A trip back to 2004 in gaming history (Part 1)

Lies - the basis of all good relationships and the very foundation of the gaming industry, as you may well know, mostly all new release announcements are accompanied by promises of "This Game" being the next big thing. Of course that is not always the case, however sometimes it might very well be!
Looking at 2004 we will have a good few examples of that. It's already been 14 years since then, so let's see how well have all these game aged!

Before I carry on with this I'd like to note that it'd be really cool if you reading this would share your thoughts and opinions on the games I highlighted below as I (and probably most other people) am not well familiar with all of them and might have totally missed the awesomeness of some or even generally missed to mention some cool games released that year.

Some other years I already covered, be sure to open them up in a new tab while reading this one:

Having that out of the way, let's get busy!

Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen

Enhanced remakes of the original 1996 Red and Green Pokemon games released for the Gameboy Advance.
Remakes managed to implement a number of new features, while still maintaining its traditional gameplay style, which is why it received a lot of positive feedback.

Halo 2

It's been a few years now since the first Halo's success and Bungie, along with Microsoft decided to release a sequel - Halo 2! Surprisingly a Windows version of the game came only years later in May 2007. The game utilizes a new engine as well as the Havok physics engine. Due to time constraints Bungie were forced to make cutbacks in certain elements of the game, resulting in a cliffhanger campaign ending, which left a lot of gamers frustrated. Halo 2 is the best-selling first-generation Xbox game.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War

An RTS by Relic Entertainment based on Games Workshop's tabletop war game "Warhammer 40,000". The game received positive reviews for its well-done graphic and sound design along with balanced factions and units, all of which was fit in a user-friendly interface. Dawn of War was often referred to as "The next Warcraft". What is your favorite Warhammer? Mine is Reign of Chaos (yes, yes, I know...)

Def Jam: Fight for NY

A hip-hop industry based fighting game released by EA. Second one in the series and I have to say that I personally adore this game. Unlike its predecessor - "Fight for NY" adds more fighting styles, the ability to use the environment to your advantage as well as creating your own custom fighters. Just so sad to see how it all went downhill with the next game.

The Sims 2

I love The Sims and I have to say that (at least to me) all of them are quite good. And what was so special about Sims 2 - you are no longer stuck in a "groundhog day" kind of gameplay, your sims now age and... die. That gives a whole new sense of meaning to the game and will be present in all future Sims games to come.
Sims 2 sold around a million copies in its opening week and over 13 million copies in general, making it one of the best-selling PC games of all-time.

Sly 2: Band of Thieves

A stealthy platformer game released for the PS2. If you are familiar with the series you would know exactly why the game received excellent reviews and if you don't - I strongly advise you to check it out! This is often considered one of the best PS2 games of all time! Have anything to add here? If so, please do!

Fable

An action RPG - the first and the best in the Fable series. Originally it was planned for the Dreamcast console, but for obvious reasons was released for the Xbox and later for Window and Mac. Fable provides an individual gaming experience, which is quite often unique, unless you beat the game over and over again. Combat is also utilized in a way that doesn't make it tedious over time (again, unless you beat the game over and over again).
As far as I can tell, next Fable games didn't even get close to how cool the first one was, can you prove me wrong?

Call of Duty: United Offensive

An expansion pack for the original 2003 COD game.

Breed

A squad based RTS developed by Brat Designs. The game is said to be comparable with Rainbow Six and Halo, but I have never played or seen it. Have you played it, do you have something to add or tell us here?

Colin McRae Rally 04

Another McRae game, the fourth one in the series.

Syberia 2

The long awaited (by many gamers) sequel to Syberia developed and published by Microïds - Syberia 2. Style and general gameplay elements are similar to the original title, however character animation and graphics were improved. A sequel, Syberia III, was released in April 2017. How did you like Syberia III?

Tom Clancy's Spliner Cell: Pandora Tomorrow

A new installment in the Splinter Cell series - developed by Ubisoft Shanghai and Ubisoft Milan, while Ubisoft Montreal, who developed the original game, were already working on "Chaos Theory".

Far Cry

A truly "hit" title, an FPS developed by Crytek and published by Ubisoft. The game adopted an unusual at the time (among FPSes), "freedom" concept as well as that - had some quite sexy visuals. Far Cry received multiple awards and (no wonder) a bunch of sequels that are being released to this day.
I discovered the series only on Far Cry 3, but shortly after went to play the first Far Cry. What's the first Far Cry that you played?

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Dark Motives

An adventure kind of game developed by 369 Interactive, based on the "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" TV series.

Counter-Strike: Condition Zero

A new "CS" game, which features upgraded character models, textures and various other graphical tweaks. It also includes single player campaigns. I do mostly like all CSes and CSGO is also "OK", but I will always be a fan of 1.6, what about you?

The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures

The eleventh Zelda installment released for the GameCube. Nintendo Power considers this the 48th best game ever made for a Nintendo system.
I know I've asked this before, but since then we have some new people around - so what's your most beloved Zelda game?

Sacred

An action RPG developed by Studio II Software. The game was a commercial success, received multiple awards and was often compared to Diablo (in a good way).
I personally have never played it, so it would be fantastic if someone who has would share his/her thoughts with all of us here. With the most significant question being - "Is it worth picking up in 2018?"

Unreal Tournament 2004

Built with the Unreal Engine 2.5 using most of its predecessor's content - UT2k4 has surprisingly appealing visuals for its time and a really "smooth" feeling to the gameplay as a whole. There were numerous significant and not-so-significant gameplay mechanics changes, however the one I love the most is that they've included vehicles and the "Onslaught" mode with its huge epic battles.

It's been quite a while since my last "Gaming History" post, as I've been focusing on the HOMM post series lately, by the way be sure to check that out if you like HOMM and be even more sure to do so if you don't or know nothing about it. Anyway that looks like a good lineup for the opening 2004 post, so please share your thoughts, opinions, memories with all of us here - it's always amazing to have a chat with all of you!

Thanks for your time, peace out!