These 10 games prove that 2001 might have been the best year for video games EVER.
While some of us are lucky enough to be playing with our new PlayStation 5, or Xbox Series X, or high-end PC, or whatever it is you happen to be playing your games on, you might think that, two decades ago, gaming was disgustingly primitive.
As you're about to find out, however, that was very much not the case, as not only did 2001 introduce us to what would go on to become some of the greatest gaming franchises of all time, it would be also feature some of the greatest sequels and - yep, we're gonna say - just some of the greatest games ever made. Of all time. Full Stop.
Devil May Cry
Platform: PlayStation 2
Release Date: 17 October, 2001
The frenetic demon-hunter shoot-em-up has recently celebrated its fourth sequel, but this is where it all began, with two guns and a supernatural ability to keep shooting monsters before the fall back to the ground.
Clip via PyrHead
Final Fantasy X
Platform: PlayStation 2
Release Date: 19 July, 2001
Much like the Resident Evil series, Final Fantasy is going through a series of reboots from its back catalogue, so we expect it won't be long before FFX gets a next-gen upgrade.
Clip via NiaiMitch
Grand Theft Auto III
Platform: PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC
Release Date: 22 October, 2001
Somehow, in the 20 YEARS since this game, we've only made it as far as GTAV, and while we all patiently wait for Rockstar to announce the sixth game, this is where it all really took off, switching from the top-down crime caper to a fully realised, 3D world of violence.
Clip via GTA Series Videos
Halo: Combat Evolved
Platform: Xbox
Release Date: 15 November, 2001
Just like GTA, this is another series we're patiently waiting for the sixth entry to (Halo Infinite is set to arrive on Series X some time this year), but the original Halo was very much a game-changer in terms of first-person-shooters.
Clip via taitai907
Ico
Platform: PlayStation 2
Release Date: 24 September, 2001
Before they gave the world the legendary brilliant Shadow Of The Colossus, Team Ico delivered this beautiful, atmospheric platformer that feels like an origin for many "young-child-lost-in-a-big-scary-world" games, like Limbo and Inside.
Clip via RazielDante1
Luigi's Mansion
Platform: Gamecube
Release Date: 14 September, 2001
While this wasn't the greatest Mario (or non-Mario Mario?) game ever, it did lead to some great sequels, but the first Luigi's Mansion was a launch game for the Gamecube, which also came into the world for 2001, as did the very first Xbox console, so we had LOTS of new stuff to play with that year.
Clip via TheHappyFaceKing
Max Payne
Platform: PC
Release Date: 23 July, 2001
While most shooters are quite content with you laying waste to Nazis or aliens or whatever, the darkness of Max Payne, playing a cop on the edge (armed with Matrix-esque slo-mo) getting revenge for the murder of his family... it all helped push game stories towards much more grown-up, psychologically deeper plots.
Clip via EdgarTheFace
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Platform: PlayStation 2
Release Date: 13 November, 2001
While we'll never forgive Konami for somewhat ruining the MGS franchise in recent years, they are also responsible for giving us that very same franchise in the first place, and Sons of Liberty is arguably the best of the lot, from beginning with an all-time rug-pull (wait... we're not playing as Snake?!), to the fourth-wall breaking conversations directly with the player.
Clip via PlayScope Timeline
Silent Hill 2
Platform: PlayStation 2
Release Date: 24 September, 2001
Konami were also the folks behind Silent Hill, another franchise they allowed to go to rot, but they're also behind giving us this game, arguably the greatest horror game ever made.
Beginning with some psychological head-f**kery by going back to the town to visit your wife... who died a few years ago... before descending into absolute psycho-sexual carnage, this has yet to be matched in the genre.
Clip via Red Pyramid
Twisted Metal: Black
Platform: PlayStation 2
Release Date: 18 June, 2001
Online multiplayer is great, but local multiplayer? That is where the true fun is had! Having some mates around and going co-op as two rocket-launcher armed cars, causing chaos everywhere you go? Off-the-wall bonkers games like this just don't come around enough anymore!
Clip via SweetnessGaming
