LAN party 2012ish. Playing Farcry 2 team Deathmatch multiplayer on the Clear Cut map. First team to 100 kills win. I got 60 of the 100 kills to win and from that point forward I was no longer permitted to use the 50cal sniper rifle.

Lives, all mortal lives, expire Souls go to their doom in flame Forevermore

There are great examples in this thread of great games from years past. But from more recent games, everyone who has played BG3 to its close (or near it) will likely agree with me. It was an amazing buildup and amazing scene when it happened.

Ghost Trick's entire second half is filled with them, but you cannot describe them spoiler-free... "When he looks at you" is the best I can come up with.

Return of the Obra Dinn, when you first look up in Abigail's death scene.

* ^But^ ^nobody^ ^came.^

(Undertale genocide run)

* It's you! (mirror at the first region of the game)

* Despite everything, it's still you. (mirror at the end of the game)

(Undertale non-genocide runs)

Arriving at the astral plane with the Amulet of Yendor.

Beyond Good & Evil, lighthouse arc

In Far Cry 3 when you kill Vaas by dropping the knife from one hand to the other. No music, nothing fancy, just a look of shock on Vaas' face.

The moment in Phantasy Star III on Sega where it is revealed that the entire world was actually just one node in a vast interstellar ship

EDIT: Originally posted the wrong one (PS IV). Please forgive me; it was like 30 years ago and I was drunk AF when it happened. I may have wept a little at the time. It was a special moment. I almost called my parents.

A certain sythe sweep near the end of Grim Fandango.

The dip in the river near the end of Bioshock Infinite.

Jumping into the thing near the end of Outer Wilds, and coming down where you come down going through what you go through.

FFX The sending (amongst the reveal moment of the summoner's fate)

The ending…

..in Outer Wilds. And if you haven’t played it, don’t tap the spoiler before you have.

The ending in the barn with John Marston. Red dead redemption.

Not going to look the same to everyone, but being scammed in runescape for the first time. I remember trusting someone taking me to their training spot in the wilderness to level up prayer, and got back stabbed 😆

Every time I played Dead Rails on Roblox. I even recorded it all.

The ending of "A Plague Tale: Requiem".

I remember playing Hollow Knight lost in an area really needing a bench. I found a coin slot in a room and put a coin in. A bench popped out of the ground and unfolded for me. Then a speaker popped out the wall playing some mellow music. There was a little glass window with fish swimming on the other side. I really liked the game. After that I loved it.

Good: Lifting the Master Sword in Link to the Past

Beating Melenia in Elden Ring

Jumping through the first painting in Super Mario 64

Bad: Playing LoL the first and only time

Playing Burning Crusade for WoW at release and picking up the first blue item in the first area that made my Tier 3 items I worked months for, completely obsolete.

Glados's anger in Portal

The ending of Dragons Keep in Borderlands

Ancient creators of Hyrule!

The name of the friggin' gnome in the original Kings Quest on the IBM PC. Turns out I had a version with a bug in it and a spelling error.

Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe Skip Button. It filled me with so much dread.

Getting hugged in VR chat during the pandemic.

At a LAN party 8 of our friends played Versus in L4D2 at the peak of our skill playing those games and the matches were very even and extremely competitive in a good way. I hosted a lot of LAN parties but that was the best of them all. The only game I ever surpassed it with hours played is Dead by Daylight.

The first time my friends and I got Resident Evil Outbreak Files 1 and 2 set up to play online via PCSX2 and the obsrv.org fan server. It's much easier now, but setting it up in the PCSX2 1.6.X days was awful. These games are so much better with voice chat. The only improvement I could dream of is a decompilation adding proximity voice chat. You already hear muffled commotion and gun shots of nearby players. Beat both games eventually on Very Hard difficulty.

The first time I booted up Roller Coaster Tycoon which I got in a cereal box for free. I'm still playing it via OpenRCT2! Parkitect is the true 3D fan sequel, fuck Planet Coaster. RCT3 devs kept making the same mistakes.

Too many to list.

Being given the Normandy in the original Mass Effect

A fair warning, that mine is “political” in some respects.

The 3 final enemies in Another Crab’s Treasure. I say “enemies” not bosses because two of them wish you no harm, and the last one isn’t capable of fighting back. But beating them feels so damn right and deserved.

The game definitely read as “Haha funny Spongebob Dark Souls parody” and at many times it is silly; but that often disarms you for the moments of pure character writing and active worldly commentary. I’d even say with the level of ethereal, unreadable high fantasy many Souls games use, it’s probably the best written Soulslike. I described the savage bits but there’s some heartfelt moments too.

Eric fucking Sparrow claiming credit for the chopper hop in T.H.U.G.

most hatable villain in any game, hands down

When I first got out of Midgard in FF7. I honestly hated the gameplay, but the story and level design kept me stuck.

There are many for sure, but now that I thought about it a bit, the strongest has to be me booting up and logging into World of Warcraft for the first time. Gave me such sense of wonder. And the world opening up more and more with every zone...

It's beem years since I played it the last time but the game still sticks with me anyway.