There are only a few videogames in a lifetime that COMPLETELY blow you away, what are yours?

1. Super Mario Bros (first time playing astounded me coming off Atari 2600)

2. Street Fighter 2 Turbo/championship edition (the first time I saw a sonic boom it was over lol

3. Super Mario world (simply beautiful)

4. Sonic Adventure ( first time playing this was mesmerizing)

5. Shenmue (first game to completely blow away all expectations for a game)

6. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Fvcking Liberty (second game to completely blow away all expectation)

7. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (it's the emotion of honor condensed on a disk)

8. Uncharted 2 (I can't really put my finger on it but it just had incredible polish that shined)

9. GOW III (the graphics for a console game were simply unbelievable at the time)

10. DEMON'S SOULS....the last game to completely blow away ALL expectations.

Note:My list is mostly categorized by my gaming timeline, not order of relevance against each other.

Also nothing form this gen has even come close to exceeding my expectation much less blowing it away Demon's Souls remains the GOAT, but enough about me.

What about you fellow System Warriors?

And It may be hard, but try to separate your favorite games from that ones that 'blew you away'. It may seem like that is one in the same but it's not always the case.

Ratchet & Clank (PS4) visually and Grand Theft Auto V for being a near perfect game in all aspects.

Okami

I don't think anything came close to my great experience with that game.

Cool, it's interesting to see which games exceeded the bar for their expectations for other gamers.

Mario 64 // Ocarina of Time, nothing will ever top those I think.

Battlefield 3, built my rig to hit the release, incredible coming from Ps3.

Coming back to Ps3 to play GTA V. Don't know what black magic R* used...

These are the games that completely blow me away:

• Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
• Crysis
• The Last of Us
• Sonic Adventure 2
• Spyro The Dragon
• Halo Combat Evolve
• Killzone 2
• Pokemon Gold/Silver
• Star Wars: Rogue Leader: Rogue Squadron 2
• Super Smash Bros. Melee
• Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
• Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
• Star Fox

Ultima Online

Everquest

Morrowind

Planescape Torment

Baldur's Gate 2

Mass Effect (I love them all)

Halo (some better than others but I liked all of them till Halo 5 which is dogshit)

Uncharted 2

Xcom - the original and best on PC, not the remakes

Loving Fallout 4, great game to just mess around in and explore. Much better than people give it credit for, I keep coming back to it.

Ultima 7

Final Fantasy 7, X and XII

Lots more probably that I can't think of right now but there are many landmark games for me. Great games are always there on every platform if you look for them.

The beginning of the Last Of Us, the Winter part of the game also.

Dark Souls 1, whole game plus Orstein and Smough were free of all flaws.

Target Renegade (Amstrad CPC)

Double Dragon (Arcade)

Frontier: Elite II (Amiga)

Theme Park (Amiga)

Desert Strike (Megadrive)

Road Rash (Megadrive)

FFVII (PSX)

Wolfenstein 3D (PC)

Doom (PC)

Everquest 1 (PC)

Messiah (PC)

Operation Flashpoint Cold War Crisis (PC)

• Super Mario Bros (NES)
• Final Fantasy VII (PS1)
• The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
• Crysis
• Mass Effect
• The Witcher 3

If we're going in order. Super Mario Bros changed my life. I credit that with getting me interested in computer programming.

Rome Total War. It was the first TW game I played and I was completely hooked for years. Conquering Europe, commanding giant armies and watching the soldiers fight on the battlefield with epic music playing in the background... hard to beat that.

Gran Turismo 4 and Resistance 2. They were the first games I played on my PS2 and PS3 respectively. The hype was real at the time.

Spartan Total Warrior. Damnit was that game awesome. I will never forget those epic battles. Loved that game. Too bad they dropped the ball with Viking Battle for Asgard.

Planetside 2 for similar reasons as Spartan. My jaw dropped when I got into these huge battles for the first time.

GTA San Andreas. First GTA I ever played... mind was completely blown.

First two Halo games (only ones I own) and Killzone 2 were awesome as well.

When the original Crysis launched, I don't think a game ever blew my mind with graphics like that game did. I didn't own the game at the time though.

That's about all I can think of atm off the top of my head.

There are all sorts on holy sh1t moments I remember, but the first time I played Sonic was at a PACE superstore and I remember it spoke to me and I could feel the power emanating from this badass hedgehog. Also, I remember seeing Half-Life and being amazed. That game gave me mild ptsd fighting the marines and getting spooked by houndeyes.

TLOU opening was perfection. They could not have done it any better. The whole game is so well paced it's crazy. This is ND's best game and I say this without a shadow of doubt. UC2 comes close.

TWD season 1. Amazing character development and that ending crushed me.

Sonic sega genesis and MJ moon walking that shit.

I have much more like castlevania symphony of the night and ICO etc. but just for now I list the most recent ones I remember from at least last Gen. I'm sure there are more.

I thought about putting KZ2 but between the graphics end I had to make a choice between that and GOW III and GOW took the cake. KZ2 was a pretty amazing game tho

I loved Thief: Deadly Shadows (was so disappointed when Square Enix released the new Thief). I'm not sure why it struck a chord with me, but it's definitely one of my favourite games. Also, I played GTAV on the Xbox 360. Thought it was great. Then brought it again for the PS4 and was blown away by how much better R* made it. Witcher 3 exceeded my expectations as well.

• Super Mario Bros.
• Tetris (Gameboy)
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
• Chrono Trigger
• Virtua Fighter 2
• Daytona USA
• NiGHTs: Into Dreams
• Super Mario 64
• Wave Race 64
• Age of Empires
• Ocarina of Time
• Metal Gear Solid
• Sonic Adventure
• Final Fantasy IX
• Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader
• Super Smash Bros. Melee
• Halo: Combat Evolved
• GTAIII
• Gran Turismo 3
• Metroid Prime
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
• Half-Life 2
• Far Cry (PC)
• F.E.A.R.
• Gears of War
• Super Mario Galaxy
• SMT Persona 3
• Bioshock
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
• Portal
• Braid
• Valkyria Chronicles
• SMT Persona 4
• Uncharted 2
• Batman Arkham Asylum
• Super Mario Galaxy 2
• Bayonetta
• Xenoblade Chronicles
• The Last of Us
• A Link Between Worlds
• Bayonetta 2

Pretty long list. These are games that left me with a great first impression and wowed me. Some ended up being my all time favorites (the ones in bold), some haven't aged well, and some are just solid. I'm probably missing some other games.

The games that blew me away the most aren't necessarily my favorite games, or even games that I think are that great for that matter.

But here's the list.

• Jungle Hunt
• Super Mario Bros.
• Legend of Zelda
• Phantasy Star IV
• Sonic The Hedgehog
• Street Fighter 2
• Mortal Kombat 1
• DOOM
• Mario 64
• Ocarina of Time
• Final Fantasy VII
• Metal Gear Solid 2
• Morrowind
• Grand Theft Auto 3

Fond memories of all those games, mostly because they each represented significant leaps in a time when gaming was rapidly expanding. Can't say I really care for most of them these days though.

Oh man, just remembering that game you made me remember one more around that time that got me...

The original Mortal Combat! when you saw someone do a finish move for the first time it was :O snapp

In order of release, I think:

• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
• Final Fantasy IV
• Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings
• Pokemon Gold/Silver
• The Sims 2
• Super Smash Bros. Melee
• Burnout 3: Takedown
• Mario Kart DS
• God of War
• Persona 4 Golden

Gtavsan andreas and 5 come to mind.

Char how do you feel about SMT?

mainly Digital Devil Saga, DD Saga II and Nocturne? Have you tried them, if so what are your thoughts. I love all those games.

When I first saw Sonic Adventure when it launched with the Dreamcast

Illusion City MSX

Half Life 2 PC

Metal Gear Solid PSX

Zillion

John Madden Football on Genesis

NHL hockey genesis

MGS

GoW

Halo

Gears

Uncharted 2

Arkham Asylum or City

Demon's Souls

The Witcher 3

Hunter on the Amiga.

Prince of Persia on the PC.

GTA 3 on the PC.

Half-Life on the PC.

Hoping No Man's Sky makes this list...

In no order:

- when I first played Super Mario Bros

- when I first played Super Mario World

- when I finished the 3 dungeons in Zelda A Link to the Past and saw the Dark world with 8 or do more dungeons

- when I first played Mario 64

- when I first played PSO

- when I first played Tribes 2

- when I first played Morrowind

- when I first played MOH's storming Normandy's beach

- when I first played Halo

- when I first played Rallisport Challenge 2

- when I first played WOW

- when I experienced the Mass Effect series

- when I first played The Last of Us

- when I experienced Beyond 2 Souls

- when i first played Farcry 3

- when I first played GTA IV

- when I first played The Nathan Drake Collection

- when I first played Second Son

- when I first played Rocket League

- when I first (FIRST) played Destiny

- when I first played The Witcher 3

@casharmy: I still haven't played Nocturne, but I do like SMT- they're extremely no nonsense JRPGs with a pretty bold setup, and an emphasis on game design and mechanics. I personally find that Persona resonates with me far more, but SMT is still great. I just need to find the time to put into them, is all.

@charizard1605:

Before finishing a single play through of Digital Devil Saga, I went out and bought the other 2 games full stop no questions asked. That's how much I enjoyed that title, the atmosphere they crated in that game (series) is incredible imo.

I was pretty new to the genre when I got it, but Battlefield 3

A few:

• Mario 64. I remember seeing this for the first time in a gaming store that had imported an N64. Just seeing the Mario face and being able to tweak his nose was amazing at the time.
• First time wandering battlefields shrouded with fog, bodies littering the ground, and also entering Novigrad in Witcher 3.
• First time flying over the massive sand dunes in Journey with a stranger, keeping each other afloat with our pings, was simply magical. So was the ending.

SMT (including Persona) is definitely incredible at crafting an atmosphere- and the best part is that each game's atmosphere is entirely distinct from the other entries in the series, too.

I'm not really a Persona guy but I hope P5 can make your list as I see your list is pretty small so your standards must be pretty high.

Is holiday 2016 really viable? FFXV is already set to release September and Nier Devs rumored to be releasing Automata around the same timeline. It would be a regular mega JRPG head bumping fest if P5 also came out around that time not that I mind, just don't see them all staying with this year.

I think Persona 5 is supposed to be Summer 2016, which means it can realistically come out before Final Fantasy 15- at least in Japan. The question of the international release remains, naturally, but on the whole, I don't think it is unlikely that P5 could be out in North America by, say, August. Atlus probably want to avoid Final Fantasy 15 with Persona 5- but I don't think they care much about avoiding NieR, especially when NieR is even more niche than Persona is.

And while I definitely hope Persona 5 will live up to my hype, it is unlikely to get on that list! Generally, sequels from the same series never manage to get on my list, because the only way a game does is with its overwhelming quality (which is never maintained across sequels), or its feeling of freshness (which is naturally lost across sequels). Persona 5 looks good, but we'll see if it manages to completely bowl me over too, haha.

Pool of Radiance (original)

Championship manager (the fore runner to football manager)

Mass Effect

Halo

KOTOR

Civilization

Medieval Total War 1 & 2 and Shogun

Dune

Xwing

Elite

Crusader Kings 2

Morrowind

Baldurs Gate

Sure I'm forgetting lots ...

Pretty much every launch racing game.

WRC from Evolution and GT3 for PS2.

Forza 2 for 360.

Motorstorm for PS3

I love sim-console type racing games but I don't think one has ever fully blown me away. I remember Virtua Racing when it first came out on Sega 32X and I was pretty impressed by that lol.

I hope GT Sport can do the trick

Too many to name, but I'm watching Hellraiser 2 right now, and this one scene pretty much sums up how I felt when I came to the realization how much fun Dark Souls games are after continually getting punished, and beaten, after all the blood spilled, tears, profanity fits directed at my TV, I emerged with a profound appreciation for such games...

"and to think, I hesitated"

Basically, he was tricked into going into oblivion where he was ambushed, tortured, and emerged having experienced the "ultimate pleasure" (of pain!).

• Dune 2 PC
• Madden 3DO
• Road Rash 3DO
• Need for Speed 3DO
• Doom PC
• Day of the Tentacle PC
• Wave Race 64
• GLQuake PC
• Dungeon Keeper PC
• Close Combat: A Bridge Too Far PC
• Unreal PC
• Jane's World War II Fighters PC
• Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption PC
• Battlefield 1942 PC
• Far Cry PC

• Sonic 2
• Cyber Speedway
• Virtua Fighter
• X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter
• Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight
• Ocarina of Time
• Rogue Squadron
• Super Smash Bros.
• Sonic Adventure
• NFL 2K
• Halo CE
• Jedi Outcast
• Metroid Prime
• Far Cry
• Gears of War
• Super Mario Galaxy
• Sonic Generations
• Streets of Rage Remake
• Rodea the Sky Soldier

MGS4.

There is many games I can list, but that game was the peak for me. My hype was through the roof and it delivered. There was 20 years worth of hype and it was the end of the epic story.

What a fantastic ending. I didn't think they could top MGS3's ending, but Kojima did. He succeeded. I will never forget those feels.

I'm not going to list any of the games that once blew me away and have since aged badly. The ones that remain are as follows

• The Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past
• Super Punch-Out!!
• Super Metroid
• Majora's Mask
• Pikmin
• Metroid Prime
• Batman Arkham City
• Super Mario Galaxy 2
• Donkey Kong Country Returns

Ninja Gaiden 1 and 2

Battle Arena Tosh

Half Life

Doom

Quake 2

CS

UT2004

Wolf 3D

GTA San Andreas

Gears of War

Uncharted 2

Mass Effect 2

TLOU

A few from my head

Shenmue 1 and 2

Metal gear solid 1,3 and 4

Dynasty warrior 2

Final fantasy 7

Uncharted 2

The last of us

Street fighter 2

Samurai showdown 1 and 2

First tecmo deception.

Final Fantasy VII

Uncharted 2

The Last Of Us

Bloodborne

Halo Combat Evolved(bet lems are shocked)

Mass Effect 2 AND 3

Street Fighter 2

John Madden Football (early years)

I think that is it for me.

Super Mario World, Link to the Past, Super Mario World 2, Paper Mario, Paper Mario TTYD, Resident Evil 4, COD Black Ops (Kino Der Toten Zombies blew me away), Dark Souls, Minecraft, Halo Master Chief Collection (my first real journey into Halo).

These are not necessarily my favorite games; some of them I don't even like anymore, but these are the games that I remember saying "wow" when I first played them.

Donkey Kong Country (SNES)

Super Mario 64 (N64 launch)

Goldeneye 007 (N64)

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)

Sonic Adventure (Dreamcast launch)

Grand Theft Auto 3 (PS2)

Resident Evil 4 (Gamecube)

• Half-Life 2
• Halo: Combat Evolved
• Bioshock
• Red Dead Redemption
• Mass Effect series
• Witcher 3

...to name a few.

• Crysis (Dem graphics and non linear gameplay)
• Resident Evil 2 ("Holy molly those backgrounds look so real")
• Diablo 2 (Dat loot. Back then didn't know about procedural generation much. Felt revolutionary, even though older games used it too)
• Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty (Level of polish, production values, soundtrack and style were all awesome. Also,,, amazing gameplay mechanics and top of the line AI)
• Portal 2 ("How the hell are they doing this... I mean you make portal and WTF???")
• Mass Effect 2 (Dark story, a lot great characters and fantastic visuals. Sci Fi epic)
• Alan Wake (Fantastic atmosphere, level of detail, soundtracks, visuals and storytelling blew me away)
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (So many great quests, all handcrafted and different from one another. Great lore, great story and characters. Great visuals too)
• Max Payne (Slow motion, story, gunplay.... awesome)
• Metal Gear Solid (Cinematic spy story. Over the top but fun. Not to mention great boss battles)
• Mega Man X4 (Loved this so much. Zero rocked. So many great powers and variety of different locations and boss battles)
• Divinity: Original Sin (So much freedom, a lot of content, shit ton of RPG elements and best RPG combat in a long time)
• Medieval 2: Total War (17 playable factions, several different units for all of them, mixture of history and player driven experience. Absolutely brilliant)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Right game at the right time. Fantastic fast paced campaign with a lot of set pieces, that didn't feel rehashed back then)
• Freelancer (Huge galaxy with a lot of handcrafted Star Systems to explore. Great story and fantastic visuals).
• Company of Heroes (Destructible environments, sound design, explosion effects, gameplay mechanics and a great story)
• Thief:: The Dark Project (Dark and gritty atmosphere, fantastic story, amazing stealth gameplay, charismatic main character, top of the line sound technology, smart AI (or its time at least) and non linear gameplay/level design)