There are moments in gaming when you go "Whoa!" or when something different happens that changes the way games are made from then on. In this list, I'm mixing my own personal defining moments of gaming with ones that surely would make anyone's list. This is the past, present and future of games. Titles that defined genres, made you say "AHHH!" and left a lasting impression that will stand the test of time. WARNING: Spoilers ahead!

These are the Top 20 Defining Moments in Gaming

20. The End of a Dream (Final Fantasy X, PlayStation 2 2001)
There are times when I can honestly say I'm very proud to be a gamer. More specifically, I'm very proud to be a Role Playing Gamer. Almost all of us have our novels or movies that affect us in some way, possibly even make us tear up. That's called an emotional reaction, and when it happens, you know that whatever world you've immersed yourself in will stay with you forever. This was one of those moments for me. The end of Final Fantasy X was complete, it was sad and happy. When Auron's task is finally fulfilled, and Yuna sends him...I felt a sense of completion. When you finally defeat the strings behind Sin and expose Yevon for what it really is, Spira can finally be at peace. The icing on the cake, and one of the saddest moments of all in any Final Fantasy, was when Tidus disappeared. Tidus wasn't real, it was explained long before the final fight that he was a dream, and when Sin was defeated...he would cease to exist. Having it actually happen before your eyes as Yuna tries to grab him to make him stay, well I'd be lying if I said I didn't shed a tear. Then I smiled. As Tidus jumps off the airship and disappears he high-fives his Dad's spirit, reconciling with him.

19. Games are Difficult (Kid Chameleon, Sega Genesis 1992)
"***!" One of the first times that I realized games could be extremely difficult, and long, was in Kid Chameleon. I can't pinpoint a specific level; turning into the Tank in what I think was some kind of volcano comes to mind, or how about jumping up walls or across disappearing blocks as the Samurai? I don't think I ever beat this game, possibly due to the level of patience I had back then. The game was great as you have to pick up masks that put you into different costumes with abilities (hence the title of the game). The game was so confident in it's ability to kill you, one boss actually yelled out, "DIE!" Maybe it was because I didn't have access to very many titles, maybe I was just too young. Kid Chameleon represented, to me, a step in gaming that I would have to think extra hard to get through.

18. "Time, Mr. Freeman?" (Half-Life 2, PC 2004)
If ever there was a need to delve right into a sequel after beating a game, it was Half-Life 2's ending. As you're about to be blown to smitherines, time suddenly stops and out pops the G-man. Everyone wants to know what G-man's deal is, and thus far it isn't fully explained. Is he good? Is he evil? He is obviously not from Gordon Freeman's world. He carries around a mysterious briefcase, stalks Gordon throughout the Half-Life series and quite possibly has a speech problem. Apparenly saving you from your fate, G-man disappears into a door in complete darkness. To me, this was one of the biggest cliffhangers in gaming.

17. A now long-running Tragedy (Sonic Adventure, Dreamcast 1999)
I've always been a Sonic fan (the older games, anyway). My first Sonic 3D acventure, things really got going when that *** whale started chasing me through the first zone. "HOLY CRAP!" I said as I held the joystick as tightly as I could in the other direction. Sonic translated beautifully into 3D, but sadly this and it's sequel were the only good games to emerge from this new era of speedy blue platforming. Here's to hoping Project Needlemouse will rock our socks.

16. Mario's New Hats (Mario 64, N64 1997)
When Mario 64 came along, it was the little plumber that could in his first attempt at 3D. The thing I remember most about this game was changing hats, and flying...or sinking. Metal Mario made it to where you could walk on the seafloor. Flying Mario let you, well...uh, fly. This was the game that got me into 3D platforming. Banjo-Kazooie, Spyro the Dragon, and Ratchet and Clank all took elements from Mario. Now if only that stupid bird would give me my hat back. >:(

15. A Night at the Opera (Final Fantasy VI, SNES 1994)
Talk about cinematic depth. As deep as a 16-bit game can get, Final Fantasy VI (originally Final Fantasy III in North America) explored the theme of lost love in the style of an Opera. Complete with one of Nobuo Uematsu's best compositions to date, this short but emotional scene happens when Celes poses as a famous Opera singer to lure Setzer into capturing her. "Love goes away, like night into day. It's just a fading dream..." The only 2D game to ever get some powerful emotions out of me, and I didn't even play it when that generation of consoles was current. I first played this on the PlayStation. While playing and thinking back to it's original release, it must have been something to realize this is where RPGs were headed. Cinematic storytelling.

14. Crash Landing (Halo: Combat Evolved, Xbox 2001)
The first Halo remains my favorite game on any Xbox console. It was a space-based FPS, you explore some strange alien world AND it was co-op. You're introduced to the game and assume the role of Master Chief, however your ship has just escaped some horrific battle and you're now on the run from an alien race bent on destroying you. They of course catch up and invade the ship, critically damaging it. Quickly, you must get to an escape pod and jettison to the strange alien ring-shaped world your ship is orbiting. The escape and subsequent crash landing on this Halo was the event that grabbed me and threw me into the story. I've always been fascinated by space, and exploring a strange world while hunting down an alien race that wants you dead, WITH the option of doing it split-screen with a friend was amazing. It all started here for the Halo franchise.

13. A Prince's Decent into Madness (Warcraft III, PC 2002)Daddy issues, a badass mythical sword and a prince who's fall to the will of the Lich King would set the foundation for an entire Massively Multiplayer Game. Warcraft III starts out typical enough, you are in control of many different races of Azeroth, and as such, different perspectives on what's about to happen to this world. The most important storyline of these is Prince Arthas. You all know the story, he finds the legendary but deadly blade Frostmourne which was placed for him to find by the Lich King himself. Slowly, Arthas hears whispers that cloud his judgement and make him thirst for power. He eventually succumbs to his fate, and returns home to murder his father, the King of Lordaeron. From there on he lays waste to his former home and turns it into an undead hell. This marked a huge change in the lore of Warcraft, and the birth of a villain who you wouldn't get to face until years later in World of Warcraft's second expansion. "This kingdom...will fall." I get chills just thinking about it.

12. Lost in Time (Chrono Trigger, SNES 1995)
Way back in 1992, the Dream Team was formed. No, not that Dream Team. This one was made up of three Japanese men: the creator of Final Fantasy, Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the Dragon Ball series, Akira Toriyama, and the creator of the Dragon Quest series (formerly called Dragon Warrior in North America), Yuuji Horii. The premise was simple: to create a game as engaging as Final Fantasy, have a great art style and top-notch gameplay that was rivaled by nothing else on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The result was a Time Traveling fantasy role playing game, and it was good. I remember playing through the first part of the game, attending the town fair...and oh, what's this? Marle disappears into some kind of vortex looking thing? TIME TRAVEL! This is one of my favorite subjects in literature, movies and gaming. Just knowing that I was going to have to travel through time to find this girl, things were going to happen along the way and craziness would surely ensue. It showed that RPGs weren't just hack and slash get from A to B, you would now have to go to A in order to get to B, but get thrown to C first, back to B, then somehow end up in A.

11. Arrival at Rapture (Bioshock, PC 2007)
"Would you Kindly?" The phrase certainly stands out in gaming, however when I think of Bioshock, the first thing that comes to mind is the climactic-in-it's-own intro as you decend into the underwater city of Rapture. The very scene embodies what the entire game is all about. "Oh no, some psychopath is narrating a video for me after I just survived a plane crash in the ocean, and now I'm in an underwater metropolis getting stared down by a dude clearly on crack." I know Call of Duty is remembered for it's cinematic approach to First Person Shooters, but Bioshock did it moreso for me. It has a great story, plot twists that WILL have you going "Whoa," and you're in a freakin' underwater city!

10. Secret? Negative. (Super Mario Bros., NES 1986)
The first time I ever experienced a Game Secret, (or Easter Egg perhaps?) was in Super Mario Bros. Finding those secret warp pipes was a feeling of, "whoa I just did something amazing didn't I?" Ever since, I have gone out of my way to find secrets in games. I never got to that "negative" level, but just thinking I cheated the system was such a gratifying experience that I've been chasing it ever since.

9. Let's play in the Sandbox! (Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, PlayStation 2 2002)
So, I never played GTA III. My first experience with a Grand Theft Auto is Vice City, and I'm actually glad for that. The 80's rocked, and this game was unlike anything I'd ever played before in that I could go anywhere and do anything. There's nothing like driving down the road in a stolen car, Michael Jackson blarring on the radio and the police chasing you for miles. Of course, the most I ever did in this game was drive around and get wanted stars. That was the best part. Grand Theft Auto makes you feel like you own the town, and there are no limits. While this wasn't the sandbox that popularized the genre, it was my first and most memorable GTA experience.

8. Is he still following me?! (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, PlayStation 1999)
Set aside the Lickers from Resident Evil 2, and the very first zombie from the first game. The Nemesis is where it's at. The Nemesis was such a scary mother, that I was hesitant to go absolutely ANYWHERE in the game for fear of him catching me. He would chase you through an entire area, and if that wasn't enough...he'd even follow you to the next. Oh wait, there's more! He eventually gets a rocket launcher! What the crap? Survival Horror actually became Run-for-your-life, quite literally. This remains the scariest Resident Evil title in my gaming library, and it set yet another bar of freakiness from which I judged all other games like it.

7. "You like to play Castlevania!" - Psycho Mantis (Metal Gear Solid, PlayStation 1998)
For the PlayStation, was there another moment that made you go "What the ***?!" like this boss fight in MGS? I didn't think so. Psycho Mantis, with the powers of his mind alone, makes your controler move if you placed it on a hard surface. If that wasn't enough, he read your mind and told you what games you play! Although it might be cheesy looking back, at the time this was a very cool change of pace. The things he made Maryl say weren't too shabby, either. ;)

6. Remote Mines, gotta love 'em! (Goldeneye 007, N64 1997)
If you're a console gamer and you play online FPS games, you probably got your start here. Thinking back, this was my first real FPS multiplayer game, and I played it to death. You know what I'm talking about. My brothers and friends never stood a chance when they turned a corner, only to end up in a thousand pieces from a well-placed Remote Mine. Okay, maybe that's exaggerating a bit. There's no denying that this game set the stage for Halo, and Call of Duty online multiplayer.

5. "Your death will be avenged!" (Diablo, PC 1996)
I don't know about you, but my first PC game just happened to be that lovely little hack-and-slash Diablo. I could not get enough of it, and that was the point. If you log on to Battle.net today in either Diablo, or Diablo II, you will notice that diehard fans are still playing it. Still. There's something to be said about a game that doesn't die after over 10 years. What makes the wait for Diablo III bearable? More Diablo I and II of course.

4. Broken Paradise (Uncharted 2, PlayStation 3 2009)
My jaw hit the floor when I finally got to Shambahla. The visuals blew everything else out of the water, and you could probably cook eggs on my PS3 with how hot it was. Yes, I've played Crysis. I've also played a few other games that are considered "photorealistic," but Uncharted 2 tops all of them. If you have not played this game yet, you probably should. The vast ancient city of Shambahla would have been enough to keep me mesmerized, but then it starts raining. You're walking through a flood of water in the streets of this massive place, lightning literally illuminates everything with each flash. You have to see it to believe it, and I applaud Naughty Dog for what they've accomplished here.

3. Seven Years Gone (The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, N64 1998)
Some say this is the best game of all time. It definitely clashes with a few others for my number one spot, and in this game there are so many things that stand out. The one thing I remember, by far, is obtaining the Master Sword. Not only do you come here thinking it will aid you in getting back Princess Zelda, it's also a very nostalgic feeling for fans of the series. All you have to do is pull the sword from it's stone and...what's happening? A ring of light engulfs Link and before you know it, seven years have gone by. Ganondorf not only succeeded in capturing Zelda, but he's taken over Hyrule. Seeing Link go from a little kid to an adult shot the Zelda series even further into legend.

2. Aerith's Death (Final Fantasy VII, PlayStation 1997)
You knew this was coming. From an era where a Role Playing Gamer wanted so badly to see these tales being played out for them in a more realistic fashion, Final Fantasy tore down the traditional constraints and delivered the first cinematic full motion video sequences of the series. The most memorable of these was Aerith's (Aeris') death at the end of Disc 1. Maybe you cried, maybe you felt hatred towards Sephiroth. Her death was the beginning of the end in terms of the storyline, and it made you want to kill Sephiroth that much more.

1. "Kept you waiting, huh?" (Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, PlayStation 3 2008)
You often wonder how a series can end: how why and where. To say Metal Gear Solid 4 went out with a bang is an understatement. Fans of the series bow in reverance to Hideo Kojima's master storytelling, and for good reason. Metal Gear Solid has many defining moments to choose from, such as being duped into a "Fission Mailed" screen from MGS2, or the very impressive sniper battle with The End in MGS 3. That battle of wits could last up to an hour or more if you didn't know what to do. The best moment, however, has got to be the last for Solid Snake. The final battle with Liquid and the events that follow wrap up the entire MGS story in such a way only Kojima could. As the two men get to their feet, and the retro-MGS-style health bars fill up...you know this is it. What a perfect send off for a legend of gaming, and a great way to end this list of defining gaming moments.

What are your top defining moments in gaming? Is there one single moment that stands out from your childhood, or recently?