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Moments of actual Awe.

Tesseract

Banned
Fighting the marines for the first time in Half-life. Pretty rudimentary AI by today's standards but an actual mind blown revelation at the time.

Also Portal. Playing that felt like my brain was being rewired as it went along.

still significantly better than most systems because they very carefully designed the ai to always do something useful and kept the inputs simple

original doom also has pretty good ai, tbh i don't think ai has come very far at all
 
D

Deleted member 740922

Unconfirmed Member
Going from TV Pong to colour games on the Atari 2600 in 1980/1 was amazing for me.

We were allowed to use the colour TV for games every once in while back then as a treat 😃
 

Acidizer

Banned
A little thing, but in Hitman, the first level Paris at some fashion show, you walk through massive doors and the muffled bass from the music that was pumping in the background now pours out clearly as the doors open, you are wanted with guards searching for you, but are just walking purposefully like a boss.
 

xool

Member
A little thing, but in Hitman, the first level Paris at some fashion show, you walk through massive doors and the muffled bass from the music that was pumping in the background now pours out clearly as the doors open, you are wanted with guards searching for you, but are just walking purposefully like a boss.

Yeah. People density is impressive too. Feels like a real party - somehow the NPCs feel more real than in say Assassin's Creed - not sure what the trick was.

Available as a demo (or was on PS4) worth trying.
 

Lastyou1

Banned
From a technical standpoint?
GTAV first person mode. Especially underwater.


From an artistic perspective?
Basically every level of Castelvania Lord's of Shadow is a masterpiece.

Both?

Spider-Man ps4 Times Square.



This is from the last two generations.

MK 1 on the Sega Genesis with the Abacab code.
God of War 2 for the ps2 was a generational leap a generation earlier.
Looking back in time, I woul say Street Fighter 2 turbo looked and played better than the arcade.
Metal gear solid running on a ps1.
Tekken 3 being better on console than the arcade (not graphics wise).
Squall and Rinoa dancing scene. But I would say all of FF8 fmvs.
Gran Turismo 3 A-spec was boring as shit, but had a photo realistic graphics that was untopped for years.
GTA3 was a revolution that created a new genre.
Silent Hill 2 intro with James at the mirror.
The first time you enter Jerusalem in Assassin's Creed

And many others I forgot.
 
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Seeing Mario 64 in action for the first time. How he could seamlessly do side jumps and long jumps and flips and belly slides all without stopping.
 
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dan76

Member
In RE 4 when I first got the the castle and checkedhow big the map was. I thought the game was almost over at that point and couldn't believe it had that much more to come.
 

INC

Member
Firewall vr with an aim controller, suddenly 2d shooters felt pointless

Gta 3

Kz2
 
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Exiting out of the Vortex Rykers to open skies in Unreal 1 back in the late 90s. Dayyyyyum!

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Still breathtaking to this day.
 
Also more than one...

Final Fantasy VII Opening Sequence and - Reminder, I have never "really"played an RPG before and had no idea that there will come more after Midgard - the first opening to the worldmap. Holy shitballs, this was awesome.

MK9 - The first sight of an X-Ray with the realisation, that every character has a full layer of breakable flesh, intestines and an individual skeleton rendered.

God Of War III - The first "Stage" laying Siege on Mt. Olympus. I played the whole thing with my mouth gaping wide open!

Skyrim - "See that Mountain? You can climb that!" - "No way" - "Yes way!"

Also VaweR!
 

Terce

Member
Final stage of Journey the first time I went through it. The skiing stage was already pretty magical, especially when the camera panned to the side and the sun was setting over the mountains as you skied / skated over the golden sand, then you plunge down into the darkness and have to escape being hunted to continue your journey.

When you collapse while walking up the mountain after giving everything and more to make it that far, you think that this is the end and wow that was a pretty neat game.

Then you're resurrected and begin what has to be my favourite moment in my gaming history. The level design, the movement, the music, the feeling of joy, everything combines into a complete surreal experience. I was not in a good place when I played through Journey for the first time and that stage on it's own brought me to actually feel something when I hadn't in quite a long time. I was in awe not only because of the way the developers expertly laid the building blocks up to that point, but that a game was actually able to evoke emotions when seemingly nothing else in my life could at that point.

I still play through Journey probably once a year and while none of it is a surprise anymore, I still enjoy it just as much.
 
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When a replacement for Installation 04 in Halo 3 emerged from the Ark.

Fighting my first Thunderjaw in HZD

Batman Arkham Knight and the plethora of multi-genre gameplay styles that were hidden inside of the game

Most of Doom (2016)
 

yoyo67

Member
Halo: Combat evolved. Bioshock: Infinite (looked like a pixar movie). Runescape (my first mmo and open world game). Skyrim with its quest system.
 
Metroid Prime, the thread
Putting the disc in my gamecube and see that marvelous game with my eyes, after 2 years salivating and waiting for a good price, reading magazine articles about it, then picking up player's choice edition... Man, what an incredible experience, I'd pay to live again and again that 2004 summer, Prime blowed my 12 yo mind
Smash bros, having Pikachu kicking Mario, Bowser and Kirby's ass was mindblowing too
Mario Sunshine, magical game and incredibly fun still nowadays
Re4, above his time still today, felt and feel incredible, far better than I could ever have imagined
Pokémon 3rd gen, the jump after gold and silver was insane, I discovered about it one month prior its release thanks to a magazine, my brain exploded when I played it for the first time

As you can see, most of my magical moments are gc era related, definitely the best gamer years of my life

If I have to find some thing more recent, I choose Destiny: received in bundle, tried, blah wtf is this mess, sold after three days, rebought, now my favourite game of the gen, and in my top 5 ever
Slowly realizing the scope of that game, experiencing team strikes wows me every day, and I play it almost every day, much better than anything else of his genre imho, it has some secret sauce who make you love it more than the others coop shoothers
 
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DelireMan7

Member
I dig up this thread to share because I am now playing Hollow Knight and I have to share this moment :

Mantis Lords boss fight. Perfection ! The music, the staging, the fight itself...

Let me describe it :

You fall into a big room. In the background 3 mantis sitting on 3 thrones.
When you approach them, an action appears on the screen "Challenge" instead of the usual "Listen" or "Examine".
When you decide to "Challenge", 2 fences appear and lock the room, one of the mantis is standing up, immediately jump in the arena and attack you.
The name appears "Mantis Lord" and the breathtaking music starts. Quick succession of attacks, you dodge, you hit while the 2 others are carefully watching you. Barely a moment to breath or heal.
Then you defeat her. She jump back to her throne, and sit back, exhausted...
The 2 others stand up and jump in the arena. The tension is increasing, they attack you again and again. Your focus is at stake, constantly checking where they will teleport : Will it be above ? On the ground ? On the fence ?
After numerous dodges and careful attacks, you defeat them. They jump back to their thrones. Stand up and bow to you...

Man this fight ! So breathtaking ! Love how "clean" their pattern are. So satisfying to experience !

The music :
 
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