Opinion Your 1999 GOTY (System Shock 2, Age of Empires II, Planescape, Quake III)

[Bonfires Down]

Any expansions or DLC count as being part of the base game.

'99 did not have as many high impact games as '98, but the overall quality might be just as high. Lots of strategy classics here plus the UT vs Q3 battle and MMOs going mainstream.

Edit: Shenmue was apparently 2000 in the west, but it stays in this list now.

Honorable mentions:
Dino Crisis
Sonic Adventure
Midtown Madness
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun
SimCity 3000
Total Annihilation: Kingdoms
Donkey Kong 64
Harvest Moon 64
Rayman 2: The Great Escape
Wipeout 3
Pokemon Snap
Omikron: The Nomad Soul
Crash Team Racing
Crazy Taxi
Mario Party
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater
Syphon Filter
Descent 3
Ape Escape
Septerra Core
Kingpin: Life of Crime
Ultima IX: Ascension
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
Star Ocean: The Second Story
Gabriel Knight 3
Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation
Jet Force Gemini
Star Trek: Birth of the Federation
Pharaoh
Might & Magic VII
Grandia
Driver
Worms: Armageddon
Star Wars Episode 1: Racer

 

[Kurt Russell]

Can't go wrong with Planescape: Torment. I think Disco Elysium finally surpassed it, but for 20 years it was THE RPG to beat.

 

[freshVeggie]

Homeworld was mindblowing. Hard to explain how incredible the atmosphere and real 3D strategy was.

But there can only be one, and that's Alien vs Predator. All three campaigns played very different, but awesome in their own ways. A real gem

 

[low-G]

1999 was the start of the downward turn in gaming IMO. Now obviously it still had a bunch of great games, and I still have fun, but the glory of the 90's is defined by the years up to 1999.

1999 still has Everquest, one of my top 10 games of all time, which I voted for.

Hydro Thunder (Dreamcast) is also up there for me. It's one of my top ~500 games of all time, but I understand why it might not make the list.

This list has one glaring mainstream omission, Soul Calibur, which was release for home on Dreamcast in 1999 (both Japan & USA, I imported it months before the US release). It's not one of my favorite games today, but I know a lot of people still hold it in very high regard.

Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 were both huge. I didn't have a PC capable of playing Unreal Tournament well until 2001 or 2002.

FWIW I would say some of these entries are actually bad. Asheron's Call, for example, I find borderline offensively terrible, even if it's highly nostalgic. Also not a fan of Street Fighter 3 nor Homeworld... There's some others I might pick a bone over, too. But regardless this is a list for things we loved.

 

[Bonfires Down]

This list has one glaring mainstream omission, Soul Calibur, which was release for home on Dreamcast in 1999 (both Japan & USA, I imported it months before the US release). It's not one of my favorite games today, but I know a lot of people still hold it in very high regard.

From what I could tell it was released in arcades in '98, so I put on that list.

I don't know anything about Asheron's Call except that a fair few people are all nostalgic about it.

 

[Alextended]

Dreamcast game as I mentioned in the other thread barely resembles the original arcade release.

Worth clarifying that version of Soulcalibur wasn't as seen on DC but a namco system 12 game that looked like a fancied up with details/effects Tekken 3.

Still cool obviously, it's the same gameplay exactly after all. But that Dreamcast port was a remake!

 

[Li Kao]

I have been waiting for this one.
Planescape.

One of my greatest video game memory. One of my greatest failure too. One fucking point short to unlock the red herring of the game. I still don’t know what was in it. I should replay the game but, as everybody who has played it know, that’s no small task

Oh, little shiny ball.

 

[Oldschool PC]

What's incredible about 1999 is how many of these games still have active online and modding communities after 20 years.

Age of Empires 2, CnC: Tiberian Sun, Everquest, Quake 3, Unreal Tournament, Worms: Armageddon - Can still find online games quite easily
Freespace 2, Jagged Alliance 2, Homeworld, HoMM3 - Hundreds of hours worth of total conversion mods and user campaigns

Discworld Noir, Planescape: Torment, System Shock 2, Suikoden 2, and The Longest Journey have very large cult followings as well. In terms of raw number of classics released, 1999 has every other year beaten.

 

[Kandrick]

This is by far the easiest choice i had to make for these threads.

Voted Everquest.

There was Ultima Online, and then came Everquest. Still my favorite MMO to date. So many memories, so much time spent playing, so many friends made. I still hop by P99 servers sometimes, and the game itself is still as good as it ever was. The game had so much charm. Everything about the zones, the races ( old models ), the mobs, the raid bosses, the whole feel of game was something else. We had 3D online games before, like Meridian 59, but nothing came close to the scale and quality of Everquest's world. Getting online and seeing all the other players and npcs around in that massive world with huge zones was just something else.

I still remember all the time spent grinding and farming in Guk or Sebilis among others zones, while chating with people in the group, the zone in OOC chat and the guild. I also still have fond memories of my first raids in Plane of Hate and Plane of Fear, so many wipes, so much fun, even while having to do corpse runs naked. Aaah. the corpse runs, dying in the game actually meant something, you'd lose xp and your gear stayed on your corpse, which made for fun run backs, especially if you were camping deep in a dungeon, not to mention the chance of dying again on the way back! I miss it, really, i do. And what about seeing Lord Nagafen and Lady Vox upclose for the first time as we either charged into their lair or had our monks pull them in, you'd start hearing their roars getting closer, everyone getting ready to engage, that was so exhilarating. Also so many server firsts raid kills in Kunark, Velious and also later on in Luclin and Planes of Power. I miss the old days of non instanced content in MMOs. I understand why they don't do it anymore, but MMOSs nowadays are more like a singleplayer game except for raiding. I loved that you had to socialise with people and group for stuff before.

Everquest is easily one of my top 5 games of all time, maybe even top 1 honestly, and easily has my vote for this year.

 

[Bonfires Down]

This is by far the easiest choice i had to make for these threads.

Voted Everquest.

There was Ultima Online, and then came Everquest. Still my favorite MMO to date. So many memories, so much time spent playing, so many friends made. I still hop by P99 servers sometimes, and the game itself is still as good as it ever was. The game had so much charm. Everything about the zones, the races ( old models ), the mobs, the raid bosses, the whole feel of game was something else. We had 3D online games before, like Meridian 59, but nothing came close to the scale and quality of Everquest's world. Getting online and seeing all the other players and npcs around in that massive world with huge zones was just something else.

I still remember all the time spent grinding and farming in Guk or Sebilis among others zones, while chating with people in the group, the zone in OOC chat and the guild. I also still have fond memories of my first raids in Plane of Hate and Plane of Fear, so many wipes, so much fun, even while having to do corpse runs naked. Aaah. the corpse runs, dying in the game actually meant something, you'd lose xp and your gear stayed on your corpse, which made for fun run backs, especially if you were camping deep in a dungeon, not to mention the chance of dying again on the way back! I miss it, really, i do. And what about seeing Lord Nagafen and Lady Vox upclose for the first time as we either charged into their lair or had our monks pull them in, you'd start hearing their roars getting closer, everyone getting ready to engage, that was so exhilarating. Also so many server firsts raid kills in Kunark, Velious and also later on in Luclin and Planes of Power. I miss the old days of non instanced content in MMOs. I understand why they don't do it anymore, but MMOSs nowadays are more like a singleplayer game except for raiding. I loved that you had to socialise with people and group for stuff before.

Everquest is easily one of my top 5 games of all time, maybe even top 1 honestly, and easily has my vote for this year.

I’ve never been into MMOs so this is what I see when I hear stories about them.

 

[Li Kao]

Yeah, must have been mindblowing at the time, but it was pre-adsl in France and Internet wasn't cheap so I didn't have the pleasure either.

 

[Tizoc]

No Crash Team racing?
No vote from me.

 

[Le Pertti]

My mind is blown mostly from realising that all these games came out the same year! I could have sworn they were like at minimum years apart.

 

[KainXVIII]

Voxel goodness

And score performed by Moscow Symphony Orchestra

And nasty easter egg

 

[fearthedawn]

What's incredible about 1999 is how many of these games still have active online and modding communities after 20 years.

Age of Empires 2, CnC: Tiberian Sun, Everquest, Quake 3, Unreal Tournament, Worms: Armageddon - Can still find online games quite easily
Freespace 2, Jagged Alliance 2, Homeworld, HoMM3 - Hundreds of hours worth of total conversion mods and user campaigns

Discworld Noir, Planescape: Torment, System Shock 2, Suikoden 2, and The Longest Journey have very large cult followings as well. In terms of raw number of classics released, 1999 has every other year beaten.

I don't see 99 as weaker at all, might be the best year in gaming ever for me personally. There are 13(!) games screaming for my one vote and the list for honorable mentions looks stronger than some full years do.

My vote goes to UT'99, because for my group of friends, that's the one game we can always agree on playing, been that way for more than 20 years now.

 

[Dandy]

Gotta be Everquest for me. It was insanely immersive for me at the time. This was back when MMORPGs were still relatively unknown, and exploring a huge, complex world with my brother and my best friend was so much fun.

Honorable mentions for Planescape: Torment, and The Longest Journey.

At the time of its release, Plansecape was a HUGE disappointment for me. I wanted Baldur's Gate set in the Planescape multiverse(my favourite CRPG at the time, crossed with my favorite TTRPG setting), but the set protagonist(I wanted to play my bauriar cleric damn it) really turned me off from getting it right away. I've still only played through it once, and while I recognize it as a hugely important game, I don't hold it up as high as most CRPG fans.

 

[Swenhir]

What a crazy year 1999 was.

Outcast, Homeworld, Planescape Torment, Freespace 2, Quake 3, AoE 2... I can't even begin to choose one among them. Technically? Quake III hands down. In hours played? A tie between Q3 and AoE 2.

But in terms of impact and sheer emotions when I played it... Homeworld. Not only because it was a brilliant RTS in terms of tactics, AI, combat philosophy and the sheer aesthetic of its gameplay but because it had one of the most compelling stories in an RTS to date. Because the manual had 40 pages establishing the world. Because it had cinematics that had great photography and art behind them.

That game was a complete package in a way no strategy game - almost any game - had been before. The remaster, as good-looking as it was, didn't quite capture that brilliance of tactics and intensity of fighting for resources and, at long last, going home.

 

[ISee]

I’ve never been into MMOs so this is what I see when I hear stories about them.

You just wait for 2003. The year Star Wars Galaxies released.
The hype and the sense of community the game had. Never stumbled into anything similar ever again.

Spoiler

don't worry, I won't

 

[kio]

1998 had a lot of great games and is generally considered to be one of the best. or even the best, years in gaming but my personal pick for best year is 1999.
The sheer volume of great and genre defining games that released in that year is mindblowing. At the end of the day my vote has to go towards the greatest RPG ever made and my personal #1 game of all time - Planescape: Torment.

 

[m_dorian]

Planescape wins it easily for me but I have spent many hours building pyramids in Pharaoh.

 

[Digoman]

Ooofff... lots of good games. Planescape speaks for itself but it actually isn't my top choice.

I was friends with the owner of a LAN house at the time and "traded" tech support for free gaming so I played a lot of Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament. Very good memories of it but the environment plays a heavy bias here.

Freespace 2 was very good, but if I'm being honest I was more of "Wing Commander" guy back then. I only "discovered" System Shock 2 a few years later and while it is a incredible game, it never clicked with me the same way it did to others. Outcast was also something else. The "weird" graphics, the music, the interactions. Had a great time with it but honestly can't remember any specifics about the story.

Aliens vs Predator (PC). One of the few rare cases that I'm glad I played a game without quicksaves (before they patched it in). Playing the marine campaign in the dark, with 4 speakers is something I can still recall very vividly. Had to take breaks because my heart was racing. The other campaigns were not as intense but very interesting in their own ways.

But, as I look at the list in the OP, there is just one game I can pick. Homeworld. That game got everything right for me. The 3D RTS gameplay was refreshing and well done. The sound design superb, with sound effects and music that greatly enhanced what the game was trying to do. The "simple" 3D graphics (in comparison with other games of the time) actually blended together with gorgeous backgrounds and made for very beautiful game. And then to story. Also told using simple tools but it worked so well. The incredible narration, using the feeling of the isolation the gameplay provided, and (again) the music.... oh the music.

It all fits together as an amazing experience, that I can remember in almost every detail (even before playing the remasters) so many years later.

Sooooo many good memories of it... until remembering that the license is now with Gearbox.... fuck

 

[Stevey]

RE3 Nemesis for me.
Loved this on my Playstation

 

[QFNS]

Fuck having to choose between Planescape Torment (an all time classic) and Suikoden 2 (a personal favorite) is really hard.

I'm going to pick Suikoden but I understand why it's gonna do poorly in this poll.

Hey Konami, where's the PC release??!?!?!

 

[low-G]

You just wait for 2003. The year Star Wars Galaxies released.
The hype and the sense of community the game had. Never stumbled into anything similar ever again.

Best first 3 weeks of a MMO ever.

 

[Swenhir]

To the one person who voted Outcast : I see you and I like you .

 

[Alextended]

Have to say some of the selections are weird. Rollecage in the votes but Wipeout 3 in honorable mentions? But I wouldn't vote for either anyway, just saying.

Though some might have voted for Soul Reaver, Dino Crisis and others.

 

[Wibblewozzer]

I'm sad I'm the only vote for Chrono Cross, the superior Chrono product. But it was a tough pick. Suikoden II is a fine alternate option. And I ultimately could have gone Unreal Tournament, too, as I played a ton of it back in the day but it also is what got me interested in trying out making maps and a little bit of 3D modeling. So it really had a larger impact on me out of the rest.

But I love Chrono Cross and still consider it one of the best games ever so it ends up with my vote.

 

[Bonfires Down]

I'm sad I'm the only vote for Chrono Cross, the superior Chrono product. But it was a tough pick. Suikoden II is a fine alternate option. And I ultimately could have gone Unreal Tournament, too, as I played a ton of it back in the day but it also is what got me interested in trying out making maps and a little bit of 3D modeling. So it really had a larger impact on me out of the rest.

But I love Chrono Cross and still consider it one of the best games ever so it ends up with my vote.

Well, there are two of you now

 

[ScreamingTrees]

I picked X-Wing Alliance. Loved playing through that game. Was disappointed with X-Wing vs Tie Fighter but found Alliance a return to better single player gameplay.

System Shock 2 would've been a very close second

 

[QFNS]

Chrono Cross has an unbelievably good soundtrack. The other parts of the game... not so good. I love the game as a thing, but I'm not picking it over these other all time greats on this list.

 

[Wildebeet]

Of course 1999 was such a strong year for games. Everybody thought the world was going to end! You had to make your best stuff, because Y2K was gonna end PC gaming forever. Kids would be playing simcity with pebbles in the rubble. If you made games, 1999 was the last chance.

Personally, this was where I started to have too damn many games. In 1999 I got both a PSX and a Dreamcast, and had a N64 and a real computer. So that was a lot of games.

I'm gonna go Roller Coaster Tycoon. First time I saw that game, I bought it (at a grocery store!), and played it with a few friends until 7AM the next day. We all took turns making stuff. I had never seen anything like it. RCT and RCT2 feel very old now, but check out Parkitect as a great continuation that really gets it.

Wanted to choose:
Homeworld
Alpha Centauri
Simcity 3k
Crazy Taxi
Soulcalibur (DC version)
C&C Tiberian Sun (best C&C game, very excited about the remake)
Chrono Cross (I don't think it's better than Trigger, but if you take it on its own, it is a great PSX RPG)


I didn't realize how good a year 1999 was until this poll. Lots of games on the Honorable Mention list are worthy of GOTY.

 

[ISee]

Nobody taking the only logical choice:

1. Jagged Alliance 2.

2. Planescape
3. Alien versus Predator (best LAN party game ever)


Disappointment(s) of the year:

1,. Ultima 9.
The game launched in such a bad state that it needs to be shamed to this very day.

2. C&C 3.
First game I remember having a very passionate "bullshot" (downgrade in today's linguistic) discussion. Game was advertised with better looking graphics than what was released. It was mostly photoshoped explosions, muzzle flashes, tank/car tracks, colors were changed, it was slightly more detailed etc.

 

[5taquitos]

Suikoden II, although I wouldn't discover it until two years later. Easily my favorite JRPG of all time, and because of it I've gotten 108 Stars on all of them, some of them multiple times.

And now I'm sad there will never be a Suikoden VI.

Very close runners-up are Alpha Centauri, Dungeon Keeper 2, and Freespace 2.

 

[Bonfires Down]

Good to see such a wide variety of choices. I try to order the games roughly in order of how popular I percieve them to be, but I obviously misjudged how many votes Rollercoaster Tycoon, Everquest and Shenmue would get here.

Unfortunately there are too many games released each year at this point to include every game that deserves a spot in the poll.

Next up will be a Game of the Decade 1990-1999 thread.

 

[Durante]

Suikoden 2 is easily one of my favourite JRPGs of all time, but it's going up against Planescape: Torment here, which is not "one of", but simply my favourite game of any kind of all time.

So that was easy.