Which game had you most amazed?

[Ectoplasmicz]

Think back. Whether it be recently or way back in the early days of your childhood,which game, when you first played it, had you in awe of something. Was it the size, the customisation, anything that had you amazed.

For me, the first time i played Oblivion i was amazed. I had never played a game with such a large map, and with so many things to do. At first I was a little lost!

Not far behind i have to go back into my childhood, and the original Driver. I was amazed at the size of the map in free roam, and how a game could make running from cops so enjoyable all of the time.

So what was it for you?

 

[are.you.the.god.its.me.vader]

Coming out of vault 101 in Fallout 3. Holy crap.

 

[thom_cat_]

HL:2. Pick up that can. HAHAH FUCK U BRO. Omg that worked!
Just everything about it... the intro, the facial animation, the overlays... *drool*

 

[Sacman]

The original Deus Ex... it made a bad first impression... with it's dated graphics and awkward controls... but playing on the game just completely changed the way I looked at games... I mean the shear amount of detail in, not only creating a game, but a story and a world for the story to be in was absolutely astounding... I mean they probably created the most intuitive mixture of action and role playing to date... and the way they seamlessly merged gameplay and story was very intuitive and to this day still unmatched by any game I've ever seen... and I don't mean dialogue trees... I mean the way they actively encouraged players to explore the areas and flesh out the world and characters by letting them sit in on NPC conversations, read books, newspapers, emails and find secrets*Cough*Daedalus*Cough*... It was really immersive and did an amazing job of creating lore, and exposition, without players noticing, and integrating it into gameplay...

But the design philosophy is what really astounds me... like the way that they encourage different types of play styles and character builds almost entirely with level design... I mean they set up each level, not to cater to specific characters builds(stealth guy heavy weapons guy ect.) or parts leaning to different set ups... but they simply created levels in a realistic sense for the player to navigate and find the best route for their own play style...

The game was all about freedom within the constraints of context... not like The Elder Scrolls where the amount of freedom just leads to an unfocused story and unbalanced gameplay, or the Fable way where it consists of a random assortment of crap for the player to do... the freedom in Deus Ex wasn't so obvious... it was in the way it catered to so many different play styles and allowed any means necessary to complete the game... even if it means glitching it and breaking the game completely...<.<

 

[Arina Love]

Final Fantasy XIII had me wowed, such good story, universe and characters, very fun battle system. Visual and sound directing simply superb! It's my most favourite j-rpgs this generation!

 

[Casual Shinji]

The first time playing the demo of Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee at a friend's house.

The shear mystical weirdness and beauty of the visuals and the sound design took my breath away and made me the gamer that I am today.

 

[CrazyJew]

Chrono Trigger. The stuff they managed to do with 16 bits... Gah... amazing.

 

[R4ptur3]

Mario kart 64. When I was young using lightning to make things small and having a gravitational pull for 3 shells you could then fire at enemies blew my mind.

More recently, I loved mass effect 2. It was awesome, end of.

 

[EHKOS]

GTA 3. You mean they DON'T automatically get out of the way and become ghosts? Hehehehe. Five hours of nothing but squish.

 

[gorfias]

I have been amazed many times, particularly by advances in graphics. The change in the way Star Wars Pod Racer looked going from no pak to pak. The graphics of the 16 Bit Sega System compared to 8 bit Ninendo (friend's brother was playing Ghost Busters.)

But the most jaw dropping, eyes bugging out moment in gaming for me was the first time a friend showed me Mario jumping into a painting in Mario 64.

Of course there have been fantastic advances since then, but that was probably the single biggest leap in visuals I've ever seen.

 

[Arif_Sohaib]

From my childhood, I was really impressed by a game called Uncharted Waters New Horizons. Its map consisted of a large whole world's port cities and you actually had to work for your in game money by trading goods from one port to the other and pirates were a constant threat and were difficult to fight off. On top of all that, there were six different characters to choose from with six different stories that intertwined only a few times.
I would still recommend it but you have to use a walkthrough as it is confusing in the beginning on the PC version.

 

[Sarah Kerrigan]

I wouldn't say a game, pursay, but the tech demo for the new Unreal Engine, the 'Samaritan' Demo? Holy shit. I was screaming about how Epic should do that after they finish Gears. It looked Beautiful

 

[Dango]

Rome: Total War.

Until then I'd never played an RTS, and was amazed at the scale of it.