Very few games blow me away.  It either has to be some kind of incredible scale that I wasn't expecting; or some kind of alien feeling to the game that I've never felt before.  To illustrate with examples:

Final Fantasy VII (when you finally exit Midgar and realise there's a whole bloody world out there)

Jak & Daxter (moving seamlessly between areas without loading screens)

Jumping Flash! (in the second world where you see far off objects in the distance and realise you can leap your way towards them)

Pikmin (playing the first level which feels kind of familar yet completely otherworldy at the same time)

SSX 3 (when I realised I could race down the whole mountain in one 40-minute-long trip if I wanted)

The most recent example I can think of is Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction when you're in Metropolis.  Although I'd seen the level in Up Your Arsenal, exploring it in HD for the first time with the full power of the PS3 rendering all sorts of vehicles flying through the air; platforms crumbling; enemies everywhere; explosions etc. was just mind blowing.  Combined with the Pixar-esque graphics, I just couldn't believe how fantastic it looked.

I was also blown away by DragonsDogma because my expectations were low. And just bought it because it was 15 bucks or so  and then played 3 or 4 days in a row because it was a really good game.


But the last time i was completely blown away was  Xenoblade. I have never touched a Monolith Soft game before and I was actually disappointed by the graphics (the trailers mostly showed the strange character design/faces etc and not much of the vistas)  but when I played it I was  like "OMG I feel like a little chiild again  best RPG I played after for a least 12 or so years"

I've never beaten the game even if I'm somewhat making it sound as if I did.  I just got where I assume is pretty far into the game.  I actually got to after the point where you get the port crystal when you kill the one gryphon. 

I'm just hoping they create a next gen version of this, remove leveling, and balance it better, because the boss monsters and unique areas were amazing.  It's somewhat like Shadow of the Colossus meets Demon's Souls meets Monster Hunter, but then with some really poor back tracking and fighting the same random enemies hundreds of times.  Oh, and stupid parts giving you no idea what to do and how to complete them until dumb luck after walking past it a 20th time has your pawn saying that maybe you can use a dead goblin to lure out the gryphon.

MASTER, A TREE!

Oh, you should really beat the game. The ending is amazing, at least for me. And yes, I had the same impression: SOtC + Dark Souls.

The Last of Us. It made me feel human again, after I had hidden away my emotions and feelings in a thick layer of sarcasm, fake smiles and cynicism. The Left Behind DLC made me feel even harder.

It is my greatest experience in gaming history.

probably dig dug.

gta3
mgs3
re4

Amen

Twilight Princess. I've never been more engrossed in a game. Before that it would have been Shadow of the Colossus. It's a bit of a bummer than nothing last gen ever beat something I played at the very beginning of it, though, and it wasn't even a Wii game to begin with. Games just don't wow me as much anymore, I guess.

I have to thank you in part for my enjoyement throughout DD. Xena knew what to do in some cases, which is something I truly apreciated, instead of my moronic pawn looking at the trees