Anyone who's played Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast will tell you that the first three areas of the game sucked. S-U-C-K-E-D. Why? No lightsaber, and the weapons were simply not a lot of fun.

However, the game gets a little better when Kyle (main character) gets his saber. What really changes the game from "OK" to "HOLY SHIT THIS IS AWESOME" is the very first lightsaber duel that you encounter. For maximum awesome/style points, it takes place in Cloud City. When this happened, a huge smile lit across my face. I can always tell a game is great when my emotions become semi-involuntary facial expressions.

Have you ever had a gaming moment that made you drastically change your opinion of a game, either positively or negatively?

Resistance.

AWFUL first levels and impression (at least to me) - but then later in the game when you get things like Hedgehog grenades and the vehicle sections, you are hooked.

The game use to bore me to death until I was egged into playing the rest, people just telling me "just get past the bad first impression."

Fahrenheit. It went from really cool murder conspiracy/investigation adventure... to some kind of ridiculous button mashing, quick event simon says DRAGONBALL Z crap.

What where they thinking?!

This comes back to my last topic.
Games like Project Zero, Thief:DS or Kill:Switch that can genuinely scare you like the horror films you used to secretly watch as a child. Or in the case of Kill:Switch have you on the edge of your seat, tense & sweating, like...well...we don't need to go into details there...

Other stuff can be games like Oblivion or Dragon Quest: Cursed King when you just get lost in the environments availiable to you.

Half life 2. Once you got the Gravity Gun and went to Ravenholm things really picked up. Before that I wasn't sure why anybody liked it, but shooting a saw at a zombie and watching it be separated at the waist, always fun.

FF 7.

i played most of the FF series before this one. i must say i wasnt impressed that much. i mean i enjoyed em and all but they werent anything special. but as the OP said "I can always tell a game is great when my emotions become semi-involuntary facial expressions." but when a game makes me react with anything but frustration/agression its truly notable.

im used to having my emotions envoked by movies, not so much with games. FF7 changed that. well not really it hasent happened since with the possable exception of Homeworld 2. i dont connect with games on an emotionel level usualy. FF7 for this reason went from a just another game to 'holy shit this is amazing' when i found myself crying at her death.

GTAIV.
The moment Nikko had to go bowling. I don't know why that hit a nerve but as soon as I had to go bowling it pissed me the hell off. I found it kind of insulting that they would make me do that. I'm supposed to be out shooting people and going high on the list of gods, but instead they had you do stupid shit and do everything his cousin wanted to do.

Mass effect, the end is pure liquid brilliance in my opinion if a little cheesy.

-Ricky

Death Magnetic:
Mass effect, the end is pure liquid brilliance in my opinion if a little cheesy.

-Ricky

Yeah, it had a great ending... I especially liked being able to decide whether or not that idiotic Council should survive or not.

There were lost of moments in that game that clinched its greatness for me, but I can't remember them at the moment.........

Death Magnetic:
Mass effect, the end is pure liquid brilliance in my opinion if a little cheesy.

-Ricky

Low gravity fighting? Yeah, I'd like more of that.
Oh yes, and the arrival on the Citadel in the Mako is classic.

When it first came out, my wife brought Kingdom Hearts home. I was convinced it would suck, and the first part seemed a little odd. However, by the time we beat the first boss after getting the keyblade, I sheepishly had to say to her, "Nice get honey. This game rocks."

In Devil May Cry 3 when you get the Nevan weapon. It changed my opinion of the game from "This game is awesome" to "I just got a sythe... but its also a guitar... that shoots bats and lightning. There are no words to describe how awesome that is".

L1250:
In Devil May Cry 3 when you get the Nevan weapon. It changed my opinion of the game from "This game is awesome" to "I just got a sythe... but its also a guitar... that shoots bats and lightning. There are no words to describe how awesome that is".

I remember that- I loved when Dante first picked it up and started jammin' with it, shooting out lightning bolts and such... If only that weapon were more useful in game- I really liked the premise that it was a deadly musical instrument...

Haze -

"Boosh!"....My life changed with one word. I couldn't stop laughing, and then it happened again, and again, and then when you think its all over when you start with the rebels ONE MORE TIME!
I don't hate this game, I actually enjoy it immensely. Just like Resident Evil 1, and SIREN (if you've played it, you know what I mean) the horrific dialogue and voice acting alone adds replayablity.

Ace combat series. You start out in this piece-o-crap jet that can carry fewer missiles that you can and slower than a slug on a molasses covered track

L1250:
In Devil May Cry 3 when you get the Nevan weapon. It changed my opinion of the game from "This game is awesome" to "I just got a sythe... but its also a guitar... that shoots bats and lightning. There are no words to describe how awesome that is".

Lol, alog those same lines (sorta), in Devil May Cry 4 when you get Pandora's Box, nuff said.

I picked up a demo version of a racing simulator from 1998, Grand Prix Legends, which simulates the 1967 Formula One season, the turning point before the aerodynamic revolution. Now, this game has a reputation as one of the most difficult racing games ever, with the developers even noting, "The first time you go out on the track, you will spin and crash. This is because, the first time they play Grand Prix Legends, everybody spins and crashes." I thought, "I've played racing simulators before. Surely it can't be that difficult?"

I had to reconsider my position from the first step I took on the accelerator, and I suddenly realised just how heroic, talented and brave the likes of Jim Clark, Denny Hulme and Jackie Stewart were. Forget I Wanna Be The Guy or Battletoads; to beat those games, you must merely be exceptionally talented. To play Grand Prix Legends, you must be superhuman.

Dictaternutz:

L1250:
In Devil May Cry 3 when you get the Nevan weapon. It changed my opinion of the game from "This game is awesome" to "I just got a sythe... but its also a guitar... that shoots bats and lightning. There are no words to describe how awesome that is".

Lol, alog those same lines (sorta), in Devil May Cry 4 when you get Pandora's Box, nuff said.

The Devil May Cry series has some of the coolest and most creative weapons of any video game series I've played.

jamanticus:

L1250:
In Devil May Cry 3 when you get the Nevan weapon. It changed my opinion of the game from "This game is awesome" to "I just got a sythe... but its also a guitar... that shoots bats and lightning. There are no words to describe how awesome that is".

I remember that- I loved when Dante first picked it up and started jammin' with it, shooting out lightning bolts and such... If only that weapon were more useful in game- I really liked the premise that it was a deadly musical instrument...

I found it to be quite useful with dealing with most enemies and crowd control, however it wasn't so effective with some of the faster enemies. But that's what your good ol' triple ice-nunchucks are for.

Oh yeah, I think the king of "I thought it would be shitty but then it became great" is The Witcher. I don't think I really need to go into detail, it speaks for itself.

Also, Crysis went from AWESOME to "Meh" around the 3/4ths point.

The Force Unleased: the Star Destroyer Scene i thought stoped it Dead in its place since the on screen prompts are wrong, then at the same time the Tie fighters Showed up and the ship righted Itself and you had to Start over, this broke the flow enough that 1. i dident get to the end of the game yet and 2. i havent touched it since the release date

the SixAxis controls from lair did the exact same thing

The first time I was playing UT3, and heard Othello(A generic black guy) shout (After a kill) "That's what you get foo'!". I still play it, I just try to avois listening to the dialogue, it really is horrendous.

The first time I played Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, I thought it was the most boring, predictable, uninspired JRPG that I'd ever played (even more than The Legend of Dragoon). I traded it in to GameStop. Two years later, I was actually in a GameStop when I saw a new copy of PM:TT-YD for sale so I decided "Why not but it". This time, I actually had the time and patience to play through the whole game, take in the story, and appreciate what it had to offer. However, it was when I got to the third chapter that the game really caught home with me. It was probably the first encounter I had with open-ended gameplay; you could take your time progressing through the chapter, interact with the surrounding NPCs, buy junk and fight enemies at your leisure, and to top it all off just when you think you've solved the mystery of the Crystal Star (I won't spoil it!) the plot takes a dramatic turn, grabs you by the legs, flips you upside down, and doesn't let go until the end. Despite this drastic change, it wraps up just as concisely as when it began.

I'm glad that I took the time to take in the whole story because I probably wouldn't have been psyched for the rest of the game if I hadn't.

ElArabDeMagnifico:
Resistance.

AWFUL first levels and impression (at least to me) - but then later in the game when you get things like Hedgehog grenades and the vehicle sections, you are hooked.

The game use to bore me to death until I was egged into playing the rest, people just telling me "just get past the bad first impression."

Happened to me too, but it I was doing co-op off the bat with my cousin, so it was fun, but the first few levels were a bit stale, probably wouldn't have enjoyed them by myself.

Half-Life 2 Episode 2.

As soon as you get out of the Antlion caves the game really begins to pick up and become awesome.

When I played World of Warcraft for a year, got my account banned for an unknown reason and realized that I just flushed a precious year of my life collecting shiny objects and killing spiders.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

Around about the part where your pilot suddenly loves you...
Never fully understand where that actually came from.
The characters themselves never have any on-screen interaction besides issuing orders and arguing.

confusing.

Mysten:
Half-Life 2 Episode 2.

As soon as you get out of the Antlion caves the game really begins to pick up and become awesome.

Halo 2, the moment they made me played the arbiter....I said Bullshit..

Am I the only one who thought his first 2 mission were fillers?

Thank god they picked up when we had to reach the index..

Tenchu Z
A mission where my Ninja person had to get past a heavily guarded checkpoint on a forest road.
I sneaked (snuck?) past the all the guards only to run into a bear. That's right, a bear.
At that point the game changed from an enjoyable Ninja game with quaint graphics into an exercise in fun and hilarity. I love this game.

Operation Flashpoint
When I learnt how to fly the helicopters properly. Changed from a fun realistic shooter into a fun realistic shooter where I can get into a Mi24 and wreck havoc upon the pathetic Americans.

Eternal Sonata
About two minutes into the introduction. Winds on way too much.
Changed from a slightly promising (three player) JRPG into an adventure in pretentiousness.
Stupid Eternal Sonata... *shakes fist*
I developed a habit of going off to make myself a sandwich every time there was a particularly long piece of angst filled, whiny, naive (and repetitive) dialogue.
I had way too many sandwiches. Eternal Sonata made me fat.

There are many others, but this took far too long to write (I went off and made myself a sandwich in the middle of writing about Eternal Sonata) so I'll leave it here.

Well at first I thought Fallout 3 looked terrible and completely strayed from the originals. Than I saw the trailer of the PC with the power fist, smashing peoples heads in and the game suddenly became awesome.

Yes, I'm posting again 'cause I just remembered these :P

Lost Odyssey threw me into the story with the epic intro of fighting the army, then it just kinda became meh after I got to the city and they threw wall after wall of text in those sappy dream things. Don't get me wrong, the 1st couple were pretty emotional and real tear jerkers.....then you get to the 20th one within an hour of the 1st few for walking past generic old lady number 50 billion.

On the flipside, SCIV went from a nothing special fighting game to, zOMG this is the funniest thing I've ever seen, went I made a disco Voldo with a pink fro

Lastly, Mercs 2 went from meh(woo guns) to Epic(ZOMG C4 and RPGS) to meh(stupid racing missions) to Epic(Nukes)

/end wall

Tales Of Symphonia. I was already liking the game as I played it, getting deeply engrossed by the story (if a little annoyed by the repetitveness of the inbetween travels and fetch quests) when we finally got to the Tower (for the life of me, I can't recall the name, its' been years) and learned the horrible, horrible truth.

My jaw dropped and I became literally addicted, whereas before I was just amused. I had to finish it.

Okay, I don't exactly know the name of it. Played it on the PS2, it's one of the Castlevania series. Anywho...you get to the end and defeat the boss that you have been told is the main bad guy. When you defeat the bad guy it sends you to fight death. It doesn't allow you to get more supplies or anything, just thrusts you into a horribly one sided fight against "Death". I mean WTF. After that I gave up on the Castlevania series. It is now dead to me.

DrStrangelove:
Okay, I don't exactly know the name of it. Played it on the PS2, it's one of the Castlevania series. Anywho...you get to the end and defeat the boss that you have been told is the main bad guy. When you defeat the bad guy it sends you to fight death. It doesn't allow you to get more supplies or anything, just thrusts you into a horribly one sided fight against "Death". I mean WTF. After that I gave up on the Castlevania series. It is now dead to me.

Lol, that reminds me the Castlevania world thing from the Well of Souls

Bionic Commando ReArmed

When you got into the underground tunnels (bonus map), you could just see the fun melt away. After few attempts, I just ran for the last boss and got over that game.