Video game weaponry - what's your fave?

[Peter McCoy]

They vast majority of games have weapons, because the vast majority of games require you to kill or at least fight things. And whether it's fantasy-based swords, shields, arrows and spells, or more conventional and sci-fi weaponry like machine guns and laser rifles, there's a lot of different designs and types of stabby/shooty things for us to play with. So what are some of our favourites?

The Fusion Cannon from Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (N64) has to be one of my favourites. When you equipped it, it looked like a spaceship getting ready to go to warp. And after firing it and the projectile hitting, a huge orangy/brown vapor cloud washed over the whole area like a nuclear explosion - I guess that's what it was, given the name.

I also have a fondness for the wrench from System Shock 2, since I'm a big ammo horder in most games. I'm quite proud of my ability to take down melee enemies without getting hit, including the deadly, hulking Rumblers. I use the same tactic in Fallout 3 using the baseeball bat - run in and feign an attack to get them to hit you, and while they're recovering, run in and hit them a few times. It even works in Half Life against the zombies.

[Dasquian Belargic]

The katana in Left 4 Dead 2 and Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. Something very satisfying about slicing your way through the empty. I always prefer melee weapons to ranged, the one exception being the bow and arrow in the Thief series. I am generally not a very good shot when it comes to quick-fire shooting, so that appealed to me in that most of the time you are shooting from under the cover of shadows and aiming to take out your opponent with a single shot. I also liked how the longer you drew back the bow, the more unsteady your hand became, so there was an element of pressure involved, especially when you were going after a moving target.

I am also a fan of the trusty wrench, particularly in BioShock (augmented by Plasmids of course.)

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Being a huge Predator nerd, I have to say my favorite weapon is a toss-up between the gauntlet blades and the shoulder plasma cannon from AVP2 ^_^;

[Gral Hussar]

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Rise of the Triad had the best weapons.

Early 90's computer games were excuses to be as violent as possible for no reason at all, and RotT took that ball and happily ran with it. This is the game that had like a dozen different types of bazooka weapons, and when you hit people with them, they turned into monsoon showers of blood, severed limbs, organs and eyeballs (yes, all of my enemies were blue eyed and I know this because blue eyeballs with optic nerves attached would whiz past my face at mach 1) But if that isn't enough, RotT has two exhibits for you:

God Mode You're literally an omnipotent being for a finite period of time when you get this power up. You sort of levitate, go "mmmm" and "aahhhh" lackadasically, and lob spheres of light barehanded at your enemies, which auto-track, turn them into dreams and pixie dust, and immediately look for the next unfortunate soul.

Which brings us to the opposite of God Mode:

Dog Mode: Woof woof you are a dog. You bite people and paw doors open. If that's not enough, you can charge up by barking and unleash a supersonic howl that turns everybody in earshot into volcanoes of exploding body pieces.

I love this game so much.

[Crusader]

Well I normally prefer silenced weapons because I am a sneaky bastard.

If I could have any weapon it would be a light saber because I love being able to deflect laser bolts.

In medival games I normaly prefer a sword and shield combo.

My favorite unrealistic weapon would be the shrinker from Duke Nukem 3D:

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[Peter McCoy]

The Master Sword from The Legend of Zelda has to be one of the all-time greatest weapons in a video game. Particularly in The Ocarina of Time on the N64, where the sword allows you to travel through time. But I especially like the way it looks in Windwaker. Once you've acquired it you have to tackle two more quests/dungeons in order to restore full power to it. From then on it has a sort of glowing energy surrounding it - looks very cool with the cel-shaded graphics.

And not really a weapon, but the Portal Gun is just awesome. I only hope that if they implement it in Half Life 2: Episode 3 they don't break the game. It's fine in the context of the 'Portal' environment of the Aperture Science labs, but in a more traditional gaming environment it could ruin things. In Valve we trust, I guess.

[Park Kraken]

The Vacuum Imploder from Red Alert 3.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Holy moly, how did I forget the Soul Reaver? That sword is the most satisfying video game sword ever. Whether it's in it's real, physical form and slicing through Sarafan priests like a hot knife through butter - or as Raziel's wraith blade, snarling and roaring with every swipe... :3