Your favorite moments in video games (Or "WOW" moments"

Angerz said:

Lots of stuff in EQ and WoW, playing FFII & III on SNES with my dad.

More recently tho, the sequence in God of War where BOY is sick and Kratos realizes what he has to do to survive the Ice. The whole boat ride, busting through the floor, strapping up the blades, then the first fight with them, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. One of my favorite moments in any game I have ever played or watched.

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the way kratos paces nervously while he's holding BOY in the elevator... it was done specifically becuase there was no dialogue and it looked odd for him to just be standing there patiently, but emotionally it carries so much weight. every father who played that game knew the exact emotion kratos felt in that moment.

back when mike tyson's punch-out was new... nintendo power released that code that let you face tyson immediately... so you're like, sweeeet i don't have to go through all that nonsense!! mario rings the bell and tyson one shots you into oblivion...

doesn't get much more wow than that.

Various favorites, for various reasons-
Sojourn/Toril MUD-
The first Manscorpion Hive raid and finding the Reptillian Rampager.
The 12+ hour CR from Roots with Mikar. So many people involved, so much gear on the ground from rotted corpses, so many sets of backup gear being compiled and used, so much nervousness about whether the game would crash and we'd lose it all.
Related- sneaking down to Undermountain 2 to trigger a crash bug to save a group who wiped in the crypt after taking the key in with them before their corpses rotted, back when Undermountain was still an unmapped terror to almost everyone. And appreciation for the baby assassin that was willing to risk coming with me to pick the door to UM2.

EQ-
First time entering South Ro, and the vista of desert stretching out before me.
Soliani (an FoH bard) giving me a glowing stone band- bestest gift ever! Thank you again, wherever you are nowadays.
All the work and organization it took to get into Time.
All the people, nearly half of which were FoH members (I wasnt in FoH) coming together on the spur of the moment to whack Ragefire for my epic with less than an hour before server downtime.

Pools of Radiance- the eleventy-billion kobold attack.
Red Storm Rising- doing the game with the oldest, least capable sub in the game and spanking it.
Baldurs Gate- Lots of stuff of course, but in terms of emotion for some reason the opening scenario of breaking out of captivity with Imoen.
Star Control- Finding out why the Urquan did what they did.
Thief- sneak sneak sneak sneak...
Rome- Total War, playing with Greek phalanxes.

Zelda, Ocarina of time, when you grab the Master Sword for the first time and wake up as adult link.

Witcher 3, the ending of the assault on Kaer Morhen. Shit is a punch in the gut.

For me it started with Rygar and Zelda I on NES... that was when gaming became something more than just playing shitty little arcade like games on the Atari and C64. They had prolonged play times and were meant (especially with Zelda) to be played in more than one sitting.

Then SNES it was Final Fantasy II. There were more great games than I could count on that system, but it was that one that I truly saw the future of gaming. The opening music still give me chills. And it was the first game that I played with a strong narrative and it had me hooked for well over 50 hours just to see it all to its conclusion. I'm still pissed the little SNES mini thing didn't get it.

Then I played EQ... I got the damn game just because Final Fantasy had announced they really liked EQ and wanted to take their franchise online as well. Since I was a huge Final Fantasy fan, I just bought EQ just to see what I was getting into with FF XI. Fuck me... I had a shitty ass dial up connection. I had a shitty ass Packard Bell computer. I kept dying and then disconnected every time I was loading. But Jesus that game absolutely captured me. It's been 15 years since I really played that game and I still feel the draw of it. It completely changed how I enjoy games and what I look for in them. I had moved on to WoW just like most people, but it never had the "it" for me. And the problem is now... I love grindy games and games I have to go get loot, but I just can't stomach online communities any more. Today's online players are mostly twats, and I rage just hearing my son play. I'd rather find a loot grind game like Monster Hunter or Nioh and just play on my own and with my close friends if I can talk them into playing with me.

Then I got married in 2006 and went mostly dormant on gaming for nearly a decade, outside of some stints with WoW (played the hell out of MoP). Until I bought my PS4 as a way to get back into gaming. Then it was Bloodborne and the magic of environmental story telling and punishing difficulty. Gave me the EQ feels along with the WTF moment of the pale moon rising and seeing my first Amygdalla. Then Fallout 4. I know the game gets derided pretty heavily, but for me just having a wide ass open world that I could literally go anywhere and do whatever I wanted was exhilarating. I had my own offline MMOs finally that I didn't have to depend on other fucktards to advance. I put well north of 400 hours between those two games that year, and began a new era of gaming for me.

Dark Souls: 3mins into the game when you first encounter Asylum Demon and think how the fuck am I supposed to kill or even survive this? Turns out you are meant to run away. Great game design.

Metal Gear Solid: First time you see Meatl Gear REX, and the Psycho Mantis fight.

FF7: When Shinra drops the pizza on the Sector 7 Slums.

Command & Conquer: Nod ending where you get pick which famous building to hit with the Ion Cannon.

Mech Warrior 2: Opening cinematic

The Legend of Zelda: Holding up the Tri-Force piece after Dungeon 1

EverQuest: Too many to list. First time taking the boat from Faydwer to Freeport (and living). First time grouping in Unrest, and slowly creeping inside and further though the house as you advance in levels. First time visiting Velious on launch day and coming upon the dragon bridge from Iceclad to Eastern Wastes. First zone into ToV past Sontalak. etc

Realizing how amazing EQ during the first few days playing back in '98.

Realizing how amazing WoW was when I got to play during the last CBT, and then into release.

First time seeing how well animated the jiggle physics were in Lineage 2 CBT for the Dark Elf female.

Beating the Abhorrent Beast in Bloodborne... finally.

Finding a class in BDO who's combat style "clicked" with me (Maehwa, pre awakening). I could also say this for Tera (Archer).

The amount of fun Monster Hunter World turned out to be after being sure I wouldn't like actual gameplay.

Namon said:

For me it started with Rygar..

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When I was in highschool, a local liquor store had the arcade version of Rygar. Spent a lot of quarters on that game, and finally beat it. Top score was never replaced.

Zindan said:

When I was in highschool, a local liquor store had the arcade version of Rygar. Spent a lot of quarters on that game, and finally beat it. Top score was never replaced.

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I had absolutely no idea that game was an arcade game... I'm legit in awe and mad respect to you on that. It took us (myself and my best friend) an entire night of staying up to get through it all. Loved every minute of it but holy shit that'd be a shitload of quarters.

Back in the mid 90s days of FMV games, there was this one that was based in a dark superhero universe. I wish I could remember the name, but it was kind of a Batman ripoff.

Anyway, at one point in the game you go to your sidekick's house and she seduces you, and she takes her top off in full FMV glory. They were the first video game boobs I experienced. Much wow!

For me, it was Soygen helping me get my monk epic in EQ. MQing is one of the most stressful things you can do. He snagged the pipe from KC and I had the other....