Greatest moments in YOUR gaming history!

[Monk]

We've all been there. It's 2 am and you're down to your last life. Your family has long since gone to bed and it's just you and the boss... you're staring that pixelated fiend in the eyes and one of you is going to flinch. You persevere and against all odds come out on top, its something we've all been through. Beating the living crap out of the games we pay money to use to relax, with phrases like "I can't stop, or the game will win." Or "The game cheats, i swear!"

These are moments that define us as gamers more than anything imo, it's in these moments when pushed to the brink we let succumb to baser emotions, because let's face it, you can't let the game win.



Okay, enough dramatic openings. I want to hear from my fellow .Orgahs, what's the gaming moment that stands out most in your mind? If you can't settle on one (and I know there's dozens for me) then just give us some that pop up in your mind. Feel free to indulge as much or as little as you see fit.

Seeing as this thread was my bright idea, i'll get it started right with one of my more recent ones. And this one, believe it or not, comes from CoD:WaW. I know!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

There were two moments in actuality, and not surprisingly they came while I was achievement hunting. The first was The Sum of All Zeros. In short, you're manning a twin .50 cal turret onboard a plane in the pacific and you've got to shoot down 45 enemy planes. Sound simple right? Wrong! The plans move so fast and the turret is so hard to get used to (it might be the controler) I kept glaring at my TV in frustration. Attempt 1 went by, no go, attempt 5, still nothing. The tenth try? I missed it by three kills.

I nearly shut off the game right then and there but there was no way I was letting this game, of all games, get the best of me. I grabbed a soda and strapped in for another go. By the mid-point i had 32 kills. I was doing great. I kept pushing, pushing and when the final plane hit the ocean and that little achievement box popped up, I sat back with a heavy sigh and let the controller drop to the ground in exhaustion. Looked up at the clock, 3 am. Didn't care. It was over.

The day before I had gone through similiar agony attempting to get The Professional. It comes in the first soviet stage in which you're handed a rifle and told to snipe some soldiers standing about. You've got 5 bullets to kill 8 enemy troops with while at the same time not alerting them to your presence. So you've got to be quick, be precise and be timely, a missed shot, or even a badly timed one and you missed your chance. It took a long time for me to get this down, but I got it. It didn't give me as much satisfaction as Sum of all Zeros, but it was close.

Well? What are some moments that stand out to you, as either moments of videogame triumph or utter frustration?

[Hooahguy]

my best gaming moment was probably in Company of heroes: opposing fronts.
i was playing the german campaign, and i was in the process of getting all the medals. but there was one mission where i just could not get the medal. i had to defend a road from the brits, and to get the medal i had to control all the control points on the road. i always fell short of the last control point, and i got so frustrated. what would happen is in the last 5 minutes before i won, the brits would throw everything they had at me. everything. arty, heavy tanks, MGs, the works. so naturally my forces were shredded near the end. i was playing on hard, so it makes sense. after about three tries i was ready to give up.
but i decided to try once more. with fifteen seconds left on the clock, and arty raining down, i managed to take the last point. i sent all my men and tanks to defend it, and i got the medal.
best moment of gaming in my life by far, only nearly matched with when i beat the "one shot one kill" mission on COD4 on veteran.

[White_eyes:D]

I recall playing a game of Empire:Total War as the Orange guys in India. Started out good....but was turning into frustration half way thru, when a Large Muslim Stack hit my fort city (The province just above the Capital). I recall I wasn't too good with Navy stuff and didn't build much of a fleet, so flanking was out of the question. I had only two units of Hindu Muskets (With no baynet tech upgrades...). I knew I was going to lose if I Auto-resolved but was unsure of what I could do, even if I commanded the battle. I took a chance and figured I could win if I had some high ground or something. Turn's out I was right, and as a bonus the artily was fixed so my guys were out of there range. I took the high ground and then charged downhill when they were close...to my surprise, I lost only 8 men in the charge and they killed around 120=60 men apiece from there downhill charge with no bayonets. After that the Muhgal gave me no trouble

[seireikhaan]

I'd say one that stands out was a battle during an Armenian campaign in MTW with the XL 2.0 mod. Fought two separate, allied armies each equal in number to my one at the same time and won a decisive victory.

Also, a Texan occupation of London.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[]

[Beirut]

Best gaming moment? Playing a downloaded custom mission on the original MS Combat Flight Simulator. I was in a flight of Spitfire MKIs and our flight was up against a gaggle of Me-109s. The guy who built the mission gave Simpsons names to all the planes. So if your wingman flew past you, you'd see a tag above his plane that might say Homer, something like that.

Anyway, I'm slugging it out with an Me-109 and ahead of me I see another -109 tear up a Spitfire and send him smoking into the ground. The tag above the Spitfire read "Krusty". I think I actually said aloud, "You killed Krusty the Clown!" I got mad. Really mad. I tore through a cloud of enemy planes, hunted the SOB that downed Krusty and shot him to pieces. Nothing left but airborne debris. It really felt great.

Talk about immersion.

[Jolt]

No competition in it? Ah well, guess I'm the first. The national ETL (Enemy Territory League) Cup was held in Lisbon some years ago (Ugh, 2005 I think), and as one of the major national clans of ET, my clan was thus direct invitee into the tournament. It was my very first LAN.

I might add that all competitions of ET are done in Stopwatch, which the attacking clan has a set timelimit to accomplish a number of objectives, ending the map, after which, the defending team switches to the attacking team and must beat the time set by first attacking clan. Two maps were played per match. In case both teams managed to prevent the other team from accomplishing the objectives during the game's max time limit for the map, in both maps then it was considered a tie. The matches order of play, concerning who attacked and defended was done in "AB-BA" form.

The Group Phase was a piece of cake, except for the war with another of the top-favorite clans which also was placed on our group. I don't quite recall that match as it was the only one I didn't participate in it (It was our opening match), but I think it was a tie in both maps. In any case, we advanced to the quarter finals, quickly dispatched the team and went to the semi-finals. They won the first map (Gold Rush) - They attacked first, and managed to finish the objectives, while we didn't manage to finish the objectives in the time limit they did. On the second map (Supply Depot) we attacked first and we made an average time, and they attacked, and we basically control the match pretty well, but I still remember the defining moment of that match. My entire clan was dead save for a Clanmember of mine who was in the Crane Controls room (Building the Crane controls is an objective of the attacking side) and he killed two engineers with his SMG and Pistol in the Crane Controls room, who were there constructing the said obj. Thing is, he didn't gib them, but he had no bullets left and the medic was coming fast to revive the killed engineers, and still remember it clear as water, that clanmate giivng them with his knife, then the medic appears from behind him and kills him, reviving the two engineers, who proceeded to construct the crane controls, which puts the gold into a truck and then the attacking side must escort the truck to an exit outside the base. Thing is, if he managed to gib both engineers, we would spawn shortly afterwards and retake our defensive positions, effectively winning the map and forcing the game to go on a decider map, which we might have very well won.
But that is not the entire story. True to our skill we attempted everything to slow down their advance with the truck, and in the end we were extremely frustrated as they were able to accomplish their objective with 4 seconds left on the timer. They won over 4 seconds. ...Man. ...It sucks to lose like that.


Other than that, my prime time in gaming history is reaching the 3rd spot in Populous 3: The Beginning multiplayer rankings, effectively making me a living legend of Populous

[Crazed Rabbit]

Hmm. I'm terrible at remembering things on the spot, but here's one from L4D:

I joined a versus game in the Dead Air finale. We started out as usual, running to the finale trigger. But one guy got attacked by a witch on the way. Me and another guy stay to help him. The final guy goes on to the refueling truck. Now, as I'm trying to whack zombies and rescue the downed guy, I see the final guy out of the corner of my eye approaching the radio, which will trigger a horde of zombies.

Surely he can't be that stupid, I think, and turn my attention again to the zombies around me. The downed guy gets killed by the zombies around him, though. And then idiot number two sets off the horde. He promptly gets pounced by a hunter zombie.

At this point I'm wondering if I should just rage quit because, seriously, how are two people going to survive a whole finale zombie horde? But I persist, as does the only other guy alive (we didn't fight hard to save idiot number two).

So we huddle under the plane wing, fighting off hordes of zombies, bashing away special infected. And when the tank comes, we run around, staying just out of reach and slowly killing him. And then we do it all over again.

At the end of it, we've both somehow survived. And we both type the same thing in general chat; "We rock." Because we do.

CR

[Martok]

For me, there are two moments that stick out in my head....


1.) Back when I first started playing Birth of the Federation, there was a(n extremely short-lived) period where I was a member of a BOTF clan and played a couple of MP matches. It was during one of these matches that I ended up playing with a very unpleasant fellow from another clan who mercilessly mocked my newbie status, and -- by extension -- my playing skills. He was so rude that even his clan-mate (we were playing a 2-vs-2 match) was embarrassed by his behavior. (Note: He was playing as the Federation, and I was the Romulans.)

Anyway, the jerk kept on me until I finally lost my temper and I made a disparaging remark about him being Hitler's love child. Not surprisingly, he took exception to my comment -- it probably didn't help matters that he was Austrian -- and immediately launched a massive attack on my empire. What was delicious, however, was that luck (or perhaps providence?) had arranged matters so that I'd just *happened* to have a large fleet of cloaked warships sitting near his invasion route (which he couldn't see), and I was able to intercept him with it. To make a long story short, his armada was wiped out completely, and he raged-quit shortly after that.

Generally speaking, I'm not a very petty person (at least, I don't think/hope I am!). However, I cannot deny that I took enormous satisfaction at getting my revenge on the guy for being such a tool.


2.) I know I've mentioned this one before, but my other greatest gaming moment occurred when I was playing vanilla Medieval Total War: It was when my small Spanish army of around 450 men faced a huge Almohad army out-numbering them by nearly 3-to-1....and defeated it. It was significant for me because it was the first time in either MTW or STW that I'd defeated a massively superior force which *wasn't* a bridge battle. The victory was also all the sweeter because it was one of those truly critical battles where my kingdom's very survival had depended on my being able to win it -- if the Caliphate had won, I had nothing left which could've stopped them from overrunning all of northern Iberia.

What made it even more exhilarating was that the battle really could've gone either way; the momentum swung back & forth between the two armies several different times. I can still remember that I was so nervous about whether or not I could pull a victory out of this impossible situation, that my hands were actually sweaty! Ah yes, good times, good times....

[Monk]

The mentions of MTW and of epic battles made me remember about one of my own epic fights in the TW series. It took a long time to track down but i was amazed when i found the post that detailed everything, with screens still intact!

I give you, 13,000 danes vs 26,000 Mongols, the Battle of Khazar, 1231 AD.

I had nearly forgotten about that fight and now that I think of it it's the single longest battle I ever took part in. It's without a doubt a moment that defined the TW genre for me and stands tall as a reason why MTW is and will always be one of my favorite games, all time.