Your 'WOW!' moments in gaming

[Steve Waltz]

2 people have already mentioned it, but my biggest ?Wow? moment was when stepping out of Vault 101 for the first time. I mean, I?ve had plenty of ?Wow? moments in gaming, but none of them are as memorable as my first few steps in Fallout 3. Aside from the very stylized Valkyria Chronicles, Fallout 3 was my first 7th gen game, so the graphics astounded me to no end. And then, as I?m walking down the side of the hill, the terrain just seemed to get bigger and bigger and then I realized that I could explore the everything I just saw? None of it was a backdrop just for looks. I started exploring all those broken down buildings I saw from the top of the hill and was just in total awe.

Up until that point, I think my other biggest ?Wow? moment was a boss fight in Mischief Makers. I?m riding on a missile, catching and throwing missiles back at the boss. It was pretty rad for a 10 year old kid.

 

[Bernzz]

I'm probably forgetting most, but I have a few.

Coming upon the first city for the first time in Assassin's Creed, with the view overlooking the whole place.

On that note, climbing up the tower with your brother in Assassin's Creed II, with the title drop and the view over Firenze. Assassin's Creed has always nailed visual spectacle in the environments.

Pretty much all of Crysis. That game looked (and still looks) amazing.

Many views in Far Cry 3, as well as that one mission. (You know the one. The one with the weed.)

I had my fair share of moments in Skyrim, too.

I think what we can gather from this is that I'm a sucker for views from high places, I guess.

 

[JagermanXcell]

Since someone took Anal Rodeo's reveal (Anor Londo from Dark Souls)

I'll have to say the Artorias cutscene from the DLC. Throughout the vanilla game he was basically an enigma to the overall world until time travel became a thing. Whereas most boss cutscenes were met with a frightened reaction of "oh no..."
Artorias' reveal, his design, his lore, his significance to a huge chunk of the game, and just his amazing entrance made me go "OH WOW YES, YEEESSS PLEASE FIGHT ME 1V1"
And then I died to super Guts.

Also the entire final boss of Persona 3. It was a long grueling fight, but not a single second of it ever stopped blowing me away.

 

[Remus]

Giants Citizen Kabuto - TIMMAH!

The floating parade at the beginning of Bioshock Infinite. There's just something very homely, yet surreal about the whole thing.

Skyrim - that first time you come upon a dragon, in a field, terrorizing the local wildlife as well as a platoon of Imperial troops that just happen to be marching by.

Oblivion - lost in the woods, picking the flowers, just beautiful.

 

[Piorn]

Wind Waker, and how for the first time the footsteps seemed to match up perfectly with the distance moved. Felt great and really next-gen.

Beyond Good&Evil, just driving along with my boat when suddenly that huge whale jumps out right in front of me. The scale of it startled me so much, I was frozen in awe for a moment.

I liked many other moments too, in many more games, but none stuck like those.

 

[Slegiar Dryke]

waaaaaaaaayyyyy too goddamn many to remember XD all the way back to snes, gameboy, and then beyond to now, not counting xbox stuff, I've played way too much across too many systems XD, and if I started listing I'd be here all day.....sooo.....ummmm.....lets see.......oh! here's a good one. Playing Dust: An Elysian Tail, and really taking in the fact that that game was made by one guy....and just....the world he created, the characters, the ART IS FREAKING GORGEOUS, and the gameplay can get so crazily fast paced its hilariously fun =) definitely a huge "WOW" moment ^^

 

[prpshrt]

-Crash bandicoot on the PS1. For its, I think it had some pretty amazing graphics and of course, the gameplay was also awesome.
-Skyrim. Being primarily an MMO player, skyrim was the first game outside of an MMO that just devoured time without me noticing.
-World of Warcraft. Dont think I've ever felt as immersed as I when I first played any game.

 

[prpshrt]

Playing FFXIII in 4k Resolution on the pc.

Out of curiosity, what card and what framerat? I'm upgrading shortly so I want to know if this is what my games will look like soon

 

[Scarim Coral]

The one that come to my mind is when you entered Mechonic Field in Xenoblade Chronicle. It was just one big industrial factory tower thing!

Also this music playing is just oozing of awesomeness!!

 

[MrCalavera_v1legacy]

Gotta admit that leaving Vault 101 and seeing the Wastes in first person had that 'wow' effect.

-But before that was first Fallout, and the encounter face(let's call it like that) to face with The Master + what happened after that.

-"I choose... Rapture!"

-Omaha in MoH:AA, Stalingrad in first CoD and Pont DuHoc in CoD2. What can i say, i was a sucker for WWII shooters back then.

-After seeing the carnage i've done in Hotline Miami, and thinking "Wow, that's kinda fucked up"

-The cliffside part in Half-Life. Also the first glimpse of the Citadel in HL2.

There were also some less awe and more aww 'wows' in:

-Last 30 mins of Silent Hill 2

-You-know-which-part of Spec Ops: The Line.

 

[fenrizz]

The first time I played Morrowind.
I had never imagined a first person RPG, and it was somewhat magical too. Blew my mind.

Getting a Playstation as a kid, with Ridge Racer.
The 3D graphics were amazing like I couldn't believe, certainly much more impressive than the SNES and the Sega Megadrive.

- 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.

Final Fantasy IX had the same impression on me, stunning game.

Pokemon Red/Blue.
I got this for my Gameboy Color when it first came out, spent hours upon hours playing it.
I still love Pokemon.

 

[Auron225]

The two that come to mind at the moment...

Mass Effect 3: The Fleets Arrive
Seeing thousands upon thousands of ships pour through the Mass Relay for the final big showdown, most of which were due to Shepards efforts, made my jaw drop. All throughout that game you hear "Yeah we'll support you" and see War Asset points stack up - but seriously, seeing them all at once like that... for some reason it was seeing the Destiny Ascension arrive that made me gasp.

Kingdom Hearts 2: Battle of 1,000 Heartless
"Holy f*ck, I'm actually fighting 1,000 Heartless!!", I believe were my words at the time.

 

[Dizchu]

I have recently played a beta of an in-development map pack for Doom called Vela Pax. The design philosophy is basically "six large levels", it has been in development since 2010 I believe.

So I thought "cool, I'll check it out". I started the first level and realised that there were 1082 monsters in the level... I then looked at the map.

This is ridiculous

The map took about an hour and a half to finish. This was level 1. This was developed by one guy.

The amount of dedication to create something of this scale has to be applauded. The map was pretty fun too, though navigating it wasn't exactly easy.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

Two come to mind.

First Assassin's Creed, I was chasing down some random guard (I usually embellish this story a little and say target sometimes but whatever) and I'm starting to get close so I start hitting the kill button and Altair jumps to his right, off a crate, and right onto the guard. It was so fluid and awesome looking, it is still my favorite AC kill ever.

Shadow Of The Colossus, I was fighting the Turtle, at leas I call him the Turtle.

Spoiler: This guy

Which I just learned that most people call him the Turtle anyway.

I tipped him over with a geyser like you do, and the music kicked right as I did. Seeing him fall with the music backing me up, it was one of the most glorious moments in my gaming career, along with, well, most of the game.

 

[BodomBeachChild]

Man, so many. Hmm... the SNES was a pretty crazy system when I was young. A lot of the games were so big and colorful. Half-Life and MGS1 afterward, and Everquest. Just the sheer scope of it as a middle schooler was insane. Undocking for the first time in EVE was a pretty crazy experience. I regret not starting the game years ago.

Each generation has had it's moments. Too many to name. The change to real physics (or as close to) watching GTA go from top down to full on 3D, Morrowind, Mass Effect, and on and on.

 

[Vault101]

recently?

well at the end of act one in DA:I

[spoiler/]after the battle where haven falls, everyone's regrouped at camp...Mother Giselle starts singing and everyone joins in [/spoiler]

should it have been kinda cheesy in a "oh ok I get what your doing here" kind of way? yes

was it?.....no I FELT THE FEELINGS :')

[sub/]keeping in mind my expectations before going in were rather average[/sub]

 

[Denamic]

First time I played Doom. It was the first game with 3D graphics I had ever played, and it was amazing.

 

[Pete Oddly]

I have recently played a beta of an in-development map pack for Doom called Vela Pax. The design philosophy is basically "six large levels", it has been in development since 2010 I believe.

So I thought "cool, I'll check it out". I started the first level and realised that there were 1082 monsters in the level... I then looked at the map.

This is ridiculous

The map took about an hour and a half to finish. This was level 1. This was developed by one guy.

The amount of dedication to create something of this scale has to be applauded. The map was pretty fun too, though navigating it wasn't exactly easy.

Ooooooo...I want. Are the .WAD files for this compatible with the Brutal Doom mod? Please say yes.

 

[Dizchu]

Ooooooo...I want. Are the .WAD files for this compatible with the Brutal Doom mod? Please say yes.

Yup! I tried it and it lagged like hell though. Probably because Brutal Doom adds a ton of new stuff and the map is enormous and full of stuff as it is. If you ever played nuts.wad (the map that's basically one huge room and thousands of monsters) you'll know what I mean. I think you can turn a lot of the effects off though and it'll make it run smoother. Give it a go anyway, I hope the wad gets finished eventually, I'd like to see the other three maps completed (the beta only has maps 1, 2 and 5).

Here's the link: http://www.doomworld.com/vb/wads-mods/50158-wip-vela-pax-map05-updates-done-working-on-map04-now/

 

[Johnny Impact]

Booting up Altered Beast for the first time at home. I saved for ten months to buy a Genesis.

I once accidentally left my party asleep so long in Dungeon Master that they died of starvation. Just the fact that that could happen -- like pets, they would die even while essentially doing nothing if I didn't help them -- was a brand new thing for me at the time. Made the game seem alive. Changed my thinking.

First time I saw how incredible games could look on a PS3 with a brand new HDTV.

BioShock mindfuck. Few games in any genre had messed with me like that. For an FPS to do it was unimaginable. But there it was. I was working for the bad guy the whole time.

Seeing 200 zerglings flow like liquid in StarCraft 2. So frustrating that air power was the only thing that mattered in the first game.

Not the first time I played Minecraft, but the first time it hit me that with enough patience I could remake the whole world.