"Hey the toilet works!" is what my brother yelled across the house after playing through about a half hour of Duke Nukem 3D. I ran down the stairs, through the living room, and into the computer room in spectacled disbelief only to find that yes, indeed (and against all odds) the toilet worked!  That was 1997. 
 
In winter 2002, I had another one of these "working toilet" moments. After landing on Talon IV in Metroid Prime, noticed it was raining, I looked up. Beeds of water formed on Samus' visor. "That was a nice touch," i said aloud (to myself).
 
A couple years ago I played through Gears of War on my PC. I had another moment: there was a section of wall (in a war torn city of course) where the drywall was gone and you could see the plumbing through the wall! I just stood and stared at it for a while. 
 

Last week, a little late of course, I started playing through GTA IV on my PS3. I had like 5 working toilet moments in the space of a couple hours! Holy shit, the rail system works? Holy shit, there's an in game internet? Holy shit, I've been watching tv for like 20 minutes in this game! I watched a fender bender, and the two parties got out and exchanged information!

 
There is no question about it, videogame worlds are becoming denser, and while some developers decide to focus on bigger explosions or prettier textures; to me, DENSITY is king. It's these moments in games that really hit me, when I realize that the best years of gaming are actually ahead of us, not behind. When a developer takes the time and care to make the game world work, I get a good feeling about the future of videogames.  
 
 
 
 
I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's awesome that the videogame industry is still an industry that cares enough to make the toilets work.