Your defining videogame experiences

[Concept]

Snake Eater is indeed great. I wasn't feeling the game due to the odd and subdued pacing for the first eight hours but on reaching The End and the last five hours (probably the best boss battle in the series after the Hind D for the reasons you mention), it suddently found its feet.

What I enjoyed about Snake Eater was its sense of pace on the final stretch - it reminded me of MGS (on steroids) in that respect. It just kept throwing crazy set-piece after set-piece at you. The actual conclusion is also one of the most gratifying I've encountered to a game (MGS2 also had a good ending period but spoiled it by finishing on an incredibly, cringeworthy cheesy note).

[Wild_Cat]

Indeed. The End is the point where MGS3 basically pulls all the stops and drops any pretense of being "just another infiltration game". From there on, you rarely spend more than 10 minutes without having to pick up your jaw from the floor. It starts with your climbing of that huge ladder while an a capella version of the theme song plays in the background, and it never stops till the credits roll. Snake's capture, losing of an eye... Save the game, load the following day: boom, vampire minigame. o.O

Then Snake escapes, and just when it starts being slightly frustrating, The Sorrow. The crowd cheers as you realize how to end the fight. Back to a bit of regular sneaking action, or so you think, but less than an hour in you fight Volgin with pure awesomeness.

And just when you think it can't get any better... The motorcycle chase starts. It definitely is MGS3's most defining moment -- when you see that starting, hear the soundtrack kicking into gear and think, "ooh, *that* cutscene is gonna rock my socks"... Then realize that nope, that's no cutscene. The crowd goes wild.

Did I mention how brilliant a game MGS3 is?

[jimmbob]

boom, vampire minigame. o.O

Could you elaborate please, I don't recall ever seeing this.
Ta.

[Wild_Cat]

Sure thing.

If you've ever called Para-Medic right after catching/killing a bat (you can find some in the mountain facilities, between The End and The Fury), you may have heard that Snake is afraid of vampires.

However, your one chance to learn why is in the prison, after Snake's been captured, tortured by Ocelot and lost an eye. Call Para-Medic to save your game. She'll begin to tell Snake a story -- a vampire story, as it turns out. After Snake fails to stop her, he'll explain that he hates talking about vampires because whenever he does, he ends up having nightmares about them.

All right then: go to sleep. Which in the case of MGS3 means, turn off your console. When you next load your game, you'll be treated to Snake's nightmare: a black & white, Devil May Cry-ish action minigame in which you play as a vampire and fight cops. It's the usual blades vs. guns fare (hint: you're the one with the blades), and chaining kills allows you to enter a frenzy and unleash your über vampire reflexes (read: bullet-time).

It goes on for 5 to 10 minutes, then cuts to Snake waking up in his cell.

[jimmbob]

Thank you sir, seriously, you've just given me the perfect excuse to play though again.

[jimmbob]

I only own MGS 3 subsistence, I take it the mini game is in there too?

[dogen]

(MGS2 also had a good ending period but spoiled it by finishing on an incredibly, cringeworthy cheesy note).

I honestly can't remember what went on at the end of that game other than a longwinded stretch of dialog that I just couldn't comprehend. And I'm quite sure if I suffered it again, I'd still struggle.

But I agree that the finale with the Boss in MGS3 was a more recent defining moment for me.

[Riskbreaker]

Doom 2 - The original game finished over and over and over again. High anticipation for the next game mixed with discovery of multiplayer over a serial cable. Cue me, my dad and a null modem cable stretching from the Garage come converted study downstairs, winding up the staircase to my bedroom. First experience of deathmatch gaming and a glimpse of multiplayer gaming for years to come.

Counterstrike over the work LAN. Spent the summer during the first year of my current job playing Counterstrike, going the pub at lunchtime and sitting in the sun, followed by more CS.

Outtrigger and Perfect Dark - Any game that got me, my brother and my dad all sat around one machine for hours on end counts as a great gaming experience for me. We all had our particular games that we'd play or sit and watch one another play through. But those games that saw my dad shouting up the stairs "come on then!" after I'd fired up the N64 after college or DC after work, prompting hours of banter and slagging matches, were something special.

Ikaruga - Just that little scene at the start of the first level, with your small fighter launching from it's carrier is enough to make the hairs stand up on the back of my neck every time. I'd always had a passing interest in shooters, I wasn't "hardcore" in the same way that I was with other genres, but they were games that I'd quite happily sit and casually waste lives as I ploughed thorough. I don't know what made prompted me to buy Ikaruga, no doubt this forum played a part, I vaguely remember watching videos of the arcade cabs which peaked my interest. But playing the game was something else.

The craft launches, you kills the first few waves of enemies, aside from an interesting way of tackling the enemy, pretty standard stuff. But, clearing the ship, the game just changes completely. The engines charge up on your ship and the music track gradually builds up, then you're propelled full throttle into the next part of game all the while watching enemy ships ready to encounter you in the background. I happened to have the sound turned right up at the time and it was fantastic. That one moment prompted a better introduction to the game in my imagination, than any FMV could have done justice.

Phantasy Star Online - I still have the copy of Edge with the red cover and a picture of the game cases artwork on its front cover. That was the issue that prompted me leave work early one day and jump off the train on the way home to head to the nearest EB store I could think off and blow my hard earned cash on a DC and a copy of PSO. I hadn't really considered buying a DC prior to that, but reading having read about the game, I knew I had to buy it.

There were absolutely no regrets and many many stand out moments, from stepping into one of lobbies, to forming my first party and setting foot on Ragol and the first boss fight against the Dragon. The forest area, so bright and colourful with the blue skies and sun glaring in the background. The music matching the mood perfectly, relaxed and soothing whilst you glance in awe at your surroundings, before scaling up as you fight the native creatures. Later, the final stand off against Dark Falz, heading towards that single stone monument, knowing, just knowing that something was going happen when you reached it. And when you did reach it? You find yourself in a world completely at odds with your first steps on the planet, cold and dark with hundreds of haunted faces screaming at you for salvation.... or maybe laughing at your foolishness. Finally, the congratulations screen with each party member standing in their own pose with the message "You are the hero!". That one screen, so important, the icing on the cake for those first fantastic romps through Ragol's environment. YOU are the HERO! Not some damn numpty that the games designers have deemed to place you in control of, but your own little avatar, a true hero alongside those you've forged relationships with in order to get that far. PSO, from that first step to the haunting singing ("La, La , Laaaaaa") during the credits is one great gaming moment, driven by working in a team with other players.

Before the hackers got in there and made Yuji Naka paranoid from there on out, when everything was new and everyone was amazed by what they saw. PSO was the peak of co-op gaming.

Just thinking back to it, PSU really didn't have a hope of standing up to the first encounters on Ragol.

[Concept]

I honestly can't remember what went on at the end of that game other than a longwinded stretch of dialog that I just couldn't comprehend. And I'm quite sure if I suffered it again, I'd still struggle.

But I agree that the finale with the Boss in MGS3 was a more recent defining moment for me.

I'm talking about the final stretch as in the late-game mega-twist.

->Open Spoiler<-

"Is that a... proposal?"

"This is for your ears only..."

was the cheese I'm referred to.

MGS and MGS3 end on far more effective end notes.

Riskbreaker, I should have included PSO as well. Although I ended up ploughing a good 80 hours into it, it never really clicked in the way it did during the first four. PSO was the first 'real' online game I played and it completely floored me - mostly because the servers hadn't turned into a cheating haven and I happened to stumble on some really friendly people who helped introduce me to the game. The atmosphere was out of this world, and I remember completely buzzing after I'd finished my first session thinking it was the future.

[Riskbreaker]

What I would say in MGS2's defense, is

->Open Spoiler<-

prior to the last bit of dialog cheesiness as Concept pointed out. There is a fantastic little scene where having been told by Snake that he needs to find his own path in life, his own thoughts, opinions and ideals to pass onto future generations. Raiden then looks at his tags. Since inputting your name and birth date at the start of the game, this is the first time you see your details on the tags. Snake then asks "Anyone you know?" and Raiden replies "No never heard the name before". You, the player, were guiding his actions and driving him through the game according to the instructions you were given. Now that he's free of those constraints its time to for him to move on of his of volition, choose his own name and his own future. And with that, he throws his old tags onto the street.

I never had a problem, playing as Raiden, he was no Snake, but he was never meant to be. Snake was Snake, Raiden was to some extent you.

Riskbreaker, I should have included PSO as well. Although I ended up ploughing a good 80 hours into it, it never really clicked in the way it did during the first four. PSO was the first 'real' online game I played and it completely floored me - mostly because the servers hadn't turned into a cheating haven and I happened to stumble on some really friendly people who helped introduce me to the game. The atmosphere was out of this world, and I remember completely buzzing after I'd finished my first session thinking it was the future.

I agree, repeat experiences of the first runs through the game were never quite as good as my earliest adventures. But I guess that lies in the nature of the game, to provide some sort of difficulty, you were forced to run through areas repeatedly to level up. Inevitably that takes the shine off things, but thats the nature of all RPGs I guess.

What I would say, is I enjoyed the repeat runs of PSO from Forest to Ruins, with a good team much more than alot of content in PSU. The problem PSU has is it lacks a path, thanks to Sega's quite frankly, dumb arse idea of withholding content, you can't have a session in which there's a beginning, a great journey and then closure. A point at which after two hours play you can sit back and relax, having experienced a 'complete' journey. I think that's where most MMORPG's fall down for me. There is no end, just a ceaseless grind towards an ending that you'll never see, because if WoW for instance, had an ending, Blizzard wouldn't be able to maintain its player base. PSO, like Diablo before it, was quite happy to present an episode in a saga that could be repeated as many or as few times as you like. PSU in it's current form, has turned into the endless grind that every other game in the genre seems to be.

[Champloo]

First time playing through Ocarina of Time for me. The game that got me obsessed with games really. And Goldeneye - getting invincibility on Goldeneye deserves a mention.

Finishing Xenogears as well, I instantly became a obsessed little Xenogears fanboy.

And my first experiences with emulation when I was about 12 - I remember getting Pokemon Blue and also a SNES emu with a load of the classic RPG's from one my friends older bro's. It took me a while to work out how to use it all, but it wasn't long before I was visiting the like of DeJap and patching up SNES games, and playing the translated versions, I was a crazy little kid. Because I didn't have internet on my comp, I used to go to my dad's to download the roms, and because I was so dense, i'd burn one single rom to a CD without realising I could get more than that on, which is why somewhere in my room, boxed away, i've got about 20 cd's each with single SNES and MD games on them.

[Wild_Cat]

I only own MGS 3 subsistence, I take it the mini game is in there too?

I'd be extremely surprised if it wasn't.

[Lyris]

Defining Videogame Experiences :


The first time we played Sega Rally2 at SegaPark in Glasgow (it's gone now) - Highly charged on Class A powder prior to going in and sat in that chair ****ing glued to the screen for a long time. Stunning.

Yoshimax, where was the SegaPark in Glasgow? What's there now?

[AngelsInFlight]

My defining moment would have to be the world in which I stepped into when playing Shenmue, no doubt this game has been mentioned plenty of times in this thread - and with good cause.

I remember wanting to play it so much, it's the only reason I own a DreamCast, I still can't come to terms with how they've emulated a real world, from the house that Ryo lives in, to the friends he has around the town of Dobuita, to seeing people go about their business in the day!

It truely is one of the best gaming experience I've ever had, if not the best.

[urbanpanda]

multiplayer secret of mana - my first introduction to square
samba de amigo - awesomeness of game greatly increased when you add mates and booze
parappa the rapper + student union
pro evo - house rules (every goal equals a shot of tequila)