The last time a game made you say "wow"

[kortin]

Metro 2033. The entire game. I'm ashamed I got it for free. Perhaps I need to buy a copy, just to feel like I didn't just take it from the developers.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

The whole of Skyrim made me say "wow" to the dragons NPC's and towns to the landscapes and mountains Skyrim just stunning on the Pc.

This. I'm still playing the game now. It's over a year after Skyrim's release and I'm still finding moments that make me say "wow;" most notably when I come upon a beautiful vista topped with an impressive sunset or when I walk beneath the stars while an aurora of colour swirls above me.

 

[Buzz Killington_v1legacy]

Red Dead Redemption world, specifically the lighting effects when it was night or overcast.

God damn it, I just did a huge reply and my connection bombed when I hit post. Here goes again:

My Red Dead Redemption "wow" moment came when I crossed into Mexico for the first time. It was a dark night in the lonely desert, and this song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IkvAb6THQY] started playing on the soundtrack. It was atmospheric as hell.

One of my more recent moments came during Sleeping Dogs' climactic revenge rampage towards the end. (Don't worry; no spoilers here.) Somewhere around the time I was killing a guy by shoving his face into a lit stove while his buddy writhed on the floor with the broken leg I'd given him, I took a step back and considered that I/Wei Shen had started out as a clean-cut Hong Kong cop, but had become a callous monster who could do this kind of thing and not even blink. It made me reconsider the violence in the game, and it's been a long time since I'd played a game that could make me do that.

 

[Soxafloppin]

Most recently In Assassins Creed 3.

"You are A..

Spoiler

TEMPLAR!".

WHY THE HELL WOULD I CLICK SPOILER BEFORE READING THE NAME OF THE GAME!?

OT: The very last shot of Portal 2 when you get outside made me cry with laughter.

Well I feel guilty To be fair the quote may not be referencing who you think it is.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Far Cry 3, the drug sequences.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Just booting the game up got a wow from me - most games start with annoying unskippable jingles from a dozen different developers. DXHR has this moody ambient music that instantly sets the tone and puts you in the right frame of mind. Brilliant.

The next time I said wow was a minute into the game, because the starting room looked like a real room; piles of paper, post it notes with things written on them, junk food, mess and clutter everywhere. I'm used to featureless corridors and rooms with nothing but a chair and a desk, but this actually looks like a real office. I was amazed at how impressed I was by these little details, and how much they mattered in creating a relatable, involving experience.

I found that entire game to have a wonderful atmosphere and sense of place that only really let up in the final act. Wonderful game.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

You know, I don't remember. I suppose the closest would be Persona 3

 

[Zenn3k]

The Walking Dead (telltale)

Episode 3, Carly. Thats all I'll say. That moment left me speechless for almost an hour...just total disbelief with what I had just seen. It had me again at the end of Ep. 5, but it wasn't as impactful to me as that moment with Carly.

 

[StormShaun]

Jak & Daxter 3.

I replayed it on the HD trilogy and just "Wow!" I mean it felt like I was playing my whole childhood again.
It was so very awesome indeed.

Makes me want Naughty Dog to drop the Uncharted series and unleash all their power on a new Jak and Daxter game.

 

[Guffe]

When scoring awesome goals in FIFA, either against a friend or he scoring against you, usually awesome goal means long distance shots, either from free kicks or moving situations.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

Deus Ex a month back. I didn't expect the game to actually accommodate my failure into the actual narrative. Mind was blown.

Spoiler

Wonder what would have happened had I actually not been gunned down defending Paul in his apartment...still when I woke up in that cell my mind was blown.

EDIT: Oh wait a minute! The story in Halo 4 had me saying wow twice and not in a good way....uuugh.

Spoiler

Seriously that one "You are the chosen one" scene actually had me in pain from the heart breaking disappointment of where 343 had just taken Halo.

 

[DataSnake]

Daikatana, of all things. I was playing through it because I'm the sort of person who watches shitty movies for laughs, and I was struck by what's actually a really good bit of design. There's one room where the door is malfunctioning, and the only way to proceed is to blow up the power conduit connecting to it. The clever bit is that there are enemies on the catwalks above the cable, ensuring that the player will look up, the cable itself emits periodic sparks, ensuring it'll be noticed, and the door quickly slides open and shut instead of just staying still, indicating that it's malfunctioning and not just locked. All-in-all, one of the best examples of "show don't tell" I've seen in a game.

 

[Gabanuka]

snip

Here's how to use a spoiler tag so you don't accidentally piss someone off.

[spoilerX]Darth Vader is Luke's father[/spoilerX]


Now just remove the X and you're in.

do [spoilerX=blalalala} and you can add a pre-spoiler note

[spoiler=Star Wars spoiler]Darth Vader is Luke's father[/spoiler]

And now the word Spoiler has lost all meaning.

 

[Mr.Squishy]

Spec Ops: The Line.
There were many 'Wow's, although I won't spoil.
I was mentally exhausted and drained by the end, though, and quite uncomfortable in a...good(?) way. Helluva game.
Before that, the opening to ME2. I literally just sat there and gawked, then smacked my gob and went "Wow...they had the balls to do this. Fuck. The Hell. Yes."

 

[Pjotr84]

When being presented with some of the dialogue (options) in Fallout: New Vegas. I knew the people behind that game could write well, but it still caught me by surprise at times.

 

[porous_shield]

The last bit of Bastion was amazing, not that the whole game wasn't, but the last segment left me in awe.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Just last night, playing Mass Effect 3 for the first time. The Kalros scene had me saying "Wow!", or at least things phonetically similar. Quite fun and impressive. Before that? Journey. Or Xenoblade Chronicles, I forget which came later.

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

Yeah, I'm a predictable one, but I can't help my honest answer. It was when I emerged from The Great Hollow and scanned over Ash Lake. The bluish-greens are my favorite color, it was just gorgeous to me. But I didn't say "wow" until I realized how low I was. By that I mean...Depths is a sewer, Blighttown is a mysterious shanty-town below the sewer itself, you hit a freaking swamp that's even lower, then Ash Lake is at the bottom of a HUGE tree. I didn't say wow until I looked up The Great Hollow from the outside of it and gave it a minute's thought.

 

[AlbertoDeSanta]

I recently joined a Minecraft server, and we'd been travelling for a bit to find the perfect spot to set up. We found this beautiful mountain. Then, we got about 5 other people who we didn't even know to help create a little village. That teamwork in such a beautiful place, it just made me say "Wow".