This Gen's "Holy Wowzer" Magical First Play Moment

[cutmymilk]

As a forum we are generally older, somewhat jaded gamers. A lot of discussion recently has been about how people very rarely get excited about games coming out. With that in mind, what single game this gen (wii, 360, PS3) has been magical and brought out child like glee in you?

For me, it has to be Mario Galaxy. It was magical from the first time you stepped foot in it's beautiful world. The ideas, craftsmanship and love that went into the game was tremendous and every other level game me goosebumps, such was the imagery and perhaps most importantly, the score. A truly magical experience that I hope the sequel can match.

[charlesr]

EA's Skate. Every moment was a WOW for me.

[monel]

Ridge Racer 6 on the 360 for me, always been a Ridge Racer fan and I loved playing 6 from the first race onwards. My biggest regret is that I haven't 100%'d it though.

Not a playing experience but the intro to Gundam DW blew my socks off, it's ace. Rewatched that one tons of times.

[kernow]

I guess when I bought my uk launch PS3 I was playing it over scart on a 26" CRT for a while, it looked alright but obviously poor compared to what it could do. About 2 months later I bought an HDTV and RR7 and motorstorm blew me away at the time. RR7 looked like an N64 game on the CRT, just pathetic in 576i.

[abigsmurf]

I suppose the intro for Arkham Assylum, largely because I like Mark Hamill's joker so much.

[Nighteyes]

Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect. Mass Effect.

[nakamura]

I have to say not one game this generation has got me like that. The closest is my desire to play Fifa10 as will be the first football game i have played in since PES6.

However the most excited I have been about a game for years was Resident Evil 4. I played it through the first time just a month or two back and i was sat all day at work wanting to play it. Also Persona 4 has me very excited when I got it last christmas.
OK all last gen titles but its the best i can say!!

[Herbalizer]

Probably the opening credits in Motorstorm, sadly the actual game wasn't as good graphically.

[Soundwave]

This may sound stupid but to me this gens biggest wow moment was loading up Madden 10 for the first time.

Ok so it's just American Football but it's the way it looks.
I'm constantly in awe of the presentation & how realistic it looks in HD.
I think last night I must have bugged the missus hundreds of times just saying..."Wow did you see that" or "OMG how reaslistic does Albert Haynesworth look when giving a massive Pancake Sack"

Other than that it would be Dead Space & Uncharted
The atmosphere in Dead Space is unbelivable & constantly wowed me throughout, fantastic story & character as well
Uncharted has been my best game this gen bar none, fantastic story, awesome gameplay & just gorgeous to boot.

Arkham has got close but most of my wow's from that have come from just how awesome Harley & Ivy look but thats a whole other pervy thread lol

[spagmasterswift]

Chromehounds, when the flares lit up the night sky and we were knee deep in the ****!

[TheForce]

hooking up my 360 at release day with PGR3 running on it..... that was absolutely amazing, I was totally blown away by it. other than that, DeadSpace was the biggest surprise of the last 2 years for me, excellent graphics amazing surround sound and great gameplay

[Kubrick]

Gears of War

[Geoff D]

For me, it has to be Mario Galaxy.

Me too.

[MrMarbles]

There are three that spring to mind for me:

1) Sitting there with my newly set up Xbox 360 and PGR3 back in 2005 with Gotham TV running; I was hypnotised by the sheer beauty and detail of it all - a completely different league of visuals to anything I'd seen up until that point. And that was just on a bog-standard SDTV. I dread to think how I'd have been at that time if I'd been hooked up to a VGA monitor.

2) Enjoying mindlessly playing through Uncharted, reaching the wreckage of the plane before it struck me: ****, that smoking wreckage is the exact same one that was miles in the distance an hour or so ago; the exact same one that I've had to pass through dense, gorgeous levels to reach. Without any loading screens. Without any black-screen transitions. Without anything that could possibly break the immersion. Utterly incredible.

3) The motorbike sequence in Prague in Metal Gear Solid 4. Ruddy hell, my jaw was slack throughout.

[kernow]

oh yeah, how could I forget MGS4, what a game.