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[Alan Wake]

It all started with me being blown away by a game. When I started playing console games in the early nineties the Mega Drive/Genesis and the SNES were pushing the limits with more and more impressive games. I remember thinking that nothing could possibly be more beautiful than Sonic 3 & Knuckles. After that, generation by generation, there were always games that blew me away. Often by how they looked, obviously.

I will never forget the first time I played Sonic Adventure. Or Halo. Yes, I was younger but I don't think that mattered much. These experiences stick with me to this day. These were launch games that made the old consoles look obsolete right there and then. We've had impressive games since, but for every generation they're fewer and fewer. Especially at launch. PS4 had some impressive looking games (TLOU2, The Order: 1886, Detroit: Become Human) but apart from Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart I haven't seen anything that impresses me on my PS5.

I know we're probably not going to see these huge technical and graphical leaps again, and I also understand that looks is not everything. I enjoy small indie games as much as AAA titles, often even more. But I sorely miss that feeling of being floored by a game on a new console. That moment when I look at the console in disbelief wondering how the hell it is capable of that.

Do you guys remember the last time you were floored by how a game looked? Do you still get that feeling now and then or is it a thing of the past?

God damn.

 

[Dibbs]

Agreed.

 

[Skelterz]

Not so much by how a game looks but how a game made me feel while playing, I was pretty blown away with BOTW when it came out because of its boundless freedom only for Nintendo to raise the bar with TOTK.

The Demons souls remake was pretty special looking.

 

[MrRibeye]

Many people feel blown away and say that nothing out there compares to it.

 

[sigmaZ]

Yeah. Part of getting older is finding the joys of mediocrity.
When I see how much hype and excitement blinds people from looking at nuance I don't miss that hype anymore.

 

[Alan Wake]

Many people feel blown away and say that nothing out there compares to it.

I'm not into Rockstar's games but even I had to get RDR2 and find out what the fuss was about. I was very impressed, immersed even. The atmosphere was absolutely incredible. But I never finished it because I thought the gameplay was dull.

 

[GigaBowser]

you must play TOTKS

 

[Alan Wake]

Yeah. Part of getting older is finding the joys of mediocrity.
When I see how much hype and excitement blinds people from looking at nuance I don't miss that hype anymore.

This is pretty good point. But being blown away by a game, at least for me, is more about getting floored there and then. I wasn't even hyped about Halo before I bought it, I had just heard and read about it but wasn't into FPS at the time. Halo changed that.

 

[Redneckerz]

Alan Wake :

There you go, you are blown away.

 

[Guilty_AI]

The next new thing blowing people away in this sense is VR. People who played Half Life Alyx always comment how amazing the experience felt, and i can understand why having tried VR a few times.

 

[Spukc]

Wait until you get married

 

[cash_longfellow]

Yeah. Part of getting older is finding the joys of mediocrity.
When I see how much hype and excitement blinds people from looking at nuance I don't miss that hype anymore.

This! I’ve ruined my experience with certain games in the past because I expected too much. Now, being older, I’ve learned to accept that not every part of every game was made specifically for me. Now I enjoy games I otherwise wouldn’t have in the past.

 

[cash_longfellow]

Wait until you get married

That’s a whole different ball game lol

 

[Crayon]

Blown away? Botw, gt7vr, returnal, armored core 6, ggst, ff7r, bg3. How often am I supposed to be blown away?

As far as graphics... We got there. There are plenty of cherry picked screenshots that look real. Just little improvements from here as those shots become more and more common. You can play a ten year old game in higher res now and it looks good. I know it was fun watching the big leaps on the way. Just be glad you were there for it.

 

[LectureMaster]

Demon's Souls Remake gave me the true next gen feelings.

The fine tuned haptic feedback on Dualsense, the well-baked particle effects and lightings, and the strikingly crisp and detailed graphics - it was such a refreshing experience playing it at PS5 launch.

 

[Noxxera]

Yeah I'm definitely still getting blown away. Last example was first time playing Resident Evil Village on my Xbox One X. Was mindblown entering the village. Sadly I need a job so I can earn some money and buy a next-gen console and some games then I'm sure I'm gonna be blown away again by those games.

 

[killatopak]

Thank you Capcom

 

[Puscifer]

Yeah. Part of getting older is finding the joys of mediocrity.
When I see how much hype and excitement blinds people from looking at nuance I don't miss that hype anymore.

Seriously. Also trying different things outside your norm might help, Risk of Rain 2 is my most played game of all time and it's elements have blown me away even after 300 hours in different ways.

 

[gothmog]

After a while the novelty wears off. It's not an age thing as much as a time thing.

 

[nkarafo]

 

[Astral Dog]

idk i been playing videogames for a long time and still get surprised by Switch and PS4 graphics, for example i was impressed by the FF Crisis Core remaster on Switch,i didn't thought the system was capable of doing that.

Developers can push a system to its limits, and make games look gorgeous these days.i don't expect photorealistic visuals in every game although Capcom is pretty good at that, the graphics should be quality but its not the only thing i care about, its the art interesting to look at?, the characters fun,?what type of game is it, animation quality and good controls matter most.

recently i started playing this game and im just having a good time, i never expected it to be as good or the music as catchy as the Donkey Kong Country games but somehow it is

 

[Business]

Same boat OP, the jump to 3D was so brutal. I will never forget the utter awe and disbelief I felt when I first saw a Daytona USA arcade cabinet. Since then there still have been moments but progressively less impressive to the point the jump from PS4 to PS5 wouldn’t be obvious to the untrained eye.

 

[ahtlas7]

Halo’s

Blew me away. Still don’t know how it was kept a secret.

 

[Tomi]

Wait one more year and gta will blow you away!

 

[TexMex]

PS5 launch day, between Astro and Souls. They’re definitely more few and far between.

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

I'm pushing years too but just like TexMex over here I got blown by Souls graphics and Astro creativity and freshness.

The industry in general got a lot more boring because it was not about blowing your nuts off with awesomeness but rather to keep you engaged and buying mtx that truely racks the money. And engagement breeds mediocrity, rutine, becaus it builds habits on you and none of that will blow you away.

 

[Rentahamster]

I am in the business of helping people who miss being blown.

 

[Valedix]

The FFXVI demo intro was the last time I was blown away, last time before that it was Ghost Of Tsushima.

 

[//DEVIL//]

the Matrix demo did it for me.

Both Final Fantasy 7 remake and Rebirth character models and some environments.

GT7 car details and GT7 in VR in general is the best thing to happen to VR.

 

[hinch7]

The last time for me was Killzone Shadowfall, from the initial trailer. Guerilla Games are wizards.

CP2077 with Overdrive (Path tracing) though can take me back though. Can't wait until hardware catches up in the mainstream - i.e consoles and we get games completely built around RT in the bulk of newly released titles.

 

[Alan Wake]

Wait until you get married

Nah, that didn't do it for me.

 

[Alan Wake]

The last time for me was Killzone Shadowfall, from the initial trailer. Guerilla Games are wizards

The game, though...?

 

[hinch7]

The game, though...?

Still technically impressive for its time. The game is over 10 years old now.. running on paultry hardware with tiny memory, and this at the consoles launch. The visuals largely holds up today.

 

[Mooreberg]

Improvements have been incremental for a while now. Wipeout HD Fury, running in 1080p on a PS3, was the last time I thought, "how the hell did they pull that off?"

 

[bitbydeath]

 

[DenchDeckard]

Breath of the wild, red dead 2, tears of the kingdom genuinely blew me away.

Hopefully gta6 does similar.

 

[Sakura]

Consoles used to be relatively high spec machines. They were pretty expensive when you account for inflation, for example the PS1 launched at 299 US, which would be around 600 dollars in todays money. And that was considered low at the time. The Saturn launched at 399, around 800 dollars in todays money.

Additionally, graphics are kind of at a point of diminishing returns. A 600 polygon character becoming a 2000 polygon character in the next generation, is far more noticeable than say a 30,000 polygon character going to 100,000 even though the leap is the same.

I think we need some sort of paradigm shift in order to really be blown away again, like AI or real VR or something.

 

[SHA]

Me too, I'm chasing a ghost but I'm doing everything I can, building a Rig, upgrading my TV, watching streamers, designing my own little game "if you know what you're doing" instead of complaining about every damn game I don't like or have the potential cause complaining is a waste of time, lowering my standards when it comes to buying games cause I don't care about what reviewers think but I'm damn sure a 6 today is not the same compared to last decade or two.

 

[Hudo]

The atmosphere was absolutely incredible. But I never finished it because I thought the gameplay was dull.

This is the perfect review of RDR2.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Playing FF7 Rebirth and am being blown away.

 

[tusharngf]

 

[Team Andromeda]

I miss being in my 20's

 

[Alan Wake]

Still technically impressive for its time. The game is over 10 years old now.. running on paultry hardware with tiny memory, and this at the consoles launch. The visuals largely holds up today.

I just remember people being disappointed with the game after that amazing trailer.

 

[IlGialloMondadori]

Blown away? Botw, gt7vr, returnal, armored core 6, ggst, ff7r, bg3. How often am I supposed to be blown away?

As far as graphics... We got there. There are plenty of cherry picked screenshots that look real. Just little improvements from here as those shots become more and more common. You can play a ten year old game in higher res now and it looks good. I know it was fun watching the big leaps on the way. Just be glad you were there for it.

Honestly playing ff7 remake now, years later, I’m still blown away. Crazy amount of work went into that. Gorgeous game, incredible soundtrack. Looking forward to Rebirth.

I was there for the big shifts. I had a voodoo 1 card, a Dreamcast, etc. I’m still blown away by amazing games right now.

 

[gtabro]

People have already mentioned the "getting older = fewer things surprise you" phenomenon, so this thread made me think, as someone who's been playing games for 25 years now, what the last title(s) that blew me away are...
And I think in terms of gameplay and mechanics that would definitely be Zelda TotK, and in terms of story telling - TLOU 2 - yes, some people hated it, and yes, me and everyone I spoke to felt like not playing when they "switched things around" mid-game, but that was a desired effect and they nailed it, so I appreciate Naughty Dog at least having the balls to try something different.

And maybe Baldur's Gate 3, I've been dreaming for years for an RPG with deep character relationships AND meaningful choices AND a village/city where you aren't restricted to enter every house, and oh boy, did Larian made that dream come true. That's why they got my money twice I suppose.

So all in all I am not some young fellow, but is seems despite the odds games still blow me away, rarely, but happens. And I'm happy to have these little gems of "whoa, I feel like a kid again." Shout out to all the devs that slave away to make this all come true, you are the real heroes.

 

[Alan Wake]

Breath of the wild, red dead 2, tears of the kingdom genuinely blew me away.

Hopefully gta6 does similar.

After Botw, how did Totk blow you away? It felt very similar to me.

 

[elhav]

Hi fi Rush's graphics are what I've always dreamt of as a kid. So full of color and personality and style. I find a really good art design much more impressive than graphical fidelity, but this game has both

 

[poodaddy]

Me too, but the wife almost never feels like it these days.

 

[RPS37]

I keep wanting to say the Horizon Zero Dawn reveal.

 

[GymWolf]

Thank you Capcom

I only see some petting, no blowing.