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RPS Time Capsule: the games worth saving from 2003We list our favourite games from 2003, and why they deserve to be preserved above everything else
We list our favourite games from 2003, and why they deserve to be preserved above everything else
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
PC Game Music Quiz | Can You Guess PC Classics From The Music?Watch on YouTube
PC Game Music Quiz | Can You Guess PC Classics From The Music?
Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic
Image credit:LucasArts/Disney/Lucasfilm
KOTORhas many of what you’d recognise as hallmarks of a BioWare game: squad combat with companions you find variably annoying or adorable; the option to form relationships with said companions; good-to-evil grading of your actions – conveniently built-in to the Star Wars universe already; side quests; epic story; writing that left an impression. KOTOR has a canonically evil assassin droid who is so fond of blasting people that not having him on your squad is basically an indication that you have no joy in your heart. Above all, it’s a very Star Wars-yStar Wars gamethat swings for the fences. It sometimes misses – who among us could argue that the lightsaber combat isn’t, at the end of the day, pretty rubbish? - but there’s a reason it’s an enduring classic.
The Simpsons: Hit & Run
Max Payne 2: The Fall Of Max Payne
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
Alice0:Some of our younger readers might be surprised to learn that falling over was once uncool. Rather than social media stardom and the lofty laudation of an ‘epic fail’, falling over once earned you jeers of “Waaagh!” and “Wuuuay!” From friends and strangers alike for ‘absolutely stacking it.’ This all changed withMax Payne. This grizzled New York City detective might have been trapped in an ever-worsening neo-noir nightmare but when he fell down, he did it on purpose, and he did it while wearing a cool leather coat, and shooting people in a cool way. The first Max Payne made falling over so cool that it received title billing in the sequel,Max Payne 2: The Fall Of Max Payne.
I had a quick go on Max Payne 2 before dunking my disc in the Capsule, and it still feels fun and cool and exciting. The comic book cutscenes and florid narration are so stylised that they haven’t aged against advances in technology or culture, they are simply themselves. The great music helps there too. It is still fun to dive sideways through doors and gun down mobsters in bullet time. And it is still fun to revel in the technological advancement which surely encouraged Remedy to lean in with that Fall Of Max Payne subtitle: physics objects. I am still pleased when Max falls over and the wildly enthusiastic physics engine sends boxes and carts and everything flying everywhere. Silly, sure, but what about Max Payne isn’t?
And it’s still better than the first game. Not just because it didn’t have platforming bloodmazes.
Sim City 4
Mayor Liam:I can only assume Sim City 4 has a very sore back, considering it held up the city building genre for 12 years straight beforeCities: Skylinesrelieved it of its burden. As a series, Sim City peaked here, expanding on the (excellent) Sim City 3000 with fresh layers of management complexity and an exciting new region view that allowed you construct cities across a customisable continent. You could even connect metropolises (metropoli?) to one another via road and rail networks, which in the dark days of 2003 felt like actual magic.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Hayden:I have one crystal clear memory ofGrand Theft Auto: Vice City: hopping in the nearest car after the intro to hear Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean blasting from the radio. Music matters for your memory, and that one track solidified Vice City’s iconic status in my mind.
Whether you have the original Vice City or theDefinitive Editionon Steam, you won’t hear Billie Jean on the radio anymore. Licensing issues, the big monster that regularly rears its head to ruin older games, meant that it was cut from the game in an update along with a few other tracks. This meant that Vice City could remain on sale, albeit in a slightly lesser form - until, spoiler alert, it was removed from sale almost everywhere in order to make way for the new Definitive Edition. We probably all have our own opinions on what makes the original better than the Definitive Edition, but I think the music alone is reason enough to put an original disc copy of GTA: Vice City in the Time Capsule.
Ghost Master
Ollie:I was eight-years-old when I first playedGhost Master. To this day, I can recall almost every track from the OST. One simple reason: it’s the greatest game music ever. Others may be better, but none are as great. I don’t care, it makes sense to me.
But even aside from the music (which is 95% of the reason why I chose to save it in the Time Capsule), Ghost Master is a singularly brilliant game. Janky and a bit dated, perhaps, but an enthralling and shockingly challenging game about using your entourage of colourful spirits to bring aboutjuuuuustthe right amount of panic. Every level is a multi-layered puzzle with various solutions, none of which are straightforward, and all of which are filled with the kind of playfulness and charm that makes me grin from ear to ear while I’m playing.
Tomb Raider VI: The Angel Of Darkness
The Angel Of Darkness was the game that first encouraged me to overcome a terrific amount of natural shyness in order to seek out online fandom spaces on shaky little Bambi legs. There’s a reasonable chance I wouldn’t be where I am today had that not happened, so my memories of it are quite possibly fonder than it objectively merits. But I still maintain that any time Lara Croft (in either of her reboot eras) works with an NPC ally, or trades with a vendor, or levels up a secondary attribute, you’re seeing AoD’s legacy in action.
The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King
Ed:Games based on booksor movies can be brilliant - likeGoldenEye 007, for instance - or they can be aggressively bad. We all know this to be true. But LOTR is both a good video game and highlights something else that’s lacking in this day and age (waves cane, puffs on pipe etc): the joy of couchco-op.
I know times have changed and online gaming with your buds is more convenient yada yada. So, that’s all the more reason why LOTR is so important. Firstly, the game knows its limits and commits to being fun, never once does it overextend itself trying to be some visionary extension of the source material. You simply hack and slash your way through cool setpieces, as the camera angles shift to show Gimli shattering a skeletons bones, or Aragorn from below, slicing orcs and earning those arcadey pop-ups of “Excellent!” or “Fair”. I remember hopping on a mate’s couch and loving every second of LOTR’s experience gathering and baddy bashing. That’s why I think it’s important we save this couch co-op silliness for an aggressively online future.
Beyond Good and Evil
Image credit:Ubisoft
Rachel:I’ve not playedBeyond Good And Evil, but I saw no one else on the team picked it so I’m swiping it up. It’s a game I’ve heard so much about since I started writing about games, and it’s been sitting in my Steam library for years. So, into the Time Capsule it goes, if not for its status as a cult classic but for my own selfish reasons.
It’s well known that Beyond Good And Evil was ultimately a commercial failure back in 2003, but thankfully its reputation has only grown over the years. I’ve heard many say that it was a game released before its time? Maybe?? Though I can see why. For a game released in 2003, it still looks pretty great, especially compared to others on this list. It also has a great story: a stealthy sci-fi plot that deals with government conspiracy. Also, Jade is badass. She’s got her skull-cracking staff, a camera for her investigative reporting, and her outfit! Like, no one can pull off a pair of green cargos and a bandana like Jade can. And the matching lipstick - incredible. I also love how you can use the camera to take photos of alien wildlife - very cool. Beyond Good And Evil is rad as hell and still totally worth playing, especially since it sounds like the sequel isstuck in development hell. Yikes.
Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time
Katharine:Speaking of games whose sequels/remakes arestuck in development hell… cue comedy trombone It’sPrince Of Persia: Sands Of Time! In all seriousness, though, Sands Of Time remains an absolute classic. Not the film, of course. The film was absolutely terrible. But the game! Cor, what a thing. Not only did it single-handedly revive a somewhat shaky series, but it was also a masterfulplatformer, not least because the Prince’s snazzy dagger let you rewind time (and you all thought it was the sands that did that, didn’t you, you can’t trick me!).
The actual Sands of the title, meanwhile, is what gives the Prince his power. Got no sand? No rewind power for you, sir. You also fight a lot of sand-based creatures, which, sure, might not have been quite as fun as all the wall-running, pole swinging and general parkouring, but hey, many might say it still has better combat than today’s crop of Assassin’s Creed games, amirite? (sorry, Assassin’s Creed, I stilllove you a lot, yeah?). Really, though, 3D platformers like this just don’t tend to get made anymore, and that’s a real shame. So into the Time Capsule it goes. Don’t worry, I’ll give it a bit of a shake before we seal it up. We don’t want any of the pesky sand getting in there and scratching up all the CD-ROMs, do we?
