Instead of boring you with my personal list of the best games of 2004 I ve decided to bore you with a list of my worst gaming moments of 2004.

Brian s top five most disappointing game moments of 2004

Where in the world is Grand Theft Auto?: So, I m a greedy ass who expects to get all of his games for free. I can t help it, I review and write about games for a living and getting games is habit forming. As I was preparing for the Christmas Crunch I shot an email to Rockstar to find out if I could land an early copy of San Andreas. No, they said, I d have to wait until the release date.
The release date came and the doorbell rang. I ran to see who it was and found the friendly neighborhood FedEx man waiting with a box from Rockstar. I ran upstairs and tore apart the box only to discover a copy of a third-rate game, Scaler, inside. Who they hell ships crap on the day their mega-hit is released?

Finishing Halo 2: We waited xxx for the sequel. We didn t wait just because we loved the gameplay and wanted a chance to blast are friends to bits online, but because the plot in Halo wasn t just good, it was grrreat. Once I got Halo 2, I worked my way through it. I finally got to the end only to realize that there was no end, not really. You can pull off cliffhangers in movies, sometimes, but don t try it in a game, it just pisses people off.

Half-Life 2 makes me vomit: Sometimes graphics can be too good. I got violently motion sick after playing Half-Life 2 on a laggy LCD monitor for four hours straight. I still have an aversion to Counter-Strike marathons, fearing that they will end in a little thing I like to call projectile vomiting.

DS Shortage Hurts Everyone: Have I mentioned that I m a greedy bastard? Working to put together a feature story on the Nintendo DS for the Rocky Mountain News and a couple of websites, I arranged to receive not one, but two Nintendo DS on launch. It was the only way I would be able to review the wireless gameplay I reasoned, and besides sites like Gamespot got like a crate of them. A week before launch day, Nintendo sends me a box loaded with two of the beauties and a note. Please return loaner unit by the end of the week. Say it ain t so. That s OK I got to keep the other one and now it s sporting a nifty custom fire look thanks to Decal Girl.

Rumble Roses is just a video game: I scoffed at Rumble Roses when it was first announced. I mean who s going to play a wrestling game that features freaky-real graphics and a bevy of babes wrestling in tiny outfits in the mud? Ummmm, besides me I mean. Turns out I love the game. I methodically worked my way through it, winning outfits, unlocking secrets and getting a chance to oggle the woman as they did their stretches in the locker rooms. Then the realization hit me: No matter how good I got at Rumble Roses I would never see Candy Cane naked never!

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