The Greatest Games of the Decade: The Year 2000

We start our countdown with the first year of this decade: 2000. Unfortunately, because this was so long ago (I was only 13 at the time) I dont have a great memory of which games came out this year. But upon thinking back (and checking older websites) there are a few games that stand out from this year. But first, let me award my Game of the Year for 2000:




Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn

Platform: PC
Genre: RPG
Developer: Bioware
Publisher: Black Isle Studios, Interplay

This game is actually my favorite game of all time, so it's not very surprising that it is also my favorite game that came out of the year 2000. The game is hard to explain to someone who's never played/heard of it (which is most of my friends), but it is the most expansive single player game I have ever played. It is also the best single player experience I have ever had. The way your decisions affect other characters and the world around you are way ahead of their time. Much newer games like Mass Effect and Fallout 3 (both of which I also love) are still introducing that to players (and BG2 was 9 years ago). The story is great, all the dialogue is excellent, and the characters that travel around with you (if you dont screw up your relationship with them) are hands down the best in any game I've ever played. They just have so much personality. The game world, while not technically an "open-world", is huge, well crafted, and a lot of fun to explore. There's so many things to do in this game in just one play-through, let alone the many play-throughs that it deserves. The graphics were good for its time, but you can imagine that 9 years later it's not that much to look at, but that was never the point of this game. If you like RPGs and are ever looking for something great to play on your computer, check this game out. Also, its expansion pack, The Throne of Bhaal, is an excellent addition and wraps the story up nicely. I think you can get both the game and the expansion for pretty cheap on Amazon now.


Honorable Mentions:

The Sims (PC)- This game was a lot of fun and started a whole chain of games that are still popular on the PC (The Sims 3 came out pretty recently and was met with great sales and good reviews). This game broke the chain of controlling a whole city and focused in on just one person or a few people, with lots of customization for both them and where they live.

Perfect Dark (N64)- While this game owes a lot to Goldeneye (N64) for its base, this game took everything Goldeneye did great and ran with it. The 4 player split-screen was great for its time, and this game featured both co-operative play and counter-operative play (something most games still dont offer). The weapons were crazy, the levels were good, and so was the story. Also, you could add bots to play against in this game, a nice feature which many games still lack. I put many hours into the killing of bots in deathmatch with my friends, and I didn't even own an N64. (Turtle sim was my favorite to kill.)


So that's all I have for the year 2000. If there are any glaring omissions (I'm sure there are many), or if you agree/disagree with my list, please feel free to comment. Like I said, it's hard for me to remember that far back, and I didn't play as many games then as I do now. Hope you enjoyed the first installment of the Greatest Games of the Decade, check back next week for the next installment: the year 2001!