In WoW, comming face to face with Ragnaros in Molten Core for the first time.

Ooo, good topic!

* The first appearance of the Flood in Halo

* The first time half of my troops were converted into a spray of flying limbs and gore by wights in Myth. That was a real "what the f*ck?!?" moment for me.

* Pretty much any of the bosses in Painkiller

* Any of the sequences with Pyramid Head in Silent Hill 2

Resident Evil 4: I'm so focused on watching the windows for townspeople that I don't realize Chainsaw Man kicked in the door downstairs and climbed the stairs until he's 2 feet away from me and swinging his chainsaw.

T-rex in Tombraider.
T-rex's in Tombraider 2. Fool me twice, shame on me.

RE4's Lake in a good way, and the Regenerators in a bad way.

Same thing with STALKER, where you're holed up in some loft somewhere peeking out a window trying to shoot the bandits you saw coming up the road and you can't hit sh*t with your AK but you're finally whittling them down and suddenly: where did that last guy go? OH F*CK HE IS COMING UP THE STAIRS RIGHT BEHIND ME WITH A SHOTGUN!

*BOOM*

GAME OVER

Resident Evil 2 when your walking down a hallway and suddenly zombie arms break through the boarded up windows grabbing at you.

Playing as the Marine in the Aliens Vs. Predator games when you hear the motion tracker going nuts from incoming Aliens and realizing you have just a couple of ammo clips.

Walking through the plains of Karanas in Everquest, killing Tigers only to hear the thud-thud-thud of a roaming Hill Giant aggro-ing me.

Every time I rode in a vehicle that Swampy was driving/flying/crashing/burning.

WoW: I don't think I'll ever forget the first few minutes of the game as an Undead character, emerging from a crypt and into the dark village in the woods. And my first bat flight, from the Sepulcher into the Undercity.

Earth Defense Force 2017: The first battle with the plasma-launching Hektor walking fortresses.

HL1: that scene near the beginning when you come upon a scientist in a darkened room, lit only by a flickering computer monitor. There's a scientist seated at the desk, he's got a headcrab on his head, and he's having what looks like a seizure. Freaky.

Silent Hill 2: when you encounter Pyramid Head and he's hunched over one of those creatures that looks like a mixed up mess of mannequin limbs, and it looks like he's raping it or something. Oh, the horror.

Like Lobster: All of Shadow of the Colossus.

The climactic scene in Ico, on the bridge. Later, that scene with the inky creatures dancing around the statue. I don't know that I've even been so affected by a game.

No One Lives Forever 2: the secret suburban spy lair, followed by the tornado trailer park ninja battle. My favorite back-to-back levels ever.

Resident Evil: The dog. The Window.

System Shock 2: The Monkeys.

Resident Evil 4: The pitchforked-to-the-shed-by-the-face scene near the beginning. Later, getting attacked by a small army of chainsaw-wielding farmers' wives, their faces covered by bloody bandages. Plus almost all of the boss fights.

I could go on and on, I think.

World of Warcraft:
First time I saw Ragnaros summoned.
First time I saw Nefarion come swooping in to the Balcony.

Parasite Eve:
This game is full of that kind of stuff, but the bit on the stage early on comes to mind.

Final Fantasy XI
Mission 5 at the end where you find out that thing.

Starcraft: Finding Kerrigan after she was taken by the Zerg.

That's all I can really think of.

Carmageddon 2. Getting the Spiked Tail Thing and Pinball mode at the same time.
Gibbing my first Imp Sprite in Doom.
Replaying God of War and hitting the Meat Grinder level.
Meat Circus.
Finding the tank in GTA2.

EDF 2017

"You did it soldier, the mothership is coming down!"
"Wait... hold on, it's transforming"

Oh Sh*t

I totally had one in BF2: Special Forces the other day, on the Ghost Town map. I was a Spetsnaz and for some reason, which probably sounded like a good idea at the time, I decided to spawn as an engineer. Well, those filthy Brits had taken over the northern-most cappable location and were pretty much dominating. Somehow, I managed to get out of the base without getting raped, but in the process, I had to jump into the moat that surrounds most of the map to make it out. I swam over to the bottom of the embankment that leads into that Brit-capped base and charged up to the ground level, because I figured that as an engineer, my trusty jackhammer and I were the perfect one-man fighting machine and that we could take on all those OH SH*T LIKE 10 DUDES AND A TANK?!?! oooOOH P*SS!

I realized that there was no hope of staying alive at this point, so I decided to make a futile attempt at taking out the tank. Artillery slammed the ground around me as I ran towards the tank. Bad dudes where spawning everywhere and running around like headless vultures, surely squabbling with each other over who would get the next base-rape kill on my team. Surprisingly, the choas managed to be the perfect camouflage, at least for the moment. I switched to mines and proceeded to run straight to the back of the tank, having only taken a few minor hits (twere merely flesh wounds). I dropped one mine behind a track, then side-stepped to drop the second. As the second mine fell to the ground, my precious Russian flesh was pierced one last, fatal time. As I lay dying and gasping for breath, I heard the British death-machine switch gears and start to roll backwards. In this instant, I squirmed, not in pain, but in pure gleeful anticipation of my sworn enemy's demise. In the instant before my death, I heard the deafening sound of my mines detonating and killing not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 enemies. Oh splash damage, how I love thee. I died with a smirk on my face, knowing that it had been for the greater good... Fifteen seconds later, I spawned and was probably taken out by a sniper before taking any more than two steps in any direction.

• *Bang* ... *Bang* ... The tentacle monster in the reactor in Half Life.

• The Emerald Weapon in FF7 - it was a whole different sort of fear.

• The winner: System Shock 2. Meeting Shodan. Holy sh*tf*ck, did I scream. I still sometimes wake up in the night, sweating.

The first encounter with a Trow in Myth. You just hear a *thudding* in the distance, but you're ready for anything, you've probably arrived at this point in the game without losing a man but then up comes this mean lookin' giant and, oh sh*t, he just kicked your best warriors to little bloody pieces and, oh sh*t, he did it again.

Condemned had a really good one. You're in the Subway, about to go down this staircase when something cracks you from behind, all in first person mode you go tumbling down the stairs, get knocked out on the floor then wake up completely surround by hobos fighting each other.

Those half-visible demons in Doom gave me many keyboard-stabbing "Ahhhhh!!!" shocks. There's another great setpiece where you flick a switch and the numerous pillars rise as the lights go out, leaving you completely in the dark as the newly awakened demons start blasting away. Good times, good times...