HALO I-III
Call of Duty 4... or something like that
Dishonored
Skyrim
Some racing car game that I thought I'd hate but I ended up loving.
Less "current" (Play Station from 1999, Nintendo64):
Resident Evil: Nemesis
A hockey game of some kind
Mario Bros.
Panzer General (still my favorite)
I also played Never Winter Nights on my old PC, Civ III, and hated every iteration of Risk as the AI just rolls wins too often on every version I have played.
That's about it for my lifetime history of video games not including the Atari 2600 I had when I was a wee lad.
All that to let you know that any "review" I might type on The Last of Us is from someone that is not even a hobbiest in video games. It's something I do occasionally, a guilty pleasure if you will.
Points:
- Graphics are the highest details I have seen. I didn't even know I cared that much about graphic minutiae. Seeing trash blow by in the background in areas not even accessible by your character? Awesome. I'e never been as satisfied by the gore of a head shot before.
- Lead Ups? Not sure what you call them but it's the passive visual cues that some of us need to figure out what to do or where to go. Like, wandering around and the beam of sunlight is shining on one door. Very subtle but helpful for the non-gamer like me. Then there are the active cues for clues, items, etc. I love those.
- I do have trouble with the controller to screen interaction. One of the reasons I'm not the best video-gamer. I forget what button does what on occasion. Not the game's fault, all mine.
- The story is remarkable. It pulls your heartstrings but not in a cheesy way nor is it heavy-fisted. Decent TV show level story.
- Load screens. The only lag you get is in the beginning when you first start the game. None of that "go through a door, wait 7 minutes for the next screen to load" BS like in Skyrim.
- They found a perfect balance between having resources and not having resources. I have not run out of ammo and got murdered for it yet. That was one of my beefs with Dishonored ( a game I loved BTW) was that you could easily run out of hard to get resources and get log jammed in the game due to that. In Skyrim you'd just end up with 900 arrows by level 40. In Last of Us I have felt the tension of running low on ammo, finished the fight with no first aid kits, and felt the relief of finding 3 shotgun rounds and a shiv right after the fight.
- It's not zombie apocalypse, but it's kind of like a zombie apocalypse. I don't want to spoil it so you'll just have to get into that hot tub and see what it is yourself.
That about sums up any details of the game I can pull. Other than that, this non-gamer loves this game.
Got a game of Savage Worlds' War of the Dead in yesterday
We made it off the ship and drifted at sea for 2 weeks before landing in North Carolina. We almost succumbed to dehydration and starvation but made it. Bee Bee went to call his agent and lawyer, not yet fully realizing there was a world-wide apocalypse. The group found a small farm-house with an old couple in it that were friendly. They helped us out as we offered to help them.
Two days of relative peace ensued, then some looting bikers came. Just before initiative was determined we called it at that cliff-hanger.
Looks like big Bee Bee is gonna be crushing bad-bikers with his sledge hammer!
He's still running around in the short he was wearing on the cruise ship though. He needs some pants soon.
I ordered a copy of Osprey's Lion Rampant, the new craze in skirmish-level ancients wargaming. Medieval period here. I found one on Amazon for $13. I don't feel too bad about not supporting my FLGS though as I just gave them $60 for a minis case and some other odds and ends.
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