Destination: 2004 | the year of Burnout 3, Crusader Kings, Doom 3, Fable, GTA: SA, MGS 3, Thief: Deadly Shadows, VtM: Bloodlines
Travel time: September-October 2022
Travel guide: link
Other travels: 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003

List of Games:
• 18 Wheels of Steel: Pedal to the Metal
• Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War
• Armies of Exigo
• Atlantis Evolution
• Bad Mojo Redux
• Beyond Divinity
• Burnout 3: Takedown
• Catwoman: The Game
• Codename Panzers: Phase One
• Creatures Exodus
• Creatures: The Albian Years
• Crusader Kings
• Dark Fall 2: Lights Out
• Def Jam: Fight for NY
• Doom 3
• Dragon Quest VIII
• Driv3r
• Evil Genius
• Fable
• Far Cry
• Fight Club
• Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone
• Full Spectrum Warrior
• GoldenEye: Rogue Agent
• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
• Ground Control 2: Operation Exodus
• Half-Life 2
• Halo 2
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition
• Hitman: Contracts
• Jak 3
• Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude
• Locomotion, Chris Sawyer's
• Lords of the Realm III
• Mashed
• Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault
• Men of Valor
• Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
• Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
• Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
• Monster Hunter
• Myst IV: Revelation
• Nancy Drew: Curse of Blackmoor Manor
• Need For Speed Underground 2
• Nexus: The Jupiter Incident
• Ninja Gaiden
• OpenTTD
• Perimeter
• Port Royale 2
• Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
• Pro Evolution Soccer 4
• Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
• Red Dead Revolver
• Return to Mysterious Island
• RollerCoaster Tycoon 3
• Rome: Total War
• Sacred Gold
• Samurai Shodown V Special
• Second Sight
• Shadow Ops: Red Mercury
• Shark Tale
• Sherlock Holmes: Secret of the Silver Earring
• Sid Meier’s Pirates!
• Silent Hill 4: The Room
• Sly 2: Band of Thieves
• Soldiers: Heroes of World War II
• Spider-Man 2
• SuperPower 2
• Star Wars: Battlefront
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords
• Syberia II
• The Bard's Tale
• The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay
• The Incredibles
• The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-earth
• The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age
• The Moment of Silence
• The Sims 2
• The Suffering
• Thief: Deadly Shadows
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
• Tony Hawk's Underground 2
• Transport Giant
• Unreal Tournament 2004
• Uru: Complete Chronicles
• Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
• Warlords Battlecry III
• World of Warcraft
• Worms Forts: Under Siege

Time travellers:
- InkPanther (☆ Nexus: The Jupiter Incident)
- Suicide_Angel (☆ Doom 3, ☆ Star Wars: Battlefront)
- PaterAlf (★ Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude, ☆ Bad Mojo Redux)
- bluethief (★ Second Sight)
- Ruvika (★ Prince of Persia: Warrior Within)
- .Keys (☆ Doom 3, ☆ Prince of Persia: Warrior Within)

☆ – games played / declared to be played
★ – games completed

As per usual, any help with adding missing titles and removing those belonging to other years is greatly appreciated.

I've started this year with Nexus: The Jupiter Incident. Maybe this time I'll get past the infamous stealth mission.

Some more notable games:

- Dragon Quest VIII
- Ninja Gaiden
- Monster Hunter
- Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth (this one gets a lot of attention in the community wishlist, along with its sequel.)

I have been doing some 2004 gaming already. I've been playing a lot of Doom 3. Before that, I finally played Doom Eternal on Game Pass and hated it (well, not really, I still don't consider it a bad game), and it made me feel like playing Doom 3 again, which is almost its antithesis. I've played through the original game, Resurrection of Evil and the BFG Edition's Lost Mission. Next I'm probably going to play the Doom 3: Phobos mod. Unfortunately only the BFG Edition is available here, even though the original versions are now bundled with it on Steam. I have a physical copy of Doom 3 though, and Resurrection of Evil is basically just a single .pk4 file, so it's effectively DRM free anywhere.

I've also been playing some Star Wars Battlefront, because I was just in the mood for it. Multiplayer does seem to work well, though it requires Galaxy.

I have a few other games from this year which I haven't played, namely Thief: Deadly Shadows and VtM: Bloodlines. I'm not sure I'm feeling up to either of those at the moment, but we'll see. There's Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow as well, which I've been playing a little bit at my own pace.

Yay! A new travel – don't worry I'm still in most of previous travels ;) Thanks, bluethief!
I'll pick my game a bit later.

2004 summary attached ;)

Really should play that someday... Well, among many others, but Nexus is one of those which has actually been on the "likely" list for quite a number of years now. Not "likely" enough, it seems.

From the list, I played and finished Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude (what a piece of crap), Sid Meier's Pirates (if you think about it, it's a relatively simple gameplay loop that should get tedious after a while, but it works so well), Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords (yeah, the ending's rushed and butchered, but it's good enough up to that point to let you put up with that well enough as well - note that the PC release was in 2005 though, albeit 2004 for XBox), Syberia II (not as good as the first, but still an adventure game for those usually frustrated by adventure games - quick review), The Bard's Tale (console controls are a pain, but so, so humorous, a game to really play for the entertainment value), Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (oh, where to begin... such a huge, multifaceted, multihued but terribly rough diamond among the heap of polished turds that gaming was on the way to becoming... no excuse for releasing it so broken, but I'm still tempted to say it deserves a place among the "legendary" games).
Also started Beyond Divinity, but gave up quickly. May pick it back up someday, but it's low down the list. From what little I played, has nothing on Divine Divinity, which really was ARPG done right.

And considering what I said about Bloodlines, 2004 strikes me as the end of an era, the turning point, after which major titles got worse and worse, and stale.

By 2004 I had mostly stopped playing video games, only started again in the 2010s...so the only games from the list I've played (just a few years ago) are Knights of the old republic 2 and Vampire the masquerade: Bloodlines. Both with flaws, but still a lot of good fun.
I tend to agree with Cavalary, 2004 is probably as close to a watershed as any for the end of the golden age of gaming (late 1990s, early 2000s)...after that it's relentless decline in mainstream gaming.

Ok, I will be brave and volunteer to play the infamous Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude.

2004 was a great year for me, I played Sacred Gold, one of the best ARPG ever, it's very fun, not too story heavy and have LAN support, I completed it with some friends and that make it even more awesome, I got the game on Steam and here too, it's a game that worth support.

Another one was Half-Life 2, one of the best physics demos out there, with a good story and some awesome character like Alyx. It's really fun.

MGS3 Snake Eater, simple the best MGS in history, one of the best stories of the series and the most tragic backgroud for to that time the best villian of the series.

Hope you succeed!
Just signed you up!

Added them all. Thanks! I signed you up for Doom 3 and Star Wars: Battlefront I played VtM: Bloodlines in May. Up until that point I was always delaying playing it. Immersive Sim, takes a lot of time to beat, etc. How I regret haven't played it sooner. I loved it! If you're like me and are feeling the same about it, don't. Just go play it, it's a great experience. Just don't forget to install the unofficial patch.

That summary makes me feel old :P

Played it in May and loved it.
Even with the plus patch, it's still a rough game. After all, when the base game is in bad shape, there's so much people can do on top of it.
But I was able to see beyond it, and still had a great time with it. The atmosphere is just unbeatable and it does justice to immersive sim genre, as I found the game to be very immersive.

Absolutely when it comes to the atmosphere, but... sim?

You don't consider it an immersive sim? Or don't you consider it as a genre?