Greatest Battles in Gaming *spoilers*

Inspired by a similar thread in the Film forum. This thread will contain some spoilers, so please read on with caution. Please spoiler anything that is important to the plot of the games discussed. If possible, link YouTube clips (if the mods are OK with that), but if you haven't played the game being discussed, then don't watch the clip.

As video game graphics improve to the point that they are becoming as epic as anything movies can produce, it has also spurned some absolutely amazing battle sequences, where the player is left in awe of what is happening on their screen.

In light of this, what do people think are some of the greatest battles ever seen in Gaming history?

Mass Effect 3
While the original endings themselves were a let-down to this phenomenal gaming series, this stands out as having some pretty amazing moments, which are standout among the other many great moments from the entire series. The most memorable of these being:
The initial invasion of Earth, which is seen at the beginning of the game.
The final space battle, when

thousands (millions?) of ships go up against the Reaver army.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLlAObjR-gs

Mr E

The final level of Enslaved was pretty jawdropping - pity about the ending, though.

Calhoun

Probably not as good now but when I first played the scene in ff8 where the two gardens battle I was like , wow .

Retr0gamer

Nobody mentioned the End in MGS3? For shame. MGS series had some pretty great ones with that being the highlight. Pity about the poor ones throughout MGS4 and that awful final battle QTE fest.

For sheer terror nothing beats Gigyas at the end of Earthbound.

Suikoden 2 when you finally confront Luca Blight was superb. It was really epic and not in an over the top way. It all built up to that moment and it didn't disappoint.

As for boss fights from a pure mechanics point of view three stick out in my mind. Seven Force in Gunstar Heroes on Hard mode or higher is an absolute marathon. Queen Fossil in G-Darius is an exhausting battle that takes place over an entire stage with the boss changing up attack patterns an insane number of times. Lastly the R-type homage fight in Radiant Silvergun is one of the greatest boss battles of all time and is always a challenge.

Calhoun

I might just have to play msg 3 on my vita now , well prioritise it in my gaming to do.

MitchKoobski

Balamb Garden vs Galbadia Garden in Final Fantasy VIII. Can't find a good video atm.

Falthyron

I don't play WoW anymore, but taking down Onyxia with 39 others for the first time was a pretty exciting and epic battle for me.

In terms of CGI endings though, I really enjoyed the end videos to Tiberian Sun (best CnC in my opinion).

blaa85

Shenmue. The the 70 man battle.

Might as well close the thread now.

Magill

Falthyron wrote: »

I don't play WoW anymore, but taking down Onyxia with 39 others for the first time was a pretty exciting and epic battle for me.

Ya, a lot of the end bosses in raids were excellent.. great feeling downing a boss after a few weeks of raiding. The nerd screams on vent were awesome

SeantheMan

Are we talking about cinematics or gameplay-wise ?

If it's cinematics then,
This was jawdropping when it was first released

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q09quI356sQ

Then just ANY of the Warhammer / Blizzard trailers/cinematics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iO9cGopQq0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKOhzfkCdbY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dki2U1k1FXQ

AlmightyCushion

A one on one energy sword battle in Halo 3 multiplayer. Those things get epic.

madrab

Ninja Gaiden & the battle vs Alma!

Good god thaat took me an age to finish

AnCapaillMor

God of War 2, the titans scaling olympus and continuing in GOW3, the titans vs the gods.

FF7 one of the weapons vs the shinra gun.

Mass effect the citadel defense was pretty intense as ME2 after going through the omega relay.

gouche

Have to say for sheer epicness you can't beat coming across the first colossus in Shadow of the Colossus.

pablomakaveli

Calhoun wrote: »

Probably not as good now but when I first played the scene in ff8 where the two gardens battle I was like , wow .

I remember there was a section where as Squall you run acrossthe screen and theres a massive battle between the students and soldiers going on in the background which looked awesome.

Retr0gamer

pablomakaveli wrote: »

I remember there was a section where as Squall you run acrossthe screen and theres a massive battle between the students and soldiers going on in the background which looked awesome.

That's the one he is talking about.

Moving back to Mass Effect 3, while not an actual battle, but the scenes of Palaven from the moon Menae were just absolutely stunning. These sheer scale involved was completely mind-boggling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TByjd2CH-Hw

pablomakaveli

Retr0gamer wrote: »

That's the one he is talking about.

There was a few of them i think. There was one with the two Gardens ramming into each other. One with the soldiers absailing through the window and crossing in motorbikes i think. The battle between the two gardens was probably the best part of the game.

Liam O

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHDc10UlUHM

Pretty much all of the battles in this game, great amount of enemies for that era of consoles.

Also some of the ones in the Lord of the Rings games were really good.

degrassinoel

Dragon Age: Origins

There's so much more detail to this scene when you're actually playing it and making the decisions, but you get the idea of where the game puts you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eTLVCIONAM

krudler

As in setpieces in general or actual battles? God of War 3's Kratos vs Kronos fight was friggin epic, the scale of those games is immense.

krudler

krudler wrote: »

As in setpieces in general or actual battles? God of War 3's Kratos vs Kronos fight was friggin epic, the scale of those games is immense.

Either/or. Just great battles in general.

chopperbyrne

Mizar in Jet Force Gemini.

Kiith

Any mission from Freespace 2, but especially the stealth recon mission (DIVE! DIVE! DIVE!!) and the final mission. Also, seeing the Colossus being destroyed by the Sathanas was brilliant. Couldn't believe it when it happened. Nothing but amazing space battles in that game, and definitely the pinnacle of the space combat genre.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mVtDhK8D9c

Homeworld/Cataclysm/2 have some pretty amazing missions too. I still remember the first time i built an ion frigate

Also, The Return to Khaarak

MitchKoobski

Found 'em. This is the battle from Final Fantasy VIII a few of us are mentioning. It mainly kicks off around 6:30 in Part 1.
The music that plays at 6:40 in Part 1 and the music that loops through Part 3 there still gives me goosebumps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_g0iTaxR1k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57wf86K4tm0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7N8_Nzqv5I

Schwiiing

Liam O wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHDc10UlUHM

Pretty much all of the battles in this game, great amount of enemies for that era of consoles.

the final boss battle was a bitch.

weiland79

Calhoun wrote: »

I might just have to play msg 3 on my vita now , well prioritise it in my gaming to do.

I bought the HD collection just to play the final section on my Vita. It just doesn't get any better, absolutely epic!

Calhoun

I bought it on a whim as i wanted to play the first and 2nd again but after reading this ill give it a go.

titan18

Although, I didn't enjoy the final game, the cinematics for Star Wars: The Old Republic were excellent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0RuR3FREFw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lrk2BE4Tqc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs1WANdtxyU

Potential-Monke

That Dead Island trailer. Regardless of the association to the final product, it was an epic zombeh battle!

+1 for all Shadow of the Colossus battles and the ending to Enslaved.

Any game i played in Dead Ball Zone was usually a brutal battle.

K.O.Kiki

Daigo Umehara is the greatest boss in Street Fighter IV.

He's pretty broken though, I swear he reads your inputs! :mad:

EDDIE WATERS

MGS4 Fighting Liquid Ocelot on top of Outer Haven

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_lIdiMM0Tc

noodler

AnCapaillMor wrote: »

God of War 2, the titans scaling olympus and continuing in GOW3, the titans vs the gods.

FF7 one of the weapons vs the shinra gun.

Mass effect the citadel defense was pretty intense as ME2 after going through the omega relay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsYlxEywO6w

Love it.

Retr0gamer

EDDIE WATERS wrote: »

MGS4 Fighting Liquid Ocelot on top of Outer Haven

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_lIdiMM0Tc

Ah yeas. Mechanically and for sheer stupidity, one of the worst boss fights in the history of gaming.

Penn

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Ah yeas. Mechanically and for sheer stupidity, one of the worst boss fights in the history of gaming.

Completely disagree. It was f*cking epic, beautifully done and a fitting finale to the series.

SeantheMan

I watched the clip, can't believe they dragged that out for 10 minutes

MitchKoobski

SeantheMan wrote: »

I watched the clip, can't believe they dragged that out for 10 minutes

Watching is one thing. Playing is another.

Penn

SeantheMan wrote: »

I watched the clip, can't believe they dragged that out for 10 minutes

And that clip was missing the three or four minutes before that. But it's a fight which had been 10 years and 4 games in the making, full of nostalgia, gamer completely spent after the parts of the game just before that etc. Like MitchK said, watching is one thing, playing is another.

Retr0gamer

Penn wrote: »

And that clip was missing the three or four minutes before that. But it's a fight which had been 10 years and 4 games in the making, full of nostalgia, gamer completely spent after the parts of the game just before that etc. Like MitchK said, watching is one thing, playing is another.

Yes playing it was atrocious. Crappy fighting mechanics and mostly a tonne of cutscenes. After about 20 years and 6 games what we ended up with what was a disappointing game book ended with in a dreadful boss fight that tried to make up for it's lack of gameplay with some juvenile nostalgia pandering and ridiculous cutscenes.

snausages

Considering the amount of fan-wankery that MGS4 had, I don't think they could have picked a more fitting finale.

I liked it btw.

AlmightyCushion

Penn wrote: »

Completely disagree. It was f*cking epic, beautifully done and a fitting finale to the series.

It should have been but they ruined it with the sheer amount of cut scenes (MGS games are known for their cut scenes but MGS4 and that fight take the biscuit). At one point it felt like every time you punched him, it showed a bloody cutscene of liquid getting punched in the face or something. It completely ruined the immersion and flow.

Retr0gamer

The fight at the end of MGS3 was much more fitting. It brought together everything you had learned up to that point, CQC, stealth, weapon use and camoflague and made you utilise them in order to take down the boss. MGS4 was fisticuffs which the game was never about with a terrible combat system and cutscenes everytime you landed a punch.

Penn

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

At one point it felt like every time you punched him, it showed a bloody cutscene of liquid getting punched in the face or something. It completely ruined the immersion and flow.

Retr0gamer wrote: »

and cutscenes everytime you landed a punch.

Bit of an over-exaggeration there. You get him down to half his health, then a 5 second cutscene. Get him down to half his health again, then a 5 second cutscene. Then when you defeat him, the very end of the fight involves you pressing the punch button as part of the cutscene. It's cinematic. It doesn't ruin the flow because the fight itself changes each time it happens. The flow changes itself.

Retr0gamer wrote: »

MGS4 was fisticuffs which the game was never about with a terrible combat system

Because again, it's not just the ending of the game, it's the ending of 4 games, and Snake and Liquid fighting on top of Outer Haven leads back to their original fight atop MG Rex. Not only that, but it breaks their fight down to it's simplest form: Snake V Liquid. No weapons, no machines, just "mano a mano" (which was the term Liquid himself used in MGS1). Their fight in MGS4 was always designed to be more cinematic than gameplay orientated. I agree completely that the rest of the game had too many cutscenes and exposition, and was complete fan service. But to bring the story to a proper close, I can't see any way the game (as a story and ending to a quadrilogy (tetralogy)) could have ended apart from Snake V Liquid one on one.

wnolan1992

All the Mass Effect games really.

ME1: Going flat out in the Mako up to the Conduit, then a full blown battle in the Citadel was just brilliant.

ME2: The best ending of the series, the build up once you lock yourself into the final assault, the attack on the Normandy, the crash, the decision to leave some of your team behind to guard the door, everything. I welled up when I got back and found out that Grunt and Tali had died.

ME3: The battle with Kai Leng was so draining. So satisfying when I beat him though. Then the assault on earth. Being attacked by two of those Banshee bastards at once. Genuinely terrifying. Everything up until you got hit by the reaper beam was excellent.
Also the battles on Palaven, Tuchanka (fighting like 12 brutes when you're activating those hammers ), and the Quarian homeworld. Just fantastic.


Outside of those, MGS is the obvious one. I loved the fight with Liquid atop REX, and in MGS2 when you're going through Arsenal with Pliskin was awesome, then fight with Solidus. Didn't really care for MGS3 tbh.

Not sure if it qualifies, but the final missions in GTAIV were pretty epic if you consider them all as one long battle. Fighting Dimitri on the ship, chasing Pegorino's men, fighting through the warehouse, chasing the boat on a bike, flying the helicopter, chasing Pegorino on Happiness Island.

Retr0gamer

Penn wrote: »

Because again, it's not just the ending of the game, it's the ending of 4 games, and Snake and Liquid fighting on top of Outer Haven leads back to their original fight atop MG Rex. Not only that, but it breaks their fight down to it's simplest form: Snake V Liquid. No weapons, no machines, just "mano a mano" (which was the term Liquid himself used in MGS1). Their fight in MGS4 was always designed to be more cinematic than gameplay orientated. I agree completely that the rest of the game had too many cutscenes and exposition, and was complete fan service. But to bring the story to a proper close, I can't see any way the game (as a story and ending to a quadrilogy (tetralogy)) could have ended apart from Snake V Liquid one on one.

Maybe it's because I thought the story was dreadful all the way up until the end and found the entire game deeply unsatisfying but it really isn't an excuse. Every boss battle in MGS4 was poor and the last one was no exception. The MGS series has done 'mano-a-mano' fights before and an awful lot better so there really was no excuse for a fight that felt even more janky than the fight in the first game.

Penn

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Maybe it's because I thought the story was dreadful all the way up until the end and found the entire game deeply unsatisfying but it really isn't an excuse. Every boss battle in MGS4 was poor and the last one was no exception. The MGS series has done 'mano-a-mano' fights before and an awful lot better so there really was no excuse for a fight that felt even more janky than the fight in the first game.

We seem to constantly butt heads over MGS4 whenever it comes up, so it's probably best we agree to disagree (yet again) rather than continue.

snausages

MGS4 was a letdown but I liked the great deal of closure it gave the series. Considering how wanky most game finales end up being I was delighted with the send off we got with MGS4, even if it isn't a game that I will ever play again. It's nice knowing as well that even though MGS is technically 'finished', there's still plenty of room for further spin-offs and inter-quels.

Patrick Klepek made the point recently in the Rising quicklook that the games themselves seem to get better the greater the distance they take from the central narrative arc. MGS2 was an overwrought mess and it was left up to MGS4 to resolve it. Whereas 1 and 3 are much more tight and self-contained. So too will Ground Zeroes, I suspect.

wnolan1992 wrote: »

Didn't really care for MGS3 tbh.

Yeah, well, f*ck you too. :mad: :P

wnolan1992

snausages wrote: »

Yeah, well, f*ck you too. :mad: :P

:pac::pac:

I should qualify that the reason I didn't like it as much as the others was the lack of the Soloton Radar and the fact that the camera could rotate around Snake. I also didn't like the camoflage element.

But that's all just personal preferences, in technical terms MGS3 was a great game, I just preferred the original and MGS2, which were really the games that launched me into this hobby.


There, have I covered my ass enough? :P

snausages

The camouflage aspect wasn't handled as elegantly as it should have been. There should have only been a handful of outfits and the lack of crouch-movement was a major oversight.

But I think of MGS3 as kind of being the Casino Royale to MGS2's Die Another Day. It brought a whole new focus to the series and steered clear of the gimmicky gameplay-elements and contrived plot-lines of MGS2. The lack of Soliton Radar made you more aware of yourself as a character on the screen than a blip on a radar. It was only ruined slightly by the **** camera angles of Snake Eater. Subsistence fixed it, though it made The End too easy.

wnolan1992

snausages wrote: »

The camouflage aspect wasn't handled as elegantly as it should have been. There should have only been a handful of outfits and the lack of crouch-movement was a major oversight.

But I think of MGS3 as kind of being the Casino Royale to MGS2's Die Another Day. It brought a whole new focus to the series and steered clear of the gimmicky gameplay-elements and contrived plot-lines of MGS2. The lack of Soliton Radar made you more aware of yourself as a character on the screen than a blip on a radar. It was only ruined slightly by the **** camera angles of Snake Eater. Subsistence fixed it, though it made The End too easy.

Oh I'd agree 100% with this (well, maybe except for the criticism of MGS2's story :mad:). I think I just missed the Soliton more because I'm not that skilled a player, and the 'aul peepers wouldn't be the best so trying to discern an enemy soldier in camo gear from grassland got very frustrating for me.
I also tend to prefer games set indoors as opposed to sprawling jungles like 3.

I've never played Snake Eater (original had Subsistence, then got the HD collection), but the camera annoyed me. I preferred knowing that North was to the top of the screen. But again, that's just personal preference.


And to try and wrestle this back on topic, the battle with The End was brilliant. I never managed to defeat him myself (had to use the cheaty-bastard method involving the PS2's clock) but it was one of the most innovative and interesting boss battles I've ever seen.

MitchKoobski

So battles then.....

Doing my yearly replay of Final Fantasy IX and was reminded of this. The music gives me chills every time I hear it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MqtmQ7EvUU

Aaaand I'm not sure if it counts because its a chase scene, but the same goes for this one. Chills.