Those moments that made you go "wow"

Over the years, games have become more complex, more advanced, and surely each of us has had a moment where you've just froze there and stared at the screen, going "wow" or just silently admiring what you've just seen, even if it's something that killed your playable character.

For me, that moment was in Medal of Honor on the old playstation. I was using grenades whenever I had any, and then suddenly I see yet another nazi soldier, which I promptly throw a grenade back, and I stand there, wanting to watch the soldier go boom... and then, it happened. said nazi throws the grenade back at me.

Before, I was used to enemies in first person shooters mindlessly rushing in to shoot at me, most of them never even thinking of sidestepping my shots, and there I am, facing an enemy who knows how to turn my attacks against me. An enemy who unlike all the other retarded drones, fought back.

In just a few seconds, I learnt the hard way shit just got real. I was left speechless, frozen in my seat even as my character got killed by his own grenade, which had just been thrown back at me by an AI that had been taught to react like a human being. for me (and most likely many others), it was revolutionary.

 

a few weeks ago, my friend and I were playing King Of Fighters 11. We're both scrubs at Kof, and are learning the game play. Not button mashing, but learning the game. We find out we can TAG characters out during combos like in Marvel vs Capcom. He proceeds to do a combo, tag out - continue the combo- tag to the third guy, and cancel into a super.

Both of us were in a HOLY SHIT. WHAT THE FUCCCCCCK stance.

 

Walking out of the vault in Fallout 3.

The first time I was grabbed and dragged along the ground by the tentacle monster in Dead Space.

On Halo:CE every time you're on Halo and you look at the ring. It's just such a cool visual to me.

 

anytime in Rock Band where you flawlessly nail a solo on expert without flinching.

First time I saw Elena in SF3: Third Strike. The hand done animation is superb.

 

Extremely good mention here. I was blown away by such well done sprite animations... Long live sprites, fuck 3D models! ;-)

I would say the moment where you finally reach the "base" of the Citadel in HL2 was pretty amazing. I just love the atmosphere Valve captured... so grungy and out of this world.

 

All that silky smooth scaling in Galaxy Force II, hell most Y board games blew me away.

Epic Galaxian³ theater 6 experience.

The realism of Hard Drivin', shifter, clutch, force feedback.

 

SNES, the whole beginning of Super Metroid, the sense of speed in F-Zero, the first time you encounter the FX2 effects in Yoshi's Island - or even the Parallax in Super Mario World - or the 3D in Star Fox.

Pretty much everything in Chrono Trigger, too, but the music mostly.

All that made me wow my eyes out.

Then, the Final Fantasy VII commercial, The speed in Wipeout 3, the intro to Chrono Cross, the 3D motion in Omega Boost, and the title sequence for Front Mission 3

 

I tend not to watch trailers for games I wanna play, so when I first started playing God of War II and saw the Colossus of Rhodes attacking me it blew my mind.

A similar thing happened with the colossi in SotC.

 

Unboxing my N64 and starting up mario64 for the first time one christmas many moons ago

 

The first COD of when you're being mortared running towards a village, with the bass on my PC's subwoofer on max I found myself actually ducking.

Metal Gear Solid on PSX. Just seemed like something totally different and special. Actually I think I might play it now.

 

The first time I fired up Panzer Dragoon on the Saturn. I just knew I was bearing witness to something that was very, very special.

 

A more recent moment was at the launch day of GTA 4. I avoided watching any gameplay videos so I had no idea how realistic it would really turn out to be. It made me go "wow" when I first flew right through the windshield to land on the middle of a traffic junction after crashing into a low wall.

 

That makes two of us.

 

Virtua Racing - The first time i saw the arcade, with extra TV monitor for the race broadcast.

GT5 - Driving at the Nordscheleife as the sun goes down and everything goes pitch black. :-0 Nothing but the lights of your car! Green hell at night!

Dead Space - Each corner scared the crap out of me

Half Life - The classic intro level till when the experiment goes wrong and hell breaks loose.

Killzone 2 - The whole game. Invading Helghan!

 

Mortal Kombat, discovering the Fatalities, back in 1995. I was playing with a friend, when the battle ended the Finish Him sign appeared and I started mashing buttons, 2 seconds later scorpion takes out his mask and burn Liu Kang alive. We spent the next two days trying to learn every Fatality in the game.

 

Rez: just all of it. Especially the Fifth level. Amazing.

Shenmue: I could just not beleive so much detail could go into a game.

ICO: So your leading this girl around , thinking of her as just a burden. I dont remember the exact spot, but when Yorda actually helps you for the fist time I was blown away.

Bioshock: The Intro and ride into Rapture.

 

FFVI when Kefka appears at thamasa when he's supposed to be in jail... Before he enters all is going well... an before he steps in he starts its maniacal laugh... i was something like "Oh shit!"

Gran Turismo 4 the first time i drove a prototype at le mans O_O

super mario bros 3; the first time i run and started flying

KOF 2001 being obliterated by Igniz in 10 seconds with an unlimited unblockable super move

KOF 2001 kicking igniz ass

 

Getting my N64 on Xmas and playing Mario 64 for the first time... I moved from the NES to the N64 and the difference blew me away.

Upgrading my PC and playing Crysis... in the first level you get to the top of a cliff and the sun rises over a bay and its pretty incredible.

 

MGS2: Psycho Mantis

Mind was blown at the time

 

As a kid, seeing Sonic was one of those "fuuuuck" moments. It was so much faster and more colourful than anything I'd seen on home computers or consoles previously.

Doom, obviously.

3DFX Quake for the first time is probably the biggest single leap in graphics I ever saw. Going from grainy, chuggy 320x240 to silky smooth 640x480... from that moment on everything else in 3D gaming was an incremental step to me.

In this current gen, the first time I saw Bioshock (even though it was on an SD set). Just recently the world design in FFXIII - I've literally never seen a game world so vibrant and lively. Love or hate the game, the visual execution is absolutely peerless.