Nerdgasmic video games, and psychotic episodes

Since we got here, the ship has actually improved in condition, minus some fire damage.

This game marks the first time a company got alien right since 1986. This is the game I wanted back before colonial marines came out, something based on the first film, because it was sickening playing as a colonial marine for 6 different games in a row.

The plot/game-play: Amanda Ripley wants a flight recorder, that is it. The human characters are uninspired, they are killed off as quickly as they appear, and you couldn't care less. The homicidal working Joes are far more interesting beings. The survivors aboard the ship serve little to no purpose, and add little substance to the overall story.

The style of game-play is a breath of fresh air, stealth, survival, and tactics. While they are implemented well enough, it still suffers the genres age old flaw, questionable Ai. It really takes away from the experience when you go up against humans with a flare and win, especially once they start questioning the flare on who's there. The alien Ai also has some problems, I like how it sort of has a mind of it's own when it is tracking you, but that doesn't stop it from being predictable. When you first go up against the alien, it is heart racing and intense, that is until you figure out how to avoid it. I found myself crouch walking through levels without the alien even showing up. Even just quickly analyzing your area, you can tell where the alien can and can't go. That is unless the game decides to spawn the alien right on top of you, or have the alien jump up into the vents, then jump down again, then jump right back up the same vent. Or literally have the alien spawn behind you in a vent, physically push you out, and then kill, all while you're wondering what just happened. This game relies heavily on beginners traps, you have to pay extra attention to what's in front of you to attempt to avoid them. On the final missions they really start to throw them at you. The quest objectives them selves consist of flipping switches, pulling levers, turning stuff on and off, and powering stuff up, yeah sounds gripping.

I advise not using your firearms until near the end of the game, most of the game you can get by just using stealth, maintenance jack, Emps and stun rods. And I recommend you don't even bother using the revolver at all, it is completely worthless. Conserve your flamer fuel by using Molotov's instead. And lastly, the greatest weapon, the motion tracker, never not use it.

Graphics/sound: Surprisingly grade A sound and graphic design, this game replicates alien in tone and atmosphere. But the human characters models look like complete garbage, and really stand out compared to the rest of the beautifully rendered game.

Longevity: I completed the game in around 13 hours, but I had the gift of foresight so that trimmed the time down. The DLC so far has been nothing lasting, you play it once and you're done. The survivor challenges aren't even worth doing since it doesn't add to the experience. I'm a bit sad right now because I want to keep playing this game, but they didn't implement any content to keep you playing. I hate to be saying this but, even a player vs. player multi-player mode featuring the working Joes or alien would have been welcome. But I'm sure there will be more single player DLC, and I look forward to it.

I've been playing GTA for a long time now, they all featured the same format and play style, point a to point b. None of the games raised the bar as high as this game. The biggest improvement is the story, I felt previous games were more enjoyable when you're a blood lust madman, but this games story was addicting unlike any other. I love great stories, and this one is one of the finest of the generation. I'll talk a little about the mechanics, but mostly about the story and characters. The main story will take you around 24 hours to complete, pretty standard. I did it over the weekend, three days of noon till midnight.

The game play: It's pretty much GTA 4 style controls aside from a few innovations. You can actually customize weapons in this game, considering games like "Scarface the world is yours" had this way back when, it's too little too late, but appreciated. The stats boasts for characters is back. The graphics are almost identical to Red Dead Redemption, aside from the facial animations, here they can pull off more realistic expressions. The feature to switch between characters at almost any point is a great new mechanic. Got nothing to do, lets go see what Trevor is up to, oh he's throwing someone off the side of an overpass, cool. I haven't noticed any new cars yet, in fact they took away my favorite car, the black Sabre GT. And finally an open world game that allows property purchase, if you can make the money the business is yours. But 150 million for a golf course is a ridiculous amount to earn. The map is about the same, if not bigger than Red Dead. You spend most of your time just driving though. The game does look beautiful at times, especially when you factor in night time or when it's lightly raining. The game physics are nothing new, but it does frustrate me to unbelievable levels when the cars spin out from hitting a pebble. The animations for Chop, are probably the best for any dog in a video game. The presentation is double that of previous entry's. I'll add some more here when it comes to mind.

The missions: Wow, they really improved the missions ten fold. There some big set piece moments that are great, without distracting you from the game. I can only remember one mission from GTA 4, the bank heist. But here there were at least a dozen. The heist at the bay town, was crazy. Securing a prisoner from atop the FIB headquarters, while switching characters, was a brief but memorable moment. Sometimes it's just the dialogue or actions from the characters can make a mission. My favorite was Family reunion with Michael and his family. But there were a few times it got disturbing. When Trevor is sneaking around The Lost's trailer park killing them, and the whole thunderstorm going on at the time, it's just great. The torture sequence of the prisoner was a bit out of place though.

The characters: I'm just going with the three main protagonists. I liked all three of them, even when Trevor is being a psychopath, it's hard not to like him. Franklin was the most stable out of all of them. Michael seams to have been based off of Michael Madsen, even down to the way he walks. Trevor is the most memorable, one of the best characters in the franchise, even probably best character of the year. He's a madman in ever way shape and form. The banter between M and T is all over the place, one second it's a nice moment, and the next they are at each others throats. The writing is really well done most of the time, but there was a few moments that didn't sit right. I was appalled there was even an option to kill Trevor and Michael.

Now I have only played through the single player missions, so that's all I can say for the game. I haven't done any of the side missions, leisure activities, or even watched TV. That will be added in here once I have completed those. Is it game of the year, well it's a close second to The Last Of Us, both of these had phenomenal stories and characters, but TLOU played my emotions much harder. Anyone that gives this anything lower than a 9 is just kidding themselves, Rock-star put years of hard work into this game, every aspect is top notch, aside from two glitches that required a mission start over. It is by far the best GTA game ever, it raised the bar, and set a new precedent of quality.

****SPOILERS**** The reason I say that is, it feels so real. And it gets real emotions out of you. The game is slow and drawn out, but that only makes it even more intense. I'll get the flaws out of the way first: The A.I. isn't very intelligent, the humans are damn near blind. And the fact that your NPC companions can walk right into an enemy and not alert it sort of kills the immersion for a bit. The challenge almost seems to go away for multiple play-throughs, you can pretty much cheese your way through the game since you know what to do. And aside from the game-play, this game is a masterpiece. The third person doesn't feel the greatest, it's not as fluent as something like Resident evil 5. After two straight years of disappointing video games, this finally gives me more hope.

The story: Man, I don't even know where to start. This is THE most nerve racking game I ever played. It really gets you to invest emotionally into this game. I really wanted Joel and Ellie to make it through the game, the tension of either one of them being killed at any second was unbearable. I didn't even want to finish going through the play-through because of this. I had to go read the plot online just so I could be at ease, and finish it. No other game I have ever played has made me feel this way about it's characters. Joel is the baddest mother f----er since Kratos, when pushed, nothing stands in his way. He is a cold blooded killer, but the only thing that makes him feel normal is Ellie. The dialogue and voice acting is flawless, it feels as natural as acting can get. This really is a game you do not get to have mindless fun, it's all about the story and characters, and how it all works out in the end. The father figure and daughter dynamic really is refreshing. I got teary eyed when Ellie laid down by a sick and injured Joel.

I don't think I could write a review about this game with out talking about the ending. SO NOW I AM GOING INTO THE SPOILERS.

THE ENDING- This is a game that gets better, the further you advance. It just keeps building the tension until the final part in the hospital where I couldn't take it anymore. I think Joel made the right decision saving Ellie at the end. It's not just that he found someone to live for again, but the fact that Ellie could live her life. When she first left the Boston quarantine zone, and was in awe about things in the world, it felt like a father teaching a child about the world. It's something both Joel and Ellie needed. And besides, it's been 20 years since the world fell apart. There was no saving humanity, there's no coming back from that. Humans are much more dangerous that the infected ever were. You see this throughout the game. There was no guarantee that the vaccine would work, and if it did, it wouldn't have been used as a weapon. The Fireflies were labelled as terrorists for a reason. Ellies life was much more valuable then what was left of humanity, in Joel's eyes. You have to play the game in order to get the full effect.

I'd go as far to so, this is one of the best story driven games to ever be released. The game is incredibly detailed, even the little touches of dialogue between Joel and Ellie hidden throughout un-triggered events, marks it high on the list of presentation. I hope for more last of us in the future, since it's already sold more than two million copies, it's a sure thing. 10/10

It's 6:00am, I stayed up all night in order to get through the game, and it was probably a bad idea. This is what people praise as Game of the year, I will compare it to TLOU in a minute, but first things first.

The game-play is the best in the franchise. The ruins of Columbia look nice. The game kept my interest through most of the game. Oh and the pointless rapture scene was just so cute, even though it was completely out of the blue. But really, the ending is just awe full. Really, I felt depressed after it was over. Was you think about it real hard, you'll understand how poorly it was executed. The whole world jump and time travel was just the most "WTF is this" type of plot device. They may have had a cool idea going on, but it just doesn't work or pay off in the end. Don't get me wrong, most of the game is good, but it's not Game of the year good. Sure it will be nominated, and people on the hype train will do what they do best. At the end of the day, I just want to forget this game, and I probably will. It didn't have any emotion or weight to it, it's just a cool FPS. It just an over done, over complicated let down. As far as a solid and compelling story goes, The last of us destroys this game. Seriously that twist was just so out there.

It's an over rated game, but it is a good over rated game. It never reached Bioshock 1 levels of good though. I'll probably update this at a latter time, when I'm not tired.