"This is why play video games"

[MetalMagpie]

Shooting up bandits et al in Borderlands with my boyfriend. In particular, those moments when it's all gone a bit tits up and the choice is to work together or die. When one of us goes down with a rocket to the face and the other sprints through a wall of bullets to revive them. And when the last bad guy is down and we can turn away from our computers to look at each other and say, "Right... That was a bit hairy!" before remembering to scramble for the loot.

Gaming solo is great fun (and an excellent way to relax). But gaming coop (especially with a partner) is one of the best things in the world. I may not engage with the characters or care much about the outcome of the plot. But working with someone else makes it rewarding anyway.

I'm a bit of a cheapskate and rarely buy games in their first month, let alone preorder. But I've preordered both Borderlands 2 and Torchlight 2 because I can play them coop.

 

[Something Amyss]

"This is why play video games"
I think you accidentally the sentence.

I'm not what you mean.

Anyway, I have no specific moments in mind. I play for entertainment and I am entertained. That is why play video games.

 

[Roofstone]

Every time I immerse myself I think that. Every time I escape from being simply me(Not that I mind me, I love my life, do not think otherwise) and become anything I create.

A great soldier and veteran of wars.
A proud knight respected by all.
A ninja, sneaking, unseen, leaving corpses scattered in my wake.
A ranger of the woods, raining death upon people who thread past my borders.

A limbless flying bird with a grudge against pigs and overambitious slingshot companies...

When I become whatever I dream of, I think "This is why I play games".

 

[ToastiestZombie]

"This is why play video games"
I think you accidentally the sentence.

I'm not what you mean.

Anyway, I have no specific moments in mind. I play for entertainment and I am entertained. That is why play video games.

The title "This is why play video games" should be "This is why I play video games". Grammar mistake.

 

[The Wykydtron]

The whole of Persona 4, the end of Bastion and a good game of League of Legends comes to mind.

Seriously when your team aren't being dicks it's really fun. Just yesterday our Lux got a Pentakill with one ult + Binding on the one guy she didn't hit.

Totally would have been my Penta if I had activated my Miss Fortune ult a bit later. I was firing a full channeled Bullet Time into their entire team! Lux just comes in and insta Quadras for teh lulz

Oh and new Katarina is so much fun! Remember in the old days where you would have to hide next to your tower for 5 minutes until you hit 6? NOPE! The new spin attack and improved Bouncing Blades makes the impossible, possible. You can be a boss as soon as you hit 2/3


Death Lotus is no longer the make-or-break crutch it used to be. That's freaking impressive considering how ult-centric the old Kat used to be.

 

[Adam Locking]

Riding forth from the starting area in Shadow of the Colossus, the whole world sretched before you and just feeling like getting lost for an hour

 

[REZNoR_greed]

sometimes it's when an ending is just so satisfying; like in Skies of Arcadia, or Kingdom Hearts 2.

sometimes, it's when the game isn't terrible, but the music is amazing; like in Elemental Gimmick Gear.

sometimes, it's when the game is several years old, but still holds up against current gen stuff. insert almost any SNES or Genesis game here.

or, it's the feel of the whole damn thing. Bastion, Journey, Final Fantasy VIII (something about the 2D-ish backgrounds, playstation-3D characters, and PS-era music. it just gets me).

...it's hard to think of just one reason.

 

[Terminate421]

The moment in Crysis 2 where your suit is offline, ceph are practically STEPPING on you while the emergency defibrilator is kicking in trying to get you on your feet.

The moment in Pokemon Black/White before you beat the gym leader's last pokemon, and THIS PLAYS:


The moment in a Halo multiplayer game where you are the last man in a specific section of the map, you use your cunning instincts and nearby weapons to get the drop on all of the enemy and come out unscathed.

The point where I am walking across the tundras of Skyrim, only to hear a familiar roar, I turn to my left and hear the epic music signaling a dragon fight has started.

THAT is why I play video games.

 

[rhyno435]

A certain scene of Metal Gear Solid 4

Spoiler: You can probably guess what I'm about to say

the microwave corridor. Mashing that button with al my might while watching Snake collapse a few times, shouting at the screen "Come on Snake! You can do this!" All the while my arm is beginning to hurt from mashing the button. My mum comes in and cheers me on too. Those moments in gaming, where I feel so absorbed in the story and character, is why I play games.

Other times it's Skyrim when I'm exploring.

Other times it's games like L.A. Noire where I just fall in love with everything in the game.

Doing speed runs of Sonic and just watching in pure awe of myself at having achieved it.

Playing Silent Hill 2 and working through all the symbolism and coming up with theories.

Playing Fallout 3, stepping out of the Vault and seeing the barren wasteland. Exploring it and helping people throughout. Exploring old Vaults and seeing how the people down there lived their lives.

Playing League of Legends and getting a 10 kill streak all from pure skill. Love those moments.

I know exactly what you mean regarding MGS4. Probably my favourite part of the entire game (except for maybe the final fight), it's just so tense. I knew that I could most likely have just casually tapped the button and completed the sequence, but that didn't stop me from mashing it as fast as I could until I couldn't feel my arm anymore.

And Silent Hill 2, the best part of that game was coming up with theories with my friend about what everything meant and how it all tied together.

 

[Wolf In A Bear Suit]

Easter egg's in games make me feel like the developer cares

 

[xPixelatedx]

So tell me, Escapists, what are some of those little moments that make you think "this is why I play video games". You know, those bits of brilliance that remind you precisely why you love gaming!

To play as ridiculous and fantastical characters.
To explore ridiculous and fantastical worlds.
To fight my ways through hordes of enemies to find and bring down the final boss.
To collect every nicknack.
To find all the secret weapons/armor.
To immerse myself in a frightening environment enough that i actually becoming bewildered.
To test my mind against thought provoking and impossible puzzles.

So as you can probably understand, from my perspective this is the worst gen yet lol

 

[Something Amyss]

The title "This is why play video games" should be "This is why I play video games". Grammar mistake.

Please tell me you're joking. If not, go back and what I said.

 

[Mortamus]

Doing a perfect block with my shield, and then using it to crush the bandit's head right afterwards in Skyrim.

"Mr. Findlay...your freedom awaits." - SC2

The ENTIRE opening cinematic for Wrath of the Lich King.

Doing perfect jumps in Psychonauts and then landing with the fist drop and killing all the enemies with it.

The first time I stuck a shower head in a zombie's face in Dead Rising.

Doing perfect blocks and counters in SSBB and listening to the nerd rage.

Teaming up with a Heavy in TF2 as the Medic and taking down the entire enemy team as a 2-man team.

Charging Ganondorf's fist attack in SSBB and actually getting to hit someone with it.

Portal and Portal 2. All of them.

Completing any Minecraft project and making all of your friends look upon it.

 

[FPSfanatic]

Hell March.

That alone makes me love gaming. There's something special about that song that just makes the game so much more amazing.

For me, its split between several things.

That feeling you get when you've been chased and harried throughout the game by this superior foe. He's difficult to defeat, and you don't really enjoy facing him because its really easy to fail and lose progress. Then you get something, either enough experience to comfortably approach them, or just combined progress from throughout the game giving you the skills and equipment to finally go toe to toe with them, that makes it all the sweeter when you beat him handily for the first time. Bethesda games are particularly good at evoking the feeling.

Another one is stumbling upon not well noticed tricks in a characters bag that elevates him from one role into another, whether it be noticing that the pokemon butterfree can carry great psychic attacks to noticing the pyro's airblast can be used to effectively stop any soldier in a one on one confrontation.

Helping someone new to the scene you're into, either a single player rpg or an mmo or even a fps, and giving them an idea of the true complexity of the game that wouldn't be noticed by newcomers first.

Finding some off the wall brand new idea that gives a fresh take on a genre, like bastions narrator or spec ops demonstrating the terror and pain in real war. Don't care if its a new narrative perspective or a new mechanic, I love running into it.

 

[Rooster893]

The final mission in Modern Warfare 3

Spoiler

when you hang Makarov with a roof cable, seeing his lifeless body dangle while you light a cigar in victory.

All of Call of Duty 4, especially Jackson's death and the final mission.

Jumping the cranes in Mirror's Edge.

Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus, saving all 300 mudokons, running for your life trying to outrun fleeches, paramites and scrabs.

Halo: Combat Evolved, the whole game.

Half-Life 2, the whole game.

Medal of Honor: Frontline, the whole game.

Call of Duty Black Ops: the campaign.

The Subspace Emissary, and having to do all the levels again in SSBB, and the nights I spent with my comrades in multiplayer.

There's undoubtedly more that I am forgetting.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

The title "This is why play video games" should be "This is why I play video games". Grammar mistake.

Please tell me you're joking. If not, go back and what I said.

What? Can you please tell me what you meant.

 

[doomspore98]

Me and boon killing an entire legion camp of about 30 legionaries at level 10 with only a hunting rifle.

Final mission of MW2.

Wiping out a cave full of bandits and decapitating the final one with a battle axe in skyrim.

When I shoot-dodge 10 enemies in a row and melee the last one in Max Payne 3.

Getting ghost in Deus ex: human revolution.

the "War, war never changes" speech is the best speech in gaming history.

 

[The Funslinger]

When the school cinematic moments happen with unscripted events. Only one I can think off of the top of my head that has happened to me was when Smough and Ornstein from Dark Souls did one of the coolest looking combo attacks I've seen. Smough is a big fat dude with a giant hammer and has a charge up vertical slam that he jumps in the air to do and Ornstein is a quick dude with a spear who has a charge up thrust attack where he slides across the floor until he reaches you or anything in the way.

So what I was witnessed is when I tried to get close, Smough jumped up to do his attack and Ornstein slide under him trying to hit me.

I had the mother of all cinematic-like unscripted moments when I was fighting the first dragon in Skyrim. We (me and the NPCs) had been wearing it down, and suddenly it does one of those swooping attacks. It's coming right at me. I fire an arrow, which hits it dead between the eyes. It hits the ground and the corpse grinds to a halt just in front of me before going skeletal.

Fuck yeah.

 

[death525]

All of Deus Ex
Mass Effect 3 Mordin:"Had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong."
Fallout 3's atmosphere
Discovering Portal before I became an internet addict.
Bioshock's opening
Minecraft
The music to the Elder Scrolls series
The Dreamcast which was way ahead of its time.

 

[flying_whimsy]

For me it always comes down to one of two things: performance or story.

Performance like when you get those super hard achievements, skillshots against human opponents, or beating those really hard puzzle segments. Portal is my personal favorite for this, especially the 'signal received' achievement.

Story like getting to know great characters like April Ryan in the Longest Journey, like being a part of great events like Fallout 3 or Mass Effect, or things that challenge how I think and play like the choices in Fallout 3 or Dragon Age: Origins.

I just got Fallout 3 and Dragon Age: Origins during the summer steam sale and just finished my first play through of each (not counting all the extra stuff), and so many of the choices were like philosophical thought problems. Fallout 3 challenged what I would personally do given certain situations (never did figure out what to do about the mutant tree guy), and Dragon Age actually pushed my morals by forcing me to choose what my character would do (I played a female elf from the alienage: totally different feel for the game than, say, a female human noble). I have never before played a game where I stopped dead because I didn't have an immediate response to a scenario: I actually had to think about the repercussions in the context of the game world.