Favorite first 5 minutes of a video game

I want to hear about your favorite intro bits.  First five minutes, give or take, of intro excellence.  Title screen counts as part of this.  :D 
 
post videos if available please and thank you.  
 
  

I always loved the look of the cutscenes in these games.

I remember being pretty blown away by this when I first played it.

Mass Effect 2

I was pretty blown away by Uncharted 2's intro. Not some much when they make you do it all over again though.

Indigo Prophecy/ Fahrenheit

The God of War 3 opening was great

The Bioshock 2 opening scene was really memorable as well. In fact I enjoyed this game more than the first one.

My first thought was the Bathysphere ride to Rapture in Bioshock, but I see I was beaten to it.

It speaks volumes that a lot of these are completely uninteractive.

Lost Odyssey. So epic, when Kaim is introduced and just killing badguys like it's nbd. And then it segues into the tutorial. I had chills all over the place when I first booted the game up.

@LordXavierBritish said:

It speaks volumes that a lot of these are completely uninteractive.

Yep. :/

Watching the triangles in Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Full Throttle. That intro dialogue and music is effing epic. Just listen to that guitar riff!

I knew I was in for a great adventure after that intro.

@LordXavierBritish: The God of War series' opening segments are pretty good but I wasn't going to post a 10 min long video. God of War 1 has the Hydra Fight, 2 has the fight with the colossus of Rhodes and 3 has you facing off against Poseidon in his horse-crab form.

@Hector: YES. WIND WAKER INTRO WAS AWESOME. :D

Bioshock 1. I still remember how I felt my first time crashing in the plane and making my decent into Rapture, one of my favorite parts I can remember from any game.

I remember this shit blowing my mind in 1999. Still rocks.

Batman: Arkham City is a recent one that was pretty interesting.

Amped 3 was the first thing that popped into my head. Blinded by the light, bunny suit, craziness from the start :Dand @LordXavierBritish completely gameplay

I can't really recall, I guess the most recent would have the intros to the Skate games, those are always pretty good.

I know everyone is going to think I'm crazy posting this... but

Yeah... the beginning of this game totally caught me off guard. The first thing I thought was, "What the fuck did I just buy?" From there on end, it was a total rush of awesomeness.

In recent memory, the beginning of the Darkness 2 in the restaurant was pretty amazing.

Mass Effect 2 also has an awesome intro.

BioShock. When you surface for the first time I thought it was still a cutscene. But nope—totally interactive.

Mass Effect 2's Normandy Crash was pretty crazy, too.

Wake up mister, Freeman. Wake up. Not that I wish to imply that you have been sleeping on, the job, noone is moredeserving of a rest, and all the effort in the world would have gone to waste until...well...

The right man in the wrong, place can make all the difffffference inthe world.

So wake up, mister, Freeman. Wake up and, smellthe ashesss

A few other greats:

Half Life 1

Super Mario 64

Saints Row: The Third

EDIT: Heavy Rain was pretty great too, at least when taken in context with the rest of the game.

Saint's Row 3, really the whole first hour of it is great. Also Final Fantasy 7's intro still holds a nostalgic place in my heart.

There are a lot, but I think the two that really got me most when I first saw them were Half-Life 2 and Bioshock. Those two games made me wonder "Where the hell am I?" It was very fascinating and really quite immersive. It's too bad that's selling others short though, like Dead Space, and a handful of other games.

That first cinematic was great, really built up the suspense.

I also loved God of War 3's & Mass Effect 2's intro.

EDIT: Also, MGS2 had an awesome intro, infact all of them did, but I enjoyed 2's the most ;)

@Bumpton: Ripburger you're dumber than dirt!!!!

Saints Row The Third just amazing. Played that opening sequence at least 5 times.

A lot of really good ones recently. Designers are growing exceedingly savvy at opening with a high note. Mass Effect 2 is probably the big one for me. Huge twist, no exposition, just balls-to-the-wall madness out of the gate.

Dead Space 2 where the guy in front of you gets jabbed then rips open as he transforms.

First thing you see sets the tone for the game pretty well!

@HerbieBug: Problem is the beginning of a game is where you're generally taught how to play, and it's hard to do that without breaking immersion.

@HerbieBug: Problem is the beginning of a game is where you're generally taught how to play, and it's hard to do that without breaking immersion.

Espgaluda II. It's an arcade shoot 'em up so the first five minutes aren't so much an intro as they are the entirety of stages one and two:

Also:
 
  

Red Alert 2 intro

@HerbieBug: once I saw the fmv explosion shopped in I was sold I must see more

Bastion. That moment where you physically engage the story by making the first movement of your character and the narrator immediately begins talking along with a perfectly timed music score.

Freespace. Even now that intro gets my heart racing. Volition needs to resurrect this series post-haste!

I always watch the beginning and then the game begins. I bought a PlayStation just to play this game.
 
  

I loved the intro to the game. The music especially, but everything got me excited to play it. Too bad it wasn't as good as I wanted, but all and all not a BAD game.

Nier sets you up for what you need to know; DEPRESSION

I'll probably go with Mass Effect 2, only intro that I can really remember all that well with any fondness.

How in grus's name has anyone NOT put this intro up!

It is... fucking amazing. I recommend anyone to watch it, ANYONE. Hell, the amount of work in the action scenes show that they really fucking cared about making this one. Hell, they brought in actual master sword fighters to help make this as well!

It took me a while to think of one, but RE4 had a pretty great intro in my opinion. Chainsaw guy scared me to death.

@Hitchenson said:

I remember being pretty blown away by this when I first played it.

I don't think there's any game in this generation that can top this opening. It's iconic.

Mass Effect 2. Space rules.