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Most Wanted Games of 2004

What 40 games made our most sought after titles of '04? Find out!

GameSpy Grudge

Star Trek: Starfleet Command (PC) Series
Star Trek fans are kind of a funny bunch. There is, somewhere in the depths of their souls, a part of them that truly believes that the show is real. How else can you explain the frenzy over Starfleet Command? The game and its subsequent series exist merely because of fan whining that previous games like Starfleet Academy weren't "realistic" enough.

Realistic? We're talking about games that simulate starship combat based on a show that, for all its virtues, is hardly a very good representation of either military tactics or strategic brilliance. Yet, that cry of "realism" was why fans got so excited over Starfleet Command, a game based on the insanely detailed rules of an obscure old paper and pencil strategy game called Starfleet Battles.

In actual space you can't hear lasers being fired or explosions.

The result was a thoroughly mediocre game that was overly complicated, slow, dull, had the interface from hell, included boring missions, and a campaign that was barely worthy of the name. Then a strange thing happened -- the quasi-religious aura that surrounds Star Trek the TV show seemed to descend over Starfleet Command. Internet forums and chat rooms were filled with rabid gamers espousing the virtues of an entirely average product and viciously flaming anyone who dared say anything bad about their long-awaited "realistic" simulation.

In fact, their support was so vocal that Interplay was convinced that if only the game was more "accessible," the sales might be better. They made quite a few improvements to the game resulting in the better but still mediocre Starfleet Command II and Starfleet Command: Orion Pirates. Then, when the game moved over to Activision, it too was bowled over by the active fan community and came up with the completely pedestrian Starfleet Command III. Activision sold the same small number of units that the Interplay versions always did and quickly realized that a game that sells to the same small group of people every time, and has no appeal to a larger group, wasn't really the way to run a successful franchise.

Delsyn: I'm a strategy gamer, and a turn-based one at that. I can tell you that there's a major difference between "leisurely gameplay" and "glacial" -- the Starfleet Command series crosses that line. It's a horribly complicated computer game based on a horribly complicated paper game that's not nearly as good as your nostalgia-soaked memory would have you believe. It's not that Starfleet Command is a bad game, it's just a mediocre title that has a tiny following of hard-core fans who make much more of it than it really is -- mostly by hideously flaming anyone who disagrees with them.

Fargo: KKKKHHHHHAAAAAAAANNNNNN !!!

Next: The wind of insanity?
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