- all 4 endings in Deus ex Human Revolution (philosophy that forced me to think about life on Earth more deeply)
- the “good side” ending in Singularity (turning back in time to kill yourself)
- endings in all four Half-life games (epic with continuation)
- endings in both Dead Space games (scarry even at the very end)
- ending in CoD Black Ops (the meaning of “numbers”)
Skyward Sword!!!
Sorry man, but that campaign would go on my top 5 bad endings. The whole story was so movie cliche and it was obvious that Reznov wasn’t real it became obvious after the one meeting in the caves and your partner says “What are you doing Mason, come on”. The ending was also pretty predictable to me because the whole time you never really stopped anything, it was all flashbacks and on top of that you never stopped Nikita Dragovich’s plans on the missions you got to play.
Psychonauts
Portal 2
Serious Sam 3 (you fight a big thing and it goes explodey and then you win, hurray)
Doom 2 (you kill John Romero and he goes boom and then you win, hurray)
Saints Row The Third
I have a love for games that place gameplay over story, and when the game is fun to play and when the ending is just as irrelevant as the story beyond “here is a big bad dude and he is in your way, murder him to advance,” I thoroughly enjoy it.
Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne (Having Arthas -the bad guy- sit on his throne with total victory)
Half Life (Hearing that awesome jam after a long and awesome game)
Silent Hill 2 (James kills himself out of an indifference with his miserable life)
Starcraft: Brood War (Having Kerrigan slaughter the rest of the UED, Protoss, and Terran Mercs.)
Enslaved: Oddessy to the West (Realizing that your mindless destruction was only hurting people and their salvation.)
Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne (Having Arthas -the bad guy- sit on his throne with total victory)
Half Life 1 (Hearing that awesome jam after a long and awesome game)
Silent Hill 2 (James kills himself out of an indifference with his miserable life)
Starcraft: Brood War (Having Kerrigan slaughter the rest of the UED, Protoss, and Terran Mercs.)
Enslaved: Oddessy to the West (Realizing that your mindless destruction was only hurting people and their salvation.)
in no particular order
Portal 2 - aww glados turned good… crap no she’s not… oh nvm she’s letting me go… glados you would… what?.. singing?.. o.O… O.O … extreme happiness… oh shit… COMPANION CUBE!!! basically how it went
Dead Space 2 - just the whole final chapter i thought was realllllly well done
The Witcher 1 - this one had my jaw drop and that “holy… wow” moment of realization
The Witcher 2 - the guys at CDPR are ridiculous at crafting good stories, this one ended with 16 solid, interesting endings that captured the results of your decisions throughout the game extremely well in a way no game can compare
Mass Effect 2 - (up until giant reaper human baby, that i thought was pretty lame) the final mission itself though i thought was the best of the entire trilogy and i don’t know why they didn’t do more in that kind of style.
I agree with this being on your list. I don’t like some of the fallout from the canon ending, but it does have huge potential for awesome.
It’s tough choosing my top 5. Instead I’m going to throw out a bunch that I really enjoyed, and not put them in order, and may or may not go over 5.
Final Fantasy
Saints Row: The Third
Saints Row 2
Half-Life 2: Episode 2
Metal Gear Solid 4 (not the whole 90 minute ending, but the thing at the very end)
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (the last battle had a truly epic feel)
And that’s all I can think of for now. I probably missed some that I like more than what I listed here, but whatever.
Fallout 1
Sent out on a suicide mission to save your vault from dehydration then sent out again to destroy a mutant army (seriously?) only to be banished for “threatening” the life of the people of the vault and how it connects to Fallout 2’s story line
That was pure awesome
EDIT: If you haven’t, try reading the Vault Dweller’s memoir, it’s an excellent writing of the canon story of Fallout 1 and the background of Fallout 2