we're not going to reveal its EXACT nature until E3 2006 when it's formally unveiled.

Oh, and now that 2005's over, I want to show off something I put together.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZIYxKEIHmVmR32BAizq6toLxKF64OkKc

Similar to the soundtrack we did for Player Two Start, here's Massively Multiplayer: The Soundtrack (Volume One). It's a playlist of 20 songs from the 2000-2005 era, from both games and pop culture, to capture the mood and some of the games of the timeline. Some of the songs (like the Sonic Heroes theme) don't actually exist ITTL, but the Sonic Heroes theme does give an idea of what we imagined the Sonic Blaze theme to sound like. Ultimately, all these songs are probably different from IOTL in some way because of butterflies, but hopefully you still get plenty of nostalgia feels listening to them.
 
Okay, Microsoft's going all in on the hd dvd now. Is the capacity for the discs still 15gb?
Yes as OTL but iirc Toshiba did tried to be 17 pero layer( they pulled it for the unreleased triple layer 51GB disc) would butterflies help for the 17? If not as otl So games can use dual layered 30GB as OTL.
 
I hope the iTwin will use Blu-Ray, because Apple did join the Blu-Ray Disc Association in 2005 OTL and it would make sense for them to support the format for their next gen console.
 

AeroTheZealousOne

Monthly Donor
Nice, I expected Civ IV to do well, but that was actually quite awesome and pleasant. Patrick Stewart voicing Caesar? Now that's something.

Massively Multiplayer, The Soundtrack (Volume 1)? I was actually going to ask about if we would get something like that!

Sweet update, even sweeter games!
 
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