Nobody ever shed a tear over a video-game character's death.

[VoltySquirrel]

Because I'm such a n00b at Escapist and I don't know how to do a Spoiler tag, I'll just say HL2:Ep2 spoilers ahead.

While I've only once cryed over a VG characters death (not FF7), I still fell saddened when one of my favorite characters dies. I've grown attached to them, and now I have to move on. Even Far Cry 2 did that for me. The first time I realized one of my buddies wouldn't make it, I felt so bad that I decided to make the pain stop for good ol' Warren. I was so sad, that I went into a rage that I promptly kicked every APR goon in the area with a passion unknown to me. For me, that's attachment. And I've only known the guy for 2 or so hours.
That's why HL2:Ep3 is the game I can't wait for the most. After that ending, I want payback. The sorrow of Alyx being heard over the credits, the sight of the late Eli Vance with his daughter crying over his body, that's what has me excited. Valve knows how to build character to player relationships. This was the only time I ever cracked a tear over a game. So for me, that critic saying that video games don't carry the same emotional weight as movie is bulls--t. Games are just as emotional as movies, books, or T.V., wheather this guy believes it or not.

 

[Carlston]

This is a quote regarding the Max Payne move from Roger Moore, critic for the Orlando Sentinel.

Link:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/orl-movie-review-max-payne,0,1552695.story

Now I'm sure this is falacious, but why do film critics keep thinking games do not present emotional moments? I can understand "some" comments on solidarity of narrative, but come on now, sometimes a game presents MORE emotion than a film can ever achieve. Like some television series' you get to spend FAR more time with Game Characters than you ever do with their celuloid counterparts, sometimes you get into their heads better and often even feel more of a kinship with your on screen avatar than you do for some distant celebrity acting out a pathos loaded scene on film.

So, what are the Escapist Communities favorite/most impacting emotional moments?

Personally, the end of Final Fantasy X still makes me cry like a baby, I have the Ending Theme on my IPod and I will occasionally weep openly on the train remembering how sad it made me when

Spoiler

the lead hero, whom I had grown to like despite his annoying nature

met his sad fate at the end of the game.

Further more sequences like the ending of Shadow of the Colossus, or Raiden's well written (but sadly pointless) greatest moment in MGS4, really hammer home the emotional impact of videogames.

Wow that reviewer is a sad man. My dad is 54 and when I had a SNES he said one day the video games are movie will blur and you'll be playing a interactive movie. He never played games and I never believed him. Now... to say no one every cried at a video game characters death is to say Anime never made anything good cause it's all porn.... No Howl's moving castle...No Oscar winning Spirited Away...all just based on a closed mind mans image.
American movies never has a classic like gone with the wind... because of "Deep Throat."

FF 7, X, had heart twisting moments. Metal Gear 4 5 scene (spoilder nothing you people have a time line on this, just like the titanic it sinks, Jesus dies on the cross ect) That last part watch snake crawl and you just want him to go a bit further as you watch 4 scene of everyone else about to get slaughtered in the most desperate ways...

That's story telling...that is what brings us gamers back. Hell Call of Duty 4...after the nuke and the crawling out of the heli and dying...

Little things like that.
But Games and movies are blurring now... and I love it.

 

[Kriegsherr]

I shed a few tears when Snake put that gun in his mouth.

Definately, its so hard to see someone like Snake reduced to that. Also when Raiden is recovering and Snake tries to convince him to stop because he has a family to live for and Raiden refuses to believe him.

Did anybody else find it a little difficult to mercy kill a partner in Far Cry 2? It wasn't exactly sad and sure, the game would just give you another one 5 mins later, but if you've had that partner around for a while its a little difficult

 

[Scobie]

DELETED

 

[pha kin su pah]

Gears of War 2

Spoiler

MARIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

QQ

 

[Lord Kofun]

At the end of Half-Life 2: Episode Two when:

Spoiler

When Eli gets.. ehm.. whatever the Advisor did to his head.

 

[Artemis923]

Gawd I cry every time I beat MGS 3. T-T

 

[Chicago Ted]

Sticky]I was sad when

Spoiler

your character kills Carlos to put him out of his misery on Saint's Row 2.

I didn't smile for a while after that.

After that happened I had no sympathy for what I did to the Brotherhood.

Spoiler

I found killing Maero so satisfying. And your revenge on Jessica was so sweet. The way you just throw him the car keys and leave. I did however feel regret for how you react with Donnie, because what did he really do wrong? But I feel even worse for what you did to Matt (the tattoo artist/band member). You ruined the guys life by crippling him and then killed him by smashing his skull in with a brick. That was just cold.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

Never cried but I have been deeply moved by some events in video games.

Spoiler: In Silent Hill 2 when James finds out

He killed his wife. I recoiled like i'd been punched in the face.

I lost all sympathy for James when I first found that out; but by the end I'd come to understand him.

 

[Arcyde]

MGS4's ending made me cry.

 

[Ossian]

I have cried at movies, never weeping, but tight throat and watery eyes.

I have never cried during a game, I have gotten angry over character's death, especially when I could of prevented it. Besides that I do a lot of mock emotion for fun. 'Specially last stand type situations (Not Call of duty reference)
Screaming while unloading entire clips of ammunition on something that probably wouldn't even get hurt by it, just for fun

 

[Woodsey]

I dare a pretentious film critic to play The Sands of Time and tell me the character dynamics between the Prince and Farah aren't realistic, or poignant.

 

[Broken Blade]

I cried during the "I Remember Me" mission in Mass Effect, where Shepard has to save someone who was kidnapped by Batarian slavers. That mission made me tear up. I also cried during the lead-up to the final boss fight of A Crack in Time. There are a few other moments I've gotten emotional for in video games, so right off the bat this article is just wrong.

 

[lacktheknack]

Hmm... The end of Beyond Good and Evil, when I realized that the story was over now, and I had to go do something else.

Heck, when ALL THE CHILDREN ARE GOOOOOOOOOONE! I got all freaked out and teary eyed.

I even got misty eyed in the GOOD ENDING OF "RIVEN".

Heck, I got upset when my passengers got killed in The Oregon Trail and Roller Coaster Tycoon.

 

[Broken Boy]

While it didn't come to tears, I felt so bad playing KOTOR after making Zaalbar kill Mission (in a dark side playthrough) that I had to turn the game off for a while.

I second this...

Even tho I love nothing better than playing the reborn sith in KotOR. This part made me a little sad I liked mission.

 

[Crystalite]

Well I cry about gamecharacters the same way I would over movie ones.
I don´t do it often, and only if they are realy well written and I relate to them.

I remember crying at the ending of Dragon Age.
Obviously, I got the sad ending ;-)
That was really hard.

Apart from that, it does not happen all that often that any character is done well enough for me to invest emotionaly on that level, but it does happen.
I think people who say that no one ever does this have probably only ever played Tetris.

 

[GamingAwesome1]

Mother 3.

I'm not even going to say anything more. The opening will make you cry, the ending will make you cry.

 

[EatPieYes]

Spoiler: Super Mario Galaxy

When the lumas sacrifices themselves to save the universe and Mario's little private one waves goodbye. It may be a bit corny and all but it works. I get a little bit weepy from that scene.