Sitting here at work, out of the blue, I got to thinking over my favorite memories and experiences playing videogames. So, here they are. Some are recent, some old-school, all are fucking awesome.

1. The Microwave Chamber scene in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

This is the ONLY thing in a game that ever made me cry. Not only that, it had me looking away from the screen in utter horror of what Solid Snake was going through. It made me admire his iron will to finish his mission. It made me utter indecipherable phrases through the tears and hammer on the triangle button like my life, not only Snake's, depended on it. This scene is the pinacle of storytelling merging with gameplay, and it will not be topped for a damned long time, in my humble opinion.

2. The reunion of Master Chief and Cortana in Halo 3.

This is the moment that the saga of Halo came full circle. Throughout my entire playthrough of Halo 3 up to that point, I'd been thinking the entire time that something was missing. That moment made me realize how important a good sidekick can be to a central character. When Master Chief puts that chip into his helmet, the camera returns to first person view, and then Cortana starts talking I felt like Master Chief was whole again, like Halo was Halo again. And in that moment I wanted nothing more than to kick some Flood ass. It was awesome.

3. The castle flip in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

You have spent 20 hours fighting your way through Dracula's castle. You defeat Dracula and think to yourself, it's done. Then the castle flips, and you realize you're not even close to "done". The game instantaneously double it's gameplay time and made you extremely excited to rediscover the thing you just spent 20 hours trudging through. Badass.

4. The run down house defense scene in Resident Evil 4.

Having been a zombie movie fan since I was old enough to crap in a toilet, I naturaly fell in love with the Resident Evil series. Resident Evil 4, though, created my dream zombie scene. You come upon a small run down house sitting in a small clearing in the middle of a vast forest. A cut scene plays and some plot is spilled. The, torches start appearing all over the tree line in all directions. You have a shotgun and a pistol, and hundreds of zombies pouring into the house from all directions. It's the most harrowing position defense scene ever. And it had zombies and shotguns, so it's fucking SWEET.

5. First time you save a Little Sister in Bioshock.

You just downed a Big Daddy, which is quite possibly one of the more nerve-wrackingly horrifying things in game, but you're then faced with a seemingly inocuous decision. Do you harvest(kill) or save her? I chose to save her. What can I say, I'm a softie. =P And when I did I was treated to what could arguably be called one of the most beautiful things in gaming. The Little Sister is filled with white light, and what was once a demonic looking shell of a little girl is returned to a hopeful child. It was divine, it was awesome, it was beautiful.


So there you have it. My top 5 gaming moments. Hope you enjoyed the read. Feel free to share you own favorites, or call me a n00b for disagreeing with mine, in the comments.