2004: The Smell of Next Gen

On 10/08/2015 at 02:03 AM by KnightDriver

Maybe you got all gothically moody with Evanescence's Fallen album. Ot started thinking about gaming as a true sport with Halo 2 multiplayer, or got outraged by the GTA: San Andreas "Hot Coffee" scandal. Or maybe you read David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and hoped it'd be made into a movie, "It'll never happen!", you said. Or maybe you got your apocalyptic paranoia on with The Day After Tomorrow. I experienced none of that. I liked the following:

In music I was introduced to metal band Mastodon this year by my band mate Cory with their Leviathan album. I got deeper into them eventually but what I liked the most in music came from movie soundtracks. I got the SpongBob SquarePants Movie soundtrack for The Flaming Lips song "Spongebob & Patrick Confront the Psychic Wall of Energy" which I fell in love with the moment I heard it in the movie. The rest of the album is super fun and every track is good. Then I picked up Team America: World Police soundtrack because it's full of stuff by South Park creator's Trey Parker and Matt Stone. I still have "America (Fuck Yeah)" rolling around in my head. There's not a bad song on the soundtrack. But even better than those is my favorite soundtrack, one I listened to front to back continuously for over a week, The Trekkies 2 soundtrack. I have difficulty explaining why I dug it so much, but it may be that it's full of spoken word clips from the movie and a wide variety of homebrew music. There's folk, punk, rock and metal tracks all done by unknown bands and individuals singing about Star Trek. It's super fun. I think the raw, sort of amaturish nature of most of the music also appeals to me. It's like listening to the demo tapes of your friends playing in the garage or live recorded on really primative equipment. I can't get enough of it.

In video games, this was the year you could smell the next generation. The first scents, as it is still the case today, came from the handhelds: the Ninentdo DS and the Sony PSP. I didn't jump on board right away, but I was interested. I was still looking for my killer console RTS and thought I'd found it in Army Men RTS. Well, as usual, the Army Men series should've been a great idea but it always ended up being mediocre. I waited in line for Halo 2 to release. That was the first time I'd done that for a game. Halo 2 ended up being fun, but the weekly co-op sessions didn't happen like with the first game. It was forgotten pretty quickly and I wasn't into multiplayer much, unlike the rest of the gaming community. Painkiller on PC and Killzone on PS2 filled some much needed FPS action the rest of the year. I got my RPG on with Fable and my crash/racing on with Burnout 3: Takedown both on Xbox, my main console. Burnout 3 Takedown is still considered the best of the Burnout series. It was a pretty good year for gaming.

I didn't read much in '04. I was way too much into Teaching Company lectures on classical music and natural science documentaries. I did notice today that Karen Traviss, writer of the latest Halo trilogy, wrote Star Wars Republic Commando: Hard Contact in 2004. I'd like to read that.

In film then. There were a bunch of memorable ones. Pixar's Incredibles was really great. I loved the visuals of the movie and the little touches of brilliance in the animation. I really liked Hellboy. I only found out about the comics later. Shaun of the Dead was really funny and put Simon Pegg on the map. I'd watch anything by the same director now. Mean Girls was very good. I believe written by Tina Fey. Anchorman was comedy gold. An absolute classic. I still think about SKy Captain and the World of Tomorrow. I loved the stylized look of that movie and the WWII airplanes. It was like a movie made out of the models I built as a kid. Then there was the South Park guy's Team America: World Police. It wins the award for longest barf scene in history. I couldn't believe how long it lasted and it made me laugh several different times. It's memorable to me too in that I was able to make my dad laugh telling him about the Star Wars cantina band spoof scene. Finally there was SpongeBob SquarePants The Movie. I'd hardly seen much of the TV show, but I gave it a shot in the theater and really liked it. It's so surreal and I love surreal.

That's about it for 2004 in media. Tired of this yet? I'm not.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

10/08/2015 at 07:02 AM

that barf scene is freaking transcendent. I love it. made me laugh uncontrollably in the theater.

KnightDriver

10/08/2015 at 04:24 PM

I saw it by myself and I really wish I hadn't because I have an old friend who likes such silly moments and I wish we had seen it together. We were thinking of putting together a video of the greatest barf scenes. Two come readily to mind: Exorcist and Mafia! (also called Jane Austin's Mafia!).

Cary Woodham

10/08/2015 at 07:48 AM

2004 through 2006 were pretty good years for me. The one game that stuck out in my mind in 2004 was also my Game of the Year: Katamari Damacy.

10/08/2015 at 04:26 PM

Yea, there was a lot of talk about that one. I think I played a demo of it on an Official Playstation Magazine demo disc. That game should be on iOS right now. It could be a great ongoing series. I wonder what happened?

10/08/2015 at 08:15 PM

There WAS a couple of Katamari games on iOS but Namco took them off their site recently for some reason. I think we don't see as many Katamari games now because when the series was super popular, Namco kind of beat it into the ground with similar sequels that offereed little change and improvement. There were two Katamari games on the PS2, one on PSP, 360, PS3, and Vita. Maybe they're giving the series a break. I'd love one on the Wii U, though.

10/09/2015 at 01:29 AM

Yea, it'd be perfect on the Wii-U.

goaztecs

10/08/2015 at 10:44 AM

I loved the PSP! I waited for a couple of months after launch to finally pick one up. I bought Madden and then I think later on that year I spent $100 on a 1GB memory stick. It hurt but the PSP became my music/podcast player. I think everyone took advantage of the glitch on GripShift where you could install custom firmware.

10/08/2015 at 04:37 PM

I ended up not using my PSP for much after I played Untold Legends on it. I got a friend to get it too and we played that co-op over wireless. After that, I didn't use it much until Valkyria Chronicles II. I've collected a bunch of games for it though. I've got to add them to my current play list and get some more time on that system.

Ranger1

10/08/2015 at 10:54 AM

I never managed to acquire a PSP. And 2008 was the year I finally made the leap to the DS/360/PS3 era. That was the year I went year-round in parks (what a nightmare that turned out to be!) and inherited a little money from my dad.

10/08/2015 at 04:44 PM

I got the PSP in '05 'cause of co-op action RPG Untold Legends. Then I got a 360 in '06. I was thinking about getting one new hardware per year. I got a PSVIta last year, but nothing this year yet. Just a new TV.

I guess the park thing was hell because of winter weather?

10/08/2015 at 06:25 PM

No, and I can't discuss it in a public forum.

Casey Curran Staff Writer

2004 is my favorite year for games ever. So many fantastic titles those twelve months.

10/08/2015 at 04:49 PM

What is it about the last few years of a generation? Always some of the best games come out then.

BrokenH

10/08/2015 at 06:58 PM

Can't pinpoint years exactly but I recall the early 2000's were a great time to have a PS2,especially if you loved J-rpgs an survival horror games!

10/09/2015 at 01:28 AM

I wish I was into the jrpgs at the time. I'd have Dark Cloud 2. I've got a few in my collection now though. Need to put them in my playlist so I can get to them.

Alex-C25

10/10/2015 at 12:35 AM

Just like 2003 was my next-gen jump to handhelds, 2004 was the year I entered the next generation with the Xbox and when I got it on christmas, I jumped instantly on the game I was most hyped: Sonic Heroes (which was released on the 30th of December of 2003, but due to the release, it may as well be from 2004). I spent the rest of my day playing that one.

Later on, I got Halo 2 and loved the game and its multiplayer. Need for Speed: Underground 2 and Prince of Persia: Warrior Within are other stand-outs from that year i've played.

Did see The Incredibles and really liked it, altough I was indeed surprised as a young one about how surprisingly realistic it was at points, what with the banning of superheroes. The third Harry Potter was also released and nowadays I think it's atleast among my top 3 of the franchise. Shaun of the Dead is amazing all-around.

10/10/2015 at 04:22 AM

I remember those Prince of Persia games. Everyone was hot on those. I tried Warrior Within and I think another one (Sands of Time?), but didn't get into it. I may have to try it again though. I think they were pretty good.

PixlBit

2004: The Smell of Next Gen

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