Best gaming moment

Although there's a TON of "golden moments" such as the first time I used the BFG...the first time I played Q3 with "Excessive", shooting-off limbs in Soldier of Fortune (wish they made a 3rd)...etc...

But the "best" moment in gaming for me was when my PII 333MHz saw a graphics card upgrade. Here, I tossed the Riva 128MB I was using and replaced it with a 64MB GeForce DDR. To this day, I haven't witnessed such a dramatic change in performance. It was literally like I was running a totally different system. (disclaimer: the same "jump" could have been achieved with an equivalent ATI card...I just happened to buy the Creative Labs Annihilator Pro)

 

Skaarj...

 

The tram ride intro in HL1. And after having seen demo video of the green tentacles in the rocket test chamber, when I reached that point in the game myself, I honestly thought that was the final boss of the whole game. I slowly realized I wasn't anywhere close to finished.

Playing Duke3d coop over dialup. Nothing specific comes to mind... but was amazingly fun.

Finding some CD called Magic Carpet included amongst all the rest of useless junk CDs that came with my pentium100 Compaq Presario. Realizing it was a game, and then ending up playing it more than any game I actually purchased myself. Learning how to control mouselook for the first time. First time seeing a computer controlled alter-ego of myself in the game was very cool, added a whole other dimension to a game that I was already very happy with.

Battlezone that came with my monster3dII. Zooming out over the landscape of the moon, turning to see a small and very realistic looking planet earth swing over and hang above the horizon. Getting chased down a canyon, have my vehicle destroyed, only to realize that I ejected from my vehicle and was still alive, trying to run for cover from big enemy vehicles.

 

Civilisation.
The Iwar Intro movie (I still watch it every few months) & then the sheer joy of piloting the Dreadnaught once you got the feel for it.
Countless moments in battle in the various Total War games.

Notably a particular battle in Medieval1 where the Mongol Horde was attempting to expand into my territory.
Vastly outnumbered, I set up in a copse of trees in defensive mode.
The enemy advanced slowly, unsure of my disposition, the first unit to enter the trees got a good mauling but withdrew without routing.
The enemy then probed different bits of the copse, loosing few men but building a picture of my entrenched position.
Finding that its cavalry heavy army couldn't beat my infantry heavy army in the trees and that I wouldn't be lured into the open, the AI decided that discretion was the better part of valour and retreated.
Few casualties on either side, technically only a minor tactical victory but it was a glorious strategic victory and gaming moment.

 

And it was the second level.

 

The first time I tried stereoscopic LCD shutterglasses and played UT2004 in 3D. Totally mind blowing, especially using the slomo mutator and watching smoke trails from passing rockets. Quite hypnotic and hyperreal.

First time I used my Momo (force feedback steering wheel) and could finally drive racing sims properly. Very immersive gaming that still surprises me with how far gaming controllers have come since the Kempston joystick.

Buying a cheap PC with a Voodoo 2 in it and Quake 2 preinstalled. I didn't even realise there was a multiplayer component until after I'd completed it. The shock of being able to frag people over my dialup connection, and chat away to complete randoms who all shared a love of shooting the crap out of each other. I couldn't believe my luck.

 

A true conessueir of gaming goodness:

For the uninitiated, the greatest intro movie evar
from the greatest space sim evar
Hail the Mightyness of Independance War
http://media.putfile.com/IWar

 

Ohhh, I forgot that! I LOVED these! Unfortunately there are no ATI drivers for them and the nV ones are usually old. First game I played with those was DeusEx and it was awsome.

 

Also, I think the original Silent Hill on playstation innovated truly frightening moments in video games. I hope to God someday they remake that game with state of the art graphics. I'll never forget how mind bendingly on edge I was as I entered the elementary school. Having a 2 foot radius of visibility probably didn't help also Monster design was top notch, and cinematics were very no holds barred.

 

Voodoo2 SLI and Unreal.

 

No, that accolade has to go to the intro movie of "Disc World 2".

 

bugger off

 

Some others I meant to do earlier:
Reading the goodness that is the manual of Iwar
Learning how to properly play Total Annihilation
Actually finishing Xwing:Alliance after many attempts at the last mission.

 

Seeing Elite for the 1st time on a BBC - with a floppy drive! I was always amazed with elite on my spectrum anyway (a whole galaxy in 48k), but the difference in graphics & ease of loading on the BBC amazed me.

Playing Rebelstar 2 players on the spectrum. Was there many earlier turn based strategy games? This kept me & my friends amused for months.

[jump forward a scary number of years]

My clan beating the US national team in a funwar. Don't think I've ever whooped so much on teamspeak

 

My favorite moment was in Fallout 2. I figured I didn't stand a chance against all the slave traders, after trying unsuccessfully to attack them several times. Then, I went into a room full of them, lit the fuse on some dynamite, walked out the door and BOOM. Walked back in and everybody's dead Fallout 2 did such a great job of making it feel like ANYTHING is possible. It's even better to pick someone's pockets and leave a grenade in their backpack. Muahahahaha

 

when i had first walked into walmart and seen mario 64. i hadnt rly played games since like 92 or 93 on super nes and i couldnt believe what i was seeing. when i started playing it everything around me completely stopped and i was lost in that amazing 3d world. i cant even describe the feeling of awe, no video game since has ever done that to me. wish we had games that gave me that feeling today

 

I-war - fantastic intro movie backed up by a wonderful game. Actually felt like you were commanding a dreadnaught not a small WW2 fighter plane. Even better pretty much all, bar one, of the tactics shown in the intro movie could be done in-game. The frantic moments when I was drifting, thrusters and main drive offline franticly directing the repair crews to ignore lifesupport and get on with restoring thruster control to let me avoid the final fatal volley.... good times.

Homeworld - surprised no one else has mentioned this already. The first truly 3D RTS and filled with a richly imagined backstory laid out for you in the manual. Who couldn't help but get drawn in when a world is slaughtered for innocently breaking a surrender term they now knew nothing about. That epic fight at the end when three Taiidani battle fleets have to be dealt with before going after Emperor Reistuu directly. You franticly scramble squads of corvettes to act as little more than distractions to give your main fleet time to eliminate a fleet before the other two close to weapons range of the mothership. Evocative music and stylish cutscenes round out a gaming classic.

Thief - I miss Looking Glass Studios. They dared to do things differently and often came out with underappreciated gems of gameplay. Thief is still the definitely First Person Sneaker. Splinter Cell is good but a little too action hero in tone. Thief has a relentlessly cynical anti-hero whose primary goal is always to line his purse and pay the rent. Prophecies, hidden socities and elder gods can take care of themselves so long as they aren't between Garret and 'his' loot. The quirky magical steampunk atmosphere of the world along with superlative audio work pulled you into another world where the greatest fun was collecting the loot and never letting anyone see you do it...

Doom - still id's finest moment. Not the new monster closet in an unlit station remake. But the original which had little to no plot or sense to it. It was just lots of demons and one tough hombre marine to deal with them. One of the earliest games where exploiting the AI and triggering infighting between the demons becomes a major part of the fun. Let alone playing it in co-op mode which quickly turned into deathmatches when one misplaced rocket slaughters a teammate... Good fun.

System Shock 2 - 'Glory to the many, glory to the flesh!...They see you, run ruuuunnn! I'm sorry!' Irrational Studio's first game and one of the few I have replayed about nine times now. From the creepy hybrids who are actually still human enough to regret trying to harm you to the ever polite explosive protocol droids you walked the hallways of the von Braun and later the Rickenbacker with care. Match it with an involving story and a semi-plausible map layout and you had a psychological survival horror story that surmounted the graphics (which were looking a little dated at time of release) to provide some real moments of disquiet & unease. Nowdays with the System Shock High-res Texture Ugrade Pack (SSHTUP for short) along with Cyberblutch's improved character models and you have a game that is well worth a modern replay. Loads like the clappers now too...

Freespace 2 - yes it is WW2 in space. Yes the story is cliched. But the execution is just grand. Huge starships slugging it out around you while you and your squad try to both stay alive and complete the mission goals. Along with a expansive story that really deserves a third chapter to finish it off. Just classic gaming, and yes the 'Dive! Dive! Dive! Pilot - hit your after burners!' moment is just one of many moments in this game that stick out for me.

Those would be my picks.