Scariest moment you've experienced playing a game?

[VideoGameCritic]

Since we all should be playing Halloween games in October, what is the absolute most scared you've been playing a video game? This is a different question from "scariest game". I'm asking you to recall your moment of terror.

I think for me it was playing the original Silent Hill on the PS1. It was night and I had all the lights out. I was in the "school" level walking through the pitch dark halls as those "things" approached from all sides. I was so afraid I thought I was going to cry! Then my wife walked in and I jumped a mile. Terrifying!!

Okay your turn.

[ptdebate]

Definitely playing PT when I started noticing that I could hear a voice coming from the telephone. There's so much unexpected environmental detail in that demo and each and every thing you notice means something. PT is the only gaming experience that's made me scream out loud in the company of others. Alone I can't even play it.

[velcrozombie]

Like you, Critic, it was probably the school level in the first Silent Hill game. I remember walking into the darkened school and hearing this ominous drone and not even wanting to proceed, and soon after hearing a choked-off cry in one of the restrooms that froze my blood. There are plenty of other great Silent Hill scares: in the second game there's the first Pyramid Head cutscene (where I remember actually turning around to see if anyone else was in the room), the continually-descending prison level (where at one point you have to jump into your own grave to go forward) and the part in the hotel where you're forced to drop all your weapons and items in order to use an elevator; in the third game there's the mirror room, the "dark" hospital in general and the haunted house in the amusement park (which was both scary and hilarious), not to mention the bit where Vincent says "Monsters?..oh, they look like MONSTERS to you!"

As a kid, the scariest things I ever saw in a video game was the "Return of Gannon" game over from Zelda 2, the cutscene in Kung Fu before the third level with Mr. X laughing at you (which actually caused me to turn off my NES, despite the fact that I'd never made it that far before) and Jacquio in the Ninja Gaiden cutscenes. All that stuff is mild today, but to a 7-year-old it seemed pretty intense.

Definitely playing PT when I started noticing that I could hear a voice coming from the telephone. There's so much unexpected environmental detail in that demo and each and every thing you notice means something. PT is the only gaming experience that's made me scream out loud in the company of others. Alone I can't even play it.

I never got the chance to actually play PT, but just watching replays on Youtube is terrifying - I can't imagine what playing it by myself for the first time would have been like!

[Gentlegamer]

When I accidentally deleted my only save game.

[Rev]

I think Clock Tower (SNES) is up there for me. I was very tense throughout my playthrough and the fact that you never knew where the Scissor guy is going to pop out makes it even more intense. I love horror games.

[BanjoPickles]

For me, the Forbidden Forest in Bloodborne ranks up there! The enemies with snakes coming out of their heads, the piles of snakes coming from bushes, the random traps, the pit with the screaming crows, and the Shadow of Yarhnham! This is actually one of the scariest games I've ever played, for all of the right reasons!

[Atariboy]

I have two rather unusual moments that haven't been embellished.

One was while playing a Formula One game called Monaco Grand Prix for the Nintendo 64. I'm likely the only fan that game has, but I was deep into a full-length grand prix at the Hungaroring 15 years ago or so and had a sizable lead after a hour or more of racing. Apparently I wasn't paying much attention since there was a crippled car going slow in the racing groove on the main straight. I noticed it just a split second before rear ending him at ~180mph. Took me by surprise so much that I jumped and fell out of my chair.

The next was even better since I was at my computer desk and was racing with a wheel. The game was one of the Papyrus developed sims in their long-running NASCAR Racing line that ended over a decade ago. I was in an online race and a car came out of no where and took me out. I was so startled that I once again ended up on the floor, but was actually still holding my wheel that had been clamped to the desk.

When I wreck in a racing sim, I go all the way...

We should make a thread about our best moments of stupidity in a videogame. I have a doozy there, too.

[Rookie1]

The first and second RE games I found to be pretty scary. Mainly because those were the first games I was ever really immersed in. I had never played anything like the before, up until that point.

Nothing has really given me that feeling since then, but I did feel a little on-edge during the Ghostbusters games at times. When you would see the black ectoplasm and hear the disembodied voices, it would get a little creepy.

[VideoGameCritic]

Probably the second scariest moment was in Resident Evil 1 when the dogs come crashing through the window. I know you guys remember that.

[Hardcore Sadism]

Rugrats: The Search for Reptar was non debatable, everything about this game creeped you out, sometimes the cheesiness alone made you want to reach for the power button. What's worse is the Toy Store level, that giant Gorilla breaks my resolve every time.