The Last of Us

A bit of a sneak peek at some of what I've been working on to prove both that I'm not dead and in fact have not left the furry fandom. While I have been working on a fairly major writing project that is both nearing 113 pages and its inevitable completion, none of it is at a point where I'd consider it ready for general consumption. So instead I'm giving a peek at the start of a game review I'm writing for a game that's not out yet. Yay, I can tell all none of you are excited.

Believe it or not I actually started writing this review the week before the release of the game, a mix of my own anticipation and a need if you will to put a forward to the review and a vain attempt at making a more professional review compared to the more rambling and idiotically funny attempts in the past in say, my Homefuck, I mean Homework… Damn it, Homefront review or my Resident Evil Survivor review both of those games can still proudly suck the chrome off a trailer hitch, by the way. But no, The Last of Us is a game I am genuinely excited for and yes every time Naughty Dog gives us a sneak peek my pants get all kinds of messy.

But why? Why am I, a sad, lonely, depressed neck bearded hyena excited about anything that doesn’t involve having breasts shoved in my face while slipping a bill into a g-string? Well first off, next to Capcom who have been proving their ability to disappoint me with titles like Operation Raccoon City (I am aware it was actually Slant Six’s diarrhea I played but it’s still a stain on my favorite gaming franchise) and the mediocre Resident Evil Six (didn’t hate it but still felt devolved compared to its peers) Naughty Dog has actually yet to disappoint me (Capcom so far has avoided me showing up and axing one of their developers a question by their release of Resident Evil: Revelations which was actually pretty much what I wanted). The first Naughty Dog game I ever played was Crash Bandicoot 2 on my original PlayStation and I was terrible at it but was too young and stupid to understand that and still greatly enjoyed the game. And then came the Uncharted series, the first Naughty Dog games I picked up since Crash Bandicoot Warped and I really played them more by coincidence then an actual desire.

Not sounding promising so far? Well that was what I thought; I actually got Uncharted 2 as a gift from my sister and wasn’t really looking forward to trying it out, I had other games for my PS3 that I played first and only popped Uncharted in when I’d exhausted every other game I had. What made me shy away from Uncharted? Pretty much anything but shooting stuff that I knew was in the game. As a veteran of the early Tomb Raider games on the PlayStation and a few of the series original dying breathes on the PS2 before its recent resuscitation I’d learned that I was terrible at those games and they should be avoided at all costs as the game play and me never got along. Until I played Among Thieves and found that when done well even someone like me who had some legitimate total freak outs because of the well done visuals combined with my crippling fears of heights. But point is, I played the second Uncharted game to completion and found myself eventually playing the rest of series until they were stolen for heroine money, I’d managed to complete them first of course but that doesn’t make my situation any less shitty.

Personal problems aside I was genuinely impressed with the Uncharted games because they handled characters well and each game felt like a refinement and a legitimate improvement over the previous installments in every way, as opposed to say, Call of Duty where I’m mostly playing the game to see how much more they can fuck it up while lovingly stroking my copy of Call of Duty 2 while wondering where it all went wrong (someday, I will find that asshole who modeled the ‘AK-47’ in BLOPs and beat him to death, for the good of the species). So with The Last of Us banking on the characters of Joel and Ellie with some standard support characters I can actually trust that there will be an intelligent handling of characters and mature character development and I fully hope to be drawn in and actually care for their well being, unlike Ashley Graham or Sheva Alomar who, if given the option I would gladly barter to some of the less kosher members of the various weird fandoms I belong to for reasonably well drawn pictures of pregnant hyena-women because I’m really weird myself. This is of course all being written before my dirty little paws have actually touched the game in either a loving or abusive manner; only time will tell which will happen.

But, the stars are aligning and it’s looking like we’re actually starting to get good games again. I was impressed with Mists of Pandaria and that merely turned out to be the appetizer for some truly great games so far this year (and in the closing months of the last) that I have been enjoying in a multitude of categories; including the new Tomb Raider reboot, (which has cemented itself as the standard by which I will judge any new release this year by) Metro Last Light, Wargame: AirLand Battle and a few that I’ve gotten my paws on for some short prerelease tests such as Company of Heroes 2. The question is; will The Last of Us stand up to these titles?

It’s aiming high, that much is evident from the get go, it’s banking on being one of the last major titles for the PlayStation 3 and is potentially trying to establish a new exclusive series for the PlayStation 4 which if the first game is good will only widen the already considerable margins that the PlayStation 4 is beating the Xbox One by (although at this point saying a gaming system is better than the Xbox One could mean that one is referring to a Sega Genesis). However the developers are gambling on a vast multitude of very complex game design mechanics on a platform that is not as well suited for the as a PC is and even at that many of these mechanics are hard to pull off regardless of platform. They’re also aiming at a somewhat overused genre but admittedly are using some pretty unique and fresh ammunition to fling at it. This series’ sink or swim rests entirely on the people making it, who thankfully have proven themselves, to me at least to be some of the most competent people in the industry today and probably the team most likely to pull something like this project off in a way that would make angels cry tears of pure animal joy.

While this game has been receiving unworldly praise from gaming publications across the world prelease; I am just a lowly hyena sitting in a two bedroom apartment in Glendale Arizona waiting to start my new job at Buffalo Wild Wings so my broke ass doesn’t get to play the games prelease but as a consumer whore I am entitled not only to my own opinion but to share it with anyone foolish enough to read my words. So, will The Last of Us prove itself to be gaming’s Citizen Kane as several other reviewers have stated proudly? Personally I am always leery of games with this much hype as they’re the ones that fall the hardest on their faces when they fail to meet their lofty goals. However this is one game that I hope will not disappoint me but I; despite all the evidence to the contrary am bracing myself for the worst but hoping for the best from this game.

Perhaps next I'll actually try and review some games I can complete a review of but, whatever.

Wanna watch me play games? Lemme know and I'll start trying to broadcast regularly on my Twitich.TV and play games that are actually requested.