Game of the Moment

BioShock Infinite released earlier this spring and everyone was quick to call it the Game of the Year. Months later, The Last of Us graced the PlayStation 3 and everyone changed their minds. Is the gaming community being to hasty in these reactions? More importantly, why do prominent narrative components seem to guarantee slots on year-end awards lists when gameplay elements might be lacking? Led by editor Curtis Stone, Gamers Association explores the issue.

[knifefight]

"Is the gaming community being to hasty in these reactions? "

^ If it's not too hasty, it's not the gaming community.
We're the kings of being too hasty. I mean I haven't looked that up or anything, but it feels right enough that I'm gonna call it a sure thing.

[sly-Famous]

There is nothing in TLOU's gameplay that is lacking, but hey, thats just me.

[Picnic]

There's always something in any game that's lacking if you choose to adopt a perhaps 'expecting too much out of mortal man with time and budget constraints' perspective. No matter how great the game it will never feel quite as exciting the second time as it did the first. And if it didn't feel exciting the first time then it probably wasn't the player's preferred type of genre in any case. And there'll always be some case where you think 'If only they'd put THAT THERE- not necessarily as a mandatory part of getting through the game but as an optional sidetrack within the game- then it could have been even more exciting'.

Specific to The Last of Us (which I haven't yet finished), I have to say that this game really gets going. I'm reminded of an amalgamation of parts of the likes of Half Life 2, Silent Hill, Max Payne plus other games that I probably haven't played.
There is some nice, realistic humour in the game although I may be imagining in-jokes where none were supposed to exist like when Ellie says something like 'I've never seen anywhere like this before' when faced with a jungle forest-like scene and I think 'I have for the last 3 Uncharted games'.

The way that the game works though, where a cut scene might mean that you can no longer access a previous section of the game, means that I spend most of the game seeing other characters signalling / urging me to go one way and I urge myself to go another way, necessary to try to scavenge as much as I can. Sadly, when they once hinted at me to go to one way for supplies I went the other way, got a cut scene, and didn't end up being able to see whether there were supplies there. It's all part of the fun of the game which is a BEAUTIFUL game. Some of the details are gorgeous. All partly inspired by that mutant section in the first Uncharted I guess!

[Horny]

I kind of agree with what this article is getting at. Yet some of the best experiences this Gen seem to fit in with this. I look at it this way, they are no longer just games, but full on entertainment experiences.
With that said I actually had fun playing the last of us. I do wish they would have incorporated manhunt type executions for a little more variety.
If they decide to make a sequel I can't imagine how much better it will be after building onto the first.

[Wni0]

Obviously games are not as great as an art medium as movies are atm, but the whole oscar thing has its movie of the moment deal. Slumdog, the hurt locker, and argo just to name a few movies that came at the right time and won.

Bioshock Inifinte vs The Last of Us is like:

Taken vs There Will Be Blood

[project_pat36]

both of those movies sucked royal ass.. how could you compare them to bs:i vs tlou???

[ShugaCane]

There Will Be Blood sucked ass ? Are you being serious ? Like....For real ?

[project_pat36]

very for real. I was so bored by that movie its not funny... it was.. yeah I think it sucked ass.

[Adolph Fitler]

The Last Of Us, is not Game Of The Year, it is Game Of The Generation. It is a truly great masterpiece......The few on here hating it, are the few that aren't still playing the s^%t out of it. I also really am enjoying slowly getting through Metro.....But TLOU is game of the year....that is obvious, as the Meta score must be through the roof, with all the 10's, 9.5's & barely a score that goes under that, apart from that one 7.5 that some attention whore site's reviewer gave it.

[OmniSlashPT]

Infinite gameplay was a run and shoot FPS with some RPG elements to it. TLOU had new approaches and perfected stealth, survival action and scanvengign/crafting as well as having cinematic moments, exploration and some (really easy) platforming puzzles. There was absolutely nothing wrong with TLOU gameplay. Everytime I played through a level after dying, the enemies would react different even if I tried the same approach, going stealth or guns in were 2 complete different experiences and all offered that tension which IMO TLOU gameplay represents.

[Adolph Fitler]

Yep, agreed Omni.... I don't know what people are talking about, when they diss TLOU's gameplay, as the gameplay & controls are excellent & the game is just an all round unrivalled gaming experience. This is the way games need to go, in regards to story, voice acting, tension & atmosphere & just all round production values. ND are basically the Myamoto's/Hideo Kojima's (sorry about spelling) of the modern gaming era.
ND are by far, the best developers going around today. I used to hold Insomniac up there with them, but the wheels have fallen off since they decided to go the Activision route & break up there team, into 2 or 3 teams. They sold out & went big, & this has affected the quality of there work. I mean, Ratchet has always been of the highest quality in all areas, up until every one after Ratchet:ACIT, & Resistance 3 was also highly enjoyable. Resistance 1 is also one of my fave fps games this gen, & I have & play everything. I hope Insomniac survive & prosper once again.....but I'm a little disappointed they turned on going multiplat, in favor of selling out to MS & going exclusive.

Anyway, TLOU is the definitive, undisputed, GOTY, for 2013, so for mine, the game is ten winner & if it doesn't win officially.....anybody that's played it, knows the truth. It's a seriously unrivalled piece of gaming.

[InTheLab]

Will someone explain to me why these guys are calling TLoU's gameplay "average"? It seems to me, they could have easily made this thing an action title like Deadspace and Resident Evil. Or made it Uncharted with zombies.

They didn't do any of that. As a matter of fact, they revived a dead genre. Talk to me about average gameplay when you stuck in a dark basement with runners, clickers, and bloaters around every corner.

I can't think of any of it's peers this year or the last few years that matches TLoU in terms of Gameplay. Deadspace 3? Gears 3? MGS4? RE5 and RE6? Splintercell Conviction? Tomb Raider? Uncharted 2? Hell, Uc2 was considered of of the all time greats and TLoU is better than that.

So I need some explanation why true survival horror, stealth, and realistic gunplay, fun melee, and crafting is suddenly average?

[zabu_san]

I'll bite!

It's average in that the devs really seemed to put more emphasis on presentation than the actual gameplay with the Last of Us. Is what's presented in The Last of Us 'bad'? No, we didn't say that, we said it's just 'average' or mediocre. I still enjoyed playing through its entirety, but at the same time, there were a TON of questionable choices the devs included.

My main gripe comes from the Clickers: 9 times out of 10, they would hear ANYTHING you would do, but when you 'quietly' take them out, even if one's right next to you, there's no response. Literally, a Clicker can be right next to you as you kill another one, and there's no action taken, it often took me out of the immersion the rest of the solid presentation brought me.
Same thing would happen with the human AI too, so it's kind of all over the place :-/

I won't say it broke the game, but at the same time, of all the reviews I've read and watched, I do agree with Phil Kollar's more than any other. He truly nailed it!
The Last of Us really is a solid game, a great story told, and will obviously go out as the final glorious PS3 exclusive. But it could have been so much to me...

[InTheLab]

So you feel like clickers should alert other clickers to your presence?

If clickers can hear other clickers dying, what's stopping them from beating on each other? I mean, they all make the clicking sound and it's impossible to distinguish between happy clicking and dying clicking.

I don't get your point with that. Any other examples of average gameplay?

[Picnic]

I'm pleased that games get 9.5 or 10 out of 10 and feel like that compared to their contemporary games.

But at the same time is it really so awful to take a more personal view and think what you would have also liked to have seen in the game? If you want more instances of floors collapsing below you, secret passages etc who's to prove that you're wrong?