The Best Video Game Ending Ever
lolfighter
Snark, Dire Join Date: 2003-04-20 Member: 15693Members
Snark, Dire Join Date: 2003-04-20 Member: 15693Members
in Off-Topic
<a href="http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2012/2/call-of-duty-black-ops-crowned-winner-of-greatest-videogame-ending-in-guinness-world-records-2012-gamer%27s-edition-poll/" target="_blank">The internet has spoken,</a> and it's Codblops.
Before you ask, yes, we can hear that pouding noise too, and no, it's not coming from outside. That's just your blood pressure spiking. I suggest that you take a few moments to calm down and relax before you start smashing out a reply on your keyboard.
Fear not, though, you can legitimately discard this as the trash it is: The poll had a mere 13.5k respondents, meaning it's a tiny slice of the gamer population. Who clearly have no taste. ###### 'em.
How about <i>we</i> talk about our favourite endings? But instead of just saying what your favourite ending is, you'll have to write a short blurb about it too. You can't just dump Codblops in here without comment, you have to write something like "because you get to shoot the badguy" so we can all laugh at how shallow and pathetic you are. Or you could write something better, y'know.
Thread's going to be full of <!--coloro:red--><span style="color:red"><!--/coloro-->spoilers<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> of course, and I'm going to go on the record and state that I don't care whether you mark 'em all, as long as you let us know what game you're talking about first. Beyond that, caveat lector.
Before you ask, yes, we can hear that pouding noise too, and no, it's not coming from outside. That's just your blood pressure spiking. I suggest that you take a few moments to calm down and relax before you start smashing out a reply on your keyboard.
Fear not, though, you can legitimately discard this as the trash it is: The poll had a mere 13.5k respondents, meaning it's a tiny slice of the gamer population. Who clearly have no taste. ###### 'em.
How about <i>we</i> talk about our favourite endings? But instead of just saying what your favourite ending is, you'll have to write a short blurb about it too. You can't just dump Codblops in here without comment, you have to write something like "because you get to shoot the badguy" so we can all laugh at how shallow and pathetic you are. Or you could write something better, y'know.
Thread's going to be full of <!--coloro:red--><span style="color:red"><!--/coloro-->spoilers<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> of course, and I'm going to go on the record and state that I don't care whether you mark 'em all, as long as you let us know what game you're talking about first. Beyond that, caveat lector.
Comments
In no order:
- Final Fantasy 7 <span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'> I remember a lump in my throat as Cloud saves the day and sees Ares. Awww!</span>
- Halo 3 <span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'> A massively over-rated series but I was impressed Bungie had the nuts to kill off Master Chief. Until he comes back, this year. Ahem.</span>
- Ninja Gaiden Black. I don't actually remember much about the ending (assume it was some nonsensical only-makes-sense-to-Japanese ending) but it was the satisfaction of beating this brutally hard action game. Does this count?
- NOT MGS4. <span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'> Played it some years back so memory is a little hazy, but I seem to remember the premise that Snake is running out of time thanks to FOXDIE, and at the end instead of dying he goes on to live. I remember some woman saying "Live, Snake. Live". Cheeeeeese!</span>
- MGS2. <span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'> bat-s*** crazy, but I was so thankful they changed up Raiden at the end, from androgynous pretty boy to a messed-up man with a dark history (being forced to fight in a war as a child and taking lives, then being controlled by the Patriot AI: everything he knew was fabricated. la-li-lu-lo-lol-la-le-lu. I didn't fully understand it but it was very creepy when Campbell and Rose were revealed to be the AI masquerading)</span>
- The Dawn of War series. I suppose not really anything special, but they do the hi-fantasy/sci-fi thing well thanks to the source material... Which I'm not even familar with!.. Basically universe-ending evil has to be dealt with by your ass-kicking marines.
- The Force Unleashed (Star Wars). <span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'> mediocre as a game but a good ending; dying to Palpatine IIRC</span>
- KotoR I. <span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>I think the ending is when you're told you're Revan? Up there with "I am your father" in terms of not expecting it</span>
Before you ask, yes, we can hear that pouding noise too, and no, it's not coming from outside. That's just your blood pressure spiking. I suggest that you take a few moments to calm down and relax before you start smashing out a reply on your keyboard.
Fear not, though, you can legitimately discard this as the trash it is: The poll had a mere 13.5k respondents, meaning it's a tiny slice of the gamer population. Who clearly have no taste. ###### 'em.
How about <i>we</i> talk about our favourite endings? But instead of just saying what your favourite ending is, you'll have to write a short blurb about it too. You can't just dump Codblops in here without comment, you have to write something like "because you get to shoot the badguy" so we can all laugh at how shallow and pathetic you are. Or you could write something better, y'know.
Thread's going to be full of <!--coloro:red--><span style="color:red"><!--/coloro-->spoilers<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> of course, and I'm going to go on the record and state that I don't care whether you mark 'em all, as long as you let us know what game you're talking about first. Beyond that, caveat lector.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Per your link:
"43. Half-Life 2: Episode Tow"
YOUR QUEST IS OVER.
WE PRESENT YOU A NEW QUEST.
PUSH BUTTON B
TO SELECT A WORLD</span>
Best ending ever after all the torture of
THANK YOU MARIO!
BUT OUR PRINCESS IS IN
ANOTHER CASTLE!</div>
Braid: a lot of elements in braid are references to mario but the ending was ...surprising..
Stalker Clear sky... most will disagree but I liked it. CS was my first stalker game and I didn't know any of the story...<span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>I found it surprising from such a game to have an ending like this. In the end you witness that your actions actually caused what you tried to prevent throughout the game...</span>
Floyd or as it was called in the english speaking countries: The Feeble files: too long to explain but it was satisfying.
Grim Fandango:
<span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>I guess the smart and dramatic bits are the final few puzzles on the mound flowering from all the sprouted people while Manny run around in a Grim Reaper costume. The whole setup is just deliciously ironic and yet dramatic. The ending cutscene itself isn't anything surprising anymore, but it's still a pretty stylistic way to bring the adventure to the end. I absolutely love the little fountain/ashtray detail in the very end. </span>
F.E.A.R:
<span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>I love the final level. First you end up catching the main villain in a dreamlike sequence that suddenly turns into a real world even. After that all the supernatural events break free and you're up for a pretty tense escape. For some reason the escape sequence really felt scary, which rarely happens to me while gaming. </span>
Mafia:
<span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>A classic gangster story ending, I guess. The don goes to jail, you live a long life, but the don still gets his final say.</span>
Serious Sam First & Second Encouters:
<span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>Surprisingly enough the storyline isn't anything to remember. However, the final levels in both games are pretty much the most overblown and epic Man & Minigun showdowns I've seen in games. </span>
---
The bad bits:
Could someone explain how the **** Assassin's Creed gets to the list?
<span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>After grinding through repetetive missions you get one silly supernatural bossfight and the modern time storyline gets absolutely no conclusion. You're just flooded with random conspiracy refrences that apparently have nothing to do with any of the saga storyline. I felt absolutely cheated after finishing the game. </span>
Also Starcraft 2 is pretty horrid:
<span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'> Despite the horrible storyline all the way through, the final cutscene somehow left me absolutely shocked. As the cutscene went on, I was expecting some punchline and it just never came. "Did they really just do that?". And then the horribly cheesy soundtrack kicks in to add to the insult...</span>
[..]
F.E.A.R:
<span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>I love the final level. First you end up catching the main villain in a dreamlike sequence that suddenly turns into a real world even. After that all the supernatural events break free and you're up for a pretty tense escape. For some reason the escape sequence really felt scary, which rarely happens to me while gaming. </span>
[..]<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Oh man, did you see the F.E.A.R. 2 ending? That would be the most shocking ending in a game I've seen so far.
I hate endings in singleplayer games though, no more singleplayer afterwards!
Braid: a lot of elements in braid are references to mario but the ending was ...surprising..
Stalker Clear sky... most will disagree but I liked it. CS was my first stalker game and I didn't know any of the story...<span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>I found it surprising from such a game to have an ending like this. In the end you witness that your actions actually caused what you tried to prevent throughout the game...</span>
Floyd or as it was called in the english speaking countries: The Feeble files: too long to explain but it was satisfying.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I liked CoP's ending the best. I loved how every part of the end story was effected by your actions through the game, I ended up playing it through a few times just because of it. That and the credits looked cool.
I hate endings in singleplayer games though, no more singleplayer afterwards!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Not yet. Now I'm definitely interested.
The list is about "best video game <b>endings</b>". Fallout 3 has a famously... no, <i>in</i>famously bad ending, to the point where the main selling point of one of the DLCs is "undoes the default ending". And <i>that</i> DLC creates a game that has <i>no</i> ending, so that can't count either.
The list is about "best video game <b>endings</b>". Fallout 3 has a famously... no, <i>in</i>famously bad ending, to the point where the main selling point of one of the DLCs is "undoes the default ending". And <i>that</i> DLC creates a game that has <i>no</i> ending, so that can't count either.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I thought the objection was not that it had a bad ending, but that it had an ending at all.
I bought it hoping it would be oblivion with guns, which means the main quest is not the end of the game.
As far as endings go, I thought it was pretty epic. You follow a giant laser shooting nuke throwing anti-communist slogan yelling robot through the ruins of washington DC, then shoot the bad guy in the face, then martyr yourself to save the wasteland.
As endings go that's pretty cool I thought, it just kinda sucks from a gameplay perspective.
For those who don't know, I'll outline the ending here in spoilers.
<span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>You have to go into a room filled with deadly levels of radiation in order to activate a machine or else it'll explode, killing many, and robbing the wasteland of it's chance to have clean, fresh water. The problem is that at this point in the game you (can) have several followers; a super mutant who is completely immune to radiation, a ghoul who is actively healed by radiation and also under a mentally controlling contract that forces him to do whatever you say, a robot that is both unaffected by radiation and bound to your orders because he's a robot and a slave who will do literally anything you say because if she doesn't, you'll blow her head off with an exploding collar. Most players will have at least one of these followers by this point (usually Fawkes).
You can ask them to go in to the room instead of you. Every. Single. One. of them says "No. You have to do it." for literally no reason.
The DLC (Broken Steel, which lets you play after the "end" of the game) actually adds a line from a few of them saying "Actually sure, I'll go in there. I mean, I'm immune to radiation, so it makes perfect sense for me to do it and not you." and the narration of the cutscene that follows <i>still</i> calls you a ###### for not going in yourself. </span>
The football nuke throwing robot was great but it was ruined by the above bit.
<b>Elite Beat Agents</b>
Okay, a weird one but I would say it's "endings that gave me hugely pleasant surprises". <span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>Since you probably never played the game, here's how it works - you pick a song, play it, but if you did too bad at it, you get a 'failed' ending (the guy you're trying to help gets arrested, for example). Well, the second to last song shows aliens attacking. The 'last' song (the game gives all impressions that it is the last) shows the Agents fighting the aliens in to the rather unthrilling song "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5x3TzwF654" target="_blank">Without a Fight</a>". At the end, they get turned to stone. I was annoyed because I failed and the end song was such a letdown. Then, as I say in my top comment on that video: IT WAS ALL 'YOU BETTER GET A NEW CHAIN, CUZ THIS ###### IS OFF IT' and my face exploded. Jumpin' Jack Flash, no better song to end that with.</span>
---- Elite Beat Agents Ending: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvLCnKqYWzA" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvLCnKqYWzA</a>
<b>F.E.A.R. 2</b>
I almost forgot about this one until Zaggy mentioned it. <span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>Not the 'best' ending but certainly a very unique one. You get raped by a ghost. Seriously.</span>
---- FEAR 2 Ending: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6kWtzlZrSY&feature=player_detailpage#t=61s" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6kWtzlZrSY...etailpage#t=61s</a>
<b>Planescape: Torment</b>
<span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>"Wait! I have one final question: What can change the nature of a man?"
THE QUESTION IS MEANINGLESS.
"Nonetheless, before there is an ending between us, I will hear your answer."
THEN THIS IS MY ANSWER, AND YOU ARE THE PROOF. *NOTHING* CAN CHANGE THE NATURE OF A MAN.
"If there is anything I have learned in my travels across the Planes, it is that many things may change the nature of a man. Whether regret, or love, or revenge or fear - whatever you *believe* can change the nature of a man, can."
THEN YOU LEARNED A FALSE LESSON, BROKEN ONE.
"Have I? I've seen belief move cities, make men stave off death, and turn an evil's hag heart half-circle. This entire Fortress has been constructed from belief. Belief damned a woman, whose heart clung to the hope that another loved her when he did not. Once, it made a man seek immortality and achieve it. And it has made a posturing spirit think it is something more than a part of me!"</span>
If you don't intend on playing PS:T, I suggest instead you treat yourself to <a href="http://bootstrike.com/NO_DIRECT_LINK_Pls_mn3/torment/twrd2sty.zip" target="_blank">this</a>, a .doc format of most all of the dialog copied from the game word-for-word and arranged with flavor text in between. 95% of that is the game's writing... then you'll understand why I make such a fuss about this game. I tried to provide a wrap-up synopsis but I can't, not without explaining how much of the story folds in on itself and everything is connected.
<b>The Witcher</b>
While there is some debate surrounding it, I subscribe to the theory that <span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>the grand master of the Flaming Rose you fight at the end was Alvin, the 'source', the child you meet at the beginning. There are subtle things that you teach Alvin throughout the game, things you tell him that the Grand Master says to you... one of the early things you teach Alvin about Witchers is that they use two swords, a silver and steel. When Alvin asks you which is for monsters, you tell him "they're both for monsters". At the end, you kill the Grand Master with the silver sword and as he dies, he says "... but... that sword's for monsters...". Mind = ######.</span>
<b>Portal 2</b>
Okay, the hype around Portal 1 reached absolutely irritating levels and while it was a good game, I never really thought it was the 'bestest ever'. However, the characters in Portal 2 are so much better developed on emotional levels and there's so much more connection to them in the game world itself that the ending might be one of the saddest ever. Again, like Planescape, not just talking about the 'last scene', but the whole climax in general.
that game was awesome
along with commander keen et al
<span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>First off, I don't think any other game could get away with a line like "you are above even The Boss. I hereby award you the title of Big Boss." It's such a cheesy line, but at the time I didn't even smirk.
Then we have Snake saluting the president, only to be offered a handshake in return. Snake holds the salute, giving the president time to wise up, but ultimately relents and shakes hands with him. He is then promptly turned sideways so the photographers can get good shots. The message is clear: Politicians do not understand or care about soldiers, and merely use them as disposable pawns to advance their own agendas.
We last see Snake laying down flowers at the unmarked grave of The Boss, along with her signature gun. As he stands up, the shot widens to include the endless rows of graves, and if you do not dash away a tear as he salutes, I call into question whether you have emotions. It's a cathartic tearjerker at the end of a game that really made me care about its characters, and that made it genuinely difficult for me to pull the trigger at the end of the final fight. Well done.</span>
Last couple of games that did that to me were Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2. LOVE that ending song in ME1. On it's own it's nothing too special, but it just fits perfectly into the moment.
For me the very ending of ME1 was actually a bit disappointing. It's good on paper and the plotline is nice, but the boss fight itself isn't fun or challenging and for me the ending song was borderline of cheesy. It definitely sits better on the credits than on its own, but it still felt a little cheap. Usually some ambient stuff works better for me unless the song is actually good.
<span style='color:#000000;background:#000000'>First off, I don't think any other game could get away with a line like "you are above even The Boss. I hereby award you the title of Big Boss." It's such a cheesy line, but at the time I didn't even smirk.
Then we have Snake saluting the president, only to be offered a handshake in return. Snake holds the salute, giving the president time to wise up, but ultimately relents and shakes hands with him. He is then promptly turned sideways so the photographers can get good shots. The message is clear: Politicians do not understand or care about soldiers, and merely use them as disposable pawns to advance their own agendas.
We last see Snake laying down flowers at the unmarked grave of The Boss, along with her signature gun. As he stands up, the shot widens to include the endless rows of graves, and if you do not dash away a tear as he salutes, I call into question whether you have emotions. It's a cathartic tearjerker at the end of a game that really made me care about its characters, and that made it genuinely difficult for me to pull the trigger at the end of the final fight. Well done.</span><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Oh man, I'd totally forgotten about that. There are no other MGS games as far as I'm concerned.
I'll have to think about this some more, my answer sounds dumb now.
<center><object width="450" height="356"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GR_5O2NR58I"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GR_5O2NR58I" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" height="356"></embed></object></center>
<center><object width="450" height="356"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dtT2gvOfp9Q"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dtT2gvOfp9Q" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" height="356"></embed></object></center>
The entire story of the Boss was amazing. That final scene was so chilling that I outright <i>did</i> cry- and it was the first time any art form had moved me so much. The mixture of admiration, hatred, and vague loyalty to a fictional character was just too much.
I thought the Camouflage mechanic was contrived. I thought the boss battles were less than stellar(by a longshot). I even thought that song sucked(except during the Ladder scene).
But that ending was everything a story's ending should be, in any storytelling form. It got it all right.
Kane, does all the explaining I need. Lol really though it is rather amazing how in the first Command and Conquer, you take a rag tag army lead by Kane into this unstoppable army that in the end turns GDI's own weapons against their allies. The part in the game were Kane kills Seth, was awesome too. Promotion w00t.