The Last of Us - it's the time of the season

http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-3/the-last-of-us

"The Last of Us is a masterpiece, PlayStation 3's best exclusive and an absolute must-play."

zombies? do i have to?

it does sound pretty fucking cool tho

really wish i could play this :(

zombies? do i have to?

feeling this but will get it anyway. i'll wait for used copy at least

i have tried to get excited by this but yeah zombies post-apocalypse gritty survival blarrrgh

ha, but i thought you liked the Metro games?

i also keep confusing this with like 7 other games, like that ellen page one and whatever "remember me" is

the 2010s also seem to be the era of the "strong protagonist helps waify young dark haired girl with a smart haircut achieve her goals"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbNmmK9Bhzw

i liked metro 2033 because its the king of interesting background mostly - any game that makes me want to hang out and listen to as many npc conversations as possible is an all time achievement tbh.

the 2010s also seem to be the era of the "strong protagonist helps waify young dark haired girl with a smart haircut achieve her goals"
― O_o-O_O-o_O (jjjusten), Thursday, June 6, 2013 12:24 PM

haha true. at least here she doesn't have a huge head n eyes like a thrift store keane painting (bioschlock)

i am kind of resigned to the fact that despite my better judgment i will go for a walk one lunchtime and suddenly find myself somehow holding a copy of this game with 60 bucks missing from my wallet

someone should make a game where you play as the waify girl trying to escape from the dude who keeps trying to help you + killing people.

^ dlc

main character looks like drake w/ a beard

http://i.imgur.com/PN3c5JS.jpg

lol.

"GAMING'S CITIZEN KANE MOMENT"

oh good lord shut the fuck up

the gaming yankee foxtrot hotel has arrived

ok haha so despite not actually starring ellen page, the character from this looks uh exactly like ellen page?!

wait, they got 10/10 from God as a Geek????????? *runs to store*

and her characters name? you guessed it: frank stallone ellie

OFFICIAL PLAYSTATION MAGAZINE says "this PS exclusive is a MUST-BUY"

http://images.crispygamer.com/public/column-2288/kanethegame.jpg

never forget

actually, is there a gritty adventure narrative rhythm game out there? I would totally play that

just play bit trip runner on a half broken black and white tv, that should get you there

until i see video demonstrating otherwise i assume this game is just zombie uncharted with some handwringing over the murdering

gameplay looks the same, the molotov cocktail throw in the video above is exactly like uncharted grenades. i think main difference is that its more rpg, open world, carrying items, etc. i could be wrong tho

the laboured choking and the head-smashing are quite different from the tone of uncharted

actually this isn't rpg at all so nm

ok i am getting this tomorrow and if it is anything less than gaming's citizen kane moment i am going to have been misled by advertising yet again

this isnt the citizen kane of gaming... citizen kane is the The Last Of Us of cinema

http://deadhomersociety.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/tellmemore.png

that jpg has many ilx appropriate applications

my hopes for this game are right around the level of gaming's lethal weapon moment, or at my most giddily optmstic, gaming's ghostbusters moment, although the original ghostbusters game had a fair claim to that distinction.

it was pretty cool but man the loading times

gaming's citizen kane with andy warhol's loading times

day 1 server issues :B

https://twitter.com/Naughty_Dog/status/345591249148985344

http://thecitizenkaneofvideogames.tumblr.com/

i am not sure this is gaming's citizen kane moment, but it is very good

it doesn't start off promisingly - for the first few sections of the game it doesn't hold your hand so much as take the controller, sit you down with a hot drink, and say 'listen, let me do this bit ok?'. but it gets beyond that, although it never quite stops giving you helpful nudges. it feels initially like it is aiming for Uncharted: Heavy Rain of Zombies but once it gets going it surpasses that low bar without effort. the basic gameplay is very simple and i did wonder if i really wanted to throw however many hours at doing the same thing over and over, but the game manages to keep contriving situations that refuse to let you just fall back on what worked last time, and that is probably the most impressive achievement. it's never scary but it is frequently intense. however it is as linear as all get out, no more illusion of choice of direction than i dunno operation wolf, so if you have a philosophical problem with that look elsewhere i guess.

supplies are scarce enough that you actually have to think about what your doing, which is essential for a game like this to work and if i'd have had to pick a place they'd have gone wrong that probably would've been it. it does look great, and the recognizable bits of boston at the start are very cool. the story and the characters and the voice acting etc are all at least reasonably intelligent but as usual the assumption is that gamers are impervious to subtlety, so none of it is what it could or should be to deserve the critical jizz.

so yeah, it is very good. it's paced so you can't put the controller down because you always feel like you're in the middle of something, but there is also a genuine feeling of not wanting to stop, of wanting to know what's next, and that's as much of a recommendation as anything imo.

how much space does it need to install on ps3? (ive only got the 12gb hd)

it's 26gb so it will want 52 gb (!) to download and install.

i mean from disc version - i've written off ever downloading anything on this flimsy thing

operation wolf!! i have not thought about that game in literally years

Anyone else getting a Children of Men vibe from this?

getting a citizen kane vibe
for christmas
lil orson welles head that takes three AA batteries

hey remember how you were like man i love uncharted's shitty gameplay but all these engaging characters and this breezy story are really dragging me down? have i got the game for u

like right at the beginning of the game this little girl dies and it's like who cares but the protagonist is fuckin freaking out and it's just like that heavy rain glitch video where dude is like SHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWN

lmao

This is good so far!

leee are you talking about the sequel?

sequel isnt out yet

I'm playing the original! (I've taken a long break from console gaming.)

And without checking any advice, I started my game on Normal difficulty and am currently at the sewers (so about halfway through the game?), don't quite feel like starting over. ESPECIALLY don't want to retry the hotel bit with the bloater, which was all I could do not to completely freak out (even though I ended up just sprinting to the exit) (I'm so bad at this game!).

Just finished this. Really reminds me of Citizen Kane.

lol

was this the game responsible for the current generation of Dad Games

what are the current Dad Games?

so many empty drawers

lol.

OK so the Winter section was a bear, I'm amazed that I was able to make any progress during the whiteout sequences because I was scared out of my wits and was just running to avoid gunfire without any clue about where to go -- one of the times I was thankful for how linear the game is. But after that the difficulty started to melt away, in part because some of the stages became, with all my dying, a de facto training ground for me, which made the last two stages a lot more tractable (and dare I say easy?).

Except the hospital stuff was still hard! But it also forced me to use smoke bombs in a somewhat strategic manner.

I never got to actually use the flamethrower!

xp witcher 3, god of war, theres several other big ones from the past few years but im blanking on em at the moment.

but yes, this was totally the game responsible (+ Telltale's Walking Dead S1 which was around the same time iirc)

One thing that annoys me though about the game is the compulsive scavenging mindset it forces on you, because of which I missed the giraffe petting part.

Oh and BTW, Tommy is IMO definitely modeled after a lesser Baldwin brother (Stephen?).

always seemed more like sawyer from lost to me

For Part II, it'd be great if Ellie knows how to swim, it'd be even better if she only knows how to dog paddle.

https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/the-last-of-us-and-the-post-apocalypse-by-darran-anderson

Great longform article on post-apocalysm by the Invisible Cities author.

i played the first 3 hours or so of the remastered ps4 version and just wasn't into it at all. but does it get better after that? i'm assuming that i continue helping the girl get to wherever i was supposed to be taking her, but then something happens and i end up having to be her guardian more or less full time, and i don't want that and neither does she, but then we go through some shit together and we slowly bond while learning that in this terrible land of zombies and death and terror, the capability to love and be loved is ultimately the thing worth living for? meanwhile solving little puzzles, moving ladders around, and judiciously saving ammo and going through lots of cutscenes where the little girl is moody and hates me but is slowly starting to respect me? and at one point i get really injured (or maybe just straight up die) and end up playing as her for a significant portion of the game? i'm just making all this up and would like to be very wrong and surprised. so many people adore this game, so it makes me think that there must be something more to it.

That was a really assholey way to ask that question, sorry. I guess it’s better phrased as something like “is this more of a really well polished action-adventure game, or is there something really innovative about it that I haven’t seen yet?” That sounds assholey too. Maybe I’m just an assholey. It didn’t help that I played through the first hours of the game with someone who was adamant that it was the greatest game of all time, so I was naturally kind of inclined to pick it apart (internally) as I went, which is kind of an assholey tendency, I know

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTSGp4UdEvQ
in my mind your two posts were spoken aloud in this voice
but tbf and answer your question, no, there isn't really a great innovation you're looking for. it's just really exceptionally well done

good article brocc

xp
your plot guesses are pretty much otm haha
as you suspect it's a well polished action adventure game
I remember someone (on here?) calling these sort of games "content tourism", being led thru a linear path of set pieces while giving you the illusion of agency

xpost Weird, that Family Guy clip briefly was replaced by a Last of Us 2 trailer for me, then reverted back to Family Guy after I reloaded the page. .

hahaha, uuugh, i'm sorry. i would prefer that my posts be read in the voice of the crystal river boy on the right from 3:35 on in this video, but i brought that on myself.

i'm sure we've already discussed stories + videogames before, but i can't find it at the moment. in the spirit of being the ilx i want to see, i'll start a thread on it

As someone who feels that story is not inherently but in actuality an afterthought (at best) in most videogames, I was surprised to find myself getting a lil emotional during the opening portion of this game.

(I never got too far beyond that, though.)

They've made a point of emphasizing that story is an important context for the apparent ultra violence of the sequel. Likewise, as discussed elsewhere, there is apparently more emotional payoff to Uncharted 4 if you've played the previous games. Most games and esp. game series have mere scenarios or setups for action, or boast pretty elliptical/confusing/optional narratives. But as graphics get better and better and more and more "realistic," and games intersect and overlap with the qualities of feature films - and as feature films become more and more like video games - I assume there will be a gradual but still ever greater emphasis on story.

Has there been a high profile (or low profile) collaboration with a game developer and A+ author or screenwriter yet?

Pretty sure whoever did this has won at least a Pulitzer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAhG9D9UO7c

i'd say there was plenty of context for the ultra-violence in the first game (at least, beyond the first Uncharted, for instance). the second one looks even more violent, but that world has already been established as pretty sickening so i wasn't that taken aback. Plus The Walking Dead has been on for like eight seasons now and has really normalized this kind of thing, for better or worse

if anyone cares to join me on the story tangent:

storytelling, plots, and narratives + videogames

http://www.thelastofus.playstation.com/outbreakday#sf198111575

Damn this sounds like a Plastikman track (spoiler-free!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn50VaRva0s

Not TLOU2 news, but still:

https://www.reddit.com/r/LivestreamFail/comments/ae2ug8/the_last_of_us_in_a_nutshell/

this is probably a good thread to say that i didn't realize until last week that life is strange 2 came out!

LIS has such a cool vibe i just recently played it

I bought LIS last month! Haven't had the chance to play it yet, but nice to hear it get the ILG stamp of approval.

there are some cringy parts and it's not for everyone but i overall loved it .

I don't know this game (LIStrange). Is it worth $5 for the "Complete Series?"

yes!

Oh, wait, it's for PS3, don't think I can play it on PS4?

I bought it for PS4! It's pricier than the PS3 version of course: $6.

I got that a while ago, and I need to backlog the other series and the sequel before I can even start the first one right

there's only one episode of S2 out now iirc or maybe I've misunderstood

Nhex, I may be misinterpreting your post but from what I've gathered, LIFE IS STRANGE can/should be played before LIFE IS STRANGE: BEFORE THE STORM which is a prequel.

i should go back to it. i played the first ep (maybe 2) and it was charming but not super compelling to me - maybe it picks up?

xp ...right... also that prequel before LIS2

Hold up, is Life is Strange kind of a choose your own adventure game? Or are there control mechanics? If it's the former seems better suited for something like the Switch. Even then, I got Thimbleweed Park for the Switch way back and haven't really played it because I didn't find the gameplay (as such) compelling. The reviews of Life is Strange are super strong, but without seeking spoiler-y gameplay vids it looks like maybe it's a bunch of cut scenes connected by asking you to pick from a pair of choices?

yes it is a story game where you make choices and walk around - not for everyone but i loved it and feel like it shares a vibe with last of us

Which I haven't played yet, but that (this) one has character mechanics, right? You control the character, fight, hide, explore, right? It just has a strong narrative on top of it, correct?

Last of Us is an action/stealth game

Life Is Strange is a supernatural story game

life is strange is like a telltale game (tho not actually a telltale game)