Also Stormcloaks/Empire in Skyrim, because the Empire are completely infiltrated by the Thalmor, and Hammerfell and Blackmarsh show that independence could be the best way to go in the inevitable war, but the Stormcloaks are uncompromising dicks, Ulfrics a turd, and they depose all the nice friendly Jarls.
Live with the assholes or die with the good folk. Not a choice you can feel good with yourself either way.
InFamous 1, when I was forced to choose between saving either Cole's girlfriend, or a bussload of doctors who were helping the children and the poor. BOY DID I FUCK UP ON THAT ONE.
I'm going to start this by saying that if my ability to get a game seems slim, I'll look up al i can about it and try to play it vicariously, usually meaning wikis, and lets plays. This applied heavily to Shin Megami Tensei, any game in its series. So Now that I have some of the older games and can keep up with the newer games, My dilemma is one of fighting my own feeling to make sure I go for which faction I agree with.
In a lot of games I like to be good. Mass Effect, Paragon. Fallout, High Karma. Red Dead Redemption, High Honor.
This is a problem in SMT because while the factions of Law, Neutral, and Chaos, are Grey, Grey, and Grey. The choices that influence you seem like a standard Nice, and Mean, or Good, and Evil.
Going in to Strange Journey I hated how both Law and Chaos would turn out, normally I'm fine with chaos if I cant go neutral but this time I could not, Neutral seemed to be the best choice, now being the one who likes to be good supporting the member of your party that would represent law in what seemed like an emotional dilemma was actually agreeing with her ideology, so when I hit a point where my characters name had turn blue, indicating a Law character, I had to restart and now going forward pick and balance the options ant try to push myself toward chaos to buffer my Neutrality.
SMT really pulls this trap when they use a close character as a scenario for making a choice.
When choosing to mercy kill or save Issachar. The game treats it like, is human life more important that an individuals desires, where my "be good" approach took it as, "This is an old friend, I must help him if I can."
Now for a Persona related scenario.
In Persona 4, specifically Golden but I believe these are the same across both versions, I don't go the "Playa" rout, once I pick one of the girls to be a girlfriend I avoid the romantic path of any others.
This was broken in one play though where I picked Drama instead of Band and got Yumi as the Sun Social Link.
Long story short, the end of her social link where you have to choose between friends and romance, was framed in a way that the option to be friends seemed like a massive dick move, essentially rejecting her compared to the easy let down or protagonist uninitiated moves in other SL's.
What made this a hard choice was both the framing of the platonic rout, and the fact that I had already completed Yukiko's Social Link romantically. So all those events combined, it felt like choosing between being a cheating bastard, or crushing the heart of a vulnerable person.
Game Mechanics allowing multiple romances with no consequence is what made me choose to accept her because, you never have to deal with clashes, but you would be there to see the aftermath of rejection. Even though a quick wiki read confirmed it was not as mean as the game framed it.
One of the toughest choices I ever faced in a game was dealing with Gil Alexander in Bioshock 2.
As you progress through Fontaine Futuristics, you discover that the former chief scientist has overdosed on Adam and gone completely insane (as well as mutated into an enormous foetus-slug-thing) now calling himself 'Alex the Great', killing his "employees" at random, and (most importantly) trying to kill you.
You also find a number of audio messages left behind by Dr Alexander pre-mutation, who realised he was losing his mind and left behind instructions so that anyone coming along later could stop him. Eventually, you end up trapping his mutant form inside a big tank, with the option to either release him, or kill him by electrifying the tank. The recording left by Gil implores you to kill him, stopping the dangerous abomination and putting him out of his misery, while the Mutant 'Alex' begs for his life, regretting his behaviour and promising to swim out into the ocean and never bother anyone again.
I sat for several minutes considering what to do. Was it safe to let him live? Was his promise genuine, or would he go back on his word? Would it be murder or euthanasia? He was technically unarmed, as I'd shut down his robots. Did that make a difference? Was there anything of Dr Gil left in there, or had his 'Aelx the Great' alter-ego taken over completely?
In the end I killed him, reasoning that I trusted the word of a respected scientist over that of a megalomaniac mutant, but I didn't feel comfortable making the decision.
Others may disagree, but for me it was one of the most powerful moral choices a game has thrown at me, and stuck with me for a while afterwards. Partly due to the way it was written, and partly because there was no clear indication of which one was the 'good' option, as both were presented as a kind of mercy.
The hardest choices of all are never the ones that come down to 'what's best for me' vs 'what's best for others', but the ones where it's 'what's best for group A' vs 'what's best for group B' and the overall effect on all groups.
See also: Stormcloaks or Empire, choosing who to support in the Witcher, and most of the choices in Fallout New Vegas.
Especially considering how much of an impact each had. One made you feel like you really helped a friend, the other made you feel like you helped the world.
The Witcher had plenty of those. You could either be neutral and let things run it's course, choose one evil or another evil and you were never quite sure of the outcome. There were a few times where I was sure my decision wouldn't matter or change that much.
I wanted to help the non-humans in getting along with the humans, but ended up going against them instead by my choices.
Playing The Witcher 2 at the moment and it seems to be the same way again. Think I'll remain neutral during this run, however. My Witcher 1 save, which I believe can be carried over, got lost when I bought my new PC anyways.
Apart from that I really can't think of any other. I generally play those kinds of games at least twice to try each path, so I make one run goody two-shoes and the other evil incarnate. Often have a hard time during the evil playthrough since it doesn't feel right.
New Vegas, Witcher II and Mass Effect II had some of the most tough decisions I've had.
Oh, spoilers people. Lots of spoilers.
New Vegas:
I sided with House. I find his ideals and methods to be perfectly suited to what the world has become. He was the perfect fusion between Legion and NCR ideals... but I took issue with him wanting me to wipe out the Brotherhood who I honestly believe could have been turned around or rather just convinced to leave. An Alliance between The Brotherhood and New Vegas would have been incredibly beneficial for both sides but House just couldn't trust The Brotherhood to not turn all fanatical on him. Given his experience with such things I deferred to his judgment of the matter.
Withcer II:
I have respect for Iorveth but Vernon Roche will always be my bro. When it comes to Act III and if you saved Foltest's daughter, Anais, you're given the choice between letting the Marshal/Regent, John Natalis, raise her to be the next queen of Temeria or placing her into an arranged marriage under King Radovid of Redania. The former choice of John Natalis will ensure Temeria, Roche's home nation, remains independent with Roche retaining his former position... but Nilfgard is set to invade the Northern Kingdoms again and the kingdoms are fragmented enough as is. Temeria being in a union under Redania will give the North a truly centralized force which will have a far greater chance of resisting the Empire's invasion. Roche won't be perfectly happy with the decision you make but Radovid will acknowledge Roche's abilities and make him commander of the newly formed Red Stripes, or Queen's Guard, of Redania.
It was a hard choice because I was making a decision on both a national level and on a personal level. I was deciding how my best friend's life would turn out, and that's a crazy scenario to be in. I am choosing what is best for the realm and what is best for him.
Mass Effect II:
Choosing to "reprogram" or destroy the Geth. Layers upon layers of decisions here. First you must ask yourself if they are sentient or not. If they are sentient does that mean they are "alive"? Then you need to ask yourself if this is the same as convincing someone with proof and rhetoric or if it really is brainwashing. Then you need to decide what is worse, brainwashing or genocide. Then you need to weigh that decision up with the approaching Reaper threat... are slave soldiers justifiable? Will they appreciate me sparing them or will they seek revenge for my trespasses?
We still don't know what the consequences of this choice might be. The fact that Morrigan is so secretive about it screams of dubiousness, since if it's okay morally then surely she should have no trouble explaining what she thinks the consequences might be. On the other hand, even momentary reflection should tell one that the player, even a mage, would have no way of knowing if she was actually telling the truth - she could say that the ritual will accomplish a bajillion fantastic things or that it would cause death and destruction and you'd still have no way of knowing if she was telling the truth. In the end, it comes down to a choice of whether to trust her or not. And that's not even considering that, if you're playing a female Warden, you're going to have to ask someone who doesn't like Morrigan and isn't interested in having sex with her to do just that. If the genders were reversed here, people would be screaming blue murder. This strikes me as a huge double standard. Anyway, in my first playthrough, which I think of as my most authentic one, I turned her down. My city elf Warden couldn't trust Morrigan because, during the slavery in the Alienage quest, Morrigan had been in favour of a blood magic ritual that would have killed the Warden's father. She intended to die against the Archdemon, but in the end Alistair sacrificed himself for her and she was left bitterly wondering if she shouldn't have taken Morrigan's offer so that he'd still be alive. A sad ending for her.
2) Should Alistair or Anora rule Ferelden?
Alistair doesn't seem to want to, at all, but is that really because he'd be an awful ruler or just because he doesn't believe in himself enough or isn't over-confident? On the other hand, Anora has experience but aspects of her competence and good will are arguable: she was supposedly the one really in charge when Cailan ruled, but that didn't exactly seem to improve life for city elves. As the epilogue shows, elves continue to be a non-priority for Anora if she rules alone. Alistair can be a good or ineffective king depending on whether he gains a more practical attitude to life during his story, but either way the elves seem better off; he may be less practical and experienced than Anora on the whole, but he's a good person who seems to care about the underdog. And, of course, if they marry things go just swimmingly for Ferelden... but they don't actually seem to want to marry each other, so this is at the cost of their personal happiness. I chose Alistair, but, as I said, he died fighting the Archdemon so Anora ruled and ruined my Warden's beloved Alienage.
3) Should Loghain be executed or recruited to the Wardens?
On the one hand, the Wardens are low on numbers and need everyone they can get. Of course, my personal rejoinder to this would be: "If we only have enough components for one new Warden, why can't we have Ser Goddamn-Badass-Cauthrien? The Archdemon wouldn't stand a chance." Anyway, that's not an option. So we have Loghain, who is pretty hardcore, has plenty of experience, and is kind of a badass (even if he's no Cauthrien). On the other hand, he has shown terrible judgement, resulting in military and political disaster for Ferelden. At a personal level, he also sold plenty of my Warden's people into slavery. At the time when the decision was made, my character thought that he deserved to be punished and would not actually be an asset to the Wardens, so Loghain bit it there and then. However, if my character had actually known that a Warden has to die to kill the archdemon, maybe she would have acted differently, and in that situation, with more info, it might have been possible to persuade Alistair not to throw in the towel if Loghain was made a Warden, if killing the Archdemon was presented as his punishment. Maybe. In all likelihood, Alistair would still have been pretty pissed.
All of these choices are really based on how well you've come to know the characters and your view on them, whether you like, respect and/or trust them. I think that's a testament to how excellent the writing at the end of DA:O was (not perfect but pretty close).
It is possible to get Scarlet for the ending. Not sure exactly what you have to do, but it's possible. As for Sie, no, I don't think you can, I think the sex scene you can have with her is the climax(pun intended) of the romance with her.
If getting Sie in the ending specifically means that she's on the boat in the final cutscene, then, as far as I'm aware, you simply can't. As far as I know, the only endings that exist are for Mina, Scarlett and Heck. I suppose we can count the variations on the all alone ending as well.
Yeah, to the people talking about choosing between the Empire or the Stormcloaks?
The game doesn't force you to go with one. It is entirely possible to remain neutral to the whole thing. Which I think is honestly the best choice. As both sides are playing into the Aldmeri Dominion's hands. The Empire is being forced to do what the Aldmere want them to do, and they pretty much let Ulfric keep his position of power, and don't really care which way the whole thing goes.
On topic...Skyrim, actually.
Do I go with the Empire guy, or the Stormcloak guy at the beginning? Who do I want to be friends with? The blacksmith's family, or the wood mill person's family? On one hand, the blacksmith's family seems so warm and inviting. On the other, Gerdur is very attractive and I like her the most between every single one person...But she's also married...
Decisions decision.
Also, do I marry that female Orc follower, or do I marry Uthgerd, who I feel really sorry for?
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