Your 'WOW!' moments in gaming

[Pete Oddly]

So many, it's hard to narrow it down to just a few. I'll do five. They may not be my top five, but they are the five that spring to mind at the moment.

1) That moment when you exit the Vault for the first time in Fallout 3.

2) The first time you get sucked into, travel through, and emerge from a time gate in Chrono Trigger. Trust me, at the time, those graphics impressed me greatly.

3) Sephiroth killing Aerith/Sector 7 collapsing (both had equal gut-punch reactions from me) in Final Fantasy VII.

4) The first zombie you see in a cutscene in Resident Evil. My friends and I were 11 at the time, and it scared us so much, none of us wanted to play the game after that.

5) When Ellie hacks David to death in The Last of Us. Seriously, that scene was just...wow. Grim...so fucking grim, but very, very satisfying.

 

[VoidWanderer]

With the xbox one and Ps4 one year old now, they both still have yet to deliver that 'wow' moment and I fear it may never happen, however these are mine:

1) First time I play Super Mario on the NES (graphics looked amazing)

2) That boot up screen on the Playstation on on the demo disk! going from snes to PlayStation was and still is the biggest leap I have ever seen.

3) Playing GTA 3 on ps2!

4) First time playing the tennis games on wii sports! (Admittedly is was a deception as the motion tracking wasn't as accurate as I first thought but I was still blown away.)

5) Playing Uncharted 2 on ps3 (my jaw stayed dropped for ages, graphics were absolutely beautiful)



6) Plugging my android phone into my TV and playing dead trigger 2 with a bluetooth controller and finally understanding that this could be the future, when only 10 years ago games weren't even in colour!)

What are yours???

Infamous Second Son is fun PS4 game. While not the scope of it's predecessor, it is so damn pretty!

 

[dark707]

I have to agree with one of Chester Rabbit's, the start of ME2 is one of my favourite openings for any game, solely for that moment in which all sound stops, all you hear is the breathing of Shephard, you look up, and just see the emptiness of space.

 

[JayRPG]

- Final Fantasy 9: the graphics at the time were just so beautiful. There were so many sad-wow moments too, like the Black Waltz No.3 vs. Black Mages cut scene.

- Tales of Symphonia: the wow moment was the whole game, I was so emotionally invested in it the first time I played. I was only young and I'd wait for my parents to go to sleep so I could turn my gamecube back on and play through the night.

- Baten Kaitos: the graphics... they were so good for the time and the console, one of the best looking games in that generation imo.

- WoW The Burning Crusade: waiting outside the dark portal after the midnight launch (we got it early in Australia so you couldn't go through yet), then finally stepping through and seeing the war. Almost every raid in BC gave me a WoW moment, the first time seeing lurker below appear, the whole of tempest keep, illidan in the black temple.

- Tales of Xillia: Gaius, every time he is on screen.

 

[Ten Foot Bunny]

Well, one moment just blew me away about 20 minutes ago! Finishing up Far Cry 4, the final push begins and the music kicks up a few notches. Not even a minute in, I realized that I knew the song. It was a modern version of this 1965 track:


THAT made me happy!

 

[Hero of Lime]

The N64 era pretty much did that to me all the time. Mario 64 and Star Fox 64 both introduced me to 3d, and it was amazing. Not just the visuals, but the controls for Mario 64 felt like something totally brand new.

The Zelda N64 games were the same way. I probably muttered "wow" so much when playing those two for the first time.

After that, it would be playing Star Wars: Rogue Leader, and Smash Bros. Melee on the Gamecube for the first time. To me, that was the jump to HD when everything looked so incredibly detailed and beautiful.

I remember Halo 3's visuals left an imprint on me. Everything looked so bright and shiny, the textures on the environments, vehicles, and guns made me feel like I could reach in and touch them.

Probably a bunch of other instances as well. I can be easy to impress sometimes.

Funny enough, something I just played today gave me such a great feeling. I'll put it in spoilers since it's a newer game. I would not put it among the moments I previously mentioned, but it was one of those moments where the game is simply the only thing I want to focus on, think about, look at, or listen to. That does not happen very often.

Spoiler: Pokemon Omega Ruby spoilers!!!

The part of the Delta episode where you are climbing Sky Pillar while Zinnia is telling you a bit of Rayquaza's history every new level you climb. You see more and more of a huge ancient mural, all the while this is playing.


Needless to say, it glued me to the game. The organs really help make this moment awesome, as organs always do.

 

[Pyrian]

Homeworld. Just... Homeworld.

 

[Drummodino]

Calling first time looking at Anor Londo before anyone else.

Damn you!

OT: There are so many but Dark Souls has a considerable number. My thought process at times was "I have to fight THAT thing?!?!"

Then I'd go and do it, and usually after being pounded into the dirt several times I'd emerge victorious and it feels amazing. Particular highlights include Artorias, Kalameet, O&S and the Gaping Dragon.

Moments from other games would include Mass Effect 2's suicide mission and Persona 3's final battle. Two of the best game climaxes of all time those are.

 

[Story]

I'm certain Shadow of the Colossus did this for me.
I can't think of any other older games, but I can think of some this year.

Transistor, Child of Light, and Kirby Triple Deluxe are a few examples.
I guess I'm easily impressed.

 

[WonkyWarmaiden]

The reveal of Rapture and Columbia in Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite. I had major goosebumps during those scenes.

 

[Arshaq13]

Well, one moment just blew me away about 20 minutes ago! Finishing up Far Cry 4, the final push begins and the music kicks up a few notches. Not even a minute in, I realized that I knew the song. It was a modern version of this 1965 track:


THAT made me happy!

As an Indian, you have no idea how many times I had a fat smile throughout the entire game. Everything from the culture, words(especially the swear words coz I'm immature like that), songs and to even how the average mid-20's Indian living in India speaks English(the Rana Ray guy from the radio, it's incredibly hilarious but pretty much accurate).

ALSO! To go on FarCry 4 again, there was this mission where you had to take down a drug factory and kill their head chemist.
Odd things start to happen when you do and then, and then you hear this awesome piece of UK Bhangra music from the past:

My friend and I actually stopped playing just to dance

 

[Elfgore]

First thing that comes to mind is the opening sequence to Call of Duty: Finest Hour. I remember being dazzled by the brutality and amazing graphics. It was my first war game as well.


This one happened when I first played The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion on max settings. I remember walking out of one of the DLC houses, which was located right at the shore of Topal Bay. I left during dusk and was met with something like this beautiful site.

Spoiler: Even today it looks amazing.

No place in any Bethesda game has ever amazed me as much as Topal Bay at sunset.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

Probably the first time I played Oblivion is my main one.
I'd only ever played Fable 1 and 2 RPGwise before Oblivion so the combat and graphics blew me away.

Finishing the Pillar of Autumn and stepping out of the pod onto Halo was also pretty incredible. That was the best change of pace in Halo hands down. I don't care what people say about meeting the flood.

I also tend to say wow whenever I die in multiplayer.

 

[Nazulu]

I remember I was first wow'd when I saw those dark vehicle army levels in Super Mario Brothers 3. I still love that idea.

Then I was completely blew away by the Super Metroid intro. I even watched the start up screen and gameplay shorts for awhile I was so dazzled by it all.

I went crazy with Warcraft 2 when I found out it had a map editor. I made up 250 maps. Minecraft sucks when compared to map editing.

Super Mario 64 psyched me up when I made it to the first boss who you had to throw down a big hill. That was the shit.

StarCraft. Just StarCraft. I fell in love with the bloody demo, replaying those same 4 levels about 20 times. Still believe it has the best style and music of all RTS's.

Lineage 2, my forever favourite MMO (well the classic chronicles), sucked me in when I saw it's great graphics (at the time) and awesome musical scores. I especially wow'd when I saw this giant beast called the Orphen wander around the low level area's, and people think WoW did it first.

Uh, fuck it. Golden Eye, Ocarina Of Time, Perfect Dark, Super Smash Brothers (the ad), Body Harvest, Mischief Makers, SSB Melee, Metroid Prime, beginning of Skyrim, and some others I probably forgot.

Then there's Half Life 2 which I first played in late 2012 (since I'm not a fan of shooters). Didn't think it would have so many awesome segments separating action and puzzles. Especially loved the boat to the prison break in, and the final part.

And the one that possibly surprised me the most, the original Half Life, which I only just played early this year. I did not expect that crazy intense adventure, especially the last 'area'. Didn't think I would be putting it above HL2 either.

 

[VincentX3]

Playing FFXIII in 4k Resolution on the pc.

Sure, it may not be the best Final Fantasy game, but no one can deny that its drop dead GORGEOUS

*Screenshots aren't mine but to state my point*

 

[TheMightyMeekling]

The opening screen of Civilization IV. Not even the intro music, thought that was also a WOW moment. I had lent a copy of the game from my library and was super excited to play it because it was strategy and history and science in one game, which was ten year old me's greatest love. The install bar took forever to finish. And when I start the game, and get to the title screen, there is this picture of earth with lights all over it and I just went 0_0 .

Then I ran to my parents and told them how amazing that was and they should come look at it naow!!

Civ is to this date my favourite strategy franchise.


Welp, I feel old and I'm not even old enough to drink, nor drive.

 

[The White Hunter]

More recently, the Odin fight at FFIV Fan Fest, all of us dropped the headsets in favour of just communicating our actions and plans while we fought and our victory was glorious, I came off that computer literally shaking from the sheer magnitude of win we had achieved.

The Elder Primal was slain at our hands.

Such flare. Such holy. Such DEAD > We roared the fucking roof off the place in triumph.

OT: Above, see also Titan Extreme first kill, that fight is fucking intense til the very end. Turn 5 is just as tough but the final part is very dull and easy.

In other games a lot of my best stuff is in multiplayer games. 600 metre headshots with revolvers in battlefield being things of particular joy. Nothing like the subsequent splurt of hate and bile from others.

Assassins Creed 2 was just so vibrant and lively that I loved it.

Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire back in teh day wowed me with their visuals, which were damend impressive for the hardware.

 

[Evonisia]

6) Playing Gears of War for the first time and being blown away with how cinematic it felt. I felt as even though I was playing it it was still as if I was watching a film...sadly it doesn't feel like that now.

Conveniently I started replaying that yesterday, and I am reminded of why it scared the hell out of me when I was younger. I think that game (still) does a remarkable job at creating a horror atmosphere, especially in the first two Acts. It also does a good job of combining gameplay with the atmosphere and world building. Sadly Act 4 kinda abruptly stops this world building, but Act 5 brings it back but into a different tone.

So I will say Gears of War 1, seeing as it came with my Xbox 360. I was just so blown away when the Berserkers and the Kryll stopped making me shit myself. Not even FarCry 1's Trigens made me as exhilarated as most of the enemies in that game (well, at the time anyway).

 

[ActionDan]

Recently had many "Wow" moments playing Elite Dangerous, or rather slightly tearing up at the sight of the beautiful vistas that can be seen on that game.

Space is amazing.