15. Sgt. Paul Jackson - Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007)
Sgt. Paul Jackson is one of the numerous playable characters in the ground-breaking Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and while his name might not ring too many bells, the nature of his death continues to be regarded as a high-point for both the CoD series and the FPS genre as a whole. After discovering an armed nuclear weapon in Iran, Paul and his squad plan to exit the city to escape the blast radius, though they are too late, and their chopper ends up being downed by the shock wave. What follows is one of the most haunting sequences in any recent shooter. Paul survives the crash, and we as the player then get to stumble around a sepia-tinged map with no HUD for a few minutes as a mortally wounded Paul, who eventually succumbs to a combination of the plane crash and the nuclear fallout. Killing off the player character was an extremely bold and unexpected move by itself, but to do it in such a terrifying way just cemented the game's brilliance.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
