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I have a lot of fond memories from gaming over the years. I can still remember locations and plot twists in some of my favorite games. I can remember too how hard some games were, how sometimes the payoffs for finishing a level or finishing a game entirely were great or sometimes quite lame. But among it all there is one memory that stands out for me that I can distinctly remember in vivid detail to this day.

I was playing Silent Hill on my PS1 and I was very much enjoying the game even though some of the puzzles were not very intuitive and slowed me down for a while a couple of times. Above all, I enjoy a good story in my games so I tend to gravitate toward action or action/RPGs. I get excited to clear the next level to see where the story will lead. I had been playing a marathon session that day and had made great progress. The wife had long since gone to bed and I was all alone in the basement, it was dark and stormy outside and I had turned off all the lights to more fully concentrate on the game.

I had experienced quite a few bizarre things in the course of this game as you might imagine but I just wasn't ready for what happened next. I had gotten a little confused in the scary world version of the school and I was trying to determine what all rooms I had yet to visit. I realized I had missed a classroom entirely and by passing through this room you could get around a blockage in the main hallway. I made my way to classroom and entered this room for the first time in the scary version of the school at least. The room was almost empty but there were a few desks strewn around. One desk in the middle had a phone on it. I tried it but I couldn't do anything with the phone. Nothing else in the room was of any use so I decided to move on. This was a little disappointing as I was looking for the next clue or item which would allow me to progress in the story. As I reached the door on the opposite end of the room the phone began to ring. I went back to answer the phone and the distant crackling voice of the daughter I was searching for said, "Daddy! Where are you daddy?"

That disturbed the hell out of me at the time! I got to the nearest save point, saved and shut it down for the night. I only played that game during the day for a while after that! One of my other strong and very sad memories from a game was in this same game when the pretty nurse (her name escapes me) ended up coming down with the disease that infected the town. That turn of events was so unexpected and she had been so much help before it was so sad and depressing to watch her turn into something grotesque, something she seemed to fear more than anything else.

What's your strongest gaming memory?

The one that I will never forget is when me and a friend of mine had 2 snes and 2 copies of mario all star. we were doing an all night session going through each game. After mario 1 we went to play mario 2 the lost levels, which is suppose to be super hard. After a couple hours I finally beat it! When watching the last cut scene its froze on me. I was super pissed. So i ran through the game again. By the time I had beat it a second time he was working on mario 3.

Another time is the first time i got scamed in diablo 2 and the first time i scamed some one. Also the first time i got nigma, and the next day i come home to find out that its gone cause my stupid brother had a full invintory and died so he put on crap armor and pick up the body and it got popped. That made me really mad.

First off, love the topic. My best friend and I were playing NBA JAM (on SNES of course) and this was the game of all games. I was a teenager at the time as well and this is when the game very popular. I was down by 12 points and it was the 4th quarter. Magically, I pulled by self together and got on fire and at the last moment, we tied. Then we went into double over time and I won by 2 points. He was soooooooooooooooo pissed because by every right he should have won. I have never made a comeback like that in a game since but the victory and bragging rights was sweet. Not to mention the expression on my friends face was priceless.

This is tough question because there are different things I would define as moments and none stand out more than others, so I'll just mention a few that come to mind and keep it brief

Ico-Losing Yorda for the first time. I felt very guilty and sad, it was at that moment I realized how incredible immersive the game was. I got so into the game I felt like I was protecting a real person.

Shinobi(PS2)-After staying up very late for what seemed like hours, and dying over and over and over again, I finally tated the last evil son of a bitch of a boss and got my S rank for the last stage(on super difficulty). I felt a mixture of triumph from my victory and also relief that this torture was over. I both loved and hated that game at the same time in that moment.

Eternal Darkness-I remember this scaring the shit out of me:

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=3uZOxlpt1 ... re=related

And yes, I was playing alone, at night, with no lights on.

And last but not least, Metal Gear Solid 3. Spoilers ahead



Basically, the moment when you hop on the bike with Eva and everything that happens afterwards made one of the best final acts of any video game I've ever played. I disliked a lot of things about Metal Gear Solid 3(the regular version, I haven't played Subsistence), but Hideo Kojima brought it all together beautifully in the end with some memorable cinematic moments and wonderful storytelling.

My first moment is really easy: finding out that Samus was a chick.

As a kid, that seriously blew my mind.


Another is when Metal Gear Solid came out for PS1. Me and my friend skipped school, bought the game, beat it (I beat it like five seconds before he did), called him up at 4am screaming about how awesome it was before starting up the game again. Great times.

I remember when I first got PSO for Dreamcast. I had leveled to about Lvl 10 or so offline, and then joined the online community. I was playing with a couple other new players, and this high level guy offered to take us all through the game to power level. We followed him and leveled up while collecting stuff.

Here's where it gets weird. Right before we were going to fight that last boss, he asked us if we were ready. We all said yes and then he yelled "THE FINAL BOSS IS ME!". Needless to say, we all got NOL'd. The other dudes were pissed, but I couldn't stop laughing. For some reason I found it hilarious. It was odd that he helped us out for so long only to do that. I think his intent was to erase our character data, but I still kept my levels. Anyway, that shit was pretty funny.

It has to be the last 2-3 hours of Shenmue, best game I've ever played. I need to get a copy of Shenmue II when I can...