December 15, 2009 - Welcome back to the second day in our weeklong series at Cheat Code Central, as we look back on the games that made up the last decade. Today, we're analyzing 2002 and 2003, while we discuss the notable games that innovated, impressed, and defined these years.

Neverwinter Nights (PC)

Might seem like an odd choice, but at the time, Neverwinter Nights was the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate. While not as memorable as Baldur's Gate in its single-player, NWN gave gamers the tools to build their own modules and worlds, spawning a slew of fantastic (and often not so fantastic) downloadable modules and persistent worlds.

Personal Highlight: Confession time - I was one of those guys running a persistent world on the NWN servers. Geeky as it sounds; having a server with your own created content being filled nightly by 40 plus players is immensely gratifying… even if some of the players did decide to start a cult of fish worshipers.

Animal Crossing (GC)

Beyond all reasoning, at least in my humble opinion, Animal Crossing went on to become a huge success for Nintendo. Where I saw a game quasi-similar to The Sims, except with less to do, others saw a relaxing, peaceful, and ever-changing game experience. Most notable was the time and date-based activities that followed the GameCube's internal clock. All I know is this: Tom Nook is a hustler and can't be trusted.

Personal Highlight: Really, I have no clue how Nintendo intended Animal Crossing to be played. In fact, I didn't play it a whole lot myself. But, there was a small span of time in college that some of us would load up Animal Crossing. The end result was as much sabotage as possible to the town and NC17 rated messages left on the town message board.

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