So I wanted to take the time and write a list of some of the gaming moments that have stood out to me over the years. This list is for fun, and not in any ranking order.
Hallway fighting in MGS2 – So if you read my Thoughts on Metal Gear post a few years ago you will know that I didn’t fall in love with the first MGS game. I enjoyed it for what I played but it wasn’t until years later that I went back and played it. I truthfully bought MGS2 on a whim during its release week so I hadn’t really followed any prerelease information on the game. Needless to say I was hooked from day one of playing. What really got me hooked was one awesome moment that I had not really experienced anything like it before. During the beginning chapter you are on a tanker filled with enemies. The tanker itself has a great level design filled with all kinds of different rooms and areas. One of those areas is a tight corridor where as you walk through each doorway there is just enough cover on either side of the walkway. Easily one of my favorite moments was when I had set an alarm off and had enemies shoot at me down the hall as I was in cover returning fire. Sure I had played plenty of games that you shoot in, but this was one of the first times I can remember being in cover, having bullets fly by as I had my back pressed against the wall and would lean over and fire back. It felt, and with the camera angle, looked like an action movie. It grabbed my attention, and could be argued what opened the door to me falling in love with the series.
Learning how to play Hitman 2 – Hitman is a series I would love to one day revisit and write my thoughts on each game like I’ve done with MGS, Batman Arkham series and Assassin’s Creed. But back with Hitman 2 released I had no idea what to expect when I started playing. I remember watching the trailers for it and deciding I wanted to try it out. I played through the first tutorial mission as enemies attacked where Agent 47 lived and really there was no issue. Then I started the first real mission, I had to get into a crime bosses estate, get into his mansion, kill him and get out. Now in 2002 I had never played a game like this. So I tried several unsuccessful attempts to get past the guards only to die a bullet riddled death. After no less than 45 minutes I was about to give up and try and find a way to return the game. But then it happened, I managed to take out the flower delivery guy, use his suit to get past the guards, then go on to find a way to sneak it. Once I got in the door with that I was hooked on the experimentation of the game’s levels. I had a blast retrying that mission over and over, then I fell in love with the following levels. I look back and I don’t think so much of how I completed the 1st mission, but the feeling of it clicking how this game was meant to be played. It opened my eyes to the freedom I had, and honestly this series has been one of my favorites ever since.
The Twists of Assassin’s Creed – So there are 2 big twist I’m talking about here, the fact that the game was set in the present with the past being a simulation, and also the major twist with the ending of AC2. Ok so if you have read my post from a few years ago, I honestly predicted the memory manipulation of the first game. A preview a year or so before release mention after killing a target there was an odd scene looking like present day doctors standing over you. That just stuck out to me and reminded me of the novel to Planet of the Apes which has a very similar scene in it. But I liked when my prediction was true, and honestly one of my biggest issues of the last few games has been how present day was handled. It gave the series an overarching story that allowed each game to have its own “chapter” of the story. Granted in the first game I had no idea how the series would grow over these last 10+ years, but it still was a really cool concept to, and frankly since the game ends with a battle over this mind controlling apple that has no explanation on how it works, I felt like the present day helped make the story make sense. The emails you could read started building basic building blocks for the lore of the game.
Now speaking of the apple at the end of the game, from the end of the first game I really wanted to know more about it. What was it, where did it come from, and how could that technology exist at that time, were all questions I was left with for 2 years. My closest thought was it had to be aliens. So cut to the end of AC2 and we find out about “Those Who Came Before” and the questions we had were answered in a way that was fulfilling, while also giving us so many more. It was an enjoyable twist and cliffhanger where most games, movies, and TV shows give us those extremely frustrating cliffhangers that leave us more ticked off than satisfied. What I liked about it was that we got hints throughout the game that there was something more than we knew with the “Truth” objects in the game. They showed us a vaguely past but almost futuristic scene of a couple running that we learned their names were Adam and Eve. While it would still take a few games to really understand that ending or the Truth scenes, it really defined what the lore and story to the game was, instead of a franchise of episodes.
RPGs are OK - Okay, I’ll be honest and say that until 2 games came along, I would run the other way when it came to playing RPGs. I was under the fool hearted idea that all RPGs were played in a turn based combat style, something that I learned within 5 minutes of playing Final Fantasy 7 wasn’t for me…at all. For some reason I connected that style of combat with the term RPG, so for the late 90’s and early 00’s, I didn’t touch a game classified as an RPG. Yep games like the first Fable game looked cool but I was convinced I’d be turned away by the combat so I never touched it. It took two games to fully convince me not all RPGs had the combat system I didn’t like. Those two games were the excellent X-Men Legends and of course, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
So first off, I’m a huge comic guy, esp when you talk 90’s into early 00’s. I’m also a huge Wolverine fan (I even have the tattoo to prove it) so naturally from the moment I found out about this game I was excited. I still remember 2002 at some point reading online that the latest issue of Game Informer had a cover story on a new Wolverine game. So without delay I drove to the mall to go to GameStop and purchase this issue. I remember this issue had early information on the Wolverine game, but also on X-Men Legends. From the graphics (that sadly would change to the soon to be overused Cel-Shade style) to the design of the world and the story hints, man I was excited about this game. But it had that nasty 3 letters attached to it; RPG. I remember being put off at the idea of having to just watch as Wolverine used his claws instead of getting to control him using them. But then about a year later I read an interview saying they had made the clear decision to keep it real time because of that very reason. It’s been almost 14 years since I played it, but man I remember it like yesterday. Just exploring the X-Mansion and Danger Room, talking with all the X-men, those so damn awesome Flashback missions, this game had everything. It’s the game that showed me RPG wasn’t code for turn based, it really was a Role Playing Game. I made my team and upgraded them how I wanted. I chose their uniforms, I mean this really was a game made for people like me. And while yeah I could add X-Men Legends 2 on this topic, it really just improved a lot of what this game had. That’s why I put down Oblivion.
I still remember in the days of Oblivion’s launch questioning rather I’d like it or not, still convinced it would be turn based. I asked a buddy who insisted I play it, to swear to me that if I hit X, my guy swung the sword lol (Beau if you’re reading this, that memory is burned into my head). Luckily I went with his word and wow, just wow. Oblivion could have been my first Real RGP in the sense that I made my character and it was me controlling this character’s life in a game. From the moment I left the sewers to the last time I played in several years later, this game was far beyond anything I could have ever guessed a game could be. If you didn’t play it in 06 and picked it up now after its own sequel and several other amazing open world RPGs, you would think I was being way to kind. Time hasn’t been the greatest to Oblivion, but understand this is the game that made this style of game as popular the style has become these past 12 years, it truly is a trail blazer. Were there other games like this before? Of course, but this was the game that took what I thought an RPG, and game could be, and blew it out of the water.
GTA3 – I’ve talked before about the first time I’ve played GTA3 in my GTA post, but it deserves to be on this list. The truth is I didn’t know how to even play a game like GTA3 when I rented back in the fall of 01. I played it for the week I had it just doing one mission after the other, no exploring or experimenting with it. I was playing this sandbox game in a very linear way. I had never heard or played an open world game, and I’m not sure if the term sandbox was even around before this game. I turned it in and thought it was cool and all, but I wasn’t racing out to buy it. Then my buddy bought and while hanging out with him, we started to play the game the way you should play it. After that I no kidding spent 2 months trying to find this game to buy, it was the first game I ever had to search for. This game makes it on my list because if you were like me and this was your first time playing a game like this, it was huge moment. We were free to play how we wanted to. We had 3 cities to just explore, cause mayhem, and heck drive a taxi in. Of course this game is dated now (I’ve played it a few times just last year and yeah it’s dated), but there is still fun in there, and more to the point, this game created a whole new style of gaming that for over 16 years games have been trying out.
Late Night Gaming – This is something I’m sure everyone has done, but for me I always go back to being 16, its summer time, I’ve got my first job, and I’d get home late from work and just game out to Die Hard Trilogy on PS1 and WCW Revenge on N64. I’d sit there for hours just relaxing and playing and of course like most 16 year olds, I’d wake up late in the day the next day. I’ve gamed late a lot in life, but when people talk about doing it, I don’t think of anything recently, it always brings me back to those 2 awesome games, during that awesome summer in my life. I’m sure Die Hard wouldn’t be as fun now, and WCW would also be severally dated as well. But man what a great time in my life.
Finally being Indiana Jones (without being Indiana Jones) – I’m an 80’s kids so Indiana Jones is pretty much my favorite film series, with The Last Crusade being my all-time favorite movie. Seeing that games have been a pretty big hobby of mine since the late 80’s/early 90’s of course I’ve always wanted a great Indiana Jones game that made me feel like I was Dr. Jones. Sure over the years there have been a few decent games like Infernal Time Machine on N64, or the really fun Emperor’s Tomb on PS2, but even as good as those games might have been, none really made you feel like you were truly an adventurer. Sure you had the hat and whip, but the personality of the movies were missing. That is until another lovable treasure hunter showed up in Pop-Culture named Nathan Drake in the Uncharted series. Between the cinematic styles of the games, the dialogue that made you feel like you were seeing a true family of friends, the giant set pieces, the supernatural (somewhat) items, to the everyday guy in an extraordinary adventure feel you got for Drake. Heck the 4thgame even gave us a rope that might as well been a whip the way it was used.
True story, in early 2008 I picked up my PS3 with my first game and only game at the time being Uncharted, and naturally I was hooked. Flash forward to the release of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and of course the itch to play out an adventure as Indiana Jones was there (let’s be honest, us gamers always want to play out the adventures we see in movies, its why movie tie-in games sold well enough over the years). So I picked up a used copy of Emperor’s Tomb and while it was still a fun Indy game, I found myself drawn to replay Uncharted. Yeah I didn’t have a whip or a fedora, but Drake had that roguish charm that Indy had. The combat in the game isn’t some complex skilled fighter style, but simple fist fights and shoot outs. There is so much to love in that, and all of it made me feel like I was really living out my Indiana Jones fantasies. And what is great about the Uncharted games, is that they started out as a Tomb Raider/Indiana Jones mix, but by the 4th game (and its amazing expansion Lost Legacy) it had morphed into its own identity that Tomb Raider rebooted itself to be.
I’m not crying, you’re crying – The Last of Us and Metal Gear Solid 3, 2 of the only games that made me pause and get lost in emotions. While I have never physically shed a tear or teared up playing a game, these games had 2 scenes that really hit hard. I’ll start with the first chapter of Naughty Dog’s epic The Last of Us. It’s a testament to how well it’s written that in just a few minutes of playing, you already feel the connection between Joel and Sara. When the game switches to you carrying Sara and trying to avoid the zombies (or whatever they are called) was very tense, then it happens. Sara is dying in your arms. Now I played this right after my daughter was born and it really got to me. I couldn’t imagine what Joel would have been feeling. It also made it easy to understand why he would be in the mindset he spends most of the game in with trying to keep Ellie from getting to close, and how once she did get close he became so protective of her. But to the point, that moment where your daughter is dying, in which she is dying scared and in pain, just gets to you.
The other moment wasn’t quite as sad, but just a profound moment none the less. In MGS3 you spend most of the game on the hunt for your mentor turned traitor. When you do run into her, outside of her dumping you on your butt, you really get the feel of how strong of a bond you had with her. It’s not a lover type bond, it really is “this is the woman who trained you, made you who you are, and you would have fought for her any time” and she has turned her back on you and her country. Flash forward to the end of the game, after the game makes you kill her up close (and they do a great job of never making her feel like a true villain) and you find out she only became a traitor because as a spy when the game’s main villain shot an American missile expectantly, it meant she had to agree to “turn” on the USA and allow you to kill her to keep America from any responsibility. She dies a martyr that no one will ever know of and rests in an unmarked grave. This wasn’t a tear jerker, but it was such a deep moment and revelation, I honestly can’t think of anything as profound as this in the games I’ve played. Sure AC2 had a crazy ending, but this was something that almost felt real, and by the end of the game I knew why no matter they would possibly show or explain it, I would understand why Big Boss would become disenfranchised with the government.
The big graphics jump – I know graphics are a huge part of games now, release great playing game but have crappy graphics and people won’t forgive you. I won’t lie and say graphics don’t matter to me, but I’m also not a graphics fend that demands amazing graphics on every game I play, it’s just a nice touch. And while games now a days have breath taking visuals, I will still hold firm that the visual leap from the PS1 era to the PS2 generation was the biggest jump ever. I remember being in awe of going from the PS1 games like the previously mention Die Hard Trilogy and WWF games of the time, to playing Smuggler’s Run for the first time. We didn’t have small areas in linear paths, the graphics allowed us big environments to get lost in. WWF Smackdown Know Your Role came out and as big of a wrestling fan as I was (am) I was blown away. Then Metal Gear Solid 2 came out and not only was it detailed and beautiful (at the time more so than now) but ice cubes would even melt! Characters went from rough lines and stretched faces (seriously go look at MGS1 or Syphon Filter, they look like lego faces that have been smeared) to characters that could convey emotions. They only got better as time went. Now I’m not saying we didn’t see a big jump to the PS3/360 generations or again to the current generation, but those have been more defining, enhancing, and making things HD, and some games do it amazingly well. I’m just saying for me the PS2 era has been the biggest improvement out the gate in the graphics department than any other generation.
Achievements/Trophies – Ok I’ll admit when the 360 launched and a buddy of mine started talking about achievements I really didn’t get the big idea. About 4 months later and I was the proud owner of a 360 and my mind was changed. I will definitely have to admit that in the first 4 years of me owning the 360 I was a bit of an achievement hunter. I would check daily to websites to see if the latest game had their achievements posted yet, read for the best strategies to unlock them, and spend hours trying to get the multiplayer ones by boosting them. It was almost an unspoken competition with my friends to see who could get the most…I never stood a chance. The closest I got was in the summer of 06 while boosting with another buddy, at one point I got within 5k of my 2 friends I reference often in the posts. But in no time they blew past me again. Of course I did boost my score with easy games like TMNT or the shameful 45 sec 1K in Avatar, but most of the time I just would spend most of the time playing the games I wanted but achievements would always be my big focus on how I played. Stealthy gives you a 100 point achievement? Well then I will never touch these weapons! Honestly at some points I realized I wasn’t playing the game I way I wanted to, and in some cases I’d replay several parts over and over to get a small point and end up being so annoyed I’d dislike the game. In 2010 I had a change in jobs and for the most part of that year, I only got to play God of War 3 and UCF 2010 and with only an hour here and there to play, achievements/trophies didn’t really factor into how I played. Once my schedule calmed down I was able to get to Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead Redemption and I noticed that yeah I still looked and went after achievements, but it was more about which ones I really wanted vs trying to get as much as possible. For example I wanted the 100% completion in RDR so I had no issue spending as much time as it took, while there were plenty of other achievements in the game I didn’t bother with. That’s how it’s been for me the last 8 years. Sure I still read trophies list and guides, and I always go for the platinum trophy if it seems fun or if by going for it you get to enjoy the game in different ways than I might have (Hitman 2016 is a perfect example), or if it’s not really changing how I play and not much extra effort to get it (Horizon Zero Dawn).
So in 2012 I experienced my 3rddreaded Red Ring of Death and that was enough to bring me back to my true gaming allegiance of Sony and PlayStation. Of course I had racked up a few trophies from 08-12 but it was at this point playing games exclusively on the PS3 that I began to really love how trophies worked. See the achievements had me hooked because I was always trying to get the highest number out of a game’s possible 1000 points so that my overall Gamerscore would grow higher and higher. With trophies, them not having a number score, for me at least, didn’t make me obsessed with collecting them, while still having the same fun unlocking them. The way that the trophies add to your overall level really kept me focused on playing games I wanted to as well. Sure I could play a bunch of easy games to boost but the higher the trophy level you are, the more individual trophies it takes to unlock the next level. For example, get 2 platinum trophies on level 3 will get you to or over level 4. However get 2 platinum trophies on level 18 and you may only see you progress to level 19 slightly go up. For me that works and honestly I couldn’t tell you off hand what my overall level is. I look at the trophy list, see what I’ll naturally get, what looks fun to attempt, and what could extend an awesome game and I go for those. If I don’t get them no big deal. This has allowed me to really focus back on just gaming, while still also getting the satisfaction of earning those little milestones.
Video and Picture Sharing – This might sounds crazy but in 2013 when the PS4 and X-Box One debuted, but the biggest selling point to me was the idea of being able to make videos of gameplay and also take screen shots. It wasn’t any of the games or graphics on display, those 2 features really made me excited. I’ve talked about PlayStation enough that everyone should that when I was faced with the decision of which console to get (I had decided there really was no point in getting both) I chose the PlayStation. 3 things ultimately had me swing that way over the X-Box One where all of my friends were. One was brand loyalty of course, but that could have been forgotten. Two were the exclusives, which is probably the number one reason I went with it. Three was the Sharing feature. Sony allowed 15 minutes while X1 only allowed around 3 minutes. Yep as crazy as that might sound, that feature won me over. To me the idea of having something cool happen in a game and share it sounded just amazing. How many times do we talk about cool stuff in games? Now we can share it! Personally the idea of how many times I would play a WWE game and have an amazing match or sequence and being able to share it was awesome. I have a Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter account that are filled with pics and videos. What I also love is over the years these features have been expanded upon to allow custom backgrounds out of our pics and even being able to stream the game you’re playing. Yeah none of this is mind blowing for most people, but no joke, I have a standing rule that every day I play I have to at least share one picture so that in a year I can look back on Timehop and see what I was playing. This feature is my personal favorite feature this generation has brought us.
GET IN THE BOAT!!!! – I wanna take a trip back to the spring of 2006. I was the brand new owner of a 360 and I bought Far Cry since a buddy of mine spoke so highly of it (same friend who swore I’d love Oblivion so of course I’d take his word). Sure I played some of the single player and it was a lot of fun (that I hope and pray I get the chance to go back to at some point in life) but I decided to jump on X-Box live. Here’s the thing, I am not a multiplayer guy, and I’ve said it a 1,000 times. I just don’t enjoy a lot of death match type games. Sure here and there is fun but I’ve never had enjoyed just running and shooting people over and over. But it was a new generation, I finally had internet in my apartment, so why wouldn’t I do something on Live other than download the Freys “Cable Car” hot pick of the month (true story, I kept my 360 until 2016 and I never could bring myself to delete that song off it)? So my friend and I jump on some Far Cry multiplayer….and I was hooked. From creating our own maps (mine always sucked) to us find this one dude who legit made the best maps, my friend and I spent what felt like months where every night we would forgo whatever single player game we were playing and jump on Far Cry’s multiplayer. Like I said, as much as I enjoyed the single player, it got left behind and never touched. The peak of it, and really my entire online multiplayer experience has to be the time my friend and I were on a map that to get win we had to get on a boat and get out of the area. I honestly don’t remember what the conditions were but I just remember screaming over the mic for my friend to “GET IN THE BOAT!!!” We both were laughing, and we were doing everything we could to get in the boat and get out of there for the win.
Now there was another time when all I needed was a to beat the Mercy area in Left for Dead and after my same friend and I made it to the helicopter as he got in right as I went to get in I was pulled back. I screamed for him (he already had the achievement) to get out of the helicopter, but no, he laughed like a madman and stayed in long enough that the helicopter took off, with me almost back to it, only to die. Yes Beau…that was an asshat moment you provided! Same friend also ruined the big twist to the beginning of AC3 legit a day before I would have discovered it on my own. Beau I will pay you back!
The Scariest Moment in Gaming History – There I was, decided I would treat myself to the newly released Saint’s Row game. Get home and go to pop it in, to feel like a gangsta, to have a GTA experience on 360 almost 2 years before GTAIV would drop, and what do you know, THERE WAS NO DISK IN THE CASE! I panic, what store is going to believe that there was no game in a sealed case? I look all over, maybe it fell on the floor? Nope, there just never was a game. Finally I drive back to the store, mentally preparing myself for what is going to be an uphill battle to prove I’m not trying to use some lame excuse to get a free game. The store was the much missed Blockbuster, where luckily I knew the manager and she didn’t even question me and even told me I was the second person that day who had the same issue with Saint’s Row. But hey, for about 25 mins I thought I was in for a bad day! Of course all that and in the end I really didn’t like Saint’s Row (until the third game).
Breaking a Friends Heart – This is the most recent, and it involves a buddy of mine sending a text in a group chat with our other friend over the moon about a new Knockout Kings. We all were thrilled, until I did some research and the article was misquoted. While it sucks, my friend’s reaction has been great! And Yes Mike, this is an Asshat moment from me to you!
Well that’s my list. Maybe I’ll add to it as time passes, but boy this started off as a simple “moments in games”, but over 5,000 words later, it has turned into a really fun list to make.
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