I posted this in the best gaming memory thread on the main forum but it's appropriate for here as well:
My best memory is the night I first played Resident Evil. But first you need backstory, I was a huge sega fanboy, biased against Nintendo and laughed at the idea of Sony making a system. I got a Saturn for Christmas when it came out, my brother got a PS, I figured I had the much better system. One day at a mall I saw a game magazine with my brother that had a preview for a game called Resident Evil, my brother was a massive horror fan so this was his dream game.
So March comes 1996 comes along and it's Resident Evil launch week, my brother buys the game on a Friday and we make an event of it. I called my best friend over and we had a sleep over to play this new state of the art horror game. But my brother wanted to wait till midnight to start it for the full effect. In the meantime he also bought this game D to kill the time so we actually managed to play and beat D in like two hours before starting RE.
Midnight struck and so my brother started RE. There is Chris running from the camera "ah ahhhhh!" Already I was like omg. He starts the game, picks Chris because he is a dude and the intro begins. My mind is blown right now, I am watching a horror movie play out in love action as a game intro. I loved every second of it, the cast roll was my favorite, instantly I was like wow that Wesker guy seems like a total douchebag. The explosion happens and then "RESIDENT EVIL!!" Best intro to a game ever at that point.
Then my brother starts to play, I cannot believe the presentation, we are playing a movie with voice acting, with cutscenes and movie like camera angles. It was a revolution, it was the first moment I saw what cinematic gameplay is like, there was nothing like that on consoles. We all laughed when he tried to walk around and was moving backwards and spinning, Chris looked like a drunk. He gets to the kitchen goes to the zombie room and that first zombie clip loads. We are freaking out at this point, my brother is yelling what do I do?!?! Get the knife!! Press buttons!!! Ahhhhhhh!!! The first zombie eats my brother. His turn is over, now it's my turn.
I read the manual, I know Jill gets a handgun so I pick her, and thus my love for Jill starts as that is the best way to play. I also instantly love Barry, "its blood!" So I reach the first zombie, use the gun and kill him. Time to explore the house and what a house it is. There was something to inspect around every corner, so much mystery. Each new camera angle brought the fear of death in me as many times I couldn't see ahead, only hear. I made my way to the window room which I had seen in a magazine so I knew the dogs would be jumping in, we all knew this yet when those dogs crashed through the window I screamed like a girl and threw the controller in the air. We were all screaming and laughing as I struggled to grab the controller from the floor as the dog ate my face.
We went on taking turns through the night, got up to Yawn at one point before my and my friend went to sleep. That game change my view of gaming forever, I knew then games were not just toys for kids but a medium that could be every bit as powerful as movies. It also shattered my sega bias as I became a huge PS fan and a fan of all games. To this day I still love this franchise dearly.
