What was the first game you mistook for real life (i.e. actual people rather than polygons), even for just a moment?

[ConVito]

I remember the first time I saw gameplay from the Playstation 2. I hadn't been paying attention to it much since I was a Nintendo kid and never had a PSX. But oddly enough, my mom (who tolerated our enjoyment of video games but was never particularly keen on it) was the one who first showed me the possibilities of a next-gen system. She came into the room telling me to change the channel so I could see this new game system.

"It looks just like real people" she said.

I was confused since she never showed interest in that sort of thing, but I complied and switched over to a news channel covering the PS2, where I saw ESPN International Track & Field (though I didn't know the name at the time and still didn't know the game's title until I looked it up 5 minutes ago) in all its glory:



(I intentionally found a low quality video to preserve the quality in which I originally saw it that day.)

My first thought was "yeah ok it's the olympics." Then my second thought was "they're talking about the Playstation 2 but why aren't they showing any gameplay?" It wasn't until they showed that same clip again when I noticed the close-ups of the runners, which shattered that illusion rather quickly.

Spoiler: shattered illusions

So, Era, when did you first have that feeling of "wait, this is a GAME?" (And yes, I realize some of you have never had that moment. My condolences.)

 

[JamboGT]

Gran Turismo 3 when I saw a video for it on the games network channel, I thought it was a SuperGT race for a bood 5 seconds before realising it was Grand Valley!

 

[Voyevoda]

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves trailer.
The Turkish prison scene with Nate, Chloe and Sully. That animation was so good.

 

[SanTheSly]

I remember seeing this in an issue of Edge and thinking that we were getting incredibly close at realistic looking characters in games.

 

[julia crawford]

Probably some Grand Turismo.

But also the cloudy skies in GTA3 i remember feeling like they were really life like.

 

[retroman]

I guess saying FMV games would be cheating, right?

For me personally, it's probably some racing game from either this generation or the past one (Gran Turismo perhaps?). Haven't played it, but some screenshots looked very realistic.

 

[Trelova]

i've never mistaken game people for real but i remember i saw some gif on car racing on reddit and just thought it was a regular irl gif until someone pointed out it was from a game. total shocker.

honestly car models in games are legit crazy. i dont know why but they're like the one thing that's almost 100% hit reality and it's wild to see

 

[laxu]

You can take a screenshot out of lots of games and without context might think it is real. In movement it's a lot tougher unless the video is low quality. I think I saw some low res video of what I thought was a real truck carefully backing out of a tight spot only to find out it was a game.

Anything that does not have humanoid characters is easier to fake as we are very good at noticing when something is off about people.

 

[Kemono]

Red dead 2.

I had my horse on automatic and looked away from the screen and when i turned back i thought for a second that this looks like real life. The lighting especially added to the feeling.

 

[Deleted member 1589]

This grainy Japanese Baseball game clip waaaay back then.

 

[Ankit Gaba]

Uncharted 4

 

[IDreamOfHime]

Screens from the canceled PS3 Getaway looked like photos from around London, though tbh the crowds were the weak point and were what gave it away if you looked close at them.
Still blew me away though. Sad that game never came out.

 

[Deleted member 51539]

I remember glancing at a screen someone was playing a PS3 FIFA in and thinking it was a real match for a second.

 

[Davilmar]

Probably Mario 64, or Virtua Tennis for the Dreamcast.

 

[Windu]

Idk probably something like Myst. Never really had a moment where I didn't think it was a video game though. The new flight Sim is getting close though.

 

[RoadDogg]

NFL2k surprised a lot of adults when that first came out. The Babbages in our mall had a demo set up in front of the store and dads kept walking up trying to figure out what game was on since it wasn't during a known time slot. They had to get pretty close and watch for Awhile until they figured it out.

 

[Vormund]

NFL2K on Dreamcast. Just at a glance.

 

[@dedmunk]

Probably Mario 64, or Virtua Tennis for the Dreamcast.

Click to shrink...

mario 64 are you for real lmao

 

[Davilmar]

mario 64 are you for real lmao

Click to shrink...

Given that I was all of 4/5 years of age at the time, yes. Are you for real? LOL

 

[KainXVIII]

Blade Runner footage when i watched it in some tv game show.

 

[Deleted member 9241]

 

[newmoneytrash]

i thought the screenshots of call of duty 3 on the back of the box for xbox 360 looked like photographs

 

[ILPUMAGUERRIERO]

Gran Turismo for PS1. I swore that games could not get any better lol.

 

[Arex]

Gran Turismo 2 I think, I was telling my dad how realistic it was lol.

 

[Ploppee]

probably this. I thought it was real footage for ages.

 

[Soapbox Killer]

Gran Turismo for PS1. I swore that games could not get any better lol.

Click to shrink...

Felt the same way, especially if the game was at night. That highway, those head lights.


NBA2K has fooled me on more than 1 occasion.

 

[Ryu]

Given that I was all of 4/5 years of age at the time, yes. Are you for real? LOL

Click to shrink...

I'm the same. With my children eyes, everything was fucking real to me. I was blown away when I firstly realized what textures actually are, and that stones, mountains, characters and trees are actually empty inside. I actually felt empty inside too after I realized this lol, dunno why. It bothered me for some time hahaha.

 

[Davilmar]

I'm the same. With my children eyes, everything was fucking real to me. I was blown away when I firstly realized what textures actually are, and that stones, mountains, characters and trees are actually empty inside. I actually felt empty inside too after I realized this lol, dunno why. It bothered me for some time hahaha.

Click to shrink...

Mario 64 was also my first three-dimensional game. People don't really understand how that image is interpreted in a child's mind, especially at the time when the technology was new. Seeing Mario's face on the old CRT for the first time? Had my mind blown away. He was looking at me, and I was touching the TV and my own face when my cousin was using the controller to pull and contort his face. It was mesmerizing for me. An experience you could only really experience at that time period, doubly so as a child.

 

[Deleted member 46948]

It hasn't happened yet, but I did once mistake real life for a game.

 

[EldarMu]

Forza Horizon 3, in the blizzard mountain expansion. The base game looks good but like a game

something about the diffuse lighting in the snowy environments made the game make some part of my brain go "this looks correct"

I like that feeling a lot

 

[Zyrox]

Definitely a racing game. Probably Gran Tourismo 5.

 

[sirap]

Some of the early (printed) screenshots of City 17 from Half-Life 2 looked photoreal to me.

 

[TheRulingRing]

Yeah I think Gran Turismo 5 or Gran Turismo Sport.

 

[GrantDaNasty]

In Beyond: Two Souls (OG PS3)

Spoiler: Late-Game Spoilers

When Jodie and Ryan are trekking through some snowy area

I genuinely couldn't tell if it was live-action or in-game for a good 4-5 seconds.

 

[Martinski]

There were times Gran Turismo 5 could look pretty photorealistic back in the day with the right model of car and track. GT 5 had a bunch of PS2 legacy models of cars and then the "premium" cars or whatever they were called that were the ones made for PS3 and they looked real good for the time as near as photorealism was possible then.

 

[Kittens McMittens]

I can't think of any time this has happened. I was born in the early 80s, so have seen games move from simple lines to where they are now. I think if you were young when 3D games were first starting to look good (i.e. PS2 era onwards) then you might have been confused at some point by an image, but that's more down to kids getting confused easily than it is the graphics looking photoreal.

 

[MikeProtagonist]

Virtua Tennis is certainly a contender. Those animations were incredible, and back then on a standard TV you couldn't tell any details of the players in a real broadcast either.

 

[Perzeval]

First thing I thought of is the woods in REmake, but that may be cheating.

 

[MAX PAYMENT]

Definitely catching a glance of someone playing madden and seeing a replay.

 

[Bishop89]

Seriously probably something from last gen.

Uncharted or Gran turismo

 

[Rookhelm]

Gran Turismo 3 had this effect on me when I first saw it. Seems silly in hindsight

 

[NESpowerhouse]

For me it was the other way around where I remember watching the cutscenes for Ace Combat Zero with real life actors as a kid and I was like 'Wow! The CG certainly jumped up a lot from AC5.'

 

[behOemoth]

metal gear solid 2

just 1 year prior games looked like this

 

[Honome]

When the epilogue of Uncharted 4 started i literally though to myself: "WTF, why did they inserted a live movie in the end of the game!"

 

[Deleted member 13370]

edit

 

[defaltoption]

Driveclub photos got me once or twice

 

[RoninStrife]

Gran Turismo 3 ...back then.
GT Sport today.

 

[RoninStrife]

Gran Turismo 3 when I saw a video for it on the games network channel, I thought it was a SuperGT race for a bood 5 seconds before realising it was Grand Valley!

Click to shrink...

Are you talking about that night drive with the Viper GTSR on Special Stage Route 5 that was part of that samecommercial? Because that's was my first experience too!

 

[pagrab]

Gran Turismo 6 I think. I was not sure if it was footage from a real race or a game. On the people side, it happened with Advanced Warfare cinematics, but it probably does not count since they were pre-rendered. I remember seeing the main protagonist and being completely lost if this is an actor or a CG. Then I saw Kevin Spacey recreation and realized it was CG.

 

[LonestarZues]

Uncharted 4. My nephew was ahead of me as far as game progress goes and I went over to visit my brother's family. I glanced at the tv and saw a beautiful vista and asked what he was watching and he said it's Uncharted 4.

My ex-wife would often ask me who's playing or if I could help her with something during commercials while playing any variation of The Show.