When was the last time a moment in a game made your jaw drop?

[BrightCandle]

Arma 3 looking out over the capital from the approach to the castle for the first time. Graphics were so incredibly real looking and the town felt very alive.

 

[Phynaz]

Ending of Bioshock Infinite.

 

[msi1337]

going to have to say also when dragon came in on opening sequence for Skyrim. Also pretty much the entire game of The Last of Us.

 

[lavaheadache]

Amnesia.. There were plenty of moments were my jaw was dropped. That game was beautifully terrifying.

 

[CuriousMike]

Discovering we could play DOOM on our LAN at work.

"Wait... you mean... we can play... together?!? HOLY SHIT"

 

[IGemini]

Hmmm...tough call. I can think of a few. Seconded on Crysis 1's beach sunrise in the beginning.

Final Fantasy XIII-2's opening sequence (most recent)
The opening dragon battle, and the ascent to High Hrothgar at night in Skyrim
The Tormentor battle in Dead Space 2

 

[runzwithsizorz]

Myst At the time, the world was incredibly beautiful
Stalker COP Some eerie and scary locations, Dept store for one
The night sky in Shivering Isles
Sanitarium Eerie, the morgue scene
Clive Barkers Undying Great graphics, music atmosphere
Max Payne 1...the death of children makes me cry

The Wife

 

[AFurryReptile]

Dark Souls, almost all of it is gorgeous. Beautiful, dark atmosphere. Nearly perfect game mechanics. And even the online portion is really well-done.

Skyrim w/ 80 mods is visually stunning, but the gameplay is still mediocre.

Recently watched my little brother play the demo for Beyond: Two Souls. Sure, it's a console game, but it was damn cool and totally different gameplay than anything I've ever seen.

 

[sm625]

I played a game of tiny wings last night and it was the first time I played the new content. My jaw literally dropped when I fell into one of these new water pits. I was like... WTF? whose bright idea was it to put a lake here?

 

[drebo]

The very first time I stepped into Ultima Online.

 

[Qbah]

Well, BioShock Infinite in general - the whole story was amazing and I really enjoyed the plot twists.

Also, before that, Spec Ops: The Line in general... and especially the

Spoiler

white phosphorus

mission... Man oh man, I put down the controller and felt sick in the stomach.

Coming out of another Oblivion phase and seeing the Skyrim trailer... The game looked perfect! Still one of the best games I've played.

System Shock 2 and Polito was one of the first real story shocks (hah!) I ever had. Still one of my favorite games of all times.

 

[Stringjam]

Stalker COP Some eerie and scary locations, Dept store for one

Yes. I would say the creepiest location in CoP for me was the Jupiter Plant.

The eeriest place in the series IMO is Lab X-16. I think it has a lot to do with the soundtrack for it (that constant slurring bass / cello with the monotone, grating high string part above it).

It physically made me sick to clear that lab. It was wonderful.

 

[frozentundra123456]

in KOTOR,

Spoiler

when Bastilla switched to the dark side

that was a loooong time ago, games have not been so "jaw dropping" in recent years.

There are many great moments in KOTOR. The opening scene where they are escaping the ship, with the great music in the background and the tension to escape was jaw dropping in the sense that I thought to myself, "wow, I have never seen anything like this to introduce a game." Another would be when the nuke blows up in COD Modern Warfare, and maybe when you first see/fight dragons in Skyrim.

Finally, the ending to ME3 was "jaw dropping" in the sense of "that's it?? WTF"

 

[Grooveriding]

Visuals would be Crysis 1, that game was insane. I remembering turning everything up to max settings just to look at it, even though it crawled on my 8800GTX.

Gameplay/story wise would be Bioshock's ending as well as some story elements in this old game called The Dig, if anyone remembers it. Amazing game.

 

[smackababy]

Visuals would be Crysis 1, that game was insane. I remembering turning everything up to max settings just to look at it, even though it crawled on my 8800GTX.

Gameplay/story wise would be Bioshock's ending as well as some story elements in this old game called The Dig, if anyone remembers it. Amazing game.

Bioshock's ending made my draw drop as well, but in a "wow that was awful" way.

The only game that made me truly marvel at how far we've come was Ultima Online. I had played online multiplayer before, but that extent of having an entire open world was amazing. Being able to have a world filled with an unlimited (at least it seemed as such at the time) amount of people and interact with them however I chose was beyond anything I'd seen before.

 

[lehtv]

I can't remember the exact moments, but there have been about a dozen jaw-dropping moments just this year when watching Quake Live tournament streams (FACEIT, QuakeCon, 125fps).

As for jaw-dropping moments when I was actually playing a game myself, there actually haven't been that many. Perhaps the dialogue with the Reaper on Virmire in Mass Effect. Shivers went down my spine.

 

[Mopetar]

Skyrim in general just had so many beautiful areas. There were a lot of times I found myself just looking around to take in the landscape. But, what really blew me away was Blackreach. That's an area I'd revisit time and time again just to wander around for a while.

 

[JeffMD]

/snaps suspenders

Lets see.. the first time my jaw dropped.. was probably doom. Doom didn't just make sure everything was a texture, but its variable lighting allowed for an atmosphere like no other at the time.

I've had a number of euphoric experiences growing up, like when I got my first cdrom and I picked up 7th guest, to the countless demo's ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demoscene ) I ran that pushed the limits of pc's then.

 

[flexy]

I was sitting in my car in Vice City, looking over the ocean,seeing the sun set and playing "Run to You" by Brian Adams on the radio. I think, OVERALL GTA vice city was the best game of all times

HL2 also had several jaw drop moments.

Recently....possibly some scenery in Farcry 3.

Edit:

Many years back when Oblivion came out and we watched it at a friend's who played it on a big screen.

 

[TridenT]

I can't say for jaw dropping experiences. Hard to tell. Hard to remember any. I haven't been sleeping the best recently. So, maybe that's why I can't recall.

I haven't played enough single-player games with good stories to really feel any good gripping plot twists.

 

[skipsneeky2]

When i first played BC2. Keep in mind i stopped gaming in late 2009 and didn't start gaming again till mid 2011 so BC2 was pretty impressive as BF2 was the last multiplayer fps game i played and heck i think i put that down about 2008.

BF3 on ultra was kind of a wow moment but recently BF4 beta when that skyscraper falls makes you just wanna stop whatever your doing and just stare as it falls.

 

[Broburger]

Zora's Fountain in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time

 

[oynaz]

Freespace 2 made my jaw drop a lot.
So did Civilization on the Amiga

 

[pathos]

I was sitting in my car in Vice City, looking over the ocean,seeing the sun set and playing "Run to You" by Brian Adams on the radio. I think, OVERALL GTA vice city was the best game of all times

Vice City was certainly my favorite GTA game. Except for those mini helicopters. And the fact they made you use one of those during during the main story.

edit - It was vice city that made you blow up the building using the mini copters, wasn't it? :\

 

[JAG87]

Last time my jaw actually dropped playing a video game... Taking out a fighter jet with a TV guided missile in BF2. Those who know will understand why when this happens, time just stops for a few seconds and you think, did I really just f*****g do that?