What's the best and worst finale in a game?

[Zkribbler]

Worst finale was losing in Balance of Power. The screen suddenly goes dark. The rationale is that you didn't live long enough to even see the mushroom cloud that vaporized you.

[Standup]

Arcanum was pretty good if slightly annoying. Basically told you what happened in the rest of the world depending on your actions. Along the lines..."remember that complete stranger you killed 3 scenes in - he was going to save the world but you killed him so thousands died"
Pretty similar to Fallout i think but my memory is getting hazy.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Fallout 1 & 2 had amazing finales!

I just bought Arcanum so I'm looking forward to a cool finale for that too .

[bondetamp]

Worst: Half-Life

It might be really good, but I'll never know, because I completely lose interest when I get transported to Xen. I've played the game almost through 5 times or so, and abandoned it somewhere right after entering Xen.

Best: Half Life: Blue Shift.

No super boss, no insanely difficult pussle. Just a heartfelt thank you and good bye.

I hate super-duper end-of-level bosses. I usually try to take them down 4-5 times then abandon the game because I'm too frustrated to play it anymore.

You mileage obviously varies.

The Planescape: Torment ending was very good too. You could basically choose whether you wanted to fight or talk your way to victory, getting the Nameless One's mortality back and letting him die one final time to go to his final destination. (Which was the Abyss. Beggars can't be choosers, it seems.)

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Mr. President
The last level of WarCraft II is really frenetic and fun, though hard. I must have gotten massacred fifty times before I got the idea to attack with about a hundred dragons.

W00t? Which side are you talking about? Human or Orc?

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by bondetamp
I hate super-duper end-of-level bosses. I usually try to take them down 4-5 times then abandon the game because I'm too frustrated to play it anymore.

Me too. They might be appropriate for arcade shoot-them-up type games, but not for PC games.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by bondetamp
I hate super-duper end-of-level bosses. I usually try to take them down 4-5 times then abandon the game because I'm too frustrated to play it anymore.

I dunno......I like to end a game on a super-duper boss. The worst of both worlds in when they attempt a super-duper boss and fail miserably......like in Voyager: Elite Force, which was a playable if short game.

[J Bytheway]

What about Quake - the super-duper boss who was about as threatening as a malicious jelly, totally unhurtable with your weapons and very easy to kill. Not a great combination.

The most anti-climatic boss I can think of, however, is the spider at the end of Doom (without episode 4). When I first tried it I just ran up and shot him twice and he was dead. Hoorah. The BFG was a little too powerful.

Doom 2 was much better. You couldn't use the BFG there. That was probably the most fun final battle I've ever fought the first time I succeeded.

[Pedrunn]

The finales are important part bu i rather talk about the game story and how do you interact with it.


Still:
Best: Homeworld, Wing Commander

Worst: Diablo 1

[The Pioneer]

It's a funny thing but I can't really remember any, although I've played quite a few to the end! The ones I remember are the Civ II and III. Both of them are more or less ok. But you would think that after getting through more than 4000 years you deserved a lot more!


So long...

[Qilue]

Bad ending.

Medieval Total War. The gameplay is good, but the end is lame. Just 'You win' and the credits, no hall of fame or anything.

SFC 1. As above, but at least you get a summary of kills.

Diablo 2 (pre X-Pac). "This game will end in 60 seconds" Do I need to say anything else?

Elite. Has no ending, but this game is so good it doesn't need one.

Good ending.

Icewind Dale. The final movie is quite chilling the first time you see it.

To comment on hard final battles, RPGs must have them, otherwise the long quest to reach that point is irrelevant.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Qilue
Diablo 2 (pre X-Pac). "This game will end in 60 seconds" Do I need to say anything else?

You have to ademit that the final movie was awesome though.

[Pedrunn]

Originally posted by Sandman
Remember folks, it's the finale, not the end sequence.

What is finale then???

[Felch]

Originally posted by Qilue
To comment on hard final battles, RPGs must have them, otherwise the long quest to reach that point is irrelevant.

I always wondered why the last battles in RTS games were always so damn hard. If you're winning the war you should be able to start the final battle in a position of dominance. Often they don't even bother having any justification in the plot line for the weakness on the winning side, they just send you out with a bare bones base against an entire map filled with bad guys.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Felch X
I always wondered why the last battles in RTS games were always so damn hard.

While I agree that your starting forces should be greater for the most part, the reason that you are facing a map filled with bad guys is that you are facing thier last stronghold which is naturally going to be well stocked with men and static defenses for you to have to conquer.