17 Most Violent Video Game Moments Of The Decade (So Far)

May 9, 2016 May 9th, 2016

1. By The Book - Grand Theft Auto V

We've had everything from overblown viscera to shlocky teen horror and realistic "What would you do?"-type stuff, but the most unabashedly ridiculous and squirmishly violent moment has to go to GTA V, and Trevor's torture scene.

Set up as a comment on how torture is an ineffective method of gaining information, as the person is always under duress and forever in search of saying anything just to escape the situation, you're allowed to choose from a number of tools and implements to extract said information.

Water-boarding, tugging teeth with pliers, electrocution, the scene was intended to reframe all the calls to desensitisation that video games have been accused of facilitating, putting you square in the driver's seat in one of the most abhorrent acts of human on human violence.

Whether it worked or not is up to you, but either way, everything from Trevor enjoying himself, to the fact a racially-profiled 'target' gets killed just so 'everyone can go home', is extremely effective - if not only to get those conversations going again.