22. The Evil Within Is Revealed
We all know the drill. When we are told we're off to rescue a princess, we know we'll do it, everyone will be happy, and there will be much cake afterwards (ooer). In the case of Braid, that's what I believed. Boy, was I wrong. After solving some immensely satisfying time-based puzzles I finally caught up with the princess, only to find out that Tim was in fact the villain all along, and the princess was fleeing from him, not wanting to be rescued. Platforming mind trickery at its finest.
21. Finishing The Fight
After Halo 2's ending was utterly crap and ended on the most unsatisfying cliffhanger ever, Bungie went out with a bang in Halo 3. After defeating Guilty Spark and saving the universe, Master Chief must flee the Halo installation in a Warthog vehicle as the world around him starts to crumble away. It was fast paced, epic and benefited greatly from Halo's brilliant soundtrack, but it's not this scene which is the most memorable. No, that honour goes to Master Chief, after he's saved the world, stepping into cryogenic stasis. He's completely adrift in space with no way of returning to home and it's only when Halo 4 came out some years later that we learned that the Chief's story was not yet done. At the time, this was a sad, yet somehow fitting end to Master Chief's and Cortana's story.
20. The World Goes Nuts For Blocks
Perhaps one of the greatest success stories ever in gaming history, Minecraft, the little indie game that could, broke all conceptions about indie games into smithereens when it became one of the biggest hits of the last decade. Despite not having the flashiest graphics around and no clear gameplay goals, Minecraft gave players the basic tools to do whatever they wanted. The only limit was your imagination, and gamers everywhere quickly cottoned on to Minecraft's potential as a crafting sandbox. Nowadays Minecraft is available for practically every system out there from phones to PCs. I don't know exactly what caused the surge in popularity, but there's no denying Minecraft's awesomeness at this point.