Without spoilers, what's the last most impressive feat you've seen in a video game?

FEAT AS IN SOMETHING IMPRESSIVE IN ANYTHING. Nothing specific.

This doesn't have to be just games. Maybe you accomplished something you want to share. Anyway, point is something in a game that WOW'd you...

For me, jumping. When I played Morriwind the ability to jump and gain stats was amazing to me. I just kept jumping ha. I get it now that its flawed and maybe I didn't understand the system but doing things and getting better in a game vs placing points in stats seemed amazing to me. Kinda wish Elden ring worked in new game where I dodge a lot (I never block) and I get swift or something vs points I'm better now...Sadly I know that can be abused.

I love how the DualSense has been implemented into most games this generation, specifically and obviously Sony first-party games. But there's a thin line between love and obvious, or admiration and surprise, or...something...that pretty much every game wiggles within without real surprises.

A Plague Tale: Requiem seems to get that, and so it goes for most of the game reminding you of the games that inspired it. The ideas that are, I guess, the usual ideas. Then suddenly, right near the end, it has this bit that's exactly what you'd think this game of games feels compelled to offer...but thanks to the DualSense, both haptics and trigger resistance, it climaxes both emotionally and physically in this sequence that doesn't deserve a fraction of the impact it achieves.

It's bonkers. I felt like I had my Brad-and-Brothers moment.

A bit morbid but the combat animations in the Last of Us Part 2 are really well done especially the stealth kill one where you can see the terror on their faces and body struggle, also the dialogue when you break combat of them talking and shouting to each other while cursing you as they search adds another level to the tension.

@sparky_buzzsaw: My interpretation of the question is something that really bowled you over with a game (though it can be not a game too). Probably more on the technical side of things like the op and subsequent answers have noted, but it seems open to interpretation.

I have a pretty low bar for being impressed, so I'll go with something from this year. The load times for Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth have been nearly nonexistent for me on a Series X. I spend more time looking at the RGG logo before the main menu than I do waiting for the game to load. Yakuza: Like A Dragon, which I also played on a Series X, took much longer to load. Someone at RGG really focused on optimization, and I greatly appreciate it.

I was amazed by the deep ocean medical lab segment in SOMA. Because of how realistic the water and the pressure under that water was, not to mention the deep sea creatures, like the one with the light antenna to draw in its prey, because of how dark the deep sea is. I still remember that part of the game like I just played it, even though it's been years.

I was just thinking about this today. I had everyone's "Skyrim moment" with Oblivion. Back when that game came out, all my friends and I started playing it at the same time. And every morning on the bus to school, we'd talk about the random crazy shit that had happened to us. Back then, the idea of dynamic gameplay events was so mind blowing to us. I remember finding the thieves guild and telling everyone that there is this guild deep underground that is only for stealing, and they wouldn't believe me. The mystery of that game, limited internet access, us being youngins, and finding out new things about it is an experience that I don't think will ever repeat again.

I'm sure there have been others since this one but it's the first one I can recall: the train section from Uncharted 2. I just remember going "Oh my god!" again and again watching that thing just play out.

Another one that comes to mind is swimming up through the ceiling in Tears of the Kingdom for the first time. It felt right.

No Man's Sky is ridiculously impressive. People can say a lot about the condition it initially launched in, how the gameplay systems are shallow, and the limits of its procedural generation. These criticisms are legitimate. But to me, these problems are secondary to what the game achieved. In No Man's Sky you can defend an outpost from pirates; discover ancient galaxy-spanning portals; smuggle contraband; build a base; upgrade your settlement; board a pirate capital ship and decide whether you want to destroy them or extort them for payment; find, repair, and sell crash-landed ships; and explore diverse and occasionally bizarre planetary terrain. And if you limit yourself to one solar system, you can do it all without encountering a single loading screen.

In the context of the history of video games, that's insane. There isn't a lot out there like it. At a time when the main inspiration for open world games usually came from Skyrim or GTA or Assassin's Creed, Hello Games made a game that became something like Daggerfall in space with a resource management and crafting mechanic at the center of it.

I'm well over 100 hours in at this point, and I still get surprised. On Friday I found a stretch of the Eissentam Galaxy with at least 5 solar systems clustered together that are completely devoid of sapient life. Each of these systems has abandoned space stations. I landed on one planet and set my exocraft to find a trade outpost. I traveled there, and it was completely abandoned--no people and no ships. This was something I had never seen before. In a game where NPCs are usually within a reasonable distance, to be stuck in a stretch of space literally lightyears away from another person was genuinely unnerving. So I just kept jumping solar systems until I found a system with a functioning space station. They are really doing something significant with that game.

The extreme flexibility of Baldur's Gate 3 is probably the most recent one for me. It's the kind of game where no matter how hard you try to break something in the game, they somehow have not only accounted for it but often have bespoke results when you do the weird thing. For most games, when you try to do something that goes against what the game wants you to do, the game will gently refuse to do what you want and guide you back to what they intend. Not BG3. It will instead let you do what you want but then force you to deal with the consequences, good or bad. That's really cool. Think of it as if when Vinny would play open world games and would try to break the game constantly, but only this time the game just rolled with whatever he did instead of trying to prevent him from doing things.

Without getting into spoilers, an example was when I was struggling with a boss I realized if I snuck one of my high strength characters into a very specific position and used a pushing shot (a special ranged attack that launches enemies flying back several meters), I could simply launch the boss off a cliff and avoid the entire fight. I didn't think it would work and assumed the game would launch into a cutscene the second I interacted with the boss in any way, since that's what most games would do because they want you to do the boss fight. But nope, I did the pushing shot, the boss went comically flying off a cliff, the game gave me a quest update dialog without blinking, and I continued on my merry way.

some speedruns are just insanely hard

I'd say the original Assetto Corsa, for featuring a super realistic handling model (More realistic than Forza Horizon 2 and Driveclub) plus an impressive roster of playable cars & race circuits to choose from.

It’s a few years old, but I saw a blindfolded Sekiro run in like an hour and 40 minutes. Again, that was BLINDFOLDED SEKIRO! My brain kind of rejected why I was seeing at first because even if the game uses the same patterns all the time, to memorize them all and behold the timing to no longer need to actually look at it was freaking amazing.

@nodima:Yeah I was skeptical but tried it and like the dual sense. Sadly, i turn it off most of the time. I play older games on so...Also most new games like all gimmicks (good ones) since dreamcast get ignored. I remember enjoying the silly but fun memory card for dreamcast even if i new at the time it was a waste given it saved less memory and need batteries and most of your good games deleted to play one mini game. Still fun in a back in the day CEO's checked off anything and were basically just people with master's degrees treated like glorious captains, and they just were like I don't know man game boy worked do it...lol (I'm joking and exaggerating).

TLDR

Wish more games used it well, sometimes it feels just like rumble again. Wasn't impressed by switch rumble for all the hype either. Noticing the iPhone rumble caused you to think you had a button felt like it was more impressive and like all subtle things no one cared or noticed. Like cgi done well in a movie.

@allthedinos: Yeah i left it open to interpretation. I agree loads can be special. I dont mind them, but going into a building in skyrim without loads would be amazing...(i know a mod exist for that). Loads in starfields (yes im still giving it a try) hurt the game more than the take that it should be no man's sky skyrim edition.

@thepanzini: I agree. Very immersive. That said I know people who quit the game for the same reasons. The dog parts too. They looked deep at the well of cognitive dissonance being a bad thing and noticed they enjoy not feeling bad for going nuts in games lol. Same people LOVE GTA 5 for example. I guess there is a level of escapism vs realism people dont like and that's fine. Excited to see how the HBO show goes down with people given their reaction to that game though and episode 3. Will they want changes, or not...Game and show are great though.

@daiphyer: Yeah that game felt magical at the time. People clown on it now but it still seems good in my memories. Never beat it. But at the time it was my perfect idea of what i wanted in a rpg...go anywhere do anything live a life etc.

@ben_h: That's interesting. Gonna have to try that game. From the crew it seemed on the debates for GOTY some felt it had issues doing what you said. That said, the crew has a way of finding the needle in the stack of glitches...VINNY LOOKING AT YOU. XD. I would agree with you but I have not played it yet. Hopefully I like it. I heard its just more of Original sin 2 which I get surprised people didnt fall crazy for as much. This is why I think brand names and nostalgia work well unless OS2 isnt as good???

@tartyron: Yeah, to be fair When you really love a game it becomes second nature to just try make it harder. I like powerstone and frequently play on level 8/8, 7 stones (aka they get to transform 2 times max special), 3 on 1, etc just to get excited. Sadly the ai sucks so its just tag at that point, and i lower the damage to big hits and use weakest characters...plus other self made regulations like not using powerful items...put me in another game and i stink. So i get how it works still impressive. Maybe i can try it, though a fighter seems harder to do.

In terms of technical achievement, the jump from MGS to MGS2 always struck me. In terms of personal ones, getting the Bloodborne platinum. I'm not one to chase trophies but that game enticed me enough to go through the last few cursed chalice dungeons.

I also still get goose bumps over Rez's area 5.

@shindig: beat bloodborne but not the chalice dudgeons (i didnt realize they had unique bosses cause i beat one or so and they were the same from the normal game. Don't particularly like rouge likes and it felt rouge like to me and i thought it was just endless time wasting. Found out later there are unique bosses and got stuck. Never thought i'd find the final boss easier than bosses in those dungeons (they hit so hard) even though they have simpler patterns. At least the one im stuck on. Hearing how much you like it makes me wanna go back. My disc broke but i have it on psplus. Sadly i wanna get the dlc but dont wanna rebuy a game i sorta own just for a few hours of new content. Wish they did a remaster on ps5 or something with the dlc.

Yeah, there's a couple of difficult bosses in the home stretch. You can power-level to help (chalice dungeons don't scale with NG+ cycles but the bosses people through the towel in take upwards of ten minutes with very few windows of safety or opportunity.

The DLC's worth it, though. That's got five bosses, several new weapons/arcane spells and it very memorable. I can't imagine the base game without it.

The amount of content and polish in HoloCure considering it's a fan game and the developer has received $0.