I'm surprised to not see this thread already. If it's on a later page, I apologize, and feel free to delete this lazy poster's repeat thread.

Also, I would like to retract my earlier statement of "This looks disappointing," based on game-play videos, as it is, in fact, in-*bleep*ing-credible.

So, post your best "Holy shit, I can't believe that happened," or even just "Oooh, neat," kinda stories.

Mine would have to be my first deviation from the main story (which occurred sometime between the first and second missions) to cause some random chaos and experience Euphoria. I beat a cop to death (finishing him with a sickening punch to the ear), got a gun, and proceeded to shoot anyone who came near enough. I lead them out to the freeway, and cruised through traffic to the front of a long line of cars. The front car was, as it happened, an ice-cream truck. I hopped out and shot him through the windshield. My car and his big truck closed up the freeway, congesting traffic back to where the cop cars were. They then got out and started running through traffic on foot, firing as they came towards me. I had only just learned the cover system, so I quickly put my back to the ice-cream truck while bullets sparked and whizzed inches away from me. I inched to the back end of the truck, all the while watching the cops get closer and closer. The nearest to me opened up a car door and took cover behind it. The driver of said car ran for his life. I blind-fired my twelve-gauge and was amazed when the window shattered and the force of the shot slammed the car door backwards. The combination of some double-ought buck to the face and a car door smashing into him killed the cop.
The resulting cloud of blood was also rather impressive.

It just felt so much like a big-budget Hollywood action movie that I couldn't help but fall in love with this game.

So, share some of your early wow moments.

this is a rubbish one but it left me in a state of 'wow' . Right when I first started playing I was driving at break neck speeds, and hit a wall head on! As I flew through the windscreen I hit the wall and lumped down on the bonnet of the car. It looked so realistic I was amazed!

haha nice story man.

my biggest wow is from a mission called three leaf clover, absolute AWESOME!!!! mission, i kinda wish i saved it before that mission and then made another save so i could go back and play that! lol

4 star rating, on the motorway.

The cops are RELENTLESS! They chased me down alleyways on foot, in the air with helicopters, and the occasional SWAT/FBI truck.

Crusing down the motorway, hugging the wall tightly as cop cars performed 180's as they disappeared in my rear view mirrors.

That's when it happened >_<

The Police Truck, which surprisingly caught up with me, shunted me OVER the barrier..and this was high up..

But this is the surprising bit, on the way down, I thrown a grenade onto the motorway, and the truck came down with me, squashing the car.

A truely holy *bleep* moment.

4 man Free Roam (yes multiplayer) with spawns in the Airport. We were driving around there shooting at each othre for a bit and at the police when they came. I didn't know you couldn't get Achievments online so when we had 3 stars i gunned down around 10 cops with an AK-47. All of a sudden there were around 20-30 Police cars and 2 Helicopters chasing just 4 of us. We Proceeded to dodge them around the airport until i got out of the airport and out of the Police ring fairly quickly and crouched in a bush for a small amount of time to get annoyed coz of no Achievment

When

quote

After CHoosing to kill Dwayne or Playboy X, I killed Dwayne and realised I actually felt bad about it, then when reading his e-mail to you about hanging out sometime, it made me actually feel sadness about what I had done, which was the first time in any GTA game, and like that in any ame I had ever played...it was cool

Flying through the windshield after a madmans race at the freeway landing like 10 meters from the car scraping my ass along the asphalt i was like "whoooah this looks freaking amazing" .
This "euphoria" engine must be the best thing ever programmed

I agree with Noodle_Man. After reading that email, I actually felt emotion for a video game character. I'm still pissed that I made the wrong choice.

Also:

Definitely when I drove off one of the high-rise roads...
crashed midair into a building...
flew out of my front windshield while still in the air...
and then having the fall kill you...
(also landing on the hood of the car on the way down was a nice touch.)

I was on an overbridge on the motorway getting chased by the cops, and i hit something in the middle of the motorway, and was flung out of my car, off the overbride and went smack into the ground, killing me instantly

my wow moment is the video of niko robbing the bank in "three-leaf clover".

I've had a few. Probably the first one, minor as it may be, was when I was driving to Roman's apartment from the ship I had just got off of. I was driving in first-person, and was plesently surprised to find that the game actually registers you going over potholes.

My favorite one, I think, was when I shot someguy in the torso several times, killing him. I go over to him, and to my surprise, he's still moving! Albeit, dying, but still. What did I do? Put a 9mm bullet through his brain and watched the blood puddle form.

Probably one of the biggest "wow" moments that no one has mentioned so far for me was:

Minor spoiler below



Was the mission where you push the guy off the building that Francis wants you to kill. That and just cruising around the city in a helicopter. Star Junction at night. Oh and the fact that Satin Dolls, a real New jersey strip club, which can be seen in the Sopranos is in the game,

The whole 3 leaf clover (bank robbery) mission was fun. The cut scene of the cops and SWAT swarming around the building and blocking off the streets was pretty cool.

Then a few hours after I did that I heard them talking about it on the radio. They said that there were 3 fugitives at large from the bank robbery today. The bank president and one of the robbers was killed during the robbery. and some other crap, but I laughed when I heard it. (minor spoiler) then in that same broadcast they mentioned that the road block on the bridge has now been lifted, meaning I had unlocked the 4th island.

My Wow Moment would definitely be the first time I ever flew over Algonquin at night and hovered down in Star Junction. GTA never had overstated graphics, but that was quite easily the best visuals I've ever seen in a game.