Best Games of 2004
Ranked by our critic's grades, best first.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake EaterA Cold War tragedy disguised as a survival sneaker, with the series' best bosses and its most complete ending.Read the review
Halo 2The game that invented online console multiplayer as we know it, with a campaign twice as bold as its predecessor.
Half-Life 2Physics, facial animation, and environmental storytelling promoted from decoration to core systems.
Grand Theft Auto: San AndreasThree cities, a full RPG stat system, and the series' best script, somehow running on a PS2.
FableSmaller than the legend Molyneux promised, better than the backlash remembers.
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed KingThe series stepping into three dimensions and finding the warmest, most confident version of itself.
Ratchet & Clank: Up Your ArsenalThe best arsenal the series ever assembled, in the year Insomniac also shipped competent online multiplayer on a PlayStation 2.
World of WarcraftIt won the genre by deleting the friction everyone else had mistaken for the point.
Burnout 3: TakedownCriterion made crashing the point instead of the punishment, and no arcade racer since has felt this dangerous.
Jak 3The most generous entry in the trilogy and the one least certain about what it wants to be.