Guinness Names Black Ops’ Ending the Greatest of All Time

Call of Duty: Black Ops has the best ending of any video game ever released. That's according to Guinness World Records, who've honored the conclusion of Treyarch's 2010 Cold War shooter in the new 2012 Gamer's Edition of the their beloved record book.

Yeah, we know what you're thinking. Alongside such important, authoritative records as Biggest Ball of Yarn or World's Fattest Twins, Best Video Game Ending seems like a ridiculosuly subjective thing to award.

It's a fair critique, honestly. Guinness appears to have attempted a bit of impartiality by basing the record on a poll of 13,519 "fans of gaming," but that effectively just turns the whole thing into a glorified beauty pageant and skews the results towards popular, recently released games.

You can see what we mean by perusing the full top 50 list, which features just five titles released before the PS2 era. Here it is:

• 50. Resident Evil 4
• 49. Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic
• 48. Ratchet & Clank: a Crack in Time
• 47. Crysis 2
• 46. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
• 45. Call of Duty: World at War
• 44. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
• 43. Half-Life 2: Episode Two
• 42. Super Metroid
• 41. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
• 40. New Super Mario Bros. Wii
• 39. inFamous
• 38. Fallout 3
• 37. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
• 36. Gears of War 2
• 35. Bioshock
• 34. Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
• 33. Sonic Adventures 2
• 32. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
• 31. Kingdom Hearts II
• 30. Mass Effect
• 29. Super Mario Galaxy
• 28. Sonic the Hedgehog
• 27. Metal Gear Solid
• 26. Assassin’s Creed II
• 25. Assassin’s Creed
• 24. Shadow of the Colossus
• 23. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
• 22. Kingdom Hearts
• 21. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
• 20. Super Mario Galaxy 2
• 19. Mass Effect 2
• 18. Grand Theft Auto IV
• 17. Portal 2
• 16. Assassins Creed: Brotherhood
• 15. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
• 14. Halo: Combat Evolved
• 13. Halo 3
• 12. Pokemon Black and White
• 11. Super Mario Bros
• 10. Heavy Rain
• 9. Final Fantasy VII
• 8. Metal Gear Solid 4
• 7. Portal
• 6. Red Dead Redemption
• 5. God of War
• 4. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
• 3. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
• 2. Halo: Reach
• 1. Call of Duty: Black Ops