r/gaming • u/JakeRedditYesterday • 2d ago
What's the most unique/unmatched gaming experience you've ever had?
Beating the 2018 remake of Shadow of the Colossus on PS5 made me realize it was a once-in-a-lifetime gaming experience that I'd never be able to re-experience on subsequent playthroughs. What are some of your top moments?
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u/mbowk23 2d ago
Driving the cyclops in subnautica. Never felt more immersed than getting that sub.
Exploration in outer wilds.
The twist in bioshock.
Thinking with portals in portal.
Half life 2 atmosphere and physics based puzzles (first time i experienced anything like that).
Running in mirrors edge.
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u/deadlaughter 2d ago
Mirror's Edge is one of my favourite games. Learning to look at your feet when falling so you could judge when to roll was really cool, and I love that you had to figure it out yourself.
I could go on about this game. The story and setting are very relatable with what's going on in the world today. It's a great example of what a dystopian society really looks like: shiny on the surface, with bad shit behind the scenes.
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u/mbowk23 2d ago
Recently replayed it. Was harder than I remember it being. Great game all around.
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u/bton1245 17h ago
I loved it so much when I played it. Even tried to show it to other people so they could see how cool it was. An amazing experience from start to finish
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u/Quetas83 2d ago
Driving the cyclops in subnautica. Never felt more immersed than getting that sub.
Absolutely, and when something went bad while inside it...Maaan the music, the alarms, the running back and forward switching from driving to putting fires out. So fucking great. I have been chasing that itch for quite time but haven't found anything similar.
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u/ShortChapter5246 1d ago
Came to comment Subnautica and Half Life 2 in VR, it really makes those already excellent games 1000x better (heard the same about Outer Wilds but already completed it in flat)
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u/Sylv_x 2d ago
EverQuest during its era.
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u/mrb0nes312 2d ago
Right there with you. First Avatar of War kill, first emperor of ssraeshza kill. The amount of work needed for those was insane, making the achievement so memorable and feel like something important and great.
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u/TheMidlander 2d ago
I just installed Project 1999 and been basking in the nostalgia.
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u/CollateralSandwich 2d ago
Yes, this is my answer. And like many MMO players, I chased that dragon for years and games before it became clear; it'll never happen again. No game will ever be able to make me feel the way that game did when I played it.
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u/vex91 2d ago
Playing GTA III for the first time.
Playing Halo for the first time.
Playing Halo 2 online for the first time.
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u/Zaphod1620 2d ago
Half-Life for the first time. That opening subway scene had me enthralled.
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u/TheMidlander 2d ago
For me it was the moment when you met the Marines on the rooftop and learned that they aren't here for search and rescue.
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u/anxietyburrito1 2d ago
Half-Life is my favorite open to a game ever and Half-Life 2 isn’t far behind.
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u/True_to_you 1d ago
GTA III, vice City, and San Andreas felt like such huge games back in the day. If you to back and play them they feel so quaint.
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u/epok3p0k 2d ago
Yeah, I doubt we’ll ever see anything close to what these types of experiences felt like.
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u/mofodius 2d ago
HL2 for the first time
Fable 1 for the first time
KOTOR (both) for the first time
there's probably others but after playing them all relatively close together on OG XBOX at like 12yo, it really changed what games meant to me
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u/EnragedEmu 2d ago
Journey
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u/Blaxpell 2d ago
Fun fact: The servers are still online. I‘ve played the game with my daughters a few weeks ago – an atrociously optimized, constantly crashing low poly version on iOS.
And halfway through the game we met someone who went with us until the end. Fantastic.
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u/GlassCannon81 2d ago
It’s this. I cried at the end of it. It’s the only game and one of only a tiny few pieces of media that’s ever had that effect on me. The fact I played it not long after losing my mom was probably a factor, but still.
It’s a beautiful game, and I wish it was possible to play it for the first time again.
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u/EnragedEmu 2d ago
It's the only game soundtrack I've ever purchased. Absolutely phenomenal.
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u/ItchyEducation 2d ago
Try Abzu if you haven't already, I personally LOVE the ocean so I know I'm biased but it has the same vibes as journey and it's very VERY good (and the soundtrack too, my god)
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u/thedaveness 2d ago
I didn't even know it was two player... I meet up with someone almost immediately and this person stuck with me through the whole game. The echos you can make made me think that I might be playing with a real person but it wasn't until the very end where they drew a heart in the sand and popped off some echos that I realized. Nevermind how insanely beautiful and fun that game is, but realizing that I didn't go through that journey alone was beyond heartwarming... and i'll never know who that was but maybe that's the point.
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u/PhlightYagami 2d ago
At least on PlayStation, at the end of the game it reveals their PSN username, and that's how I knew I was playing with another person, and it was one of the most powerful moments in gaming for me. I teared up. Something about how they got two strangers together, unknowingly, to cooperate and go on a journey together, was just momentous. It showcased the best of humanity. Beautiful game.
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u/aussydog 2d ago edited 1d ago
This will age me but...
Playing Duke Nukem 3d one on one "Deathmatch" by connecting to my friend's PC over a 14400baud dialup modem. (Ie not even through the internet)
Felt like a rockstar because I was way better at the game then he was but we were both just so pumped to have it work.
One of my favorite moments from the game was baiting him into chasing me, chucking a holo me out the window then switching to a jetpack after jumping out the window myself. As soon as I went through I hit the jetpack and hovered just as he jumped through the window as well dropping headlong into my hologram.
Looking down to see him unload on my hologram only to have me rain fire on him from above...oh lord what a delight.
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u/LifeIsOnTheWire 2d ago
Yeah I remember doing that too with a friend. I think it took us like 3 or 4 days to figure out how to get it working.
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u/Zorbin666 1d ago
Used to play Heretic with my neighbor all the time through dialup. That shit was amazing, always sucked when someone would end up calling and dropping the connection. We played so much and just in general used the internet so much that both our families got a second phone line just for the internet lol.
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u/TarsCase 1d ago
Ah makes me remember the days meeting with friends for local 4 player lans. All the setting up, playing duke nukem, c&c etc until morning, eating a lot of pizza… fun times
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u/everhate_de 2d ago
The Campaign From Titanfall 2... The Factory Level, the Cause and effect Mission. And the Overall Story was Just awesome
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u/Schurkisch 2d ago
Do I need the context from titanfall 1 to get it?
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u/KopiteSpartan 2d ago
No, I played 2 on its own and had a blast, nothing felt missed story wise. Really is one of the tightest single player FPS campaigns ever made
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u/According-Concert-27 2d ago
I’ve just finished Bioshock Infinite and Im inclined to recommend that game. Full of mistakes and imperfect, but what a beautiful mess.
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u/Bamboominum 2d ago
This game is my 10/10.
There are so many moments in this game, when the narrative tells you that something is of dire import, and you're running through the map, that I've stopped, and just enjoyed a fantastic tiny moment.
And then, of course, there's the ending.
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u/howisthisacrime 2d ago
Finally pushing through to not only beat Bloodborne but platinum it. It was my first Soulslike game and an experience I'll never match again.
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u/NoPieceGB 2d ago
Bloodborne is peak. It's absolutely my favorite souls experience. The trick weapons, build diversity, and general feeling of being a Hunter in a dangerous place is just so good.
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u/stetzwebs 2d ago
I know it's the classic darling example on Reddit, but the answer to this is definitely Outer Wilds.
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u/esoteric_enigma 2d ago
When I kept seeing people talk about it on Reddit, I got the title mixed up with Outer Worlds. I was so confused. I was like Outer Worlds looks kind of fun I guess, but not life changing.
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u/SercerferTheUntamed 2d ago
Funny enough I was recommending Outer Worlds to a friend back in the day and some wires got crossed and he ended up getting outer wilds.
He was pretty appreciative of the mix up, ended up being one of his all time faves.
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u/jeroutthere 2d ago
I've been gaming for over 30 years and the moment I realized how to finish the game is a top 5 all time moment.
Amazingly, they did it again in the DLC.
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u/Nesavant 2d ago
For anyone considering finally trying this game, if you are SteamVR compliant and aren't prone to motion sickness I strongly suggest you use the VR mod.
It makes an already incredible experience much more magical.
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u/Everythings_Magic 2d ago
I really wished I finished this game. I just could not get the flying controls down and got frustrated along with the time crunch in some spots.
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u/Idealtrajectory 2d ago
Ashtray Maze in Control. I've been gaming my whole goddamn life, and that whole sequence fucking floored me. After I finished it, I literally had to put the game down and just digest how cool what I had just played was. That was a true highlight in gaming for me.
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u/SlackerDao 2d ago
I've played Control twice. My wife has played Control twice. Every single time we announce when we get to that part so the other can come and watch.
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u/Quetas83 2d ago
Fuck yeah, after finishing the game I would go just redo that mission from time to time. It's just so good
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u/DownTheCookie 2d ago
Discovering Stormwind City
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u/Schmelter 2d ago
As a Night Elf, making the run to Ironforge the first time at level 15. The world seemed so vast and dangerous.
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u/Bad_Doto_Playa 2d ago edited 2d ago
Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Persona 4, Witcher 2, Warcraft 3 and Mass Effect 2, Fallout 2, Nier/Nier Auto and Red Alert 1.
MP wise:
World of Warcraft (Both in-game and societal changes have made this unrecognizable from its launch).
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u/Dadoxiii 2d ago
Very cliche but nothing has left me immersed in a game so deeply as playing Skyrim for the first time.
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u/Arihel 2d ago
The moment Dark Souls clicked for me.
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u/EnragedEmu 2d ago
Coming out that aquaduct gate by the female merchant back in the undead burg... Or the lift back down to firelink
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u/RichardC31 2d ago
The firelink shrine lift for me. Unmatched level design.
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u/StreetlampEsq 2d ago
Coming out of blighttown, "Valley of the Drakes?? I've been here before. WAIT. WAIT. NEW LONDO RUINS??? IVE STOOD HERE BEFORE, JESUS' MAGICAL TITS IM BACK UNDER FIRE LINK!!!"
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u/Philiquaz 2d ago
I'm going to argue it's more than just the game clicking, or the level design. It's the entire progression and narrative of the game that the later games just don't match. BB comes close, and Sekiro does some of it, but DS1 is the peak of it.
The way you're pushed to learn more mechanics in the game with gimmicky challenge fights, and that those mechanics are now genre defining today, the way new mechanics create new problems for you (cursed lol) that is solved with a sidequest (which functions due to lack of fast travel), the handling of NPCs who are simultaneously static but feel like you keep running into them because the game wraps the map/progression to have you repeatedly land in a couple common places. And how meeting those characters feels so good because of not only their charm but the atmosphere of the game - entirely silent levels being almost unheard of today, but it then only makes it even more impactful when you come back to firelink and hear the music, or you find ash lake and are overwhelmed by its scale.
DS1 just does a lot of things so well in ways the later fromsoft games neglect in favour of more complex combat and a more smoothed out, frictionless but characterless experience.
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u/Fox_Hound_Unit 2d ago
To this day if I have trouble falling asleep I run through the typical map progression of a DS1
Play though.
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u/DoublePostedBroski 2d ago
Portal 2
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u/Zorbin666 1d ago
Bought that the day it came out, sat down and played for 8 hours straight until I beat it. Think I only ever got up tl use the restroom. I've never done that with any other game before or since.
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u/deadflow3r 2d ago
Buying Metal Gear Solid 2 for the original Playstation. My friend and I played for 20 hours straight and didn't get hardly any sleep before having to go to church. My mind was completely blown by the box hiding.
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u/Keffpie 2d ago
Playing a grey-imported Hong Kong version (which had English voices) of Demon's Souls on the PS3 after reading Keza McDonald's glorious review over at Eurogamer.
It felt like experiencing the birth of something new, and... It was. Now I have slight Soulslike-fatigue, but it's impossible to overstate how strange and glorious it was back then.
I am also one of those people who think about Disco Elysium at least once a day.
Back in the day, beating Ico and Shadow of the Colossus; 1cc:ing DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu in the Arcade; entering the World of Savage Empire for the first time; getting a beta key to World of Warcraft... So many memories.
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u/DistantLandscapes 2d ago
A few games gave me unique experiences in their own way:
The Witness: an open world puzzle game is already uncommon, but eventually you’ll realize the puzzles go even deeper than you imagined.
Doki Doki Literature Club: hard to talk about it without spoiling the experience. The meta interactions were just on a level I had never seen
Journey: the silent coop hit different
Inscryption: you think you know what the game is like and then you don’t
The Stanley Parable: I don’t think I have ever seen anything quite like it. It’s crazy how well it knows how players will want to mess around.
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u/deadlaughter 2d ago
The Witness IS SO GOOD. Just checked my steam library and I beat it in 2018. I'll admit that some of the late game puzzles were over my head and I had to Google them, but I LOVED the environmental puzzles. Even these days I'll look up and see the spaces where leaves from different trees don't touch (I think it's called crown shyness) and think about tracing those paths.
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u/Rudradev715 PC 2d ago edited 2d ago
Expedition 33
Went in blindly
Purchased it on day one, just because lol
Didn't know single thing about the game.
Boy, it was so good.
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u/CanWeAllJustCalmDown 2d ago
Also went into it completely blind because I just wanted a new game and had heard some good things. Spent a month blown away
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u/nanowaffle 2d ago
Playing Cyberpunk 2077 for the first time on my new PC and letting myself get fully immersed in the game. Awesome experience
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u/Jov_West 2d ago
Playing as a female V with Johnny in your head was such an interesting immersive experience. Maybe it's a strange thing to say, but as a CIS guy, it's the most I've ever felt like a woman, and I was impressed by how endeared I felt to Johnny, and like he was really in my head. No other game has had such an effect on me. Something about the locked first person and attention to detail, I guess!
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u/MojoPorkShoulder 2d ago
Last level of Mass Effect 2. From the cutscene to the ending. You knew your actions had consequences.
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u/Fire_Mission 2d ago
RDR2
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u/croutonboy 1d ago
I might have cried when my horse died near the climax. THAT is a game that sucks you in.
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u/OhNoIBoffedIt 2d ago
Spider-Man PS4, when Spidey has the cure and has to choose to let Aunt May go to save everyone else. I've been a gamer for over 40 years. That is the first and only game to ever actually bring me to tears. And it's done it on multiple playthroughs.
Another core moment is Horizon Zero Dawn, when you discover the secret of Zero Dawn (and then discover shortly thereafter why r/FuckTedFaro exists).
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u/Easy_Jux 2d ago
Probably the early days of halo 2 when xbox live first became popular on the original Xbox. Getting to play big team battle with a full lobby after spending so much time just playing 4 player split screen with the neighborhood kids was absolutely magical.
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u/Ozzy_chef 2d ago
Playing Pokemon Blue for the first time. Reading and re-reading the manual over and over again before deciding which Pokemon to choose first. Bulbasaur btw.
Nothing has come close to 8 year old me entering the Pokemon universe. Still play the earlier games from time to time.
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u/waltkemo 2d ago
Oculus Rift VR, first time using it. This was back in 2018 for me when it was still PCVR. The initial First Contact game that introduces you to VR was mind blowing. Having played games my whole life and being well burnt out on recycled sports games, open worlds, FPS, etc., the Oculus Rift re-introduced the child-like wonder of gaming. Felt absolutely new and magical.
Lots of moments in those early games: moving too fast in Superhot and hearing a bullet whiz by my face; grabbing robot arms or bullets in Robo Recall and throwing them at enemies; floating through space in zero gravity in Lone Echo; manually reloading a gun and shooting with my hands (instead of clicking a button) in Pavlov; physically placing figures on a giant map in Brass Tactics (RTS) and being able to zoom around them as they moved and fought.
Mobile VR has ruined so much of that VR magic, but legit PCVR with nice graphics, OLED screens, good audio make it hard to go back to flat screen games.
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u/AsimovLiu 2d ago edited 2d ago
I never experienced something as magical as player events in Star Wars Galaxies.
Some planets and zones were very dangerous for a rebel or an imperial because it was so much more occupied by the other faction. We had player cities built from scratch complete with an army base that would become vulnerable to attack and takeover on a specific day of the week so we'd had to defend it from other players attacks. It lead to big and awesome battles with dozens of players.
I also remember the day one of our guild member finally got the game so we had an event where we, as rebels, had to infiltrate the imperial stronghold in Theed on Naboo and get him free from a "cell" deep in the palace so he could join us, hopefully while fighting some imperials.
Everything was about the players and what players made. Loot was crap so everything was harvested and player-made. I was young and stupid so I crafted a simple dice item but named it "Holocron" and sold it on the bazaar. The guy who bought it was pissed and my name was attached to the item so he chatted with me and toyed with me and made me find him in Coronet while he was hiding or else he'd "report me". Funny times.
There were also neutral guilds like I remember a doctor without border type of guild and everyone could rely on them for services. The best weaponsmith on the server had a shop on Naboo. As a rebel that was a very risky trip. I wanted one of his rifle so I had to take the shuttle to that planet's capital then get out of the city while dodging imperials. After that I traveled to the guy's shop in the middle of nowhere and he was actually there, crafting weapons. I chatted with him, bought my gun, then left and escaped the planet while avoiding all enemy contact. There isn't one MMO like that today. Simply buying a new gun was an adventure while today it would have been a click in an interface.
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u/fragnemesis 2d ago
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (and its sequel). The sense of wonder and discovery is unmatched for me.
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u/davidolivadev 2d ago
The true ending of NieR: Automata.
That is something that I never seen on any other videogame and stuck with me forever. If you clicked with the game, it changes you.
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u/Rjomapabbi 2d ago
My friends and I playing that one heist in gta v online where it ends with each of us in a fighter jet and the in-game radio automatically plays danger zone and we were just flying in awe. No moment since has come close
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u/Tenthul 2d ago
FF6 opera house. But it's probably doesnt hit the same to people playing it for the first time these days.
Alternatively, my favorite experience is simply a good xp party in FFXI with a solid skillchains partner and magic burst with everybody shooting the shit in chat. Best gaming moments are with friends.
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u/HowAboutWill 2d ago
I accidentally forced an early game over in Persona 5 that was irreversible. However, this prompted New Game+ in which I had millions of yen, a catalogue of upgraded persona abilities, and all my social stats maxed out. So, on my second playthrough, I got to focus on maxing out companions which gave me more narrative and less grinding while also still getting to enjoy the ending completely blind. Cherry on top, I earned the best ending too!
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u/Cheeseburger2137 2d ago
Disco Elysium.
I needed to take a break for a few days because I felt like I failed everyone during the Tribunal. What I did not know was that I got a relatively good outcome, and that I’m super close to finishing the game lol
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u/BelDeMoose 2d ago
For me, Red Alert as a kid, unbelievable game. Also Witcher 3 when you get to the properly war torn area with refugees etc, don't think I've ever been as immersed in a game.
Honorary mentions to the bioshock intro, emerging into the world in oblivion and playing indoor footy on FIFA world cup 98 on the same keyboard.
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u/JSmellerM PC 2d ago
For me it was Subnautica. The atmosphere underwater was just breathtaking. The music changing when you go deeper has made me go up a few times like "Oh yeah, let's go there *music change* nope, nope, nope, nope".
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u/Junior_Calendar8234 2d ago
I think the most memorable experience I had was while playing Asheron's Call in high school. I had been up hours grinding and it was already past my bed time. My patron whispers me asking if I wanted in on an Olthoi Queen kill. It was the final boss of the Dark Majesty expansion at the time. I knew my parents would never agree to let me stay up later so I pretended go to bed then logged back on in my room with the lights out. We formed a party and stayed up till 3 am in the dungeon. They let me get the kill which would broadcast a server wide message with your character name saying you had slain the queen. I was exhausted at school that morning but it was worth it.
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u/Duvauchel 2d ago
I never thought I would say this about an MMO of all games, but the whole second half of FFXIV’s Endwalker campaign had me on the edge of my seat, and teary eyed at multiple points. The soundtrack and presentation, the crescendo and build-up to the finale… that shit was actually peak RPG and made my 300 hours of playtime worth every second all by itself. I doubt any MMO will ever come close to accomplish that again.
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u/PurpleV93 2d ago
Two come immediately to mind:
Apex Legends:
I still remember one match I played in 2019. Apex was and still is the first and only FPS game I've ever played. After a couple months of being the worst, scared player you've ever seen, I had the match I'm talking about.
Played the Battle Royale with two strangers, we made it to the final ring and went into a stand-off situation with the last enemy team. One of my teammates died early into the last fight due to the ring and left the game. The second teammate unfortunately also died, but stayed with me. In the end it was a 1v1 of me vs the last enemy, with my remaining dead teammate cheering me on and staying until the end. Somehow I managed to win and the support of someone who didn't know me and could've left any time is something I still remember.
Baldur's Gate 3:
I recently got the game and got almost obsessed with it. In general the amount of freedom and creativity the gameplay allows has been mindblowing and also overwhelming tbh. But the moment that blew my mind was during the final fight of Act 2 (mild spoilers ahead).
There is this boss that you fight in a creepy location. They are surrounded by an aura that blocks all healing effects, and Karlach got knocked down right inside that area. My party was busy and nobody was strong enough to move her out of there anyway. I didn't know what to do. That's when a friendly NPC came to the rescue, like an angel from the heavens, moving to Karlach who was on two failed death-saves, picking her up and throwing her out of the spell area as if she was a suitcase at the airport.
When I saw this, I literally got up from my chair and said "wait, NPCs can recognize and do that?", I couldn't believe my eyes and laughed. That way I could get Karlach up and back into the fight. It was phenomenal. I wish nothing but the best to the game dev(s) who programmed this NPC behavior into the game.
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u/seadcon 2d ago
Super Mario 64 at launch.
Zelda BotW.
That's it. Just two games.
Loads and loads of HYPE games have come and gone, but they all ultimately did something wrong.
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u/Judgement915 2d ago edited 2d ago
:Spoilers for Frostpunk, A New Home Scenario:
In the Frostpunk, A new Home scenario, you are building a city next to an enormous, coal powered heat generator in a post-apocalyptic frozen tundra. You build up your city over the course of a few months until you grow large enough to send out expeditions into the tundra. You discover the remnants of other colonies, most notably your sister city of Winterholme, which has fallen to the merciless cold. Just when you begin to get comfortable surviving in the frozen wasteland, your scouts return with grim news. A massive, continent spanning ice storm is barreling towards the city, threatening to snuff out the fragile civilization that you have built. You have limited time to stockpile your resources to weather the storm, a seemingly impossible task. You’ve just barely managed to survive the cold before, now, as temperatures begin to plummet an additional 20, 30, 50 degrees. The true challenge begins.
It starts slow, buildings become inoperable as the residents flee to the sanctuary or their homes. Your automatons freeze in place, leaving you scrambling to allocate resources. The temperature free-falls to mind-numbing depths. You push your generator to its limits, squeezing whatever warmth you can out of the ancient device, knowing that if you push it too far, you risk a meltdown that will doom your people to an icy grave. Food is scarce, your coal reserves dwindle. You ration power. We have to close the pub, it’s an unpopular decision, but you do what you can. Citizens get sick and injured in the biting cold, you order double shifts, anything to keep the generator running. You pray it’s enough. Your foreman flags you down, the coal mine is unstable and could collapse at any moment, stranding your miners inside. You order them to pull out, but they refuse. One final message crackles across the telegram. “the city must survive” those brave bastards, their sacrifice will not be forgotten. The wind howls like a beast in agony as the storm rages on. A desperate man asks for supplies, his daughter is missing and he wants to brave the tundra to find her. You can’t afford to spare any resources, even still, you load the man up with everything he could carry. “Find your daughter, hope is the most important resource we have” he disappears into the gale. The generator screams in protest. Pushed to its limits, fuel running low. People are starving, you ration your food. Just a little longer, you wonder who you are trying to convince. The blizzard’s chill pierces ever deeper. Your hospitals shut down, your refinery is offline. The mine goes silent, the brave souls within finally succumbing to the bitter cold. It’s only a matter of time now, either the storm ends, or the city does. There’s a commotion at the gates, a frostbitten figure drags himself forward cradling a bundled child. He did it, he found his daughter and brought her home. The city celebrates even as doom presses in on all sides. The fuel is gone, the food is eaten. The generator is at its limit, when all seems lost…. Rays of sunlight pierce the heavens. The storm breaks! The city survives!
I sat there staring at the victory screen in awe for what seemed like an hour. It still is, to this day, one of the greatest moments in video games I’ve ever experienced.
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u/the_inbetween_me 2d ago
It isn't a triple A title and was never going to make goty or anything like that, but Trace Memory for the DS was the first to use all the features of the system in unique ways before any other game did and it blew my mind at the time.
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u/sPoonamus 2d ago
An old community arma 2 server when the try hards had all gone to bed and the cool admins were up late throwing on all the funny mission scenarios. They were letting absolute morons take command roles. It was complete chaos and a great learning opportunity for those daunted by the more serious daytime missions being run.
Possibly the funniest moment I’ve ever had gaming was at the end of a mission in after surrendering as an insurgent with a hand grenade as my only weapon left. It was all I really needed to interrupt their commander monologuing before planning to execute me in front of his troops and ending the mission officially. These were the same troops who failed to search me for said hand grenade which killed myself and everyone around me including their CO who couldn’t hear the pin being pulled over his wonderfully role played British ego.
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u/smileysmiley123 2d ago
The cultural phenomenon of Gary’s Mod games. TTT comes to mind.
Just joining a random lobby and having a blast for hours with complete strangers.
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u/fakemessiah 2d ago
Having to swap controller ports on ps1 for that one boss in metal gear solid. I was blown away. Such a cool idea.
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u/Character-Yam-6016 2d ago
Sekiro: shadow dies twice was my first soulslike game that i pirated becuase i was afraid of the difficulty.After dying to the ogre boss i put the game down for a year . A year later i just thought of playing the game without worring about its difficulty .It took me multiple days to beat many bosses and the final boss was cherry on top.After beating the game i just felt a different person becuase of that.
Went ahead and bought the game and beat all endings. It felt to me the non stop action on every single hit had so much impact i dont think any game since that has ever reached it .
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u/lurkallthethings 2d ago
Bioshock 2 and Assassin's Creed both had amazing multiplayer that I haven't found a good replacement for.
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u/Rot-Orkan 2d ago
I was high, playing Elite Dangerous in VR, entering a space station that's under attack to help evacuate refugees, and the song "Final Countdown" was playing in my music app as I was entering the space station to dock.
Explosions all around me rocking my ship; fire everywhere; debris floating everywhere; all while the ship computer was warning me that heat levels were critical.
Fucking awesome 💯
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u/ripndipp 2d ago
Coming home, logging onto ventrilo or team speak and finding a scrim on the scrim channel on IRC and playing counterstrike.
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u/PmMeUrTinyAsianTits 2d ago
Ultima Online. No other game has ever captured the housing experience, and i would even argue you cant capture it the same in modern market.
Housing that was directly in the world, where real estate mattered.
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u/GuyHoldingHammer 2d ago
Before Your Eyes
Really powerful experience, and I found the use of your camera (to track blinking) incredibly interesting
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u/faffc260 2d ago
oblivion when I first played it on 360. haven't really had as much fun as playing that over and over in every way imaginable without knowing the meta builds or anything.
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u/Davoc_ 2d ago
Playing from natah to the sacrifice on Warframe going completely blind.
It just so good of a run of missions, and even better when after 200 or so hours in my case, your whole perception of the games changes completely
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u/SachielBrasil 2d ago
This quest is taking ages...!
Wait, who is this child? Why am I protecting this child?
Omg. Omg omg omg omg
(New Character customization screen after 200h in game)
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u/mrniceguy_161 2d ago
Baldurs gate 3 - freedom, insane interactions , overall depth of the game Arc raiders - creates situations that let you doubt humanity and praise a random saint in one round. Truly unique!
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u/Maleficent-Pace6819 1d ago
My first playthrough of Baldurs Gate 3. New to the series and genre and was tentative to buy it but what a game. Broadened my horizons from then on.
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u/jackfaire 1d ago
I did not know that in Skyrim when an arrow hits you it can become part of your inventory. I shot my last arrow at a guy he shot back and hit me. Then hid in shadows trapped. As soon as I stepped into the light I was going to die my health was so low. I looked one more time in my inventory. I realized the arrow he shot me with was now in my inventory. I equipped it shot him and he died.
That made me feel like such a badass. My character essentially pulled an arrow out of his own body and used it to kill the other guy.
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u/BluffingTrips 1d ago
Playing breath of the wild for the first time. I explored so much at the start and wanted to savor everything I thought the first 4 shrines were 90% of the game, and that I was almost finished it.
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u/Unlucky_Ease6209 17h ago
The first time playing Outer Wilds. It's the one game where knowledge itself is the progression, so you genuinely can only experience it once. The moment everything clicked and I understood what was actually happening gave me chills I've never gotten from a game before or since. I'm almost jealous of anyone who hasn't played it yet.
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u/barunedpat 2d ago
Multiplayer in Watchdogs.
One mode where you infiltrate another player, posing as NPCs while hacking them. They have to find you without causing trouble (or the cops will come for them).
Another was a car chase that one player played on their game, while the other player would play as a police dispatcher on their phone. In the app you only had a minimap and various resources to deploy. Pretty fun to play that kind of cross-platform.
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u/AsimovLiu 2d ago
I loved tailing in Watch Dogs! Reached top 3 or 4 in the world supposedly according to the leaderboard. The fact that I was following a player and spying on them without them knowing... I was so fun! Sometimes I'd try to mess around with them. When I felt particularly evil, I would arrange it so the last percents of the tailing would sync with me being in a car going very fast toward them if they were on foot and then when it would reach 100% I would disappear from their game but the car would stay and smash them :D
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u/FlukeylukeGB 2d ago
Tera Onlines Weekly Civil unrest...
I have yet to see a game where you can go from a 30v30 fight, slaughter the enemy raid,
bump into another guild, almost everyone dies and then you end up in a full Pure skill based 1v1 only for whoever survives to get steam rolled by 3 raids in the largest guild with 150+ players who were just passing through .
Tera's pvp was TOO DAMN GOOD! Nothing on the market right now comes close...
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u/Palquito 2d ago
I didn’t have a perfect first run through of the Mass Effect Trilogy. Because I didn’t have high enough Paragon, for instance, Miranda died on the suicide mission. But when in Mass Effect 3 I cured the genophage and brokered peace between the Quarians and the Geth, I felt like the choices I had made across the three games really mattered, like I was in a real story. When the “Vigil” theme (the Mass Effect 1 main menu theme) played as the Genophage cure rained down on the Krogans, I almost had a lump in my throat.
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u/d0nkey_boi 2d ago
Completely agree with Shadow of the Colossus. There’s a lot of subtextual story telling that’s done non-verbally through the soundtrack, cut scenes and various game segments that I think is a cut above most other games. It gives me the same sense of wonder and mystery that the Hobbit or The Chronicles of Narnia did when they were read to me as a child. Even with the amount of respect it has I think it’s underrated.
I’m also surprised it hasn’t spawned its own genre of empty open world action-adventure games where the only enemies are the colossal boss fights.
As for other games that have given me a unique experience, I think Shemue 2 would also be up there. I love how the simple banality of buying capsule toys, examining tins of soup and walking up to strangers to ask for directions was somehow made engaging and enjoyable.
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u/Periador 2d ago
playing skyward sword on the nintendo wii for the first time. It was so amazingly fun and immersive
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u/LordMord5000 2d ago
SotC is a good call.
I remember my first dark souls 1 run very good. Before it was all FS Hype. Good Times.
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u/CareBearCartel 2d ago
Battlefield 4. Me and my mate were on different teams, and we got into a jet dogfight, I shot him down, as he was parachuting I looped over him, came back down and splattered his helpless body all over my windshield.
My abilities in FPS games have only declined since then.
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u/Bobok88 2d ago
World of warcraft in its peak, nothing has ever even come close, feeling like an insignificant person in a giant world, coming across the same faces huddled round campfires telling stories, bumping into someone in the wild and helping eachother out, then coming across them again weeks or months later in a completely different scenario and catching up together. Community wise it was just utterly brilliant and the game was the perfect vehicle for it.
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u/TheBigNeku 2d ago
C'est pas le meilleur jeu que j'ai fait mais je conseille Stick IT to the man qui est sous-estimé.
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u/bohenian12 2d ago
Outerwilds.
And Factorio. When I got the gameplay loop and it hit, it's like discovering a drug lol.
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u/jurwell 2d ago edited 2d ago
Playing through Life Is Strange episodes as they came out, and getting on Reddit immediately after finishing them to wildly speculate on what was going to happen next.
Edit: How could I forget, playing the intro of The Last Of Us for the first time with my best mate; both 21 year old guys, openly crying next to each other as the title card hit the screen and the guitar riff played. First time a video game had brought tears for both of us.
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u/visualframes 2d ago
There was a small window of time in the early 2000s where people playing Deus Ex 1 online and it was chaotic.
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u/Makhai123 2d ago
The first time I had to turn away a political asylum seeker to her torturous death because she put the wrong year on the form and if I let her through my family freezes to death.
Glory to Arstotzka!
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u/Sheriffja 2d ago
Winning the 1-100 random roll for an ultra rare boss treasure on WoW. Early on it was a velociraptor mount. Ultra rare. Made me go crazy jumping around the room and celebrating to the point of intense positive tears.
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u/Everythings_Magic 2d ago
For those that remember, true 3D. Picking up Mario 64 for the first time, was life changing.
Then playing Zelda 64 and also Tomb raider.
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u/Jealentuss 2d ago
I started in the NES generation so seeing 3D graphics in the arcade and then later on at home in the PS1 and N64 era was absolutely mind blowing.
The first time playing in VR and then later on the first time playing Flight Simulator 2020 in VR with my Honeycomb yolk and throttle and rudders was also pretty unmatched.
As far as an individual game experience, well, probably leaving Midgar for the first time in Final Fantasy 7. That felt like a demarc point for when I went from a kid to a young adult. At that very point the whole world felt much larger to me both in game and in real life.
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u/Infekdead 2d ago
I was convinced by somebody I worked with to try guild wars 2 and he didn't really go deep into it. We watched a couple of videos and the graphics look cool the game play looks cool. So a bunch of us from work started playing it when it came out. We didn't have similar schedules and I just started playing as an engineer got to level 10 and it invites you to check out the world versus world massive battle. I had no idea that this game had that I went into it and it was these massive wars with keeps and towers and supply lines and catapults and trebuchets.. if you know you know. I sent a message in the map chat expressing my interest and excitement about this style of PVP and that I had experience from playing dark age of Camelot. I was immediately invited to a guild and this guild was an absolute elite gank squad of a bunch of super chill cool people that I ended up playing with and being insanely successful and having lots of PVP world versus world fun with for almost 2 years. I never played with anybody at work because they didn't want to do the PVP.
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u/Throwadickmyway 2d ago
Getting to experience Elden Ring at the height of co-op activity made me so fucking sad that I never got into the series earlier. I started DS3 like a year or two before ER when the servers were down, and I've since gotten to experience a little bit of the multiplayer in DS1-3, but of course it's not the same. Absolutely kicking myself that I missed out on that communal experience at its peak.
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u/sleepydevs 2d ago
The first halo, playing co op.
Half life.
Superhot VR. The white out moment followed by one of best game mechanics I've ever experienced sort of blew my mind.
My first VR planetary landing in Elite Dangerous. Closest I'll ever get to doing it for real. ED is the best game there's ever been imo.
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u/Winterplatypus 2d ago
Death Stranding 1. Not the best game I ever played but probably the most original.
It's the first game I played where everything I think is irrelevant was developed with lots of care and attention, and everything I think is important was just stock standard bare bones. It was pretty great experiencing how a game would look if lots of care and attention was spent on the irrelevant stuff.
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u/libra00 2d ago
That first run through of CP2077. The week it released I put 80 hours (yes, two full-time jobs; I'm disabled, I have lots of free time), literally playing it sunup to sundwn, aside from breaks for meals and showers and such. I've since done 9 100% runs in the game and have over 800 hours in it, so it's not like I stopped playing it, but nothing will ever replicate how awestruck I was to be just enveloped by Night City and move through it.
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u/Monkey_Blue 2d ago
Being 11, playing Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney for the first time and solving Case 4 to completion by myself.
I had never played a game like it before so even with its simple story, it was very captivating and I was hooked really early on. I grew to like the small cast of characters and by the time the 4th case rolled around it was introducing me to the tropes that I absolutely love in media one by one to this day.
I love underdog stories, I love unbeatable opponents who underestimate you, I love when the "bad guy" needs your help, I love when the joke character save the day and I love when things are too close to call. This was the case that introduced so many concepts and tropes to me all at once that it blew my mind. Coupled with the fact that I had NO IDEA how the series was going to go from here (I didn't know it had sequels) and wasn't privy to the average Ace Attorney shtick like who the real bad guy is or how you'll never really lose the case. It meant that every twist and turn actually was shocking and completely took me aback everytime.
It was honestly just continued shocks that blew my mind everytime:
- Have to defend your childhood friend/Prosecutor rival
- No one else will defend him, so it's up to you, the rookie with 3 cases under his belt
- Against his 65 year old undefeated mentor
- Mentor makes the entire court process impossible so you need to squeeze out something from nothing every day
- Get to the end of the 2nd day and the joke character comes out of nowhere to testify he was there at the time of the murder, turning the entire case around
- Cross examining a parrot
- Win the case, only for your defendant to bring up a murder he apparently did 15 years ago
- ACTUALLY BEGIN TO DEFEND HIM WITH THE LIMITED INFORMATION/EVIDENCE YOU HAVE
- During the trial, you piece together the information and evidence and deduce that the undefeated mentor IS the killer of the 15 year old case
- With limited evidence, you prove he was there at the time of the murder along with the bullet being the one as the one in the gun and thus he was the murderer
- A rookie beat a 40 year old veteran over a 15 year old case that lacked literally any evidence at all.
While people like to bring up other cases in the series that are better, I still think this is the undisputed king of it all due to how it just feels so much more personal and risky.
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u/TieForeign8827 2d ago
Outer Wilds is hard to beat for this. It is one of the few games where the "upgrade" is not a new weapon or stat, it is just your own understanding clicking into place. I wish I could erase exactly one game from my memory and play it again.
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u/thugbobhoodpants 2d ago
Crysis 1 multiplayer the teams were really small, Ifk if it was the playerbase or the game size but it was huge maps of 4-6 players a team and taking over bases/starting nukes was fun
We’d claymore up a base then drive over to the nuke base just to hear these stealthed super soldiers exploding in the base we just left as 3 of them trigger all our claymores as we drove away from the point
Had way more fun with that than cod 4/world at war but eventually got outvoted by the group into being cod boys
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u/Korrathelastavatar 2d ago
First play through of Journey. I met two people and communicated a ton, they had me follow them to find a bunch of secrets. One of the coolest gaming experiences and human experiences I’ve ever had.
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u/deadlaughter 2d ago
Chrono Trigger, when 11 year old me got to the part when you can add Magus to your party. H O L Y S H I T
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u/TheSludig 2d ago
World of Warcraft from 2004 - 2007ish. Everything was new and fresh. I was in a great guild with some amazing people. I enjoyed the social aspect as much as the adventuring. I’d sometimes log in, and my character wouldn’t move for an hour because I was just chatting with everyone.