When was the last time you were awed by a game?

King_Kumquat

Alright this is an offshoot from the thread about MMO's specifically http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/4307536/The-last-time-you-were-awed-by-an-MMO.html#4307536 by GPrestige

Any game!

A couple of weeks ago did someone pull off a crazy capture in GO on you? Or maybe a pal did something crazy with some house-rules table top on the Hero System? Or a console title that had a moment that lifted the hairs off your arms?

I didn't play Metal Gear Solid 4 until this past Spring and man did I feel like a moron for not popping that disk in sooner. It had some hyperbolic portions of story-telling, but it felt like I was watching an epic. Good stuff.

Squal'Zell

the latest has to be bioshock 1 story and the whole city of rapture and the "feel" that you where really in an underwater city thats leaking and broken all over, very well made (specially when i updated my graphics card and maxed out everything)

bioshock 2 lost that awe effect it was more combat fun but less game fun. 

looking forward to that bioshock infinite, the gameplay trailer left me in awe, i cant imagine what the whole game will be like.

before that was the first time in logged into SWG Launch day (RIP) and saw the tattoine desert and then the naboo royal palace

 

its sad that nothing recent has given me shivers like those 2 events

taulutussi

Probably last year when I played Demon's Souls. It was a joy to experience such a challenge in a non-indie game once again. It's nice to see that some studios still want your gaming experience to feel like you've accomplished something when you finally beat it.

stayontarget

My very first time I was truely awed in a game was System Shock 2.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Shock_2

It was way ahead of its time.

Castillle

Hmmm... When i read the OP, a bunch of stuff popped into my head.
Super mario sunshine. I love the nintendo style aesthetics. And this game had it in a beautiful resort island and i wa just blown away by how good it was. The gameplay was fun n different as well.

Luigis mansion was somefing That put me in awe. The graphics were even better than sunshine and i was like a scares ghost buster! Loved it!!

Next up isss... Sonic adventure 2. This blew me away since it was my first sonic game since the genesis and i was just shocked at how fun it was.

Lastly is wind waker! I absolutely loved the cute graphics and i loved everything about the game! Except maybe... The extremely hard first part -.- wind waker is prolly one of the few games i loved and enjoyed every minute of >_< now thats making me wanna.

Oh and honorable mension to shenmue, jet set radio, powerstone 1 &2 for dc, skies of arcadia, ff6, tales of destiny 2, andddd tactics ogre for ps1 o.o

None of the newer titles appeal to me much. Not enough cuteness. >_<

King_Kumquat

Originally posted by taulutussi

Probably last year when I played Demon's Souls. It was a joy to experience such a challenge in a non-indie game once again. It's nice to see that some studios still want your gaming experience to feel like you've accomplished something when you finally beat it.

Probably my favorite game from 2010. I rank it right up there with Shadows of the Collossus for outright gaming fun.

Nizur

I agree with an earlier post about Bioshock. I was blown away by how good the game was. The atmosphere, the characters and gameplay were fantastic. Bioshock 2 was good, but not as good. The Big Sisters did make my skin crawl the first few times I heard them though.

Fear is still the only game I've played that's made me scream out loud in fright. Twice in half a minute actually. The maps were too big and repetitive, but I like the NPC AI and Alma was great as a character.

The latest game I've been in awe of was Fallout 3. The world was huge, the story was interesting, the characters were intriguing and the gameplay was fun. It made me feel like I was actually trying to survive out there.

gainesvilleg

Doom back in 1993 was the most awe inspiring game for me.  My jaw just dropped the first time I saw it at the quantum leap in gaming that I had just witnessed.  I knew immediately that gaming had just entered a new era, and I still think Doom is the most important game of all time...

mindw0rk

When I finished Mass Effect 2. I sat there for 30 minutes thinking about whole walkthrough, then clicked "New game" and played through it second time right away

 

Also reading battle reports of huge wars in EVE online always puts me in awe. 

firefly2003

I think the last games that really awed me was Star Wars Galaxies, Final Fantasy VII, and Fallout 2, i remember playing them for the first time and seeing how big and immersive these games were, and still to this very day I continue to play them they are probably my top 5 games of all time with the other 2 being Elder Scrolls : Morrowind  and X-Com Terror From The Deep.

tank017

The last time I was awed?

 

Probably Shadow of the Colossus for PS2.The game looked like it was beyond the capabilties of the system.

 

such a unique game and the colossi were just an awesome sight.

Kaijin2k3

Last game that awed me was Mass Effect 2's suicide mission, especially when you start to split apart. The actual end boss killed that, though, but it was still a blast.

Before that it was Morrowind. I started on that game knowing nothing of TES - it just looked interesting - so when I finally understood the actual scope of it, I was awestruck. Why I eventually sunk 1200 hours of my teenage life into that!

Meridion

Originally posted by Kaijin2k3

Last game that awed me was Mass Effect 2's suicide mission, especially when you start to split apart. The actual end boss killed that, though, but it was still a blast.

Before that it was Morrowind. I started on that game knowing nothing of TES - it just looked interesting - so when I finally understood the actual scope of it, I was awestruck. Why I eventually sunk 1200 hours of my teenage life into that!

You should never do that *g*... I made the mistake and ran a /played on my last day of playing Lord of the Rings online and the heartless monstrosity that is my PC showed 341 days something... I had literally spend a quarter of my lifetime between 2007 and 2011 in this game. I still spent more time working, but to be honest, something that eats away 25% of my life isn't exactly a 'hobby' anymore

M

 

PS: OH ohoh, the last time I was awed. Actually, Lord of the Rings online Rivendell back in 2007, then Moria, then Lothlorien. They captured these locations spot on, which probably made me stay in this game for so long... In single player games: First time out of the prison in Oblivion, Storytelling in The Witcher 1, especially the bits where authentic human emotions were extremely believable for a PC game...

Supergrass

edited

CasualGamer

L.A. Noir. The character acting and realism is just jaw dropping.

Mass Effect 2 .The point I realized that my Sheppard character felt exactly like the one I played in ME 1.

Bioshock. Just a remarkable game; unique and beautiful atomosphere, interesting story and characters, adventerous, never a boring moment.

cyress8

Terraria - Got the game, played for awhile. I have not read up on the game or anything and was able to figure out how to destroy the 3 shadow orbs. (Dynamite ftw!) Well, anyone that played Terraria knows what happens when you destroy the orbs. Epic music starts. O.o I thought, "Shit, something major just happened." WAAAAP, EATER OF WORLDS. WTF SON!! He kicked my ass so quickly I burst out laughing. Also, at this time there was a bug that caused him to follow you to your spawn area. EPIC BATTLE!!!! Assload of deaths and HE SPLITS IN HALF!!!! FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!! Best battle I had in a game for a while!

King_Kumquat

Ya'll just advanced my amazon wish list by a few. 

I'm going to probably have the same reaction to the BioShock games that I had to MGS4 because I bought the first one on a great sale, and it's not out of the plastic yet and picked up BS2 in a swap and it's sitting next to it on my "to get to" shelf. Next tho'! I had to get through the Assassin Creed games and they were a lot of fun too.

LA Noire is my current go to game and I figured I was near the end and was discussing with some people who flew through it and apparently I got a few more hours to go. Rockstar knows how to make 50 bucks feel well spent.

Mithrandolir

It had been a long time for me. Easily 10+ years. The Longest Journey, Half-Life, EQ, AC1, etc.. then not again until very recently with stuff like Amnesia, Minecraft, Terraria, basically anything Indie that goes back the roots of imaginative and immersive gaming worlds. Looking at the stuff on the upcoming horizon, I fully expect another 10 year gap... but that's ok, makes this stuff all the more special when it does come around

 

Vidir

Only happend once and that was 11-12 years ago playing Asherons Call

Germaximus_S

Alice Madness Returns.

Ifcwhuffes

I can only remember 2 times ive been awed. First time was when i played WoW when it first came out. it was my first MMO. I was a youngling back then and played on my brothers account, Was a huge fan of WC2(B.net Edition) and WC3 FT. And to be able to play as a "hero" in the warcraft world  was really eye opening for me. Good memories.

Second time i was awed was by a Table top game called Warhammer 40k. Im sure you've heard of it . My friend introduced me to it about 2-3 years ago. At that time he only had space marine and Ork armies. But the whole concept of the game definitely caught my attention. You buy your models, Make them and paint them the way you want them to look. then charge into battle with another unique army!  WH40k Table top is so popular with me and my friends now, we have 7 different armies in his house hold. Which always boggles my mind considering how much money we've spent on models and paints.

AlBQuirky

Hopefully not telling too much of the game, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (The first one) was the last time for me. When my true identity was revealed, I was totally taken aback! I did not see that coming at all.

djvapid

There's really two answers to this question for older gamers like myself who were born in the '80s.  Or maybe 3, if you want to go per decade.

 

'80s experience:  Willowe for the NES released in 1989 a  year after the movie which was equally eye-opening for a kid.  To this day, I still remember that game vividly 20+ years later - and when a game can do that, I'd say it's worth mentioning.

 

'90s experience:  Shining Force for the genesis.  Still my favorite game to this day.  I'm waiting for a version of the game (retaining the same strategic element and gameplay) to come out with today's technology.  That would be awesome.  

***Edit:  They've tried to do new SF games, they've all been atrocious.  Shining Force Neo, anyone?  True to the roots is what I'm searching for.***

'00s experience:  This is a toughie.  There's been a few games that have really blown me away.  I haven't mentioned an MMO up to this point for obvious reasons (other than Ultima Online, there wasn't much to bother with prior to '00s).  I guess anyone can say WoW was a pretty big deal when it first came out.  But for me, it was pretty unsatisfying (if anyone can recall, there were a lot of server connectivity issues when it was first released because they didn't project so many people would play the game and crashed every server).  So that leaves, for me atleast, a choice among other games I've played.  Most notably, Mass Effect 1 and 2.  Finally, a game that doesn't revolve around big-titted elves (not that eye candy is a bad thing), swords and magic.  They're several honorable mentions out there such as Bioshock, Dragonage Origins, etc.  I'm sure I can make a relatively big list of games I loved.  But the first one to really give me an overwhelming feeling of awe was the first Mass Effect. 

Hyperbeam

Not sure recently...maybe Bioshock, the beginning shot will the enormous whale going by was pretty amazing.

 

The most in awe I've ever been was with Baldurs Gate II and in many ways it was a silly simple thing....'What?! Your a party member and your talking...to me?'...*brain fries* :P

Agart

The last time i was awed by a game was on my Playstation 1 system for single player games. I used to buy any console with a Final Fantasy game on it since i was a huge fan and the Pplaystation 1 was THE system for RPGs (and the SNES of course). MMO wise, it was Wow in 2004-2005 back in vanilla and recently i'm really addicted to Terraria lol. I bought it last thursday and i have played about 40h since then.

chrisleko

I'm not normally awed by video games (books sometimes get me.. Cuse you George R.R. Martin!).  But I'll never forget the first time I loaded up Unreal on my computer.  Aside from many of the other FPS games I've played (Spear of Destiny, Doom, Quake), Unreal was one of the first games that tried to get it "right".  Plus, at the time, it looked really realllllyyy good.  

I had a similar feeling when I loaded up Halflife for the first time.  Aside from the opening credits being right out of any hollywood blockbuster movie (still think they're brilliant), the AI for the enemy soliders (the human ones) was downright brilliant.  Hate to say it, but a few times they even outflanked/outsmarted me!  One would distract me with cover fire, and another would sneak up behind me and kill me!

I never really had that feeling in a MMO, or, for that matter, most of my Console Games (though Mass Effect 1 and 2 were great).

I do have great memories of figuring out some of the rather... esoteric ... puzzles in the old Adventure games (favorites are Space Quest and Monkey Island).

***Edit***

I can't beleive I forgot Deus Ex.  I'll never forget how awed I was when I realized I could sneak around, find alternate paths, or go in guns blazing.  The maps were so huge and had so many different layers.  Plus, it actually had a pretty darn good plot.  Such a shame that the sequel was so dissapointing.