2. Spec Ops: The Line Loading sequences and Konrad
The genius of Spec Ops: The Line was that for so long, it pretended to be a Call of Duty knockoff, with formulaic shooting, ooh-rahing characters and the shooting of foreigners by the truckload. Then it pulled an epic trick it made you fight Americans and do terrible, terrible things before confronting you with them. The scene where Captain Walker has to walk through a soldier-filled area he just bombed with white phosphorous the action itself being a satire of the AC-130 scenes in CoD before being confronted with the burned civilians the soldiers were actually protecting will forever go down as a crowning moment for this generations consoles. Spec Ops nailed the feeling of cognitive dissonance with aplomb you were killing people because thats what you do in a videogame, but still, the killing all seemed so wrong, and the game let you know it. First it did it gradually, but then the loading screens started talking to you about you holding these two conflicting ideas, asking how many Americans you killed today and telling you that despite your actions, you were still a good person. It even told you it was all your fault, but saying that killing for entertainment was harmless. The whole game insulted you, the player, from start to finish in the most audacious fourth-wall-break Ive ever seen. Yet it was the end sequence when you finally met Konrad which knocked you on your arse. The general just comes straight out with it,calling you pathetic for trying to empower yourself through videogames. Granted, hes actually talking to Captain Walker, but the truth is hes totally talking to you as well. Ive never had a game gut-punch me before, but this one did.