Last of Us

Last of Us


Was excited to play this game as I've liked all Naughty Dog developed games, especially the Uncharted series. This time they took on the zombie survival genre and have mostly succeeded. The story, atmosphere, graphics, and sound are amazing, it's a gaming showpiece. The graphics are some of the best I've seen on the PS3 or any console. The world is filled with detail, every room has unique items that make you feel that someone has lived in those locations. The world is a mess and they did a good job of showing the effects of a small subset of humans on the earth, it's an uninviting place that you really don't like being in. The world is filled with danger from zombies which so far have came in two types, one is like normal zombies, the others, called clickers, can only hear every sound you make, and of course the most dangerous foe, other humans.

The game has a lot of combat which I wasn't expecting. Stealth plays the more dominant role, but there are times where you have to take out every enemy instead of just sneaking by them. The encounters with the humans are the most fun since they have better AI. I had one battle that took around 20 minutes as I was moving slowly and taking out the enemy person by person. I was able to run away after being seen and that lead me to flank the enemy as they were looking for me at another location.

The game has gotten really high ratings except for a couple of outlets. While the game is great it's not a 10 as there are some issues. The shooting mechanics aren't the best, much like the Uncharted games it's the weakest point. I'm not sure if it's the cursor movement speed or what but something is just a bit off. I've had a hard time shooting the zombies, I do sneak but when I'm forced into a shootout I usually fail and have to reload. I was able to upgrade one of my stats that limits the gun wave and that helped some. The melee combat is brutal and you use different objects to take down enemies and some animations are tough to watch.

NCAA 14 Demo (Xbox)

Tried the demo last night and the game seems promising. They are using the new Madden physics engine and it seemed tuned a lot better than Madden was. I didn't see too many instances of weird player positions or players falling over each other. They did add a new Coordinators cam that moves the camera farther away and more vertical which allows you to see the holes open up better when running and see passing lanes. The graphics still look bad to me during gameplay, the cutscenes are sharp look great but once they cut back to the field I still see a shimmer and just not high resolution, hopefully the new boxes will improve this.

I'm still not sure that I'll buy the game this year, I've been burnt too many times. I'll probably rent the game and then make my decision. I really want a great football game, man I miss 2k5.

New Releases

PC
Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara (download - $15) - Old school beat em' up.
Fist Puncher (download - $10)
Hexodius (download)
Knights of Pen & Paper +1 Edition (download - $10) - Improved version of the iOS game.
Magrunner: Dark Pulse (download - $20) - Looks interesting.
Moto GP 2013
Neverwinter (free-to-play) - Tried and not my type of game.
Pro Cycling Manager - Season 2013

Xbox 360
Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara (XBLA - $15)

PlayStation 3
Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara (PSN - $15)
Storm (PSN - $10)

Wii U
Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara (eShop - $15)
Game & Wario

Vita
Jak and Daxter Collection