PC Gaming

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

Duke Nukem 3D.

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.

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!

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, 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.

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!

Has to be portal

It was Lemmings. It's the first game that I saw on an Amiga computer. Adorable game, good music, fun gameplay.

If we're talking IBM PC, I can't pick between Diablo, Doom and Dune 2. I was so young and there were so many games created that would define genres to come.

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.

Half Life

For me GTA 3.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Everquest. Man that was revolutionary.

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.

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.

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.

Flashback - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashback_(1992_video_game). Was playing Prince of Persia and hated how janky it felt, and Flashback just played so much better.

Myst is the one that stands out for me.

Black & White, Alpha Centauri, and Dwarf Fortress.

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).

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

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.

I remember when DOOM came out. There was a little crowd of maybe 8-12 people at the computer huddled around a 486 demo running the shareware version of the game, I think it was at Fry's Electronics, everyone was entirely stunned by how good the graphics were.

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.

Ooh the first game that really blew my mind on the PC was Homeworld Cataclysm. I spent so many hours as a kid just going back and forth in the tutorial section of the demo, making a huge space fleet with no pressure, just gawking at the beautiful space backgrounds, the cool spaceships and their visual effects of thrusters, lasers and beam cannons.
It's still one of my favorite strategy franchises and games of all time.

"Another World", on Amiga.

Never experienced anything similar, ever again.

Age of Mythology for me after my first ever game of Age of Empires 2 AOK

@s804 The original Tomb Raider

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 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.

for me, minecraft, lol

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

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

Quake. With a 3dfx card was the biggest bump for me in fidelity it blew me away.

The original Kings Quest that came on TWO 3.5" floppy discs! This melted my brain at the time. Amazing game.

Civilization 2. I was watching my brother-in-law playing it, thinking this must be some sort of simulation that was part of his college homework. After all, I had played F16 Fighting Falcon in my middle school science class as part of an assignment.

But, no, it was a game for fun. I became enamored with it and it began my love for 4X games that continues to this day.