Top 10 Gaming Moments to Experience Before You Die

I’m not going to mince words, by the time you hit the number one in this list, odds are you will have hit at least one or more spoilers to some of the greatest games available on the Xbox 360. Now, while these may not be the best possible games for the system, they are all however exceptional experiences in and of themselves in the sense that were I to recommend just the specific level, I would. But I will also ask you to bear in mind and consider how they fit into the overall experience that is offered (with the complete video game purchase) as well. So, observe how it stands out not only as a level, but also how it fits into the much larger picture as a whole. Below you will find my recommendation of the top 10 next-gen gaming moments/levels that must be played before you croak:

10. Mass Effect – Assaulting Sovereign:

You’ve gone through the real brunt of the main quest and if you were lucky had a minute sex scene thrown in there as well, but when Sovereign the evil Reaper from beyond the intergalactic ring comes knocking on the Citadel’s front door, the fleet stationed there wasn’t really prepared to answer. Evacuating the Citadel as Shepard and his squad land on the damaged station, it is sort of a rude awakening for the player. The location that always seemed the cleanest, most-streamlined and safest in the game has suddenly begun falling apart and never really looks like it’ll hold together for more than a few minutes. When trying to get to Saren via elevator, it stalls and your team is forced to make your assault on the outside of the station. Moving along a somewhat linear path, you fight your way through Geth and mercenary Krogans while wreckage and explosions shutter the station. However, the two standout moments during this experience are incredible to not just play, but sit back and behold. Coming across an incoming Geth ship, you have to run to multiple Citadel defense turrets, and if your skill is high enough, you can activate all of them in your effort to destroy the ship all while Geth shock troopers are attempting to counter-assault you and your squad. Upon destroying the ship, you move forward further to discover a series of Geth heavy turrets. Having fought them in the Mako, it was a moment of reckoning fighting them on foot as at least one death sent me back to the start of the section since I had forgotten to save. However, I ultimately realized I could easily avoid the entire section of turrets and move around them. Thus, Mass Effect succeeded in a roundabout way of making me feel like a complete idiot for at least a few seconds. After making it through the section, you have yet another dialogue with Saren. However, as memorable as the ending of the game was, fighting my way across the exterior hull of the Citadel will always compel me to play Mass Effect at least one more time.

9. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition – Fighting Green Eye:

I was one of the few people who loved Lost Planet: Extreme Condition. Not for the multiplayer, but because the single-player reminded me of older, classic titles like Contra or Kid Icarus. The game pitted the player against, what seemed at times, to be insurmountable odds so that when you came out on top, it felt all the greater. No moment is better to sum this up than the boss battle against Green Eye. The Akrid creature essentially responsible for killing your father, it is rather apropos that you face off against the creature once more. Equipped in a Vital Suit, which for the uninitiated is essentially a set of power armor with utilitarian compunction, Green Eye seems to come out of nowhere while you’re inside an impressively large building. Echoing back to the introductory level in which Green Eye makes his first appearance, the player however has come along way at this point, having trekked across endless mounds of snows, crossed through numerous destroyed building and slaughtered entire nests worth of Akrid throughout the course of the game. Primarily, what makes it so fun is that it pits you in the VS against this monstrously large creature and if that doesn’t take you back to the 8-bit days of video game difficulty, I don’t know what will. While able to be handily beaten on Normal, the real challenge bleeds through on Hard and I have a feeling that at least one controller may become damaged as a result of this level. As the release of the sequel pushes ever forward, I can’t help but recommend picking the game up on the cheap if you can and maybe you’ll see the fun in it where a good deal of people didn’t.

8. Crackdown – Climbing the Agency Tower:

Crackdown was a really fun game and not just because it came with the Halo 3 multiplayer beta, but because it actually had something unique to offer. Sure, we had all played Grand Theft Auto or were at least aware of it as a game and franchise, but Crackdown set itself apart by its unique art style and letting you play as a good guy. Sincerely though, the best achievement and some of the most fun I had with a 360 controller in my hand was hunting for agility orb after agility orb on my quest to scale the Agency Tower. Once I had 5-star agility, the climb was easy in a way, but more than anything it was enjoyably memorable and in hindsight, felt like climbing a tower should feel in a game. If you’ve never picked up Crackdown, all I’m going to say is that you’re missing out.

7. Grand Theft Auto IV – Introduction:

I personally love how this game opens because the game wasn’t poised to strike me as yet another dramatic crime opera of Mafioso proportions; it struck me as a game that conveyed the message about achieving the American Dream by any means available to you. Sure, the game was immeasurably popular due to the sheer weight that has been put behind the franchise in the past, but this was the next-gen Grand Theft Auto and Rockstar was determined to show us a thing or two that we may have never seen before. So they set it perfect by illustrating that the character we will be playing as is in fact fresh off the boat in the United States and we’re going to be learning something about how Liberty City works.