Thinking back, most of Unreal and Far Cry actually, I am a sucker for that sort of pretty shit. Also some that people have mentioned that I entirely agree with:

- Watching Quake Done Quick the first time

Definitely!! And some of the upgrades too. I did think of this but forgot to mention it. Mind-blowing.

- right now the Big Fucking Grin moment was the first time a Wasted shouted "WANKAH!" at me.

Yeah that made me lol :D 

 

actually... i found kingpin pretty awesome and i only played it last year. the level design is quite good in there. it's good in spite of the ridiculously over the top 'gangster' style. 

more like because of. That's a huge part of kingpin's surrealism -- a whole world with nothing but gangsters and thugs. I think it adds to the game.

I realize I'm quite bad at remembering single moments though.

I know there are a few moments in Descent 2 where the AI simply surprised me with its intelligence. Deadly homing robots that are placed in the most ridiculous ways, and when you finally figure out how to tackle them at those positions... they're gone. And pop up five seconds later behind your back. 

descent2 (and even 1)'s AI was pretty impressive. i think they were able to use some pretty advanced (for the time) pathing stuff because of the way the levels were built. there wasn't the need for much compiling since you essentially built the BSP directly when you added in cubes which meant it was easy to flood cubes outward from a current robot's position to find cubes that weren't visible to the player or find alternate routes or whatever. very cool stuff.
but that FUCKING thief bot. god damn it. 

that FUCKING thief bot.

The completely unscripted thrill of setting a trap for him, chasing him through a maze before finally cornering the little shit and blowing his brains out.

Yeah, that was an awesome bit of gaming. But did they have to put him in EVERY level lol 

once you figure out it approaches when you have your back turned to it, you can kill it pretty easily :) 

Chthon's appearence from the lava; especially as I had no idea it was going to happen.
The first meeting with a Shambler - I ran, ran like a big coward!
Tomb Raider: the T- Rex, every high dive into water, letting Lara die
Virtua Racing: beating the game on hardest difficulty after many nights and much caffeine - same with Sega Rally
Gears of War - it took ages to get used to the controls after FPS's, once I did a light went on and it was so much fun.
Unreal - the level where the lights go off in the corridor...
Playing a LAN Doom deathmatch for the first time; was undecided for the first 10 minutes... 4hrs later however!
Being coached by someone in Quake 3 for an hour, got rid of my bad habits and made me a 300% better player - gutted I can't remember his/her name 

First time I met a Shambler I died. Then I died again a few more times. Then I got my mum to come and watch me open that gold key door for a billionth time. She wasn't as impressed as me.

The first encounter with an enemy spaceship in Homeworld, largely thanks to the music.

Launching the rocket in Half-Life 1.

The wood elf that falls from the sky in Morrowind and drops a ridiculously powerful jumping spell. If I recall correctly the only way to survive the resulting fall was to land on a really tall tower somewhere.

The "lost painter" quest in Oblivion.

The beach level and the snowy park level in Medal of Honor Allied Assault.

The storm trooper siege at the beginning of Mysteries of the Sith.

Hours wasted trying to lure noobs in to Q2's Frag Pipe.

The shocking finale of the Dark Brotherhood campaign in Oblivion.

My first taste of bullet-time in Max Payne.

The first ghost in System Shock 2. 

i loved/love shadow man.
genuinely pretty scary. huge areas, very immersive.
great moment was when you first saw asylum for the first time, and you got that grand, sprawling orchestral chant music cue...pretty impressive :) 

There are many more, but these are the first I could think of.

Dishonored ( SPOILER ALERT!!! )

When Samuel takes you to the island at the end and berates you for being such a cold hearted monster, says he would wish you luck, but he's be lying, then fires a warning flare to alert the guards of your arrival.

Also really liked some of the other story stuff in that game, but nothing was as awesome as that moment.


HL2 Episode 2

When you defeat the invasion of the rocket silo and head back inside. One of the resistance fighters sticks his thumb up at you. I liked that a lot. Ep2 was awesome in general though. There were some fucking awesome combat sequences.

HL1

When you are running around hiding from the gargantua in the on a rail start section. I love big monsters that make me hide and get all over excited. 

Way back in the 90's I was playing Duke3d Dukematch on some I forget what matchmaking service. I thought it was great. Then I got a super powerful 486 computer :) I found Quakeworld. Then I found Teamfortress. OMG a flamethower. That's when it started. Need faster modem, need 3d card, joined a clan, clan maps with Worldcraft, MIRC and ICQ. YUP the old days. QWTF Pyro 

Half-life 1 and Tomb Raider are just full of gob-smacking moments.

Doom I - running like a chicken-shit from Demons. It was on my brother's 486, some cave map in the middle of the game, and the first time i'd ever seen a FPS. Doom II still scares me shitless more than anything else.

Q4 - Rumbling bass of the Battlecruiser fly-over

D3D - blowing up the canyon and building landfalls.

Q1 - The original game was pretty meh, but mods are full of great moments.

Machinarium was great, as is the music and scenery in Swords and Sworcery.

... and Scott Adams text adventures on an Apple II. I used to play them with the neighbours kids hanging off my shoulders. "You killed a bear with your bare hands!"

Havent played many other games... But watching bits of Borderlands 2 and Battlefield was pretty amazing 

I was blown away in e1m2 for the first time with zombies rising out of the water, then fighting a shambler at the exit.

Pixels the size of postcards, but it was the most visceral, dark and violent thing I'd ever seen. 

 

over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

ruined me. 

They were mostly normal thoughts for any teenager just try not to think about it. 

Chasing some guy through a long hallway in e4m3. Ran out of ammo and kept chasing with the axe just because I wanted to go down in a blaze of glory. He fired a rocket. I jumped, got boosted off the rocket straight for him and AXED HIM TO DEATH. I suck at DM but that moment was still awesome. 

 

Captered the enemy flag and killed two baddies that were on their way back to their flagcount and was hit by the last baddy just an inch for capturing, only that sound, holy shit! 

First time I made a model skin. Realizing the magic of having your face in a videogame, and being able to fight it with the magic of scripting, shit's like magic back then from me, still magic from me right now. :) 

is so rare in games these days, I think having a combination of good music and great moments sync really is crucial to that "hairs on the back of the neck moment". It still occurs with games, Halo tends to get me on almost every game in the way that Unreal did.

Unreal was classic, exiting the prison ship onto an alien world. Mind blowing, almost every level was a hit of goosebumps and being awestruck. The music was incredible.

Quake was dripping with atmosphere, I loved it. I loved how there were details all around, lots of great usage of the true 3d. I was blown away by the underwater wavy effects.

Tomb Raider had some incredible animation and effects too, who can forget the light refraction in the water?

Playing online in the mid to late 90's for me was pretty much the peak of online gaming. This is unusual because really the consoles had to wait almost 10 years before they caught up. Slicing someones head off with a razorjack in unreal, grabbing a quad/pent and unleashing hell in quake, completely dominating in quake 3, playing assault in Unreal Tournament and working with team mates.

All of those online moments for me still bring great fondness and wonder, what's weird is that we hardly get this anymore. It's taken for granted, playing online with other people now is so bland that we might as well play bot-matches again.

I had many awe moments in my time playing WoW, I saw a cat in goldshire sat near the inn turn into a blue elf and I was like "holy crap!!", seeing literally hundreds of people mount up and attack an enemy city was a real exhilarating thrill for me too, roleplaying with people made me feel part of this living breathing world... also most of these experiences were in classic WoW, where you had to fill a lot of your time for things like groups with RP and social aspects, now it's all "click a button and fight", there is no meaning or social aspects that truly bond the players. 

I love reading all of your moments, it sparks the old grey matter back to better days. :) 

back in those days when i had a pretty slow pc i've been playing that sierra's Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness game and Katrina were most awesome character i've ever met (in game)

The same thing Lydia from Skyrim!