PC Gaming

Morrowind, by far. I still remember the sense of freedom and exploration I got

Duke Nukem 3D.

Has to be portal

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!

Prince of Persia. I remember being blown away by how realistic the movement was

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

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.

MechWarrior 2,

It was the first real experience I ever had playing a game that was 3D. I was pretty young and didn't know what I was doing. But I thought it was so cool.

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!

Wolfenstein 3D. I'd played '3D' games like The Bard's Tale before, but the ability to turn around and look in 360' just blew my mind.

Half Life

really dating myself here, but I could not get enough of the OG Sims game. I used to play until I fell asleep at my keyboard. It felt so innovative at the time.

Final Fantasy 4 (2 in the USA)

That game made me feel things in a way that no other game had made me feel before that. The deep emotional story telling in that game was leagues beyond anything I had played before it. I played it once a year for a while.

Black and White. Probably others before that too, but Black and White changed my idea of what games could be, it was so different.

I made my mom help me figure out how to install my first graphics card so I could play it without going to a friend's house.

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 🤯

The original StarCraft with those amazing (at the time) cut scenes

Probably Return to Castle Wolfenstein was one of the first games i ever played

I would say Descent and Doom early on, Skyrim and Mass Effect later. Unfortunately, games don't blow my mind nearly as much as they used to.

Myst is the one that stands out 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.

Black & White, Alpha Centauri, and Dwarf Fortress.

Maybe too retro for "PC" gaming, but Ultima III on the C-64. To have a huge explorable world full of details and people to talk to sucked me right in. Others did a better job later in graphics, size, and details, but Ultima was the first.

For me GTA 3.

Myst blew my mind as a kid, and World of Warcraft made me fall in love with PC gaming for life.

"Another World", on Amiga.

Never experienced anything similar, ever again.

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.

GTA3 for me. I didn't even care about the missions, I was just blown away by the open world. I remember spending a whole summer just exploring Liberty City.

I was born in 85, so old enough to have seen games like Wolfenstein, Doom, Duke Nukem 3, Rise of the Triad, and Shadow Warrior. Those games were all amazing and certainly captivated me. However, the game that did me in as a life long gamer was certainly Quake 1. First real 3D FPS game engine, it was crazy to me how detailed and immersive it was at the time. Quake locked me in as a life long gamer. I even have a giant Shub-Niggurath artwork hanging next to my computer, draw by Nick Derington (From Boss Fights 2 - Ode to ID).

for me, minecraft, lol

Hmm first PC game that blew my mind... Portal!

Honestly? For me I'd have to say Commander Keen. I spent an hour on a long distance BBS to download the 1MB demo with a 2400 baud modem just to try it. It was totally worth it (to me, not my grandma's phone bill) and absolutely blew my mind at the time. Seeing that smooth scrolling and having a platformer like SMB on the PC was seriously crazy at the time.

Plus eventually that led me to Wolfenstein 3-D which was mind-blowing itself, and then of course Doom.

I was a console gamer until the late 00s so by the time I was on PC we'd already had our major mind blowing landmarks.

I guess Bioshock was one of those games of the late 00s that was gorgeous. one of the best looking games at the time and it had a story and setting that matched the visuals.

Original Warcraft. Descent was pretty sick too.

World of Warcraft.
It was my first online game after trying Habbo Hotel.
It blew my brains out. Such good times.

I think it was Morrowind for me. I walked all the way to Balmora and I distinctly remember how astonished I was when I saw the starry night's sky. It was truly a magical experience.

Everquest. Man that was revolutionary.

Sim City - I loved that on my Amiga and played it to death.

Also Secret of Monkey Island, first game that was fun and funny - opened my eyes.

duke nukem 3D ;-)))

https://s3.amazonaws.com/prod-media.gameinformer.com/styles/thumbnail/s3/legacy-images/Duke%20Nukem%203D%20Was%20%28And%20Is%29%20Awesome%2C%20And%20Here%E2%80%99s%20Why/duke0902-610a.jpg

@s804 The original Tomb Raider

Diablo 2. I remember being a little kid and seeing my friends older brother playing it on his PC and being completely enamored with it. I mean, you could shapeshift into a werewolf ffs! I ended up getting D2:LoD a few years later when I was old enough to play it and man it blew my mind. Still my absolute favorite game of all time

That's a tough question! I would have to say it's a toss up between MechWarrior 2 and the original Half Life. I spent so many hours customizing mechs and tearing stuff up. There was something magical about the first Half-Life game though. So good and led to so many mods that I played for such a long time (CS, TFC/2, DoD).

Half Life 1. Never before and never again I've got so totally immersed in the plot.

Half Life 2.
Bought it, and ended up having to bypass steam to play it on my garbage machine at the time.

STALKER. The A-Life AI system is something else, and the open-ended survival gameplay and atmosphere are really in a league of their own. Similarly, as a latter-day choice, INFRA. That's a Source engine total conversion that has a similar uncanny and immersive atmosphere where you are just blown away at the total package, map design, and the thought process that went into it. Those are easily the two most immersive games I've played.

First time I played Skyrim I was blown away. The Xbox Kinect had just come out as well and you could shout the shouts. It’s was amazing.