Mario Galaxy has the saddest ending bar none.

fable 2 when you choose sacrifice as you feel very lonely without your dog and character feels very sad. halo 3 ending and from video game books halo books are very sad.

cod4: when after all of the war youv gone through,you finally get a chance to kill zhakiev and what happens? gaz gets headhsotted,then price slides over the pistol and you shoot zhakiev,not only is it sad that of all the people,you the newie get to kill him but also price appears to be dead.beleive me,man tears were flowing freely that night...probably the only game i found emotional

It had some funny/happy moments too.

But it is one of the best written tragic stories in game history period and the ending does not dissapoint :P

You don't know who she is.  Sister seems unlikely though.  As Trollian says what matters is what you are willing to do to get her back - which is anything.  The game does imply (whether she is a lover or not) that you were instrumental in her death, and are moved by guilt and an overwhelming desire to 'wind back the clock'.

What I liked in SOTC is that at the end, rather than one big cutscene, you play as your character, desperately hanging on, desperate to reach the woman he has risked all for, and its hopeless.  You can never reach her, and you can never hang on no matter how hard you try.  It was a sublimly clever use of interactive gameplay tied to a real character moment.

Amen. I'll also have to go with Mother 3. That game left me feeling distressed for a few days...and not many games can do so to me.

Oh yeah, Price was like father to me, and Gaz my brother.... I was so so distressed

yep mother 3 :'( i was verklempt

ffx is what comes to my mind... mgs 4 ... and chrono cross, i dont remember if it was sad (becausse i played the game thousands of years ago), but it produced an emotion that i can still remember

Yeah rarely is a game written so well to move me to tears, very few movies, books, and music alone has done this, and the overall lack of quality writing/story in games means its even more rare for a video game to do this.