13. Hackers Ruin Everyone's Fun
In a society of gamers that have increasingly became used to the internet and how it affects our gaming lifestyle, having these services snatched away from us for weeks on end was absolutely painful. I'm of course talking about the infamous Sony PS3 hack of doom, which compromised millions of user records, brought down the entire Playstation network for absolutely forever and made us all have to scrounge in our gaming boxes looking for something old to play. The lack of internet on a console that'd become built around it was crippling, and the way Sony handled the whole thing wasn't much better. We didn't know anything for the most part, and it was really damaging to Sony's streed cred overall. Remember kids, Sony isn't as good as they'd have you believe!
12. The Dark Knight
Batman's had a lot of games. Batman Returns was rock hard and silly. The Adventures of Batman and Robin was good, but also ridiculously hard. Batman Forever was a fart in Batman history and was appalling. You'd think, since superheroes are generally seen to be cool, that creating a game based around a guy who runs around in a freaking bat suit would be easy. Not so much. Then came Rocksteady. After laying their hands on the Batman property they got to work constructing Batman Arkham Asylum, a stunning game with fantastic voice cast (including Mark Hamill as the Joker) and the first game in history to nail exactly what playing as Batman should feel like. The game's most memorable moments lie both in the combat and the Predator stealth areas. The former of these is one of the most immensely satisfying battle systems in gaming today, allowing you to chain together amazing combos that make you feel like Batman. The second of these is the true highlight for me - there's nothing like causing abject terror amongst enemies as you pick them off one by one using Batman's array of gadgets.
11. Welcome To Your New Life
After around an hour crawling around in dark tunnel, you move towards the light, shielding your eyes from the harsh rays that pierce the bars of the door in front of you. After checking that you're ready, you open the door, its ancient, rusted hinges protesting as you step out into the light, ready to adventure. This moment will be familiar to absolutely anyone who played The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. After going through the tutorial mission, Oblivion took the reins off, gave you a gentle nudge and basically said 'Right, off you go then.' At first overwhelming, Oblivion became a joy to play as you started exploring the world, finding secrets, getting destroyed by far too powerful enemies and exploiting sideways walking to climb up mountains. For me, this was one of the moments I always remember in gaming. I can't remember when I had so much choice before, and I honestly don't think that even to this day I saw everything Oblivion had to offer.