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Jaw Dropping Moments in Games

LoZ: Ocarina of Time - when you pull out the Master Sword
MGS4 - Rex vs Ray, the ending
Sonic Adventure - booting it up
Mass Effect - talking to Sovereign
Far Cry 2- starting fires
 
Agree with general sentiment with SotC. Basically that whole game.

Also, the first cutscene in which the player meets
Raiden again
in MGS4. Still pretty damn awesome to this day, but when the game first game out, a friend insisted on having me come over to watch that cutscene. I did, and my jaw did drop. I then watched the opening, and my jaw dropped again. The graphics at the time were just damn amazing, far beyond anything I had ever seen at that point.
 
dnzps5.jpg


My first "true" next-gen graphics experience (in March 2004). I was blown away....it chugged on my 9800 Pro at 1280x960 (about 20 FPS), but my god did it look gorgeous.

For the record, I still think it's a beautiful game.
 
In Unreal, when you first step out of the crashed ship into the alien world. The music, the gorgeous sunset and the little rabbits made it something I'd never seen in a 3D game. It probably looks dated today but at the time it was incredible.

Beyond Good & Evil, the very first sequence: The game suddenly throws you into a fight with these creepy-looking ghost-things to some awesome choral music, and the whole thing just felt so intense. It was the perfect hook to the game. It was the demo, and literally 2 minutes into it, I said I'm buying this game.

Assassin's Creed II, the ending when
the One Who Came Before turns and addresses...Desmond.
Mind blown.
 
Several of them actually...

The first one was playing Wonderboy III - The Dragon's trap on the Master System.. I was floored when I turned into a dragon and starting shooting fire!

The second one was booting up Beast on my Amiga 500... The music, the gfx, the ambiance... to this day I still remember the music and hum it from time to time...

The third one was Lionheart and No second Prize (both by the same team, both on Amiga).. they were amazing...

Then playing GLQuake with z Voodoo 1 at the shop I worked at in 1996, god what an thrilling moment...

After that it was the whale chase in Sonic Adventures, when the Dreamcast launched in Japan in 1998... Frightening!

since then? none really :)
 
Heavenly Sword, when General Flying Fox caught up to Kai.

Man I were angry.
I had button-mashed up to that point, so I struggled in 6 hours to kill that POS aswell.
 
I know this is going to be a worn out answer, but Uncharted 2. The whole game so far has had my jaw on the floor. It keeps on amazing me. I was a little LTTP on U2, since I put it on my xmas list forgetting that it meant I couldn't buy it, so just getting around to playing it now. Every moment in the game almost has me thinking FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK. I especially liked shooting the truck behind me, running down an alleyway. On Chapter 24 so far, I know it must end soon and for that, I'm sad.

For a more retro moment. Super Mario 64. The whole 3D (proper 3D WOW!) thing blew my mind back then.
 
Jtwo said:
Halo1 on the level "Halo."
When you get in the warthog and start heading to the first group of stranded marines.
You drive up this hill and the sun is like just peaking above the hill and that crazy epic music starts playing.

Still the greatest gaming memory I have.
Click to expand...

Third reply nails it.
 
JasonMCG said:
zeldawindreview4in.jpg


Blew. My. Mind.
Click to expand...

That was and is one of my most memorable gaming moments. I played up to that point (and a little beyond) in an imported copy won through PlanetGameCube, and even without understanding a word up until that point it was such an incredible moment. It might have been enhanced by my trying to understand the plot through gestures, animations, and events, who knows.

Good call.
 
clashfan said:
The boot screen for the 360 is just perfect.
Click to expand...

:lol But really most of the replies in this topic weren't ever "jaw dropping" for me...especially all of these supposedly great Uncharted moments. I think I must be the only one who didn't like it...

I can't really think of anything that ever made my jaw drop except maybe one time in Metroid Prime when I realized I had missed a one time scan like halfway through the game. It made me start over just so I could make sure I ended with 100%
 
JasonMCG said:
zeldawindreview4in.jpg


Blew. My. Mind.
Click to expand...

I came to post this. Was not prepared for it at all. So awesome.

I love the stain-glass portraits of the sages around the Master Sword.

MGS4 Ray vs. Rex and the first real level of Mario Galaxy are also excellent choices.
 
Call of Duty 2 on the 360

Man just playing that game with explosions and gunshots whirring in the background especially when you were close to an explosion. Epic

Gears of War

The Kryll. Nuff said

GoW II

When you crush the
gatekeepers
head with the door that was pretty epic

MW2

Finding out
Captain Price is alive

KOTOR

For the life of me I can't fully remember the whole plot twist but I know it was pretty huge. I must have blocked it out of my head because I couldn't believe it :lol

Shadow of the Colossus

Seeing the first Colossus for the first time. I was like how the fuck am I supposed to kill that huge fucker lol and the 7th colossus also, the flying snake. Its on my top 5 boss battle list

EDIT: I guess these are more like 'OH SHIT!" moments then jawdropping hehe
 
Last boss(es) in first Serious Sam game on Pc. I was playing ot with my housemate on lan.
We thought we were on last boss some huge monster or smoething i remember him screaming like " LOOK ATTHE SKYYY!!!!" from his room and there was this huge UFO lol i was like " OMMMMMMMMMMMMG"

and loong time ago we were playing bomberman on ps1 with multitap (5 ppl local yeaah) we were all drunk and high; somehow everyone were on the center of map and died atthe same time and we got that silly DRAW GAME screen. all of us like WTFFFFFFFFFFFUUUU lol

ok another one from BishiBashi. my friend got the japanese version and we were high and drunk again. That weird game is really funny and its 10x more funny when its in japanese! and we got this mini game where u run as a bride in a church and throw the cake. when that mini game started we were like JEEEEEEEEEEEEEZUS!
 
In Dragonquest six there's a part where you are sent on a quest to slay a dragon (i think) to get a magic sword, now i went there all ready to kill that bastard when suddenly this guy just shows up and single handedly steamroll the dragon and to make things even more incredible is that he even laughed in your face when he's walking away with the sword, that was just such a fuckawesome part of the game.
 
Kintaro said:
Final Fantasy XI: Fighting Promathia
Click to expand...

Fuck that was good, nearly everything leading up to that fight was amazing. In addition to that I'd add that the Alexander fight was equally if not better then Promathia.
 
Climbing a top a hill in Oblivion in the fog and rain, resting and then beholding the most beautiful view I've seen in a game.

KOTOR ( self-explanatory )

Uncharted 2 tank sequence
 
2 recent ones for me

MGS4 - Motorcycle Chase. I'm still amazed by the graphics during that scene,
let alone it was actual gameplay during that scene.
MW2 - No Russian
 
Dragon Quest 3
Dropping down below to find the world from DQ I and II and discovering you are the great hero of legends in DQ I and II seriously was an awesome experience, that i felt wouldn't have had as much impact had i not played the other 2 games before it.
 
dragonflys545 said:
Shit how can i forget about this, my jaw was literally dropped. Also the hydra from GOW1 i was blown away by the GOW1 DEMO!
Click to expand...

The hydra fight was indeed a jawdrop moment the first time I played GoW. Come to think of it, GoW II was in its entirety pretty much one big jawdrop, especially the steeds of time. It still amazes me how they managed to squeeze such graphics and level design out of the PS2.
 
that bit in Bayonetta where the game happens
 
Several moments in FFs VII-X and Uncharted 2.

The building collapse in UC2 in particular just astonished me.

The post-fight scenes with beauties in MGS4; the screen just kind of radiates with whiteness and bizarre shit happens. My mouth was agape.

Anything in Shadow of the Colossus. For all of its numerous flaws, still a breathtaking experience.

I can't relate to any of the responses re: Ocarina of Time. Nothing in any Zelda game managed to really astound, save maybe Wind Waker's depiction of Hyrule Castle. Ocarina looked like ass to me when it came out, which confounded the visual mastery any scene could have possessed in potential. What can I say, didn't blow me away.
 
Uncharted 2: There were so many moments, but
when your are in Shambala trying to get across that bridge. It looks amazing when it starts collapsing! You are sliding down the bridge, shooting up blue-guys. It was spectacular.
 
Baten Kaitos - When
Kalas turned on you and is actually one of the person behind reviving the ancient god Malpercio. Nothing is as shocking as that to me because I don't recall playing a game when the main character actually turns into the bad guy...!
 
Entering the underwater Hyrule Castle in Wind Waker was seriously a jaw dropping moment. The whole scene was executed so perfectly.
 
Aesius said:
My first "true" next-gen graphics experience (in March 2004). I was blown away....it chugged on my 9800 Pro at 1280x960 (about 20 FPS), but my god did it look gorgeous.

For the record, I still think it's a beautiful game.
Click to expand...
Mine looked even better when I first went outside, cause there was actually grass on the ground. :D

Edit:
This is how Far Cry looked! Jawdropping!

Far_Cry.jpg
 
2dkkcip.gif
 
dragonflys545 said:
Uncharted 2 the whole game except the final boss.
Click to expand...

This.

Thinking about it.. it happened a lot, here are some examples:

+ Cutscene to gameplay transitions in MGS4
+ God of War & God of War 2 from start to finish.
+ the first time I played Metal Gear Solid after months of playing the US Playstation magazine Japanese demo. The entire game simply kicked me in the face.
+ MGS3
+ From the moment I started Shadow of the Colossus until the very last letter of the ending credits.
+ Gunstar Heroes / Contra Hard Corps / Contra Shattered Soldier 's boss fights.
+ Castlevania SOTN
+ Lots of stuff in PoP:Sands of Time, some parts of Beyond Good and Evil, the Tanker in MGS2, the first half of Indigo Prophecy...
+ The first time I played Cruisn' USA, Rad Mobile, MK2, Daytona 2, Sega Rally, Hydro Thunder & Killer Instinct at the arcades.
+ FF6 mode 7 intro & FF7 pretty much entirely.
+ Golden Eye......
+ When I first played Destruction Derby & Jumping Flash around the PSone launch.... when I first played Donkey Kong Country (launch day SNES) & Mario 64 (launch day)

Edit:
First time I played the original Top Gear (snes).. I was amazed by the brake lights!! :lol

Burnout 3's crashes and .. well, everything about it (ps2)
Going from the peek of the mountain in SSX3 (ps2)
Going from GTA2 to GTA3... OMG
The original Crash and Crash Team Racing
The first time I saw Virtua Fighter & then VF2
The original Starfox
Starfox 64

BEETLE ADVENTURE RACING (all of it)
 
L0st Id3ntity said:
Yeah, what the fuck Naughty Dog? No, what the fuck!? I hate it when games end on low notes, especially when they are fantastic throughout, how come this happens so often?
wink.gif
Click to expand...
I think it's because they always design the boss battles near the end of development. That's what I heard anyways.
 
mutsu said:
Baten Kaitos - When
Kalas turned on you and is actually one of the person behind reviving the ancient god Malpercio. Nothing is as shocking as that to me because I don't recall playing a game when the main character actually turns into the bad guy...!
Click to expand...

wowowow. Never finished the game but that is fucking shocking, how the hell do you end the game then?



Uncharted - Turn corner, huge submarine in the jungle. Nice.

Bioshock - The start of the game when you sit there on the water waiting for the video to end....wait, this is not video! It's the game already!
 
Uncharted 2 actually had quite a few of these moments, particularly
jumping from truck to truck
. And actually even though the game was terrible LAIR when dodging the searchlights was pretty incredible at the time.

REmake was beyond incredible the entire time I played... still looks better than some games today. Resident Evil 4 also had a few wow moments.

Final Fantasy X at the time looked ridiculous, and SOTC even though I was LTTP absolutely blew me away.
 
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