Everyone has their own ideas about what the best year for video games was, but it's clearly 2001. Gaming was having a moment as it entered the new millennium, shaking itself free from the largely frivolous 1990s and establishing itself as a worthy artform worth paying attention to. Developers were getting more confident; gamers were broadening their minds; technology was improving at a rapid rate; and major publishers were becoming less risk averse, in a way they haven't been since and likely never will be again. This was a time when blockbuster games could be interesting and genre-pushing, and concepts like DLC and season passes didn't exist. But above all, it's the sheer volume of all-time classics that launched in 2001, particularly on the PS2, that make this a standout year, and cement its legacy as the greatest 365 days in the history of video games.

The PS2, released a year earlier, had a stunning run in 2001. After a fairly underwhelming start, Sony's console unleashed a flurry of games that made it truly essential. In October, Rockstar launched Grand Theft Auto 3, a revolutionary, industry-changing 3D open-world game whose impact on gaming as a whole cannot be understated. Much of the open-world design pioneered here still influences the genre today. In September, Konami published Silent Hill 2, a masterful horror game that proved video games could be provocative, mature, and subtle, and tell challenging stories. November saw the arrival of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, an intelligent and eerily prescient blockbuster action game that tackled big, weighty themes via the medium of giant robots.

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In September, Sony published the beautiful and haunting Ico, which was one of the earliest video games I remember that seemed to transcend the medium and appeal on a deeper artistic level than just pure play. In May, Volition pushed the PS2 to its limits with Red Faction's magnificent destruction system. In the same month, Neversoft perfectly captured the essence of skateboarding culture at the turn of the millennium with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3. In August, Capcom's Devil May Cry took the bones of Resident Evil and turned it into a thrilling, stylish fighting game. Final Fantasy 10, released in July, saw Square Enix refine and refresh its flagship RPG series for a new era. See what I mean? Just hit after hit, and all on one console in a single year. The PS2 is the best-selling console of all time, and with a library of games like this, it's not difficult to see why.

Silent Hill 2

In November, Microsoft launched the original Xbox—a beast of a console with impressive tech under the hood and a stellar launch game in Halo: Combat Evolved. Bungie's FPS was a masterpiece of evocative world-building, furiously entertaining combat, and sensational multiplayer, making PS2 die-hards secretly jealous (I'm comfortable enough with myself to admit it now) and selling 3 million copies worldwide by 2003. Elsewhere in the world of hardware, the Game Boy Advance was yet another superb handheld from Nintendo, with a dazzlingly colourful screen and some solid launch titles including Castlevania: Circle of the Moon and a surprisingly excellent scaled-down version of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. The PS2 and its S-tier game library may have defined the year, but it was pretty damn good for hardware launches too.

And don't forget the GameCube. Nintendo launched its lovely, tiny little not-quite-a-cube in late 2001 in Japan and the US, which famously brought Animal Crossing into the world, and finally gave Mario's beleaguered brother a starring role in Luigi's Mansion. With its chunky, portable design (more consoles need handles), decent power under the hood, and array of brilliant exclusives, the GameCube would go on to be one of Nintendo's best consoles—although it didn't fully make an impact until 2002/3. Still, 2001 marked its first appearance in the wild. It couldn't compete with the mighty Xbox and PS2, but it never really tried to, carving its own path through the games industry in a very Nintendo manner.

PC gaming also had a great year in 2001. Riding the wave of excitement around The Matrix, Remedy released Max Payne in July, a joyously cinematic slow-motion shooter. Blending intense, gloriously choreographed action with Norse mythology and a moody hard-boiled noir atmosphere, this was one of the best games of 2001—and it's still immensely playable today. Epic launched Unreal Tournament in March, a technologically stunning FPS whose underlying tech, the Unreal Engine, would go on to become a major force in the games industry. We also got curios like Lionhead's Black & White, a bizarre god game featuring giant creatures with convincingly simulated personalities, and Anachronox, a quirky turn-based RPG by Deus Ex creator Ion Storm.

Final Fantasy 10

Other 2001 highlights include the first appearance of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on the Game Boy Advance, the first ever Pro Evolution Soccer, which would become the connoisseur's choice of football game, and strong debuts from Super Monkey Ball, Onimusha, and Dreamcast classic Phantasy Star Online, the first ever console MMORPG. The year also saw the rise of the EA Sports BIG label, which made its name with riotous snowboarding game SSX Tricky. Capcom even made a couple of Zelda games for the Game Boy Color: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages. Honestly, has there ever been a more exciting time to be a gamer? Just a constant stream of innovative, interesting games, running on killer hardware, and with very little of the desperate, money-grabbing stink that has begun to fester in the triple-A space of late.

I haven't even mentioned the likes of Advance Wars, Jak & Daxter, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, Shenmue 2, Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, or Zone of the Enders, but you get the picture. The evidence speaks for itself: 2001 was THE year for video games, and I don't think we'll ever see another one like it. It was also an era with much fewer diminishing returns when it comes to hardware—when a new console could still stun you with a leap in visual fidelity. Games look better than ever now, and titles like Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on PS5 still have that next-gen wow factor. But the transition from the original PlayStation to the PS2 was like crossing over into another galaxy, and 2001 was when developers really started figuring out how to squeeze the most out of that hardware. In terms of tech, art, and creativity, this really was a legendary single orbit around the sun.

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