RetroGaming

Probably winter 91 or spring 92. Not sure when, but I saw the ads on TV and I needed to get Metroid II: Return of Samus.

I was 7.

I asked. I begged. And for Christmas or a birthday it came.

Every day when I came home from school, I played. Sometimes I took it with me and played at lunch.

Nobody else played that game. Nobody knew what I was talking about. I took the booklet with me and tried to draw the creatures.

I was stuck at one point. It lasted weeks. Maybe longer. One night before dinner I made some progress. My mother actually let me keep playing until I got to a save point.

Whatever feeling I had at that moment, I'm not sure I'll find it again, but my expression must have been enough. I made it to the save point.

Eventually I beat the game but I'd look forward to getting home to try and speedrun it 100% And eventually I could consistantly beat it under 3 hours with 100% items. I haven't had a game since that I've enjoyed as much except maybe a few shmups.

Playing the Mass Effect Trilogy for the first time.

Sure the ending was a bit disappointing, but the ride was absolutely phenomenal.

Xenogears. It was a life-changing game for me. The concepts and philosophy it introduced to my teenage brain tangibly altered my world view over time. It broke me out of a mold I didn't even know I was in. Nothing compares to it for me. As a game, it's well made, but has it's share of sticking points. But it did for me something no other game has.

I've had similar feelings of wonder and awe in other games but not the same life altering impact to my world view.

In a more light-hearted "omg such game, much amazing, very nostalgia" category though, Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake 1, HL1, Stalker, Morrowind, and Oblivion all hold special places in my memories.

Three more modern games that really brought a sense of wonder to me are Nier Automata, Mirror's Edge 1, and Outer Wilds.

Vampire the masquerade bloodlines (god, what a mouthful of a title) is still the best rpg ive played to date. Troika games created a masterpiece here, even if it needed an unofficial community patch to be playable. The story is engaging and it is very easy to get immersed into the game world. It is a shame it does not get mentioned more often.

As for a more mainstream fantasy rpg, yeah I am with everybody on Oblivion. The first time you exit the dungeon, with the whole world right there for you to explore, was truly magical.

Halo : CE was the first game I split screened with my dad, and we spent hundreds of hours on it together. I remember the first time we beat the game on legendary, that final car ride was really something. Only wish I can someday share that feeling with my offspring.

Edit: typo, must have been thinking of Requiem as bloodlines 1.

Being a 90s kid I feel that there were many mind blowing moments seeing the games evolve.

My first one was playing Shining Force 2 on the Sega Genesis with my dad.

Next was gen 1&2 Pokémon, I'm with you.

Next one was probably FF7 on the ps1. Remember having to switch disks while the game was running? 🤯

Next one was The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Kinda burnt out on games now. Adulting sucks

edit: The gb

After dragging my long suffering mum around every shop that might possibly still have a copy of The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and finally getting what must have been the last one anywhere.

We then have to go and do a whole load of other things all afternoon while I read the manual from back to front about a dozen times in the back of the car, getting more and more excited.

Then we finally got home but I had to help with dinner first and then eat all the while jabbering incessantly about how amazing it was going to be while I'm sure she just rolled her eyes and said "yes dear" and then I was finally allowed to put the N64 on and I then sat glued to it for hours in a state of wonder and amazement.

Truly the best experience I've ever had gaming.

Gaming my consciousness with shrooms and ket.

Siralim Ultimate

You like Pokémon but could leave the anime? You like building decks in Magic or some such tinkering?

This might be the last game you need to buy for years, and it’s like $20ish.

Halo 1 LAN parties

Finishing Ultima IV on my C64. Yep I’m old.

Someone else's comment about LAN parties jogged my memory. I only ever attended one (big one in a university auditorium), and for the most part, it was kind of meh. Until late in the night, a game of Savage got going, something myself and my friends had never played before. After a few other people hopping in and out of the commander role, I decided to give it a go. Before long, the game just clicked. I had four of my friends at the table around me designated as squad leaders and was barking orders to them as they moved across the map, I beefing them up with spells, poi ting out enemies, etc. We handedly shut down everything the opposing team could offer. It's the only time that I can recall getting into a real tactical squad-based flow.

I didn't chase that experience much, though, because nothing recreated the physical space I was in. I went on to play Savage 2, which I loved for a time, but I almost always eschewed the commander role.

Aerial dueling in Starsiege Tribes was a high for me that I will always chase. Any game that offers that freedom of movement + timing of shots always piques my interest. Wall running and leaping as the Alien in AVP 2 did much the same.

The first time I beat the final boss of Sekiro. It was a culmination of everything you learned in that game and perfectly paced. Felt like being part of a well choreographed dance and like everything you had gone through to get to this point of the game was paying off.

Accomplishment-wise playing in a few ProAm counterstrike tourneys, beating any of the dark souls/elden ring/Bloodborne was great, beating a couple of the xwing missions felt like an accomplishment too, topping the score board in online shooters like TF2, tribes 2, quake arena etc

Just overall hitting max level in wow and raid level in EverQuest back in the day, and a couple rpgs Chrono trigger, phantasy star 4, pillars of eternity 1/2 for the story and characters. Monster sanctuary ng+ randomizer is a lot of fun too

Dragon Quest Builders 2. I'm not entirely sure why, but that game was crack to me from start to finish. I pretty much never bother platinum-ing games, and I went out of my way to for that one. It's especially funny since I'm not a fan of Minecraft at all. The game just had all the right ingredients to inject dopamine straight into my brain for the duration. The lack of a 3 sucks (and I tried the first one but didn't really like it that much).

Planetside 2.

Was pretty new to the game and just wsndering around as a sniper when a guy in a transport pulled up and told me to get in.

Boarded the transport and drove around for a bit when we crossed a hill that sat above an enemy camp.

I jumped out as he drove on and started scouting the camp from the hill. Felt a bit lonely and asking myself if jumping out here was a good idea at all.

After a while, I chose to shoot and see where it lands to see how high I need to aim to adjust for bullet drop.

Suddenly I hear a loud 'boom' and an explosion roughly where I was shooting at. Then another 'boom' and another explosion.

Turned around to be surprised by 5 friendly tanks in one line behind me unloading at the enemy camp.

After about 20 more seconds, my hill was swarmed with all kinds of friendly tanks and personell, just blasting away at the camp.

It was as if I went from a lonely scout newb to somehow spearheading the attack, which felt really cool.

the very first Call of Duty and Tribes 2 on PC way back in the early 00s.

I used to be fairly "known" on the old "Planets" websites (PlanetQuake, PlanetTribes, etc) that were hosted via gamespy. I was popular, on a few of their camportals that were invite only and I worked on a couple of the gaming news sites providing art, writing reviews, and doing web dev stuff. I was friends with some very early internet celebs which really just consisted of guys that made webcomics or had their own websites. Friends with Mike and Jerry at Penny-Arcade, etc.

So anyways about once a week we'd all get together, Jerry from PA, myself, couple of gamespy guys, and a few other close mutual online friends and we'd play CoD, Tribes 2, etc. We started playing CoD fairly frequently. One guy on our team, Porkfry, had a thing about not playing as the Nazi's so if we got into a game that put is on the Nazi side we'd always have to leave and find another server until we were Americans.

It was funny, we joked about it. just one of his many quirks.

Now on one map in CoD there was this german truck that had a raised flatbed. there was NO WAY to normally get in it but Porkfry had figured out that if you jumped at the rear of the truck at a certain angle you could get inside, duck down, and you'd essentially be hidden. So we did that. We would hide in the back of this truck and while the enemy team was frantically searching for us we would stop crouching and just blast them when they got nearby. We'd do this constantly and just howl with laughter over vent or teamspeak or whatever we were using. That's what we did, just silly stuff like that. Or we'd be playing Tribes 2 and one of us would act like a disgruntled bus driver when flying the troop transport. We'd just do dumb shit in the games we'd play to keep us all entertained and make each other laugh.

I really miss those pure early internet days.

The awe and grandeur of Occarina Of Time... at the time.

Disco Elysium is the best literature I've ever played.

I still feel like used to live in Skyrim. It was a place where I wanted to be and explore.

TF2/Halo CE multilayer mix of copetitive adrenaline and funny shenanigans

Those are the game experiences which stuck with me.

Playing Wing Commander very late at night, hit a large glass water bottle off the table with my elbow, and catch it with the same arm/hand before it reaches the floor to shatter and wake up the whole family.

Peak reaction times induced by VideoGame adrenaline never reached again.

Probably Halo Reach Forge mode, couch co-op with a friend of mine. We’d spend countless hours building bases, doing races, all sorts of stuff in Forge. We played other stuff in Reach too but Forge was always my favourite.

We haven’t spoken in years. We used to be super close, I hope he’s doing alright.

The absolute peak of gaming for me was the first time I got stoned out of my mind and played Minecraft. Probably like... circa 2012. I've never been able to get back to that place ever since lmao the colors were so vibrant, each pixel was absolutely perfectly placed. The light grey ui elements in your inventory... everything just tied together so perfect. It was like seeing a new color for the first time, but then every time after that is just, eh...

The result of waking the Wind Fish in Link’s Awakening broke something in me at such a young age that I don’t think I’ve since experienced as profoundly.

Psycho Mantis

The immersive world of Oblivion (Elder Scrolls IV). Morrowind had been great, but the high-fantasy realism of Oblivion blew Morrowind away. Skyrim wasn't as immersive for me, mostly because the guilds and other side-stories weren't as deeply developed. Oblivion remains THE high water mark for open world RPGs.

Grand Theft Auto 3.

Going into that for the first time was mind blowing. A true generational leap over everything before. Now you just get slightly nicer reflections and loading times and pay £500+ for the privilege.

I have a few from childhood, but the gaming high I am chasing now is whatever Outer wilds was. A beautiful story told through exploration and discovery. I just want to go back and experience for the first time again.

Halo 3 Multiplayer before system party calls were a thing

The experience of a brand new game with a new computer build that upped the standards. Particularly from the ‘90s to ~2010. Games pushed ahead with more expansive levels, better graphics, better sound, larger worlds. All more incredible than what you’d ever played before. It was a joy just to see it and experience it on top of whatever storyline and toys were in the game itself. Every year there was a leap in some facet of gaming.

I haven’t really experienced that since. PC builds are just way more expensive for minimal gain, franchises are just rehashes of old games, and it’s hard to find storylines and worlds that are fleshed out enough to make me want to invest the time.

On an individual game level, Battlefield’s Gunmaster mode is a real rush. Success can be ripped away instantly, you’re on your own skill, PvAll, and it’s a race to the top. Intense AF to win, got my heart rate up.

For me it's probably playing online games like BF2, Day of Defeat Source, TF2 and Live for Speed in about 2005-07. Communities and community servers back then were different and now sorely missed.

Not really a thing I’ve been chasing but I did really enjoy the time I was home sick from work and spent all day playing Super Mario Odyssey back when it first came out. I really felt like I was a kid again and hadn’t felt that before or since.

Middle of the road millennial for age context.

Two that come to mind:

• One that I still remember from high school. It was just a simple Counter Strike match. But it was down to me and one other guy. I switched to knife, turned the corner, there he was, going the other way. He didn't see me. So I followed him, riiight behind him, around several corners, while chat spectated. Still never noticed. I finally knifed him in the back, chat erupted, I felt like a god even though I sucked at Counter Strike.

• Winning my first Rocket League tournament after years. It really felt like I'd done something that mattered.

So just shy of 10 years ago me and the dudes were playing a lot of Dota 2, we had played since early Beta. At this point in time the game was still young and hip so the ratio of casuals to sweaty mlg was much more forgiving, which was great because it put me and the dudes in the upper bracket especially when combined with shenanigans, nowadays we'd probably only be in the top 60 percentile at best.

Very few people knew about this or utilized it but you could put your level into stats instead of an ability, so I would find weird builds to focus on only 1 skill and stats. We discovered this build called Sand King Jesus where you could use a character called Sand King to sit, invisible, in sand storm AoE DoT effect on the lane and just never leave but the tradeoff was the inability to move without cancelling, items focusing on regen and armor items as well as utilizing another little known mechanic where you buy 2 stout shields: they used to have a 50% chance to reduce damage by 20 (almost all damage a creep can do) and it would run that 50% check for each individual shield. At the time there was an exploit where if you move, cancelling the Sandstorm ability, but recast it before the particle effect dissipated... Uh Oh! The particle stays put but the Sand King and the AoE radius both moved. That made him not immune to non-targeted stuns or hooks but it did make him extremely hard to hit with them. It also made it difficult to avoid the DoT if you couldn't see where it was. Now there is an immortal, invisible, constantly damaging enemy on the lane, but sure you can still buy wards or keep firing shots in the dark until something hits: but Sand King has another ability called Burrowstrike. Burrowstrike is suppose to be used to instantly travel in a straight line towards enemies and stun them momentarily. But instead, you can burrowstrike away from enemies and then cast Sand Storm as soon as it comes off cooldown, and this ability allows travel up and down ledges and past trees. All of this culminates in "Sand King Jesus" because much like the mythical Jesus it would take forever to try and kill him and often still fail.

Now this is silly at best but the true greatest gamer high for me was this one match where I used this strategy to dominate middle lane, cutting off the creep waves with a well placed sandstorm to both take out an early tower as my creeps poured in damaging either the enemy mid or the tower, chipping away, and I get all of the last hits uncontested, started roaming and ganking with the boys, and buying up hearts, assault cuirrass, vladmir's offering, refresher orb and for added AoE DoT a Radiance, and I became so tankie and my team had me covered on healing and providing DPS that I was able to enter the enemy fountain, where players respawn, and sandstorm in there for another 10 or 15 minutes before we had even taken down any towers before barracks. We were all laughing so hard at these real human beings on the enemy team reduced to NPCs unable to leave their own fountain and unable to do anything about it.

Awhile later they completely reworked the character.

Chrono Trigger, and finishing the games first full arc. What would normally be the end literally showed me that this game had so much more, which expanded the more I played it.

FF IX. I’ll never get that again.

Man, I was playing Borderlands (1) on PC, playing as Roland with the support gunner class mod. I had a couple of Tediore legendaries, I believe it was the revolver and the combat rifle, and I just reached this zen state near the end of the game, shooting at these seemingly endless waves of enemies just coming from everywhere. thanks to the guns and class mod I never had to worry about picking up ammo, it was just constantly spitting lead in every direction, and it just clicked, it was golden and beautiful.