Mario 64
I'd played 3d games before like Tomb Raider, but it was nothing compared to the 3d world you could run around in with Mario 64, accompanied by full analogue movement and a rotatable camera. It was just leaps and bounds beyond anything that had come before. Plus the bright 3D worlds were so much more appealing that the 3d games currently populating the market which were all set at night, and you could see like 5 inches in front of your face before there was a wall of blackness. Shit, the first area alone blew away everything else. Just interacting with the environment like climbing trees was a lot of fun.
MGS4
Greatest game ever made IMO, dethroning Super Mario 64. The way the game played into nostalgia and the rest of the series was incredible. The way Snake does his little flashbacks as we remember the same memories, the fact that the game mostly used the same timeframe (shadow moses being 9 years ago, game was delayed a bit so it became 10 for us). The dream where snake visits shadow moses and its all PS1 looking, remembering it just how we did. Then walking onto shadow moses for the first time in years and hearing The best is yet to come play.
There has been plenty of games that throw in fanservice, nostalgia and feature throwbacks and references to older games in the series but none did it anywhere near the quality that MGS4 did it. Snake was reliving the events in the same way we were.
Sonic Adventure
I think the Dreamcast was the last console to truly blow my mind in terms of technology. Everything was so shiny, sharp and fast when compared to N64.
Anyway it was the Mystic ruins that got me. Only pic I could find.
Coming from N64 and PS1 that jungle down there looked like the edge of the map. I thought I'd die if I went off that ledge. Ran around that game many times trying to figure out where to go. I had no clue where to go, kept going back to that part of the game and just decided to take a leap of faith. I fell through the trees and found solid ground and a whole jungle beneath. Might not be much now but coming off PS1 and N64 I had no idea a game could handle such a large area.
GTA: San Andreas
Blew my mind how huge this game was. Everything was so much larger than the previous GTA games, there was so much more detail to everything.
I remember at one part seeing this train tunnel far in the distance and it was all blacked out looking. Now my brains in game mode and tells me its just a dead end. End of the map. Then I realized that no, actually I could go through it and carry on for miles and miles. There was no secret dead ends to this game. Unless you hit sea this game would just keep going and going. I remember getting lost in the woods, and seeing the cities far off in the distance which you couldn't do in previous GTA games because the draw distance simply wasn't as good.
Resident Evil 4
Another game that changes what you know about video games.
I see a guy coming towards me with a chainsaw. No big deal. If he hits me I'll just stumble back and lose a bit of health. Then you hear this godawful yell, and see Leon's head get hacked off for a few seconds. Game over. I just sat there with my mouth open. Needless to say, everytime I saw dr salvador after that I gave that guy plenty of space.
Also the Garridor. I remember unlocking him, and trying to shoot him in the eyes because I thought that was his weak spot. He just charges straight at me and sticks his claws through my head. Game over.
