What are the games that blew your mind when you saw them *spawn

[homerdog]

Mario 64 was, hands down, the biggest “Holy shit! What am I looking at?” moment I’ve ever had. I wish I could experience that feeling again.

I still remember I when I was a kid seeing the N64 kiosk in Toys R Us with Mario 64 running. I think that experience literally changed my life.

Closest I've ever felt to that is Crysis. And I think that game had better graphics than most (maybe all) games that released until well into the 8th console generation, including Crysis 2.

 

[Cyan]

The Need for Speed on the 3DO

that was my first game ever (PC version) along with Microsoft Golf. Unforgettable game. The graphics looked amazing on my Pentium 100 with 32MB of RAM. The gameplay was excellent and some tracks were memorable, like the one in the city with the walls at both sides of the tarmac, or the one in the countryside with the hot air balloons.

My P100 dropped the framerate to some extent when playing in that track at night -can't remember the name of the track-. I had the MS-DOS version, afaik I knew many years later that a Windows version was released too.

 

[leglevy]

that was my first game ever (PC version) along with Microsoft Golf. Unforgettable game. The graphics looked amazing on my Pentium 100 with 32MB of RAM. The gameplay was excellent and some tracks were memorable, like the one in the city with the walls at both sides of the tarmac, or the one in the countryside with the hot air balloons.

My P100 dropped the framerate to some extent when playing in that track at night -can't remember the name of the track-. I had the MS-DOS version, afaik I knew many years later that a Windows version was released too.

After seeing the 3DO version, I went ahead and bought it for PC. My Pentium 133 Mhz with 16 MB of RAM and a 2 MB video card could run the game REALLY well. It handled everything right until The Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit came out. That was my hint to get a Voodoo 2, the most expensive thing I ever bought for a PC at the time.

It cost $399 (!)

 

[hughJ]

that was my first game ever (PC version) along with Microsoft Golf. Unforgettable game. The graphics looked amazing on my Pentium 100 with 32MB of RAM. The gameplay was excellent and some tracks were memorable, like the one in the city with the walls at both sides of the tarmac, or the one in the countryside with the hot air balloons.

I might still have some floppy disks of saved replay files from tNFS (mostly insane crashes). IIRC it was basically me doing pit-maneuvers on the AI and then hoping the AI would tumble into an oncoming car and flip in the air. Still got my tNFS box actually. Maybe I should get those uploaded to youtube.


Arcade stuff:
Dragon's Lair, TMNT's attract mode, Virtua Fighter attract mode (first time seeing realtime 3D, mo-capped animation, floating camera with 3D transforms).

Demos, trailers, tests, leaks:
MGS2 trailer. Circa ~2000-2001 early dev videos of UT integrating ragdoll physics (it was just untextured bodies bouncing down a ladder structure). The early Doom3 leak. The RT-HDR-IBL demo (still looks good today). Natural Motion/Euphoria demo reels. Not real time, but I remember when VFX reels of Scanline's Flowline were doing the rounds online ~2006.

Elite Dangerous in VR. Various things in Star Citizen (the facial capture stuff definitely has moments of 'wow' when everything syncs up).

Most recently a little demo/early access title "The Complex: Expedition" managed to produce one of those moments where I thought I was looking at a pre-rendered/FMV cinematic and it was actually real time. VHS-style post-processing, lack of any telltale game-like pixel aliasing, and a very natural looking floating/shaky cam goes a very long way. Probably the most realistic POV moving+sounding running animation loop I've seen in a game.

 

[Cyan]

I might still have some floppy disks of saved replay files from tNFS (mostly insane crashes). IIRC it was basically me doing pit-maneuvers on the AI and then hoping the AI would tumble into an oncoming car and flip in the air. Still got my tNFS box actually. Maybe I should get those uploaded to youtube.

hhahaha, would love to see those. Unfortunately I don't have anything recorded from those days. But the crashes on the game could be totally insane in The Need for Speed, crazy stuff. The physics weren't realistic when it came to crashes but that made it even more fun.

 

[Cyan]

After seeing the 3DO version, I went ahead and bought it for PC. My Pentium 133 Mhz with 16 MB of RAM and a 2 MB video card could run the game REALLY well. It handled everything right until The Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit came out. That was my hint to get a Voodoo 2, the most expensive thing I ever bought for a PC at the time.

It cost $399 (!)

darn, when I got the Monster 3D -a 3DFX GPU- it cost quite a bit, but not as much iirc.

NFS3 Hot Pursuit had some of the best graphics at the time. I had a Voodoo Monster 3D and while there was a pretty decent software mode running on the CPU, a graphics accelerator gave the game a cleaner look and some extra effects.

The game was so good that even one of my best friends then stole it from me, 'cos he loved the game. At least he gave some games at times, like giving me an Operation Wolf diskette which had one of the most dangerous viruses at the time, the Natas virus. Fortunately, maybe 'cos I used Windows 95 the virus didn't affect my computer. I realised the game had a virus some time after playing the game several times, on a regular McAffee antivirus scan. No harm done.

He also brought me a videogame called S.W.A.T. The game's dialogues were in english and we didn't understand it much, but we still had fun playing SWAT by Sierra Games. It was a game he purchased to play with me.

 

[Cyan]

I think Soul Calibur is that game. Nothing compared to my first impressions of seeing and playing that game. Soul Calibur was perfect in all aspects from graphics to music to gameplay, playing with a buddy, replay value, etc.

Katsuhiro Harada, Tekken series CEO, said today or so that there are still people in the company who want to create another Soul Calibur game.

Tekken boss says he broke rules to keep series alive - but not Soulcalibur

If you've been wondering why there hasn't been a Soulcalibur game for six years, Tekken director Katsuhiro Harada has provided a lengthy explanation.

metro.co.uk

He explains many things in great detail in this X tweet.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1805489285875089826

 

[Globalisateur]

Katsuhiro Harada, Tekken series CEO, said today or so that there are still people in the company who want to create another Soul Calibur game.

Tekken boss says he broke rules to keep series alive - but not Soulcalibur

If you've been wondering why there hasn't been a Soulcalibur game for six years, Tekken director Katsuhiro Harada has provided a lengthy explanation.

metro.co.uk

He explains many things in great detail in this X tweet.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1805489285875089826

So in summary the Soul Calibur project slowly became soulless when Bandai Namco started to westernize their game development methods. I am not suprised by this. Soul Calibur was the product of love displayed in all parts of the package. I immediately felt SC2 was lacking so many things that made SC1 great.

or come from banks, in other words, people with excellent "organizational management" skills have become decision makers. This is not a snide remark, but a fact. One thing is for sure: "They are not familiar with game development, game branding, or the game community...what happens in the case of major game companies is that the management and operation of game companies is focused on "organizational management"

By the way "come from banks" immediately reminded me of Jim Ryan. He 100% fits the description of "organizationnal management" driven by a "bank" point of view.

 

[trinibwoy]

1. Doom
2. Descent
3. Far Cry
4. Master of Orion

No other games have given me the same sense of awe since.

 

[Seanspeed]

Elite Dangerous in VR.

Oooh yea, I should have talked about VR, especially with existing stuff that's a perfect fit like flight/space/racing sims. And as a big fan of racing sims, VR was truly revolutionary to the point where I dont ever want to play them any other way(outside sim-lites like Forza Motorsport/Gran Turismo).

Being there, like you're actually in the game world, is just wild. And probably as big a leap as I've ever experienced in my life, including the transition from 2d to 3d gaming.

It's just a massive shame there hasn't been a lot more support behind the medium to show off its real potential in terms of great game releases. I understand all the financial and practical reasons it hasn't happened, but it's a shame nonetheless.

 

[hughJ]

hhahaha, would love to see those. Unfortunately I don't have anything recorded from those days. But the crashes on the game could be totally insane in The Need for Speed, crazy stuff. The physics weren't realistic when it came to crashes but that made it even more fun.

Thankfully I managed to have them backed up on a hdd, so I didn't have to go digging for a usb floppy drive. Never ran dosbox before, but it was fun getting to go through the NFS install process for the first time in almost 30 years.

Pretty cool replay functionality -- camera control, ability to scrub through the replay, etc. I recall that feeling pretty novel in '95. A dozen or so files like this one.

 

[Cyan]

Thankfully I managed to have them backed up on a hdd, so I didn't have to go digging for a usb floppy drive. Never ran dosbox before, but it was fun getting to go through the NFS install process for the first time in almost 30 years.

Pretty cool replay functionality -- camera control, ability to scrub through the replay, etc. I recall that feeling pretty novel in '95. A dozen or so files like this one.

it was my first game and I still kinda remember those menus. Also the interface when playing was really good in the MS-DOS version. The intro, and the videos were also top notch. I remember thinking of the game that I was watching the representation of some of those high quality cars magazines... It looked so well done and professional.

Btw, I can't watch the video :/, it says it's private.

 

[BoardBonobo]

Outside of the arcades, where I played most games, it was the rise of the isometrics on the Spectrum 48K that first blew my mind. Dandy, Sabrewulf, and others. They were amazing back then.

The original Elite on my BBC Master was mind blowing simply for the size of it.

The next eye openers were on the Amiga - Hybris and Shadow of the Beast followed by Starglider by Jez San. Real time 3D wireframe graphics on a home computer...

Then it was on to the PS One - just the T-Rex demo wass enough

The original Unreal and Half Life 2 were showstoppers at the time, and then The Witcher 3 got me just due to how alive it felt.

After that it's all a bit of a blur, games have just raced towards better realism so fast that it doesn't seem to have the same impact anymore. I think the only wow moment I've had recently is the opening off HZD- Call of the Mountain on PSVR 2. That was pretty amazing.

 

[WhiningKhan]

Yes. 8-bit Elite was the original jawdropper. Frontier was also impressive on Atari ST later. And I must say Elite Dangerous floored me when it launched.

For other early 3D stuff:
F1GP on Atari ST. Incredible leap in racing simulations.

 

[Liandry]

First game what had amazing graphics, true next gen was Gears of War for XBox 360 in 2006. Played that game at start and that was strongest jump in my gaming experience! For that time game looked like movie. I know that was not that, but effect was just amazing. Next game was Uncharted. Only year later, but difference with Gears of War was big enough to be amazed again. Of course that was not so strong like with previous game but still. Next game was Uncharted 2. That game was better in graphics in all moments. Geometry level, textures, lighting, shadows, animation, all was way above first Uncharted. Nex game was Gears of War 3. Because that was very huge step for series. Difference with Gears of War 2 was even bigger than 2 compared to 1, and 2 compared to 1 also was big step forward. Also Gears of War 3 proved for me what on XBox 360 is possible make game with PS3 top tier exclusive level of graphics. There was a lot games on XBox 360 and PS3 what was also very impressive, a lot better than previous games. And more impressive was what all those games was for one console or another. So that was very interesting to observe how much more developers could get from those machines. Truly miss that times now. Now there is imprpvements for one console, but not as near as then, and games was developed for year or two, not 3-5 years as now. I will not write list of those games from 7th gen, because list will be long. I thing everyone know that games what aslo was impressive.
As for 8th gen, for me next amazing game after Gears of War 3 was REd Dead Redemption 2, (I still havent completed that game, probably should one day). That level of graphics and attention to details was just amzing. True next gen in all aspects.
Of course on 8th gen consoles was a lot of impressive games. Also on 9th gen consoles, but 9th gen still continues. But I also can say there is one very impressive game on 9th gen. Next after Red Dead Redemption 2. That is Senua's Saga: Hellblade II. Again, true nex gen in all aspects. But this time game really looks like movie. At least like CG movie. And was real proof to me what 9th gen consoles can render graphics what is on different level than 8th gen consoles. Before there was doubts. I still don't know how PS5 will hold against XSX, because there is difference in power between consoles. One developer said two years ago what for now games looks the same, but in some two years there will be difference, because XSX have more power. I also can add there is difference in memory bandwith.

 

[Jupiter]

I didn't like the visuals of the PlayStation 1 games. They looked instable and pixelated due to the warping, wobbling and lack of a mip mapping. I prefered the N64 more and of course the PC. Over a longer period of the 90s textureless graphics with eccentric colours looked the best to me. Something like the original Mech Warrior 2 version. When I saw these games with textures I was surprised at how much less atmosphere the landscapes looked.

Spoiler

When I look at the Mech Warrior 2 intro I notice that one can also create such a mood with textures.

On the PlayStation 2 I found MGS2 appealing in the first section on the oil tanker. Overall, however, I wasn't amazed at the time. I always saw films as a comparison so I can't understand why people thought: How can you improve on the graphics? It also must be said that the graphical differences between the platforms were huge. I remember when I played MGS on the PSP and the trucks had octagonal wheels.

Things got better a few years later with Crysis, which together with Crysis 2 overshadowed everything from 2007 to 2012. The jump from 2005 games like Sniper Elite to Crysis was huge. Those were different worlds. Crysis and Crysis 2 had a large impact on me in terms of graphics. I read a lot of developer documents on the subject of graphics for the first time and learnt a lot of terms. Before, I only saw the graphics but didn't know what all the techniques behind them were called or what they did.

In terms of game worlds, I found RDR and GTA IV atmospheric at the time. I loved wandering around and looking at the world.

Film visuals first came with PBS and good smoothing TAA etc. with games like Ryse, Battlefront 2015 (PC). Since then I much prefer playing video games.

The next big leap was ray tracing. Control, AW2, Avatar and Cyberpunk 2077 are very impressive. These games have made me see the real world differently. Now I pay close attention to indirect light, shadows, reflections, etc. in the real world.

Due to the high standards, I find it difficult to play games without RT just like in the Crysis days. In that time I also found it difficult to like the look of other games.

 

[Cyan]

gotta add Injustice 2 to the list. The game is more like a movie at times. I am currently playing the PC Gamepass version and it got me hooked. Also Lossless Scaling is ideal for this game, during gameplay and cinematics. Black Canary is so pretty.

 

[Davros]

Leaving the ship at the start of Morrowind and seeing that mercury water in Seyda Neen

 

[davis.anthony]

This CGI intro still hits hard in 2024!!

Looks amazing on RGB on a CRT.

 

[RobertR1]

Coming out of the tunnel in Oblivion. HL2.