RetroGaming

I lived and breathed Morrowind.

But I've got optimistic insane news for you all

IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN

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

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

Man a lot of recent games have been amazing. God of War 2018. The return of Kratos in a whole new setting and gameplay style.

Elden Ring as my first souls game. Being an absolute souls noob, my build was shit. Every boss defeated truly felt amazing. The journey was long and hard to become Elden Lord. The environments, enemy design, it is truly and outstanding game.

Kingdome Come Deliverance 2. Has to be one of the best RPGs. It commits to what it is, and I have probably learned more about Bohemian history from the game than in school.

Baldur's Gate 3 as my first Baldur's Gate game. Nothing needs to be said about this absolute master piece. Except Laezel > Karlach > Shadowheart.

The Bayonetta franchise. What an amazing over the top experience. Especially Bayo 1 has this early playstation 1-2 vibes that tickles my monkey brain.

So many more games that I wish I could erase out of my mind to experience again for the first time.

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

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

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

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

Absolutely remarkable experience.

black and white, and HSGSS, SINCE i never had a PC to own until late 2000s, then it was WC3/SC1 BROOD war, then off and on rs.

I (horribly inefficiently) figured out a puzzle in Prime Mover last night that took me four hours over two days. It was a real hallelujah moment.

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

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

seeing the world of DOOM Eternal. It's just so detailed and SO DAMN FUN!!

Playing the Mass Effect Trilogy for the first time.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

After dragging my long suffering mum around every shop that might possibly still have a copy of The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and finally getting what must have been the last one anywhere.

We then have to go and do a whole load of other things all afternoon while I read the manual from back to front about a dozen times in the back of the car, getting more and more excited.

Then we finally got home but I had to help with dinner first and then eat all the while jabbering incessantly about how amazing it was going to be while I'm sure she just rolled her eyes and said "yes dear" and then I was finally allowed to put the N64 on and I then sat glued to it for hours in a state of wonder and amazement.

Truly the best experience I've ever had gaming.

Probably winter 91 or spring 92. Not sure when, but I saw the ads on TV and I needed to get Metroid II: Return of Samus.

I was 7.

I asked. I begged. And for Christmas or a birthday it came.

Every day when I came home from school, I played. Sometimes I took it with me and played at lunch.

Nobody else played that game. Nobody knew what I was talking about. I took the booklet with me and tried to draw the creatures.

I was stuck at one point. It lasted weeks. Maybe longer. One night before dinner I made some progress. My mother actually let me keep playing until I got to a save point.

Whatever feeling I had at that moment, I'm not sure I'll find it again, but my expression must have been enough. I made it to the save point.

Eventually I beat the game but I'd look forward to getting home to try and speedrun it 100% And eventually I could consistantly beat it under 3 hours with 100% items. I haven't had a game since that I've enjoyed as much except maybe a few shmups.

Halo 1 LAN parties

Nothing has ever topped Ultima Online for me. The right amount of complexity, with the right amount of players who actually immersed themselves in the game and acted like their character made it a true alternative world.

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

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

Being a 90s kid I feel that there were many mind blowing moments seeing the games evolve.

My first one was playing Shining Force 2 on the Sega Genesis with my dad.

Next was gen 1&2 Pokémon, I'm with you.

Next one was probably FF7 on the ps1. Remember having to switch disks while the game was running? 🤯

Next one was The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Kinda burnt out on games now. Adulting sucks

edit: The gb

Xenogears. It was a life-changing game for me. The concepts and philosophy it introduced to my teenage brain tangibly altered my world view over time. It broke me out of a mold I didn't even know I was in. Nothing compares to it for me. As a game, it's well made, but has it's share of sticking points. But it did for me something no other game has.

I've had similar feelings of wonder and awe in other games but not the same life altering impact to my world view.

In a more light-hearted "omg such game, much amazing, very nostalgia" category though, Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake 1, HL1, Stalker, Morrowind, and Oblivion all hold special places in my memories.

Three more modern games that really brought a sense of wonder to me are Nier Automata, Mirror's Edge 1, and Outer Wilds.

Vampire the masquerade bloodlines (god, what a mouthful of a title) is still the best rpg ive played to date. Troika games created a masterpiece here, even if it needed an unofficial community patch to be playable. The story is engaging and it is very easy to get immersed into the game world. It is a shame it does not get mentioned more often.

As for a more mainstream fantasy rpg, yeah I am with everybody on Oblivion. The first time you exit the dungeon, with the whole world right there for you to explore, was truly magical.

Halo : CE was the first game I split screened with my dad, and we spent hundreds of hours on it together. I remember the first time we beat the game on legendary, that final car ride was really something. Only wish I can someday share that feeling with my offspring.

Edit: typo, must have been thinking of Requiem as bloodlines 1.

Planetside 2.

Was pretty new to the game and just wsndering around as a sniper when a guy in a transport pulled up and told me to get in.

Boarded the transport and drove around for a bit when we crossed a hill that sat above an enemy camp.

I jumped out as he drove on and started scouting the camp from the hill. Felt a bit lonely and asking myself if jumping out here was a good idea at all.

After a while, I chose to shoot and see where it lands to see how high I need to aim to adjust for bullet drop.

Suddenly I hear a loud 'boom' and an explosion roughly where I was shooting at. Then another 'boom' and another explosion.

Turned around to be surprised by 5 friendly tanks in one line behind me unloading at the enemy camp.

After about 20 more seconds, my hill was swarmed with all kinds of friendly tanks and personell, just blasting away at the camp.

It was as if I went from a lonely scout newb to somehow spearheading the attack, which felt really cool.

The awe and grandeur of Occarina Of Time... at the time.

Disco Elysium is the best literature I've ever played.

I still feel like used to live in Skyrim. It was a place where I wanted to be and explore.

TF2/Halo CE multilayer mix of copetitive adrenaline and funny shenanigans

Those are the game experiences which stuck with me.

Someone else's comment about LAN parties jogged my memory. I only ever attended one (big one in a university auditorium), and for the most part, it was kind of meh. Until late in the night, a game of Savage got going, something myself and my friends had never played before. After a few other people hopping in and out of the commander role, I decided to give it a go. Before long, the game just clicked. I had four of my friends at the table around me designated as squad leaders and was barking orders to them as they moved across the map, I beefing them up with spells, poi ting out enemies, etc. We handedly shut down everything the opposing team could offer. It's the only time that I can recall getting into a real tactical squad-based flow.

I didn't chase that experience much, though, because nothing recreated the physical space I was in. I went on to play Savage 2, which I loved for a time, but I almost always eschewed the commander role.

Aerial dueling in Starsiege Tribes was a high for me that I will always chase. Any game that offers that freedom of movement + timing of shots always piques my interest. Wall running and leaping as the Alien in AVP 2 did much the same.

The result of waking the Wind Fish in Link’s Awakening broke something in me at such a young age that I don’t think I’ve since experienced as profoundly.

Psycho Mantis

Gaming my consciousness with shrooms and ket.

The absolute peak of gaming for me was the first time I got stoned out of my mind and played Minecraft. Probably like... circa 2012. I've never been able to get back to that place ever since lmao the colors were so vibrant, each pixel was absolutely perfectly placed. The light grey ui elements in your inventory... everything just tied together so perfect. It was like seeing a new color for the first time, but then every time after that is just, eh...

Playing Wing Commander very late at night, hit a large glass water bottle off the table with my elbow, and catch it with the same arm/hand before it reaches the floor to shatter and wake up the whole family.

Peak reaction times induced by VideoGame adrenaline never reached again.

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