Three Years

This is a half-coherent, half-intoxicated discription of how there is a "three year effect" in gaming. 1995... 1998... 2001... 2004... 2007. Read on for some more drunken chunks of genius:

Diminishing returns on the qualty of games? Yes, we are hitting that wall. 2004 was the Pinnaccle of gaming releses. I don't expect there to be such a clusterfsck every fall, but they could spread releases out some. Nothing in August but Madden, and then the week I go back go class Yakuza and Dark Messiah come out. Great timing, assholes.

There are three year trends in releases when it comes to games.

1995
first fully 3D consoles released in the states
Warhawk, Twisted Metal
NFL Gameday kicks Madden to the curb
Ride Racer
[TOSHINDEN HAHAHAHAHA SHIT GAME]

Sega had out Panzer Dragoon, Daytona USA, Virtua Cop, Sega Rally, and God's game delivered to the heathens of earth: VIRTUA FIGHTER 2

plus you could mess around with a JPN model N64 at Cybersmith. Broadband really killed places like those off.

1998
If not the best holiday season, than the best calendar year.
Tekken 3
Ridge Racer Type 4
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit (this was before they got into the rice rocket shit)
Tenchu - Stealth Assassins
Resident Evil 2
Metal Gear Solid
Zelda Ocarina of Time
Gameday and Shootout showing how 3D sports are done
SHOGO - Mobile Armor Division
SiN
Half-Mutha-Fuck'n-Life!

that was the best year

But for the best fall:

2001 - A Gaming Oddysy
Ico
Grand Theft Auto 3
Metal Gear Solid 2
Halo
Devil May Cry
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 (this was the template for which billions of gallons of milk would be produced)
Final Fantasy X

And that was on top of GT3 and Twisted Metal Black having already been released in the spring.

But for a fall release steel cage match, this tops them all:

2004
Doom III
Halo 2
Half-Life 2
Metal Gear Solid 3
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas
Tribes Vengeance
UT2004 collector's edition
Kotor 2 (ugh, but was a big release at the time)
Dragon Quest 8 (jpn)
Ratchet & Clank 3
Metroid Prime 2
Burnout 3

Next year potentially:
===============

VF5 - March
UT2007 - March
Heavenly Sword - Feb/March
Quake Wars ET - Feb/March

later in the year:

Metal Gear Solid 4
Halo 3
BioShock
Grand Theft Auto IV
Mass Effect
Half-Life 2 - Episode 3
SiN Episodes 3
Mercenaries 2


EVERY THREE YEARS, BITCHES. EVERY THREE YEARS.

That is the first time I've changed the font for a block of quoted text. Looks nifty.