For 90s kids, there’s no need for explanation. For others, well, pokemon was a phenomenon. It was everywhere, on TV, in magazines, toys, stickers. You could trade pokemon at the school excursion on the bus.
You felt alive in this world, pokemon gen 1-2 were the pinnacle of pokemon for me. And in gen2, finishing the game, and lo and behold, there’s a whole other region (kanto) waiting for you to explore it. The night cycle in the game blew my mind in ways that I have been chasing ever since.
I know it will never be reached again, but the memory will remain as powerful as it was that evening of the early 00s. What is your greatest gaming high, that you know will never be topped again, and that you have been chasing ever since?
Planetside 2.
Was pretty new to the game and just wsndering around as a sniper when a guy in a transport pulled up and told me to get in.
Boarded the transport and drove around for a bit when we crossed a hill that sat above an enemy camp.
I jumped out as he drove on and started scouting the camp from the hill. Felt a bit lonely and asking myself if jumping out here was a good idea at all.
After a while, I chose to shoot and see where it lands to see how high I need to aim to adjust for bullet drop.
Suddenly I hear a loud ‘boom’ and an explosion roughly where I was shooting at. Then another ‘boom’ and another explosion.
Turned around to be surprised by 5 friendly tanks in one line behind me unloading at the enemy camp.
After about 20 more seconds, my hill was swarmed with all kinds of friendly tanks and personell, just blasting away at the camp.
It was as if I went from a lonely scout newb to somehow spearheading the attack, which felt really cool.
Halo 1 LAN parties
Also, Halo 3 custom games with full lobbies and super creative customs. Honestly, just Halo 3 in general
Playing Wing Commander very late at night, hit a large glass water bottle off the table with my elbow, and catch it with the same arm/hand before it reaches the floor to shatter and wake up the whole family.
Peak reaction times induced by VideoGame adrenaline never reached again.
The awe and grandeur of Occarina Of Time… at the time.
Disco Elysium is the best literature I’ve ever played.
I still feel like used to live in Skyrim. It was a place where I wanted to be and explore.
TF2/Halo CE multilayer mix of copetitive adrenaline and funny shenanigans
Those are the game experiences which stuck with me.
After dragging my long suffering mum around every shop that might possibly still have a copy of The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and finally getting what must have been the last one anywhere.
We then have to go and do a whole load of other things all afternoon while I read the manual from back to front about a dozen times in the back of the car, getting more and more excited.
Then we finally got home but I had to help with dinner first and then eat all the while jabbering incessantly about how amazing it was going to be while I’m sure she just rolled her eyes and said “yes dear” and then I was finally allowed to put the N64 on and I then sat glued to it for hours in a state of wonder and amazement.
Truly the best experience I’ve ever had gaming.
I have a few from childhood, but the gaming high I am chasing now is whatever Outer wilds was. A beautiful story told through exploration and discovery. I just want to go back and experience for the first time again.
I know what you mean about Gold and Silver. Everything you mentioned, plus events that happened on specific days of the week, “mystery gift” functionality via IR, and more stuff I’m forgetting. There were also radio stations you could “listen” to (read text) that made the world feel alive.
Even in gen 1, trading/battling revived link-cable culture, which I’d only ever seen people use for Tetris, years before.
The result of waking the Wind Fish in Link’s Awakening broke something in me at such a young age that I don’t think I’ve since experienced as profoundly.
Being in the zone, utterly focused at defeating
glockSword Saint Isshin. Doing it so many times that trouncing Genichirou pre-Ishin was a given, a warm up even, before going for the main dude.Nine balls and more nine balls and more nine balls in Armoured Core Q_Q.
Penetrator from Demon Souls.
Malenia.
I remember reaching that point with Isshin, where Genichiro was something I could basically do in my sleep.
Did you do the Elden Ring DLC? If so, how’d you feel about the final boss there? I found that to be the hardest boss they’ve released, more than Isshin or Malenia.
I just finished Elden Ring a few weeks ago so no. Elden Beast was a pita since I was maining rivers of blood and put points into arcane. As you know he’s immune to bleed so I gave up and switch to an occult uchigatana instead using the default skill.
For these types of games I usually take my time and definitely does take me a long time to beat them. Though it’s mostly in spurts. If I feel the itch I can probably blitz through the games pretty quickly. For example I took like a six months break after I encountered Isshin. After that, I beat him after a few tries and proceeded to NG+4 the game to get all the endings and skill PTS to complete all the achievos within a few weeks.
I’ll eventually get around to Shadow of the Erdtree though. Nightreighn on the other hand I’m not sure I’ll play that since it’s multiplayer and seems to be roguelite.
It’s probably a hot take but I think SotE is the best content they’ve ever released. It might be my favourite video game release of all time. The final boss is tough as nails though, or at least was pre-patch. It’s a fair bit easier now but still really hard.
SotE has my three favourite bosses ever, as well as some of my favourite locations ever. I think it’s got their best world design since DS1 too. Most of these are probably not common beliefs but hopefully you like it like I did. It is definitely harder than the base game, but that’s sort of the point of a FromSoft DLC.
Three favourite bosses ever?
Bayle, Midra, and Messmer. Dancer of the Boreal Valley from Dark Souls III used to be my favourite boss until SotE came out.
seeing the world of DOOM Eternal. It’s just so detailed and SO DAMN FUN!!
