I can remember when I saw the first preview screenshots of Oblivion. My first reaction was "OMFG, I will never own a machine that can run this". I was half suspecting they were fake (not unusual to pretty up preview screens, think of the C&C3 debacle). It was stunning to see that the game actually looked like the previews (if you could crank everything to max...). And nowadays first thing we do is installing HD textures and more detailed models and items...

As a game Morrowind certainly had a much bigger impact on me, in some respects (especially world building and exploration) it's still the pinnacle of the open world RPGs for me. But what I saw as a real improvement in Oblivion was the AI system (flawed as it sometimes was) managing the daily routines of the NPCs, even changing clothes for different occasions. Totally understandable. In my case Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was a very important game for me (though I never solved it - always got stuck in the friggin' Zeppelin). When I first saw it at a friend's place I still had my C64. We played through the better part of the night and beat the catacombs of Venice to Castle Brunwald (where we got stuck). And I was so impressed I knew after that I needed an Amiga. I still have flashbacks of the Venice part with the bones in their crypts and the maze with red glowing eyes in the dark and the music...

"300!"
Congrats for reaching 300 rep points, toxicTom! I'm in for the first prize only.

As for what left me an imprint in my life as a gamer, I don't know really, there are many games I liked a lot, but I think the most influential was Atlantis Evolution, a good but very little-known point-n-click game. It was probably the one that defined my preferences as a gamer, it being one of the first proper videogames I played. This game had a good scenario, good landscapes and likeable characters (I'd put these adjectives in the superlative if I wasn't afraid I might be wearing rose-tinted glasses, as I haven't played this game for quite a while -it wouldn't install on my windows 7 pc. GOG, please, I beg you, please, bring this great game here!). At any rate, it was probably the game that made discover my preference for point-n-clicks, and this genre remains my favourite till today (even thought I suck at puzzles and have to use walkthroughs most of the time!).(As a matter of fact, I even got stuck at some point even at Atlantis Evolution-and I didn't have internet back then to use to find a walkthrough!)

And now some screenshots from the web (I didn't make screenshots when I played the game more than 10 years ago and couldn't install it nowadays as I mentioned, so...):
screenshot1
screenshot2
screenshot3
screenshot4

Anyways, thanks for hosting this giveaway and +1!

Definitely one of my most memorable games too. I sank countless of hours into the Amiga version. Strangely enough I could never beat it (or it's successors) on a higher difficulty setting, while I routinely finished Master of Orion and Master of Magic on Impossible. Somehow the Civ ruleset seems to be crossways to my line of thinking.

Congratulations on the well deserved 300 rep, toxicTom!

Not in.

For me it was Final Fantasy VII on the Playstation 1. It was the first JRPG I played (and the first I game played on the Playstation), the first game I played with such an epic sized world, a wonderful story and so many side quests and extras. I know not everyone likes the game, but for me, it has always been one of my all time favourite games.

Screenshot 1, Screenshot 2, Screenshot 3, Screenshot 4, Screenshot 5

To my shame I must admin that Gabriel Knight is one of the games that I never came around playing. I guess one day when the whole series is on sale here I'll just have a go. Sadly I've never been a console gamer. So I only know FF7 and 8. Of these no 7 definitely was one of the most awesome games I've ever played. It was my first JRPG and I still hold in honor - that crazy mix of melancholy, drama, strange humor and just plain over the top whackiness. Interesting choice. GPL always was too hardcore for me. When it comes to racing games there are two games that definitely shaped my taste: Test Drive 2 - The Duel and The Need for Speed. Until this day I prefer the "illegal race" type games with super sports cars and police pursuit. A shame I can't get Test Drive Unlimited to run properly on my machine. I've heard a lot of good things about this one. Sadly never got the chance to play it myself.

Nethack is quite legendary, though I prefer more goal oriented (i.e. story based) RPGs. I must admin that my taste for RPGs developed rather late - though I was impressed by The Bard's Tale 3 on my C64 and Dungeon Master on the Amiga. And I've always been eyeing the Ultima series (from 4 on) for its world simulation aspect. I even still own Ultima 5 for Amiga (complete with coin and cloth map) but never made it very far. I think the first RPG I beat was the rather unknown Perihelion - The Prophecy on Amiga (awesome soundtrack) which is rather short. Later I discovered RPGs that looked and felt like my then favourite genre - FPS. I managed to beat Shadow Caster and more importantly Ultima Underworld. The latter being a milestone in my gaming career - I still have a deep love for first person exploration (not necessarily dungeon crawling) games with good world building. Well and then Morrowind came along...

Your "screenshot" is fine for this game :-) As much as I can understand the impact this game had - it certainly created an iconic character, I always gave up on it. For me the controls are horrible and I find the camera utterly confusing especially in fights. Well let's see what we can do about this if/when you win :-)

Congrats to your 306 Reps toxicTom.
Not in because of too much backlog - i have started to play my secret santa games ;-)

But as there was already mentioned two of my greatest experiences in games:
Ill mention an addition: in Quake1 + its genius soundtrack and his uncountable Mods we played a lot with Holy Wars mod anyone knows?
(Damn was this game fast, cant believe i was once really good in tthat one)
In Morrowind i was really overwhelmed when i first get off the boat and see the swamp town Seyda Neen this watereffects and the gigantic strider as "taxi"
And as it was not yet mentioned: the first Game which i almost freaked out when i buyed a new 3D HW accelerator:
Unreal and the wonderful immersion with its scripted actions when you get out of the ship for the first time and see an alien planet which lives and breathes, the astonishing waterfall - and then for the first time dynamic music when you encounter your first enemy in the tunnels.
Oh boy seems i have to replay once more some old games ;-)

TBH I've never heard of this game before. Interesting! I've never managed to get deep into text adventures. Perhaps when they were at large they were too hard for me because of the language barrier. Reading and understanding the texts was not the problem, but trying to tell the parser what I want to do was frustrating. Also from the very beginning I have been spoiled by the point and click interfaces of Maniac Mansion and Zac McKracken - the latter probably the reason why I fell in love with adventures.

Though it's definitely one of my most cherished games of all times I can't really say that it had a really huge impact on my gaming life. It's kind of strange. For me Torment is so far out - a "one of its kind" - that while it affected me personally, it didn't change my tastes in games or anything like that. Well maybe it sharpened my senses a little and made it more present that there are games out there with really good writing.

Yay! Another one from my all time favs list :-)

In terms of bringing me to FPS (my favourite genre for many years) Doom definitely had the larger impact on me. It was the real reason I bought a PC (officially I need it for my studies since my Amiga wasn't compatible to the PC based university IT environment, which wasn't a lie either, but I went for the most powerful rig (486DX4/100, 8MB RAM) I could afford at that time just play Doom perfectly). At first I struggled with the controls until I switched to mouse aiming (everyone else was playing with keyboard only). Suddenly the game made total sense. I really played the hell out of Doom 1+2, beating them countless times.

Quake was everything I had hoped for when it came out. I still find it fascinating how well everything works together. The art style is perfect for the low-poly environment. Massive structures, menacing and crude monsters that look simply brutal with their jagged heads and spikey claws.
Also Quake was the one and only game that I played "seriously" online.

Indy 3 is surely more difficult and unforgiving than FoA.
A few pics for your nostalgia ; )

Another game that I regrettably haven't played yet. But it's definitely on my list of "games to try before I die".


Gods was awesome! And hard as rock. I really like nearly all of the Bitmap Brother's games from their golden era - Cadaver, Speedball 2, Xenon 2. The Chaos Engine being my favourite with its dynamic levels. The game I couldn't get into was Magic Pockets.

The only RTS games I seriously tried were Dune 2, Warcraft and later War Wind (I don't count PowerMonger in, since it's vastly different). After that I decided that RTS is not for me - so you could say that those games had a rather large impact on me - convincing me to avoid the genre. Of course I sometimes had a look at the famous games like C&C, WC2 and SC - but while I could acknowledge their qualities I felt their weren't my kind of game.
I didn't know this game, but it sure looks interesting from the screenshots. If it ever comes here I'll put on my watchlist.

300!

I'm in for game(s) of my choice.
Thanks for the giveaway!

Attached screens are from Spider-Man & Venom: Maximum Carnage.
It's the first game I played on Sega Mega Drive 2 (in a VHS movies ranting place my family went to) and even though I have tried some games (on C64) before this one I believe this was the one that sparked that true love for games in me. I still remember how my mom gently laughed when she saw me playing so immersed l was moving the joypad Wii style. XD

I've written something about FF7 further above

And that's what I meant with whackiness - I love it!
I never really liked the gameplay of Unreal though the game definitely was breathtaking when I first played it. It's also one of my favourite examples for "damn I'm getting old". I guess noone who sees this game today for the first time can understand the fascination the visuals had back in the day.

Thanks for the reminders. I was afraid the Zeppelin screenshot would show my "place of shame" - the labyrinth where you have to avoid the guards ;-)

I sure hope Indy 3 comes to GOG some day. That one would be instabought. They sure keep us in limbo regarding the next releases of the Disney/LA deal.
Another one I don't know.
As for the immersion - I really took years of playing first person games to get rid of the reflex to duck in front of the screen to evade an incoming fireball or to lean left or right to peek around corners. Nowadays it's really funny watching my children do this when they watch me playing.