Biggest eureka moment in gaming

DeSelby83

Just thought id put up a similar thread to the biggest disappointment in gaming but maybe not so negative. When have you been gaming and something has happened where you have that type of eureka moment or when you just think "I f*kin love gaming".

My most recent one was on battlefield playing conquest on caspian border, big 300 ticket game and it got down to 10 and 10 and I was capturing a point when 4 people came around the corner and I somehow managed to kill them all and the points ticked down and 10 seconds later we won by 4 points, the game lasted almost 45 mins and I felt great after it

Kiith

Probably beating the water dungeon in Ocarina of Time without the blue tunic.

Also, there were a few times during Portal 1/2, where after being stuck for a few minutes and sat staring at the screen, you'd figure it out. Really satisfying at times.

Stercus Accidit

Kiith wrote: »

Probably beating the water dungeon in Ocarina of Time without the blue tunic.

Why? Is that just a self imposed challenge or is there some way to skip a bit of the game for speed runs?


I guess for me the latest was playing Metro 2033 and the DLC difficulty modes, replaying a modern game for me is unheard of, let alone several times over. The frantic FPS nature of the game is compounded by choking on stale air, desperately moving to find gas masks and filters, all the while you mask is cracking in front of your eyes. I guess I just loved that game.

Kiith

Stercus Accidit wrote: »

Why? Is that just a self imposed challenge or is there some way to skip a bit of the game for speed runs?

Neither. I never even realised there was a blue tunic, until well after i got past that point.

johnny_ultimate

GTAIV release night when a load of us on boards were playing cops & robbers.

The stand off on the bridge was easily the best multiplayer experience I've ever had. Jumping off the bridge and pursuing the last suspect by swimming... and then someone landing a final shot as he sped away on the boat, seconds away from victory. Exhilarating.

RedXIV

I've had a few of these.

FFVII - After getting pummelled to bits by Lost Number about 20 times in a row I remember beating him and had to pause the game, shout at my brother to come in and watch him finish dying. The relief was unreal after beating him.

CS:S - Was only playing it about a week with guys in college and my entire team got wiped out, I was the last person left and hadn't a clue what I was doing. Jumping around like noob and swinging the mouse like crazy managed to kill the last 3 guys against me. People thought I was some sort of secret crazy pro

Sonic 2 - Been playing it since I was about 6 and I was 23 the first time I beat it. Felt ridiculously proud of myself.

Tekken 5 - Went to a tekken contest in college and won, the last two matches were insanely close and I had lost to the guy I played in the final loads of times but beat him at his own game in the dying seconds. counters ftw!

Doodee

KOTOR - When you learn the truth about Revan, I was gobsmacked sat infront of the monitor.

More recently in ME3, chose the wrong dialogue and had to see the consequences, was very much upset at what my actions had done, so I went and reloaded the save ^_^

CastorTroy

Kiith wrote: »

Probably beating the water dungeon in Ocarina of Time without the blue tunic.

I just finished the 3DS version. First time really playing it since first got it on the N64 about 13/14 years ago. So I knew what was there but not how to get them.
So ended up playing both the Forest and Fire temples without a shield as I was sure I would get one along the way(bought one before the water temple) and then played the Water Temple without the Blue Tunic as I thought you picked it up inside the temple.

Most Eureka moments have been in puzzle type games like Lemmings, Pushover or more recently Stacking.

tok9

Has to be MGS and the codec on the back of the game case. That was absolutely brilliant!

Colibri

MGO. So many fond memories! Feigning death, successful stealth attempts, the rush in the last minute. Miss that game

Retr0gamer

Playing Gunstar Heroes for the first time. Such a great game. I had seen it on Gamesmaster a few months beforehand and was so jealous of all the great SNES games. I didn't realise the game was on Megadrive, it looked that good.

Finishing Earthbound on the SNES. I knew afterwards that all the people that say games can't be art are totally wrong.

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

GTAIV release night when a load of us on boards were playing cops & robbers.

The stand off on the bridge was easily the best multiplayer experience I've ever had. Jumping off the bridge and pursuing the last suspect by swimming... and then someone landing a final shot as he sped away on the boat, seconds away from victory. Exhilarating.

That was me he got. Thought I was being sneaky Great session all the same.

Josey Wales

For a recent example I look to New Super Mario Bros. Wii. It reminded me of why I still like to play games as I get older and find it harder to get the time to play. Playing this game with my wife and two friends was a great, great experience. The game works so well in co-op when you are all on the same page and working together, helping each other through the level. The game also works so well when you aren't working together and are throwing each other down holes and robbing power-ups. You just can't help but laugh either way you play it.

Playing GTA III for the first time was pretty mind blowing. I had bought the PS2 as a bit of an impulse purchase and got GTA III with it. Getting home and turning it on for the first time I was blown away. It was on a whole other level to GTA 2.

I remember renting out Gunstar Heroes and staying up late into the night with a friend trying to beat it. We couldn't believe our eyes with what was happening on screen. Surely, the MegaDrive wasn't capable of doing the things that Gunstar Heroes was doing.

A shoutout to the genesis of Pro Evolution Soccer in the form of International Superstar Soccer for the SNES. I wouldn't like to know how many hours a friend and I put into that game. It was just such a step up from FIFA (at the time, not getting into that debate) that we couldn't believe that football games would ever get any better. I still remember choosing Columbia all the time and running Alvarez the pacy striker into the ground every match. Awesome stuff.

Looking back through my list there I notice a trend towards local co-op gaming. That is something I truly miss these days. It is so rare to get that opportunity as so few of my friends have any interest in games.

TheDoc

tok9 wrote: »

Has to be MGS and the codec on the back of the game case. That was absolutely brilliant!

Was going to say the exact same thing

I was 10 years old when I was playing that game, and got so infuriated I remember throwing a massive tantrum. I had wasted like two days trying everything and hadn't a clue.

Remember my Ma coming up to my room where I was playing with toys and asking was it the code in the picture.

I knew I'd loved games, and was very fortunate, travelling to a few events working with some gaming companies doing interviews and match reports. I remember going to WC3L finals with 4K in 06 and the team went on to win, and the buzz was incredible. It was my first time travelling with the group and being around guys who I'd idoled in my Wc3 playing days, its was an amazing experience. Also met, at the time the little known DeMuslim whose became a good friend.

I think the moment where I knew I loved playing games was during massive world pvp events in vanilla wow. Me and a mate would be scowering the forums during college and there was many a time we bunked off to go home and lead the guild we were in help in massive world pvp encounters. The gameplay aspects with friends and the sense of accomplishment in wow still hasn't been matched by anything for me.

super_furry

Reaching Thunderbluff in World of Warcraft for the first time. Started out as a Tauren in a low populated server and saw just one other person in the early level stages. I started to think that that was just the way the game was and that there weren't that many other people there, until I found my way to a living, breathing and shouting city that was teeming with people. Really cool moment.

CastorTroy

Some of my favourite moments are probably in the Metroid or similar games. Where you struggle to get through a section but there's satisfaction when going back through that section later on when you've upgraded and getting through no problem, barely even noticing the enemies

Duggy747

On the ferry over to the UK, completed Time Crisis 2 on 1 credit.

Nobody saw me do it

Donkey Kong Country Returns gave me that "Woah" feeling I haven't had in a long time. Was so much fun to play and was rock solid hard which I loved about it.

Cokeistan

So many exhilirating moments.....getting the crap scared out of me in dead space, playing through the wild west in red dead redemption, winning a tournament in FIFA online, the first encounter with a dragon in skyrim. I could go on...I love gaming

Cokeistan

Josey Wales wrote: »

Playing GTA III for the first time was pretty mind blowing. I had bought the PS2 as a bit of an impulse purchase and got GTA III with it. Getting home and turning it on for the first time I was blown away. It was on a whole other level to GTA 2.

Definitely one of my best gaming memories too

CrazyFish

This is a pretty embarrassing one but I was young at the time. I couldn't get past the Metal Gear Solid menu because they used circle to select menu items and x to exit to start screen.

Shiminay

Going to my first LAN event (Leprecon in Trinity College in 1997) and meeting the cream of Irish Quake players at the time and making friends that I've had since (and hey, it ultimately lead to my current job )

Playing a Clan Arena QW game at Quakapalooza in '98 (Cloud did a blog post on it here) and being left as the last man on my clan vs 3 or 4 of the CG guys for 4 rounds and winning all of them to make it 4 all. Couldn't pull out the final round to win the series though, was disappointing, but that's e-Sports

Playing GTA Vice City and hearing Slayer come on the radio - I jumped out of the seat and headbanged all around the sitting room whilst Raining Blood blared out of the telly like a fking loon

Playing Mass Effect 3 there was a decision I made that actually rocked me and I just had to stop playing for 10 minutes and take stock.

all the stuff relating to Legion eventually sacrificing himself - I really liked the character and loved how they fleshed out the Geth/Quarian conflict's origins.

It was the first time in a long time that I remember a game's story hitting me that hard

BizzyC

Probably ME3.

I remember playing it and encountering characters and decisions I had made in ME1, 5 years ago.

When I thought about the span that this story had and what was going on in my life back when it began etc, I thought it was an amazing accomplishment in gaming that this one game was adapting to what i did 5 years previously.

SeantheMan

Buying the Orange Box mainly for Half Life 2 - and finding Team Fortress 2 to be ...not just a tacked on add-on, but possibly the greatest and most fun multiplayer FPS of all time !

gimli2112

Resident Evil

In a room full of paintings with a switch under each one.

"WTF is going on?" Was stuck on that stupid puzzle for ages for some reason.

Professey Chin

Pretty much every Portal puzzle.
"Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope......wait....
.........maybe if........
Ah for fcuk sake"

CastorTroy

The Great Chinholio wrote: »

Pretty much every Portal puzzle.
"Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope......wait....
.........maybe if........
Ah for fcuk sake"

Is that the "It can't be that obvious!" or the "How could I not see that" reaction? Both are valid for Portal, I believe

Defiler Of The Coffin

Metal Gear Solid 4:

Big Boss appearing at the end.

Most sensational moment I've ever had in gaming. After 20 years of Metal Gear it was the ultimate climax!

titan18

Online in Dawn of War, was looking for a 2v2 match and when was waiting in lobby with one other guy for about 10 minutes. The guys record is ridiculously good, and he asks do you want to do a 1v1. Knowing I'll get hammered,I decide I might as well as I'm getting bored.

He plays me in about 4 or 5 games and spends his time teaching me how to get better at the game, best counters, what sort of timing you need to get things etc.

It was my first great online gaming experience, and allowed me to get pretty good in strategy games.

pablomakaveli

One of the most significant for me was on my first playthrough of ff7. I reached the train graveyard but couldnt find my way out. After a long time i gave up and didnt touch the game for nearly a year.

Anyway i came down with chicken-pox and since i was bored decided to fire it up again. This time i ran around the train graveyard before but ended up walking under a bar that i hadnt realized i could walk under before, mainly because the colour on my tv was broken and it was hard to notice it.

It seems a bit ridiculous that i missed that looking back but i was delighted at the time as i was able to carry on with what became one of my favourite games of all time.

MitchKoobski

Final Fantasy VI
Being stuck for quite a while without being able to complete the Floating Continent. Ultima Weapon would constantly destroy me. Then I discovered by messing around with the equipment that equipping Gaia Gear would make his earth attacks actually heal me. One friday afternoon I finally beat him and thought WOO I BEAT THE GAME....but no...oh I was so wrong...

Retr0gamer

Defiler Of The Coffin wrote: »

Metal Gear Solid 4:

Big Boss appearing at the end.

Most sensational moment I've ever had in gaming. After 20 years of Metal Gear it was the ultimate climax!

Ultimate ****ty retcon more like. It was the final idiotic moment in that sad excuse. of a game.

Dave_The_Sheep

Pro Evo 6. Beating AC Milan 4-1 as Liverpool after going behind in the 79th minute, in order to overturn a 2-0 first leg deficit. When the fourth went in I jumped around the room like a maniac.

Half-Life. Went down to a local internet cafe with a mate for a Half-Life deathmatch tournament. Won the thing, first time we'd played multiplayer. Other than Doom 2, first time I'd played multiplayer games... a decade and a half of LAN parties later... this was the start.

X-Wing. Beating the training missions. The ones where you had to fly the course, shooting the laser turrets while flying through gates, toggling shield, engine and laser power like there's no tomorrow. Very satisfying.

Skyrim. That first dragon fight by the tower at Whiterun. Pity they turned out to be so samey but that first one was incredible. You just think ... This. This is why I got this game.

ancapailldorcha

Metal Gear Solid: The whole thing. Just an amazing game.

Resident Evil 3: One of the first games I ever played. Simply enthralling and Nemesis was genuinely scary.

Final Fantasy X: My first RPG. Amazing story, soundtrack and battle system in one incredible package.

Demon's Souls & Dark Souls: 2 of the greatest games ever. Beat Smough & Ornstein gave me such an incredible high.

Portal & Portal 2: That moment when you crack a puzzle and it turns out to be something ridiculously simple. Great games and great humor as well.

Bioshock: I looked up the good ending on youtube. Felt amazing to see it and wish I'd gotten it on my playthrough. Great game.

GTA Vice City: Amazingly authentic 80s experience in 1 game. Just a class act with shocking production values.

Mr.Saturn

Street Fighter: Well, from Alpha on (with exceptions here and there), decking someone with Dan Hibiki. That's always awesome. Kinda downplayed in SF4, though.

Defiler Of The Coffin

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Ultimate ****ty retcon more like. It was the final idiotic moment in that sad excuse. of a game.

A sad excuse of a game that you still played right through to the end! Who cares if Kojima had retconned him to be the son of Jesus Christ, it was a brilliant end to a brilliant saga! A fanboy has decreed it to be so!

Professey Chin

CastorTroy wrote: »

Is that the "It can't be that obvious!" or the "How could I not see that" reaction? Both are valid for Portal, I believe

Both really

TheKeenMachine

When you sign some kid from St. Pats on Football Manager and he becomes the greatest player of all time.

jaykhunter

Eureka moments most vividly would be during Portal 1/2 when you finally figure out how to solve a puzzle and can't wait to do it. You feel very clever until a minute later and you're stumped in a new puzzle, lol.

"I LOVE GAMING!" moment, last really big one was the first scarecrow segment in Arkham Asylum. It was so very amazing.

As a massive MK fan, playing through the story mode of MK9, which retold and made sense of the plotlines of MK1-3, was fantastic. An utter joy as a fan to see everything slot into place, new and nostalgia in one go.

Logical_Bear

The Great Chinholio wrote: »

Pretty much every Portal puzzle.
"Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope......wait....
.........maybe if........
Ah for fcuk sake"

just finished portal 2 tonight without going on the interwebz for help.Fuk me i have a love/hate relationship with that game!

flanno_7hi

Doodee wrote: »

KOTOR - When you learn the truth about Revan, I was gobsmacked sat infront of the monitor.

More recently in ME3, chose the wrong dialogue and had to see the consequences, was very much upset at what my actions had done, so I went and reloaded the save ^_^

Just came in here to post about KOTOR. Still my fav game. KOTOR 2 was so disappointing.

funky penguin

Eureka moments....going back to Another World or Flash back on the mega drive I think. Or Broken Sword, Discworld.

More recently, I frikkin loved having perfect speed runs through Mirror's Edge, especially finding shortcuts to shave time off and make you feel a little cooler.

danthefan

I look back on my WoW days with embarrassment now but at the time getting a server first kill on C`Thun was amazing.

Hackysack

funky penguin wrote: »

Eureka moments....going back to Another World or Flash back on the mega drive I think. Or Broken Sword, Discworld.

I HATED THAT GOD DAMNED GOAT IN IRELAND

[/capslockrage]

AlmightyCushion

When I realised that in MGS the whole idea was to sneak around and avoid confrontation. Up until that point I spent fecking ages in the first area with the elevator because I kept running around attacking the guards there. I must have tried it a million times before giving up. I was bitching about it to a friend when he told me the whole premise of the game. I felt like an eejit. Glad he did though because that game kicked ass.

Potential-Monke

Best moments:

Playing TimeSplitters 2 with a mate and having hour long deathmatch's with him and X other bots with no kill limit. We'd play for about 12 hours a day and realise that it was only 12 matches we'd just played.

Playing through and finishing all the Soul Reaver games and realising just exactly how fantastic each game was, with still the best story and voice work ever in any game.

Playing online for the first time (thanks to being a country lad, it was with CoD4). It just expanded gaming into a whole other level for me.

Just playing Frequency & Amplitude and nailing a song, epic moments.

The endings of Arkham City and Red Dead Redemption, the Legion/Mordin story arcs in ME3 and the relationship developed with Alyx in Half-Life 2. They demonstrated the emotional effect gaming can have on a person (everyone also goes on about the bit in FF7, i didn't like the game so can't comment on that particular one).

Turning on the PS1 every time, even today brings an excitement that very few other things can.

Eureka Moments:

Most levels in Portal 1/2, mirroring everything that everyone else has said so far.

Realising in the second Riddler room in Arkham City after about 6 goes that i'm not actually wrong about which one he should have been in, but that if i used Detective Mode i would see the slyness of the Riddler.

Goro

Wing commander - the price of freedom.

It looks crap by today's standards but when I played it at the time it was just an incredible feeling to choose your ship and go into battle and then go chat to your crew mates in the bar afterwards in the interactive movie scenes.

Also Elite: first encounters.

Hasn't been a good space trading/battle sim in years.

penev10

Josey Wales wrote: »

A shoutout to the genesis of Pro Evolution Soccer in the form of International Superstar Soccer for the SNES. I wouldn't like to know how many hours a friend and I put into that game. It was just such a step up from FIFA (at the time, not getting into that debate) that we couldn't believe that football games would ever get any better. I still remember choosing Columbia all the time and running Alvarez the pacy striker into the ground every match. Awesome stuff..

Same as. Deluxe was so amazing at the time too.

I used to pick Bulgaria with their 3 amazing forwards (hence the username ). I can still name most of the fictitious footballers! I'd say you were a fan of Murillo if you were a Colombia man.

Wereghost

The first time I saw a Cyberdemon in Doom 2, I was running a mod that changed the sounds and was playing a secret level based on Wolfenstein. So I'm rushing through a big room containing lots of Gestapo and making for the large inviting steel door at the end when it abruptly swings open to reveal a Cyberdemon which yells "EXTERMINATE!!!" as it slaughters me with rockets. I think the phrase "mean m.f." may have passed my lips.

Doom 2 is pretty much "what I did in 1995".

Agricola

Theres been tonnes over the years, recently Id say Skyrim.
Just creeping through these detailed dungeons which never seemed to be cut n paste jobs. They all seemed to have their own unique character (compared to Oblivion anyway) Sneaking around with a low level character, trying to get stealth kills for max damage, then reaching the final chamber for an epic showdown with a Dragur Lord before getting the shout from the wall. In my early days playing Skyrim it reminded me that it was for these experiences I play games.

Josey Wales

penev10 wrote: »

Same as. Deluxe was so amazing at the time too.

I used to pick Bulgaria with their 3 amazing forwards (hence the username ). I can still name most of the fictitious footballers! I'd say you were a fan of Murillo if you were a Colombia man.

Deluxe was obviously the better game but ISS came first.

Yeah, Murillo was awesome. It is funny what you can come across on the Internet. See this for Murillo.

Username makes perfect sense :cool:

James Howlett

Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass - the part where you are required to make an imprint of a map on the top screen. I pressed every combination of buttons possible and then just sat staring at the screen. Eventually the penny dropped. I thought it was an excellent puzzle.

As for a more general eureka moment; when I was a kid I used to rent games a lot but would always have cheat books from magazines lying around. I'd play a game for a while and then use cheats to beat it. Eventually I thought "it's not that much fun to beat a game in a few minutes... what if you shouldn't use cheats... and beat it normally instead... wouldn't that be better...(eureka moment! or arguably a "d'uh!" moment)"

platinums

I had a Sega mastersystem v1 for about a year... then my cousin came round and showed me how to get the Secret game, (we named it Sally the snail) and I was poor, I didnt have many games, and suddenly amazed it had been there all that time..

cant not mention this either, WHen Metal Gear Solid came out in Japan my neightbour was able to get a copy. Sadly it was in Japanese and Black and White (NTSC, no converter) and the Radar was cut off the top of the screen for some reason, ( again probably NTSC on Pal or something) It didnt stop me finishing it twice though...it was the Best Game I ever Played..