Shrike_Priest
Member
SolidSnakex posted a brilliant round-up of reviews (which, would you believe, are personal opinions from real people who played the game) 600+ posts detailing both sides of the argument, 10s of people saying 'Just play it OP', or 'Don't bother, it's not for you' and you still bumble around saying the equivalent of 'Yes, but apart from all that, what have the Romans ever done for us?'.
I think most people here rather than being rabid TLoU fans, are just wondering what you are looking for and are becoming exasperated with your stubbornness to sift the evidence yourself. Then you get posters strolling in going 'Watched it on Youtube 6/10, story was meh' making it very difficult for the people who try to explain why they love the game, and those that don't think it's all that (and you know that if somebody is mentioning story above - or without mentioning - character, you can safely assume they have never been near the game with a controller and played it for themselves) so you have a confrontational thread by default.
Telling people to 'get some fresh air and/or a life' and calling them 'sad' is not going to endear people to your cause - and quite tellingly, you only appear to have called out the people who are fans of the game here in your accusation of those sad people with mental health problems. But do feel free to clarify your view, so we know for sure we're wasting our time because you just can't accept opinions from the mental.
I have 40 years of videogaming under my belt, I could talk videogames, anecdotes and facts all day with you, and I don't think TLoU us the best game ever. It is however a brilliant example of how a story-based videogame can give you characters you care about, a great story in an often beautiful post-apocalyptic setting and some excellent gunplay and stealth. It also comes closest to avoiding the ludonarrative dissonance inherent (so far) in story-based shooters, Joel only needs to kill those who are a direct threat to himself and Ellie, and you don't have to be a mass murderer of Pirate Island if you don't want to. Every encounter is a desperate attempt to get through and survive, and no encounter is trivial.
It's called (stupidly IMO) the Citizen Kane of gaming, not because it's a more movie than game that you might as well watch on Youtube lol, but because it blends story, character and gameplay and that sets genre conventions in a way that other games will undoubtedly follow - ND advanced the art of story-based gaming. Whether you hate story-based gaming is irrelevant, those that love them can play them and everything else they desire, while others can cut off their noses to spite their face, and dismiss a whole genre just because cutscenes.
And for my basement-dwelling credentials; my all time top 5: Robotron: 2084, NiGHTs: Into Dreams, Marble Madness, RE4 and Space Channel 5: Part Two.
Of course, I would actually struggle to give a top 100, but I always go back to those.
Naughty Dog created the first post-apocalyptic sneaky brick 'em up, and that's why we love them
If there ever was a post that deserved an [/thread], it's this one. Kudos.
Seriously, does this discussion need to go any further?