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The Best and Worst of 2002

Every year, once all the chaos and dust has settled, the World Zero crew will reflect upon the impact gaming had on the last 365 days. We compiled a listing of categories we felt would illustrate 2002 as a whole, but we pretty much abandoned that list about five minutes into our debate and just had fun.

It’s been a great year for gaming. Sequels, and classics remade are abundant. Sure, there’s been the usual flood of mass market, brain-numbing casual gamer titles, but as a whole, I think the good outweighed the bad…Or maybe we just did too good of a job ignoring the bad. Without further ado, we present you the best and worst video games of the year 2002...

Best Xbox Game of the Year

Unanimously, we here at World Zero decided to pick a game that revolutionized a genre and will mostly affect future games of its kind…Morrowind. I can't see anything being more engrossing than the world created for you to kill and steal in Morrowind.

Morrowind had more impact on me than most games have since Mario Brothers. I think the Xbox version stands above because of its control scheme and graphical edge.

That’s a good point, the graphics on the Xbox look better than on my PC, especially the water. People tend to forget that the Xbox is a high end PC underneath...Usually sporting a better graphics card that most people have in their gaming PC. But, I feel the PC mods offer better lastibilty in the end than pretty water, so I feel Morrowind on PC was the better product, but the Xbox version was still nothing short of revolutionary.

Best Playstation 2 Game of the Year

If final fantasy X came out two months later, that would have been my pick, but it's not eligible.

I don't think there's any doubt that the best game to pick for PS2 is the only game that had great gameplay, terrific hype, and a background of super games before it...

.....

...Of course I’m speaking of Crash Bandicoot.

.....

...Anyway...I don't see many ps2 games offering the style, gameplay, old school action and pure violence of Shinobi. Of course there's GTA Vice City...But I didn't feel it offered enough to hold it's own as a new, original game.

I definitely liked Vice City more than any other game this year on PS2, and I hate to go along with the crowd but I thought it just kicked ass. Nothing's better than flying along the beach on your dirt bike at top speed listening to 80's music, and being on a hog with a chick on the back with Flock of Seagulls blaring is great fun too.

Yes, you are a tool, my friend...Taking hookers into a dark alley only to murder them after they've done their deed does offer a little bit of satisfaction, I guess...Oh wait you could do that in the original GTA...

...But not with a chainsaw.

MAN GTA3 IS TEH BEST GAME EV3R MAED!!!!!1!! OMG IT CAN ONLY B DONE ON PS2!!11! WTF LOL ITS GOOD TEH BEST SYST3M KILL3D OFF DREMCAST111! OMG LOL IF I 3VAR HAD 2 SEE ANOTHER 2D FIGHTAR OR RPG IM GOIN 2 PUKA!1111!! WTF OMG LOL SHIGERU MIYAMOTO OWNZ JOO!11111!!

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Best Gamecube Game of the Year

Mario Party 4.

I don’t think it was all that great...And I was drunk during our MP4 gaming session. Phantasy Star Online gets my vote even though Sega’s attempt at keeping an updated server was piss poor.

I’d say that even though MP4 wasn't quite as good as the previous ones, it still kept us going in our drunken state, and that’s not easy to do. Phantasy Star is pretty low on my list, it seemed more like a game you play online, instead of an online game.

Maybe since the generic Mario party crowd has to be somewhat inebriated, the gameplay must have been dumbed down. Yippee, let's pump water into a bucket while someone else tries to empty it before it fills up. That’s gameplay at its finest.

See, now you're talking.

Best PC Game of the Year

The PC has had quite a few triple A titles this year...Disciples 2, Morrowind, Warcraft 3, Command and Conquer: Renegade--

I don't think Renegade deserves any respect; it made a mockery of C&C.

I think the multiplayer side of the game is one of the best yet. Quick, action packed team play that you can't find in Unreal or Quake. Of course the single player game fell flat...But that's another story all together. Warcraft 3 really took the series to a whole new level and added a great single player campaign which apparently is hard to find these days...But online multiplayer in real time strategy games seems to be ruined by the little bastards wanting to end the game as soon as possible, rushing your base. Where’s the fun in that?

Honestly, I think PC games kind of fell short this year, every game that came out for PC ended up on a console and the console version ended up being twice as good because of gameplay and graphic quality, the only game I can say was probably worth it would be Jedi Knight II: Outcast. The online multiplayer mode has to rule. Considering I’ve only played the crappy Xbox version of Jedi Knight, I'd have to say my absolute vote goes towards Medieval Total War, intense strategy and great visual effects make it worth the money.

This is a difficult decision for me considering two of the greatest games of all time came out on PC this year; Disciples 2 and Morrowind. I would hate to officially choose one over the other (note I listed Morrowind after D2).

Sequel of the Year

Although Shinobi was bad ass, I have to go with Contra: Shattered Soldier just because Konami grew some balls and kept Contra true to its old school roots, going in the total opposite direction from the terrible PS1 Contras.

I would actually have to agree, that game really took me back in a high resolution sort of way.

But 2002 was the year for sequels. Just old school game sequels alone: Contra, Shinobi, Mario, Metroid...

Yeah, but for me Contra was the only one that really came out ahead.

Worst Game of the Year

2002's worst game was probably Burn Out on Xbox. The box lead me to believe I was purchasing the best game ever invented, but instead it was bad even for a Virtual Boy game.

Test Drive on PS2 was truly awful.

Test Drive was really one of the worst of the year.

The graphics were remarkably bad for a third generation ps2 game, not to mention the gameplay was atrocious, including ridiculous game modes like drag racing and an even worse physics engine.

Most Overrated Game of the Year

(Wait, what's the FPS where you go back in time?)

Timesplitters?

Yeah. I mean, what the hell?

I agree that game sucked, it got hailed as a Halo killer one too many times (once is one too many times), but GTA3 Vice City takes the cake.

I have to disagree, GTA3 Vice City was over hyped, but it did deliver some great gameplay and is on my list as one of the tops of the year.

Vice city was a good game, hell maybe even a great game, but I read several reviews from several big name publications that gave it straight 10's across the board, and Vice City is far from perfect. Add all the hype from all the bastard PS2 fan boys craving anything with violence and/or sex in it and we got ourselves a billion dollar franchise. I remember having more fun with GTA 3 than with Vice City. To me, Vice City didn't deliver.

Hey guys, when do I get to do my bit?

Your bit got canned. Instead you get to cover “Best Army Men Game of the Year.”

Heh.

You guys are dicks.