Support NeoGAF

[Sintoid]

Each game wich has not been delayed

Seriously my greatest "wow" this gen is DLSS

 

[midnightAI]

Valve did more for handheld acceptance and adoption than Nintendo ever did.

 

[Rudius]

Hearing about a Tropical Storm on the news.
Cutting the broadcast short to boot up Flight Simulator '20.
Using highschool geography to hunt down the bitch.
Seeing a bunch of like minded people all doing the same thing.
Actually finding it:

The first time it actually worked I was like wow, thats really really cool.
Its such a meta thing to do.
A storm is happening in real life, so i boot up a digital game to go see a digital representation of whats happeniing in real life.

I need to play this bastard in VR.

 

[TheKratos]

Horizon forbidden west. Once you unlock the bird mount and fly around. My eyes were in shock and awe.

 

[digoutyoursoul]

The Matrix demo , for a short while

 

[GymWolf]

Horizon forbidden west. Once you unlock the bird mount and fly around. My eyes were in shock and awe.

You may want to try flight simulator if you like clouds and shit.

 

[Euler007]

Lots, because i'm not a negative jaded whiner.

 

[MonkeyClaw36]

Me actually finding joy in MP games again thanks to Helldivers 2.

Never thought it would reel me in the way it did. It's like crack on a SSD.
And fairly priced.

 

[AJUMP23]

I don’t think I have really ever been wowed by a game. It just isn’t my nature.

 

[MonkeyClaw36]

I don’t think I have really ever been wowed by a game. It just isn’t my nature.

You soulless bitch

 

[DeepSpace5D]

I’ll echo what some have already said. Returnal for the best moment-to-moment gameplay I’ve experienced this gen. The speed and fluidity of the combat combined with no loading and some of the best dualsense implementation out there.

The visuals of Ratchet & Clank, Horizon: FW and Demon’s Souls all wowed me when experiencing them for the first playthrough.

And the sheer size and scale of Elden Ring impressed me like nothing else so far.

 

[ahtlas7]

sometimes

 

[jm89]

BG3.

Mainly due to the constant quality side quests which isn't very common in gaming.

 

[nemiroff]

Not sure what defines a generation in my case, but

I'm a PC gamer, and to _me_ Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is in the top 3 gaming/sim related things ever. In a good VR headset and a stick/yoke there's basically nothing else like it (Except perhaps DCS which is doing its own thing).

Also:
- Latest generation QD-OLED/WOLED on a snappy W11 computer
- DLSS and the AI revolution
- Raytracing/Path-tracing finally in a playable fully working state. We've come a long way back since my Amiga 500 days..

Good times.

 

[SmokedMeat]

Nothing since Half Life Alyx.

Everything else I’ve seen and done already.

 

[Roman Empire]

Nothing. But that's a me problem.

 

[willothedog]

Nvidia being the third most powerful company, by market worth, in the world. Did not see that coming and glad my portfolio is mainly these tech stocks. That wowed me

 

[BaldingAshCrimson]

Shin Megami Tensei: Soul Hackers 2
Final Fantasy 16

 

[Gandih42]

Tons of stuff. I don't really care about generations and what they do or do not imply for games. And I'm probably easy to please. But from the last couple of years:

- The audiovisual spectacle of FFXVI. The 4th Eikon fight in particular made me laugh out loud when it transitioned to its final phase. One of the most hype moments I've ever had in a game.
- Tears of the Kingdom continueously wow'ed me with its physics and scope, and just how impressively put together it is.
- Demon's Souls Remake, the visual fidelity and incredible atmosphere. Playing it with 3D audio on headphones is amazing.
- Elden Ring, just everything about the scope, variety and ambition of the game.
- FF7 Rebirth, the scope of it (so far) is astounding. Lots of stuff to love about it, but I especially appreciate how well it leverages its amazing visuals to bring the characters and their personalities to life. Never seen better executed people (Cloud) being awkward.

 

[GametimeUK]

On the PC side of things Alan Wake and Cyberpunk with full RT.

On console Demon's Souls, Ratchet and Clank, Forza Horizon 5 and Horizon Forbidden West impressed me with an impressive mix of visuals and performance especially considering the hardware they're running on.

 

[nkarafo]

I replayed GTA 4 with fusion fix and some performance fix mods and it wowed me how much better and more realistic the GTA 4 city looks and feels compared to most modern open world games that feature a city to traverse. Spiderman remastered being the last one i played. The city in this game feels so fake and lifeless in comparison.

 

[Duchess]

Microsoft's continuing levels of incompetence, even after being in this industry for 20+ years?

 

[SteadyEvo]

Yes. Getting an Oled tv and replaying TLOU2 remastered. It was like I’ve been gaming in black and white and can finally see color. The game plus the TV and it’s like a completely new experience.

Long story short, OLED is a game changer

 

[saintjules]

Returnal.

 

[Tg89]

TOTK/BOTW
BG3
Vampire Survivors
Neon White
Inscryption
Elden Ring


Lots of stuff. Mostly from a game design perspective.

Imo people looking to be wowed by graphics at this point are just in for constant disappointment. We're firmly in iterative/diminishing returns territory. I actually don't think it's a bad thing - graphics are very much "good enough" at this point - now devs are forced to focus on gameplay if they want to separate themselves.

 

[DAHGAMING]

I have been wowed at the sheer audacity of alot of devs and publishers to pump out the amount of shit games were getting this gen.

 

[diffusionx]

I played Cyberpunk 2077 last year and was totally blown away by that game. It's a real shame they rushed it out because they made something incredible.

But yea, a lot of games still continue to impress me graphically. I'm playing GOW Ragnarok right now and it looks amazing, even with its PS4 baseline.

 

[knguyen]

"WOW!" was my reaction after seeing the damage Phil done to Xbox even given unlimited resource.

 

[adamsapple]

Quick Resume, honestly.

That has been the most next-gen thing for me on consoles this gen.

 

[Sethbacca]

Honestly, I'm just happy to have games with almost no load times back. I've missed that since the cartridge to disc transition in the 90s.

 

[Gideon]

- Elden ring looking over liurnia
- Black myth wukong trailer
- Flying around totk

 

[Sub_Level]

Load times are very nice this gen. Thats a clear definitive improvement over PS4/WiiU era.

 

[Little Mac]

 

[Shake Your Rump]

The price of PlayStation plus sure was stunning.

 

[Gojiira]

I know there have been a few similar threads recently, but I guess with this one I’m looking for people’s specific high moments for this gen (to get recommendations) rather than general complaining which is absolutely called for. This gen definitely hasn’t hit as high as previous ones (can anything ever top moments like the MGS2 tanker or Bioshock’s intro?) but there have been a few specific ‘wow’ moments for me:

-A few updates of last gen games have been really impressive. Playing Fallout 4 at 4K60ish with PC ultra settings and a 100 fov on Series X was great. Gears 5 at 4K60 was also awesome. Finally being able to experience open world games like Days Gone at 60fps felt like a new experience for me.

-For current-gen games the list is admittedly short. Moments of Ratchet and Clank (certain vistas like the first main city area of course the era swapping level) and Horizon FW and a lot of Burning Shores were jaw dropping for me.

Anything else I’m missing?

If F4 is how low your setting the bar…

Ratchet on PS5, the dimension shifting is very impressive
Returnal, some genuinely gorgeous environments and the story actually surprised me.
Remnant 2, had no business being as fun as it was
Helldivers 2, most fun game this gen by a country mile, still impressive every time you pull into orbit and drop.
Demons Souls remake, Absolutely gorgeous visuals
Elden Ring, Fantastic open world, visual design,bosses etc

 

[ShirAhava]

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

An actual 9/10 video game, basically the only game worth a damn this generation...feels like it came from an alternate reality compared to everything else on the market, no bullshit, just fun action that delivered so hard.

The rest ranges from average to hot garbage, the highly rated games are massively overrated.

 

[UltimaKilo]

A lot of stuff on the Switch, ironically.

Ratchet & Clank initially.

 

[King Dazzar]

Haptics and adaptive triggers. Seeing 60fps a far more common choice.

 

[mystech]

When it comes to raw power graphics, Demon Souls remake takes the prize for me. Kind of interesting that there hasn’t really been any other game that matching its level of fidelity and realism… and that was a launch title (then again Drive Club came out near the PS4 launch and it still holds its own against some PS5 games).

Now when it comes to overall graphics, 100% Elden Ring. That game has some truly beautiful parts… and I played Elden Ring on a Series S! Really goes to show how important art direction and creativity is. Hopefully other developers take that example rather than just cranking up the settings on UE5. Realism alone is just not good enough.

 

[Pimpollo818]

Cocoon gave me a "whoa" moment,

 

[KiteGr]

Half of the "WoWs" are surprises of how bad some things turned out.

• The Steam deck and how funtional, usefull and customer friendly it is...
• Baldurs Gate 3 thinking how well thought was.
• The amount of studios going broke to go woke. (honestly, I thoght they where joking at the expence of their company's future)
• How well Capcom is doing, and how bad Squenix is doing.

Beyond that, nothing much. The graphics aren't much defferent than the last gen, and whatever tripple A game came out, it was mured by bad publicity due to bad practices.

 

[TerribleAtThisGame]

Returnal

The sound design, DualSense haptics and lack of load times was a definite "oh this is new..." feeling.

Feeling rain droplets via haptics was cool as hell and super atmospheric.

 

[TerribleAtThisGame]

Cocoon gave me a "whoa" moment,

Thanks for reminding me to check this out.

 

[Efren is G.O.A.T.]

For a graphical standpoint Demon Soul's Remake has impressed me a lot but for a gameplay perspective this generation has provided me with my top 5 games of all time:

Zelda - Tears of the Kingdom
Elden Ring
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Resident Evil 4 Remake

I can understand the sentiment that as a whole this gen has been underwhelming but for me... I'm eating good!

 

[Topher]

A little ironic, but the game that wowed me the most this gen was Mass Effect Legendary Edition

 

[Bond007]

Not sure to be honest. There is alot of stuff i love and i was impressed by- dunno if i ever said- wow, or just being mind blown.

GT7 on PSVR 2 was cool
ToTK was impressive
Maybe Helldivers for what it has brought to the table.

 

[Sethbacca]

This.

Steam Deck is a game changer. Valve did more for handheld acceptance and adoption than Nintendo ever did. I play 90% of my time on the SD.

We just gonna act like the Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, DS, 3DS, and Switch don't exist and Nintendo doesn't have almost 40 years of history making handhelds? I've seen some bad takes around here, but this is probably one of the worst.

 

[dragonyeuw]

Vampire Survivors on my Steam Deck. What is 'wowing' about that? The fact that I've pumped more hours into that game than anything other than BOTW in the last 5 years( I may have dumped similar time in Overcooked 2) and havent been bothered with any other current gen stuff than Dead Space remake and a Plague tale Requiem on a cheaply purchased Series X( the only reason I ended up with one). That may say more about me with what I'm gravitating towards nowadays.

 

[Rickyiez]

OLED TV + Stellar blade

ok I lied I only have the TV , but its gonna be true

 

[IDKFA]

On consoles, Demons Souls remake is the only thing that truly wowed me. That was a launch game.

Hasn't really gotten much better since. Can't wait to see what Blue Point have been cooking up.