7. Experiencing The Journey
How do you make a memorable experience when it's only about an hour long and no-one actually speaks during the game? Simple - just talk to the genius' behind Journey, an emotionally moving experience that really tugged at the heartstrings. A story about life, growth, loss and death, Journey sees our unnamed hero trekking across a massive, vibrant world, heading ever towards a bright light shining atop a mountain. Along the way you start to grow your abilities, becoming increasingly more daring and hurtling through life. Then it's all stripped back as you face hardships, reduced to a crawl before you finally succumb and enter the great beyond. With a soaring soundtrack, genuinely moving scenes and a thought-provoking experience about life itself, Journey is
the standout hit of this generation's indie scene.
6. Seeing San Andreas Again
There's nobody who can touch developers Rockstar when it comes to making an open-world sandbox. Practically every game they've made this generation - apart from Table Tennis - has been superb in every way and pushed the boundaries of what we expected from a game. With this in mind, the hype for Grand Theft Auto V was absolutely ridiculous earlier this year. For many, GTA V eclipsed the actual arrival of new consoles and was easily the most anticipated thing to have in this period of twelve months. Thankfully GTA V managed to live up the hype - Rockstar had outdone themselves once again. Seeing San Andreas rendered in HD, with incredible detail, a huge world and so much to do, is still a marvel. I spent at least two hours simply walking around drinking in the sights, just coz it was so damn pretty. Then I started playing it properly, and things just got better and better.
5. The Joke's On You!
I absolutely adored the ending of Batman Arkham City. The Joker, who had been suffering from an illness inflicted by the events of Arkham Asylum, manipulated Batman all the way through the game into getting him a cure. After the big reveal - that the Joker we'd seen many times was in fact Clayface, an impostor - the Joker is defeated by Batman, the vial of cure smashed to the ground and the Joker scrabbles towards it, trying in vain to swallow whatever he can. The most poignant part of the scene is as the Joker starts to die. Batman, watching his oldest nemesis succumb in front of him, says: "Even after all you've done, I would have saved you." The Joker then dies, a smile on his evil face, and Batman carries the Joker's still body out of the gates of Arkham City, laying it to rest on the bonnet of a police car. Emotional, exceptionally voice acted and incredibly intriguing for the franchises' future, this scene is fully deserving of the prestigious number 5 spot on this list.