Stand out moments in gaming

L31mr0d

I was just thinking about this earlier about moments that really stand out in my memory of gaming.

When you think back over your life of gaming what are the moments that really stand out to you and why.

Off the top of my head:

The controller being controlled in MGS1, Stepping out into city 17 in Half Life 2, Aeris dying in FF7, The Milkman conspiracy level in Psychonauts...

I'm sure I'll think of more later

So what are yours?

Tyrant^

Sneaking around in first Thief game stealin everyones s**t

Playing Diablo 2 on dialup for the entire summer... £350+ phone bill !

Deus Ex, just an amazing game.

Mr E

Finding Polito on Deck 4 in System Shock 2. Great twist....

kasm

T-Rex in Tomb raider
Opening Beach assault in MOH:Frontline

Kiith

Halo: Driving the Warthog through the Pillar of Autumn was an awesome feeling. Loved the way the warthog controlled. I dont care what people say about the game now, that was fantastic.

Freespace 2: The final narrative from Admiral Petrarch. Hearing him tell my squadron (70th Blue Lions!!) that i had stayed behind to save countless lives. Felt so proud that day

Half Life 2: City 17. More please. Never has there been a game that made me think "Wow" as much as City 17 did. It just felt so bleak and realistic. The people there were beaten, and they knew it.

Homeworld: Seeing your homplanet on fire, with Adagio for Strings playing in the background was really effective. I really wanted to kill those attacking ships after that. Actually, scratch that. Just seeing the first proper fight in glorious 3d was a massive high point. Space Opera at its very best.

Medal of Honour: Allied Assault: Again, as someone else said, the beach landing was an amazing part of the game. It really felt like death could come from anywhere, and the amazing sound and effects really added to it.

World of Warcraft: Seeing some of the places that i had known from the strategy games, for the first time. Stormwind Keep, the Dark Portal, Ogrimmar etc...brilliant.

More to come.

Mr E wrote: »

Finding Polito on Deck 4 in System Shock 2. Great twist....

+1. Probably the biggest twist i have ever come across in a game. Revan....pft!

Ishmael

The lines of blood level Max Payne.

First time fighting the Ogre in Resi 4

First time playing F.E.A.R.(especially if you were alone, in the dark)

Genghiz Cohen

Stepping through The Dark Portal for the first time.
Playing Mig-29 for the first time.
Jazz Jackrabbit.

Dacelonid

Visiting the Haunted Mansion in Vampire the Masquerade:Bloodlines.
That was a creepy ass level and even now I won't attempt to play that quest in the dark. There was just somethign about it that sent shivers down my spine.
Any dev trying to make a horror game should look at that level and see how it is possible to scare people, without resorting to blood, gore and dark corridors.

Vegeta

The first time you leave Kokiri village and enter Hyrule Field in the OoT. I was simply lost for words.

Golden Eye multiplayer, so many evenings playing that with friends

Ri_Nollaig

Dacelonid wrote: »

Visiting the Haunted Mansion in Vampire the Masquerade:Bloodlines.
That was a creepy ass level and even now I won't attempt to play that quest in the dark. There was just somethign about it that sent shivers down my spine.
Any dev trying to make a horror game should look at that level and see how it is possible to scare people, without resorting to blood, gore and dark corridors.

remember that well, and i loved that game dispite its bugs

-oblivion: the moment you left the sewers and step out into the full world.
-gta:vc: getting into the first car at the very start and hearing billie jean
-deus ex: all of it
-kotor1: the twist
-operation flashpoint: the mission where your squad are all killed and you have to run through the forest like hell to escape the russians who are hunting you down

L31mr0d

Some more I was thinking about:

• Playing DOOM on the GBA:SP
• Holding Pegasus Bridge in Call of Duty (actually went on a trip around Normandy because of that game)
• Getting the "Cidonia or Bust" prompt in UFO: Enemy Unknown
• First LAN experience playing Descent
• Getting past the barrel in Sonic 3
• Playing through Sonic 2 as Knuckles
• Cammy's victory poses in Street Fighter 2

Of all of them though the most stand out moment for me has to be:

• Shadow of the Beast II

That intro (the long one) scared the bejasus out of me at the time. I was 8 and playing it with a friend in the dark on his commodore amiga. We had snuck downstairs at around 2am, loaded it up and sat there with jaws dropped at the graphics in the opening, the guy morphing into a demon and then flying down and abducting the screaming baby. The game itself still is one of the most eerie games I've ever played.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srJw4IBai7g

keane2097

Vegeta wrote: »

The first time you leave Kokiri village and enter Hyrule Field in the OoT. I was simply lost for words.

This.

Same goes for leaving Midgar in FF7 and also I was so happy when I reached Cosmo Canyon having read about it in a strategy guide and salivating over how class it sounded!

The snow field at the beginning of MGS - so tense and brilliant.

Winning the World Cup with my beloved Denmark and two of my mates in co-op mode on Pro Evo 6. The glory was unbelievable!

Mark Hamill

L31mr0d wrote:

The Milkman conspiracy level in Psychonauts...

The Lungfishopolis level too was pretty genius.

Other stand out moments:

Silent Hill 2: The atmosphere, pyramid head and the storyline.

Retr0gamer

Megaman: OMG! 4 colours on a sprite!

Ocarina of Time: Stepping out into Hyrule Field and realising just how big the game was.

Mario 64: 3D movement that actually worked.

Gunstar Heroes: How the **** did they get this running on the megadrive?

F-zero: Wow! Real 3D graphics! (they weren't really).

Being blown away by Doom.

Super Metroid, not only one of the greatest games ever but it told an excellent story with no dialogue.

Ico: Minimalistic but with more depth than most other games.

Shadow of the Colossus, enough said.

Metroid Prime: Reminding me that I loved videogames after a cold period.

Panzer Dragoon Saga: Amazing piece of stroytelling and what an ending.

Suikoden 2: The only game that brought me close to tears.

Resident Evil: I didn't want a Saturn anymore

ghouldaddy07

hyrule field in OOT.

First time seing the city of vivec in morrowind left me fairly speechless.

Escaping the shinra hq fmv from ff7.

holding on for dear life on the first flying colosus in SHOTC.

Smoggy

The opening level of resident evil 1 on the psone when the dogs jumped out from behind the glass. I dropped my pad and nearly filled my pants with sh*t !

NunianVonFuch

Eternal Darkness - When you start to go mad. Particularly when your character starts falling through the floor and when it asks you to reconnect your joypad or pretends the console power is off. Or when your limbs are scattered across the screen only to reappear as normal a few seconds later.

humanji

As mentioned above, Homeworld when you see your planet burning was a pretty powerful image that I really wasn't expecting.

Also, the first time I saw Wolfenstein 3D, I was blown away. I couldn't believe how amazing it looked.

Also, The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, the first time you set foot outside of the sewers and see an absolutely huge world laid out in front of you, that also looked beautiful.

And even though the game itself was fairly meh, the part in Crysis where you're advancing to the centre of the island and you see the mountain in front of you crumbling away to reveal a huge alien craft. I thought it looks incredible and I actually stopped moving to just watch it fall apart.

L31mr0d

humanji wrote: »

And even though the game itself was fairly meh, the part in Crysis where you're advancing to the centre of the island and you see the mountain in front of you crumbling away to reveal a huge alien craft. I thought it looks incredible and I actually stopped moving to just watch it fall apart.

Yeah same here, I actually was just moving along and didn't even know that mountain was there then I see this big boulder falling in the distance and look up to see the whole mountain crumbling. I also stopped to watch it happen as it was completely unexpected

The ending of Grim Fandango blew me away.

First time you went into bullet-time with Max Payne.

Vyse

The first time I went online with Phantasy Star. Could believe you could get such a level of connectivity from a 33kbps modem and what a great community.

Also, picking up a baseball bat in Double Dragon and beating the cr@p out of the enemy. Never saw it done before. Could it have actually been the first game to let you do this?

super_furry

Thief 3 – The Shalebridge Cradle. The single best level in any game, pretty much ever.

Ocarina of Time – Stepping out onto Hyrule Field and just wandering about as day turns to night.

World of Warcraft – Making a Tauren Hunter as my first character and wandering around the starting area thinking 'is this it?' as I can across just one or two other players. Then finally getting a quest to go to Thunderbluff, a living, breathing city full of people.

KoTOR – The twist. Never saw it coming at all.

Jumping Flash – Nevermind Mario 64, this was the first platform game that convinced me a 3D platformer was possible.

Ross_Mahon

The Darkness- Fighting a load of SWAT with that evil cool music that plays whenever your fighting enemy's.

GTA San Andreas - The Terminator chase scene on the bike.

Metal Gear Solid- Fighting Liquid, Epic!

Gears Of War- When you are outnumbered by Locust waiting for extraction,

General RAAM killing Kim with the epic music and camera effects...

Mass Effect- The ending is memorable, Cool music at the credits too. M4 Part 2 (Faunts)

Halo 3- The Escape at the end is hectic, Pedal to the metal and leave your friends behind to be killed (4 player Co-op online) The movie scenes are really good at the end.

See? I know how to use spoiler tags!

0ubliette

Gears of war - first time chainsawing a locust
The darkness - watching TV with jenny romano
Halo 3 - the first scarab/mongoose fight
Bioshock - meeting andrew ryan
Monkey Island - Finding out who fester shinetop really was
Resident Evil 2 - the intro
REmake - crimson heads

MOH

Ishmael wrote: »

The lines of blood level Max Payne.

... with that weird baby crying/shrieking noise
+1

Ri_Nollaig wrote: »

-operation flashpoint: the mission where your squad are all killed and you have to run through the forest like hell to escape the russians who are hunting you down

+1

Half-life, when you come out under open sky. Being on the side of that cliff dodging the helicopter.

Zillah

L31mr0d wrote: »

The controller being controlled in MGS1

That was a really clever gaming moment.

Zillah

Kiith wrote: »

Freespace 2: The final narrative from Admiral Petrarch. Hearing him tell my squadron (70th Blue Lions!!) that i had stayed behind to save countless lives. Felt so proud that day

This is a game I think not enough people have played. Who would've thought that a spaceship fighter-pilot game would have one of the most dramatically told narratives in gaming history.

(Don't read this if you haven't played it and would ever consider it, serious spoilers: )

Most dramatic moments: First appearance of the Sathanas, first appearance of the Collossus, desperate defense of the Aquitaine, the victory of the Collossus over the Sathanas, the arrival of the juggernaut fleet, the destruction of both the Collossus and the Psamtik (real sad face on that one), the gathering of the juggernaut fleet around the star and finally, the last desperate defense of the escape convoys followed by a supernova.

God damn I love that game.

Oh and of course

Those wondefully written log entries by Bosch

Killinator

Meal of Honour:Allied Assault- Beach Landing(the sound was immense)

Max Payne-Subway Station,The final helicopter scene(pure brilliance)

Conkers Bad Fur Day: Saving Private Ryan parody, Matrix parody (stonkingly good stuff)

Gran Turismo 3: Opening Video(that Castrol Supra was gourgeous)

Call of Duty 4: Nuke scene, Final Scene(genuinely hard to take,alarming)

Delta Force-Black Hawk Down: Multiplayer (my 1st proper online experience)

Black & White: Everything(being able to choose what to do)

sure theres more......

Zillah

Killinator wrote: »

Black & White: Everything(being able to choose what to do)

I'm sorry I just threw up into my mouth a little.

BuddhaJoe

Sitting through the intro to Half Life 1 for the first time.

humanji

Killinator wrote: »

Call of Duty 4: Nuke scene, Final Scene(genuinely hard to take,alarming)

Forgot all about that nuke scene. It was fantastic. It's rare that a game does something that unexpected and

playing the dying moments of your character

was a bizarre feeling.