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Best Nukes In Video Games?

As the world turns to the topic of nuclear war, let's reminisce and share our favorite nuke moments in video games.

Which game has your favorite nuke and why?

Which nuke has the best graphics/use in a game?


For me, I'll always have a soft spot for StarCraft 1. Who can ever forget the perfectly timed and placed nuke by a ghost with those heartwarming/terrifying words "nuclear launch detected". If it wasn't your launch, there would be a frantic panning around the map trying to locate the ghost asap. If it was your launch, it was a nail biting wait hoping the nuke got off before being discovered.

When I first thought of this topic I went down the rabbit hole a bit. Goddamn there are a lot of nukes in video games!
 
Probably Fallout 3. I don't know if I saw any in 4, so that might look better idk.

There's just a ton of impact. Plus
when you blow up Megaton from Tenpenny Tower, it's beautiful in its own terrible way. Bass goes hard too.
Launching mini nukes is cool as fuck.
 
For whatever reason, the first game I thought of when I read nuke was Scorched Earth. You had to not allow them when playing against friends because they were so powerful.
 
Red Alert 2

Nuclear_missile_silo_animation_1.gif
 

lethial

Reeeeeeee
Redeemer in Unreal Tournament was pretty cool. Flying that fucker into a sniper on Face was great, especially the first person view.
 
TAC gun in Crysis.

It's literally just a gun that shoots out a mini nuke. Maybe others games have done it before, but I'm sure it didn't look as good or feel as powerful as that thing.
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
that modern warfare 4 nuke has never been topped imo.
would be pleased to know if someone can show me a better one.
 
I'd have to agree with the nuke in Megaton in Fallout 3. You can get up close and personal with it and the moment you decide to use it is very intense.
 

Toa TAK

Banned
It's been said already, but the crown for me is Call of Duty 4. Hit the message home a lot better than years and years of the Metal Gear series ever did, for a series that's anti-nuke.
 

Piers

Member
Redeemer for me as well.
Especially when enemies realise there's one coming their way and watch as they frantically avoid/shoot it down
 
I love the 'nuke' in Borderlands 2. At the top of one of Axtons upgrade tree you can make it so whenever he throws out his turret it explodes in a mini nuclear explosion complete with blinding white light and a skull mushroom cloud. It is a pretty glorious addiction on an already very mad game.
 

Orbis

Member
Rise of Nations had a crazy amount of tension over nukes. I remember my brother and I would play a LAN game for a good hour or so, and by the end we'd both reached a point where we were in the Information Age, and we both had dozens of nuclear missile silos, armed with ICBMs ready to launch at the drop of a hat. Both fearful of the mutually assured destruction we had created.

Suddenly; 'NUCLEAR LAUNCH DETECTED'. Fuck. Dozens of them. I would quickly scramble to launch as many of my own as possible in response. Every city wiped out, my entire navy destroyed.

giphy.gif
 

FlynnCL

Unconfirmed Member
A story related one; Shin Megami Tensei.

After defeating Thor, he launches a nuclear strike on Tokyo and a 30 second timer appears on screen where you're essentially helpless. As it hits, you're teleported to an Abyss-like area until you're ready to return to post nuclear Tokyo—which is 30 years later.

wRzjDoK.png
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JlqAto4.png
Js0W7if.png
 
Rise of Nations had a crazy amount of tension over nukes. I remember my brother and I would play a LAN game for a good hour or so, and by the end we'd both reached a point where we were in the Information Age, and we both had dozens of nuclear missile silos, armed with ICBMs ready to launch at the drop of a hat. Both fearful of the mutually assured destruction we had created.

Suddenly; 'NUCLEAR LAUNCH DETECTED'. Fuck. Dozens of them. I would quickly scramble to launch as many of my own as possible in response. Every city wiped out, my entire navy destroyed.

giphy.gif

The best part about nuclear weapons in Rise of Nations is that everyone loses the match if they collectively use a set amount of them. The "armageddon timer".

A fantastic way to say "fuck you" if you were hopelessly losing a multiplayer match was to construct endless missile silos and ICBM's and launch them all at once to screw everyone over by immediately ending the match.


18805eea782ff9360aaf8f5d8159e5d2--why-not-plays.jpg


Still my favourite RTS.
 

Woorloog

Banned
Nothing beats Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Planet Buster. A Planet Buster damages at least 3x3 area (each square is multiple square kilometers so it is really powerful)... but once upgraded to fusion bomb or higher, the area damaged increases even more. And not just that, it causes craters, sea-level rise, and the planet reacts negatively too.
AIkpe.png




Starcraft 1 nuke is a good one. It's the sound effects. "Nuclear Launch Detected".


Command&Conquer Tiberian Dawn has pretty evil nuke... because the AI cheats and fires it every separate time you damage the Temple of Nod. Got once shot by three nukes during the final mission.

In contrast, standard (multiplayer) Red Alert nuke was hilariously useless.
Sharing the "useless nuke" award is Dune 2000's Death's Hand Missile. Reasonably powerful but so inaccurate it is hilarious.
 

Orbis

Member
The best part about nuclear weapons in Rise of Nations is that everyone loses the match if they collectively use a set amount of them. The "armageddon timer".

A fantastic way to say "fuck you" if you were hopelessly losing a multiplayer match was to construct endless missile silos and ICBM's and launch them all at once to screw everyone over by immediately ending the match.


18805eea782ff9360aaf8f5d8159e5d2--why-not-plays.jpg


Still my favourite RTS.
Yeah we used to disable the armageddon timer in the config (or set it absurdly high) to avoid the game ending due to nukes. Also modded the 'Missile Shield' to be too expensive to ever afford for a true MAD simulation.
 

Mr Swine

Banned
Nothing beats Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Planet Buster. A Planet Buster damages at least 3x3 area (each square is multiple square kilometers so it is really powerful)... but once upgraded to fusion bomb or higher, the area damaged increases even more. And not just that, it causes craters, sea-level rise, and the planet reacts negatively too.
AIkpe.png




Starcraft 1 nuke is a good one. It's the sound effects. "Nuclear Launch Detected".


Command&Conquer Tiberian Dawn has pretty evil nuke... because the AI cheats and fires it every separate time you damage the Temple of Nod. Got once shot by three nukes during the final mission.

In contrast, standard (multiplayer) Red Alert nuke was hilariously useless.
Sharing the "useless nuke" award is Dune 2000's Death's Hand Missile. Reasonably powerful but so inaccurate it is hilarious.

Heh, my dad used to fire an ion cannon on the temple of nod each time They launched a nuke. It destroyed it but it required him saving a lot and timing the launch of it.

The nuke in Red Alert couldn't even kill a tank so it was pretty much useless
 
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