2010 AG Awards: 'Holy Crap' Moment of the Year

Feature from Nat - Tuesday, 14 December 2010 @ 11:57am

The 2010 AG Awards #2:"Holy Crap" Moment of the Year

The gaming-related moment throughout the year that shocked the pants off you the hardest. Whether it’s the chilling ending to Mass Effect 2 or Nintendo finally giving a good E3 presentation, this is where we pick our jaws back up off the floor and tell a tale of surprise.

The AG Nominations:

I thought Fable 2 had a big OMFG moment towards the end of the game. Well, it was nothing compared to the Holy Crap moment at the start of Fable III. I'm used to games forcing you to make tough decisions, but some role playing games make it harder than others. I don't think I'm spoiling it for anybody (if you haven't played it by now you probably won't), but Fable III throws a doozy at you only 15 minutes into the game. You can either choose to have the love of your life executed, or the better part of an entire town. It's hard not to put the greater good before your own, but even in this fictional setting you still feel like an A-Grade asshole for having your BFF shot in the head. Holy crap indeed.

2010 brought me one thing that I haven’t had for maybe a decade: a PC at the top end of the gaming curve. Into that machine I threw the title Just Cause 2 as a cheapy off Steam and what I found blew my balls off. Accessing bigger and faster vehicles showed me just how spectacularly large this sandbox is, and how incredibly well realised it actually is. While not necessarily saying anything about the game, for me Just Cause 2’s environment was a welcome surprise.

A close and respectful runner up goes to Split Second: Velocity, for being almost entirely made up of “Holy crap!” moments.

Explains itself, really.

John was always a bit of a ruthless killer, yet somehow I always saw him as a hero. From that weird mysterious guy that kept popping up throughout the game, to the sense of accomplishment at the end of the storyline, John's death almost seemed needed, yet the fighting way he went down was still a shock to see his violent and bloody death. It was one of the few moments this year where I had to put the controller down breathe out.

Close runner-up: The final meeting with this creepy guy.

There are so many moments in Mass Effect 2 I could have chosen from – The gorgeous opening sequence; Garrus reappearing for the first time; King Wrex; but none were as powerful or as gutwrenching as the very final decision. MASSIVE SPOILERS.

After concluding the battle with a gargantuan half-human, half-Reaper T-800 monstrosity, Shepard barely has time to catch his breath before being given a shocking choice: do you turn the alien superweapon over to a deadly terrorist group to help protect the human race, or destroy it and potentially doom all life in the galaxy? I sat with the controller in my hands, unable to make a decision to or fro for over ten minutes, then immediately regretted my decision. The sheer level of personal investment in that one binary decision was shocking, and really knocked me back on my ass. The idea that a decisision i made /in a video game/ was able to haunt me and make me feel guilty for days was unheard of in my books. Simply amazing.

One ugly motherlicker.