PC Gaming

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

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.

That's a tough question! I would have to say it's a toss up between MechWarrior 2 and the original Half Life. I spent so many hours customizing mechs and tearing stuff up. There was something magical about the first Half-Life game though. So good and led to so many mods that I played for such a long time (CS, TFC/2, DoD).

Everquest. Man that was revolutionary.

I'm gonna go with world of warcraft. The idea of a persistent online MMO was entirely new at the time (at least for me and most people I think) and it just blew me away that it was basically just a virtual world that was going 24/7, entirely 3D too. I got into mmos a bit after that and got really into ragnarok online which is now a fond memory for me.

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

Unreal. The graphics and the large open levels were jaw dropping when I played it as a kid.

Road Rash was the first game that made me love games then it was Need for Speed II I could replay those games for hours. nowadays the only game that gave me good replayability was Hades and live-service games like Valorant.

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.

Myst blew my mind as a kid, and World of Warcraft made me fall in love with PC gaming for life.

Thief: The Dark Project is probably the first time I spent an entire game going "I didn't know games could be like this!"

STALKER. The A-Life AI system is something else, and the open-ended survival gameplay and atmosphere are really in a league of their own. Similarly, as a latter-day choice, INFRA. That's a Source engine total conversion that has a similar uncanny and immersive atmosphere where you are just blown away at the total package, map design, and the thought process that went into it. Those are easily the two most immersive games I've played.

Probably Warcraft III

I did not grow up with a console. Pretty much just floppies with TLC games on them. My grandma introduced me to Sierra and Blizzard games, and they were exciting yeah but not mind blowing.

But then warcraft III (didn't play Starcraft much at this time, was young) introduced the concept of custom maps to me. Basically going from having one game to dozens. Tower Defenses, RPGs, genres that basically either didn't exist yet or don't exist anymore (rip Enfos...and RP maps seriously wth)

It pretty much shaped my childhood, friends, and all that stuff. Really sad that SCII never really became what Warcraft III was to me.

Duke Nukem 3D.

Gonna date myself a bit, but the Original Descent and MechWarrior 2. The seemless use of a z-axis in a shooter was for some reason mind blowing, and the combination of resource balancing and evaluating pros/cons for how to approach a mission was amazing. TIMBERWOLF is the real Og.

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!

Chuck Yeager Air Combat..there were torque curves and stall vector charts for all the aircraft and I had no idea what those stupid lines meant..it was amazing lol!

It might have been the first far cry game or possibly doom 3, I forget what came first.

Quake was pretty mind-blowing. Full room-over-room and all.

I distinctly remember "Redneck Rampage" being the first game I'd ever played with an install over 100MB and it blew me away - that felt absolutely MASSIVE at the time.

The physics engine in "Jurassic Park: Trespasser" also knocked my socks off. I wish that one would get a re-release on GOG or something; it's terrible, but I've got a lot of fond memories bumbling my away around that island.

The Secret World.

I loved the spooky Lovecraftian vibe and the stories.

The Siren Song is still stuck in my head.

The first two PC games I ever played - Blood 2: The Chosen and Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive

Wolfenstein 3D

The graphics and gameplay were mind blowing 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 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.

Hmm first PC game that blew my mind... Portal!

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

Return to Krondor will always have a soft spot in my heart.

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