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[kingpotato]

I very vividly remember seeing sonic on the genesis for the first time. After a couple of years of NES, the speed, colors and music blew my little mind. The second time was Mario 64. Up to that point I'd never seen a 3d game that seemed so fluid and clear to behold.

 

[Tschumi]

Nothing has ever been quite like Witcher 3 but I'm going to go back to less obvious times...

... Ground Control, Metal Gear Solid 2, Halo, Civilisation 3, FIFA 2001.

Ground Control.. to this day it looks great, if a bit bare, back in the late 90s it was just more than i could have imagined.

MGS2.. just magic

Halo OG.. the first true "next gen" feeling i ever had

Civilization 3.. must be similar to what people think about 4k, the resolution and aspect ratio, coupled with the beautiful 2d graphics and music, really sold me.

FIFA 2001.. they had flags waving in the crowd and stewards in yellow jackets... Incredible. Great new face models, too.

Edit: BONUS..

Golden Sun on the GBA. it was wizardry, the spell animations were incredible, the characters on map moved expressively, weather etc was effective. Great long story, too.

 

[anothertech]

Heavenly Sword and Vanquish just blew my mind at the time. Couldn't believe it was so interactive.

 

[VFXVeteran]

Dragon's Lair.. so excited was I over this game in 1983, I finally had the money to buy my own arcade unit all original sitting behind my chair in my office. No matter how incredible graphics will become over the years, I'll always have a soft heart for my favorite game.

 

[Matsuchezz]

the first time i saw Killer Instinct at the arcades i was floored. The graphics and the audio were something to behold.

 

[NeoLed]

Final Fantasy VIII

Those FMVs and GFs

 

[TommyCronin6969]

I'll go with the first one that did it. Crash Bandicoot 1. All them colours at the time looked so great and knew all I wanted to do was play it.

 

[ThatOneGrunt]

Mario 64 at a Toys R Us kiosk. It blew my mind that I could go anywhere in that 3d space and the controls were so intuitive. I remember going up to the picket fence around the castle moat and thought there would be an invisible barrier that would prevent me from jumping over it. When I cleared it and landed in that water, I was in complete awe. Couldn't believe what happened.

Things were simpler then...

 

[alabtrosMyster]

Metroid--the very first NES game I ever played--it allowed me to walk 'backward' that was the future right there.

R-Type on the TG-16, the graphics amazed me (and the game is not bad)

Ghouls N' Ghost on the Genesis, again the graphics and the sound as well! Obviously great game and all (many early Genesis games could fill that spot).

Then the first CD game I saw y's book 1 & 2 on my friens Duo! Amazing intro, again I was seeing the future!

F-zero on the SNES, smoooooth pseudo mode7 3D I still love this game!

Batman Returns driving levels on the Sega CD--blew me away, and I loved to play them... the game would have been a total distaster if they did not put an option to play only the driving, one of the few "true" Sega CD titles, one can only dream of a Sega that did not chase after the full motion video so much...

Silpheed on the Sega CD--what an audio visual threat!

The Need for Speed on the 3DO, this game was so far ahead of anything available home at the time!

Sega Rally in the arcade (the list could be filled with 80s and early 90s arcade games).

Doom on a 486 DX2 66, amazing 3D and sound track, it just blew my mind back then!

Quake on some Pentium machine, that was just astonishing (even before 3dfx cards)... The discovery of LAN multiplayer! It killed my exam scores un school! and full 3d!

Wipeout on the PS1, so smooth and the sound track was just amazing!

Soul Calibur 2 on the Dreamcast (many DC games).. visual tour de force, extremely smooth gameplay and animation.

God of war 3, uncharted 2 & 3 on the PS3, these games made me fall in love with hardcore gaming again--That God of War 3 intro "level" I guess!

Axiom Verge (with headphones or a very good sound system) I love the ambiance and the sound just blew me away. Only one man's work and passion was poured in this project!

Killzone:SF on PS4, it showed what potential this gen had (and was at times just genius in its level design, I wonder how it would have turned out it pushed
back months, as I feel the last third of the game was not polished).

Many more... I just got Forza horizon 4 on PC and I must admit it's great!

 

[sid2vicious]

Recently? FF7 Remake. Didn't think PS4 was capable of Advent Children level graphics.

SMB was first videogame that wowed me and got me into videogames in the first place. After that was standard NES games up until SMB3 really impressed me, it looked vastly superior to the first one. Then once again SMW, you really could see the evolution between these 3 games. SNES had quite a few games that impressed me, both DCK and Killer Instinct were up there, when I first laid eyes on Chrono Trigger it blew me away, and Super Mario RPG was a natural progression of my love of Mario games and my new found interest in JRPGs. Next up is the 3d era, this was mind blowing going from 2d to 3d, and the 2 games that stood above the rest are complete opposites, Mario 64 and FF7. Mario 64 was a complete 3d platform, you could spin the camera to any angle even in first person perspective, going from 2d to 3d platforming was truly a unique experience, and hub worlds that you can explore, truly early stages of open world freedom. FF7 revolutionized in a different way, integrating CG cutscenes with gameplay and prerendered backgrounds to tell a story in a cinematic like experience. Both experiences were mind blowing for the time. After that all games just seemed like a natural progression, polygons and textures got better, resolutions got better, so obviously graphics got better. Can't say sixth or seventh generations impressed me much, although they did have some stellar titles among them. I will say that eight generation impressed me more with games like the Witcher 3, DragonBall FighterZ, and FF7 Remake, definitely look like their movie or anime counterparts, so you can see the amazing progress games have made within a few generations.

 

[JLMC469]

Mario 64 was the first game that made my jaw drop. Followed by Ocarina of Time.

 

[NoMoChokeSJ]

Dragon's Lair.. so excited was I over this game in 1983, I finally had the money to buy my own arcade unit all original sitting behind my chair in my office. No matter how incredible graphics will become over the years, I'll always have a soft heart for my favorite game.

Yeah. DL at chucky cheese was like magic as a kid..

 

[Kagoshima_Luke]

Not so long ago, but King Kong for Xbox 360 at a GameStop kiosk. I wasn’t planning on getting a 360, but...

 

[Tschumi]

the first time i saw Killer Instinct at the arcades i was floored. The graphics and the audio were something to behold.

your avatar was a pretty legit game, visually, too ^_^

 

[Walter Matthau]

 

[CitizenX]

Dragon's Lair.. so excited was I over this game in 1983, I finally had the money to buy my own arcade unit all original sitting behind my chair in my office. No matter how incredible graphics will become over the years, I'll always have a soft heart for my favorite game.

I did a report in class about games at the time(actually had a C-64 class that year) surprising how long it took the industry to get where this game was at the time. Yes, it was a series of QTE of but from a graphic fidelity it took a lot longer than i ever expected.

 

[TwiztidElf]

Arcade
Space Harrier
OutRun
TMNT
Marble Madness
Street Fighter 2
Ridge Racer
Daytona USA

Console
Donkey Kong Country
Gran Turismo
Sonic
Super Mario World
Mario64
Soul Calibur
Jet Set Radio
Dead Rising

 

[pochepiller2]

[URL

 

[NahaNago]

Final Fantasy 7,8, and 10. PS4 killzone was jawdropping as well.

 

[Walter Matthau]

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

I"m 40 so...

 

[Tschumi]

Wipeout on the PS1, so smooth and the sound track was just amazing!

.............................



Killzone:SF on PS4, it showed what potential this gen had (and was at times just genius in its level design, I wonder how it would have turned out it pushed
back months, as I feel the last third of the game was not polished).

Many more... I just got Forza horizon 4 on PC and I must admit it's great!

Wipeout... I'm friends with someone who worked on that game, still think that's awesome

Killzone: SF... I really wanna play this game. It looks gorgeous, in a "non-photorealistic is okay' kind of way... and i love mercenary on my Vita

 

[PerfectDark]

Star Wars Galaxies.

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

Quake 3, it was the first time I saw such reflections and that speed and badassery.
Bioshock 1, I legit didnt know there was a difference between cutscene and gameplay. The very beginning when your plane crashes into the ocean, I was still waiting for something to happen then I realized I could control my character. My mind was blown by the graphical fidelity, that ocean looked so real.

@Tschumi

You should, i replayed it a year ago, still looks awesome. On some standards its not the best Killzone game but it doesnt mean its a bad game by any means. I loved it and im sure you can get it for pennies now as well.

 

[morelan]

The first Resident Evil Remake trailer. I had never seen anything like that.

 

[NoMoChokeSJ]

[URL

The hologram game. I remember this game as well.

 

[Tschumi]

Quake 3, it was the first time I saw such reflections and that speed and badassery.
Bioshock 1, I legit didnt know there was a difference between cutscene and gameplay. The very beginning when your plane crashes into the ocean, I was still waiting for something to happen then I realized I could control my character. My mind was blown by the graphical fidelity, that ocean looked so real.

@Tschumi

You should, i replayed it a year ago, still looks awesome. On some standards its not the best Killzone game but it doesnt mean its a bad game by any means. I loved it and im sure you can get it for pennies now as well.

just the problem of getting a ps4 xP

 

[docmindbender]

Doom (original) and Devil May Cry PS2.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

ICO really blew me away when it was shown and then I played the demo.

The water effects blew me away. I had never seen water before that.

And the shadows and the way they moved.

Then Devil May Cry came out and I was even more in awe.

Playstation 2 was incredible. It really was a massive jump in technology. It still remains my favorite console of all time.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

[URL

Oh that game!

They had it at a casino my parents used to go to. Normie old people who gambled would walk by the arcade and then be like "wtf!?" when they saw it.

I actually beat the game after many tries.

 

[SoraNoKuni]

First resident evil was mindblowing for me as a child, Tekken 3 as well seemed to realistic to me back then.

Crysis 1 too ofc.

 

[fran.fernandez]

soul edge, that cgi opening with Japanese music. Damnnnn I’m sold

 

[Nickolaidas]

Shadow of the beast for the Amiga. After my Amstrad cpc128, I went from this ...

To this:

Blew my fucking mind.

 

[Achille0s]

Prince of persia sands of time

 

[Nickolaidas]

Pretty much all Dreamcast games: Soul Calibur, Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi, Shenmue ... coming from Playstation it was a shock, not only the amount of polygons but the clean graphics and the high framerate.

Yeah Resident Evil CV and REmake also made my jaw dropped.

And RE5 first gameplay trailer.

 

[Bankai]

Magical it was.

 

[CrysisFreak]

Little me found this shit so hype in 2008.
It's insane. I still think it's well count and the music is still awesome.
It was just great. I like the whole series to this day.

 

[TGO]

Despite having already seen Mario 64
The original Tomb Raider
Combination of 3d graphics in a realistic world of wonder and exploration and atmosphere and Music still live on in my memories.
It was special
Resident Evil is second but only because I understood how it was generating it's graphics
Still impressive

 

[Pegasus Actual]

Back in the day games would blow me away all the time.

Punch Out
Mario 3
Phantasy Star
Super Mario World
Contra 3
Super Ghouls N Ghosts

I started on Atari 2600 games so... even some of the better looking ones blew me away... like Empire Strikes Back or Pitfall. I was blown away by Atari 7800 games like Food Fight and Dig Dug for christ's sake... man being 5 was awesome.

Doom was probably the biggest one, going straight into that after playing the likes of Wolfenstein 3D and Catacombs 3D.... wow.

They bundled a limited version of Descent which was the first thing that I loaded up on my 3dfx Monster 3D card... so obviously that blew me away....

X-Wing
Links 386 Pro

Plenty of arcade games as well:
Daytona
Ridge Racer

And in the 8 to 16 bit era it's hard to overstate just how impressive arcade machines were... "IT'S JUST LIKE THE ARCADE!" was the highest compliment you could give.

There's a hundred others I forgot. I think the era of just being purely blown away ended around Gears and COD4 for me. Or maybe whatever I loaded up first on my 165hz monitor a couple of years back after being in the 60hz LCD era for a solid decade. That smooth GSYNC action was mighty impressive.

I can still recognize when something looks really good compared to everything else but it just doesn't matter that much anymore.

 

[cormack12]

Mega CD did a number on me with its smoke and mirrors at first. Wipeout was a good one as well.

But I'd have to say God of War III was a proper defining moment that sticks in my head.

 

[FeiRR]

Came to post this. A lot of games were impressive the first I saw them, but this one was the first. First time I saw it, it was running on a sega genesis in 1993.
I thought it was a sega cd game.

Also this, from the wikipedia page:
Fumito Ueda cited Another World as an inspiration for his creation of Ico. Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear series, said it was one of the five games that influenced him the most.

Wow, I didn't know that. Thanks for sharing, feels like a great company to be in
By the way, this is hanging over my gaming TV.

 

[UnNamed]

Back in the day, videogame impressed me more. The last game made me jaw dropping was Ridge Racer for PSX. After that my heart became arid.

 

[Traianvs]

I had almost zero experience with consoles before and my PC was very low spec at the time so when a friend of mine borrowed me his ps2 with baldur's gate Dark alliance I was blown away by its graphics and style

 

[Ogbert]

I can still remember the exact moment I saw a SNES running for the first time, playing Contra Spirits.

 

[The Lunch Legend]

Marble Madness :

 

[BigLee74]

Original Doom, Original Tomb Raider, Unreal, Half Life 2.

All proper wow moments when I first saw them.

Don't think I'll feel the same way about any future release. Good graphics and games are just the norm now and are pretty much expected, unlike the games on my first atari console!

 

[Orta]

Played hundreds upon hundreds of games over the past 40-odd years but these are the standout titles that stopped me in my tracks from a basic visual or technical level....

1. Sonic 1 MD
2. Actraiser SNES
3. Cobra Command MCD
4. Donkey Kong Country SNES
5. Mario64 N64
6. Sonic Adventure DC
7. Resident Evil Remake GC
8. Far Cry PC
9. Rise of the Tomb Raider PC
10. Astrobot PSVR
11. Breath of the Wild NS

 

[Dr.Morris79]

A multiplayer game on a grand scale where you could fly, and drive tanks? An epic scale and looked good (back then)

I was hooked. After seeing it round a friends house I had to have my own pc as soon as possible, so I built one.

...And then came the mods! There has, to this day, never been a better pc multiplayer game that offered so much.

 

[RAIDEN1]

Metal Gear 4. so much so that I ended up getting a Playstation for the first time, just for that game...

 

[BootsLoader]

Perfect Dark 64
The Last of Us