The List

2) The Half-Life 2 hype

Wait, wait, wait, can we just back up? Not since the Star Wars Episode I trailers have so many geeks slobbered so much over so little. It's not a good sign that Gabe Newell squandered so much credibility by all but taking off his shoe and pounding it on the podium when he promised Half-Life 2 would be out -- umm, let me check my watch -- one week ago. Then there's the clumsy debut of Steam, Valve's "our way or the highway" proprietary online distribution/authentication/totalitarian system. And now that the source code has been ripped untimely from its mother network, everyone's talking about Half-Life 2 all over again, which should carry it through to its new April 2004 release date just fine. In the last six months, Half-Life 2 has gotten more press than Duke Nukem Forever has gotten in all sixteen years of its ongoing development. Can we practice a little hype socialism and recall some of this coverage to dole it out to some of the more press poor games?

3) Half-baked RPGs for the PC

That's right, Lionheart and Temple of Elemental Evil, I'm talking to you. Just because the genre is doing well doesn't mean we need to start slinging out underdone titles that completely ignore, Temple of Elemental Evil style, how much better interfaces have gotten since the first Baldur's Gate. It doesn't mean we need to try to straddle the divide, Lionheart style, between Diablo and actual RPGs. Let's recall them and give their developers a chance to play through Knights of the Old Republic to get a sense for how to do RPGs right.

4) Counter-Strike

Would someone please tell those 30,000 players who are online right now that there are other games out there that aren't as old as Methuselah and overrun with aimbots? It's their fault I can't find a server with a good game of Jedi Academy's siege mode. I vote we recall Counter-strike and get more people playing underdogs like Vietcong, Savage, and Battlefield 1942's Forgotten Heroes mod, which I’ve heard is pretty cool, but I wouldn’t know since I can’t find any games because apparently no one can get enough of de_dust.

5) Progress Quest

This has got to be the worst massively multiplayer online RPGs I've ever played. I can't figure out how to enable the 3D mode, the bastard lunatic class is seriously overpowered, and the chat interface is just lame, lame, lame. Sure, it's free, but I guess you get what you pay for. Recall it anyway.