Your biggest "Whoa" moments in video gaming (Possibly Spoilers)

Overheal · 19-12-2010 1:47pm

WoW - after all that walking, as a tiny little gnome, then finally taking a flight between Ironforge and Loch Modan was eye-opening

Zone of the Enders - strapping into Jehuty

Halo - the flood intro level

Sonic 2 - Golden Sonic

FF7 - Cid pulls the lever at the end of Disc 2

Better Yet - Playing FF7 and being absolutely stunned that the game didn't end after the end of the Midgar chapter. I just popped it in when I found it on a friend's shelf, played it straight throughout the night, and I had no idea what I was in for.

and hundreds more that dont spring to mind this morning

Mark Hamill · 19-12-2010 2:10pm

Silent Hill 2 - When you, er, find out what its all about (dont want to spoil the ending for anyone who hasn't played)

Dytalus · 19-12-2010 6:11pm

BEWARE SPOILERS

Oblivion - Just seeing the world once I left the sewers.

Bioshock -

"Would you kindly..."

I was literally unable to speak for a good ten minutes.

Kingdom Hearts -

Nah, that ain't Riku. "It is I, Ansem."

COD4: Modern Warfare - The nuke level as a US soldier. If you've played it, you know what I'm talking about. I still maintain it's one of the greatest cinematic moments in gaming ever.

COD6: Modern Warfare 2 - The airport massacre. 'Nuff said.

krudler · 19-12-2010 7:31pm

God of War, errr, pretty much every part of the 3 games lol

Highlights though:

The Hydra, THIS is the first boss?! the games 5 minutes in!

Dying, then giving death a big FU and fighting your way back out of Hades , go Kratos you demented bastard you!

The Minotaur

Seeing just where Pandoras box is located

The Colossus of Rhodes

Fighting Atlas

The timeshifting finale with the Sisters of Fate, mental but brilliant, seeing yourself fight Ares in the background and how the time points all mesh was genius.

The ending to GOW2/beginning of GOW3, perfect.

Poseidon

and the grandadddy of them all, Kronos, my jaw was on the floor when I realised I had to fight the fcuker, seriously, a boss thats what, 2 miles tall? complete lunacy. I saved right before it, beat him, then reloaded the save and did it again, incredible moment.

krudler · 19-12-2010 7:32pm

COD6: Modern Warfare 2 - The airport massacre. 'Nuff said.

Some people call it pointless controversy, I call it the moment where games grew up.

caspa307 · 19-12-2010 7:38pm

Jaafa wrote: »

seeing this on tv for the first time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccWrbGEFgI8

that still gives me chills

Blatter · 19-12-2010 8:00pm

Ohh how could I forget, when you find out who the killer is in Heavy Rain!

pablomakaveli · 19-12-2010 8:04pm

SOCCER4LIFE wrote: »

Ohh how could I forget, when you find out who the killer is in Heavy Rain!

Ha ha. I was just coming on here to post that.

I thought that was a great surprise.

landsleaving · 19-12-2010 9:00pm

Realising I hadn't finished the game after 3 dungeons in Link to the Past.

That moment at the start of Super Mario World where you can hit a line of koopas with one shell, the perfect way to tell you 'try things out, this is supposed to be fun'

Walking out of the Vault in Fallout 3 and seeing the glare of the sun, then the huge empty wasteland stretching out for miles.

Kefka becoming the true villain in FFVi

That point in Super Metroid when suddenly you realise its not just a shooter or a platform game, but so much more.

Finding the warp zone in level 1-2 in Mario Bros. on the NES

Getting Shenmue and getting absolutely lost in its world, just wandering around looking at everything

Sephiroth_dude · 20-12-2010 12:20am

Riding the bike in ff7 was cool

gimli2112 · 20-12-2010 10:16am

"[(Final Fantasy VII)
*The death of Aeris... I don't think I need to elaborate much on that... That depressed me to no end."

Jebus this brings back bad memories. Did I have to read this Monday morning!

humanji · 20-12-2010 10:29am

Some of my favourite moments have been mentioned before:

Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic:

Finding out you're Revan

Hard Rain:

Discovering who the killer is

TES: Oblivion: When you first leave the sewers and look around outside

Also, I decided to try EVE Online yesterday and when it started up, I thought it looked pretty impressive. I decided to open the map and get my bearings. The map showed the star system I was in and the surrounding ones. Then I zoomed out to see thousands of other star systems to explore. This game is fupping HUGE!

And I think it was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (but I can't be sure as all FPS's are so similar these days they blend into one), where you play

an american soldiers dying moments after a nuclear blast causes his helicoptor to crash. It was surreal because you expected to have some sort of objective other than to stagger around and then die.

Edit: also, even though it's not strictly gaming but it is connected (or should I say Kinected? Ba-dum-tish!). This blew my mind and opens up a whole load of possibilities for games and movies:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttMHme2EI9I

whiterebel · 20-12-2010 12:07pm

Firing up Gran Turismo on the PS1. It looked absolutely glorious, still brings back memories.

chin_grin · 20-12-2010 12:08pm

humanji wrote: »

And I think it was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (but I can't be sure as all FPS's are so similar these days they blend into one), where you play
an american soldiers dying moments after a nuclear blast causes his helicoptor to crash. It was surreal because you expected to have some sort of objective other than to stagger around and then die.

Edit: also, even though it's not strictly gaming but it is connected (or should I say Kinected? Ba-dum-tish!). This blew my mind and opens up a whole load of possibilities for games and movies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttMHme2EI9I

Yeah was CoD:Modern Warfare 1.

The OpenKinect project is freaking me out all right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgLp-KyK5g8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nm2oiESuTc

Yitzhak Rabin · 20-12-2010 12:31pm

When I saw this intro video when I was a kid, I thought graphics and gaming had reached their pinnacle. Really great game as well, I wasted an awful amount of time playing this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bQ-WsquMwE

Lemming · 20-12-2010 1:36pm

Doom 3: The only time that game genuinely sent a sheet of cold sweat running the length of my spine

The poltergeist with wet feet followed shortly thereafter by a baby crying

Fallout: The master
TES Oblivion: Getting out of the sewers and seeing some spectacular vistas.
Half-Life: Intro and the lead-up to the "missile silo".

Those tapping sounds...

StarWars Galaxies: My first jump to lightspeed
Planetside: The first time I ran towards a major battle and could see it in the distance; air to air, air ground attack, artillery barrages, tanks, masses of infantry, etc.
COD: Pegasus bridge (with a 24bit sound-card, 5.1 surround, and maximum difficulty; could practically hear the bullets hissing past me)
COD4:

The Nuke

chin_grin · 20-12-2010 1:42pm

Lemming wrote: »

Doom 3: The only time that game genuinely sent a sheet of cold sweat running the length of my spine
The poltergeist with wet feet followed shortly thereafter by a baby crying

What bit was that at? Early\late in the game. Just played it recently and that's wrecking my head trying to remember!

The one bit in Doom 3 where I went "Oh f*ck" was

when you signalled for help and you get the message that you've just doomed them/Earth/humanity.

EDIT: Adding another. The bit in FEAR (not sure if it's the first or second.......pretty sure it's the first), where you find out

you're Fettels' brother.

Greyfox · 20-12-2010 2:25pm

The original super mario bro's on the nes which belonged to my cousin Laura, it wasn't the first game I ever played but it was the first game where it becamse impossible for me to put the control down. me and my brother were pretty much "visiting Laura" every day for months, since we got the snes though we didn't see her for about 3 or 4 years as truthfully none of us liked her and still to this day we don't like her but I'll always be thankful of her for introducing me to Mario...thern it was on to many nights playing mario all-stars through the night, their was just something so simplistic and utterly addictive about mario

Zelda 3: A link to the past - Realising theirs a dark world
Like most people who played it I thought I was right at the end of the game once I got the three pendents as if the game had of ended here it would of still been a long game...but no, I was only a third of the way through the game

Resident Evil: A game absolutely full of whoa moments:

The dogs through the window scared the sh** of of me and made it very clear to me I was playing a gaming experience that is nothing like I've played befor
The intro to the hunters, a really scary sequesnce of the hunters racing across the courtyard ends with you realising their now in the same room as you, those bas**rds were so, so f**king difficult to kill and they were now everywhere!
Also the build-up up the end of the game, with the alarms going off and the Tyrant which you thought was dead coming back through the roof, my hands were sweating by the time the rocket launcher is dropped from the helicopter, easily the most intense gaming experience of my life

Final Fantasy 7:
The death of Aries is utterly unforgettable as over the previous 40 hours the dialogue between Cloud and Aries has been really touching, as a love story this was even sadder then Casablanca, gone with the wind, the notebook or Titanic
For me the Sephiroth backstory just after he's killed Shinra's president is just as unforgettable, it's a very long backstory and it's the first time in my life that I became utterly immersed in a games story

Metal Gear Solid:
Theirs just too many to pick one:
The whole strange Psycho mantis fight
The very emotinal death of Sniper wolf
How you get Meryls radio frequency
Master miller reveal
That ninja's fight and then Snakes realising he's GreyFox who "died" in Zanzibar, also Greyfox's - the truth about Naomis parents and his final farewell
The truth about your mission (foxdie)
Liquid still alive...after you've killed him about 20 times
The hind d fight which was just so much fun
And of course your first "it's just a box" moment

Tombraider - the T-rex moment, also the replica alien that mimics your every move

chin_grin · 20-12-2010 2:29pm

Greyfox wrote: »

Final Fantasy 7:
The death of Aries is utterly unforgettable as over the previous 40 hours the dialogue between Cloud and Aries has been really touching, as a love story this was even sadder then Casablanca, gone with the wind, the notebook or Titanic

<nerd OCD> Aeris\Aerith </nerd OCD>

weiland79 · 20-12-2010 2:37pm

Loads and loads but most recently was COD Mod2. The storming of the oil rig is the level i show my none gaming mates.

You pop up out of the water to pull the enemy in, then slit his throat while your team mate is doing the same. The body sinks into the abyss and you are then hauled out. The vibrante colours, the water running down the screen and your team mates locking and loading...... bring it on!

nb. level gets a bit boring after that.

Agricola · 20-12-2010 3:01pm

My first battle in Rome Total War, probably a scene like this....

Sarky · 20-12-2010 3:06pm

Assassin's Creed: The visuals were stunning, and the rush of getting away from a pack of angry Templars was very much a "whoa" moment, as was every time you climbed a high point to just look out over a whole city. I think getting away is a bit too easy in the sequel(s).

Arkham Asylum: Who didn't think "Holy crap, I did that!" after clearing a room of 20 thugs without taking a scratch? The combat in that game is perfectly badass.

Going back a bit, I was utterly wowed by Flashback's visuals. Rotoscoping led to some gorgeous animation while it was popular.

Dawn of War was another good one. That moment in the intro where the dreadnought shows up and starts tearing Orks apart was spot on. I have a soft spot for the Final Liberation video cutscenes, but DoW was really the first time a game had totally nailed the feel of 40K.

humanji · 20-12-2010 4:03pm

Oh, and another one was Batman: Arkham Asylum on PC with PhysX turned on. I ended up spending the guts of 20 minutes just walking back and forth through it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVepJpu1Ru0

Duggy747 · 20-12-2010 4:05pm

The 2nd level of AVP 2 where you go down into the Xenomorphs nest to find one of your team-mates. Cue nods to Aliens when a little bugger bursts out of her chest and a huge amount of the bastards come out of nowhere chasing you through short corridors. Terrifying stuff that felt awesome when I managed to escape the first time.

Oblivion - Leaving the sewers at sunset and just seeing the vast land that awaits you, absolutely set the game up for me for what would suck nearly 200 hours out of my life

Doom 3 - Playing that game alone in the dark was just awful. I had a constant state of dread and always feared going around the corner with my sparse ammo :pac:

COD 4 - I was blown away by the fluid movements of the characters and how they interracted with the enviornment, really immersed you into it. Plus that Sniper level when you shoot down the Helicopter and you think: "Boo yah! I am fùckin' Rambo, bitch!.........uh............oh shìt, it's crashing right at us............RUN!!!"

Goldeneye - Seeing that game for the 1st time and thinking: "Wow, this is the future of shooters right here!!"

Mr Freeze · 20-12-2010 4:25pm

Hitman - The 1st time I ever saw Ragdoll physics in a game. I didn't know it existed, I shot some guy with a shotgun and instead of seeing the usual animated death that every bad guy in the game would have, he went flying and smacked off the wall like a real person would have, I was completely blown away.

This above repeated when I first saw the euphoria engine in operation in GTA4, shooting and running over people never looked so real.

Thief 1 and 2, everything about them, best games ever.

Mass Effect. The end battle was truely epic, I was on the edge of my seat, it was a perfect mix of gameplay and movies to wrap up such a great game.

Fahrenheit. The opening level where your character murders someone and you then have to cover up the murder scene and leave the diner.
And

The scene after where the image of the murder victim appears in the mirror behind you, I jumped outta my skin nearly. Oldest horror trick in the book, but brilliantly executed in that game

whiterebel · 20-12-2010 6:18pm

Sarky wrote: »

Assassin's Creed: The visuals were stunning, and the rush of getting away from a pack of angry Templars was very much a "whoa" moment, as was every time you climbed a high point to just look out over a whole city. I think getting away is a bit too easy in the sequel(s).

Good call. I was just going to post that.

Penn · 20-12-2010 7:12pm

The whole 'One Shot, One Kill' Ghillie mission in COD4:MW. Just a perfect level.

krudler · 20-12-2010 7:22pm

paddyirishman85 wrote: »

The whole 'One Shot, One Kill' Ghillie mission in COD4:MW. Just a perfect level.

The highlight of the entire franchise for me, the ghillie suit levels are amazing.

War Machine 539 · 20-12-2010 7:24pm

Opening credits of Gears of War 2. Stunning. Perfect Music, Perfect way of doing it . . . . . was just perfect!

krudler · 20-12-2010 7:44pm

Dead Space, seeing the Ishimura for the first time, the first zero-g sequence and the sheer pant crappingly scary atmosphere throughout it, and the sound design, amazing.

Your biggest "Whoa" moments in video gaming (Possibly Spoilers)

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