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: