All of you out there who have been gaming for years will probably have some pretty great moments that stick out in your memory.

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!!!This Thread Could Contain Possible Spoiler!!!
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Whether it was a lone tear rolling down your face when Aries dies in Finial Fantasy 7 (sorry for those who just had the spoiled for you, but if you don’t know by now you should not be posting in this thread); Or laughing demonically as you rampaged through the streets of Vice City maiming the innocent for the first time.

Could it have been screaming in rage during the Blades of Hades sequence in God of War 1? Or the sound of glass shattering as your SNES controller goes flying though your bedroom window while playing the Hoth Sequence on Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back?

Just take this opportunity to reflect on those special times that make gaming so awesome.

The best I can remember was in a COD game (don't remember which one) and a guy runs out in front of me with a spray and pray gun and starts unloading on me. I run towards him with my shotgun and get RIGHT UP TO HIM WITHOUT TAKING A SHOT! and blast him. It made no sense at all, and I was so pumped afterwards, it rocked.

Two major OMG moments in my gaming history:
Tomb Raider: When the T-Rex makes it's appearance on about the third level. Sort of guessed something really bad was about to happen when I entered a large open space, but I wasn't expecting something quite that bad.

Colony Wars:Vengeance: The first time I took out a big ship, I'd turned the volume right up since up to that point the game had been really quiet. KABOOOM! my parents were not impressed when I tried to explain why the TV's speakers were blown.

Also Starwing: I'd never played or even seen a 3-D game until that point. Safe to say it made quite an impact.

Back when Starfox 64 dominated my life, I tried to cheat the game by killing off my own team mates so they would re-spawn for the epic battle with Star Wolf and co. Unfortunately this backfired on me, and I ended up fighting Star Wolf myself... and won.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

The whole game.

Other than that, during the final boss fight of FF VIII, the entire party was down to 1HP each, hardest part of the battle (stupid multiple forms) and Rinoa's dog kept casting Angel Wing (invincibility for a few turns) each and every time. Won the fight with only Rinoa and Squall standing, no healing items left, and - yes - one HP each. Made me feel like a god.

MGS4. Whole damn game.

Revealing the Flood in Halo 1. Up to that point you'd been figuring out how this world works and how to play this game, maybe even getting kinda cocky about it, and all of a sudden your understanding of what the game was about completely changed in a terrifying manner.

Landing on the Halo ring and gawking at the amazing scenery drew me in to the game, but that damn spooky swamp cemented the series into my soul.

-- Steve

I've got a few.

Flying a plane in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The flying itself is fairly amazing, but the really great moment for me came when my friend suggested I see what happens when I hit triangle, the "exit vehicle", in mid flight. Hearing CJ shout "Oh, shit!" and plummet to his anti-climatic yet still morbidly satisfying death was a moment I remember to this day.

Getting to the top of the castle in Super Mario 64. I think I've mentioned this before, but I'd spent days trying to discover the meaning behind that locked cannon outside the castle, and trying to get to the top using only complex combinations of wallkicks and turn jumps. When I finally collected my 120th star and managed to get up there legitimately, what I found blew my mind. In retrospect, it wasn't much... 99 lives and a special new third jump that protects you from taking damage from long falls... But at the time, it was immensely satisfying.

Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. Second reborn on Bespin, he's on a platform higher than mine. For a strange reason, you can only block force powers with a lightsaber in hand. He throws his saber at me, I dodge, force push him, then simultaneously jump up and slash down, looking awesome as I kill him and float back down in slo-mo.

Homeworld 1 when you have to break through that huge sphere if ion frigates. After a number of enormous battles where I almost fought my way through I ended up going on a mad chase with interceptors and captured most of the sphere. The rest of the level was cake with an enormous death fleet of ion frigates swarming all over the place.

The last level in DMC3 where its just you and Virgil in a one on one fight to the death

even cooler if you play using the Trickster style

Great Moments in Gaming History that I have been around for:

The unveiling of Pac-Man in the U.S.A. which created a huge revival of interest in playing games at arcades (prior to Pac-Man, about all you had were pinball and self contained carnival games like skii ball in arcades). My piggy bank stayed devoid of quarters for years after that. (Yeah, I'm THAT old)

When the Atari 2600 first came out and you could play arcade-style games (besides just Pong and that gun game) at home for the first time. The graphics weren't quite as good, but you didn't have to shell out quarters to keep playing and you could play at home in your pj's. Sweet!

The invention of the Nintendo Gameboy and the advent of truly portable video gaming.

The Sony Playstation and the dawning of the age of games whose graphics started to rival those on computer games.

NVIDIA and ATI releasing video cards capable of rendering smooth edges on objects (anti-aliasing) and realistic lighting effects ushering in the era of the PC having superior game graphics again.

After all this time, the game I have played the most is still Tetris. When you consider all the versions that have been out on virtually every gaming platform since the game was imported from Russia and all the rip-offs of the game that other companies have come up with, it just might be the most played video game ever.

The Sorrow:
MGS4. Whole damn game.

True dat, though a specific moment in the game which I would like to emphasize on:

SPOILERS START HERE You've been warned by the OP

In Act 3, in London I believe, when Liquid escapes on the boat. All he does is point his fingers and BANG, everyone is going crazy.

At that moment, I knew.

He had control of the SOP system.

I dropped my controller in awe when that whole scene happend. Twice infact. It was a thing of beauty.

END SPOILERS

The part in Fable 2 when you find out that Jack Of Blades is alive and is all like swoosh

And then the Queen of whatever the hell is there too, and she pwns seriously.

And also when Jack kills your dog.
Why? It makes no sense? Why?

PS. All of that was lie, I just like making internet noise.

In serious, the birth of an animal in Harvest Moon. Its a moving experience, especially when you've been up all night playing and its like 5am and you can't tell the difference between gaming and reality.

FF IV - fighting Zeromus, all the past characters healing you and so much going on the background slowed to a crawl. Hail Cecil!

Lunar: The Silver Star - rescuing Luna at the end. Rented it and beat it w/in 2 days. I was glued to the screen, and it made the SegaCD worth it with two days of gaming.

KOTOR - Revan revealed.

When the NES brought back consoles on its massive Italian shoulders.

Right.
I figured this would be something along the lines of

November 29, 1972 Pong is released to the public.

But as for my greatest gaming moment?

Probably the first time I completed the level where you are chased down a hill by a boulder in the original Crash Bandicoot. I was young, and I felt triumphant!

The first time I heard the

""" SPOILER """"

Recording of Dr. Suong telling Jack (as a child) to kill his puppy with his bare hands. Up until that point Bioshock had been really impressive. After that, especially followed immediately by the confrontation with Ryan, the game became amazing.

***YET MORE SPOILER ****

Mass Effect, the final decision to order the fleet to attack Sovereign, save the Council, or split the Fleet. I had been playing a Paragon I honestly wasn't sure what the right thing to do was. Am I wasting resources saving a figure head? Or am I being noble and making alien lives as valuable humans? I spent 10 minutes staring at that choice.

When i finally realised what "Would you Kindly" meant.

(FYI Andrew Ryan was asking for a golf club based beating at the time)

the nuke scene in cod4
hell most cod mainstreams (not like big red 2 or bs like that)
doom
system shock 2
legend of zelda OOT (3d started becoming the thing)

The end of Call of Duty 4, the nuke, then certain parts of the game during replay, noteably in shock and awe when deadly gets shot down, and im just sitting there thinking, Leave her or your all going to die!!!

#1--all time for me was in World War II Online---East Armybase, Brussels.My squad and I were just kinda snooping around(outside) the AB,not a thing in sight,and it was superquiet.Brussels was theirs(Axis) but we weren't capping the AB,just looking around to report what we could find out.We knew they were using the place because 2-3 panzers and a halftrack with 5-6 Jerries had passed us on our way through town(from South AB).
--I decided to get a closer look,I let my asst. gunner know I was moving up 20 feet or so.I go from prone to crouch and this Jerry runs right through the door I'm about to egress through,maybe 10 feet away.

In those days in WWIIOL you had to bring up your weapon with a keystroke,it was either space or shift,I forget,but you could map it.

My buddy got him right away.But I was just crouched there...having a heart attack.

The first time I encountered a hunter in Resident Evil.

"Hmmm that thing looks quite threatening, perhaps I should take it out with my shot-"

*swipe*

GAME OVER

Since that day I have never attempted to kill one.

GOW.the first berserker encounter(you know, the one where you run down the long hallway.)i'm playing co-op with a friend.we're just standing outside the door to the hallway,knowing something's looking for us.

me:"you go first."
friend:"no,you."
me:"alright,we'll go in together."
*friend walks in,I stay in doorway*
berserker:"GGGRRRROOOOWWWRRRRR!!!"
friend:"HOLY ****!!!"

Legend of Zelda: The first game to have a battery pack did away with passcodes

The Playstation 2: The first console that did more than play games

Street fighter 3 3rd strike while playing as alex and parrying an entire shoryu reppa and following up with a power bomb finish. I swear I was so damn suprized when that happend and so was the dude sitting next to me in the arcade.

The department store level in Condemned: Criminal Origins. Reached a whole new world of pants wetting.
Too tired to think of anything else.

started playing quake this summer, greatest thing in gaming....... to EVER happen to me

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Diablo I & II
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Diablo I was the first second gen (away from 2d, side scrolling graphics like megaman and zelda and into the real of, well, diablo. And age of empires 1, etc) game, and it scared the hell outta me. Diablo II just blew my mind because the story was so amazing.

Things I remember:
-as i've said many times on this forum, my warrior's first ever declaration in diablo 1, upon entering the cathedral, which made me crap in fear (mainly because it was loud and i wasn't expecting it and i was like 8) "The sanctity of this place has been fouled"
-The fact that with my first character in diablo II i didn't find the staircase to andariel's lair from the large church for about 2 weeks and consequently got my character to level 25 (20 points in zeal!) before leaving the first act.
-The really pretty buildings (I'm an architect now) in the second act, well rendered and with great character.
-and more...

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World of Warcraft
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The biggest game in my history, played for three years on end. Only really enjoyed for anything other than raid progression for one year.

Things I remember:
-my first day in WoW, thinking the world simply had to be endless, never wanting to stop, punching my friend who wanted a go. (it was at his house so in the end i -did- get off.) the fact that it was accompanied with about 12 lemon snapples and ben & jerry's raw choc chip cookie dough by the carton.
-my first green - Training Sword of the Monkey. I was a paladin, dwarf, and this green sparked my very first great explore - following a less-noob person (i started playing during the BETAs) to stormwind.
-my first instance. Deadmines. I was an really bad paladin, i just stood around trying to do damage and make sure my priests got their +AP buff. I don't remember the very first runs but i do remember the first time i got help by a higher level player: Veloto, 33 paladin with Green Iron hauberk, Green Iron helm, and fiery enchantment on his weapon.
-*skips three dozen*
- First epic: Lawbringer Boots, Molten Core. I was the third pally on my server to get full t1
-absolutely TONS of other things, too many to mention.

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Morrowind
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I played this game for years before i actually honestly stopped stealing everything and started on the storyline.

Things I remember:
-Gathering Ordinator armour.
-Using the jumping boots (or whatever they were) that you got off the elf that falls from the sky in conjunction with the invincibility cheat to jump to the red mountain crater.
-ALL of the things the characters say. And their accents. "You Immar" "Speak, Outlander." "mmmwhat is it?" "Move along" "It's good to see you again"

Tons of others, too.

Alot of things from the starwars games. Like winning my first race against my friends on n64 pod racer.

AgentCLXXXIII:
Also, the first time I beat Desann in Jedi Outcast.
I fired three homing missles at the guy...
All three came right back at me....
I survived. I jump down and go toe to toe with him.

Next thing I know he can throw me halfway across the room, has force lightning that travels a mile, he can crouch while jumping, and his fighting style is a mixture of the speed of the fast style and the strength of the strongest...

I accidentally beat him the first time whenever he ran into my lightsaber.

I think you were supposed to drop the pillars on him in that level, but somehow I wound up beating him. If you get the "Darth Maul: Shadow of the Sith" modification for Outcast (I reccomend it, makes you Maul, changes the story and NPC's, new dialogue- same levels of course) he is EVEN HARDER. I dropped a pillar on him somehow.

The battle between Nei and Neifirst and its aftermath in Phantasy Star 2.

Locke telling Rachel's story at Kohlingen in Final Fantasy 6.
Setzer telling Daryl's story, same game.
Celes's suicide leap after failing the fish minigame (most powerfully emotional moment in gaming history for me)
Sephiroth's katana doing to Aeris what that dude did to Kimbo Slice last week, FF7.
The entire ending of Final Fantasy 9.

The ASC vs SC war in Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast.
I've never seen a multiplayer community explode to that degree.

(All hail Artifex and his mighty ASC army!)