|
RPGDot 2003 Awards: Best RPG
The RPGDot Team, 2004-01-16
The last couple of weeks you could vote for the best RPGs and MMORPGs that have been released in 2003. Not us but you the player decide who receives the RPGDot 2003 Awards in the various categories. We thank all those who entered their votes and helped us in making it possible to select the best games of 2003.
Best RPG
What was the best RPG last year. What game of those released in 2003 did we really love.
The winner: Gothic 2
With the popularity of the Gothic series among RPGDot regulars it didn't really come as a surprise that 'Gothic II', the successor of 'Gothic' by developers Piranha Bytes, was voted the best RPG of 2003. Despite some residual bugs, the excellent combination of a gripping atmosphere with unique NPCs, full voice-acting and a living, breathing world earned the game which topped German sales charts for quite some time) its well-deserved place at the top.
(Jaz)
Runner Up: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
KotOR offers the opportunity to role-play within a believable Star Wars Universe with an interesting and varied array of memorable characters brought to life with generally good voice acting. We've already seen that readers liked KotOR's graphics, sound and atmosphere and there are a good number of interesting side-quests with some thought-provoking moral ambiguity. The plot-progression is linear and the underlying d20 mechanics are simplified but KotOR was a high point in a relatively disappointing CRPG year.
(Dhruin)
Second Runner Up: Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil
Temple of Elemental Evil is in fine company for RPG of the year. Gothic 2 was a great game and worth the wait. I haven't played Knights of the Old Republic yet but from what I hear it uses a modified Aurora engine and similar character generation and advancement as Neverwinter Nights -- which definitely gets my attention. Temple of Elemental Evil was rushed out the door and shipped with a hundred errors or more. The story was about as deep as games such as Bards Tale, Dragon Wars, and Wizardry. Know what? I loved those games then and I love them now. There's something to be said for simplicity... despite being story light overall Temple had some excellent innovations that hadn't been seen in a 3rd edition game and boasted multiple endings... something many games promise but few deliver.
I enjoyed wading through the turn based monster dungeon. It brought back memories of when I first got into CRPGs back in the 80s. Temple was a fantastic first attempt at the 3.5 ruleset. Now that the bugs have been worked out for the most part I'm certain the next Greyhawk game will be a much smoother ride. It might even have a deeper story.
(EverythingXen)
The Numbers
To make it complete we now give you the top 10 as voted by our visitors:
| 1 |
Gothic 2 |
34,3 % |
| 2 |
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic |
31,9 % |
| 3 |
Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil |
13,1 % |
| 4 |
Final Fantasy X-2 |
1,8 % |
| 5 |
Freelancer |
1,3 % |
| 6 |
Lionheart - Legacy of the Crusader |
0,7 % |
| 7 |
Pirates of the Caribbean |
0,6 % |
| 8 |
Anito |
0,6 % |
| 9 |
Geneforge 2 |
0,5 % |
| 10 |
Summoner: The Prophecy |
0,4 % |
And 13,4 % of those who participated were unable to select one of the games.
We, the RPGDot team also voted to create our own top 5:
| 1 |
Gothic 2 |
60,0 % |
| 2 |
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic |
21,3 % |
| 3 |
Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil |
9,3 % |
| 4 |
Freelancer |
5,3 % |
| 5 |
Enclave |
4,0 % |
Our winner won big time with close to 40% more votes over the second place.
Note that percentages are rounded to the nearest number.
Overview of all awards on RPGDot
Best Sound
Best Graphics
Best Atmosphere
Biggest Surprise
Biggest Disappointment
Most Anticipated
Dream Game
Best RPG/RPG-Strategy Expansion
Best Non-RPG
Best RPG-Strategy
Best RPG
Overview of all awards on MMORPGDot
Best Sound
Best Graphics
Best Atmosphere
Biggest Surprise
Biggest Disappointment
Most Anticipated
Best Expansion
Best MMORPG
|
