'Wow' Moments in Video Games

[101toMR]

Not really a video game, and really not at all in the genre of most of the above, but I remember being awestruck when I played Myst. Hard to believe it's over 20 years ago when me and my house mates started playing it, and then sat up to 3 or 4am for a whole week trying to break some of the puzzles. The graphics and game play at the time were unlike anything else I'd ever seen, and the complete immersion it caused was astounding.

I've not really played games since our kids were born, and the last console I had was the original Playstation, and I remember being amazed by Gran Turismo's graphics, and becoming totally addicted to all the Tomb Raider games.

Myst was one of my most favourite games of all time.
And it was in the days when you couldn't look up help on the internet, frustrating but rewarding beating it.

 

[lazza]

Not really a video game, and really not at all in the genre of most of the above, but I remember being awestruck when I played Myst. Hard to believe it's over 20 years ago when me and my house mates started playing it, and then sat up to 3 or 4am for a whole week trying to break some of the puzzles. The graphics and game play at the time were unlike anything else I'd ever seen, and the complete immersion it caused was astounding.

I've not really played games since our kids were born, and the last console I had was the original Playstation, and I remember being amazed by Gran Turismo's graphics, and becoming totally addicted to all the Tomb Raider games.

Myst was one of my most favourite games of all time.
And it was in the days when you couldn't look up help on the internet, frustrating but rewarding beating it.

Haha, yes, you're right. I remember the three of us playing it from getting in each afternoon until 3 or 4 in the morning, then going off to work / college the next day, and then all coming home with ideas how to crack the latest puzzle, as we'd all been thinking about it all day!

 

[101toMR]

Not really a video game, and really not at all in the genre of most of the above, but I remember being awestruck when I played Myst. Hard to believe it's over 20 years ago when me and my house mates started playing it, and then sat up to 3 or 4am for a whole week trying to break some of the puzzles. The graphics and game play at the time were unlike anything else I'd ever seen, and the complete immersion it caused was astounding.

I've not really played games since our kids were born, and the last console I had was the original Playstation, and I remember being amazed by Gran Turismo's graphics, and becoming totally addicted to all the Tomb Raider games.

Myst was one of my most favourite games of all time.
And it was in the days when you couldn't look up help on the internet, frustrating but rewarding beating it.

Haha, yes, you're right. I remember the three of us playing it from getting in each afternoon until 3 or 4 in the morning, then going off to work / college the next day, and then all coming home with ideas how to crack the latest puzzle, as we'd all been thinking about it all day!

It was the piano that did my head in :-)

 

[lazza]

Myst was one of my most favourite games of all time.
And it was in the days when you couldn't look up help on the internet, frustrating but rewarding beating it.

Haha, yes, you're right. I remember the three of us playing it from getting in each afternoon until 3 or 4 in the morning, then going off to work / college the next day, and then all coming home with ideas how to crack the latest puzzle, as we'd all been thinking about it all day!

It was the piano that did my head in :-)

That lift that you had to step out of before it descended which had levers on top of it. I reckon we wasted a week on that, and it was so bloody obvious!

 

[101toMR]

Did you ever try Riven?

 

[Ell-ano]

Two biggest 'wow' moments I've had on the PS4 so far:
1) Giraffe scene in The Last of Us.

2) Seeing the massive planet outside the spaceship for the first time in Alien Isolation.

These are the 2 best games I've ever played, so many wow moments in them, I can only hope that they'll carry them on with sequels

 

[@BluePhil8]

Some belters here.

Anyone said the start of God of War 3 when Kratos battles Poseidon? That looked stunning on PS3 so the PS4 version will be insane.

I remember starting Skyrim and it was my first Bethesda game. After leaving the first cave it was like "holy shit look at how big this world is".

Last of Us giraffes as mentioned above. Fallout 3 vault scene as mentioned above. Uncharted had some belting scenes as well like the infamous plane scene in U3. Demons Souls, said wow many times when discovering shortcuts and seeing hideous bosses for the first time.

Loads on the N64 as that was our first 3D console.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

The first time I saw the graphics on Donkey Kong Country.
As others have said Ocarina of Time (the sheer scale of it) and Goldeneye.
The opening of Half Life for the storytelling. It's the first time I've ever seen a computer game really tell a story in the medium itself. Usually they rely on film techniques to tell the story but Half Life finally got it.
The end of Deus Ex is incredible. Well, there's more than one ending.

Most recently, Child of Light. Simply the most beautiful game ever made. It's like playing a Miyazaki film and the soundtrack is incredible too.

 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Medal of Honor, off the boats at Normandy.

Anytime FIFA plays without doing something stupid

 

[Stuuuuuu]

It's got to be GTA3, seeing that there's this whole city and you can just go wherever you want and do what you want. Seeing a huge building off in the distance and actually going to it.

Honourable mentions for Shadow of the Beast 2 for the unsettling music and atmosphere, and The Secret of Monkey Island, being able to have a chat with hard bastards and say something really cheeky and provocative to them.