March 2004: Frag-a-Palooza!

This was our toughest month yet for picking out a game to honor. We had not one, not two, but three outstanding five star games. We could have gone with the Sam Fisher's latest, Pandora Tomorrow. We could have honored the stellar revival of a classic franchise with Ninja Gaiden. In the end, though, it was no contest. No game during March sucked away as much productive work time as Unreal Tournament 2004, the current champ among first person shooters.

Bravo and congratulations, UT2K4, GameSpy's Game of the Month for March, 2004!



March 2004 Winner (PC)
Unreal Tournament 2004

With all the great games this month, none grabbed us like Unreal Tournament 2004. The new "Onslaught" mode is an amazing blend of balls-out action and strategic teamplay, and the new vehicles are nearly perfect in every way. The returning Assault mode is practically a new game, and that doesn't even begin to count all the other modes like Bombing Run, Capture the Flag, Deathmatch, and a single-player ladder against the best multiplayer bots you've ever seen.

Even more than that, Unreal Tournament 2004 features a level of polish that we just don't see that often. The game's eye candy doesn't require a hefty PC, voice communication is easily managed in-game, and many of the new maps feel balanced to perfection. We suspect we'll be playing UT 2004 all year long -- it's a welcome return to greatness for the franchise.

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Runner-Up (Xbox)
Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow

Ubisoft's Splinter Cell franchise has become dramatically more interesting with its most recent release. The game's single player mode remains largely unchanged; though gigantic, outdoor levels, subtle gameplay tweaks, and a few new moves make Sam Fisher's latest adventure superior to his last. The real draw of Pandora Tomorrow, though, is its multiplayer mode. Spy versus mercenary. First-person versus third-person. Action versus stealth. Once you've survived a few matches against skilled human opponents, standard deathmatch will suddenly sound much less appealing.

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Ninja Gaiden

When it comes to high-speed ninja action, you need look no further than this game. Raising the bar for the action/adventure game in one swipe of Ryu's katana, Ninja Gaiden is everything we ever hoped for: beautiful, challenging, exciting, and absolutely head and shoulders beyond its competition. With a lengthy quest that offers tons of variety, slickly animated cutscenes and absolutely fantastic control, the game rewards you on every level the further you play. Ninja Gaiden is a truly stunning evolution of the classic style of game whose name it bears.

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