Take a Nostalgic Trip Through the Pages of a Gaming Magazine From 2005

John Summers • Contributor

Mar 5, 2025 8:00 PM EST

2005—what a time to be alive! Flipping through this Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine from 2005 is like stepping into a time machine and landing in one of gaming's golden eras. Almost every game featured in this 203-page beast is a certified classic, but I've trimmed it down to about half for the sake of your scrolling sanity.

One of the best parts? Seeing all the wild speculation about the so-called "next-gen" consoles—the PS3, Xbox 360, and the Nintendo Wii. The infamous boomerang design for the PS3 controller is proudly plastered on the cover like it wasn't one of the worst controller concepts ever conceived. Hindsight truly is hilarious.

And the games? Absolute bangers. We're talking Fable, Castlevania, Perfect Dark Zero, Oblivion, Sniper Elite, The Matrix: Path of Neo, Soul Calibur 3, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, and so many more. There's even an ad for the Doom RPG on mobile phones—somehow, against all odds, a legitimately fun game. I remember sinking hours into it back in the day.

So sit back, enjoy this trip down memory lane, and try not to think too hard about the fact that this was 20 years ago. (TWENTY!!!)