Biggest graphical 'whoooa' moment?

Morag

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

Not so great now but that first time you left the sewers in Oblivion.

Nah first time I hiked out of Balmora and found myself on the Odai Plateau and watched the moons rise in the night sky and the starts come out.

TerrorFirmer

It had the first breakable glass in a 3D game I'd seen. Then when I played it I nearly vomited due to how bad it was.

Just installed it there.

Well, I've my fun.

YbFocus

YbFocus wrote: »

I think he's talking about motocross madness to be honest

For me, it has to be the original far cry on pc, it was just amazing to walk around in!

Yes! It was Motocross Madness. It absolutely blew me away just how amazing it looked.

Not so much graphical woah, but definitely audio woah. Remember playing Discworld on PC - it was around the first time we got a Soundblaster card and the step away from sound created by the computer itself was just immense. There was one day that I was playing it and was called away to have dinner with my family. If you left the game alone and didn't do anything, the character of Rincewind would start banging against the screen and shouting 'hheeelllooo?'. Completely scared the bejesus out of my family and I.

CruelCoin

Modern Whoa: Elder Scrolls Skyrim. The sheer scale of the world is amazing. That mountain peak you see in the distance, you can go climb it.....

Nostalgic whoa: Final Fantasy 8. I was blown away by the cgi cutscenes. Amazing for the time.


I'm going to be sneaky and add this is:

Biggest audio whoa: Band of brothers: road to hill 31. With some good headphones on, the quality of the gunshots is stunning. Explosions boom, a mg42 crackles, etc. Brilliant audio.

Loobz

Half Life on PC (1998)- I remember installing it and when it loaded, I couldn't believe how good it looked.

Colin Mcrae Rally on PC (1998) - the mud gathering on the car as you flake along a muddy track.

Severence - Blade of Darkness on PC (2001) - the blood and gore.

Carmageddon on PC (1997) - the destruction and large free roaming tracks.

Blood on PC (1997) - beheading zombies and kicking them around - priceless.

gouche

I used to spend ages in Ocarina of Time just wandering around Hyrule Field and looking at the sun rise/set! Was pretty mind-blowing stuff coming from a MegaDrive:pac:
Also, in Kakariko when you enter the graveyard and it starts raining - awesome!

o1s1n

o1s1n wrote: »

I reckon anyone who grew up in the 8 bit/16 bit gen era and made the leap into 3D polygons in both the arcade and home consoles experienced a leap in technology which will never be experienced again. To say it was amazing was an understatement. It was mind blowing.

I remember when I first got that PS1 demo disc with the Trex/Manta ray tech demo and then loads of demos of things like Wipeout 2097 and Die Hard Trilogy - blew my mind. Really. I've never played a demo disc so much or experienced anything like that sheer leap ever. It was like that moment in The Wizzard of Oz turns from black and white into colour*




*Footnote, I still play 2D games and 16 bit games are my favourite gen, I'm just talking about 'wow' experiences here

One more thing to add to this; expectations and knowledge of what hardware could do.

When 3D graphics first really went mainstream on home consoles with things like the PS1, Saturn and n64, most folks weren't really aware of hardware limitations. Draw distance? Texture mapping? FPS?

It's nowhere near like now where everyone knows the intricacies of hardware, review benchmarks, lament how 'this will look ten times better when the PC port comes out!'*

All we knew was that we suddenly had gone from 16bit sprites to a full, 3D world to explore. One of the first proper exploration games I ever had was Tomb Raider. Just the ability of being able to walk around a room in 3D was really something else. The possibilities were suddenly endless. I can remember thinking 'wow! Imagine we got to a point where games had a completely open city where you could just wander around like this doing what you want!'

It almost seemed like sci fi. I can still remember the feeling of wondering what a game would look like if the graphics were 'as good as those in Playstation CGI intros'

Sorry if I'm coming across as a rose tinted nostalgia monster, they were just magical days is all!

*actually, I did have a friend who had a fancy Voodoo graphics card and kept going on about how much better Tomb Raider looked on his PC. None of us really listened to him though. :pac:

wes

Playing Super Mario 64 for the first time. Brilliant game.

Soarer

Ecco the Dolphin on the Megadrive. Blew my mind.

briany

wes wrote: »

Playing Super Mario 64 for the first time. Brilliant game.

At first I was a bit overwhelmed by Mario 64 because of the graphical advancements but then I was underwhelmed by the new style of game play. You can kind of tool around in that game and be at a bit of a loose end. It was a shock coming to that from the SNES with World and All-Stars where the adventures were very streamlined and pretty much take you by the hand. There was always an obstacle or an enemy to be overcome whereas this was not always the case in 64. You could occasionally be unsure of where to go and sometimes the adventure did not come to you, you had to go to the adventure. Obviously, it is an amazing game and I had many hours playing it but that culture shock that suddenly came with Mario being cast into the 3D realm took some getting used to.

wnolan1992

For me, I think it was the opening Mercenaries 2 on 360.

I remember coming in on a boat into an inlet and just thinking "F*cking hell that looks good!", then hopping in a jeep and watching barricades splinter and shatter.

I'm sure there are others, but that's the one that resonates with me for some reason.

RasTa

Just seen this Killzone gif and have to say it's amazing for in-game footage

Zillah

Loobz wrote: »

Severence - Blade of Darkness on PC (2001) - the blood and gore.

The lighting and shadows in that game were amazing!

SeantheMan

gouche wrote: »

I used to spend ages in Ocarina of Time just wandering around Hyrule Field and looking at the sun rise/set! Was pretty mind-blowing stuff coming from a MegaDrive:pac:
Also, in Kakariko when you enter the graveyard and it starts raining - awesome!

I was always jealous of the people who were able to play N64 games on their megadrive :P

Loobz

Zillah wrote: »

The lighting and shadows in that game were amazing!

Agreed.

super_furry

Ridge Racer on the Playstation. It was indisinguishable from the arcade version, which itself looked great for the time.

Mitch Connor

The destruction of the Normandy in Mass Effect 2 is something that stands out for me - particularly the moment when you are going to Joker, the zero g effect, the planet in the distance - just thought it was STUNNING.

Sierra Oscar

For me I always remember the graphics in Far Cry as being amazing at the time, especially those lovely beach environments! It also had some great vista's that came with the open environment that I had not really experienced in any game before.

2004 was a great year for PC gaming now that I think of it between Far Cry coming out early in the year and then Half Life 2 towards the year end.

CrazyRabbit

Mal-Adjusted wrote: »

you're not thinking of this by any chance are you?

http://www.visualwalkthroughs.com/deusex/hongkong3/36.jpg

first time iv'e ever heard Deus Ex praised for it's graphics!

That's it. First time I had seen anything like that in a game, so a big wow for me at the time.

CastorTroy

SeantheMan wrote: »

I was always jealous of the people who were able to play N64 games on their megadrive :P

Tch, everyone knows the N64 version of Ocarina was just a low quality port of the megadrive game.

I think one of the most graphically impressive games I played which actually still impresses me is Metroid Prime. Audio in it is just as impressive. Would love them to release a Metroid Prime HD trilogy. Owning the games for a third time is okay, isn't it?

Daith

I think it was probably GTA III. It looks dodgy as hell now but was amazing back then.

RasTa

Daith wrote: »

I think it was probably GTA III. It looks dodgy as hell now but was amazing back then.

I forgot what it looked like and watched the first few seconds of this. It still looks good tbh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jONTvpvj7DM

Vicxas

Mine has to be the PS1 t-Rex.

I was blown away by it

Vyse

The first game I booted up a game on the PS1 (Wipeout). I had been out of gaming for about 3 years (a long stretch back then). The last thing I played was probably Golden Axe on the Megadrive. I wasn't prepared for the FMW or the music. A true generational leap.

Gonzo

there are several games that really made my jaw drop when I first saw them, over the past 25 years.

1 - Doom1, PC, I remember walking into HMV Grafton street, down the stairs and turning right and seeing a pc monitor with Doom Demo running, I didnt know what it was at the time but just stood there for over 10 minutes in awe watching it.

2 - Seeing Starfox on the SNES being played on a gaming pod in Virgin Megastore on release day (bought a SNES after watching it).

3 - Playstation 1 launch games

4 - Wip3out 1 and 2 on ps1.... totally blew my mind...

5 - upgrading PC to a Voodoo2 from software mode to run Quake 2!

6 - Seeing Unreal run for the first time, that demo of the castle in flyby mode, i almost fell off my chair....

http://youtu.be/26I-Pw-yPJ4

7 - Playing Half Life 1

8 - Splinter Cell 1 on Xbox

9 - Mario 64

10 - Legend of Zelda

11 - Gears of War Xbox 360

12 - Wip3out - PS3

CiDeRmAn

A number of moments for me
1. The first time I saw Star Wars in an arcade, incredible!

2. Wolfenstein 3D running on a mates PC, so smooth and fast, action packed too.

3. As much as I loved Road Rash and NfS on the 3DO, and Wipeout on the PS, that gen it was Wipeout 2097 and Gran Turismo that knocked our socks off, the latter doing things a console had no business doing !

4. Flight Unlimited on the PC, that shook me all night long!

Since then it's just a process of refinement, yes there's been some great visual treats over the years but nothing that really represents a fundamental shift.

Back when I had a megadrive, I remember seeing the first tekken game in smyths, also the first tomb raider on playstation was amazing at the time(to me anyway).

krudler

Killer Instinct in the arcade was a big whoa moment.

the CG intro to Tekken, going from a SNES to that was unreal, looks dated now but back then it was amazing.

K.O.Kiki

Ōkami.

Or Wind Waker.

... BOTH!

ussjtrunks

Every single second of Crysis 3 on PC its incredible especially the Welcome to the Jungle level