Things in games that amaze you

[gizmo1990]

I loved the way that the enemies actually worked as a team to bring you out into the open, and how they noticed grenades, screamed "GRENADE" to their teammates, and dispersed. Makes me wonder how people can still get AI so wrong nowadays, when (however old half life is) years ago, it was perfect! Easily the best gaming experience I have ever had, and it opened up the world of FPS games to me!

Makes you wonder how they could have cocked it (AI) up so much in HL2 huh...

[EJG1980]

Half Life in general! I loved everything about it!

....

Oh yeah, and half life was the game that introduced me to the WASD + mouse setup, instead of the arrow keys and CTRL

Ha ha, I always used to use the arrow keys instead of WASD too! Half Life and Half Life 2 are the only FPS's I was really able to get into. Phenomenal games, superb attention to detail, they've got the lot. The only other FPS I've ever enjoyed almost as much is Call of Duty 2 on the 360.

As for things in games that amaze me, I remember when I was 15 and me, my brother and sister rented a Playstation with Toshinden from Blockbuster. We thought that is was the greatest thing we'd ever seen Although when we went to CEX in Harrow to actually buy one, the bloke there talked us into getting a Saturn instead

Oh, and playing Sonic Adventure on a Japanese DC for the first ever time and screaming "Look at those rocks, they look real!!!"

['Press Start']

Secret of Mana - Title screen gets me every time, as does the ending. Such a complete RPG

Chrono Trigger - Everything about the game. I dare say the perfect RPG??

Streets Of Rage 2 - Me and my cousin played this 1000 times. He holds a guy and does 'the slap' with Max while I start the multipunch finished by the dragon punch with Alex. That move never gets tired! Also being able to hit people behind you, twice if you timed it right.

Sonic 1 - Green hill zone, the music, the graphics, the speed!

Shadow Of the Collosus - All of the game but most of all the end boss, when you have to jump from his body to his hand and he lifts you towards his face

Syndicate - Shooting a line of innocents with the lazer gun!

Super Mario World - You Are An Amazing Player!

Super Mario Sunshine - The haunted hotel, the outside part which is a beach at sunset. Beautiful environment in that game!

Story of thor/Beyond Oasis - Streets of rage like fighting with ZeldaISH elements!!!!!

GTA: Vice City - Getting into the first car and Billy Jean being on the radio. Then realising it had broken wings, gold, plus great gameplay. Amazing.

Jet Set Radio - How did Sega squeeze so much gameplay onto such a small disc??

Halo - My jaw muscle developed so much due to it constantly being open. When the drop ships come in the first stage and you defeat them all, then take the warthog! You know your about to play a generation definer!

O To GI 2 - For some reason it just rang a cord with me, the music and the japanese fantasy element copuled with the ability to smash things through large buildings!

Double Dragon - Throwing someone off the edge has never been so satisfying. Remember the sound effects of the first level boss? URRG URRG, URRG!!!

Mars Matrix - The first 'STUPID' bullet shooter I ever played.

Doom - Whats sweeter then a fully stacked arsenal and being surrounded by 360 degrees of hells finest? Shotgun + pink piggy's = first shotgun satisfaction from a game!

Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night - I play this game once every year. I never get bored of it even though I know exactly where to go and what to do. The music is amazing!

The ultimate, Super Mario 64 - Getting to grips with 3D gaming, running into the distance, the first time you flew and could go anywhere within the stage. Getting fired out of a cannon for the first time into the water. No other game has made me play with a smile on my face for so long.


Lots more games, but these are a few that came whilst I was writing.

[Combination]

I'm going to bend the rules a bit and nominate Half-Life 2 - the whole experience. It's sort of like the Holocaust, Orwell, and The War of the Worlds all rolled into one.

[Concept]

End of Silent Hill 3 when

->Open Spoiler<-

Claudia gets 'infected'.

Another conclusion. End of Manhunt when

->Open Spoiler<-

you're being hunted by Pigsy in his derelict flat. Welcome to an interactive rendition of Silence of the lamb's climax draped in Seven and Carptenter style lashings.

Simply the greatest and most tense 'boss fight' I've ever experienced.

Base jumping over the equivalent of The Grand Canyon at dawn in SA. Still nothing beats it.

Beginning to Fahrenheit where the camera pulls into a snow swept New York.

Opening to Silent Hill with the dizzying camera work.

The Forest Temple in OoT (I seem to mention this every other week). Still for me the best dungeon in the entire main series.

Uncovering the ancient City in Eternal Darkness for the first time

->Open Spoiler<-

underneath the mansion

. I was gob smacked when that happened - clever 3D effects and bitmapping aside, the sense of scale was fantastic.

[112]

I agree with quite a few of what concept said, but one that stands out for me would be, how they fit so much of Biohazard into such a small DS cartridge, amazing..........

112

[MattyD]

Doesn't anyone just find it mind-bendingly incomprehensible how many millions of calculations your console must perform every second in order to generate the gaming world before you?

I just can't get my head around how a human being could design something so complex. THAT's amazing.

[Eps]

Oh, a few more:

- When you

->Open Spoiler<-

get the Ocarina of Wind

in LoZ: Minish Cap for the GBA. I think I yelled YES!!! out loud when I saw what it was. In fact, the way that things tie together over multiple games in that series is amazing, in the sense that it doesn't generally feel unnatural or forced -

->Open Spoiler<-

except for putting ****ing Tingle in it, of course!

- Also, have to put a vote in for YOU ARE A SUPER PLAYER on Super Mario World. Absolutely awesome

- And my first ever arcade experience: seeing Defender for the first time, when it was still current. An introduction to a life-long love of gaming in general, and shoot-em-ups in particular.