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

No spoilers, but vague details abundant

What I especially love is fact that that the game does not take your actions as a summation of the entire fate of the universe.... it starts as a character study and ends as such. The side characters you meet throughout the course of the game I initially thought were a bit irrelevant and undeveloped until I realized there is this large thematic string between all of these people and the ways they cope with loss. Everyone has their own dramatic reaction, and every reaction befits their own definition of self-preservation... whether identity, quality of life, or actualized existence.

Still, I am a bit askew as to what benefit having Ellie modeled after Ellen Page did for the series. Did they really find that we couldn't emote w/ a videogame character unless we had an already established connective node with them already? Were they afraid of creating a side character that was too generic to care for?

I haven't completed it yet!

Finding the fungus flowers in dark places never ceased to creep me out, like, the fuck out

ah I was wondering why she looked so familiar the whole time. Was it actually Ellen Page? Tommy and Henry look really familiar, too.

There's no official evidence to posit Ellen Page as Ellie's inspiration but it's all I could think about a year ago, seeing the videos teased for this at e3. Ellen Page actually addressed the likeliness with disapproval just recently: http://kotaku.com/famous-actor-sounds-upset-about-the-last-of-us-ellie-551365129

Tommy & Henry hit me immediately as Walt and Michael, from Lost.

Running with this theme, the developers behind Bioshock: Infinite cited the fact that they changed Elizabeth's initial look to resemble that of Disney's Belle (Beauty & The Beast) to make her expressions more emotionally charged and "real" in circumstance of her face... everything being super-expressed and all. I'm taking this cue and thinking that Naughty Dog did something somewhat akin in trying to give us a character with a face we wouldn't forget, especially considering the basis of the game's plot depends on an emotional connection with this character....

...which is a weird move, I think, as there's a fair amount of evidence from too many other videogames that we can become attached to a character without their possessing a physical allusion to something we already know, and likely like. Alyx Vance from Half-Life 2 looks like nobody else, and is most definitely one of few videogame characters I can recall from memory as being particularly memorable.

started this last night, beginning was cool, i liked the flash-forward 20 years, and then all of the sudden i was spending an hour walking through houses and helping a lady climb on things

that could be an ok evening

Seeing ads and reviews for this make me want to brave my PS3-induced motion sickness and give it a shot.

Is it worth potentially barfing to play?

gravol

Still, I am a bit askew as to what benefit having Ellie modeled after Ellen Page did for the series. Did they really find that we couldn't emote w/ a videogame character unless we had an already established connective node with them already? Were they afraid of creating a side character that was too generic to care for?

― kelpolaris, Wednesday, June 26, 2013 6:36 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark

nerdbait

i'll protect you ellen... *pushes glasses against bridge of nose*

^Totally.

It's so embarrassing/hilarious to see fanboys get defensive about this game's obvious pandering. "She doesn't look at all like Ellen Page! Stop criticizing this MASTERPIECE!"

Gamers are the worst people.

That said, having just finished the game, I liked it a lot!

Who's Ellen Paige?

Juno

juno who she is, don't play dumb

This game is so great.

Help a n00b:

If I love this game and the Tomb Raider reboot (and to a slightly lesser extent Far Cry 3), what else would you recommend?

The Walking Dead, Uncharted 2, Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne 3, Resident Evil 4, Heavy Rain, Dead Space 2, Alan Wake if you can find it for like $2

I actually liked Assassin's Creed 3 too, like a lot.

this game is pretty great huh?

children of men vibe otm, at least for the first couple of hours: a freaky event that has rendered the survival of humanity tenuous; a government clampdown; a resistance group smuggling a girl out from the controlled zone of martial law; an ambiguous relationship between the protagonist and that group

zombies? do i have to?

lol this was EXACTLY my reaction as well. thank god they figure very very little in the first couple of three hours.

still waiting for it to hit that 25 buck used sweet spot

i downloaded the fucker straight off the net. so psyched this era is finally upon us. the only time i really play games anymore is when i'm sick and fuck if i'm going outside on a wet november day in my state.

Finally got some more time to play this. It is really fun AS A GAME. If that makes sense. Some sections surprisingly difficult, and the game has a pretty good sense of when to dump you back at the beginning of a section and thereby let you play through seamlessly, fuelling your own sense of badassness, or when, on the other hand, to give you a break and let you keep the gains you'd got.

It basically succeeds in all the places that Uncharted failed: it has a core mechanic - sneaking, melee and a bit of shooting - that miraculously doesn't ever get repetitive; it doesn't rely on shooting galleries as set pieces or to slow things down artificially; you constantly feel just barely on the verge of being competent enough, and equipped enough, to deal with what's coming next

(not like it's Demon's Souls or anything, but for this casual gamer it's pitched pretty right; that said, I'd probably try it on the more difficult setting if I had more time in my life)

ok, sold. £20 on amazon.co.uk now, but that's used, says the download codes have been used - am i missing anything major by not having those?

or should i wait for this weird black friday thing? is it likely to be cheaper new on friday or does it not work like that? </british>

probably a safe bet to say that come january/february most ps3/360 games are gonna start getting deep discounts so maybe wait a few months and clean up?

is that the usual drill when new consoles come out? might well do that, thanks. though i was kinda wanting a game to while away the hours over xmas, might just go for beyond 2 souls (also £20 used) and hang on til feb for LoU

this is gonna be an odd console generation in terms of last gen pricing because of the introduction of digital download as the primary and preferred method of purchase. in the past, it's always been about moving inventory off shop shelves to make room for the new display of next gen titles and that motivates a lot of brick-and-mortar discounts. not so much now. even so, lack of backwards compatibility is likely gonna bend to ongoing fight for precious hd input in your tv; i think anyone who bought a nextgen system is gonna mothball the old tech which means retailers online and irl are gonna have leftover holiday stock and less consumer interest... hence the us $200 ps3 w/250gig + arkham + last of us as an attempt to sell the razor cheap to keep blades moving.

new answers

jesus, back up to £27 now. anyone on here bored of it and want to sell on for £20? (or loan out for a cpl of months for a tenner?)

and what are the download codes for? should i try to get those?

I don't know what those are.

We just teamed up with the young kid and his dad. I have a sinking feeling that more clickers are in our immediate future.

Comment upthread about the sound of the gunshots is super OTM, each one is extremely loud, hollow-sounding and definite. No "pew pew pew" here.

I also love how there is NO JUMPING in this game! This ain't no Mario Brothers, this is life or death. Usually death. Every now and again I think possibly I could jump across a gap and immediately I think "eh, better not try that", which is exactly the right reaction for a 50-year-old human being to have.

By the way the animations for the clickers - and especially the bloaters - finally reaching you and macking down on a neck vein are fucking terrifying; I live in fear that one of my children will open the door to the living room right at that moment.

And need I mention how refreshing it is to play an action adventure game that refrains from overloading its cut scenes with pointless details and backstory? And that I see no sign on the horizon of any cult members who wield a terrible power? All story boils down to tersely worded refusals by your character to offer any encouragement to anybody else whatsoever, and exhortations to get a move on. Which is usually how I feel about playing these games in the first place. Let's go. We gotta get to point B, I really do not care about your feelings right now.

That said, there are tantalizing pieces of paper lying around that when read turn out to be scribbled diary entries from some long-dead soldier, stuff like "Perimeter overrun. Can hold out another 3 hours max. Supplies low." WHO GIVES A GOOD GODDAMN ABOUT THIS STUFF??

Actually a few of the notes from Ish are pretty funny. And the note in the nursery in the tunnels was affecting. But it's just weird! Who writes diary entries for themselves on scraps of paper and scatters them about??

i think tomb raider suffered a bit from that too didn't it, you'd find diary scraps that were read aloud in the characters voice or something.

"Those inquisitive tourists sure got what was coming to them. Especially the one with the beard. The Great Khala must be appeased! Over and out."

Can't wait to get a fucking holster.

i think tomb raider suffered a bit from that too didn't it, you'd find diary scraps that were read aloud in the characters voice or something.

― am0n, Tuesday, December 3, 2013 1:10 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

bioshock is the classic here

Love how the scissors on the end of your pipe/stick/bat snag into the baddies' skulls, so disturbing

i really didn't want this to end :(

It's not that it's reinvented video games, or invented much of anything overt -- it's "simply" that it takes the things video games are about right now, takes the things that video games seem to have to do, and solves the problems of previous attempts. It takes some basic and very reasonable requests about games of their sort and answers them.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/195423/

I would love to read something by someone that talks about how brilliant the combat is.

I've seen complaints about the lack of bona-fide puzzles but by my lights the combat IS the puzzle. It reminds me a lot of classic Tenchu in that you get to size up a situation and think quite hard about how you're going to make it all happen. Virtually all shoot-n-cover adventure games do this to an extent but it's really done to perfection here. You have a limited number of items, each with its own capabilities and you want to set up the chain reaction just so. Actually I could have done without a few of the guns, and the bow and arrow was fairly superfluous, and I possibly leaned a little too heavily on the smoke grenades but these are incredibly minor quibbles. In Tomb Raider I approached a new shooting gallery setup with a sigh, knowing I'd be doing that for the next 20 minutes or so and not enjoying it very much. Here, a new phalanx of clickers and runners would appear and there was this delicious glee, like OK, what am I going to be asked to solve this time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8XN7eoZr0Y

i think i agree with this:
http://www.nohighscores.com/2013/06/18/why-the-last-of-us-sucks/

Did you play it?

I mean, that article is largely OTM - though I take exception to its dismissal of the combat, which I thoroughly enjoyed (then again I am the most casual of gamer) - but its complaints are addressed in the gamasutra article I linked a few posts back (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/195423)

Will the world be saved? Can you kill a lot of zombies on the way? Will you have an emotional response to the partner AI like you're obviously supposed to? Find out in this third-person action game with guns, stealth and melee elements!

In other words, it is on its face a video game, made to present specifications. Yet it’s the grace and restraint with which The Last of Us approaches such limitations that sets it well apart from any other game where you play a sullen man trundling along with a gun.

It's not that it's reinvented video games, or invented much of anything overt -- it's "simply" that it takes the things video games are about right now, takes the things that video games seem to have to do, and solves the problems of previous attempts. It takes some basic and very reasonable requests about games of their sort and answers them.

i played up until bill is taking you to get car parts and then realized the combat is just some annoying thing i have to get out of the way to progress the story. and then i spoiled the plot by reading the wiki >:C

I've been tempted to play it again on difficult just because I like the atmosphere so much, and to try and "nail" the combat sections better than I did the first time

There is definitely some gameplay/plot fatigue that sets in, esp. after such a promising start. It definitely could have been shorter and cleaned up a little. That said, I would never say this game sucks, that is complete trolling.