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Times your mind was actually blown by a video game

Quake 3 Arena/Team Fortress Classic - "You mean those other people on the screen are actually other players online?" Instantly became a fan of competitive online games for life. After years and years of same screen multiplayer in games like Goldeneye and Mario Tennis, and years of owning my noob friends in fighting games - finally some compo.

Battlefield 1942 - years post TFC and Quake 3, the shear scale of Battlefield blew my mind. The mix of infantry + vehicles and skilled gunplay + tactical strategy combining with teamwork. This was my dream game and dream franchise.

Mario 64 - running around that opening field. It was something entirely new to videogames.
 
Many times while playing Motorstorm Apocalypse. No exaggeration.

I mean, god damn, you're racing through the middle of earthquakes and hurricanes while real-time destruction devastates the track around you, vehicles of all shapes and sizes in all directions race around you taking their own intersecting paths, at breakneck speeds boosted by dangerous nitrous and if the other drivers don't ram you off the road, the insane pedestrians with light arms fire the or mercenaries with tanks and helicopters and missiles will.

I wish I could have been there for some of the pitches and design meeting for this game. Because holy fucking shit.

iX1w8Gxut5fau.gif
 
-Seeing 7th guest at a friends house in the early 90s. Gave me nightmares but it looked so amazing. And holy shit a CD rom!

-The little Shenmue preview videos IGN had like early 1999. It was just Ryo walking looking around at the buildings, dialing a phone, an old lady going to work at the news stand etc. but my god did it seem incredible. Then the actual game walking out of Ryo's house hearing the clunking noise, walking over seeing the fish in the koi pond and realizing it was the little wooden thing filling with water and hitting the rock making the sound. Ultimate "so games can do this" revelation.

-Going to work in Half Life

-GTA3

-Bullet time in Max Payne

-Portal turning out to be more than a little puzzle game with a funny host

-Red Dead Redemption when you enter Mexico and the song starts playing

-A lot of Metal Gear moments. Psycho Mantis turning off the console and moving the controller, Colonel going bonkers in 2, Sorrow making you trudge through all the people you killed throughout the game in 3, when you enter Shadow Moses and the song starts playing in 4.
 
How beautiful Super Mario World was coming from an NES.

How amazing Tomb Raider was on the Ps1 (LOL)

That Demon's Souls was a game that was made in this gaming climate.
 
Recently I'd say Bioshock Infinite when Booker first arrives in Colombia and the story's conclusion. The last episode of season one of The Walking Dead was pretty eye opening as well.
 
NullPointer said:
Many times while playing Motorstorm Apocalypse. No exaggeration.

I mean, god damn, you're racing through the middle of earthquakes and hurricanes while real-time destruction devastates the track around you, vehicles of all shapes and sizes in all directions race around you taking their own intersecting paths, at breakneck speeds boosted by dangerous nitrous and if the other drivers don't ram you off the road, the insane pedestrians with light arms fire the or mercenaries with tanks and helicopters and missiles will.

I wish I could have been there for some of the pitches and design meeting for this game. Because holy fucking shit.

iX1w8Gxut5fau.gif
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Couldn't have agreed more, well said!
 
Uncharted 2 - The opening sequence and the train sequence. What an awesome game, absolutely loved both of those things.

Killzone Mercenary - Honestly, just how good the game looked on a handheld console. Crazy that we've reached that point. Played well and was a fun game too, just to top it all off.

Portal - I think it's the first 3D puzzle game I ever played. I remember putting the Orange Box into my 360 in college and my roommate telling me to try Portal because he heard it was good...I played through the whole thing while he watched over the next 4-5 hours.

Grand Theft Auto III - "You mean I can do anything...?"

I'm sure there are others, but those are the ones that stand out the most to me.
 
CoD Modern Warfare:
when Jackson dies. You always think the main character is invincible, and when he survives the helicopter crash you think Jackson will make it...

Ocarina of Time: when Saria gives Link the Ocarina.

Twilight Princess:
when Midna breaks the Mirror.
 
The intro sequence to Resident Evil 4. I didn't think video games could possibly look any better then that.
 
The first time I saw and played Doom. It was in January 1994, I knew nothing about this game and a friend came to help installing a brand new Soundblaster 16. With a smile on his face he gave me the disks of the shareware version of a game named Doom. II wasn't prepared for that and I just didn't know it was even possible on a 486 dx2 66MHz. Totally blown away.
 
1) Mario 64 -- such an immersive experience. Nothing has blown my mind quite as much since.

2) Final Fantasy FMV's -- I never much cared for the gameplay, but I would slog through anything just to watch those magical videos.

3) The soundtrack to Medal of Honor -- Live orchestrated music in a game? This was the first time I realized games might one day rival movies as a completely immersive artform.

4) Oculus Rift Titans of Space -- This first glance at the future of interactive 3D experiences knocked my socks off. So cool.
 
MGS2. My mind was blown just reading the previews for the game. Every so often I used to stop reading and just daydream about playing the game myself.

That game was such an enormous generation leap from PS1, it would truly be unfathomable to imagine it running on PS1.

When I finally played the game for myself my mind was blown by how many little touches there was, it completely unlike anything I had ever experienced before.
 
NullPointer said:
Many times while playing Motorstorm Apocalypse. No exaggeration.

I mean, god damn, you're racing through the middle of earthquakes and hurricanes while real-time destruction devastates the track around you, vehicles of all shapes and sizes in all directions race around you taking their own intersecting paths, at breakneck speeds boosted by dangerous nitrous and if the other drivers don't ram you off the road, the insane pedestrians with light arms fire the or mercenaries with tanks and helicopters and missiles will.

I wish I could have been there for some of the pitches and design meeting for this game. Because holy fucking shit.

iX1w8Gxut5fau.gif
Click to expand...

I would love to know why the game is still $59.99 on PSN.
 
purely from a graphics/effects/power stand-point, one in particular for me was Twisted Metal Black and being able to blast the struts off the giant Ferris Wheel. I figured the wheel would just fall down, explode, whatever.
It then rolls down the hill, through the level, destroying everything in its path (including houses, buildings, etc.)

It blew my mind. THE POWA OF THE PS2!


Also- seeing Mode 7 for the first time with early SNES games. I didn't have much experience with Genesis or PC gaming, so I pretty much went straight from NES & GameBoy to the SNES. Mode 7 (especially in Super Castlevania IV) blew my 11 year old mind at the time.
 
Ninja Gaiden (NES) - The cutscenes, especially the intro.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - the first SNES game I played. I had had a genesis, but the look of the game and the music just blew me away.

Mario 64 - Just running around in 3d like that was amazing at the time.

Grand Theft Auto 3 - Just the immense feeling of freedom I had and the random wacky shit that would occur definitely blew my mind.

Metal Gear Solid 2 - The beginning section on the Tanker in the rain, so perfect. Then it was all downhill.

edit: and oh yeah

Final Fantasy 7 - The FMVs.
 
Tekken 4 on the PS2, at the time just amazed me how real it looked. It happened again when they released Tekken 5 dark resurrection on the PSP, god that is one game that looks amazing on that device.
 
LTWood12 said:
I would love to know why the game is still $59.99 on PSN.
Click to expand...
Mindblowing, isn't it?

Edit: You can pick it up on disk new from Amazon for $12 and of course even cheaper used.

There's no justifying that $60 price tag, especially considering the multiplayer doesn't really work. I *almost* got into one match though!
 
Nymphae said:
Can't really think of something awe-inducing, but the dog jumping through the window in RE1 actually scared me so much the first time I saw it that I jumped off of the floor towards the PS1 and smashed the power button as hard as I could. I have never been so scared by a game and can't think of another game that affected me so much.
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This is awesome. Hopefully there are some developers in here who were in some way involved in some of these games!
 
seeing starfox in motion for the first time was probably when i got my cherry popped, in terms of mind-blowing gaming stuff. my friend had to calm me down because i was going into nerdgasms
 
First time playing Super Mario 64, Soul Calibur on Dreamcast, Final Fantasy VII FMVs, Uncharted at launch, and Fallout 3.
 
FFVII was the first game that made me realize games could have a story and characters you could actually get invested in. Before that it was mostly Mario, Sonic, and Punch-Out!!! for me.

Metal Gear Solid 2 was the first time I had ever heard of the idea of a shadow organization controller the government, and that democracy as we know it being a charade.

I have no idea how Jonathan Blow came up with some of the puzzles in Braid.
 
I can think of a few:

1. Final Fantasy VII - Leaving Midgar for the first time. It was one of my first RPG's so I thought Midgar was going to be the only area for the whole game. Getting to the world map and being able to walk around blew my mind.

2. Bioshock - Seeing Rapture for the first time along with the big twist.

3. Bioshock: Infinite - The ending.

These are the first things that came to my mind. I know there are quite a few more that just aren't coming to me at the moment, though.
 
That Motorstorm gif almost makes me wish Evolution was making another one of those instead of Drive Club. Can you imagine the insane weather effects on PS4?

almost.
 
Running down the mountain in Strider on the Genesis. If you played Strider you know what I am talking about. I replayed that over and over amazed at the graphics.
 
I'll always remember the time skip in Ocarina. Everything from that point on was an ongpoing cranial explosion. 2nd only to MGS.
1998... what a fucking year.
 
Joeku said:
Is that a guy surfing in on a fireball from the left side of the screen
Click to expand...
Hah. Looks like a biker that pushed his nitrous a bit too far.

Vire said:
That Motorstorm gif almost makes me wish Evolution was making another one of those instead of Drive Club. Can you imagine the insane weather effects on PS4?

almost.
Click to expand...
I hope we get to do more than just imagine weather effects in DriveClub.
 
abstract alien said:
Super Metroid

134202.png


At this moment, I found out anything was possible in a game. I imagined what it would be like if I could blow this thing up, and decided to try so I could complain about how it would have been cool had it been blown to bits. Damn was I shocked, and so very wrong. So much happened after that.
Click to expand...

Yup. That's the one for me.
 
I believe the most recent game that did this for me was Kid Icarus: Uprising! It was a constant surprise and experiencing it in 3d was completely awesome.
 
- shooting a child in Law of the West (C64)

- Little Computer People dude knocking on the inside of my monitor (C64)

- microwaving a hamster in Maniac Mansion/Zak McKracken (Amiga)

- seeing dozens of exploding Lemmings for the first time (Amiga)

- Super Probotector (Contra 3) mode 7

- seeing Mario sliding down the coin slide for the first time walking past an elecronics store in Singapore months before it came out in Europe.

- water physics in Wave Race 64

- sniping and hit detection in Goldeneye 64

- the village in RE4 (Gamecube)

- Flight Unlimited 3 (PC) training missions

- playing the Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis (PC) demo for the first time

- crashing in NASCAR Racing 2003 Season (PC)

- train ride in Half-Life (PC)

- using the gravity gun in Half-Life 2 (PC)

- Max Paine/Max Paine 2 (PC) bullet time

- Metroid Prime 3 IR controls

- Mario Galaxy's gravity mechanics
 
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