When was the last time your jaw dropped/you were genuinely amazed by something gaming related?

[Thwomp]

Last of Us was the first game I played on my PS4, and at the start when you play as Joel's daughter I thought the game had frozen. I just assumed it was an in-game cinematic because it was so clean.

I think on the whole this gen has been a disappointment so far in terms of graphical wowing. I bought Killzone SF based on the screenshots and it didn't look as good in motion.

[Padaxes]

Elite dangerous in the Rift. Mind Blowing.

[Christopher]

For me, the first time I played Resogun, hearing "Save the last humans" through the speaker on the pad, seeing the gorgeous voxels on display and the gameplay was so incredibly tight I couldn't help but feel in awe, I felt like I had fallen into the arcades of the 80's.

[AK Bell]

All the way back to Quake 2. The enemies ducking out of the way of fire. Game AI has improved, but really they're still set up as a shooting range in SP and don't appear as impressive as Quake 2. Well done to Halo for being about as good.

[Beitel]

The last time was just a few days ago, being amazed by how darn good X-Com: Enemy Unknown was. It was just a build-up of being slowly, slowly more amazed for the first few hours by the fun I was having.

Before that I must think of the intro to MGS V that is just astonishing in it's over-the-topness. I'm not sure whether it was the tank bursting in or the fucking

flying whale of fire

that had my jaw dropping the most.

Every time I beat Ready Steady Go on Ouendan on a new difficulty level could be seen as one of the most intense moments in my life.

Resident Evil 4 is also filled with those moments. I think it was the moment of me being chased by a giant statue was the most surprising, and had me realising how many brilliant moments the game was still giving me after ten hours or so.

[Max Damage]

Had NaissanceE in my Steam library for ages, finally got round to playing it(in 3D) and got to a certain point early on and my jaw literally dropped, playing that game on an Oculus/Vive would be insane.

Also agree with OP, The witcher 3 looks amazing in 3D, so much presence and depth to the world.

[gizmo1990]

Crikey my last one was probably seeing the modern warfare opening. The one on the oil tanker at night. It took my breath away that they'd been able to capture the wet atmosphere and sas so well.

Prior to that it was probably seeing Tombraider running in a 3dfx card for the first time. Now that was truly jaw dropping.

[Clyde]

Super Mario 64. I was young but seeing Mario in 3D was just awesome.

Final Fantasy VII. First JRPG I played (surprise) and this game grabbed my attention like no other. It was probably the first game I played to have the story as a major part of the game.

Grand Theft Auto III. I think this game speaks for itself. I didn't really know much about GTA III until my brother bought a PS2.

[Fusty Gusset]

Elite dangerous in the Rift. Mind Blowing.

Agreed, that was the last time for me.

[strider]

Only two games have made a massive impact on me in the last decade.

The first was seeing Resident Evil 4 demoed for the first time while working on gamesTM. We'd read a press release about all this ridiculous stuff Capcom was apparently changing (shooting individual body parts, no zombies, exciting boss battles etc. etc. and it all sounded too good to be true. We saw the demo of it a week or two later and I actually lifted the gamecube up to look underneath it as I genuinely couldn't believe the GameCube could run something that astonishing.

More recently it was pretty much every single aspect of The Last Of Us, proving once again that Naughty Dog, and not David Cage, know how to make incredibly immersive videogame experiences that wouldn't look out of place on the silver screen.

I clearly have a thing for zombies that aren't zombies.

The earliest was probably 3D Deathchase. you played it and pretended you were in the speederbike chase from Return Of The Jedi.

[gospvg]

Journey - Just a beautiful experience, enjoyed every second.

Would love to play that game in a VR experience.

[PK]

Journey - Just a beautiful experience, enjoyed every second.

Yeah actually, aside from graphical fidelity the last two times I was amazed by games in general were in Journey and Gone Home (end of game spoilers for both):

The amount of relief and joy I felt when you find out Samantha hasn't killed herself & when Journey suddenly bursts with colour after you think you've died on the mountainside really made me stop and think "Wow, a game just evoked a reaction that strong; I didn't know they could do that".

[Boozy The Clown]

The end of Episode 3 of Life Is Strange. That was due to the story rather than any graphics or whizz bangs.

Doing my first space dock in Elite Dangerous just due to the sheer scale, then again when Karzee showed me how big the map is.

Maybe not jaw dropping but the audio in Forza 6 stills gives me a tingle every time I pick up on the environmental effects when you hear the engine notes reverberating off the scenery.

[b00dles]

Where would one find this 3D patch for the Witcher, I'm very intrigued to see what it looks like.

Thanks much!

[Sie]

I normally hate westerns but the world and atmosphere of Red Dead Redemption was unlike anything else at the time.

[Max Damage]

Where would one find this 3D patch for the Witcher, I'm very intrigued to see what it looks like.

Thanks much!

http://helixmod.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/the-witcher-3-wild-hunt.html?m=1

Or you can try Tridef3D which is what I use.

https://www.tridef.com/cart/product.php?productid=3

[b00dles]

Cool. Cheers for that, I'll give it a try later.

[ScouserInExile]

There must have been loads since, but the one, big "holy fuck" moment that really sticks in my mind was the first time I saw the Earthquake weapon in WipEout 2097. The whole track ripples! I can even remember where I was stood I first saw it (Sony stand, Top Gear motorshow in Silverstone) and the collective, awe struck "wow" of everyone around me.

[marcus]

The opening 10 minutes or so of Ori And The Blind Forest were pretty jaw-dropping to me.

[Opinionated Ham Scarecrow]

Clicked thread expecting Witcher 3.

Got Witcher 3 in first post.

My answer would be Witcher 3.

[SeanR]

honestly?

AC:Syndicate. There are little touches that... the walls with the buttresses. My school playgound had that when I was a kid. It recalls so much of the london that I knew as a kid.

in the 70's and 80s

[Broker]

The last time was the fake Killzone 2 trailer at the PS3 launch. Nothing graphically or in AI has given me that feeling since the PS2 era really, I feel like most of the games I've played since are just derivations on the same forms.

The exception of course being Dark Souls, which not only provided little amazing moments throughout, but also felt like one long jaw dropping moment the whole time I played it and still occasionally amazes me. But that's more of a supreme and untouchable elegance of design than a flash OMG moment. It's more HBO than Hollywood, where you're not amazed by it until you've had some time to think about how fucking clever it all is.

[Broker]

Also, I really, really need to play Witcher 3.

[Qazimod]

Remember those moments in games like DMC, Viewtiful Joe or Bayonetta when you enter a really good boss battle for the first time and you experience mixed feelings of panic and glee? Where the boss' moveset and damage instill panic but you're freaking out over the actual design of the boss and how much fun he/she/it is to fight? I was left open-mouthed during the Astral Clocktower boss battle in Bloodborne: The Old Hunters, not because the visuals or music were anything special but because the battle is so good. The boss has so much mobility and fast attacks that it's easy to end up on the back foot, but when you adapt to the pace and your dodging improves it's a breathtaking duel.

[b00dles]

Before Witcher but worth mentioning again... KERBLAMMO moments in VLR. Genuinely aghast at the twists and turns in the storyline, the fact that people had actually come up with such a completely mental storyline that all made sense and then how it was translated into a video game that was also entirely aware of the player and the knowledge of that player, rather than the supposed knowledge of the character - like in Fallout 4 for instance.

Some of the Kerblammo's actually made me put my DS down for a moment and try and work it all out in my head. I don't think any game ever (aside from 999 maybe) made me do anything of the sort. Normally games' writing is so simple and linearly delivered that you can pretty much tell a lot of the outcomes, or it's just plain lazy.

As an aside in relation to the above, I unlocked the Medic character 'Doc' in Rainbow Six Siege, which admittedly doesn't need any sort of story for it's purpose but I actually couldn't believe how easily I could finish this line of dialogue in the movie for the character;

"Sometimes to save a life....

you have to take one

Such a ridiculous and lazy cliche.

[Mike1812]

Seeing the size of the map in Just Cause 2.

[Camel]

Remember those moments in games like DMC, Viewtiful Joe or Bayonetta when you enter a really good boss battle for the first time and you experience mixed feelings of panic and glee? Where the boss' moveset and damage instill panic but you're freaking out over the actual design of the boss and how much fun he/she/it is to fight? I was left open-mouthed during the Astral Clocktower boss battle in Bloodborne: The Old Hunters, not because the visuals or music were anything special but because the battle is so good. The boss has so much mobility and fast attacks that it's easy to end up on the back foot, but when you adapt to the pace and your dodging improves it's a breathtaking duel.

Yep. Seven Force from Gunstar Heroes comes to mind. Couldn't believe it when I first encountered it.

[Yewone]

First race in the rain on Driveclub. In fact the weather effects still regularly amaze me after god knows how many hours play.

I was also pretty blown away during the PS4 launch, playing Resogun streamed perfectly onto the Vita. Felt like the future had arrived!

[Sponge]

Started up Elite, popped the Oculus on and looked around the cockpit. The sense and presence of suddenly being in the game was genuinely phenomenal, a defining moment in games for me.

[Space Renegade Ulala]

Well if we're talking gaming related...

A few years back, a Street Fighter player named Poongko came on stage and did a Stone Cold Steve Austin intro before his match with Daigo at Evo, then proceeded to beat the shit out of the great man (who was using the then top tier flavour of the month, Yun) using a far riskier and unfancied Seth. He bodied arguably the most famous Street Fighter player of them all at the biggest contest in the world. It was wonderful, jaw dropping holy-shit-did-that-really-just-happen stuff.