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PC Games (Games)

2004 Indie Games of the Year 318

Posted by michael from the think-outside-the-xbox dept.
cyrus_zuo writes "For all those who think that the best games that came out this year were all sequels Game Tunnel presents a different angle on things with their 2004 Independent Game of the Year awards. For those who believe that the best game this year was that badly named expansion pack that they have the nerve to call Halo 2, check out the awards for a different side of gaming than you are used to."
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2004 Indie Games of the Year More

2004 Indie Games of the Year

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  • Unneeded comment (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Albert Pussyjuice ( 675113 ) on Friday December 31, 2004 @09:33PM (#11231715) Homepage Journal
    "For those who believe that the best game this year was that badly named expansion pack that they have the nerve to call Halo 2, check out the awards for a different side of gaming than you are used to."
    cyrus_zuo, Save the comments on the article for the comments section please.

    • Re:Unneeded comment (Score:2, Informative)

      by Starji ( 578920 )
      That was quoted from the article.

    • Re:Unneeded comment (Score:4, Insightful)

      by saltydogdesign ( 811417 ) on Friday December 31, 2004 @10:11PM (#11231860)

      For all those who think that the best games that came out this year were all sequels...

      Strike this -- you can't know who this list is meant for.

      Game Tunnel presents a different angle...

      "Different angle" is a matter of opinion.

      on things with their 2004 Independent Game of the Year awards. For those who believe that the best game this year was that badly named expansion pack that they have the nerve to call Halo 2...

      Opinions have no place here.

      check out the awards for a different side of gaming than you are used to.

      How can the writer know what side of gaming I am used to?

      Finally, my edited introduction:

      Game Tunnel presents their 2004 Independent Game of the Year awards.

      Wouldn't Slashdot be so much better like that? Then we wouldn't have to skim the comments of some boob nitpicking the editors for trying to produce non-cardboard prose.
      • Slashpedia!

      • Re:Unneeded comment (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Rakarra ( 112805 ) * on Saturday January 01, 2005 @04:42AM (#11232820)
        Game Tunnel presents their 2004 Independent Game of the Year awards.

        Wouldn't Slashdot be so much better like that? Then we wouldn't have to skim the comments of some boob nitpicking the editors for trying to produce non-cardboard prose.

        But that's not what the introduction is supposed to be for on Slashdot. It's supposed to tittilate and engage the reader, leap out and shout "this is for you!" whether it really is or not. It's marketing.

      • Re:Unneeded comment (Score:3, Interesting)

        by gad_zuki! ( 70830 )
        >Wouldn't Slashdot be so much better like that?

        Are you kidding. A whole bunch of people come here for the OSS kiddie 'tude. Another interpretation of the post would be "Screw MS and its popular Xbox game!"

        Yeah it would be better, but it would lose readers and I doubt the editors have it in them to be even-handed about anything. They are simply advocates and dont want to change their roles.

        Like I wrote, there's an allure to going someplace where the editors have the same bias you do. Same with politic
      • You don't realise that comments like that increase the chances for a submission to be accepted.
    • Save the comments on the article for the comments section please.

      Are you new here?

    • Re:Unneeded comment (Score:5, Interesting)

      by nz17 ( 601809 ) on Saturday January 01, 2005 @05:24AM (#11232881) Homepage
      You know, we often hear the old hash of a joke about Slashdot readers not reading the linked articles. On one hand I can understand this, because they are often Slashdotted. However, just because they can't be read by a viewer does not mean that those said viewers should then make comments about the article site unseen.

      For example, Albert Pussyjuice (675113) here gripes about "For those who believe that the best game this year was that badly named expansion pack that they have the nerve to call Halo 2, check out the awards for a different side of gaming than you are used to," being a comment by cyrus_zuo. Well, Mr. PJ, if you were to even cursorily glimpse the actual article you would seen that this is a direct quotation from the first paragraph in the linked article. Amazing, isn't is, what an ass a minor convenience has made you to be!

      Then there is saltydogdesign (811417)'s comments in a sister post where he breaks down the initial paragraph of the article into pieces and lamblasts the author. Well let's read that paragraph in whole again:

      "For all those who think that the best games that came out this year were all sequels prepare to open your mind. For those who believe that the best game this year was that badly named expansion pack that they have the nerve to call Halo 2, you are about to see a different piece of gaming than you are used to."

      As one can see when he stops to obsorb the actual meaning of this paragraph, he can see that the author is addressing those whom believe the best games of this year were sequels such as _Halo 2_. saltydogdesign somehow takes this personally though he is obviously not the group that the opening paragraph is addressed to. The point of the linked Web site's author's writing of the column is to hopefully "wake up" those he considers "in the dark" about the other side of gaming, the small, independent studios' games rather than the large juggernaut publisher's games.

      Albert Pussyjuice, saltydogdesign, and others like them would be better off if they would not attack Slashdot for posting opinions in the article summaries when they themselves don't read the article. Often the articles summaries are either partially or in whole taken from the original article anyway.

      So I propose we all make a deal: when we as the Slashdot viewers start reading the featured sites' content before posting comments then we can complain about the admins duping and posting false stories and opinions because they did not RTFA themselves.

  • Server dying (Score:4, Informative)

    by kschawel ( 823163 ) <(xc.hta.il) (ta) (todhsals)> on Friday December 31, 2004 @09:38PM (#11231734)
    The server is just crawling after just one comment.
    I think the mirrordot [mirrordot.com] mirror will work better.

  • Halo 2 (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    It was great, more than I had hoped for.

    I can accept trolling in comments, but the fact that this article was accepted as is makes me cringe.
    • You must not have been hoping for much, then. Even so, I would agree that trolling like that doesn't really belong in an article blurb, but there's one problem: This particular blurb is quoted verbatim from the article. Seeing people who won't even read the first paragraph of the article that they're discussing complain about the lack of editing at /. is hilarious.

      Rob

  • Independant (Score:5, Insightful)

    by FiReaNGeL ( 312636 ) <.moc.liamtoh. .ta. .l3gnaerif.> on Friday December 31, 2004 @09:39PM (#11231741) Homepage
    If anything, it shows the power of marketing : these all appear to be good, original and fun games (except for the 3-4 rehashes of old games such as Marbles and Arkanoid), but I NEVER heard of them ANYWHERE. Which doesn't help me to buy them... which doesn't help the independant programmers of these gems... which doesn't help them to pay for marketing I guess. Vicious circle indeed.

    I managed to get to the end of the list before a complete Slashdot (happened while I downloaded a top10 game... BreakQuest. Irony?). GISH, the Tarball adventure game is first, and it deserve it. Fun, VERY original gameplay and VERY challenging. Free demo available too [chroniclogic.com].

    • Re:Independant (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      GISH, the Tarball adventure game
      I play that one everyday, hmmm is it -xvzf or wait, was that -xvjf?

    • Re:Independant (Score:2, Insightful)

      by age of reason ( 845243 )
      I never heard of any of these games before and that might even be the worst thing to say about them. A lot of games that come from one of the big players aren`t any good, but whenever they realease something decent it definately will find a quite big audience. But when it comes to those independent game developers there seems to be a high chance that even if they produce a really decent game nobody will ever hear about it. That said, if you enjoy turn-based strategy games, you should give Battle of Wesnoth

    • Re:Independant (Score:5, Insightful)

      by stratjakt ( 596332 ) on Friday December 31, 2004 @10:25PM (#11231904) Journal
      Why doesnt the games section in slashdot cover this kind of stuff?

      All it discusses are Doom 3, Half Life 2, Halo 2, and the odd update to WineX that lets yet another big commercial Windows title run under linux.

      I guess I don't understand what motivates /. in general. They have a lot of eyes watching, but don't really use that to the general advantage of OSS.

      To me, new and good indie games, or hell - any good game I've never heard of is true "news for nerds". SCO v IBM is "news for IP lawyers".

  • My Favorite is... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Return of Slashdot IV: Death of a Server

  • What a crap choice (Score:3, Funny)

    by Nine Tenths of The W ( 829559 ) on Friday December 31, 2004 @09:45PM (#11231766)
    For those who believe that the best game this year was that badly named expansion pack that they have the nerve to call Halo 2,

    It was obviously the $40m tech demo called Half Life 2
    • >It was obviously the $40m tech demo called Half Life 2

      Which is probably one the best games I've played. Excellent visuals and an excellent story. I don't usually replay games, but I've found myself re-doing the urban combat part of HL2 to fight those striders and take another tour of the citadel. Amazing stuff.

      A couple thoughts:

      Indie works great when a small group can accomplish what a large commercial group can, like in indie music or free software. The instruments/computers, recording studio/compi

  • Halo 2 Rules (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Agret ( 752467 ) <alias.zero2097@g ... inus threevowels> on Friday December 31, 2004 @09:45PM (#11231767) Homepage Journal
    Halo 2 had more hype than any other game there was no way it would live up to the hype so I just ignored all the hype. The game was brilliant, heaps better than the first one. There was almost vehicles in every level. There were a few too many ghosts but that was a good thing I got to hijack lots of people. It is playable online with a ping of 300 to a US server and it also has awesome LAN play. I don't see how that could let anyone down!

  • get off it (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mikeg22 ( 601691 ) on Friday December 31, 2004 @09:47PM (#11231780)
    For those who believe that the best game this year was that badly named expansion pack that they have the nerve to call Halo 2...

    Oh for god's sake. Halo 2 had revamped graphics, sound, a completely new single player campaign and XBOX Live support. What is your definition of a sequel anyways?

    • Re:get off it (Score:3, Insightful)

      by VividU ( 175339 )
      You must understand, Halo and Halo2 have acheived a sort of symbolic status here on Slashdot as the game offends both camps of "M$" hater:

      First, the Linuxites who can't stand the fact that the Xbox is both cool and a great success (reread early Xbox posts). You see, to them, Microsoft can't do anything right, and so therefore, those who think the Xbox is a good console and Halo a good game are "overhyped" or not true gamers. This despite the fact that both Halo and Halo2 have achieved Game of the Year awar

      • Re:get off it (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Lisandro ( 799651 )
        Oh, come on, let's be fair for a second: Halo & Halo 2 are very well done, fun games, but they're basically regular FPSs (granted; on consoles, where usually FPSs don't work that well). There're a ton of MUCH better games in the genre, for consoles and other platforms, notably the PC.

        The hype surrounding them is, IMHO, due to the fact that for a lot of "newbie" gamers is their first approach to a modern FPS, even when it's lacking on some areas. For newcomers is very easy to pick up, and stays fun b

        • Re:get off it (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Xzzy ( 111297 ) <`gro.h7urt' `ta' `rehtes'> on Saturday January 01, 2005 @12:12AM (#11232191) Homepage
          > Halo & Halo 2 are very well done, fun games, but they're basically regular FPSs

          No, they are the pinnacle of refinement in the "old school" style of FPS. Gripes about the single player story are probably valid in a lot of cases, but the multiplayer feels just like playing Doom back in the day, except it's matured in the same way you'd expect aged wine to.

          Having been a gamer on both PC and consoles for almost 20 years now I'm not a "newbie" gamer in any sense of the word, and the implication that the only way to enjoy Halo is because it's "easy to pick up" is pure rubbish.

          The cautiously balanced weapons and solid feel of the environment is the state of the art, it takes all the classic elements of FPS that causes us to recall Doom or Marathon with fondness and sharpens them to a glistening point. Halo gave it to us on a LAN, Halo2 brought it online.
          • If you are an ex-PC gamer, you probably know that Halo (1 & 2) are subpar when put against a lot of games on it. Multiplayer? UT2K4. Single player? Half Life. Both? Painkiller.

            Again, Halo IS fun, and IS well made, but's nowhere close of being the ultimate FPS experience some claim it to be.

            • If you are an ex-PC gamer, you probably know that Halo (1 & 2) are subpar when put against a lot of games on it. Multiplayer? UT2K4. Single player? Half Life. Both? Painkiller.

              The first two games are acceptable recommendations since they are more specialized - however, you should note that one of the two games was only available after Halo 1 and couldn't be played.

              Painkiller, on the other hand, isn't strictly a good replacement game for singleplayer, mainly because it uses a different subclass of an

      • When /.ers heard that M$ is losing money on Xbox, it was hackable, and that linux could be ported to it, I think it became a favorite- especially in contrast to Gamecube- (although GClinux is making headway) Secondly, "Mac people" aren't really interested in the latest games. If they were, they wouldn't be buying macs. The fact that you've been modded as insightful just proves to me how lame /. can get.
      • Xbox is both cool and a great success

        Hey, I'm sure its a great, fun console, but doesn't something have to turn a profit to be called a success? Unless it's an exercise in predatory pricing...

  • What's the exact definition of indy? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Nine Tenths of The W ( 829559 ) on Friday December 31, 2004 @09:52PM (#11231801)
    Self published? Made by a non public company? Made by part time developers? Published by a company with revenue of less than x per year? No advance/royalties only? Budget of less than y?

    • Re:What's the exact definition of indy? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by ggambett ( 611421 ) on Friday December 31, 2004 @10:17PM (#11231880) Homepage
      We usually mean "self-funded", in essence. This more or less captures the "indie" spirit in that publishers don't control you or impose creative limitations, which is what most people complain about the retail industry.

      This definition is somewhat problematic, because you don't usually think of Id Software as an indie developer, although it is, according to this definition. For most indies the definition is accurate though.
    • How about "no titles sold at Wal-Mart"?

  • GISH (Score:2, Insightful)

    by mikeg22 ( 601691 )
    I agree, GISH is an excellent game, but its a sidescroller, not a traditional adventure game. I love both genres and hope they make a comeback, possibly with the help of these independent developers.

  • Meh (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SilentChris ( 452960 ) on Friday December 31, 2004 @09:58PM (#11231821) Homepage
    Some of us like big-budget games made by major studios (*cough* World of Warcraft *cough*) because the artwork, sense of "success" and even gameplay is plain old better. Same reason why we flock to New Line's version of Lord of the Rings instead of watching the old hobbit cartoon -- it's just higher quality.

    • Re:Meh (Score:3, Insightful)

      by ggambett ( 611421 )
      I'd say gameplay is different, not better per se. Indies usually target casual gamers, as opposed to hardcore gamers, so the gameplay must be different. A hardcore gamer can spend hours at a time playing a RPG with lots of text to read, but the stereotypical soccer mom just wants a quick 5 minute game. You can't expect a similar level of "commitment" from such different demographics.
      • Well, actually, no. A very large number of MMORPG players are "soccer moms". Almost half of Everquest players are women.

        • Re:Meh (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Mornelithe ( 83633 )
          I don't think you understand the definition of "soccer mom". It's not synonymous with "woman".

          Do you really mean that a "very large number of MMORPG players" are middle-aged, trendy, suburban mothers?
          • The definition of most EQ players I've heard is suburban mothers, yes. All those stories about EverCrack breaking up marriages?

    • Re:Meh (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Lisandro ( 799651 )
      That's relative. If Gish were published by, say, Nintendo, gamers of the world and gaming magazines would be singing it's praises like there's no tomorrow.

      In fact, lately "big" publishers have been focusing in games with a lot of glitter but boring gameplay (90% of modern FPSs go there). Indie games may lack polish, but most (all?) of the games in that list are downright fun to play. That's what counts for me.
    • Well, I can certainly appreciate your sentiment, but. There is always a bit of a but. 2 out of 4 AAA FPS games released in 2004 were based on well-known brands and had huge marketing forces behind them - Doom 3 and Half-Life 2. No wonder that those games were hyped by all sites for several years, got a lot of 9.5/10 and 10/10 in the first reviews immediately after release and sold like hot cakes.

      Meanwhile two other AAA FPS games - Far Cry and Chronicles of Riddick were not heavily hyped, didn't get so many

  • craziness (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Slothy ( 17409 ) on Friday December 31, 2004 @10:06PM (#11231842) Homepage
    Although sequels certainly abound, anyone who complains that the major publishers produce nothing original obviously never played Katamari Damacy. It's probably much more original than any of the indy games this year.

  • Translation (Score:3, Funny)

    by age of reason ( 845243 ) on Friday December 31, 2004 @10:24PM (#11231898)
    For all those who think that the best games
    that came out this year were all sequels Game
    Tunnel presents a different angle on things
    with their 2004 Independent Game of the Year
    awards. For those who believe that the best
    game this year was that badly named expansion
    pack that they have the nerve to call Halo 2,
    check out the awards for a different side of
    gaming than you are used to.

    Translation:

    Please visit my site, it is only 8 pages full of pictures and I think I can survive a slashdotting.

  • Say what? (Score:2, Funny)

    by MXK ( 763030 )
    "Internal Server Error" ???
    I never heard of that game...

  • Buying HALO 2: 45 bucks.

    Submitting a self promotional story to slashdot and seeing your servers catching fire: priceless!

  • My suggestion is Darkspace. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Martin Spamer ( 244245 ) on Friday December 31, 2004 @11:10PM (#11232044) Homepage Journal
    Darkspace [darkspace.net] by PaleStar / Richard "Faustus" Lyle.

    Darkspace is Space Combat MMOG, not a mining simulation like Eve; imagine multi-player elite on steroids. PvP combat in a large scale persistent Meta-Verse of about 40 Star systems of 10-30 planets with 3 factions, 2 human and 1 alien.

    Each faction has about 30 unique ships. You can fly combat ships from small fast stealthy long range scouts, frigate, destroyers, cruisers, dreadnaught and even space stations, each ship has uniques capabilities. There are also support ships such as engineers to build planets, supply ships to repair friendly forces and transports to trade resources, carry troops or ships mods.

    You form fleets, or join an established fleet, or fight as a lone wolf. You can put down rebellions, capture planets & moons, bomb them, mine them, build them up with a wide range of structures as mining colonies, military training camps for troops, factory planets for ships mods, or front line supply depots using various structures including habitation, factories, powers planets, repair depots, barracks, defensive installations, supply depots and factories, even shipyards.

    You can modify your ships extensively, upgrade your engines for more power and speed, switch between long range/stand-off weapons like fighers and missiles, or get close up and personal with cannon and torpedoes. You can sneak up to enemy ships, and paint them for your big guns, board and capture them with elite troops, or simply spy scout them out. As you go gain prestige, rank, earning honors alone the way, giving you a progress increase in choice.

    I've been playing Darkspace for 2 years, I'm ranked in the top 30 players out of 6000 regulars and it still holds a challenge. IMHO its up there amoungt the best games of all time.

    You dont even have to believe me, you can download the game client for free (windows only) and receive a weeks free trial.
  • ... of best indie game of the year. It's a terrific game, well done, and i'd venture to say it's one of the best platform games i've ever tried.

    It's hard to explain exactly why the game is so fun, but it boils down to the controls: you are a blob of tar, and you can only move, jump, make yourself heavier, lighter or "sticky". The game uses these concepts in very smart puzzles, but again, you have to play it to get it. It also looks great, and i love the cartoony design of the characters.

    Give it a t
    • What crappy info at gametunnel... I was disappointed going through the list and seeing "System requirements:" with four or five versions of Windows listed, and nothing about Mac or Linux.

      Just downloaded Gish (for Linux) and will try it out. I wonder what other games on that list are also cross-platform.

  • A bit sad... (Score:4, Informative)

    by Bagels ( 676159 ) on Friday December 31, 2004 @11:48PM (#11232126)
    to see Spiderweb Software's Blades of Avernum tactical RPG missing from the list. I am getting a tad tired of the re-use of the old Avernum engine, but the plots of Jeff Vogel's scenarios and the overall gameplay are just fantastic. Avernum 2 remains my favorite, if only for some of the ridiculous battles that you could face off in the end (one of which had the enemy turns lasting a good twenty times longer than mine simply because there were so many of them). You could keep yourself occupied for hours just playing the various demos available from their site [spiderwebsoftware.com] - since each demo is about a fourth of its respective game, there's literally about the equivalent of a game and a half there to play.
    • Well Spiderweb's RPGs have always been good, but I was a bit disappointed to see the Exile series rehashed into Avernum. However the games are still good anyway, although I do wish they could come out with something new.
      • That'd be the two Geneforge games, which also have (very) slightly better graphics thanks to a different engine. I didn't get quite as sucked in to them, though.

      • Well Spiderweb's RPGs have always been good, but I was a bit disappointed to see the Exile series rehashed into Avernum. However the games are still good anyway, although I do wish they could come out with something new.

        The storyline and combat in Spiderweb's game can be good, but soon after I purchased the game, I found another RPG called "Angband", version 2.7.9. After that, I found the Exile series to have a somewhat clumsy interface because of the lack of keyboard targetting (e.g. you require a mouse

  • Expansion pack? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Weeb ( 69841 )
    The submitter is feigning dramatic ignorance in the hope of generating controversy and attention, methinks.

    This will be covered over and over again, but I'm going to try and be concise:

    When you code a brand new engine from scratch, it's not an expansion. Expansions are add-ins for existing engines. 'kay?

    While I appreciate the edgy tone of effective PR, I do hope that cyrus_zuo understands that his mischaracterization erodes his credibility as any sort of authority on gaming.

    I love Halo 2, but there are

  • Interesting anecdote about I of the Enemy (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Pluvius ( 734915 ) <pluvius3NO@SPAMgmail.com> on Saturday January 01, 2005 @12:32AM (#11232272) Journal
    At the forum for the warez .NFO site I frequent, the developer of that game actually asked people for their opinions about it. I'm not sure if he realized that everyone there was a software pirate, but either way he managed to guilt-trip a few people out of downloading his game. Brilliant idea, far better than most copy protection.

    Rob
  • I'll take a moment to plug our indie-developed first-person shooter, Inago Rage [dejobaan.com]. We tried to make the game different from most by focusing gameplay on short burts of flight (MPEG) [dejobaan.net], but what we really concentrated on was the ability for players to create their own arenas (scroll down) [dejobaan.com] without having to use external mod tools. Basically, we've implemented a drag-and-drop system to allow players to place buildings, towers, bridges, enemies, prizes, and particle generators [dejobaan.com].

    The graphics [dejobaan.com] are not likely to outdo
  • So I RTFA and played the #1 game.

    It sucks. Original idea? Yeah. Good game? Well, I'd rather play HL2, and it only cost me 20 bucks more than the full verison of this.

    There's a reason these games are indy, and it isn't because they are simply unique.
  • It's elitism like the kind displayed in the post and on the page that will marginalize indie games into an ignored niche. Let's be clear before we start writing off high budget video games: of the top 10 indie games listed, six of the writeups mention as a positive characteristic that the game is similar to existing mainstream game franchises. I have played several games on the list, bought them, and liked them - but there are none that I would at all consider groundbreaking or seminally creative (ie.

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