My Top 5 gaming experiences

Video games are cool. And these days, they can REALLY deliver some powerful experiences. So, here's my very subjective list of my personal top 5 gaming experiences. Naturally, the descriptions below contain spoilers, consider yeself warned.


Number 5: The nightmare-level in Max Payne 1

Endless corridors with children's room wallpapers. A baby crying somewhere, always just out of sight. Max himself running in slow motion. And then the trail of blood hanging over a pitch-black abyss. The nightmare levels in Max Payne 1 were fucking creepy. The video below is short, but it's the only one I could find where you can actually see anything.




Number 4: Free Bird

(I told you this list was subjective....) My number 4 experience is the first time I FINALLY beat Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd on expert in Guitar Hero II. I find it hard to believe you haven't heard of the song, but just in case: The song is about 9 minutes long and the last 4 minutes of that is simply one of the greatest guitar solos ever recorded. It's the last song in the game and (excluding some of the bonus tracks) also the hardest. Even the game itself considers you to be awesome if you beat it on Expert. Yes, it actually says: "And, uh, seriously? That was awesome."




Number 3: The final mission of Grand Theft Auto IV

GTA IV as a whole is an awesome game and for the most part it at least tries to be sort of realistic. But of course, the final mission pretty much goes as much over the top as possible. My favorite bit is when you're on a bike, riding on a beach, following the bad guys who are on a speedboat and you ride your bike to this huge ramp, jump up in the air and grab the landing gear of the helicopter your buddies have stolen. Awesome! (For more awesome, the latter add-on, The Ballad Of Gay Tony pretty much goes all out in all the missions.)

Note: I can't remember, but by googling a bit, it seems you need to take the revenge-ending instead of the deal one to get the bikeride sequence. Anyway, the video below has the jump a little after the 8-minute mark.




Number 2: God Of War III

I don't own this game. I don't even have a PS3. But at a LAN-party some time ago, I got a chance to play this on the big screen a bit and it blew my mind. I'd never played any GoW -games before, and no one really explained the controls to me very well, but nevertheless I KILLED FREAKING POSEIDON. I can't even explain how awesome the game looks, so have a video instead.




Number 1: Red Dead Redemption and riding into Mexico

Sooo.... You thought you'd go to Armadillo, get Williamson and go back to your family. Then it turns out Williamson has gone to fucking Mexico. Aww fuck. You take a very dangerous raft-ride cross the river and find a horse waiting on the shore. As you start riding, suddenly the ambient sounds turn down and Far Away by José González starts playing. Whoa.



So that's my list. Feel free to disagree, I don't really give a crap. :P