5. Getting Your Revenge On Lionel Starkweather - Manhunt
One of the most controversial titles of all time, Manhunt's gore-happy ways both retained Rockstar's risk-taking bad-boy persona, whilst hopping across genres with ease - the end product setting you up as a criminal on Death Row let loose into a snuff film, meaning you have to kill or be killed - all while being watched by puppet-master Lionel Starkweather. In addition, without the social media relationship we have now where spoilers and reveals are traded online within minutes of a games' release, it actually aided Manhunt's general aura and cultural reception, becoming something of a watercooler phenomenon in the process as everyone tried to survive and trade gameplay tips collectively, The best realisation came across the back half of the game, when you realised no longer where you so afraid of what lurked around each corner, but thanks to picking off a few hundred thugs, you'd became a more proficient predator. It meant the point where you finally come face to face with Starkweather (brandishing a chainsaw no less) was only going to end in one hell of an epic fatality-style execution, and Rockstar didn't skimp out on the grizzly details.