As 2004 comes crawling to its close, every person who has some sort of Internet outlet and who played at least five games this year puts about ten seconds of thought into a GOTYOMG list and craps it into the twisting bowels of cyberspace.

I am a person. I have an Internet outlet. I have played more than five games this year. Here:

5. (Super Great Games I Didn’t Actually Play Hyper Award) TIE: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, Halo 2

Each of these three games are titles which would certainly hold a stronger place in my list had I actually played them. They each come from a series whose previous game(s) I’ve greatly enjoyed. I think we’ll just leave it at that and minimize the pretentious rambling for this slot.

4. Half-Life 2

It’s better than Half-Life! No, really. Featuring roughly one billion less environmentally-caused instant deaths, enemy A.I. which approaches being insanely entertaining to compete against (but doesn’t hold a candle to Halo’s), and a physics system which ultimately has zero effect on gameplay, Half-Life 2 is a fantastic, if fantastically flawed, first person shooter that just barely shies away from brilliance. However, I think that’s part of its charm. Despite the fact that the vehicular levels are nothing if not boring, that many sections of the game stretch on far past their welcome, that the ending is completely unsatisfying, and that Gordon Freeman is incredibly gifted at getting caught on doorways, paint cans, and other people, Half-Life 2 is still a really, really good game. The final two chapters alone make up for nearly all of the title’s previous flaws, and the possibilities which the Source Engine holds, just waiting to be unlocked, make for a bright future indeed. And the game has some of the best sound design I’ve ever seen heard, to boot. The wide range of great sound effects, the superb musical score, and the surprisingly spiffy voice acting prove just how much of an impact sound can have in a video game. ProTip: it’s hella, as the kids say.

3. Katamari Damacy

If Half-Life 2’s soundtrack is excellent, then Katamari Damacy’s is one of the best in video game history. And the game’s really fun too. In fact, it’s one of the simplest, most addictive, universally appealing games since Tetris (now if only it can get sell numbers to match), and is hands down the best console game to come out in 2004, even if the developer isn’t completely satisfied with the finished product.

2. World of Warcraft

I’ve invested a little over ten days, that’s over 240 hours, playing this game so far, and I’m still having just as much fun as I did when I first double clicked that icon a little over a month ago. To say that I’m obsessed with this game is an extreme understatement. I am addicted, and with good reason. There are moments in World of Warcraft which directly exemplify exactly why I play video games. There’s the trill of chasing down a pack of enemy players or escaping just one player ten levels higher than yourself. There’s the excitement that comes just before you launch your first volley against a boss creature and the reward that comes with each skill point gained, each ability learned, and each level up. The world itself is unbelievably massive, and yet every square inch is filled with a life and charm that games an eighth as large only dream of possessing. This is a game about playing video games for the people who play them. It is a celebration of everything the MMORPG genre always should have been and never was. It is a game retreading ground which has already been covered ten times over, but doing it with such subtle changes and innovations so as to come off as something completely fresh and new. It is better than Starcraft. I can’t think of a higher complement to give a PC game.

1. I Love Bees

Though hardly the first of its kind, I Love Bees is certainly the best that this strange new genre of the alternate reality game has birthed. Unlike previous ARGs, I Love Bees extended well beyond a website and a piece of e-mail and invaded the very reality in which we live, claiming it for its own. Though I missed the actual game entirely, looking back on what was and reading first hand experiences from those who were hunting through HTML in search of hidden clues, tracking pay phones by GPS coordinates to activate axons, or participating in an extremely lame Halo multiplayer event leaves me extremely impressed, not only with I Love Bees, but with the possibilities this largely untapped new medium holds. And besides, that radio drama sure was rockin.

Interestingly, every one of the four games chosen above was picked, in part, because of its excellent use of sound. Half-Life 2’s sound design was fantastic on all fronts, while Katamari Damacy’s soundtrack is nearly unmatched. Blizzard games have always been known for their massive assortment of excellent, high quality sound effects and charming voice acting, but they’ve all featured musical scores which range from passable to ear-bleedingly bad. Word of Warcraft’s music is actually really, really good, if often a little too epic for its own good. All that remains of I Love Bees, save for the website and the records of those who participated, is the archived radio drama which, surprise surprise, consists only of sound.

In fact, if I were to label 2004 anything, which is exactly what I’m about to do, I’d call it the Year of Sound. For the medium of video games, never before has sound had such a tremendous impact on a year of titles. Halo 2, Metal Gear Solid 3, Escape From Butcher Bay (featuring Vin Diesel!) and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas all featured amazing soundtracks, proving that a AAA title isn’t AAA if it doesn’t have the sound design to match. Even Neo Contra, under rated little jewel that it was, featured a surprisingly awesome soundtrack, including one of the best introduction songs ever.

However, games weren’t only praised for their sound. Many games which were expected to be great were often criticized for their sound. Metroid Prime 2’s largely recycled MIDI soundtrack failed to impress while DOOM 3 was reamed for its poor sound design. Tales of Symphonia’s laughable voice acting and boring music didn’t win it any more fans, but also didn’t prevent it from selling well past Namco’s expectations. Twin Snakes was also highly criticized for its multiple minor sound changes which were largely pointless, but still worked to impact the net product. Most notably, Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within’s soundtrack was the last straw for many gamers (myself included), as its generic metal sound only further stripped away the charm from one of gaming’s most beloved series.

In May, Square-Enix held the first concert of video game music in the United States. Every single one of its tickets were sold extremely quickly, let’s say in a matter of hours because I’m too lazy to fact check, proving that not only is there a hunger for this sort of thing in the states, but that video game music is important and does leave lasting impressions on people (which should really come as no surprise to nearly every person reading this). 2004 also saw the U.S. release of both Donkey Konga and Taiko Drum Master, two Namco-developed, peripheral-based music games, as well as Karaoke Revolution, an equally peripheral-based, Konami-developed music game. And while the PSP didn’t make it to our shores in 2004, both Nintendo’s D.S. and Sony’s new portable hit Japan before year’s end, and both finally feature hand held sound systems capable of producing something truly decent. And then there was that rerelease of Rez that never came, but we won’t discuss that. We don’t need any more reasons than usual to despise Sega around here.

So, in a closing which should have come 500 words ago, 2004 was a year filled with sound. Good sound, bad sound, music, sound effects, and voice acting, it was all present, accounted for, and abundant. But then again, it is every year. However, in 2004 the sound mattered. It made excellent games brilliant and good games excellent. It turned what should have been AAA titles into merely AA. However, it also proved to many people outside the gaming community, which is really a lot smaller than most of you probably think, that video game sound has evolved greatly beyond the simple beeps and boops of years past. The popularity of titles like Katamari Damacy, a U.S. video game music concert, and a trio of interesting music games with universal appeal helped see to that. There’s little doubt that 2004 was video gaming’s year of sound. Now let’s all look forward to 2005: year of another cramped fall release schedule.

“There’s no good reason why you shouldn’t have a plan in case of a terrorist attack, and some very good ones why you should.”

Courtesy of the Dept. of Homeland Security, and the National Ad Council.

(vector_black www.ready.gov)

In what could be easily be classified as The DORK Club’s first guild event, we held a large dance party outside Ogrimmar on Tichondrius to celebrate our guild’s 28th hour of existence (in which time we’d already accumulated 107 members). Soon we moved the festivities inside where we danced on the roof of the Ogrimmar auction house before taking it on the road and dancing the night away on the zeppelin as it moved between Durotar and Tirisfal Glades.

Why is it that every MMORPG I play eventually devolves into a roaming dance party?

Mother earth, father Kojima.

(vector_black WoW guild)

Expect this sort of thing to happen more and more in the future. You have been warned.

So I’m deep in Alliance territory with my level 32 orc warlock trying to find a certain breed of evil warlock who has a 4% chance of dropping an item I need to finish up a quest. I’ve killed my fair share of Alliance players to make it this far, dying only once. I’ve learned to stay off the roads and to avoid any major points of interest where players might gather. Trees, bushes, and mountains are my friends.

I finally find the tower I’ve been searching for, it’s interior is a twisted maze of staircases and balconies populated by demon-controlling warlocks. The warlocks on the lower levels are slightly weaker, and this weakness brings with it a slightly lower chance of dropping the item I so desperately seek. My initial attempts to work my way towards the top of the tower fail. I barely escape death more than a few times, collect myself at the tower’s entrance, and try yet again to reach the top of this deadly spire. I just used the phrase “deadly spire.” I think that calls for a little change of everything.

So I’m sitting there, my health and mana are as close to zero as they can be without me being dead, when these two Alliance players, a human rogue and a night elf hunter, run up behind me. They’re both the same level as I am, give or take, so I’ve already given up on my life. I don’t even bother standing up. One of them waves at me, the other one points, and they walk into the tower to do whatever it is they feel needs doing. It’s certainly not a first, but it’s a rarity whose occurrence should be savored. So I savor it.

When I’m done I collect myself, resummon my voidwalker, create a healthstone, create a soulstone, and run into the tower just as the two Alliance players are running out of it, a trio of pissed off warlocks behind them. So I help them out. The three of us take down the three warlocks with a great deal of difficulty, but all three of us live through the ordeal. Both Alliance players thank me. I express happiness. Only we can’t actually speak to one another directly. These two Alliance players are speaking common. I’m speaking orcish. We can only communicate through the most basic gestures and movements.

The two players run back into the tower. I follow them. They point to a warlock; all three of us attack it. I point to a warlock; all three of us attack it. Slowly we make our way towards the top of the tower where we find, among the higher level warlocks which will eventually deliver the prize I’m after, a level 31 elite unique night elf (i.e. an ass kicker). There’s a rather exaggerated moment of awkwardness. Both of us wanted to reach the top of the tower, but we’re unable to communicate exactly why. Were we both after this unique creature? I know I wasn’t, but the Alliance players aren’t aware of this. Eventually they point to the night elf and attack it. I join in and we easily kill it. They express their thanks; I express my happiness.

But they don’t leave just yet. They sit with me for a while, killing warlocks as they respawn, until the unique night elf respawns. The human runs up to me, points at me, then points at the night elf. I wave. The human points at me again before pointing at the night elf once more. I wave again. Then I understand what they’re trying to say, attack the unique night elf, and with their help, defeat it. I express my thanks; they express their happiness. They wave. I wave. They leave.

The whole affair lasted a little less than an hour, but is easily the single greatest experience I’ve had playing this game which is filled with great experiences. Just a few hours earlier, I had come across a group of Horde players sitting around a dancing dwarf in a neutral city. “Is anybody gonna help me kill him?” I asked. They were so we did. Earlier in the day, Piyonugget, PopcornChicken, LeadPipe and I emerged from the sea and killed a duo of questing Alliance players on the shore of their own city. The game is largely a player versus player experience, though it doesn’t seem designed to be one. Alliance hates Horde and Horde hates Alliance. Roaming parties from each side constantly patrol contested territory, “ganking” any opposing player stupid enough to wander alone. Yet these two Alliance players not only let me live, but let me play with them. We found means to communicate in ways other than language and ultimately accomplished something neither of us could have done alone. It was pretty awesome.

That being said, I still have every intention of killing my fair share of Alliance players, but I’ll do it in a more consensual environment. I’ll think twice before attacking a lone paladin running down the road or the helpless gnome running from a pack of angry wolves. The usual reaction to being killed is one of anger and frustration. We then kill to get revenge. Up until that moment I’d been killed countless times by Alliance players, but never helped by them. It’s nice to see the ambiguity that comes with interacting through virtual avatars online transformed into something other than uncaring aggression and hostility. Kindness is fun, kids.

Geoff Frazier though, he deserves to be killed several times over while a huge group of players camp his corpse. Someday… Someday.

I didn’t see the URL. Some gaming site, probably this one, tipped me off to its existence. I was certainly amused. I was entertained. I watched the countdown count down for a few moments, clicked a few links, looked at a few scrambled images, and then hit the back button, never intending to return.

I read my fair share of blog posts, news posts, post posts, and updates about the subject. People were finding clues hidden in source codes, finding hidden directories filled with treasure troves of secret information, and racing around the country to pay phones they knew only by their GPS coordinates. I was certainly impressed. I was entertained. The countdown had counted down and was now counting down some more. There was stuff and things, but it was over my head. Halo 2 sure would be neat.

Unfortunately, the conclusion was a pretty massive letdown. I can only imagine what those who had been closely following the game felt. I’m sure more than a few bee keepers were slightly upset. Four theaters playing Halo against one another. Disappointing.

I was browsing FilePlanet as I often do despite my better judgment at a point in time we’ll call a month ago, though in reality it was probably a little more than that. Somebody, probably fully endorsed by Microsoft, had uploaded the contents of the I Love Bees DVD they were giving out during those “training sessions” to FilePlanet’s rich stores of mostly crap. I had no idea what was on the thing, but I was curious enough to spend 45 minutes in a virtual queue and another four hours downloading the 1.9 GB file. I sure are glad I done.

Included in the download, which I will henceforth refuse to believe was ever burned to a DVD, were a series of not-so-mysteriously named .vob files containing the entirety of the I Love Bees radio drama. Apparently there was an I Love Bees radio drama. And it’s very good stuff. Standard Bungie fair, no doubt, filled with enough rampancy, alien artifacts, and instances of the number seven to be ridiculously entertaining, but very good stuff.

The whole mess exists in these .vob files, which are played quite nicely using the VLC Media Player. It’s twelve chapters told in thirteen parts and I’m sure it’s everything Halo 2’s narrative isn’t and everything it should have been. It clocks in at about five hours, give or take I never actually timed them and VLC uses a currency of time understood by no one, and it’s breathtakingly good. Probably the best thing I’ve thinged all year. Certainly the best radio drama I’ve listened to in a good long time.

It’s sort of difficult to discuss though. I could really only talk about it in the most general of senses without completely ruining the experience for the few of you who decide to download this mess. It’s this sort of tragic story about a handful of people and their lives leading up to the end of the world. It has rogue military AIs and shady government conspiracies. It’s ridiculously funny, exciting, and very , very sad. It’s certainly worth your time. If you’re even remotely a fan of Halo or anything Bungie’s done, I’d definitely say it’s worth checking out. If you’re not a diehard Bungie fan, be forewarned that downloading and listening to this will probably make you one.