A coworker of mine finished Fallout 3 this week. When I say he "finished" it, I mean "he put 120 hours into that bad boy." He was emotionally invested. And as emotional investments go, he was genuinely sad to see the credits roll. Not sad due to some cathartic release from a sad-story ending, but sad because the entire journey was coming to an end at all. So we asked our staff here at GamingNexus (and we're asking you, our readers, too):
What's one game you were truly sad to see end?
Ben Berry: The game I was disappointed when it was over was BioShock. Even with the trick ending, it still really bummed me out the rich, intensely unique gaming experience was over. I still haven't played Mass Effect, which is my own fault, but I haven't experienced anything like BioShock before or since. (Currently Playing: NHL 09, Lego Indiana Jones, WiiFit, FIFA Soccer 09)
Elliot Bonnie: I was sad to see Shadow of the Colossus end. I loved everything about the game and I just didn't want to see it go. That reminds me... I need to play through that game again soon. Hopefully it won't be too long of a wait for the next Team ICO game. (Currently Playing: Midnight Club: Los Angeles, Left 4 Dead, FIFA Soccer 09, Gears of War 2)
Sean Colleli: I know it was like 60 freaking hours long, but I hated to see Twilight Princess end. Not that I wanted the actual game to go on longer, but because I had the sickening suspicion (and still do) that it's the last good Zelda game we'll ever get, before Nintendo reverts the franchise to a vomit-inducing traipse through technicolor Wind Waker land. I guess for me it was more like prolonging the inevitable. (Currently Playing: Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero World Tour)
Charles Husemann: Right now that game would be Gears of War 2 as the ending of the game was kind of poor and didn't really wrap anything up. Other than that I'd have to put Half-Life 2: Episode 2 as the game was really hitting it's stride when it ended. (Currently Playing: Killzone 2 and probably playing with a new dog.)
Randy Kalista: Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30. The combat manual's "find 'em, fix 'em, flank 'em, and finish 'em" maneuvers riveted me to my seat during each and every encounter. Then the ensuing drama and esprit de corp that informed the storyline completely unseated my wary narrative expectations. It's not just good writing "for a videogame"--it's good writing for writing's sake. There have been some stellar floods to come along since then (Lost Odyssey comes to mind, if you can forgive the dislocated delivery system), but Road to Hill 30's high-water mark left an indelible impression. It's why I picked up my most recent entry in my playlist. (Currently Playing: Brothers in Arms: Highway to Hell, The Graveyard, Pirates of the Burning Sea)
Cyril Lachel: For all the complaining I do about Nintendo, the truth is that they've made some of the best games of all time. Sadly those games are now twenty years old. Either way, the game I was most disappointed to see end was Super Mario Bros. 3 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It's not just the fact that it's one of the best playing 2D platformers of all time, full of the best power-ups ever created. But rather, what makes this game so amazing is its creative level designs. From the desert world to the underwater world to that world where everything is way bigger than it is supposed to be, it's clear that Nintendo had a lot of fun coming up with different types of levels and challenges. Even as a kid I knew that when I beat it the joy of seeing what they can come up with next would be over. Sadly Nintendo could never top Super Mario Bros. 3, so I'm still a little disappointed that the game ended so abruptly. I could have used another ten or twenty creative levels. (Currently Playing: Rock Band 2, Chrono Trigger DS, Kirby's Dream Land 3)
Matt Mirkovich: I was sad to see Persona 3 end. Even with Persona 3 FES adding to it, the ending was one of those great ones that needs to be seen. And even though it is corny, having a silent protagonist that the player is directly in charge of made the bonds with the other characters even stronger. (Currently Playing: Persona 4, Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories, Ar Tonelico 2)
Nathan Murray: I can't remember a game I was sad to see the end credits roll. Mostly I regret not playing a game all the way through. Maybe one exception would be the end to Portal, but the song at the end was so encouraging that I wasn't sad that the game was over but hungry for more. (Currently Playing: Rock Band 2 (thank you, Renae!), Call of Duty 4)
Sean Nack: In Afghanistan, my platoon had an XBox that A) only lasted so long, as we were in the middle of nowhere and B) when it was working, it was consistently occupied, but I had come prepared; my laptop had a SNES emulator with 40 or so games, including the incredibly difficult Nobunaga's Ambition, a strategy game that simulates the slow rise of the Shogunate and which, much to my befuddlement, was mostly in Japanese. It took months, months, of random and unexplainable failures for me to finally start winning, and when I finally did...credits. No ending! So not only was I sad about the lack of any kind of positive reinforcement, I also had defeated the one game which had held my Afghan-attention. (Currently Playing: Left 4 Dead, Call of Duty 4)
Shawn Sines: For me I think seeing the end of Mass Effect was disappointing. It wasn't a content issue, I thoroughly enjoyed the tale...it was more about the potential it showed for future games and the fact I knew they were not coming soon enough. (Currently Playing: Killzone 2, Prince of Persia, Persona 4, Lord of the Rings Online)
Sad endings are certainly subjective. And for some, it reaches back a long ways. For others, those endings are still fresh in our memories.
