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[BlackTron]

There are lots, but seeing Mario 64 running for the first time at a KB Toys demo kiosk, nothing will ever come remotely close.

 

[Codswallop_]

Renting a Playstation for the first time with Ace Combat, Toshinden, and that infamous demo disc with the t-rex. Going from snes to that as a kid was mind blowing, probably spent more time with that demo disc that anything else.

Also, getting an N64 with Shadows of the Empire. Mario64 was super impressive and everything, but that Hoth battle really blew my mind back then.

 

[JCK75]

in the early 90's when my best friend got a PC and introduced me to Doom and Alone in the Dark for the first time..
my mind was just BOOM..

I was a dishwasher/busboy so I saved for months to get myself a PC - this is a life altering moment because it's the key thing that lead to my current career in IT.

 

[Oida di Figgiano]

Broken Sword Shadow of the Templars - although not the first point and click by any means, the amount of depth and the quality of the story and acting blew me away when I first played it at 11 years old.

This. I was a bit older when i first played it but i got sucked into it by the story and atmosphere like never before. Those classic PnC Adventures are some of my finest memories anyway. the Blade Runner PnC, of course Monkey Island, Jack Orlando, and the list goes on...

edit: Of course there are some more "wow" moments, GTA 3 for the first time (and following every gta game for the first time), first time free running in AC and the glyphs in AC2, Pro Evolution Soccer 6 and my first nba 2k (it was 2k1 on dreamcast) where all of a sudden sports got "realistic" compared to the arcade style that was the norm until then. But Broken Sword, man until today that one is special.

 

[Sentenza]

One of the times I've been the most impressed by new tech comparably to its time frame has been when Half-Life 2 was shown to the press for the first time at E3.
It looked almost like science fiction stuff compared to a lot of things that came before it.

 

[molasar]

Killer Instinct Arcade in 1994.

 

[AquaticSquirrel]

Shadow of The Colossus, hot damn

 

[NeoGiffer]

 

[Birdo]

It's still coming out of the sewer in Oblivion.

It ws my first HD open-world game and it blew me away seeing the mountains (That you could go to!)

 

[Warnen]

1st time I went from Qyenos to Freeport in EverQuest. We had a guide and it felt like an epic adventure.

 

[Arachnid]

I'll never forget the hype I felt the 100+ times I watched the Silent Hills trailer.

 

[Hunnybun]

Mario 64 when it was revealed at Space World 95. Nothing comes remotely close.

It was INCREDIBLE. Back then Nintendo would regularly completely reinvent how games should be played. It's sad that that was basically the last time we saw a cutting edge Mario game, in terms of graphics. Sunshine was ugly even at the time.

The next would probably be Virtue Fighter 2 in the arcade. It just looked staggering at the time.

A recent one that probably deserves a mention is the gameplay demo of TLOU2 at E3 2018. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It looked next gen.

 

[parappatherapper]

PSVR.

And Astrobot.

 

[digoutyoursoul]

From NES to SNES, walking into a local independent game store as kid and they had a Super Famicom hooked up to the TV with Contra 3 playing, was totally blown away particularly the music and sound effects. The SNES UK release couldn’t come quick enough!

 

[EverydayBeast]

Other than Ocarina of Time COD4 opened the floodgates to addictive, FPS MP for me big win for InfinityWard.

 

[bitbydeath]

I’m in the minority and never understood the attraction to Mario 64, sure it’s a fun romp but it far pails in comparison to Tomb Raider... IMO

The jumps were fun.

Swimming was a blast

There were dinosaurs

And she had a lot of wonderful animations.

That was next-gen.

 

[Eternal21]

The Last of Us:

 

[Kupfer]

Switching from GeForce2MX400 to ATIs 9800pro back in 2004 and see the difference between DX7 and DX9.

 

[lock2k]

Mario 64 vs everything that came before it on consoles.
Off the top of my head.

This as well. And I was a full on Sega kid (but also really liked Nintendo's games despite not owning their consoles at the time). Mario just blew me away.

Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast was also a wow moment for me.

 

[TheContact]

this might sound stupid but it was 1997 and I was around 11, playing Ultima Online, and I went into a tailor and bought a dye tub and dyes, then dyed my clothing blue, put it on my character (paperdoll), and it reflected the change on my avatar.

 

[Freeman76]

Tomb Raider sense of isolation

PSO first online experience

Mario 64 ingenuity

FF7 epicness

OOT cosiness

RE7 VR a whole new take on gaming

 

[Schmick]

It doesn't happen often but the moment that still sticks in my mind is the one evening playing Battlefield 2. Just another session like any other. Playing with random players, doing our own thing. Things changed though when I and another player took control of a Apache. I was the pilot and he/she was the gunman. Everything just harmonised. I was flying better than ever and he/she gunning down the enemy. And even when we were shot down we raced to the chopper, back to our roles. And continued our onslaught. I didn't want it to end. But of course it did.

Other notable moments;

The ability to change the view in Virtua Racing.

Seeing Flight Sim 95 with 'photo realistic' graphics.

Playing Sega Rally on my Sega Saturn after so many times playing at the arcades.

GTA 3 on the Playstation 2.

Seeing GT 3 on PS3 for the first time.

FS2020 after the Japan update and flying around Mount Fuji at dawn.

The list goes on and on. This is why I love gaming. Moments.

 

[teezzy]

The experience of building my own PC for the first time with all the parts I'd scrapped together by the seat of my pants, plugging it in, having it actually boot up, then pirating a copy of Witcher 3 (I could barely afford the PC as is) and just sorta basking in the game's glory.

That outweighed seeing Mario 64 for me tenfold.

Thanks, Geralt.

 

[Desudzer10]

Very first PS1 game i ever played was Legend of Legaia. It looked good and i was happy with it, but then the first video cutscene played when the village was being destroyed and i went oh s***. That's my wow moment

 

[amigastar]

Yes, this for me also, remember playing it the whole night at a friends house. K-JAH introduced me to Dub Reggae.

 

[GloveSlap]

Mario 64. Super Mario Bros-NES was mind blowing as well. Its cool that Nintendo is doing their own thing now, but I miss when Nintendo was pushing more cutting edge hardware.

 

[meech]

First Mass Effect, especially the scene were the Sovereign not even really fighting his opponents, but "flying through" them,
destroying them this way. The beginning in Witcher 2, the opening with King Foltest.

 

[Arkam]

First wow moment:
Seeing the rain in LoZ LttP on the SNES. When you walked outside for the first time and their was “weather” my eyes were the size of dinner plates.

 

[notseqi]

BF2 demo; Specifically seeing all the players sitting on the aircraft carrier, and then a group of us boarding into a Blackhawk to fly into enemy territory. It was one of the first games I played on my original PC build and will always have a special place in my heart.

I think some of the BF trailers shocked me too. Frostbite BF3/4 was amazing. And the trailers held up, insane stuff happened.

 

[SpiceRacz]

Super Mario 64

This was the first instance, for me and probably others, of seeing the game in motion. It's a VHS tape from Nintendo Power.

 

[elenapska]

Resident Evil 1

The Legend of Zelda OOT

Silent Hill

 

[xpresstuning]

The first time i played Doom II wen i was 9 years old.

 

[sxodan]

Me, a seven-year-old kid and this title screen.

 

[Robot Carnival]

pretty sure I had plenty of "oh cool!" and "wow" moments back in the days but can't really remember them since it's so long ago. here's some that I do remember thou.

seeing someone really tricking it out on a DDR arcade.

first time playing Virtual On in the arcade.

first time playing Descent.

playing Live a Life and realize that everything somehow connected together through the different stories.

playing the Capcom Dungeons and Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara and seeing the beautiful animation in arcade.

playing FFVII.

the original Half Life.

trying out the full cabinet screen Gundam arcade game in Japan.

playing Homeworld and seeing my home got glassed from orbit in the first mission.

seeing the MGS2 trailer on the big screen in E3. (ended up just standing there and watched it like 2 more times)

getting in line and seeing the Half Life 2 demo in E3 in person.

playing Monster Hunter World.

the beginning story of Prey (2017).

a lot of the PS games, Shadow Of Colossus, Journey, God of War, Horizon, FF7remake, Spiderman.

there's probably more but these are the ones I can think of now.

 

[Bakkus]

Given my age, I cannot relate to the Super Mario 64 reveal. I have to give this to how Xbox 360 games like Kameo, Perfect Dark Zero, etc looked when they came out.

 

[Jaxcellent]

Easy, PSVR! I seeing your virtual hands for the first time in Batman VR blew we away!

 

[MiguelItUp]

• Playing online multiplayer for the first time knowing that you're playing with other people around the country/world. (Quake was my first online game, and I remember flipping out at the realization that each Ranger was a real person. That feeling was exasperated in Quake II when I saw people speaking French and German for the first time.)
• Going from integrated video to a video card/GPU that supports Direct 3D/Open GL for the first time. (Going from software to Open GL with Quake, Quake 2, Jedi Knight, etc. was pretty wild.)
• Seeing Super Mario 64 in action for the first time.
• Seeing FMVs for the first time, like Resident Evil (PS1) and the live action beginning FMV.
• Seeing 60FPS games in action for the first time.

 

[Valentino]

I genuinely couldn't believe the water in Uncharted Drakes Fortune. I played the demo and was not expecting it. Spent more time in the water than I like to admit.

 

[DJT123]

 

[Trumpeter]

Honestly, GTA3 on the PS2 and Gta4 on the PS3.

I understand there were more impressive stuff on the PC during these time periods, but I didn't have access to that then.

I started using a high quality gaming PC a few years later, but the next thing that really impressed me was probably The Last Of Us. Facial expressions and animations were just so far above anything else at that time.

 

[chikydee]

Alex kidd on the original sega console. The first game I ever played and what made me love gaming to this day, decades later.

 

[rubenburgt]

Playing mario 64.

The shift from 2d to 3d is definitely my "wow" moment.

 

[KO7]

My earliest years gaming was playing Street Fighter 2 in the arcades, so my biggest wow moment was bringing home an SNES and a copy of Street Fighter 2 and playing it for the first time at home. The game was so revolutionary for its time as a console game that I remember the game cartridge being more expensive than the SNES system when my parents bought em.

 

[MasterDerico]

When i saw Soul Calibur running on Dreamcast.
First time i played Streets of Rage 2.
Splatterhouse remake announcement.

And recently, the announcement of DMC5.

 

[MarkMe2525]

Walking into service merchandise and seeing a N64 kiosk running Mario 64. I walked up to the strange looking controller and upon grabbing it and controlling mario I was immediately blown away.

Also Driver, the first open world game I ever played. it was so impressive being able to drive wherever I wanted while running away from the cops.

 

[PlayStaytion]

Ps2 , the perfect console successor of all times, even the demo disc is unique on its own way , back in the day when my friends bashing me for not having a sony playstation console and it lasted till I bought the beast before them and they were jealous of me for being earlier to jump on next gen before them , those were the days.

 

[ThatOneGrunt]

Playing Super Mario 64 for the first time, on a Toys R Us demo unit, before the console was out.

I remember running around in 3D and being amazed by how responsive the controls were. How easy it was to navigate that 3D space. And then I saw the fence around the moat of the castle and thought, there's going to be an invisible wall. If I try to jump over it, there will be a barrier and I'll just bounce back. And then, when I jumped over the fence and landed in the water, that was it. The most, naturally, blown away I had ever been because of a video game.

 

[dwish]

Mario Galaxy - level design
MGS4 - story sequences
Astrobot - same as Mario Galaxy
Super Metroid - same as Mario Galaxy
Chrono Trigger/FF6 - gameplay/world design
FF7 - story

 

[Zog]

What's been your favourite "wow" moment in gaming history?

WOW, I can't believe Blizzard thought people would be excited about a Diablo mobile game.

 

[DaleinCalgary]

Mario 64 and nothing else comes close.