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

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.

yeah i don't think it sucks by any means, just not feeling the hype

its funny how naughty dog can put so much budget towards graphics/story/voice etc and still leave in terrible a.i. like walking up to a partner character causes them to jump away skittishly. or slowly moving in a crouch position by an enemy undetected while your partner is frantically running around and bumping into the enemy causing no reaction. uncharted series had the same problems

Yeah. That actually tripped me up at the beginning of the game; I observed my buddy being able to just walk right up to clickers and even bump into them with no reaction so I was all "hey, ho" and then... well you know what happens then

yeah, so this where i post how much I was into this. very much! completely worth getting a PS3 just for this.

i still have to go back and play Uncharted 2 and 3, but I jumped from the original Uncharted to this, you can imagine what an incredible leap in quality/design/production/story/acting and so on it all was

something i was really into was the tonality matching the gameplay (which really bothered me in Uncharted, you can't simply mix Indiana Jones hijinks with faces exploding in close-up every 30 seconds), the brutality and despair of this world was very well drawn, terror-filled and emotionally engaging

the plot is really the meat on the stick for this, so I don't even want to touch plot details in this thread; the ending was very satisfying to me. kelpolaris particularly otm about it being a character study in the end. there's a surprising level of mature reflection in the script and direction concerning Joel's character in the last sections of the game, and it's done quite well and subtly. that really was a notable step forward for video games, imho

i really want to play this again, and i NEVER feel that way about games

A friend got this and we played for an hour or two. Sort of fun but also sort of dreary and very linear. How long until this game stops being walk forward/watch cutscene?

per howlongtobeat.com:

Main Story
15 Hours

quite accurate, I went just over 15hrs on my save. it could have even been shorter and tighter, too

$22 on GameFly with tax/free shipping; that's the magic number for me.
http://www.gamefly.com/Buy-The-Last-of-Us/5004174/#axzz2yys3DM8i

Re-mastered version coming out on PS4.

Aside from loving the obvious stuff, for some reason it's one of the only 'choose how you fite' type games where i actually really enjoy being stealthy.

er... did not even realise there is now single-player DLC for this?? i have been wasting my life

yeah, i'm tempted to grab it soon

It's good. Adds some lovely depth to Ellie's character and has some fun combat, although I found the very last section a bit of a pain in the arse. Basically, if you liked the main game you'll enjoy the DLC too.

Did you do it on hard, or normal? (or "survivor"??)

Just regular-issue normal, I think.

i splurged, got the DLC and played through it tonight. no regrets, great stuff. easy recommend to anyone who beats it and wants more, it fits in well - happy with the framing device and timeline they went with too.
you weren't kidding about that difficulty spike in the last section, whew

not to get too corny here, but i love that we're in a time where this super high-budget project can come out with this extra story, which is for the most part an affecting, low-key coming of age teen drama

yeah... this game is best-in-generation, no doubt

Good interview on the making of the DLC:
http://www.wired.com/2014/02/last-of-us-dlc-interview-long/
I'll have to pick up that prequel comic, didn't realize it was so tied in.

not to get too corny here, but i love that we're in a time where this super high-budget project can come out with this extra story, which is for the most part an affecting, low-key coming of age teen drama

i just don't know if this is really a state of affairs to celebrate!!

the spectrum of voices and tones is so generally narrow in video games, it's a tragic waste of the medium; not seeing a downside here, especially with such a high-quality product in this instance

i wish there were less superhero movies but i wouldn't be cheering if one of them had an episode of the gilmore girls as a post-credits scene

i mean, actually i'd love that, and i don't really care about the number of superhero movies, so that statement is basically nonsensical. but i think the point still stands

lest you worry, there's still plenty of psycho stealth murder-'em-up action. i'm telling you though, the dichotomy works very well in Left Behind

this game really revolutionized transporting wooden pallets in water for NPCs that are scared of doggypaddling

i look forward to the game which presents that sort of scenario as a puzzle to which the solution is to shoot your partner and/or yourself in the head

i love this game but loooooool

xp that's why I keep meaning to get around to playing Persona 3

i started that the other day, i was kinda disappointed by how much less self-assured the opening seemed than pers 4