History UnintentionalPeriodPiece / TurnOfTheMillenniumVideoGames

* In recent years, ''VideoGame/BrutalLegend'' has become an unintentional time capsule of mid-to-late-2000s metalhead culture. While the game is mostly set in a [[HeavyMithril fantasy world]] rooted in nostalgia for classic HeavyMetal, the prologue set in the then-present day features Eddie working as a roadie for a FakeBand called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGM65vif45A Kabbage Boy]], a ''very'' unflattering parody of virtually every major trend in mainstream rock/metal music in the 2000s. The band's members include an obnoxious {{jerkass}} dressed in [[PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy "street" clothes]] and a flamboyant PrettyBoy frontman with a [[Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera Phantom mask]] and what appears to be a T-Mobile Sidekick phone, and their music is an unholy fusion of every negative stereotype of NuMetal, RapMetal, EmoMusic, and {{Metalcore}} (their genre, according to the game's soundtrack, is "Second Wave of American Tween Melodic Rap Metalcore".) In addition, there's jabs at HairMetal (even if the soundtrack ''includes Hair Metal songs''), and also mocking of the aforementioned NuMetal, EmoMusic and {{Metalcore}} genres that were commonplace in 2000s metalhead culture. The {{Take That}}s to other genres would make many of the game's characters seem unlikeable, along with the very politically incorrect humor that wouldn't be seen as acceptable in modern times.

* The original ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza|1}}'' released and is set in 2005, and 4 chapters in Kiryu is handed a [=2000s=]-era brick cell phone by Date to keep in touch. This becomes more of an intentional period piece in [[VideoGameRemake the 2016 remake]], ''Yakuza Kiwami'', which also adds a substory revolving around a flip phone.

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'', released in 2009, has the BigBad revealing his plan to exterminate most of the world's population and start it anew with him as a god, stating that six billion people would die to bring about a new balance. Not only was the world's population already over 6.8 billion at the time of the game's release, it grew to over 7 billion just two years later.

** During fetch quests, Villagers would sometimes ask to deliver or retreat [=GameBoys=] or a VirtualPet toy called Toys/PokemonPikachu. This was fine for the original Japanese Platform/Nintendo64 version; however, the international version was the rerelease on the Platform/NintendoGamecube, which came out in 2002 in North America, 2003 in Australia, and 2004 in Europe, time by which the Platform/GameBoyAdvance was already commonplace (and in the case of the European version, the Paltform/NintendoDS came out two months after the game was first released for that region). Over a decade later, the Pokémon Pikachu is an obscure toy that barely anyone remembers, and the fact that the in-game characters ''only'' use the Platform/GameBoyColor was already odd for the American and the European versions because a real-world Game Boy Advance is needed to unlock the Island.

* ''VideoGame/{{Animal Crossing|2001}}'' came out in 2001 and it's obvious it was made during that period between UsefulNotes/{{the fifth gen|erationOfConsoleVideoGames}}'s end and the beginning of UsefulNotes/{{the sixth|GenerationOfConsoleVideoGames}}.
** During fetch quests, Villagers would sometimes ask to deliver or retreat [=GameBoys=] or a VirtualPet toy called Toys/PokemonPikachu. This was fine for the original Japanese UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 version; however, the international version was the rerelease on the UsefulNotes/NintendoGamecube, which came out in 2002 in North America, 2003 in Australia, and 2004 in Europe, time by which the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance was already commonplace (and in the case of the European version, the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS came out two months after the game was first released for that region). Over a decade later, the Pokémon Pikachu is an obscure toy that barely anyone remembers, and the fact that the in-game characters ''only'' use the UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor was already odd for the American and the European versions because a real-world Game Boy Advance is needed to unlock the Island.
** The use of playable UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem games also dates the game's release to the time when nostalgia for The80s was first starting to kick in among the general public, with unofficial NES emulators like [=NESticle=] having already made major headway online in the late 90s.

* In ''VideoGame/IWannaBeTheGuy'', one of the [[EverythingTryingToKillYou many obstacles]] is a [[FissionMailed fake error message]] which will drop down and kill the player if they don't realize the trick and move out of the way as soon as they regain control. It's a [[UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows Windows XP]] error message, dating the game to when XP was the current iteration of Windows, and ensuring no one will be fooled by it if they play the game on a later OS (even Vista, which came out worldwide the year of the game's release).

* ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'': Similar to the first ''Animal Crossing'' list above, this UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube launch title has a sort of "in-between generations" feeling. Luigi has a gadget called "Game Boy Horror", a take off on the UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor, which felt instantly dated as the Color's successor the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance released a few months before the game did. According to the developers, the GBA's design was not finalized in time to be included in the game. Future games in the series would also feature gadgets based on Nintendo hardware, but would be more deliberately retro, with ''VideoGame/LuigisMansionDarkMoon'' (released in 2013 on the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS) using an original model Nintendo DS (discontinued 8 years prior in 2006), and ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion3'' (released in 2019 on the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch) using a UsefulNotes/VirtualBoy (released ''and'' discontinued in 1995, 24 years prior).

* In ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'', Bowletta uses a UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance (replaced with a UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS in the remake) as a communicator and one book mentions the rumble feature of the UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube.

** 2005's ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeedMostWanted'', meanwhile, combined the high-speed chases that had been sporadically present as far back as ''III: Hot Pursuit'' with a WantedMeter straight out of the aforementioned ''GTA'', and traded [[AlwaysNight permanent night]] for [[EndlessDaytime permanent afternoon]], which just happens to be slathered in the [[RealIsBrown brown and bloom]] common in the [[UsefulNotes/TheSeventhGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames early 7th gen]] (the game, in fact, being a UsefulNotes/Xbox360 launch title).

** Television, and the influence it can have on the populace, serves as one of the underlying themes of the plot. With the rise of the Internet and smartphones only a few years later -- just around the time the game actually takes place -- as the main source of entertainment and news for many people in first-world countries, ''especially'' for those at the high school age all of the main characters are at, this may seem slightly outdated. It's very noticeable that the Internet is never mentioned by anyone, and there's nary a computer to be found in the game world. One that's even remarked upon in-game is the rise of HD [=TVs=] when most of the characters are still using old standard-definition sets, a few lamenting that they'll eventually have to upgrade. A wall of fancy widescreens sits in the electronics section of the local department store Junes, a contrast to the old sets the characters own. Funnily enough, the game itself was released on a [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 mostly SD console]] a couple of years after its [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 HD successor]] had already come out. Kanji's family upgrading to an HD TV is actually a minor plot point in the [[VideoGame/Persona4Arena sequel]], which was released in 2012 and takes place in the same year.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-VhIMjGh6M This demo video]] for the original UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}} Live is an obvious product of the ''very'' early days of the Xbox. Beyond the obvious, where part of the plot involves an American football game that very prominently displays the year 2003 in its title (and not to mention being a non-EA Sports title, dating it to before EA signed its still-ongoing exclusivity deals with the NFL in 2005) and the very late-'90s/early-'00s apartment (complete with both TV and computer monitor being big, boxy [=CRTs=] and a lava lamp near the TV), perhaps the biggest thing to date it is that the fast-paced, action-packed triple-A multiplayer game the viewpoint character invites everyone onto to prove their superiority over the antagonist is... ''VideoGame/MechAssault''. A decently-big game in its own right at the time (being part of [[TabletopGame/BattleTech a big, ongoing franchise]] and having gotten a sequel), but in hindsight, not even ''close'' to as big as ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' would end up being - even in 2002 it was plainly obvious the only reason they ''weren't'' playing ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'' was that the first game didn't have Xbox Live support.

* ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClank3'': One of the characters of the game, Courtney Gears, is a clear parody of Music/BritneySpears, with the game having come out in 2004, around the time when her popularity was still fairly widespread.

* ''Creator/TomClancy's VideoGame/SplinterCell'' dates itself as a product of the 2000s almost entirely on its premise of a newly-formed secret wing of the NSA undertaking field operations for "aggressive intelligence gathering", which takes the form of stealth-based gameplay similar to what ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' and ''VideoGame/SyphonFilter'' had been doing for a while. It dates itself not only in its rather nebulous and fantastical idea of what the NSA actually does, echoing the sudden prominence of, yet lack of knowledge about, the organization at the time (had the series started in any other time period, Third Echelon probably would have been part of the CIA or an entirely independent operation), but ''also'' for the fact that the games for the most part present Third Echelon and the NSA in a positive light,[[note]]even at worst, where the protagonist is embedded in a domestic terrorist organization in ''[[VideoGame/SplinterCellDoubleAgent Double Agent]]'', the NSA [[AllianceMeter loses trust in him]] if he [[BecomingTheMask acts the part too much]][[/note]] which would be completely unheard of following the scandal surrounding the real NSA's warrantless wiretapping. Interestingly, the games were somewhat ahead of the curve in that regard, since several missions ''do'' involve Sam infiltrating allies without express approval from the Joint Chiefs, up to and including the headquarters of the CIA in the first game and of a PMC with several ties to and contracts with the government in the third, though these all got a pass at the time because the player knows the reason is for the "greater good" (e.g. the CIA mission is to trace a possible intelligence leak, so they can't tell anyone what they're doing without risking the leak hiding evidence).

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-VhIMjGh6M This demo video]] for the original UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}} Live is an obvious product of the ''very'' early days of the Xbox. Beyond the obvious, where part of the plot involves an American football game that very prominently displays the year 2003 in its title (and not to mention being a non-EA Sports title, dating it to before EA signed its still-ongoing exclusivity deals with the NFL in 2005) and the very late-'90s/early-'00s apartment (complete with both TV and computer monitor being big, boxy [=CRTs=] and a lava lamp near the TV), perhaps the biggest thing to date it is that the fast-paced, action-packed triple-A multiplayer game the viewpoint character invites everyone onto to prove their superiority over the antagonist is... ''VideoGame/MechAssault''. A decently-big game in its own right at the time (being part of [[TabletopGame/BattleTech a big, ongoing franchise]] and having gotten a sequel), but in hindsight, not even ''close'' to as big as ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' would end up being.

** The use of playable UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem games also dates the game's release to the time when nostalgia for TheEighties was first starting to kick in among the general public, with unofficial NES emulators like [=NESticle=] having already made major headway online in the late 90s.

* It should go without saying that the ''VideoGame/DefJamSeries'' was a product of its time. The rap game has changed exponentially since the 2000s, and the vast majority of rappers that were signed with Def Jam or another label at the time are no longer under them. It didn't help that many of the rappers and celebrities on the games are either [[OneHitWonder one-hit wonders]] or once-famous people who have since faded from public memory. Joe Budden also retired from rapping in 2018 (with his last album, ''Rage & The Machine'', having been released in October 2016), while Prodigy (one half of Mobb Deep) and Chris Lighty (who portrayed the character Baby Chris) died in UsefulNotes/TheNewTens and Music/{{DMX}} succumbed to an overdose-induced heart attack in 2021.

** Although the Middle East and North Africa went through periods of great instability through much of TheNewTens, the countries didn't collapse into utter anarchy, and they certainly didn't start a nuclear war between each other.

* ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork''[='=]s version of the internet is based on the relatively ancient webring model of the internet from TheNineties, in which users navigated webpage to webpage by clicking links on them to pass directly from one address to the next, and groups of friends would share their links with each other to facilitate this.

** The music is a big indicator as well. 89.0 [=GenX=]'s playlist consists mostly of [[EmoMusic emo rock]], a genre that fell by the wayside by the start of TheNewTens, with several of the bands featured having since split up (though the emo subculture itself saw a revival by the late 2010s/early 2020s). Meanwhile, Krunch 106.66, itself built primarily around then-contemporary {{Metalcore}} bands, features a song from Music/AsILayDying, a band that would five years later temporarily split up due to the controversy surrounding its frontman's alleged attempt to [[ProfessionalKiller hire a hitman to kill his wife]], which is the kind of thing it would be impossible for a video-game radio DJ from the late 2000s to let go unmentioned.

* The opening cutscene of ''VideoGame/{{Fahrenheit}}'', set in a NextSundayAD 2013, features a shot of the Lower Manhattan skyline that prominently includes one of the earlier suggested concepts for the rebuilt World Trade Center by architect Daniel Libeskind. The actual One World Trade Center tower wound up looking quite different ([[http://angryarchi.com/assets/images/get/1255/size:large here]] is a side-by-side comparison of the two), marking the game as having been made post-9/11 but before they started rebuilding the World Trade Center.

* ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClank3'': One of the characters of the game, Courtney Gears, is a clear parody of Creator/BritneySpears, with the game having come out in 2004, around the time when her popularity was still fairly widespread.

* The ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' series is set between [[NextSundayAD 2016 and 2027]], but a lot of things in the game point to its 2000 to 2001 development cycle. Cell phones are depicted as the small plastic rectangle design of early-2000s phones, particularly Nokia.[[note]]While smartphones are currently popular throughout the world, there is still a large market share in Japan for "minibrick" and flip phones, especially among teenagers.[[/note]] The English localizations also tend to reference pop culture of the time, such as Apollo's mention of [[Film/TheMatrix The Grid]] and Godot's outburst of [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson "Know your role, and shut your mouth"]] dating them to the mid-2000s easily. On a meta-level, the concept of corrupt prosecutors who will do anything for a victory in the courtroom was a then-valid complaint about the Japanese justice system, which the games were designed to bring light to. The inclusion of juries in ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'' was due to the reappointment of lay judges, which had been in "suspension" since ''1943''. Starting from ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies'', the game was given a much more futuristic approach with the introduction of sentient robots and holographic screens.

* The ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' series is set between [[NextSundayAD 2016 and 2027]], but a lot of things in the game point to its 2000 to 2001 development cycle. Cell phones are depicted as the small plastic rectangle design of early-2000s phones, particularly Nokia.[[note]]While smartphones are currently popular throughout the world, there is still a large market share in Japan for "minibrick" and flip phones, especially among teenagers.[[/note]] The English localizations also tend to reference pop culture of the time, such as Apollo's mention of [[Film/TheMatrix The Grid]] and Godot's outburst of [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson "Know your role, and shut your mouth"]] dating them to the mid-2000s easily. On a meta-level, the concept of corrupt prosecutors who will do anything for a victory in the courtroom was a then-valid complaint about the Japanese justice system, which the games were designed to bring light to. The inclusion of juries in ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'' was due to the reappointment of lay judges, which had been in "suspension" since ''1943''. Starting from VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies, the game was given a much more futuristic approach with the introduction of sentient robots and holographic screens.

* ''Creator/TomClancy's VideoGame/SplinterCell'' dates itself as a product of the 2000s almost entirely on its premise of a newly-formed secret wing of the NSA undertaking field operations for "aggressive intelligence gathering", which takes the form of stealth-based gameplay similar to what ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' and ''VideoGame/SyphonFilter'' had been doing for a while. It dates itself not only in its rather nebulous and fantastical idea of what the NSA actually does, echoing the sudden prominence of, yet lack of knowledge about, the organization at the time (had the series started in any other time period, Third Echelon probably would have been part of the CIA or an entirely independent operation), but ''also'' for the fact that the games for the most part present Third Echelon and the NSA in a positive light,[[note]]even at worst, where the protagonist is embedded in a domestic terrorist organization in ''[[VideoGame/SplinterCellDoubleAgent Double Agent]]'', the NSA [[AllianceMeter loses trust in him]] if he [[BecomingTheMask acts the part too much]][[/note]] which would be completely unheard of following the scandal surrounding the real NSA's warrantless wiretapping. Amusingly, the fifth game in the series, 2010's ''[[VideoGame/SplinterCellConviction Conviction]]'', was ahead of the curve in some respects, as [[spoiler:Third Echelon, under a new leader, [[FaceHeelTurn takes part in a conspiracy to kill the in-game President]]]].

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' is set in the [[NextSundayAD not too distant future]] of 2014... where Snake has an actual ''iPod'' as his music player. That alone shows the age of the game, released in 2008. Especially so considering it appears to be a fifth-generation iPod Classic[[note]]In RealLife, Apple would discontinue the entire [=iPod=] Classic product line in 2014.[[/note]], neatly dating its inclusion to before the touchscreen-enabled iPod Touch took off in 2007.

* ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'': Similar to the first ''Animal Crossing'' list above, this UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube launch title has a sort of "in-between generations" feeling. Luigi has a gadget called "Game Boy Horror", a take off on the UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor, which felt instantly dated as the Color's successor the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance released a few months before the game did. According to the developers, they would have used the Advance, but its design was not finalized in time. Future games in the series would also feature gadgets based on Nintendo hardware, but would be more deliberately retro, with ''VideoGame/LuigisMansionDarkMoon'' (released in 2013 on the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS) using an original model Nintendo DS (discontinued 8 years prior in 2006), and ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion3'' (released in 2019 on the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch) using a UsefulNotes/VirtualBoy (released ''and'' discontinued in 1995, 24 years prior).

* ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'': Similar to the first ''Animal Crossing'' list above, this UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube launch title has a sort of "in-between generations" feeling. Luigi has a gadget called "Game Boy Horror", a take off on the UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor, which felt instantly dated as the Color's successor the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance released a few months before the game did. According to the developers, they would have used the Advance, but its design was not finalized in time. Future games in the series would also feature gadgets based on Nintendo hardware, but would be more deliberately retro, with ''VideoGame/LuigisMansionDarkMoon'' (released in 2013 on the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS) using an original model Nintendo DS (discontinued 8 years prior in 2006), and ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion3'' (released in 2019 on the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch) using a UsefulNotes/VirtualBoy.

* ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'': Similar to the first ''Animal Crossing'' list above, this UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube launch title has a sort of "in-between generations" feeling. Luigi has a gadget called "Game Boy Horror", a take off on the UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor, which felt instantly dated as the Color's successor the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance released a few months before the game did. According to the developers, they would have used the Advance, but its design was not finalized in time. Future games in the series would also feature gadgets based on Nintendo hardware, but would be more deliberately retro, with ''VideoGame/LuigisMansionDarkMoon'' (released in 2014 on the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS) using an original model Nintendo DS (discontinued 8 years prior in 2006), and ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion3'' using a UsefulNotes/VirtualBoy.

* The original ''VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon'', though set around 2025, dates itself to its 2005 release quite readily by background details. Chief among these, as it tends to be, is that in a game where 85% of the levels are set in the offices or super-secret underground laboratories of a MegaCorp that's developed a battalion of cloned SuperSoldier[=s=] and a genetically-engineered telepathic commander to lead them, almost all of the exposition is delivered through either voicemail from land-line phones or very bulky [[ProductPlacement Alienware]] laptops; when mobile phones are shown at all, they're of a very 2005 design with a fixed screen over physical buttons, and whenever a computer is found outside of an Armacham facility it's using a big bulky CRT monitor. Another big detail is one of those voicemails left on [[FatBastard Norton Mapes']] phone, where he's asked to tone down the innuendo around a female coworker lest a sexual harassment case gets dropped on him -- while taking a stand against sexism in the workplace (and quickly establishing a character as a bad guy by having him be sexist) is still very relevant today, the caller's almost-completely nonchalant attitude about the harassment in the first place (he even outright says he wouldn't give a rat's ass if not for the fact that such a lawsuit would bring unwanted attention to the secret task force they're all part of) is very much a product of an earlier time.

* ''VideoGame/SaintsRow2'' is supposedly set around [[NextSundayAD 2011]], five years after ''VideoGame/SaintsRow1'' (which was released and set in 2006), but since the game only actually released two years after it, its setting just screams [[TurnOfTheMillennium 2007-2008]], especially the fashion, music and cultural references within the game.
** Several of the random pedestrians include emos, nerds, and scene-esque punks, all things that were at their height around 2008.
** The music is a big indicator as well: [=GenX=]'s playlist consists of mostly [[EmoMusic emo rock]], a genre that fell by the wayside by the start of TheNewTens, with several of the bands featured having since split up (though the emo subculture itself saw a revival by the late 2010s/early 2020s). Meanwhile, Krunch 106.66, itself built primarily around then-contemporary {{Metalcore}} bands, features a song from Music/AsILayDying, a band that would five years later temporarily split up due to the controversy surrounding its frontman's alleged attempt to [[ProfessionalKiller hire a hitman to kill his wife]], which is the kind of thing it would be impossible for a video-game radio DJ from the late 2000s to let go unmentioned.
** The technology also dates the game. Most [=NPCs=] still use older-style flip phones that would have fallen out of favor with the general public a few years later; while The Boss does have a smartphone, it's a chunky, blocky first-generation model with limited Internet access that is used for little more than making calls and [[DiegeticInterface acting as a GPS]]. Several [=NPCs=] also make mention of their cars' new CD players, and in-game music tracks are purchased through brick-and-mortar record stores that are embroiled in an all-out war against online music pirates.
** The InfinityPlusOneSword of the assault rifles is the AR-50 XMAC, a [[AKA47 renamed]] copy of the Heckler & Koch [=XM8=], a gun that was ubiquitous to the mid- to late-oughties for its intent to be the future of weapons design... only for it to fail at that when the US Army program it was developed for was shelved in 2005. Nowadays, even with the gun seeing actual service in real life in Malaysia, it's been all-but forgotten and almost never appears in video games anymore, and most guns that get treated as "the future" of weapon development are less fantastical in their design, typically being slight modifications of existing weapons - if the game came out just a year or two later than it did, the XMAC probably would have been an [=HK416=], a slight variation of the existing M4 that's already in the game.
** Tera Patrick appears in the ''Ultor Exposed'' DLC, due to her infamy as a porn actress -- which she would retire from a year later. This is especially apparent for the PC version since due to [[PortingDisaster circumstances regarding outside companies]], they didn't get the DLC until a decade later, by which point several players may not even remember who Tera Patrick was or know why her being a microbiologist for Ultor (to contrast the then-typical stereotypes about porn actresses) is supposed to be funny in and of itself.

** There's also the Company of Gyros fast-food chain, the name being a reference to fellow Creator/{{THQ}} property ''VideoGame/CompanyOfHeroes'', which fell into this after THQ went bankrupt and the respective developers went to different companies (''[=CoH=]''[='=]s Relic Entertainment to Creator/{{Sega}}, ''Saints Row''[='=]s Creator/{{Volition}} to Creator/DeepSilver).

* In ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'', Bowletta uses a UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance as a communicator and one book mentions the rumble feature of the UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube.

** The music is a big indicator as well: [=GenX=]'s playlist consists of mostly [[EmoMusic emo rock]], a genre that fell by the wayside by the start of TheNewTens, with several of the bands featured having since split up (though the [=emo=] subculture itself saw a revival by the late-2010s/early-2020s). Meanwhile, Krunch 106.66, itself built primarily around then-contemporary {{Metalcore}} bands, features a song from Music/AsILayDying, a band that would five years later temporarily split up due to the controversy surrounding its frontman's alleged attempt to [[ProfessionalKiller hire a hitman to kill his wife]], which is the kind of thing it would be impossible for a video-game radio DJ to let go unmentioned.

** The InfinityPlusOneSword of the assault rifles is the AR-50 XMAC, a [[AKA47 renamed]] copy of the Heckler & Koch [=XM8=], a gun that was ubiquitous to the mid- to late-oughties for its intent to be the future of weapons design... only for it to fail at that when the US Army program it was developed for was shelved in 2005. Nowadays, even with the gun seeing actual service in real life in Malaysia, it's been all-but forgotten and almost never appears in video games anymore.
** Tera Patrick appears in the ''Ultor Exposed'' DLC, due to her infamy as a porn actress -- which she would retire from a year later. This is especially apparent for the PC version since due to [[PortingDisaster circumstances regarding outside companies]], they didn't get the DLC until a decade later, by which point several players may not even remember who Tera Patrick was.

* Man, webrings, that takes you back, huh? [[VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork1 Mega Man Battle Network 1]]'s version of the internet is based on the relatively ancient webring model of the internet from TheNineties, in which users navigated webpage to webpage by passing directly from one address to the next, and groups of friends would share their links with each other to facilitate this.

** The InfinityPlusOneSword of the assault rifles is the AR-50 XMAC, a [[AKA47 renamed]] copy of the Heckler & Koch XM8, a gun that was ubiquitous to the mid- to late-oughties for its intent to be the future of weapons design... only for it to fail at that when the US Army program it was developed for was shelved in 2005. Nowadays, even with the gun seeing actual service in real life in Malaysia, it's been all-but forgotten and almost never appears in video games anymore.

*** Maria's backstory is that she suffered from NIDS (Neuro-Immuno Deficiency Syndrome), a thinly veiled fictionalization of AIDS that her grandfather Gerald was desperately trying to cure. The nature, name, and in-story treatment of the disease firmly anchor the game to an era when AIDS was the leading hot-button health issue and reliable antiviral medications for HIV were not widely available, an era that would start to end just a few years after the game's release. Additionally, her young age and the fact that she had AIDS for most (if not all) of her life directly pinpoints the game's release to the period in AIDS discourse when children being able to contract HIV during pregnancy, birth, or weaning became widely known and talked about.

** ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' is dated to the very early 2000s due to its product placement of SOAP brand shoes (a brand that all but disappeared after 2001) and the use of the term "Weapons of mass destruction" in a family-friendly video game (although it's part of the GrowingWithTheAudience thing). Had the game been released a few months later, it might've been seen as shocking in light of the 9/11 attacks and lead-up to the war on terror.