There were a few, but Halo: CE when it came out, hooked to my 5.1 receiver at the time was just plain awe inspiring. My jaw literally dropped. Half Life on the PC did it as well. The physics were awesome at the time.
Sonic 2 (mega drive/Genesis) ecco the dolphin (MD - prolly the hardest game i played at that time xD ) Mario 64 Sonic Adventure (dreamcast) Phantasy Star (dreamcast) Resident Evil: code veronica (dreamcast) FF10 (ps1 - holy jeezus their soundtrack live..) FF 7 (pc) Silent Hill 2 (pc) Mass effect series (best game i ever played so far) Bioshock infinite (graphics and art wise. Story is boring) TES: Skyrim Crysis series (graphics wise. Story is kinda repetitive and predictable) Farcry 3 (same as crysis) Assassins Creed 4 (i just love pirates - OnePiece lover- and tropical scenarios)
Crysis: Oooh so pwetty Stalker: When I came out of Sidorovich bunker for the first time and many more times, "This atmosphere... woah" Bioshock Infinite: At first meh, normal shooter SP but later on as the story progressed I was actually impressed by it, especially near the end.
I was really impressed by Half-Life 2 back in the day. The game play, the story, the physics. I've replayed it endlessly. Also the original F.E.A.R. was great. Those graphics and the intensity of the game. Just awesome. Of course these games wouldn't impress me today anymore. I wonder what can, though. Graphics have taken great leaps, but things like AI and game play stay pretty much on the same level. Lately I haven't been impressed at all by the story or immersion of a game. I'm still very much looking forward to Half-Life 3, though :banana:
Homeworld (the first one) Halo 2 Crysis, Crysis Warhead Half Life 2 and episodes. (Yes, there were special moments even in Ep1) CUBE (HL2:EP2 mod) Far Cry 2 (The whole game's premesis, rather than any specific moment) Achron (The whole game's premesis, freaking time travel as a mechanic in an RTS!) Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Missing Link Portal 2 Metro 2033 Battlefield Bad Complany 2 (multiplayer) Red Faction: Guerrilla Intrusion 2 Shadow Warrior (2013 remake) Mirror's Edge Specifically not impressed by Skyrim, STALKER games, and Far Cry 3.
To pick just one I would have to say the first Crysis. Was in awe as a beach hut was torn down piece by piece around me and my cover was literally blown away. Then in the first huge battle as my frames dropped to slide show and I talked my wife into spending another £300+ on a 2nd 8800gtx card turning my pc into a radiator and making about 3 frames difference. (And telling her how much better it was for the sake of my marriage)
Alan Wake is probably my favorite game of all time. I really liked the whole story within a story thing and how it narrated the story during the game. I had my mouth open at the end. I <3 that game so much. Also, the first time I saw 3dfx Glide was at a local computer store when I was a kid. My dad is the one who got me into the computer thing when I was just a little guy so he would always take me around when he upgraded his pc to play the latest and greatest games haha. The store had a demo of Quake 2 on a Pentium 166mhz with a Voodoo card and the 3dfx glide patch. First time I ever saw graphics like that. My dad ended up buying one and played Jedi Knight II with the glide patch and I was once again blown away haha. Good times. I must have been 12 or 13 at the time.
Sonic the hedgehog. ayrton senna's super monaco gp2. geoff crammond GP4. Mirror's edge. far cry( it was so ahead of its' time). crysis also. far cry 2.
PC games in no particular order: Crysis 1,2,3 Max Payne 3 GTA IV LA Noir Remember Me Devil May Cry Doom 3 BFG Edition Company of Heroes 2 Metro 2033 Counter strike 1.6
GTA 3 (at it's time it was a wonder of a game) Mass Effect 1 (loved that choices i made affected the game) Advent Rising (probably my favorite game, for once humans were the power in the universe instead of the always sheep for slaughter) Max Payne 3 (didn't expect that level of awesome) Counter Strike 1.6 (oh...the nights spent on this game) Warcraft 3 and DotA (high school was pretty much about this game, we actually were playing with our computer science teacher ) Dota 2 (didn't think they could make it that good, i thought i would stick with DotA 1)
When i played crysis for the first time while using 3 way sli with 8800 gtx... was like z0mfg!! *fap fap fap*
Did you see the early AW promos back when the game wasn't made for XbaX. Open World / Dynamic weather with real time desruction from natural disasters? Now THAT game would have made my jaw drop back in 2005. Then MS tied their hands and forced them to make a console limited game. I feel cheated I never got to see that game. The finalized AW was one of the most meh games I've ever played (high expectations from their prev. 2 games)
The first time i remember being in awe was when i played unreal 1. When you step out of the crashed ship... at that time id never seen anything like it and i was amazed! Funny looking back at it now!
Well, if I can call it "lately" it's Deus Ex: Human Revolution DC, I literally finished the game when it first came out 5 times, then the DLC 3 times, and now I'm almost done with the Director's Cut playtrough and I'm enjoying it as much as I did the original. Amazing game, and the whole story and atmosphere actually did leave me in awe on several occasions. :nerd: Honorable mention to Bioshock Infinite (+ DLCs) and Wolfestein: TNO.
Elite: Dangerous Metro 2033 Tomb Raider Reboot Space Engineers Bioshock 1 System Shock 2 Alan Wake, man I wish that would have been a PC exclusive Mass Effect 2 BF4, mostly because of the lighting