The Energon Pub

No, not the insane bloodlust that comes with shooters, or God of War. Games that made you laugh, cry, or both.

For me, it was BioShock 2. Seriously. The ending got me all choked up. it's not just a shooter, it's a philisophical journey. Deep man. Watch the ending here, but you won't get the full feel.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NtWeTrLQk8

What games have made you feel?

Mass Effect and Mass Effect II.

Half Life 2--one of the VERY few games that I became very emotionally involved in.

I suppose for games that made me feel actually a little jumpy and scared there's Resident Evil 4 and Silent Hill.

And I know you ruled out shooters, but Modern Warfare made me very melancholy seeing my player-character die in first person. And Modern Warfare 2 made me angry and revulsed with the level in which you slaughter hundreds of innocent people in an airport.

Blurrz wrote:Mass Effect and Mass Effect II.

Definitely the ending of Mass Effect 2. No other final boss made me yell at the screen "Rot in Hell, you abomination."

Also the ending of Borderlands DLC4 when Claptrap kills Marcus, one of only a few characters who never tried to stab you in the back, and one of your few real allies on Pandora. Then I had to take that little yellow bitch down.

Shadowman wrote:

Blurrz wrote:Mass Effect and Mass Effect II.

Definitely the ending of Mass Effect 2. No other final boss made me yell at the screen "Rot in Hell, you abomination."

I liked the bad guy in the game. I understood his reasoning for trying to destroy organic life. But processing humans as fuel...is wierd. But he was trying to save humanity from a power "infinately" our "greater". Play th egame again, he says that they are our "salvation through destruction". They where trying to save us...from somthing.

SlyTF1 wrote:I liked the bad guy in the game. I understood his reasoning for trying to destroy organic life. But processing humans as fuel...is wierd. But he was trying to save humanity from a power "infinately" our "greater". Play th egame again, he says that they are our "salvation through destruction". They where trying to save us...from somthing.

You're half right on a few things.

-They weren't turning melted down humans into Reaper food, they were turning melted down humans into a Reaper.

-They aren't trying to save us from something "infinitely our greater." They ARE something infinitely our greater. The "salvation through destruction" was Harbinger's way of saying "Becoming one of us will be the greatest." Hence why he calls what they plan to do with the abducted humans "ascension." They believe being a Reaper is the highest form of existence.

-He calls it "Salvation" because, like it or not, the Reapers ARE returning. Harbinger claims we have two choices: Being painfully melted down so your body can be part of a gigantic eldritch abomination of a robot, (Like they were doing) or being forcefully modified, genetically and cybernetically, into a slave race. (Like what they did to the Protheans)

-Boy oh boy Mass Effect 3 is going to be a doozy.

EDIT: -Third option: Total extinction.

Shadowman wrote:

SlyTF1 wrote:I liked the bad guy in the game. I understood his reasoning for trying to destroy organic life. But processing humans as fuel...is wierd. But he was trying to save humanity from a power "infinately" our "greater". Play th egame again, he says that they are our "salvation through destruction". They where trying to save us...from somthing.

You're half right on a few things.

-They weren't turning melted down humans into Reaper food, they were turning melted down humans into a Reaper.

-They aren't trying to save us from something "infinitely our greater." They ARE something infinitely our greater. The "salvation through destruction" was Harbinger's way of saying "Becoming one of us will be the greatest." Hence why he calls what they plan to do with the abducted humans "ascension." They believe being a Reaper is the highest form of existence.

-He calls it "Salvation" because, like it or not, the Reapers ARE returning. Harbinger claims we have two choices: Being painfully melted down so your body can be part of a gigantic eldritch abomination of a robot, (Like they were doing) or being forcefully modified, genetically and cybernetically, into a slave race. (Like what they did to the Protheans)

-Boy oh boy Mass Effect 3 is going to be a doozy.

EDIT: -Third option: Total extinction.

Well, my idea is possible. It may not be true, but its possible. Some one else said that they might be trying to save the humans from AI's because I guess they've been around humans more and they know how to get into their minds. Like at one point in the game, if you talk to Joker on the ship, you find out that EDI was adgitating Joker and she was using his emotions against him to make him mad. Maybe the AI's have somthing along those lines, but in a greater scale.

SlyTF1 wrote:Well, my idea is possible. It may not be true, but its possible. Some one else said that they might be trying to save the humans from AI's because I guess they've been around humans more and they know how to get into their minds.

The only people doing any saving were Shepard and his team. The "salvation" Harbinger spoke of means you are part of a Reaper, the highest form of life there is. (So they say) They're "saving" you from being organic. Also, Reapers each have their own AI, so no, Reapers aren't trying to save you from AI.

To put things clearly, when the villain or villains of a story say they're saving you, they aren't.

SlyTF1 wrote:Like at one point in the game, if you talk to Joker on the ship, you find out that EDI was adgitating Joker and she was using his emotions against him to make him mad. Maybe the AI's have somthing along those lines, but in a greater scale.

EDI was screwing with Joker because Joker was screwing with EDI. When someone pulls a prank on you, you retaliate, don't you? AI are hated because of how unpredictable and dangerous they can be, with the geth being the biggest example.

Read the Mass Effect Wiki. It'll help.

Quite a few games have made me feel, but the biggest and best example would have to be The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Kingdom Hearts was a bit sad. They killed off a lot of my fave characters.

Legend of Zelda is epic.

Hm... Mega Man Legends 2, Mega Man X5, Mega Man Zero 4, and Kingdom Hearts.
Yeah, those are my best examples.

The ending of Kingdom Hearts gets me choked up every time I see it.
Rule of Rose was a hell of an experience. You wont know what the hell is going on until after you beat it and put the pieces together. It's such a tragic story and the way it's told really enhances it.

The Darkness had the most impact on me by far. It's like the game was made just for me. I never connected with a character the way I did with Jackie, and afterward I felt like I understood myself a little better.

Crash bandicoot. Why did innocent freight have to suffer?

Hmm...good question!

Off the top of my head, I'd say:

The Legend of Zelda
Final Fantasy XII
Final Fantasy XIII
GTA III
Dead Space
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
And yeah, The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time was awesome too.

These are just some games that I distinctly remember because they were SO good that I got totally immersed in them.

The ending to Sly 3 (used to)makes( replace s with d) me sad. Becuase it was my favorite game ever and just to (think) know that it's the end...and that there would never be a sequel for a long time (not any more!!!) just made me sad. Sly 2 had a really good ending too. But not an ending that made me want to sit in a coner for 5 years crying like Sly 3 does (did).

As far as epic endigs go though, I say Mass Effect 2 wins. Its just so freaking awesome! Explosions, running fast, jump in the air, no! Cover blown, keep runing, pull up in a ship, shoot, shoot, splatter splatter, hurry up! Get on! Fly away from giant explosion. People die in the explosion.

SlyTF1 wrote:As far as epic endigs go though, I say Mass Effect 2 wins. Its just so freaking awesome! Explosions, running fast, jump in the air, no! Cover blown, keep runing, pull up in a ship, shoot, shoot, splatter splatter, hurry up! Get on! Fly away from giant explosion. People die in the explosion.

People don't die in that explosion if you do things right. Depending on whether or not you consider the Collectors "People" which you really shouldn't.

Also, the ending of Metal Gear Solid 4. Hell of an ending to MGS, made me choke up with manly tears.

Shadowman wrote:

SlyTF1 wrote:As far as epic endigs go though, I say Mass Effect 2 wins. Its just so freaking awesome! Explosions, running fast, jump in the air, no! Cover blown, keep runing, pull up in a ship, shoot, shoot, splatter splatter, hurry up! Get on! Fly away from giant explosion. People die in the explosion.

People don't die in that explosion if you do things right. Depending on whether or not you consider the Collectors "People" which you really shouldn't.

Also, the ending of Metal Gear Solid 4. Hell of an ending to MGS, made me choke up with manly tears.

I know, I just put that in there.

Zone of the Enders, never has a game put me in a position where I couldn't decide if I though it was freaking awesome or the most depressing thing ever.

GTA Vice City, the final boss was hard, not due to skills but due to me liking him.

Final Fantasy...almost all of them.Great stories,great characters and some very touching moments...

I guess Zelda: The Twilight Princess.

GTA: San Andreas has a quite deep storyline, as well as realistic, so it kind of touched me when i finished the last mission.

Dead Rising 2. The ending where you're unable to prevent Chuck's daughter from turning into a zombie. Start the video at 34 seconds. Dude lost his wife in a zombie outbreak. Now he has nothing left. You have to feel for him.

FF13 is probably the best example I can think of.

Counterpunch wrote:FF13 is probably the best example I can think of.

Which is amazing, considering that 13 is pretty bad in terms of storytelling. Not the worst (1 and 2 had little more than an excuse plot, and X-2 just plain sucked) but pretty far behind every other game in the series.

Also, FEAR. Jesus Pancake-Flipping Christ FEAR. I've played through it several times. Each time, I start with "Well I'm sure this time it won't be as scary because I know where everything is so it shouldn't scare me that much. Kind of like the Doom games, right?" WRONG! Turns out, even the crap I know is coming still scares the crap out of me. The tagline for the second game was "Fear Alma Again." I don't think that's a very good tagline, because it implies that at some point I stopped fearing Alma.

Shadowman wrote:

Counterpunch wrote:FF13 is probably the best example I can think of.

Which is amazing, considering that 13 is pretty bad in terms of storytelling. Not the worst (1 and 2 had little more than an excuse plot, and X-2 just plain sucked) but pretty far behind every other game in the series.

I am well beyond over hearing 13 derided as being a bad game, having a poor story, etc etc.

The number of people I can identify as having recited the litany of FF13 bashing and having actually gone far enough into the game to have an opinion on it I can count on one hand. Was it a mass consumption Final Fantasy? Yes. Big F'ing deal. Every FF has been different from the beginning and each game provides a completely different feel. I question people every time they say 13 isn't a "True" FF game because the series can't even correctly or consistently define itself.

FF13 had character development, showed emotional build up, employed a good amount of careful, NOT heavy handed foreshadowing (looking at you X), and placed characters in a final situation where there was no right answer. It wasn't clean and it wasn't neat and at the end, things were lost. The setting and tone, scope and evolution of the story was well plotted even if the gameplay was linear (I don't think the story could have evolved on a group of fugitives if it had been open-world). The music framed the whole thing well.

So, no. It's not "amazing" that I would find the game and story to be something worthwhile. From Snow's false bravado proving to be something he's actually thought out, to Lightning showing regret and reconnecting to her humanity, to Sazh breaking down into a suicidal wreck, Hope being a terrible whiny emo baby and being forced to grow up, and Vanille being a really bad person hiding behind a smile; all of the characters contribute to a worthwhile story.

Honestly, the only one who's kind of off is Fang and the whole thing there is that she doesn't know who she is and as a result consistently makes bad decisions regarding people who should be her friends.

If you did somehow meant in your response that I am unable to recognize good story telling or that I haven’t played enough or varied games to know better, then take the pseudo intellectualism and shove it.

However,

I'm not entirely sure you meant to be snide in your response to me. If you didn’t, then consider this simply a response to your statement and no hard feelings.