Impossible Mission on the C=64

Metal Gear Solid 4, because of its narrative, and it was my first MGS game as well.

Somebody mentioned Shenmue.  THAT game was awe inspiring!  You could follow people around and talk to any of them, they'd all have lives.  Some guys would be in a cafe after working all day and you'd recognize them.  You could follow them home.  Some guys hung out in back alleys after hours.  You could go into any room of any house, open any drawer of any dresser and find anything.  That level of detail was astounding!  I remember calling my friend who got a PS2 (I couldn't find one for months) and bragging, "It's so detailed, you can see the lines in the palm of people's hands!"

There are just too many to throw out there so Ive broken them down by  generation. As you can see i'm am old school gamer who was rocking the classics while a lot of you were still swimming around in Daddy's sack. So here they are:

2nd Gen

Archon (Atari Computer)

Of all the dozens of Atari games I ever played this was the most addictive. It had the most amazing two player action of its time. It was like chess but with pieces you could duel your opponent with in realtime. The unicorns were my favorite. They actually had lasers they shot out of their head. Why this game never got rebooted later on I will never understand.

Honorable Mention: Pac-Man (Atari Computer)

3rd Gen

Super Mario Bros. (NES)

This game speaks for itself. The colors, the music the controls. Until then all I had played was atari games with the old school joystick so I was outright floored by what Nintendo had accomplished with this game.  I mean this is the title that brought the industry back from the verge. Though not my best gaming experience , it stands without question as the best game ever made.

Honorable mention: Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)

4th Gen

Phantasy Star II (Genesis)

Though I had already played Final Fantasy I before it, this is the first RPG that I could not get enough of. The final fight with Dark Force was so epic with all the transformations and cutscenes. It was my first real exposure to Anime style art and the reason I made my mom rent me Akira at the video store. I've been a Japanophile ever since.

Honorable mention: Zelda A Link to the Past (SNES)

Star Control II (PC)

I'm not sure what generation this game fits in to because it is a PC game. But this game ranks as my number one of all time. A true masterpiece that blew all other RPGs out of the water. It was the first I ever played that had a realtime fighting system. The combat involved over two dozen spacecraft with primary and secondary weapons. And you could play against a friend in melee mode. And the ending, oh how it was so damned satisfying. There was just this massively epic feel to the game. Though the mechanics differed dramatically from the following titles, SCII is the great grandaddy to games like Star Craft, Halo and Mass Effect. It set the standard for the space opera genre in gaming and still worth playing (Its now open sourced and will run for free on any PC)

Honorable Mention: Dune II (PC)

Street Fighter II (Arcade)

This one doesnt really fit in to the console realm either though it was released later on SNES/Genisis. But I wont count that since my first experience was at the arcade. So yeah, this was the game that had all the kids in my neighborhood hanging out at the 7-11 down the street. We would get so in to it. And I remember there is this one badass named, Colin. (Actually he was a big headed douche with bad acne and a geeky personality but we thought he was a God because of how well he played the game.) Aside form his unbeatable playing style he was the first of us who knew about Guile's handcuffs. The bastard would never tell us how he did it. And that was back when the internet was in its infancy so you couldnt find that shit out on youre own. Ill never forget that guy.

Honorable Mention: Rastan (Arcade)

5th Gen

Metal Gear Solid (PSOne)

I did play the original on the NES, but this one was still nothing like what I expected. The whole stealth concept, the cinematic cutscenes and the voicework were unlike anything I had seen before. The fight with Sniper Wolf was so damned thrilling I nearly pissed myself because I didnt want to get up and use the restroom until I beat her. This was also the first game I skipped school to stay home and play.

Honorable Mention: Zelda Ocarina of TIme (N64)

6th gen

Grand Theft Auto 3 (PS2)

A true benchmark in gaming. It's open world sandbox style of play and huge soundtrack made it feel bigger than any game before it. Plus the violence. Oh yes, the violence. It was just so fun carjacking a random stranger, capping them in the crotch, taking their money, then running them over with their own car. The fact that it was banned in Australia made me love it even more.

Honorable Mention: Halo (Xbox)

7th Gen

Mass Effect (Xbox360)

My second favorite game of all time, though I would also include the sequel in that assessment since I really cant decide which of the two I like more. This is what I consider the pinnacle of storytelling in a game. It is so far ahead of all the crappy b-movie dialogue and plot twists that give the gaming industry a bad wrap. Seriously, when I first played this game I felt I was Commander Shepard. All the choices, the reactions and the overall story were so engrossing that I could not stop thinking about the game for weeks, even after I finished it. Like Star Control II before it, Mass Effect accomplished something special for fans of gaming and sci-fi. It brought the two together and produced a masterpiece that will likely remain unmatched for another 15 years. 

Honorable Mention: Portal (Xbox360)

There you have it. The list of games that  truly awed me.

I'm going to make a list, check it twice, and give reasons

Earthbound - Lighthearted RPG with big philosophical underlying themes, it really struck me when I played, and I teared up at the end 

Mother 3 -  I was expecting more or less another Earthbound, what I got was a shock to the system, not only did it create a narrative that struck me to the core but somehow it still kept it's identity despite the overall theme being so different, truly one of the best RPGs ever crafted.

Super Mario Bros 3 - This game set the standard for how I view platformers and not much has topped it for 2D platforming and the game is 20 years old now (in America).  

Zelda Link to the Past - The game that set the standard for which I hold the series to and all other adventure games, fun, challenging, long, and just tons to do.  Plus it was one of the best looking SNES games for which still holds up today because of its art direction.

Final Fantasy IV (II when it struck me as awe inspiring) - Some of the best music in any video game, to this day in fact, one of the best RPG combat systems, and some crazy good visuals.

Mario 64 - One of the first 3D games I played on a console, it was just a lot of fun, and had a lot of wow moments

Zelda OoT - This was the culmination of a lot of different things I saw in 3D action/adventure/platform titles that gen and when they came together in OoT it left a lasting impression

Chrono Trigger - I missed this till the PS2 era but I bought it with FFIV on PS1, even then the story and time traveling struck a cord with me.

Zelda Wind Waker - It was the first time I ever truly saw cel shading and thought man this is like a cartoon come to life, now games like Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm have taken that to the point I wouldn't mind animes done in 3D cel shading.

Super Smash Bros - The level of pure fun is what made an impression on me, it was the first game I ever got super excited to just play after getting off of school for no other reason than play against the AI and figure out what to use against my friends.

Starcraft - From the quirky story to the addicting gameplay never have I spent so much time on one game (though Brawl is giving it a run for its money), and add in the custom maps giving such variety it left me truly impressed and gave me my first real feeling of what an online standard should be.

Wii Sports - It was the first game to ever have me drooling for a new console and looking into paying more than MSRP for, I didn't of course, but after I got it, it also got the ladies over to my dorm or vice versa and that was the first time a game ever did that lol

Demons Souls - From the moody atmosphere, to the refreshing difficulty, the game made me step back for a bit and think this is what I really look for in an action RPG, and then I died.

Donkey Kong Country Returns - Never once have I ever thought of a platformer as a moving piece of artwork but this badboy has done it, cartoony it may be, but the amount of details is kind of staggering from the environments that react to your ground pounds, to the subtle hints made into the stages for nostalgia, to the game making you wonder why you just felt like you were put into a bullet hell game all of a sudden... and then I died...

Super Mario Galaxy 1/2 - I put these together as SMG1 had the impressive visuals and unique platforming I've never seen before, and SMG2 took it and perfected it but because it wasn't brand spanking new I wasn't caught off guard like I was with SMG1.

Little Big Planet - It's the first platformer that I really needed to invite friends over just to beat certain parts of stages and properly work with 4 players, but wait then it has this amazing level designer that people made some really impressive stages with, I was not expecting that at all and it made me get a PS3 for it.  Lots of fun and unique experiences to be had.

I look back at this list and see I listed a lot of awe in the current gen, but I think it's just the newness, or maybe I'm just getting old and forgetting some really awe inspiring games, or a mixture of both.  I might update later if I think of anything more.

Yeah, I played 4, and that song's pretty great. All Silent Hill games have scary BGM's, but I think 1 is the creepiest.

The most awe inspiring moment ever for me goes to Final Fantasy VII. The scene where Sephiroth just stabs Arith...I was like "OMG!!! WTF!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Second would be the awsomenes of Xenogears and its greatest story ever!!! that is until you get to disc two, which was a major let down when compared to disc one. but the story is still AWSOME!!!

Nothing follows

More specifically, the character that is Okami is what did it: it was a sight of the divine!

LOL, you had a divine experience. Are you shinto now?

Recently :

- Assassin's Creed (Eagle Eye) 360 & PS3

- Ninokuni (in the futur) PS3

Before that :

PS - Final Fantasy 7 / Metal Gear Solid

N64 - Zelda OOT & Goldeneye

DC - Skies of Arcadia / Nomad Soul / Shenmue / Soul Calibur

PC - Deus Ex (I dont play so much on PC)

NGC - Metroid Prime / Mario Galaxy / Resident Evil 4

Xbox - Riddick Butcher Bay