RetroGaming

Halo 1 LAN parties

I know what you mean about Gold and Silver. Everything you mentioned, plus events that happened on specific days of the week, "mystery gift" functionality via IR, and more stuff I'm forgetting. There were also radio stations you could "listen" to (read text) that made the world feel alive.

Even in gen 1, trading/battling revived link-cable culture, which I'd only ever seen people use for Tetris, years before.

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 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.

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.

Psycho Mantis

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.

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.

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.

Morrowind. Playing it, modding it, breaking it, trying to fix mods, writing new mods, all of it. Morrowind was so fun, for some time it convinced me that Bethesda might be a competent company

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 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.

FF IX. I’ll never get that again.

Playing the Mass Effect Trilogy for the first time.

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

The first two weeks of Pokemon go were like peace on earth. Everyone was friendly, excited, and walking around outside together, chatting with perfect strangers was actually a blast for once. We shared tips and locations, exchanged numbers, metup after work, cops were largely unmotivated to do anything about it because of how many of us and how wholesome it really was. Honestly best 2 weeks of my life

I want to feel that time again when we ran a mod-packed Minecraft server with friends and we built a whole city with really creative and elaborate structures and cool tech. Everyone had their speciality and it all came together perfectly.

Nowadays none of us have the time anymore to get lost in games for weeks and months like that. Also it’s hard to get back into it after such a long pause. Everything has changed so much.

But going more retro, it would probably be starting up my new N64 and jumping around with Mario in this crazy 3D environment. Holy shit that was amazing!

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.

I lived and breathed Morrowind.

But I've got optimistic insane news for you all

IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN

I'm playing a game called Kenshi and it feels like it's 2003!

I'm at the verge of tears. Chase that gaming high, YOU'LL FIND IT!!!

DOOM II. Sinking the final rocket into the demon's brain on L30 Icon of Sin. I did it before Z-axis engines like ZDoom. 30 years ago? Something like that.

The very last level is worthy. You must train in order to finish it. I could not do it today without a month or two of practice.
These days if I want that rush, I boot up DOOM 2016 and play the first level on Ultra-Nightmare Arcade.

I did enjoy killing every last Brotherhood of Steel member in the airbase and then blowing up the Institute in FO4. That wasn't a rush, it was a culmination of about 800 hours. I was done. Kill em all now.

More recently, the first time I killed the final boss in Risk of Rain 2 was quite satisfying. Took about 3 months.

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.

Learning I only beat half of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and then playing the rest. And then playing it again and again, and finding new crazy weapons I'd never seen before. Learning that some weapons (like Sword of Dawn) do something other than just slash. Later reading GameFaqs .txt guides to learn about even more stuff I had no idea about, so end up playing it even more.

And playing Final Fantasy 7 right before all of that. When the demo disc of Final Fantasy 7 came out (inside a Playstation Underground magazine), I lost my shit. I had loved, loved, loved FF4 and 6 (2 and 3 in the US), and 7 was just insane. The graphics, the music, everything. Absolutely revolutionary. That game was a reason to buy a PS1. I remember maxing out the playtime at 99 hours in my first playthrough.

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.

I'm forever looking for a game that'll affect me emotionally as much as Arthur's last ride in RDR2. I still can't hear that Daniel Lanois track without feeling all of the feelings, and it's been a good few years since I played it.

Absolutely remarkable experience.

Bioshock, the first one at the end. “Would you kindly”. I lost my mind.

Rhythm Doctor boss stages. Each one is an amazing showcase of visuals on a rhythm game with the simplest control scheme ever. And the game's final stage, the full release is in December 10.

With each stage exceeding my expectations by a long shot, I can't wait to see what they'll do this time.

Mech Assault 1 & 2, particularly 2. The two most memorable boss fights for me was the mid game one where you fight some giant robot bull thing in a tiny exosuit while Getting Away with Murder by Papa Roach Plays, and the final fight where you fight a half built giant mech again in the exosuit while Right Now by Korn plays.

Also I really liked Halo 2 for the banshee dogfight with Follow by Incubus in the background and the big Mausoleum fight at the end of Gravemind with Blow Me Away by Breaking Benjamin plays; the part where the doors open and the bell starts to toll chefs kiss. Oh and the whole level where you drive a tank up the bridge chasing down a Scarab too.

Also, why has there been no remake of Crimson Skies yet? That game was so much damn fun. I miss the dog fighting and crazy guns.

I think it's a pretty easy call for me - World of Warcraft raiding was some of the most fun I've ever had gaming. The pinnacle was probably when my guild got Realm First! Fall of the Lich King (25-man heroic). We spent MONTHS grinding away at it - we had the 10-man realm first achievement as well and could clear heroic with a variety of group comps, 2 or 3 groups per week would run on off-raid nights. But for 25-man heroic, we could clear the rest of the raid in 2-3 hours as I recall, so we'd take some swings at him on night 1 and then we'd spend 2 full raid nights on The Lich King - the final boss of Ice Crown Citadel raid and in fact the final boss of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

For SEVEN months we did this. He was tough af. He had a number of abilities where a single person fucks up and either the whole raid wipes immediately, or it rapidly snowballs out of control otherwise. So after a month's long uphill fight, and with competing guilds just as close as we were, it was an INSANE moment when we got our realm first kill. It was such a ridiculous high, everyone screaming with relief and excitement. The realm second kill happened that same night, too - so we just narrowly managed to earn our server first kill.

We continued with realm firsts in the Cataclsym expansion on Sinestra, Ragnaros, and Deathwing. I got my first and only legendary weapon - Dragonwrath this expansion. And finally the Mists of Pandaria expansion was the beginning of the end for our guild as a lot of long time players like myself started falling off, so after earning #1 for the first raid tier, things slipped from there. I had a ton of personal victories in game too - after earning Dragonwrath, the most esteemed of all was earning the achievement Insane in the Membrane.

And yet - none of those other victories remotely compared to that first kill of the Lich King. It was truly a special moment.

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.

Saints Row Co-op over systemlink with a monitor each up on the sofa table (also a bong each on the sofa table).

Star Wars Galaxies before the horrible updates and Jedi inflation.

Ark Survival Evolved.

Waking up on the beach, getting insta-murdered by a raptor.

Managing to meet up with your mates, building a hut, thinking you are doing ok and carno eats you and your hut in the night.

Taming your first T rex, stomping about monching everything, thinking you are doing ok, then suddenly giga eats you and everything you love.

Wish I could recapture that feeling.

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.

Total Annihilation on a LAN

Red Alert cut-scenes

Halo on a LAN

Battlefield online with voice comms

Couch co-op gears of war, and Army of 2

Finishing Mass Effect

Worms, hot-seat

Instagib. Oh fuck, instagib is pure adrenaline

Just one more turn

Last 5 in Battle Royale, never yet finished last!

You have died of dysentery

Hitting that last alien

My Arma 3 Antistasi server. it was so fucking dope

Beating halo final level with wife in co-op

Sonic 2 all emeralds, no deaths Metal Slug in the arcade

Any clutch ending

From 5-13 I had a PS1 and PS2, fantastic games were made. But that one night in maybe 2010, I was maybe 14, had a new computer I'd saved up for and built, I looked at piratebay and saw "Fallout 3" lots of seeders, cool, let's try it. Must be good if so many are seeding.

It was leagues above anything I'd ever played before. The graphics were stunning! The open world was breathtaking. I get to choose my own dialog!? I don't think anything will ever manage to compare to the day I played Fallout 3 for the first time.

Great thread! My moment comes from Deus Ex. There was a mission near versalife in Hong Kong, and I took the wrong door at some point and veered off path. I did not have to do it, but I got lost and I did, i cleaned all security from the entire building. After I got out, i read on one of those news screens.. it had an article about a terrorist attack massacre on the versalife offices 97 dead… I realized they wrote about me - clever bit of cause-effect-scripting there!

13 All Clear

The only console I had exposure to as a young child was the Gameboy.

At a birthday sleepover with some friends, we all stayed up late into the night playing the original Nazi Zombies map from COD: WAW. Nothing has ever beat the sheer joy and fun I had with that initial playthrough.

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

Being in the zone, utterly focused at defeating ~~glock~~ Sword Saint Isshin. Doing it so many times that trouncing Genichirou pre-Ishin was a given, a warm up even, before going for the main dude.

Nine balls and more nine balls and more nine balls in Armoured Core Q_Q.

Penetrator from Demon Souls.

Malenia.