What advances in gaming blew your mind the most?

arcticmonkeys

Mass Effect 1 to Mass effect 2. The combat was vastly improved. Its was an absolute nightmare to make it through a mission in ME1.

.ak

and then this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwNt_9GvpFI

:eek:

TheDoc

Mentioned already, but World of Warcraft was a truely incredible moment in my gaming life, that just changed everything I expect from a game. No longer was I content with finishing a game in like 5 hours. Literally everything changed.

At the time I was pretty much 60-40 in favour of consoles, with only really CS being played on my PC and a few other bits. But with WoW, I started looking into hardware, upgrading my PC and it started of a whole new thing for me, as well as introducing me to a group of friends that I still play games with YEARS on.

Never forget that feeling of Vanilla WoW and then TBC, while its long gone now, and I still love the game, there was something incredibly unique about that time. I think for most people who dive into new MMO's on launch, its trying to recapture that feeling of the first year of WoW.

Benzino

Solider of Fortune: The dismemberment was great in that, never seemed to really catch on in other FPS games though.

Unreal Tournament: Probably my favourite multiplayer shooter I've ever played, some great weapons and maps, and the mod support was fantastic.

Max Payne: Nothing better than diving in and clearing out a whole room matrix style, so satisfying especially when you see the bullets break tiles off the walls and such. Loved the setting too (something which I think played a part in me not really liking Max Payne 3).

cadete

Fifa International soccer for me on my mega drive for me was a massive leap and was definitely a wow moment, gran tourismo too

sKeith

Midwinter 2 Flames of freedom. My first open world game where you could run around, swim, jump into cars, jeeps, planes, flying subs etc. Mindblowing.

Descent + Descent 2. Added another dimensions to doom doom2 quake etc.
Red Faction, destroying the enviroment was new.

Generic Dreadhead

Uncharted 3 (being the 1st of the series I'd played) made me feel like a child full of wonder again due to it's gameplay, visuals, set pieces and whacky story

Also I don't like Racing games really but as mentioned the 1st Gran Turismo was amazing looking.

Command and Conquer Generals with it's 3D-ness where you could drive bike off low clips was a big deal for the time, been replaying it recently actually.

The FMVs in the Original Command and Conquer

Playing Wii Sports for the 1st time

The-Rafalution

Metal gear solid 1. There was something special about that game. I remember playing playing the demo constantly and the game as well. Certain things like the fact it was 2 disc based and that you could do things like smoke fags to no benefit was mind blowing at the time.

chopperbyrne

Pal 60 was a big step forward in the days of the GC.

Having games running full screen and at proper speeds.

GottaGetGatt

Metal Gear Solid 1, we had the demo for months before the game out and myself and the brother just played the hell out of it. We were so happy to find the Socom Pistol inside the back of the truck.

GTA 3 was another one that sticks out and of course San Andreas.Just how much the game allowed the freedom to do absolutely anything.

Red Dead Redemption have me similar feelings.

But for me it has to be The last Of Us, everything from the story telling and the brilliant performance by the two actors. I'd never experienced a game so revolutionary.

Retr0gamer

chopperbyrne wrote: »

Pal 60 was a big step forward in the days of the GC.

Having games running full screen and at proper speeds.

It was the Dreamcast that brought that in. The fact that the PS2 wouldn't support PAL60 was a big deal at the time and the outcry forced Sony to allow developers to offer NTSC 60Hz.

chopperbyrne

Yeah, but the Dramcast had the worst controller of all time.

razorblunt

Fifa Soccer on the Mega Drive: when you realise you can run away from the referee before getting booked

Fifa: first time you hear proper commentary on a game

Pro Ev 6: probably the best footballing game ever

Recently on GTA V a moment caught me out of nowhere, I was driving up into the hills at sunset and caught a glimpse of the city twinkling before me, I actually parked up and just watched.

Almost finished The Last of Us having finally gotten a PS4, the whole experience is incredible.

SoapMcTavish

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

The advances that made the biggest impression on me were
Knightlore, on the ZX Spectrum, I never really liked the mechanics of the game but the graphics were so far ahead of everything else at the time, a solid 3D world.

Agree ! But "Head over Heels" on speccy was so much better - the first game I HAD TO complete.

Rebelstar - speccy - no leap in graphics, but the gameplay !

Retr0gamer

chopperbyrne wrote: »

Yeah, but the Dramcast had the worst controller of all time.

Spoken like someone that has never used the 5200 controller. 'Shudder'

Myrddin

Probably the first time I booted up Half Life after upgrading my PC with a Voodoo 3200 pci card. It was jaw dropping after being used to software rendering beforehand.

Similarly, playing the demo of Wipeout on my brand new launch PS1 for the fits time. It was like, woah...the future is now :eek:

Retr0gamer

razorblunt wrote: »

Fifa: first time you hear proper commentary on a game

Pretty sure it was Actua Soccer that had that first.

adocholiday

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Pretty sure it was Actua Soccer that had that first.

Wow I played the hell out of that game! I got it with my PS1 along with Tekken. Just looked it up there and dear god it is hideous looking!

With regard to the thread the most memorable moments for me were:

• Performing a fatality for the first time in Mortal Kombat 2 on the SNES.
• The detail of Final Fantasy 7. The scope of the game, the materia system, the summon FMVs... everything about that game was amazing to me. Still my most favourite game of all time.
• Similar to other people's posts on Gran Turismo but for me it was Gran Turismo 3 on the PS2. It was the first time that I was completely blown away by graphics in a game.
• My first time playing games online. It was Gears of War on the 360. I thought I was good at games until I started playing online. GoW and CoD Modern Warfare online were some of the best hours I ever spent gaming.

Retr0gamer

I think Actua Soccer might have been the first game to use motion capture as well... looking at it now I'm not sure why people got excited about the animation

ZiabR

ShadowHearth wrote: »

World of Warcraft.

I was a huge fan of Warcraft games and its lore. The idea that I could visit places in Lore as a simple foot soldier just blew my mind. First few years of WoW were magical, I would kill to have that feeling again.

I would have to agree with you on this one. When it launched I had 2 close friends working in Blizzard in Paris. They got me a 50 year card for the game so I never had to pay for WoW in the 5 years I played it. We used to play Warcraft 2 and 3 so when WoW came out, the lore and character creation was amazing. The game was beautiful, 40 man raids were so much fun and challenging.

It became a problem though :rolleyes: and resulted in me selling my PC just so I could not play it anymore, and I have never built a new PC. It became a second job, racing home from work to hit the Molten Core or farm Onyxia. That was years ago.

I still really miss the game and the craic we had, probably the best gaming years of my life and I am playing games since the 80's

razorblunt

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Pretty sure it was Actua Soccer that had that first.

Possibly, but I never played it!

Andrew76

Not sure if it's been mentioned already but one gaming advance that stands out for me was moving from the C64 to the Amiga. We got an A500 one Christmas and apart from the leap in quality of the games, it was the speed a game would load from disc versus a tape on the C64 that was amazing. With the C64 you could be waiting 10 to 20 minutes and quite often have the game crash on you just as it was about to load into the start screen. Don't mind having to swap sides on the tape with some games. Compared to under a minute on the Amiga depending on the game.

It's a measure of how far technology has come when I find myself giving out about 30 second loading screens in Bloodborne! :pac:

Also, the first time I played Hunter on the Amiga was pretty special. The 3D and sense of freedom was excellent.

SolvableKnave

logik wrote: »

.....They got me a 50 year card for the game so I never had to pay for WoW in the 5 years I played it.....

:eek::eek:

You still have it? :P:D:P:D

Skerries

Andrew76 wrote: »

Also, the first time I played Hunter on the Amiga was pretty special. The 3D and sense of freedom was excellent.

god! Hunter was so amazing that you could just wander around this island and explore wherever you wanted
I don't even remember if there was any gameplay

it looks terrible today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA3pTA2DNhc

Mr Freeze

Ragdoll physics.

Playing Hitman 1 on the PC, I remember shooting a guy when escaping the lab at the start, couldn't believe when he fell to the ground almost like a real person would have.

Since then the Euphoria engine, which GTA, Red Dead and the Star Wars The Force Unleashed games use. Pretty amazing when bodies fall over or get flung around in a realistic manner as opposed to a set death animation.

ZiabR

SolvableKnave wrote: »

:eek::eek:

You still have it? :P:D:P:D

Yeah I do, well I mean it is on my account still.

SolvableKnave

logik wrote: »

Yeah I do, well I mean it is on my account still.

Well, of course. You know how these things go though, someone says they still have some stuff lying around not being used, your bound to have someone ask...

ZiabR

SolvableKnave wrote: »

Well, of course. You know how these things go though, someone says they still have some stuff lying around not being used, your bound to have someone ask...

I know what you were getting at... :pac:

It was a thing when someone joined Blizzard at the time.
They got:
3 x 50 year cards
3 x 5 year cards

And I think a bunch of 1 year cards, but its been so long I cant remember the numbers fully.

SolvableKnave

logik wrote: »

I know what you were getting at... :pac:

It was a thing when someone joined Blizzard at the time.
They got:
3 x 50 year cards
3 x 5 year cards

And I think a bunch of 1 year cards, but its been so long I cant remember the numbers fully.

50 year cards...... I'll be mid 70's when that thing expires, based on WoW's initial release date. :cool:

ZiabR

SolvableKnave wrote: »

50 year cards...... I'll be mid 70's when that thing expires, based on WoW's initial release date. :cool:

I know, I thought the same when I got it. But it is right. I never thought the game would last as long as it has. It is already 11 years old, crazy stuff.

And it has grossed 10 billion dollars as of July 2012. That is just insane.