Gaming Zen Moments

Kiith

Whats your one gaming zen moment? The one moment (or moments) you never thought you'd do or see. Where you thought to yourself, "Oh yeah, i'm actually that ****ing good!"

Counter Strike Source: We had a tournament in the computer society in college one year, and in one of the final rounds my team were against probably the best team in the tournament. Last fight, and we were tied 1-1 with one more game to play. The map was Office and it was a 5-side match. We lost two players early to a lose grenade, and then another two in killing one of their players. So it was me against four of them to win, which was very unlikely given the opposition. But not this day. I killed two of them with a beautiful grenade through the window, and picked one off with my m4. Was then shot from behind, turned around and fired in one move, and bam! Head shot with my pistol to win the game. Cue much shouting and jeering, to which we were told to shut up or get out of the room (the labs were in the library in college)

Ocarina of Time: The water dungeon, bane to many gamers. I somehow managed to get to this point without getting the Zora Tunic from King Zora, which allowed for underwater breathing. After what felt like weeks (was actually days) of trying to do it, i was on the last tunnel out of the dungeon and couldnt make it with my limited air supply. Tried it again and again, and was nearing the end of my tether, when i took out my hook shot, fired towards the end of the tunnel, and managed to hook onto a chest which then dragged me up and outta that place. I literally jumped for joy at that. Some might call it luck, but not me. It was faith. Your not a real gamer till you can do this :P

Mr E

Happens alot while playing Peggle on the Xbox. You pull off a miracle shot, and think "Yep... that's exactly what I was trying to do - pure skill". Works better (and feels better!) if other people are watching.

K.O.Kiki

Tenchu 2 (PS1):
Can't remember the exact level (it was towards the end, and had a giant boat).
Drop down, stealth killed 1 guard (sword through the neck from up high).
Check meter, roll forward, spotted 2 guards.
Now, I knew that if I "proper" stealth-kill either on the first go, the animation will take so long i'll be discovered.
So, I run to the 2nd guard, and glitch-kill (side-swipe him so I don't get the animation), run forward, and JUST as the 3rd turns, BAM -- sword through the stomach.
Elation.

Fscking boss kills me 10mins later! :pac:


Yoshi's Island (SNES): I don't remember how old I was, but I remember this feeling of pure joy when I finally finished the game 100% (all worlds & bonus levels, 100pts).

Mr E

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Yoshi's Island (SNES): I don't remember how old I was, but I remember this feeling of pure joy when I finally finished the game 100% (all worlds & bonus levels, 100pts).

Not easy at all... those bonus levels are a bitch...

L31mr0d

I was a member of the compsoc in college. We set up this really badly formatted gaming contest of Medal Of Honour: Allied Assault.

Here was the format:
* Open ended 8 player endurance deathmatch
* Top 2 from each round go through to the next
* 6 new players added with each round
* When there is nobody left to play the last 2 will go head to head ftw

The stupid thing was anyone could enter at any time and still have a chance of winning. I, foolishly, entered in the first round, thinking there wouldn't be that many people interested in playing in the tournament.

~7 hours later I'm still in it (having skipped all of my labs and lectures for that day), having knocked out pretty much the entire student body of FPS gamers. Then in the second last round, a new guy enters from my class who is excellent at MoH:AA, in fact I usually played on his team.

Himself and I knock out the remaining players, and being the 2 with the highest frags for that round go head to head. We draw in the first round, then both agree to throw down everything but our pistols.

After taking small bits of health off each other, we finally meet by accident in an upper room in one of the french maps. He fires, I strafe and duck behind a table, I strafe out, let off a clip but he dives out the window while reloading. I predict he will come up the stairs immediately behind me so I quickly about turn, jump up on the table, jump over the door I expect him to come through. Like clockwork he does, looks to where he thought I'd be, I turn 180 land behind him and pistol whip him in the back of the head ftw.

Best part was the cheers from everyone watching, which was a complete shock as I had been staring at the screen for so long I hadn't even noticed the crowds of people behind me that where watching. Haven't been that good at an FPS since, just don't have the time or the motivation to practice. But 3+ hours a day, 5 days a week for 3 years made me pretty good at MoH:AA

Ciaran500

Burnout 2: The feeling chaining burnouts the whole way around the track while skimming between traffic at top speed. I used to stop blinking when playing this game, every Burnout since has been a dissapointment

Genghiz Cohen

Just last night, playing a bit of CSS on nuke, as T picking garage, saw a guy;
*Click*
WANDEEG!
Another guy?!
*Click*
WANDEEG!

I LOL'd.

cedomination

5-starring Through the fire and flames in Guitar Hero 3,Gold-starring Caprici Di Diablo in Rock Band 2 and this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXHk78xPIUo

CCCP^

Playing Day of Defeat on the Donner map, I was an Axis Assault. I stormed the Garden, a notoriously camped spot where the Machine Gunner usually covers the entrance and it's impossible to get through. I ran in, primed a grenade, threw it, killed the MG, then killed a Rifleman and a Thompson with 1 clip, then killed a Sniper, picked up the Allied MG, killed a further 3, then someone lobbed a grenade at me and I picked it back up and killed him! That was 8 people in the space of maybe 1 minute or 1 minute 10 sec.

Then someone came up from behind me with a Knife and stabbed me

Cuddlesworth

It would have to be a few Counterstrike Match's I played.

On Nuke against one of the top teams in ED, I head shotted the entire opposing team with one clip from the default CT pistol at the top Bombsite. They rage quit and put in a petition saying I cheated. The Admins gave it to them(politics) but I know it was all me and sheer unbelievable luck.

I also got four concurrent headshots with a p90 while jumping blinded and spraying. Those guys had a bit more class, even coming on to our TS to break their holes laughing at my luck. I did manage to kill the other four members of my team with a nade on the next map which made it even funnier.

Don't play anymore though, work, study etc...

CiDeRmAn

Playing Geometry Wars 2 last night and thrashing my mates all time high score on Evolved, a score he worked on for ages, except I only turned it on for a quick go, after a couple of months of GW2 celibacy, then thrashed his best on my first go!
MWA HA HA HA!

Also, doing one of the long long runs in Test Drive Unlimited without crashing, bootiful.

Finishing Metroid Prime 3 was pretty special too, as Echoes was a bitch and made me feel stupid and inadequate.

And I had the privilege to watch Zen in action as two guys played Bubble Bobble all day on one credit, Wow, who needs a science degree anyway when you have such badass bubble blowing skills man!

fitz0

Was playing CS with a few people in college, me on one team four of them on another with bots to make up the difference. All four of them come round a corner unexpectedly but I managed to nail them all with headshots in quick succession. Got killed by a bot shortly after but still my proudest moment in gaming.

ShiverinEskimo

Finally coming 1st on Rainbow Road on the SNES on 150cc. My soul died trying to achieve that. I never got it back.

EDIT - Fantastic thread btw.

LoGiE

Completing both New Zealand Story and Ghouls and Ghosts on one credit in the arcades. Getting outrages combos in Killer Instinct always grabbed a crowd as well

Hitman Actual

LoGiE wrote: »

Completing both New Zealand Story and Ghouls and Ghosts on one credit in the arcades. Getting outrages combos in Killer Instinct always grabbed a crowd as well

Lol, that brings back great memories of people crowding around you in Arcades when you were running hot. A similar Arcade Zen moment for me would be clearing out Wonderboy in Monsterland with over one million points. It was damn near impossible to do- you had to spin every coin perfectly on your head along the way, and defeat the final boss without buying the most powerful sword. It took an hour to do (a long time for one game back in those days!) and I still remember shaking trying to kill the final boss. That was about 20 years ago and I swear it's still my stand-out moment in gaming.

Hitman Actual

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

And I had the privilege to watch Zen in action as two guys played Bubble Bobble all day on one credit, Wow, who needs a science degree anyway when you have such badass bubble blowing skills man!

I remember some class Bubble Bobble players as well, but all day on one credit... :eek:

Creamy Goodness

going 5-0 up against wink;) at the wcg qualifiers with what was essential a mix team.

johnny_ultimate

Playing with some boardsies on GTAIV on launch night (or soon after anyway). Heated game of cops and robbers afoot. Showdown on a bridge. Us cops manage to wipe out all but one robber. He leaps off the bridge into a river and starts to swim for the getaway boat. We all try to shoot him from the bridge but no luck. So we all jump off too, and start swimming. He gets to the vehicle and we're still behind. I managed to get to shore and start firing off shots at him as he tries to escape. I don't know if it was my bullet or someone elses, but we managed to get the final shot in just before he got into the safety zone.

Never before have I felt such utter satisfaction during a video game.

pwd

got high scores on the hard levels in dr quirkys the one time i tried dance dance revolution. found it easy enough to get long strings of perfects and attracted spectators. I was v good at time crisis 2 as well used to get an audience too, even when I'd only played it once or twice. So I guess my forte is computer games you play with your feet.
Played tekken 3 multiplayer a *lot* and was very good at it.
For a zen moment though it would be wipeout 3. I played that a lot and finished it a couple of times. The feeling of flow/concentration/relaxation when playing fast on phantom and not crashing on harder tracks was really something (weapons off). I have wipeout pulse (psp) and it's a good game, but I played through to the last grid and it doesnt have the same flowing feel as WO3.

F1ngers

Mine was getting the Perfect_Playthrough on Big Boss Extreme.

The

motorbike part with Big Momma

*was ridiculously hard imo.

Even the Mrs. was delighted for me as she watched me struggle through it.

*Spoiler probably not warranted, but not taking any chances

AlmightyCushion

F1ngers wrote: »

Mine was getting the Perfect_Playthrough on Big Boss Extreme.

The

motorbike part with Big Momma

*was ridiculously hard imo.

Even the Mrs. was delighted for me as she watched me struggle through it.

*Spoiler probably not warranted, but not taking any chances

I've been tempted to try that but I'll probably end up putting my foot through the tv if I do.

Dr robotnics mean bean machine on the megadrive. Whenever you were playing against a friend and your screen was starting to pile up to the point you were about to lose, then you see that one piece that you needed to pull off some stupidly insane combo. This would then unlease a shed load of black beans that would pretty much decimate your friend. The look of your friends on screen character face change from laughing to tears was fúcking perfect.

Samurai

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

going 5-0 up against wink;) at the wcg qualifiers with what was essential a mix team.

Kiith

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Playing with some boardsies on GTAIV on launch night (or soon after anyway). Heated game of cops and robbers afoot. Showdown on a bridge. Us cops manage to wipe out all but one robber. He leaps off the bridge into a river and starts to swim for the getaway boat. We all try to shoot him from the bridge but no luck. So we all jump off too, and start swimming. He gets to the vehicle and we're still behind. I managed to get to shore and start firing off shots at him as he tries to escape. I don't know if it was my bullet or someone elses, but we managed to get the final shot in just before he got into the safety zone.

Never before have I felt such utter satisfaction during a video game.

Ah i remember that night. Probably the most fun in an online game i've had for a long time. Couldnt believe when he jumped off the bridge. Classic. We should really try get some more games of that going.

kaimera

one that I always remember was playing cs1.6 way back when...actually was it even 1.6? can't remember the version but back on a friends 56k modem.

i know the map just cant think of the name...possibly vertigo.

walking around a corner to come face to face [not literally] with 6 out 7 CTs from one of the well known clans with me holding the auto shotty.

cue me going bananas and taking them all out with my friend jumping around behind me lolling like a loon before i got knifed while reloading by the last guy

Retr0gamer

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Playing with some boardsies on GTAIV on launch night (or soon after anyway). Heated game of cops and robbers afoot. Showdown on a bridge. Us cops manage to wipe out all but one robber. He leaps off the bridge into a river and starts to swim for the getaway boat. We all try to shoot him from the bridge but no luck. So we all jump off too, and start swimming. He gets to the vehicle and we're still behind. I managed to get to shore and start firing off shots at him as he tries to escape. I don't know if it was my bullet or someone elses, but we managed to get the final shot in just before he got into the safety zone.

Never before have I felt such utter satisfaction during a video game.

I'm pretty sure that was me being a total coward

johnny_ultimate

Kiith wrote: »

Ah i remember that night. Probably the most fun in an online game i've had for a long time. Couldnt believe when he jumped off the bridge. Classic. We should really try get some more games of that going.

Definitely. I think any attempts to replicate it for the next few days just led to massive connection problems and only a few of us could play at a time - guessing that's been fixed by now (still haven't had a chance to try out new Lost and Damned modes). Although there were also some good rocket launcher only deathmatches had

Retr0gamer wrote:

I'm pretty sure that was me being a total coward

Whoever it was, it was the most creative thing I've seen in a videogame in a long time!

noodler

I did one of those 90 minute races in Gran Turismo on the PS1 once.

Did MGS1 in extreme.

Using the long, sniping method to beat the End in MGS3 is pretty satisfying first time around.

Various PES goals from Nedved over the years.

There have been a few very satisying Stealth Deathmatch games on MGO too, I hid under a crate on Groznji Grad with a XMP(B?) and killed about ten people before they figured out where the bullets were coming from

Jazzy

Finishing Super Metroid in under 3 hours with 100% items
finishing Zelda on the snes in one go with everything in 6 hours
finishing street fighter 2 on difficulty level 7 without losing a round (world warrior on the snes)
beating penance in FFX... just cos it takes so bloody long
various tournament wins at LANs. probably proudest of winning a gamecon in UT2004 when the game was at its height. a lot of skilled players there. also winning street fighter 4 at the last gamecon having never played the game before the competition
few online achievements, mainly in UT2004. cups won and runner up and stuff like that.
i think deffo the best was super metroid tho. no matter what i couldnt do that now i dont think. was so much better as a kid.
oooh, finishing megaman 2 without losing a life and streets of rage 2 (both on hard difficulty) was good. although streets of rage u could just glitch through using axel. that "Get the paaaahhhhh" sound he makes with forward forward attack will forever be ingrained in my brain

Jazzy

ShiverinEskimo wrote: »

Finally coming 1st on Rainbow Road on the SNES on 150cc. My soul died trying to achieve that. I never got it back.

EDIT - Fantastic thread btw.

haha yeah, my bro did that. was unbelievable to watch. he was schumacher and i was barrichello so to speak. to finally get the gold in 150cc special was brilliant. sure i didnt do it but i rarely remember being as satisfied with watching someone play

Azza

Suppose my crowning achievement was beating the ranked 3 Company of Heroes American faction player Mexico. Was on the map semois. We both played well but the turning point came when he planted a M8 mine at a key location on the map. He then had the M8 buzz around the map harrassing my units like you normally do with that unit. When I got the m8 down to low health it attempted to retreat away to get repaird as is the norm, except he made the mistake of parking it beside the mine he layed and some stray fire of mine set it off killing it and several units nearby. This got him frustrated and he become suicidal in his bid to kill my puma armoured cars which owned his infantry. Eventually my Tigers came out and locked down the game. Since I was not high ranked this defeat would significantly set him back in his progress to become the no.1 player with the American faction and he begged me to throw the game which I didn't. But he did quit out in rage just as I won and the game never registered. Less than a day later he was number one, but I posted a replay of the game on gamesreplay and he got alot of abuse from other online players!

Originally Posted by Retr0gamer
I'm pretty sure that was me being a total coward

If its cowardly and its online its got to be Retrogamer!

thewheel2.0

Best game of halo i ever played: http://www.bungie.net/Stats/GameStatsHalo3.aspx?gameid=140649013&player=Reinforcement09

I think my best streak on COD4 is 17

CatInABox

My Zen moment?

Goldeneye on the N64, three against one(myself being the one) on the facility level, had managed to build up a fairly decent lead by picking them off one by one, when they finally got smart and started working together. They finally trap me in the corridor outside the two large rooms, with the only thing between myself and them was a slow opening door.

The problem was that one of them would activate the door, causing it to slowly start opening, when another would get impatient and activate the door again, causing it to close. I finally got tired of waiting and opened fire on the door with my RCP-90, and was able to watch on their screens the bullets first come through the door, then the first person, then the second, and finally kill the third guy.

Another would be the original Unreal Tournament, playing CTF, Facing Worlds, I got the sniper rifle for the first time on that level, tried picking people off from the top of the tower, and couldn't hit a thing. Started to get annoyed, so decided it was time for a run at the flag.

Managed to headshot everything between myself and the flag, turned around and did exactly the same thing to get back!

Retr0gamer

Azza wrote: »

If its cowardly and its online its got to be Retrogamer!

I'm never going to live that one game of left 4 dead down ever am I?

Mr. K

F1ngers wrote: »

Mine was getting the Perfect_Playthrough on Big Boss Extreme.

The

motorbike part with Big Momma

*was ridiculously hard imo.

Even the Mrs. was delighted for me as she watched me struggle through it.

*Spoiler probably not warranted, but not taking any chances

I'm tempted to try this too. I'm playing MGS4 for the first time since last summer, when I started a no-kills playthrough. The last MGS I completed entirely was 2, getting all the dogtags was time consuming!

Great gaming achievements include doing everything in every Resident Evil, Final Fantasys 6-9 and a few others things through the years!

DenMan

Great thread OP.

Wow....let's see.

Playing Donkey Kong Country for the first time and being completely hooked on it, then playing DK2 and feeling the same way.

Doing the Sub Zero fatality on the first Mortal Kombat (spine rip). Also doing the Scorpion fatality (flame breath), awesome.

Playing Super Mario All Stars and loving Super Mario Bros 3, what an awesome game. Stage 6 is so brilliant and the music is just ace (Ice Stage)

Playing Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the first time (my first Sonic game). Both Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles are classics.

Playing Resident Evil 2 for the first time. What a legend of a game, one of my all time favs. Also Final Fantasy VII, VIII and X, what unbelievable games. It is the stories in the Final Fantasy games that I really love so much.

Golden Axe, Streets of Rage and the Final Fight series are other gems.

giggsy664

I'm not an old school gamer. So most of you mightn't describe it "zen" moment as zen-like.

Anyway. First proper TDM outside of Boot Camp in Call of Duty: World at War. Managed to rack up a 17 Kill Streak, which still stands as my best CoD:WaW KS. I have an 18 KS in CoD4 though.

That and platinuming (Getting all trophies) In Burnout Paradise on the PS3. I had to give up Christmas Eve so I could win 30 odd races. Then, at mid-day the next day, I got the platinum.

Retr0gamer

1 crediting Carrier Airwing and Ghouls n' Ghosts. I just had an absolute stormer when I first finished them on 1 credit. In particular carrier airwing. I'd only gotten to the mid point before but on this playthrough every time I was just about to die a health refill was just on the next screen.

Another was almost 1 crediting Alien vs. Predator. It was relatively new at the time and by far the most popular arcade machine at the time. My dad was behind me watching me play in Dr. Quirkeys. It was only when I got murdered by the last boss when I noticed the massive crowd that had built up behind me because of the big collective sigh they left out and started clapping. I was quite pround of myself that day

Jazzy

hmmmmmmmm, im drunk, but still the best zen moments are all from playing ppl i know and mates. tbh, finishing a really hard game now would mean nothing to me. it used to, i used to be all about the stupid challenges.. ive felt since games have become more universal its more the ppl i play with/against i want to beat.

starcraft. that game decides if u really are as good as u think u are. it cuts the bull****. there is no excuses with the game as there is CoD, CS, Gears, Halo etc.


if u wanna be a man - play starcraft. whatever else u are playing is for pU$sies

Jazzy

Jazzy wrote: »

if u wanna be a man - play starcraft. whatever else u are playing is for pU$sies

i wholeheartedly endorse drunken jazzy and all his brilliance

Retr0gamer

Jazzy wrote: »

i wholeheartedly endorse drunken jazzy and all his brilliance

What about street fighter 2?

TinCool

• The jump from 8bit (C64) to 16bit (Atari ST) computing looking at the introduction of Mercenary and the perfect round planet increasing in size.
• Loading up Quake2 for the first time *after* hooking up a voodo1 card to my PC (queue jaw dropping).
• Myself and my mate clocking Bubble Bobble in the local Snooker Hall many moons ago.
• Playing Outrun (sit-in version) in the arcades for the first time in Dublin Airport back in 1986.

giggsy664

TinCool wrote: »

• The jump from 8bit (C64) to 16bit (Atari ST) computing looking at the introduction of Mercenary and the perfect round planet increasing in size.
• Loading up Quake2 for the first time *after* hooking up a voodo1 card to my PC (queue jaw dropping).
• Myself and my mate clocking Bubble Bobble in the local Snooker Hall many moons ago.
• Playing Outrun (sit-in version) in the arcades for the first time in Dublin Airport back in 1986.

What happened to the Arcades in the Airport? Did they just disappear?

Kiith

Its probably a starbucks now

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Counter Strike Source I had the M4, playing in computer society in college (with kiith). On Dust defending bomb site B, a terrorist jumped out of the tunnel, it took me half my clip to take him down, as I did, I turned to the tunnel there were 4 more running towards me, I just sprayed and killed them all, was 2 or 3 headshots... People were WTF? How the fk did you do that? Etc etc...

Killed two people with two shots, didn't mean to take the second shot. To me it looked like there was only one person as the other guy was directly behind the first one. M4, two headshots, crazy stuff.

BattleField 2 Troop chopper full of enemy troops, I throw in a gernade, lands in the chopper and they all die. Another chopper flying towards me and I shoot the pilot with my M203 gernade laucher. He dies, the chopper falls directly out of the sky and the rest of them die.

I was arsing around on a server, had a troop chopper full of my own troops, I done a full barrel roll and a loop the loop and they all jumped out :P

Blazer

Battlefield 2- Playing as US Assault with F2000 on Sharqi Peninsula..
running towards Surveilance point and takes down 3 soldiers with rifle.
Reaches the wall..(know there's at least 3 soldiers on behind it as I can hear them), throws flashbang over and runs through and empties pistol into 2 of them..surprise surprise..there was actually 4...they're still dazed so switched to knife, kills them both and proceeds to take flag backed up by teammates.
About 3 years ago but still remember it vividly due to the fact I punched the air and whoomped after it.


COD4 Dying after the chopper crashes after nuke goes off...whaddy mean I'm dead..I'm the bloody hero..I can't die

Cravez

Zombie Panic Source: Being the only survivor left and about 18-20 player zombies comming after me i managed to kill every single one of them with the revolver, every shot a headshot

Tenchu Z: Lured 4 guards into an indoor area using the whistle decoy and i scaled and clinged to the roof until the alertness wore off, as soon as they turned away i dropped down and succesfully stealth killed all 4 at once (the chain stealth kill). Its quite hard to do this in the main game as compared to training and you have to time each stealth kill perfectly

Jazzy

Retr0gamer wrote: »

What about street fighter 2?

and street fighter 2

TinCool

giggsy664 wrote: »

What happened to the Arcades in the Airport? Did they just disappear?

They used to have several in the arrivals hall, a few upstairs in the check in desks area. They've all gone now and have been for a good few years, 10 years at least.

Overheal

Ace Combat 5, mission 8492. If you weren't in the zone, you were dead.

Bubs101

Broken Sword. The goat

norrie rugger

Mathew Reilly wrote: »

COD4 Dying after the chopper crashes after nuke goes off...whaddy mean I'm dead..I'm the bloody hero..I can't die

That was a bit unexpected.

Tetris Clearing both the normal game at highest level start point, and the pre-fawked up game. Seriously, all my gaming since then has not matched the acheivement of clearing that game