Same. One of my friend's dad played all the old school DnD games and what not. I remember going over one day and seeing him play that, and when I asked him he was showing me a bunch of things with the open world and the characters. As soon as I was able to get it, I did, and I put in so much time into that game.
I was too young for Morrowind and started at Oblivion, but yeah, it's the Elder Scrolls games 100%. At the time, to me (age ~9), gaming was jumping and gunning around blocky worlds full of fake doors and imagining how cool it would be if GTA felt like an actual world instead of a blocked-out setpiece full of people whose only thoughts were to walk around, drive, or fight each other.
I started Oblivion and it was insane. I could go in nearly every house, I could have conversations with everyone, I could walk around picking up whatever objects and stealing stuff, then break out of jail when I got caught, I could get inducted into an assassination cult (even if I was really bad at lockpicking and struggled to get in the front door), etc. It was mindblowing and those sorts of features are why I prefer Bethesda titles even to these major titles everyone loves like Witcher 3.
I remember getting my first 2 computers connected over 10base2 LAN with T connectors and terminators and all that stuff just so me and my brother could play duke nukem 3d. It was awesome. I also remember one of the computers could barely run it and then only if shrinking the screen down. If more than 3 laser trip bombs went off at once... instant slideshow.
One of my most nostalgic games! I replay it yearly - the ambient sound effects and drone and atmosphere is incredible - the space levels have a creepy feeling despite the comedic tone it often goes for.
Deus Ex. I was 14, didn't really play or like first person shooters and only played it because it was in the pile of old games someone essentially dropped off on me. But I understood rather quickly that this game was something special, especially with the player's choices actually making a difference. I remember a moment when I was playing around with cheats and at one point spawned a Paul Denton next to his dead body in the lab under UNATCO just to be funny and when he started talking to me as if he hadn't died, a quick online search revealed that I didn't even know how deep your influence truly went.
I still don't really like or play first person shooters, but that's now mostly because Deus Ex has set my standards very, very high!
Deus Ex touched on a lot political issues. Another game from that era with a similar feeling of having to fight against the government is Nomad Soul. It's not as good as Deus Ex, but it features David Bowie which is a plus.
For me it was World of Warcraft. First time experiencing an MMO, so that was magical in it's own right but the fact that there were so few loading screens in that game despite it's size was just 🤯
i was tied between WoW and Diablo 2 for what blew my mind the most. WoW was also my first MASSIVE multiplayer game, i am still amazed my mom's laptop actually ran it XD
World of Warcraft for sure. My brother and I had downloaded the trial as a joke between us, making fun of the nerds... Next thing you know we could not log off. The size, the community, the music was just so captivating; I can still hear the score in my heard when I think of Teldrassil. The friends I made in game became closer than anyone I knew prior and some I still know and see today! It was lightning in a bottle for me and once my enthusiasm for WoW finally drained years later, no other MMO could really replace it.
For me, the original browser demo of Minecraft was really exciting. I grew up with LEGO, and the Minecraft demo really brought back the joy of just making things for no other reason than to make them. I’ll always have a soft spot for it
There is definitely a sort-of wonder I felt in the early days of Minecraft that I've been striving to find in a game since, and have been left wanting.
I did not grow up with a console. Pretty much just floppies with TLC games on them. My grandma introduced me to Sierra and Blizzard games, and they were exciting yeah but not mind blowing.
But then warcraft III (didn't play Starcraft much at this time, was young) introduced the concept of custom maps to me. Basically going from having one game to dozens. Tower Defenses, RPGs, genres that basically either didn't exist yet or don't exist anymore (rip Enfos...and RP maps seriously wth)
It pretty much shaped my childhood, friends, and all that stuff. Really sad that SCII never really became what Warcraft III was to me.
Reading this title, instantly thought of watching my older brother play wc3 as a 5 year old, and it being the defining game of my childhood and teenage years. Easily 10k hours of having that game open if not playing.
The comparison of lightning in a bottle that I've heard is so apt. og Dota, etc, countless custom maps that countless people put their souls into creating, out of passion. the "programmers", texture/map designers, all working together or by themselves to build and improve these incredibly complex/deep works of art. For MOBAs, being the progenitor grounds of the genre!
Blizzard killing wc3 with reforged was the day I told myself I'd never buy another one of their products again. Impossible bosses (GORGEOUS mod), metastasis, war in the plaguelands, battle for middle ... you get it dude. meeting mapmakers in lobbies! Wc3 was every genre you could imagine in a birds eye view game wrapped into one.
& I concur about sc2. Graphically looked newer, but the custom game scene pales in comparison, even today, with a more "powerful" map engine. I got into league because of friends a couple years ago, and controlling 9 heros as the fellowship or nazgul in bfme, in pitched 5v5 wc3 battles with massive custom designed lotr armies with lore accurate, non revivable heros and named units, in a spawn based map, with an insane amount of coded events... well, league never hit the same in terms of that feeling of sheer scale and epicness :/ always seemed... too easy?
Myst has always stuck with me as looking amazing at the time. I totally sucked at the game but its graphics have a fond place in my mind for some reason!
Hello fellow old person! You’re thinking of Wolfenstein 3D, which I also played on a 286. Return to Castle Wolfenstein was from around the year 2000, I believe.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't this game also the engine upon which Enemy Territory was built? I logged soooo many hours in that multiplayer mode...
I'm gonna go with world of warcraft. The idea of a persistent online MMO was entirely new at the time (at least for me and most people I think) and it just blew me away that it was basically just a virtual world that was going 24/7, entirely 3D too. I got into mmos a bit after that and got really into ragnarok online which is now a fond memory for me.
I remember my first time playing Half-Life was pretty incredible. What really wowed me was the intro being so slow, and you just starting in a normal world, with no combat for like 45 minutes. I'd never seen anything like it before, and I loved the feeling so much. I used to hang out in the intro area for as long as I could, just enjoying how immersive and calm it felt. To this day I really dislike games that have little to no down time to them - I love just hanging out in a world. My favourite genre wound up being JRPGs since they handle that balance so well.
I played half life way later (2014-ish) and it's hard to imagine how crazy it must have seemed back then. Even now, delaying the combat for that long is pretty rare. Back then I can't imagine how groundbreaking it must have been.
Mass Effect definitely up there. Everything was right with that game (perhaps not the excessive time in the lifts). The story line and sound tracks were beyond amazing.
My first? Probably roller-coaster tycoon. I was amazed how big and intricate the would could be, and all these coasters and everything were running at once. Led to other things like Sim city and such to find more world building games.
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