My god......

[TheKruzdawg]

Climbing to the very top of the Castello near the Vatican in AC:B and just looking around at Rome spread out beneath me. The sun was just beginning to set, giving everything a fiery glow.

In Oblivion, the first time that I entered the Shivering Isles and it was night. All the plant life had begun to glow in luminescent colors. And then I looked up and saw the massive amounts of stars, nebulae and other celestial bodies. It was breath-taking, since there are so many lights because of the cities near where I live that I can never see many stars.

 

[TheKruzdawg]

I remember some of the locales in ME 1&2 being beautiful, but the one that sticks out is the wrecked ship on the overhang. Just the ruined-ness of it and the lonely red light blinking in the distance...

That was pretty great now that you mention it. And I also remember thinking to myself that Virmire would make a great tropical getaway if it weren't for the Geth trying to shoot at you.

 

[Tharwen]

I completed Just Cause 2 today, and the last level prompted a

Spoiler: Actual spoiler inside

"holy crap, I'm gunfighting on the back of a nuke against someone with an SMG and a gecko."

It is now easily in my top 5.

 

[DarthFennec]

I am simply awesturck Escapist, just awestruck. Minecraft's world is estimated to be 8 times the size of the earths, I thought I had colonized a relativly large chunk of it when I decided to venture off into the distance with nothing on me just to recon the sorrunding area near one of my bases. I climbed over the nearest hill top and simply felt my breath leave me. Facing me, sitting there for what must have been miles, was a desert. Infinite and unyeilding, sitting there staring at me. I quietly slipped back down the hill and retreated into my base for the remainder of the day.

Basically this. Although I'm pretty sure Minecraft maps are endless, if you go too near the edge it just generates another chunk beyond. So it's not that it's 8 times the size of earth, it's just the size of whatever you've explored by that point, limited to the size of the free space on your hard disk. I could be wrong about that though, but I don't think so ...

 

[DaHero]

A fairly recent game, Just Cause 2.

Casually parachuting around, I get to the top of a nearby mountain and turn around and get punched in the face by this spectacular world.

Same thing happened to me, check is out from both the desert and mountain peaks, it's amazing, ESPECIALLY as dusk.

 

[Vault101]

The intro and everyhting else in Bioshock....just wow and this was the first real game I had played in a long time

 

[jhlip]

First time I stepped outside the vault in Fallout 3. I mean, it got diminished over time, but that first glance at the desolate landscape... Wow.

I felt the exact same way when I first played Fallout 3.

 

[That's Funny]

The ending to Metro 2033 springs to mind.

Spoiler

Where you reach the top of that tower, and the dark ones fucking with your mind. Also that view was nothing short of spectacular for a video game.

It was a bit frightening at points.

 

[Seneschal]

I get awestruck in almost every modern game. I don't play many, so I usually pick-and-choose the awe-inspiring ones. And I'm a 90s child, my eyes explode at relatively simple things like volumetric lighting and depth-of-field.

 

[Zap Rowsdower]

Just Cause 2. I'll probably live to be 100 before I'm 1% of the way through.

 

[Krantos]

Especially Jose Gonzalez's voice welcoming you to Mexico. That part of the game is probably the best argument that videogames are art I could imagine.

Agreed. I usually don't follow the "Games are Art" line. Most games that get the "arty" label forget to be games, but RDR doesn't. It shows how to make breathtaking, interactive artwork and still be a great game.

Awesome job Rockstar.

 

[littlealicewhite]

When I ran up to the bridge of the Normandy SR-1 at the beginning of Mass Effect 2 and saw the giant hole the Collectors had ripped in my ship. I knew that the Normandy was going to blow, I knew Shepard was going to die, but that moment hit it home for me. I recall that when I saw it, I couldn't help but say "There's a hole in my ship." I was too stunned to say much else.

There were many, many moments afterwords in ME2 that also stunned me. Every single character is unique and impacted me in their own way. The romance scenes especially, some of those were heart-rending and sweet in an indescribable way.

 

[Diablo27]

When I ran up to the bridge of the Normandy SR-1 at the beginning of Mass Effect 2 and saw the giant hole the Collectors had ripped in my ship. I knew that the Normandy was going to blow, I knew Shepard was going to die, but that moment hit it home for me. I recall that when I saw it, I couldn't help but say "There's a hole in my ship." I was too stunned to say much else.

There were many, many moments afterwords in ME2 that also stunned me. Every single character is unique and impacted me in their own way. The romance scenes especially, some of those were heart-rending and sweet in an indescribable way.

Amen.

 

[Squeaky]

luckly i dont have a god as if i did hell would be my new address.

 

[white_salad]

When I ran up to the bridge of the Normandy SR-1 at the beginning of Mass Effect 2 and saw the giant hole the Collectors had ripped in my ship. I knew that the Normandy was going to blow, I knew Shepard was going to die, but that moment hit it home for me. I recall that when I saw it, I couldn't help but say "There's a hole in my ship." I was too stunned to say much else.

There were many, many moments afterwords in ME2 that also stunned me. Every single character is unique and impacted me in their own way. The romance scenes especially, some of those were heart-rending and sweet in an indescribable way.

This. When I first saw the ship get hit, I was just thinking oh that sucks. It was when shepperd got spaced and the oxygen started to leak from his suit that it really hit me. He isn't dying by a sudden headhsot, or an explosion in game. This is shepperd dying unceremoniously,in the cold depths of space. Especially when the lifeless body begins to enter orbit.

Fucking gave me the chills.