Ode to 1998
The year of 1998 was, for me, the greatest year of gaming there ever was or ever will be.
Now I'm not indicating that pants-exploding game releases of galactic magnitudes from other years are to be swept under the rug. After all, 1994 had Final Fantasy VI, Super Metroid (*swoon*), Warcraft and Donkey Kong Country. After that, 1996 had Diablo (just barely - Dec. 31st), Quake, C&C Red Alert, Tomb Raider, and the N64 all released in the same year. If those aren't year-long, orgasmic, gargantuan, gaming gongshows of bliss, I don't know what is.
But there's just something about 1998 that had that extra-special specialness. That extra little pinch of magic. That extra swift bit of butt-kicking for goodness. Oh right, Baldur's Gate was released in '98.
Well, it was just dropped in there alongside releases of titles such as Thief, Unreal, Metal Gear Solid, Half-Life, Fallout 2, Ocarina of Time, Spyro, and Turok 2. Don't forget the lesser known release of a rare game called Starcraft and its even more obscure expansion: Broodwar. All short-fused personages with life sized Kerrigan posters pinned directly above their beds, take it easy. It was an ocean of sarcasm that you just missed.
All this happened within one, glorious year. If '94 and '96 sounded fun (if a little sticky), then 1998 was '94 after '96 showed up with a few thousand kegs of tequila, free rocket ships for everyone and a legion of sex-robots created from billion dollar bills and LSD. If that's not your ideal party, just replace tequila, sex and LSD with your vices of choice. Scratch that, if that's not your ideal party, go play with 1993. You can both sit around and endlessly play Myst while you wait for 1998 to invite you back to the cool kids house.
Baldur's Gate consumed my life. Fallout 2 consumed my life. Starcraft consumed my life. Half-Life may have literally consumed half of my life. I remember collecting bottles and cans so I could afford an N64. My friends and I would hog the phone line in order to play Starcraft. Frank Horrigan would have his metal, mutant butt handed to him over and over by a wasteland boxing legend who couldn't enunciate "derp" to save his life. I actually failed a grade because I couldn't stop rolling for a perfect character. It was madness. It was a year of unadulterated, serendipitous, propitious gaming immortality.
Is there anybody else who can relate to this? What year holds a special place in your heart?
Now I'm not indicating that pants-exploding game releases of galactic magnitudes from other years are to be swept under the rug. After all, 1994 had Final Fantasy VI, Super Metroid (*swoon*), Warcraft and Donkey Kong Country. After that, 1996 had Diablo (just barely - Dec. 31st), Quake, C&C Red Alert, Tomb Raider, and the N64 all released in the same year. If those aren't year-long, orgasmic, gargantuan, gaming gongshows of bliss, I don't know what is.
But there's just something about 1998 that had that extra-special specialness. That extra little pinch of magic. That extra swift bit of butt-kicking for goodness. Oh right, Baldur's Gate was released in '98.
Well, it was just dropped in there alongside releases of titles such as Thief, Unreal, Metal Gear Solid, Half-Life, Fallout 2, Ocarina of Time, Spyro, and Turok 2. Don't forget the lesser known release of a rare game called Starcraft and its even more obscure expansion: Broodwar. All short-fused personages with life sized Kerrigan posters pinned directly above their beds, take it easy. It was an ocean of sarcasm that you just missed.
All this happened within one, glorious year. If '94 and '96 sounded fun (if a little sticky), then 1998 was '94 after '96 showed up with a few thousand kegs of tequila, free rocket ships for everyone and a legion of sex-robots created from billion dollar bills and LSD. If that's not your ideal party, just replace tequila, sex and LSD with your vices of choice. Scratch that, if that's not your ideal party, go play with 1993. You can both sit around and endlessly play Myst while you wait for 1998 to invite you back to the cool kids house.
Baldur's Gate consumed my life. Fallout 2 consumed my life. Starcraft consumed my life. Half-Life may have literally consumed half of my life. I remember collecting bottles and cans so I could afford an N64. My friends and I would hog the phone line in order to play Starcraft. Frank Horrigan would have his metal, mutant butt handed to him over and over by a wasteland boxing legend who couldn't enunciate "derp" to save his life. I actually failed a grade because I couldn't stop rolling for a perfect character. It was madness. It was a year of unadulterated, serendipitous, propitious gaming immortality.
Is there anybody else who can relate to this? What year holds a special place in your heart?
Post edited by Coriander on
8
Comments
Totally worth it.
That reminds me of some Starcraft 2 reviewer, who wrote there something like: "Back in 1998, when gaming was totaly poor and hollow, Starcraft game caused boom!" I had to write him a comment stating that he either wasn´t alive when Starcraft came out or was anywhere, just not in gaming.
OK, I just mention these titles(most of them you already mentioned) just to prove, that 98 may be the peak of PC gaming.
Starcraft - Unmatchable king of RTSs. I played countless hours at Battle.net or LAN "parties". I don´t think the game can be beaten ever, because there simply isn´t much to improve. Even Blizzard´s own sequel kind of couldn´t beat it.
Unreal - By many, king of FPSs. Community is divided, as many claim Half-Life to be the best FPS, which was ALSO released in 98. I have my personal king and it is not Unreal, but it proudly stands in the second place.
Thief - Founder of stealth action games. Got little old, but not beaten yet.
and of course...
Baldur´s Gate - Revival of RPGs in modern design, as mentioned with above games, also not beaten yet.
There are other jewels, like Fallout or very original and non-traditional games, which we can´t see nowadays like Populous or Die by the Sword.
And here in 2012 I still play Unreal, BG, fan missions for Thief, Battle.net in Starcraft and the fact that I play them and the fact that their communities are as alive as ever just proves the current state of gaming and that modern technology/graphics/effects don´t really matter that much.
Install DA:2 - getting to the first city - Uninstall
Play PS:T
Install Kingdoms Of Amalur Reckoning - getting to the first village - Uninstall
Play BG1-BG2-ToB
break..
IWD
break..
IWD2
break..
BG1:EE????
I have had a similar gaming path. I considered installing DA:2 and saw bad reviews about linearity and being worse than DA:O (which I tried but didn't enjoy) so I didn't even try DA:2. Never heard or tried AOR.
I did play PS:T like you.
I did play BG1-TOB. I'd never beat TOB before although I've enjoyed SOA hundreds of times I forced myself to go through TOB at least once and it wasn't as bad as I was afraid it would be but it wasn't as great as SOA.
I intend to play IWD and IWD2 and am looking forward to BG:EE. I haven't revisted IWD because the dual wielding mechanism is pretty lame and I wish it was better (like BG2) where you could actually put a weapon in your off hand and see it in action instead of just leaving the offhand empty to simulate dual wielding and getting an extra attack. That really bothers me.
This game sums up 1998 for me. I didn't pick up Baldur's Gate until the second one had come out.
Install DA:2 - getting to the first city - Uninstall
Play PS:T
Install Kingdoms Of Amalur Reckoning - getting to the first village - Uninstall
Play BG1-BG2-ToB
break..
IWD
break..
IWD2
break..
BG1:EE????
Seriously, you guys should play Skyrim and Risen 2, both are good games. Yeah, there are still well-made modern rpgs.
I'm glad I have an old Win 98 comp to play my old DOS games.
For shame.