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A game that amazed you the first time you saw it?
- Thread starter Gamer79
- Start date
Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
Donkey Kong on the SNES
Mario 64
Crazy Taxi
Halo
Neptune's Pride II
Splinter Cell Spies vs Mercs (PT)
PUBG/Fortnite
Mario 64
Crazy Taxi
Halo
Neptune's Pride II
Splinter Cell Spies vs Mercs (PT)
PUBG/Fortnite
JohnSpartanLee
Member
WipEout on my friend's PlayStation. Had to buy one for myself the next day.
triplestation
Member
i can imagine how fun it was for sure, you go home from the arcade theres no internet, no youtube.. theres tv, sports, and the lingirie section of the clothing magazine
how can you get past this digital obstacle course, of course its gonna be a blast and everyone will be eager to give it a shot
good times
the first game that amazed me was grand theft auto 3, i was used to games like mortal kombat and tekken and mario kart
the scale of gta3 blew me away because all of a sudden you have a whole city available to pretty much do whatever the hell you want and with cheats it was just an absolute blast straight out of satans butthole, to top it off there were great characters and missions that you could take turns trying to pass with friends
how can you get past this digital obstacle course, of course its gonna be a blast and everyone will be eager to give it a shot
good times
the first game that amazed me was grand theft auto 3, i was used to games like mortal kombat and tekken and mario kart
the scale of gta3 blew me away because all of a sudden you have a whole city available to pretty much do whatever the hell you want and with cheats it was just an absolute blast straight out of satans butthole, to top it off there were great characters and missions that you could take turns trying to pass with friends
#Phonepunk#
Banned
Super Mario 3 was pretty mind blowing and both art direction wise and technically a huge step for the series. Which is funny because it is the NES entry with the lowest playable resolution, since much of the screen has a UI. Just goes to show you that resolution isn’t everything.
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Gate Locker
Member
AC: Unity only game that looked "Next-gen".
MiguelItUp
Member
Quake, as it was the first 3D rendered FPS I had ever seen. Playing multiplayer for the first time was really insane as well.
Quake 2, after I got my first video card and used Open GL for the first time. I was playing on software for the longest, and never saw Open GL with my own eyes. I remember shooting the rocket launcher down a hallway like
.
Mario 64, another because I LOVED Mario as a kid, and seeing him and his world in 3D for the first time was insane.
Power Stone, first Dreamcast game I saw with my own eyes and seeing two people play with 60FPS going on. I was like "Holy shit, what is this?!"
Quake 2, after I got my first video card and used Open GL for the first time. I was playing on software for the longest, and never saw Open GL with my own eyes. I remember shooting the rocket launcher down a hallway like
.Mario 64, another because I LOVED Mario as a kid, and seeing him and his world in 3D for the first time was insane.
Power Stone, first Dreamcast game I saw with my own eyes and seeing two people play with 60FPS going on. I was like "Holy shit, what is this?!"
Matsuchezz
Member
I remember my very first trip to the US my brother and I went to the arcades we were 10 and 12. We were amazed when we saw the full car with force feedback. It was amazing! Also Killer Instinct was awesome to look at and the DCS sound was brutal.Which reminds me. THIS was THE 3D graphics revolution and the beginning of a new era:
Verchod
Member
Tricky as involves my memory working correctly.
Revs on the BBC. Looked amazing but hard as hell and I was terrible. Only my older brothers played it properly.
Also on the BBC, Elite. Initially just curious but when I realised what it was about and what you could do I thought it was amazing.
Exile, on BBC again. Was a side on platforming adventure game. But including physics and what seemed quite open gameplay. Even now I'm not sure any game is quite as cool.
PlayStation conversion of Ridge Racer was amazing at the time.
Then later, Gran Turismo blew my mind. I remember the first preview on Edge magazine and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. And was even more amazing when I finally got to play it.
Quake. Even on a pentium 75 with a frame rate like a slide show it was incredible.
Arcades, hmmm. The Star wars arcade was cool.
Chase HQ was great, though maybe not amazing.
Golden axe was cool, at the time. Which is odd as now I realise it's awful.
Virtua racing was definitely awesome when I first saw that.
Loads more, just need to dust off the memories
Revs on the BBC. Looked amazing but hard as hell and I was terrible. Only my older brothers played it properly.
Also on the BBC, Elite. Initially just curious but when I realised what it was about and what you could do I thought it was amazing.
Exile, on BBC again. Was a side on platforming adventure game. But including physics and what seemed quite open gameplay. Even now I'm not sure any game is quite as cool.
PlayStation conversion of Ridge Racer was amazing at the time.
Then later, Gran Turismo blew my mind. I remember the first preview on Edge magazine and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. And was even more amazing when I finally got to play it.
Quake. Even on a pentium 75 with a frame rate like a slide show it was incredible.
Arcades, hmmm. The Star wars arcade was cool.
Chase HQ was great, though maybe not amazing.
Golden axe was cool, at the time. Which is odd as now I realise it's awful.
Virtua racing was definitely awesome when I first saw that.
Loads more, just need to dust off the memories
ZeroZeroQuatre
Member
In 1993, we had a videogame-awards night on French TV : "La Nuit des Jeux Vidéo".
It was quite exceptional, a 2+ hours long event, with tons and tons of content. It wasn't particularly good, but it was something.
A couple of games caught my attention : Alone in the Dark 2, The 7th Guest... Overall, very "PC-ish" games. But the one game that truly blew me away was Day of the Tentacle (13:06 in the video).
The visuals were insane, but the thing that really impressed me was the voice acting. Back then I only had the NES - didn't have the SNES yet... and I'd never seen nor heard something like that before : this was a real cartoon. And it haunted me, would the SNES be able to do that ?
Eh ?
Would it ?
Well. No.
The only thing that came close was this :
And this too, amazed me the first time I heard it
It was quite exceptional, a 2+ hours long event, with tons and tons of content. It wasn't particularly good, but it was something.
A couple of games caught my attention : Alone in the Dark 2, The 7th Guest... Overall, very "PC-ish" games. But the one game that truly blew me away was Day of the Tentacle (13:06 in the video).
The visuals were insane, but the thing that really impressed me was the voice acting. Back then I only had the NES - didn't have the SNES yet... and I'd never seen nor heard something like that before : this was a real cartoon. And it haunted me, would the SNES be able to do that ?
Eh ?
Would it ?
Well. No.
The only thing that came close was this :
And this too, amazed me the first time I heard it
Heimdall_Xtreme
Banned
Mario bros 3 (Gigant world)
Star fox SNES: 3D Graphics
Donkey Kong Country: Graphics
Mario 64 and the world was awesome
Tekken 2: A real graphics for a Fight Game.
Jet set radio future for Xbox: My first Cell shading game with a amazing ost. One of the few games of Sega that i like it.
Halo: Coop mode was a dream with this game.
Resident evil 2: A mature Story with dramatic elements
Metal gear solid psx: The intro... the credits like a Movie...
The last of us.... really... i can see the difference in CGI to Real gameplay.
Gravity rush, The experience of fly, the OST, Too many secrets scene, Pleajune and Kat reach to my heart
Star fox SNES: 3D Graphics
Donkey Kong Country: Graphics
Mario 64 and the world was awesome
Tekken 2: A real graphics for a Fight Game.
Jet set radio future for Xbox: My first Cell shading game with a amazing ost. One of the few games of Sega that i like it.
Halo: Coop mode was a dream with this game.
Resident evil 2: A mature Story with dramatic elements
Metal gear solid psx: The intro... the credits like a Movie...
The last of us.... really... i can see the difference in CGI to Real gameplay.
Gravity rush, The experience of fly, the OST, Too many secrets scene, Pleajune and Kat reach to my heart
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eastwood333
Banned
I'd say Ocarina of Time had the biggest impact in a game for me. When I first left the Keirko Village or what ever it's called. The graphics, atmosphere, music, scope, day n' night cycle,complex dungeons, horse riding
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laynelane
Member
I was amazed by Final Fantasy 10 on PS2. Everything looked so crisp and clear, the colours were vivid, and the music was wonderful. At the time, it was the best looking game I'd ever seen. On a smaller scale, I was impressed by some of the water effects of Resident Evil 6 on PS3. Things like rain water running down Leon's coat really caught my attention.
I'm 38, there were quite a couple wow moments in my gaming life however I live in Hungary (a small central european country) and grew up in a relatively small town, I was lucky enough to have access arcades, computers, consoles, so basically everything mainstream. My first one was the Commodore 64 when I was 5ish. We had to smuggle it in from Austria (dark post communist times). It just amaze me that I can control something on the TV screen. Boulder Dash, Pipeline, Mario Bros, I could go on. Then many titles in the arcades, and later the consoles.
Arcade: Contra, King of Dragons, Street Fighter 2, Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct (especially KI, I remember the first moment I saw it however it was 26 years ago, now I own one original arcade cab)
NES: I mostly skipped it but liked SMB and Contra. I still played C64 and in arcades
SNES: I begged my mom for it with a promise not to go to arcades any more (yeah, I lied). Ok, I visited them less frequently after I got it bundled with Street Fighter 2 and Sim City. Wow moments were Castlevania IV and Killer Instinct, also Star Fox.
PS1: Tomb Raider and Resident Evil. These were the system sellers for me (and wallet killer to my mom ). These two games were absolutely mind blowing back then.
N64: Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire. This made me begging again for my mom, and sell my PS1 (later I begged again to buy another PS1). SM64 was a blast as well. And Turok (german version with the lame robots and no blood).
Then came the PC in 1997, my first games were Quake, and Carmageddon. I played Duke Nukem and Doom in school before It was difficult for me at first to aim in full 3D with the mouse in Quake
I skipped the PS2 almost entirelly although I played Colossus and a little bit of GT4 on it. I had Xbox and Gamecube but there were nothing really impactful on these except Project Gotham Racing(X) and Resident Evil 4 (GC). PC remained main platform.
Then came the X360. Became main platform, I bought my first HDReady TV. Gears of War, PGR3, etc. It was bad ass. True next gen feel.
PS3 much later, well after Uncharted released, but it blowed my mind. And The Last of Us.
PS4 came (my first day 1 purchase) Kill Zone Shadow Fall, Resogun, Infamous... The rest is history PS5, here we come.
Arcade: Contra, King of Dragons, Street Fighter 2, Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct (especially KI, I remember the first moment I saw it however it was 26 years ago, now I own one original arcade cab)
NES: I mostly skipped it but liked SMB and Contra. I still played C64 and in arcades
SNES: I begged my mom for it with a promise not to go to arcades any more (yeah, I lied). Ok, I visited them less frequently after I got it bundled with Street Fighter 2 and Sim City. Wow moments were Castlevania IV and Killer Instinct, also Star Fox.
PS1: Tomb Raider and Resident Evil. These were the system sellers for me (and wallet killer to my mom
). These two games were absolutely mind blowing back then.N64: Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire. This made me begging again for my mom, and sell my PS1 (later I begged again to buy another PS1
). SM64 was a blast as well. And Turok (german version with the lame robots and no blood).Then came the PC in 1997, my first games were Quake, and Carmageddon. I played Duke Nukem and Doom in school before
It was difficult for me at first to aim in full 3D with the mouse in Quake I skipped the PS2 almost entirelly although I played Colossus and a little bit of GT4 on it. I had Xbox and Gamecube but there were nothing really impactful on these except Project Gotham Racing(X) and Resident Evil 4 (GC). PC remained main platform.
Then came the X360. Became main platform, I bought my first HDReady TV. Gears of War, PGR3, etc. It was bad ass. True next gen feel.
PS3 much later, well after Uncharted released, but it blowed my mind. And The Last of Us.
PS4 came (my first day 1 purchase) Kill Zone Shadow Fall, Resogun, Infamous... The rest is history
PS5, here we come.
Tiamat2san
Member
So many!
I am a sucker for graphics.
At each generation I found games that were truly beautiful.
Can’t wait for next-gen!
I am a sucker for graphics.
At each generation I found games that were truly beautiful.
Can’t wait for next-gen!
Ozzy Onya A2Z
Member
The classics - Sierra games through all the original PC video card upgrades, Wolfenstein/DOOM, Mario Kart/Mario 64, Daytona/Virtua Fighter, Wing Commander/Tie Fighter, Commanche, Half Life/Halo, Crysis, GTA5, MS Flight.
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Jeeves
Member
There's a lot I could talk about, but I'll go with kind of an unusual example, at least as far as how it played out.
Dynasty Warriors. My friend and I were a couple of kids wandering the mall, and we went into a gamestop or EB, and they had a Dynasty warriors game demo on PS2. It was quite the spectacle, we had never seen anything like it. I walked away from it like "Wow....Dynasty Warriors, huh?"
And then....I never played it again. At least, for the longest time I didn't. I didn't have a PS2 and over time the series just fell off my radar. Eventually Hyrule Warriors came out on Wii U and I eventually bought it, and it felt like I had fulfilled a long-held desire that I forgot about. Still a really cool game.
Dynasty Warriors. My friend and I were a couple of kids wandering the mall, and we went into a gamestop or EB, and they had a Dynasty warriors game demo on PS2. It was quite the spectacle, we had never seen anything like it. I walked away from it like "Wow....Dynasty Warriors, huh?"
And then....I never played it again. At least, for the longest time I didn't. I didn't have a PS2 and over time the series just fell off my radar. Eventually Hyrule Warriors came out on Wii U and I eventually bought it, and it felt like I had fulfilled a long-held desire that I forgot about. Still a really cool game.
HitCtrlAltDel
Member
I started this list, and honestly thought I’d only have Mario 64 on it, but thinking back there have been many:
Super Mario Bros- first time really seeing a video game
Doom- pretty self explanatory, so amazing compared to anything like it at the time and hadnt seen Wolfenstein
SimCity 2000- just something about the density of the city was amazing
Warcraft II- seeing the animation and how you could control an entire army was crazy
Mario 64- someone in elementary school brought in a screen shot of this game and I had no idea what I was looking at, I couldn’t figure it out
Doom 3- I was learning computer graphics programming at the time so seeing this in real-time was so amazing
Metal Gear Solid 2- something about the animation, the characters and the setting. Everyone knows the trailer for this game.
Gears of War- HD on a console, with this level of graphic detail with great controls... what?
Wipeout Pure- true, fluid, portable 3d gameplay, holy crap. This sold me on the PSP. I remember trying this at an EB games before the console came out because they had a demo unit there behind the counter. I immediately preordered the system.
Killzone 2- such an amazing game for the time. Deferred rendering at its finest.
Killzone Mercenaries- all these amazing modern rendering techniques on a portable was so awesome. Still my favorite Vita game
EVE Valkyrie- First VR game I tried in a Best Buy demo. That launch blew me away
Super Mario Bros- first time really seeing a video game
Doom- pretty self explanatory, so amazing compared to anything like it at the time and hadnt seen Wolfenstein
SimCity 2000- just something about the density of the city was amazing
Warcraft II- seeing the animation and how you could control an entire army was crazy
Mario 64- someone in elementary school brought in a screen shot of this game and I had no idea what I was looking at, I couldn’t figure it out
Doom 3- I was learning computer graphics programming at the time so seeing this in real-time was so amazing
Metal Gear Solid 2- something about the animation, the characters and the setting. Everyone knows the trailer for this game.
Gears of War- HD on a console, with this level of graphic detail with great controls... what?
Wipeout Pure- true, fluid, portable 3d gameplay, holy crap. This sold me on the PSP. I remember trying this at an EB games before the console came out because they had a demo unit there behind the counter. I immediately preordered the system.
Killzone 2- such an amazing game for the time. Deferred rendering at its finest.
Killzone Mercenaries- all these amazing modern rendering techniques on a portable was so awesome. Still my favorite Vita game
EVE Valkyrie- First VR game I tried in a Best Buy demo. That launch blew me away
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JLB
Banned
mmm, Mario 64 was like unbelievably good at the time. I remember playing at home BC Racers, went to the mall and watch Mario 64 for the first time ever. What a magical moment.
Another one is Metal Gear Solid, PSX version. The music, the stealth, the art direction, everything was perfect. I played the damn japanese version, so I was like 2 months searching for everything until I found that I needed to put the c4 on that wall.
Finally, RDR2. What a masterpiece.
Another one is Metal Gear Solid, PSX version. The music, the stealth, the art direction, everything was perfect. I played the damn japanese version, so I was like 2 months searching for everything until I found that I needed to put the c4 on that wall.
Finally, RDR2. What a masterpiece.
Gamer79
Predicts the worst decade for Sony starting 2022
Even though Gears was mostly browns and grey's it was a new standard in graphics when released.
synchronicity
Gold Member
Many of the Activision games from the 2600 did. Pitfall, River Raid, etc. They had a better grasp of how to use that primitive hardware and their stuff from that era really stood out.
And the move to 3D had plenty of mind-blowing examples as opening that new dimension really provided an opportunity to be wowed.
Metal Gear Solid, Tomb Raider, Silent Hill and others all impressed in that transformative period for the medium.
Of course there are other examples, but those come to mind.
And the move to 3D had plenty of mind-blowing examples as opening that new dimension really provided an opportunity to be wowed.
Metal Gear Solid, Tomb Raider, Silent Hill and others all impressed in that transformative period for the medium.
Of course there are other examples, but those come to mind.
godhandiscen
There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
Halo. That first impression was glorious.
F
Foamy
Unconfirmed Member
OG Strider on Mega Drive Import.
Dr. Samuel Hayden
Member
Most recent example I can think of is HZD. I'm not even much of a graphics whore but that game blew my fucking mind when I first saw it. Which is why I'm very excited to see what they'll do with the sequel.
SleepDoctor
Banned
mgs 1 demo
God of war
GEARS 1
Splinter Cell
Cod 4 beta
Jade Empire (never had an XBOX but had a friend lend me his just for it).
God of war
GEARS 1
Splinter Cell
Cod 4 beta
Jade Empire (never had an XBOX but had a friend lend me his just for it).
BusierDonkey
Member
Donkey Kong Country series and Yoshi's Island on the SNES.
Banjo Kazooie on the N64.
Soul Calibur on Dreamcast I still consider the biggest leap in visuals in my lifetime. It trashed the arcade version and when the PS2 dropped the next year it had already taken the wind out of Sony's next gen sails.
That said, on the PS2 Gran Turismo 3 was one of the graphical high points in my gaming history. It is the best looking racing game for it's time. No other racing game was even close at the time.
Rogue Leader on Gamecube. I have no idea how this was a first gen Gamecube game and ran at a locked 60fps. Same goes for Metroid Prime.
Halo 4 on the Xbox 360, especially after learning the cutscenes were in-engine and not video.
Xenoblade Chronicles X on the WiiU was a combination of really great art design mixed with an impressively massive world.
RDR2 is a visual masterpiece, I don't think it really needs explaining.
Luigi's Mansion 3. If you really dig in you can see it's flaws but taking it in as you play it's really nice to look at. The fact that it's running on a system with a PCB smaller than a standard controller's PCB is nuts.
Obviously MS Flight Simulator 2020. Not only are the visuals striking but the scale of the sim is just crazy.
Banjo Kazooie on the N64.
Soul Calibur on Dreamcast I still consider the biggest leap in visuals in my lifetime. It trashed the arcade version and when the PS2 dropped the next year it had already taken the wind out of Sony's next gen sails.
That said, on the PS2 Gran Turismo 3 was one of the graphical high points in my gaming history. It is the best looking racing game for it's time. No other racing game was even close at the time.
Rogue Leader on Gamecube. I have no idea how this was a first gen Gamecube game and ran at a locked 60fps. Same goes for Metroid Prime.
Halo 4 on the Xbox 360, especially after learning the cutscenes were in-engine and not video.
Xenoblade Chronicles X on the WiiU was a combination of really great art design mixed with an impressively massive world.
RDR2 is a visual masterpiece, I don't think it really needs explaining.
Luigi's Mansion 3. If you really dig in you can see it's flaws but taking it in as you play it's really nice to look at. The fact that it's running on a system with a PCB smaller than a standard controller's PCB is nuts.
Obviously MS Flight Simulator 2020. Not only are the visuals striking but the scale of the sim is just crazy.
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Guileless
Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
NFL 2k and Soul Calibur were just massive breakthroughs over the Playstation generation.
NFS Hot Pursuit on my Voodoo 1 card was also incredible.
01011001
Banned
Mario 64 of course... like damn!
Mario Sunshine, when I first saw that running on a demo kiosk in a store my jaw dropped
almost every Xbox game that actually used the potential of the hardware. Halo, Halo 2, Riddick, the Splinter Cell games (especially Chaos Theory, like... that game looked literally next gen. I could not believe how that game could run on a console of that generation when it released), Conker Live & Reloaded, Ninja Gaiden (looked fucking amazing AND ran at 60fps...) etc.
Mario Sunshine, when I first saw that running on a demo kiosk in a store my jaw dropped
almost every Xbox game that actually used the potential of the hardware. Halo, Halo 2, Riddick, the Splinter Cell games (especially Chaos Theory, like... that game looked literally next gen. I could not believe how that game could run on a console of that generation when it released), Conker Live & Reloaded, Ninja Gaiden (looked fucking amazing AND ran at 60fps...) etc.
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Gamer79
Predicts the worst decade for Sony starting 2022
Zelda Oot IMO is one of the games that did age poorly. It was amazing in it's day but I just can't play it now. Curse the water temple too!
I was 17 when Mario 64 launched. IDK but I wasn't amazed as many other people. Just my opinion. The thing I can't deny is Mario 64 pretty much set a road map on how 3D games should be played.
I was 17 when Mario 64 launched. IDK but I wasn't amazed as many other people. Just my opinion. The thing I can't deny is Mario 64 pretty much set a road map on how 3D games should be played.