Gaming "Moments"

[jpark]

I am slow on the bandwagon for games and just started playing the sequal to Vampire the Masquerade.  Ego aside, the adventure to the house haunted by the slain child scared the shit out of me.  I felt like I was watching / participating in a good horror flick.

I would have to count this as a "moment" in gaming for me - where the game illicited a visceral reaction from me I might have in the real world or at the cinema (there was also a similar "moment" in the prequal for me).

Anyone else had "moments" in other games?

[schild]

Aerith Gainsbourough getting murdered.

[Bunk]

Yea, that haunted house level in Bloodlines was outstanding.

Other moments...

Reaching Kara ( a hidden town, not on the world map) in AC for the first time, before the days of Stratics sites.

The evil choice you have to make in KotoR. If you've played it, and played Darkside, you know which one I mean.

[Fabricated]

Half Life's opening.
Half Life 2's opening, Ravenholm.
Doom 3's opening. (sadly, the moment did not continue, as the rest of the game sucked)
End of the Floating Continent in FF6.
The last third of Max Payne 2.
Stalingrad in Call of Duty.
Omaha Beach in the first Medal of Honor PC title (before WWII games become COMPLETELY cliche').
The ending of Final Fantasy Tactics.
Most all of Resident Evil 4.

[schild]

This should really be called a spoiler thread.

God of War
Sacrificing the spartan Warrior.
The church cutscene.
The middle of the 3 sections against Ares.
The ending.

We <3 Katamari
The Collect the Cousins hidden stage.

HL2
Ravenholm. I don't go there anymore. Ever. Again.

Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy
The Agatha scene.

Resident Evil 4
The first time you have to do something during a cutscene.
The whole game.

Lumines
Unlocking Lights for the first time. A bloody fucking 3 hour marathon of gaming.

Phantom Dust
In the first 5 minutes realizing the combat system is perfect for MMOGs.
Realizing there should be a Phantom Dust MMOG.

Zelda 1/2/3
Getting the master sword. Always felt great.

[Nija]

Every time I lance someone in the face in Mount & Blade. The crunch sound it makes, how I lined it up, everything just makes me feel GOOD.

CRUNCH.

[WayAbvPar]

Every time I lance someone in the face in Mount & Blade. The crunch sound it makes, how I lined it up, everything just makes me feel GOOD.

CRUNCH.

Heh yep. The only thing that would make it better would be a force feedback mouse to rattle around  :-D

I sure wish they would put out an update- I am really curious to see what they do with it.

[Rasix]

Aerith Gainsbourough getting murdered.

I thought it was "Aeris".   And yah, that's the first one I usually think of.  I was shocked and sad.  Perhaps you're just being sarcastic here though considering most people would think of this one.  Meanie.   

System Shock 2 tended to mess with me a bit. I think the worst was reading up about the cyborg midwife through the PDA entries and then encountering one.  All of the noises the creatures made just un-nerved me.  I was rattled half of the time playing it.

Eternal Darkness: the "tub of blood" image.  Shivers.   Some really great stuff in that game, a lot of it in the cutscenes.  The first few times the insanity meter screwed with the game was also quite interesting. 

Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow.  Getting told to shoot the female Israeli agent as you descend in an elevator and getting no explanation behind it.  Then shooting her, and getting no explanation.  It just felt wrong, you know there was something wrong, and yet you get no satisfaction.  Life of a Sam Fischer.

The evil choice you have to make in KotoR. If you've played it, and played Darkside, you know which one I mean.

Yah, you could taste the delicious evil in that scene.

Pretty much every moment of the Max Payne series except the one annoying hallucination level. I love a good noir story, I love participating in one even more.

Lumines: playing the "Shake your body" level while delerious with flu.  Not really memorable in a good way though.

UO. Lots here, but a particularly visceral reaction would be the first time I heard an ebolt.  Sounded like a cross between a shriek and a scream and all who got hit by it died.  Freaky.  Hearing that noise was not a good thing.

[schild]

Aerith Gainsbourough getting murdered.

I thought it was "Aeris".   And yah, that's the first one I usually think of.  I was shocked and sad.  Perhaps you're just being sarcastic here though considering most people would think of this one.  Meanie.

Dead serious, the only time I ever cried for a video game character. I must've been 15 or so when it came out.

[stray]

Heh actually, as much as I've gotten ticked by the gankfests, there was one instance in WoW recently that I loved. There's an Orc NPC in Ashenvale named "Torek", standing in the woods with 3 other Orc NPC's near the Silverwing Outpost (an Elf outpost). He gives an escort quest, where he wants you to help raid Silverwing with him.

Hey! Warrior! Come here!

My raiders and I are about to attack the Silverwing Outpost to the west. Our target is its leader, Duriel Moonfire. Scouts report the outpost is defended heavily with sentinels and warriors. The battle will be glorious!

Do you want to share in the glory, Gronkgronker, and aid us? If so, then when it's over you can report our success to my superior, Ertog Ragetusk in Splintertree.

What do you say. Are you with us?

Anyways, the quest is designed for mob killing, but Silverwing was a place where Player Elves would come in from time to time and gank lower lvl Horde characters near there. I didn't really know this at the time, but I accepted the quest anyways. "Get Ready", he says. Then the NPC's start running...

The moment we reach there, lo and behold, there's 3 higher lvl red names beating on a couple poor Horde players. Then Torek and others, by script, start charging, "For the HOORRDDE!!" LOL. 4 NPC Orcs and an Undead Warrior to the rescue. The lowbies were saved and all the Elves didn't know what hit them.

It was just a funny little, PERFECT moment, where PvE and PvP merged. I wish it could always be like that.

[jpark]

Another gaming moment for me was a combination of shock and humor - since I did not understand the game's AI for allies.

Fallout.  Marcus (big like an Ogre) was my NPC friend that travelled with me.  I entered a bar in New California, and what was supposed to be a lead in into an adventure started with a snotty NPC (son of someone important) challenging me to a brawl in the bar.

It never happened.  Marcus stepped forward the moment the kid challenged me, and lit his flame thrower on my challenger in the middle of the bar.  The kid's body danced around for a few seconds and then crumpled into ash.  I was completely shocked.

It seemed like a completely unscripted, unexpected action by an friend NPC.  In playing the game subsequent times without Marcus, the fist fight proceeded and lead into a quest.  That event all depended on the type of NPC friend you had with you - and the combat parameters you set on him.

Regarding WoW..

It was just a funny little, PERFECT moment, where PvE and PvP merged. I wish it could always be like that.

That is a great example.  I encountered some centaurs attacking a horde outpost and both players and NPCs were all involved.  It really made the game feel alive.

[Sairon]

Most of my moments steem from japanese RPGs to consoles, I'm a sucker for all of them.

[voodoolily]

I cried at the ending of Ico (before a glitch interrupted the cutscene).

I also nearly shit myself at the tubgirl scene in Eternal Darkness. I was going to mention that before I saw Rasix's post. Also the room (in one of the middle east levels?) where there are three tiers of zombies and I accidentally saved right before coming in with only a tick on my sanity meter, and I had to kill perfectly each and every one of those fuckers just to keep a little sap in my sanity meter. (runon sentence much?) My palms sweated more then than when I asked Sauced if he wanted to be my boyfriend.

Silent Hill 4 when those babydoll-head things come running on their hands from around the corner, and when that Ringu-esque lady crawls after you on the subway car.

I also have a visceral reaction in any platform where walking a tightrope/narrow ledge is involved. Especially in Majora's Mask (or Ocarina of Time?) when you hafta do it quickly to get the hammer.

The first time I put on the Deku mask in Majora's Mask gave me the jitters.

[Miasma]

Aerith Gainsbourough getting murdered.

That really upset me, I still think about it sometimes.

I was playing the Japanese version (because I didn't want to have to wait another year for the English release) and started madly scanning the translations I had printed out looking for her name - hoping that she came back some how.  In vain.

[Ironwood]

The Cradle.

[Rhonstet]

Some of the cutscenes in Final Fantasy X were a little emotionally rough.  Best tearjerker was Yuna's 'breakdown'.

Another favorite of mine was the Planetside 'Bending' event.  But that was more an 'Oh shit' moment as asteroids started falling out of the sky and everything started blowing up as my squad was racing for bombshelters.  A similar event involved leading a galaxy squad on a drop that somehow went from a commando raid to a continental conquest in the span of 30 minutes. 

The most recent one was in the underrated 'Radiata Stories' game by SquareEnix that just was released.  The decision your character has to make halfway through is surprisingly deep and had me questioning everything I knew about the story up till then.

[Fargull]

The first time one of my marines got mind controlled in X-Com and killed another of my guys.

When my troll warrior was taken over by that end mage fucker in Shadowfang Keep and I killed our Mage in like three hits.

[Bunk]

Here's one I had recently. First time in Scarlet Monastary - being lead through by a couple lev 60s. We come in to Herod's room and they tell me to wait at the top while they fight him. They didn't tell me what was going to happen after Herod dropped...

The top of the stairs in Zul'Farrek was quite good too, even if it made my computer puke.

[Strazos]

Didn't we do this for MMOs already? Anyway....

I actually don't remember caring too much when Aeris died...I didn't use her anyway.

I remember the final fight of BG: The Throne of Bhaal. I had fought through a lengthy fight of a continuous horde of really mean baddies, with no break inbetween waves. When the final lady comes out with a bunch of baddies, I think "Oh shit, I have like no heals left, and my HP is shit on most of my toons." I pause to look through my abilities, trying to see what I have left that could help. Then I look at Jaheria's spells, and see that I still had a use of Harm (on hit, fail save = reduced to 1 hp). I cast it, thinking there was no way the game would actually let me use something like this on the final boss of a game.

It hit. Uber boss reduced to 1 hp.


Coordinating the raid to get my rogue his Ragebringer epic in EQ was fun.

I'm sure there were plenty of Sega/SNES moments, but I cannot think of any in particular.

[pants]

Planescape:Torment - when I finally discovered the story behind the Circle of Zerthimon and the history between TNO's and Dak'kon.  It was a wonderful piece of storytelling and really brought through some of the history and character of TNO.

[Rasix]

Didn't we do this for MMOs already? Anyway....

And now we open it up to the full spectrum of gaming. Ahh the wonders of the internet. 

We have about one of these threads per year.   It's always good to be reminded of why you play games.  That gut reaction to a great gaming moment can live with you for a while. 

[Paelos]

The Jungle level in Diablo 3. The music, the atmosphere, it was perfectly immersive.

EDIT: I meant 2, damn drinking.

[schild]

The Jungle level in Diablo 3. The music, the atmosphere, it was perfectly immersive.

GO GO TRAVINCAL! God I loved killing those council members. Ahhhh the loot whoring.

[Fabricated]

I thought the 3rd chapter in Diablo 2 was the weakest one.

The second and 4th chapter were awesome, as was the expansion's.

[Raging Turtle]

Echo last third of Max Payne 2.  You knew what was going to happen and it still broke your heart.

[Fabricated]

Echo last third of Max Payne 2.  You knew what was going to happen and it still broke your heart.

Yeah, there's a "good" ending though.

[Strazos]

I remember there's a certain stairway in Max Payne 2 that leads down into a garage. I don't know how many times I reloaded this part, just so I could try to do the entire portion (about 1 minute) entirely within bullet time.

When you start racking up kills, the game Really slowed down.

Oh yeah, without getting hit, too.

[Raging Turtle]

There's a different ending??  I've beaten the game numerous times on the hardest level - how do you get it?

[Fabricated]

There's a different ending??  I've beaten the game numerous times on the hardest level - how do you get it?

You beat the game on 'dead on arrival'?

[Raging Turtle]

There's a different ending??  I've beaten the game numerous times on the hardest level - how do you get it?

You beat the game on 'dead on arrival'?

Dammit. 

Give me two days.

[Llava]

Couple cutscenes from FF7 (Aeris dying being sad, Sephiroth torching the town and striding through the flames as an OMGAWESOME moment)  Plus the final one on one battle between Cloud and Sephiroth at the end of the game.  A very powerful "Let's settle this, motherfucker." moment.  Some of the animations for the Summon Materia were really impressive the first time.  Knights Of The Round was amazing the first time I saw it, though by the 50th time it kinda had a "Okay, let's speed this up guys, getting tired of it." feeling.

Final Fantasy 2 (american, I don't know which number it was in Japan, can never remember) when fighting the giant of Babel and all the allies you've made along the way show up to help.

The sudden rush you'd feel playing Diablo II when you see green or gold text.  I didn't even care if a unique was crap, I liked to collect them.

Some of the fights I had in DAoC where I just played really well.  Like when I PA'd a berserker running on his own, finished the chain, ran to get some distance, let him chase, restealthed, turned around and hit him again.  Course, he still won (goddamn buffbots!!) but I was very happy with how well I played that fight.  Also, when my group of friends and I managed to take down two or three times (sometimes even more) our number on our own, that was always satisfying.  Being an assassin in keep wars- whether climbing up the walls to attack defenders or hanging near the walls to chop up enemy assassins trying to sneak it, I always enjoyed it.

Same for Guild Wars.  Any time I was the last one standing on my team and managed to take out the remaining 2 or 3 enemies on my own and pull out the win for us.

The first few times my friends and I really pushed the limits on how many enemies you could fight at once in CoH.  Coming from DAoC where 2 enemies was more than you wanted pulled, it was amazing to pull 30 or 40 enemies and come out on top.  Amazing and damn fun.

Resident Evil 4.  The first time I encountered one of those blind claw dudes.  He's locked in that cell and chained against the wall, completely still, and the lever you have to pull is right next to him.  Of course I knew exactly what was coming, but it was completely nerve wracking to creep up next to him and hit that lever.  Also, the Krauser fights (cutscene knife fight and boss fight, both amazing).  Lastly, the first time I shot out a Regenerator's legs thinking "Ha, this'll buy me some time, he's helpless on the ground like thHOLY SHIT GET OFF GET OFF GET OFF AAAAHHHHHHH"

It's been said already, but the haunted house in Vampire.

The first time I went through Time Crisis 2 in an arcade on one credit.

The first time I went through Marvel VS Capcom in an arcade on one credit.

And, as I've been a fan of the antihero since I first realized that Protoman wasn't just evil, just about every major "antihero saves the day" moment- Shadow sacrificing himself on the floating island, Magus agreeing to join the group to help destroy Lavos,

[Fabricated]

And, as I've been a fan of the antihero since I first realized that Protoman wasn't just evil, just about every major "antihero saves the day" moment- Shadow sacrificing himself on the floating island, Magus agreeing to join the group to help destroy Lavos,

Er, about Shadow. You can save him.

[schild]

And, as I've been a fan of the antihero since I first realized that Protoman wasn't just evil, just about every major "antihero saves the day" moment- Shadow sacrificing himself on the floating island, Magus agreeing to join the group to help destroy Lavos,

Er, about Shadow. You can save him.

Patience simply can't be taught in these young gamers.

[Pococurante]

I still cry when ol' yeller dies.

And GeeDubya says No New Taxes.

[Llava]

And, as I've been a fan of the antihero since I first realized that Protoman wasn't just evil, just about every major "antihero saves the day" moment- Shadow sacrificing himself on the floating island, Magus agreeing to join the group to help destroy Lavos,

Er, about Shadow. You can save him.

<sigh>

Let me rephrase-

Shadow risking his life to allow everyone to escape the floating island, sacrificing himself unless you wait for him to catch up.

To be honest, I forgot that you have to wait for him.  I just assumed you picked him up again in the post-Empire world, like everyone else.  But it's been many years since I played.  I just remember having him throw stuff at Kefka, the stuff inbetween is a bit blurry.

Thinking back on it, Shadow wasn't really the coolest character in that game.  Setzer was.  But Shadow wasn't that far behind.