For 90s kids, there’s no need for explanation. For others, well, pokemon was a phenomenon. It was everywhere, on TV, in magazines, toys, stickers. You could trade pokemon at the school excursion on the bus.
You felt alive in this world, pokemon gen 1-2 were the pinnacle of pokemon for me. And in gen2, finishing the game, and lo and behold, there’s a whole other region (kanto) waiting for you to explore it. The night cycle in the game blew my mind in ways that I have been chasing ever since.
I know it will never be reached again, but the memory will remain as powerful as it was that evening of the early 00s. What is your greatest gaming high, that you know will never be topped again, and that you have been chasing ever since?
The immersive world of Oblivion (Elder Scrolls IV). Morrowind had been great, but the high-fantasy realism of Oblivion blew Morrowind away. Skyrim wasn’t as immersive for me, mostly because the guilds and other side-stories weren’t as deeply developed. Oblivion remains THE high water mark for open world RPGs.
Skyrim has the best bars in any video game that I know of. I used to dump all my crap on the floor of the Whiterun tavern, so the npcs would kick it around as they moved. Hundreds of baskets and pans and garbage items. I’d leave the game running as I slept, listening to the trash being kicked, local gossip, awful minstrel, and pleasant sounds of people drinking.
What a mental image that is.
Heh. I do shit like that. Before i quit/finished Fall Out 4, I killed all the Brotherhood, stole their power armor, and put it on the roof of the Atomic greaser’s gas station. Didn’t stop till I had it covered. It was a fukin monument. Looked cool as hell.
Oblivion was the only game that came close to how I felt the first time I stepped out of the dungeon and opened the world map of Daggerfall. I couldn’t stop making new characters that I wanted to explore the world with.
But Oblivion really was something special too. Felt like an alive fantasy world.
I’ve been chasing that Daggerfall high for so long. Oblivion and Morrowind were amazing, but they didn’t quite get me there.