2007: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
The most memorable video game explosion of all time? Definitely. Huge, unexpected (unless you have spoiler-loving friends) and as harrowing a scene as we've ever seen on our gaming screens, this nuclear blast is shocking. Not to mention a graphical tour de force.
2008: Far Cry 2
Not only are the explosions in Far Cry 2 model examples of barrel physics and what-have you, they even start fires. Fires which can spread into fields, moving with the wind. These are proper explosions that behave as explosions should. Must've been to Explosion obedience classes. Yup.
2009: 'Splosion Man
The dude explodes to jump, explodes to kill and explodes to... well, pretty much do anything, really. Probably even explodes to explode. And we love him for it.
2011: Motorstorm Apocalypse
The fourth game in the Motorstorm series may have been underwhelming, but it was BIG on explosions. The apocalyptic setting saw cities crumble and explode as you raced. But the explosions have earned their place here by being unrealistically frequent. Even a minor prang can see your vehicle go up like it's packed full of particularly volatile dynamite. So just in case you're as explosioned out as we were after playing this game, here concludes our brief history of explosions.
But there are thousands of games in existence, approximately 84.8675% of which have explosions in them. So tell us - what's your favourite explosion in gaming? To get you started, I'll admit - mine's the 3D one from Super Stardust HD. Hey - each to their own, right?