Memorable Gaming Moment 2004: Final Fantasy XI

In 2004, the game I remember more than any other game is Final Fantasy XI on the PS2. FFXI was originally released for PC and PS2 [in Japan] in 2002, but it took much longer for it to make its way to the States, especially the PS2 version. The game came bundled with the 40GB hard drive, which was required to play the game, and it was $100 when released. We bought two copies on day one as my wife [at the time] had been thinking of playing it since and several coworkers were getting it as well.

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BioShock 2: Sinclair Solutions DLC

BioShock 2has only been out for two weeks and yesterday, 2K Games announced that there will be new DLC available in March. For those of us who loved our return to Rapture, this is exciting news. The new DLC is called “Sinclair Solutions Test Pack” and it will focus on multi-player. For many people, including myself, the multi-player addition was an intriguing feature of BioShock 2. Would it be good? Was it just slapped on? It ended up being a welcome surprise and the online element was done well and fun to play. Whether it's the thrill of becoming the only Big Daddy or the creepiness of making a Little Sister squeal, the multi-player was well done.

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The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom's Music

You probably know that The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom recently came out on XBLA. The game definitely has its own style and it’s pretty fun as well, but if you’re like me; you were immediately humming along with the fantastic music. I’ve been looking forward to this game for a long time, but I managed to fall in love with the music so fast that I would just leave the game running so I could have it playing in the background. I enjoyed the music so much that I went off looking to see if it was available for download anywhere at all and it was quite the adventure.

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Memorable Gaming Moment 2003: Viewtiful Joe

2003 was a good year for the Gamecube. I already mentioned my love for Wind Waker in a previous feature, but another game came very close to topping that little Zeldarific memory. The game in question is Viewtiful Joe. This was a game birthed by Hideki Kamiya, the genius who’s brought us games like Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry, Ōkami, and the recently released Bayonetta. Kamiya is known for his style, but he really upped the ante with Viewtiful Joe.

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Memorable Gaming Moment 2003: SOCOM II

My most memorable gaming experience of 2003 is SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs. The reason for this is because SOCOM II was the first online game I played that wasn’t an MMO. My wife at the time had a coworker who was playing it every night, along with another coworker’s husband, and they would talk about how much fun it was all the time. At the time we didn’t have broadband, but the more I heard about SOCOM II, I quickly gained much interest. We eventually broke down and bought a high-speed connection, the PS2 Network Adapter, and a hundred foot kit to create our own Cat-6 cable, which was the most miserable experience ever; the cables never worked.

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Memorable Gaming Moment 2003: The Wind Waker

I know it’s hard to look at anything besides the amazing N-Gage in 2003, but surprisingly, I have a different memorable moment (obvious sarcasm is obvious). I was a huge Zelda fan as a wee lad, but due to the fact that I’ve never owned a SNES or Nintendo 64 (recently bought one), I lost touch with the series; I did own a Gameboy, but I somehow never played any of the handheld games. If you can’t already tell, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is my most memorable gaming moment of 2003.

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Memorable Gaming Moment 2002: Community Edition

Looking back, 2002 truly was an awesome year for gaming on all systems. We had great games like TimeSplitters 2, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Mafia, Metroid Prime and a lot more, but it was also a time when I was able to play a lot of the best games of 2001 like Max Payne and Grand Theft Auto III. With all that said, there was one game that came out in 2002 that truly blew me away, from its smooth, detailed visuals to its excellent orchestrated soundtrack. That game was none other than Medal of Honor: Frontline.

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Memorable Gaming Moment 2002: Contra: Shattered Soldier

There is one last game that really stuck with me like no other in 2002. This game brought back many memories, was definitely underappreciated, and a game few may even remember. The game I’m talking about is Contra: Shattered Soldier for the Playstation 2. Shattered Soldier mixed the old-school 2-D gameplay of the original games with beautiful 3-D graphics and ended up delivering a fantastic experience for Contra fans.

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Memorable Gaming Moment 2002: BMX XXX

You may have found my previous memorable moments enjoyable, but nothing can match the awesomeness of the following memory; the memory of BMX XXX. There is nothing I want more in my BMX games than nice, pixelated titties. The most amazing aspect of BMX XXX is that it was censored on the Playstation 2 (in the States), but fully uncensored on both the Xbox and the Gamecube. That’s right, Nintendo apparently loves it some titties.

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Memorable Gaming Moment 2002: The Getaway

The success of Grand Theft Auto III created an explosion of open-world action/crime games that varied in quality from pretty damn great to abominations of everything that is holy. One of those games that landed somewhere in the middle for most (but closer to the top for moi) was The Getaway. The game had some odd design choices and it was a bit buggy, but I think the fact that I actually visited London only a few years before its release really helped me overlook any negativity one might find with the game.

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