For many people most of Friday will be a running countdown. They’ll be looking at the clock, willing it to move faster so they can escape the dismal confines of work and get on with a weekend of drinking, celebrating and even gaming. For those excited about the latter, what better way to kill time at work than watch some great game videos and dream of the weekend to come? Whether you’re slaying dragons, battling robots or travelling through the pipes of a fungus-based kingdom to murder a turtle-dinosaur this weekend, these videos should get you pumped up and ready to race home and start playing. Here’s the top 5 most epic cut scenes (including trailers and intros) in video games:
5. Star Wars: The Old Republic
While opinion varies on the potential of Bioware’s new MMORPG to challenge WOW depending on who you ask, there’s one thing that’s not questioned – the awesomeness of this trailer.
4. Warcraft 3
Blizzard’s in-house team of CGI wizards always manage to create wonderful, over the top trailers for their games. This one for Warcraft 3 was the moment where they refined their formula to near-perfection.
3. Onimusha 3
Not necessarily the best game on the list, this is nonetheless one of the greatest animated action scenes of all time. Everything about this long, visionary and creatively stunning trailer is done well. I watched all of the trailers on this list again as I made it, but this is the only one I watched more than once.
2. The Darkness
Blurring the line between cut scene and gameplay, this whole section of The Darkness channelled old testament-level retribution into a perfect denouement that was suitably epic. Just as main character Jackie Estacado loses control of himself to the evil creature which takes him over, so too does the player begin to lose control as their actions blend in with cut scenes showing brutal murders of the mobsters and their crime boss.
1. Killzone 2
Rarely has a games cut scene so thoroughly outperformed the game that accompanied it. Although Killzone 2 was a good game in its own right, it’s hard to see how any game could live up to such a glorious, well directed and gorgeous video. Axis Animations may have made the most emotionally engaging game trailer of all time with Dead Island, but back in 2005 they made the most epic trailer too.
Have a great weekend everyone!