Whether the game is five hours long or requires more of your time than a season of Lost (speaking of bad endings), those final few moments are often what players remember the most. A mediocre game can turn into a well-remembered classic thanks to a solid ending and, conversely, a brilliant adventure can shift gears to lackluster if the pieces don't fall into place nicely by the time the credits roll.

Mass Effect is a good example of the latter. Never mind that the series gave gamers dozens of hours of top quality entertainment over the course of several years. A large, vocal branch of the audience was displeased with how Mass Effect 3 ended and, as a result, argued that the entire series had been ruined because of it. I'm not sure how 15 questionable minutes can overshadow 100 glorious hours, but I gave up on trying to understand mankind a long, long time ago.

I've been thinking about endings a lot this past week which, of course, got me thinking about which video game endings really stick out in my mind for being the best. So as not to speak too vaguely about these titles, I'll go ahead and throw up a giant SPOILER ALERT right now. If you don't want to know about one or more of these endings, just skip that section. Otherwise, let's begin. Or end?...Now I'm confused.

Now, I'm not talking about the setting or the games themselves. Chornicles HD combines Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles and Darkside Chronicles into a single package, giving them the HD treatment, trophy support and the ability to play with a DualShock or Move controller. Originally for the Nintendo Wii, I never got around to playing either of these games when they were originally released. And even though the stories are pulled directly from previous Resident Evil games, my feelings of "been there, done that" did not stem from the rehashed narrative.

But with the run-and-blast antics of the House of the Dead series on one side of the light gun spectrum and the story-driven Dead Space: Extraction on the other side, Resident Evil Chronicles fell somewhere in the middle; providing neither the over-the-top fun of House or the methodically paced perfection of Dead Space.

A challenge is always welcome when it comes to video games. Regardless of what I am playing, I like being tested, learning the mechanics, and perfecting my reactions to them. I like learning what I'm doing so I can be better at it. What I don't enjoy is a game that tests my patience, as opposed to one that encourages me to improve my skills. This was my problem with Spelunky, a recent addition to the XBox Live Arcade collection that has garnered a lot of praise. The game has its appeal, but unless you're a masochist, and have nothing else to do, I would have a hard time recommending that you play it.

I see message boards complaining about handholding in games, how difficulty is too easy, how developers are only reaching out to casual fans, not the hardcore elite gamer. I've seen enough complaints about how people don't want a real challenge in how they play, they just want to gun through to the next level. By making a game 'easy', players feel bored and unchallenged. A bored gamer is not a pretty sight for anybody.

Over the past several years I've heard many games journos herald the end of portable gaming, stating that mobile was the wave of the future and, with a smart phone in your pocket, who needs a dedicated gaming device as well?

Keeping in mind that I've only been at this smart phone gaming for a week, I'd like to go on the record as saying that I couldn't disagree more. Yes, mobile gaming is on the rise and is absolutely here to stay but, when it comes to gaming on the go, nothing I've played compares to the experiences offered by Sony or Nintendo's portable devices.