I can't really express how much I love this game.

I recognize many of it's shortcomings (the game-y elements yanking you out of the atmosphere, the combat getting a little stale by the end, etc), but man. I haven't loved a game this much in a long time. Pretty amazing, considering how much I was anticipating it, and I basically bought a PS3 to play it.

I love the story so much that I'm playing through the game multiple times and in various sections to try and get trophies and I get worked up over scenes partially playing out, and I don't want to wreck them even though I'm just loading in to grab one conversation.

So much about the story is so clearly well thought out and just makes sense literally, symbolically, and otherwise.

I can't think of a game I've liked more emotionally in recent memory since Grim Fandango. I haven't been this attached to a game and it's characters in a long time.

I felt very similarly once I first completed it. I've been able to articulate a lot of what I love about this game since then, but yeah, this was one of those games that I had to process first before I could even try and put into words. It was the sorta game that left me feeling somewhat upset at the end, just by the mere fact that it was the end of the game.

An easy GOTY thus far (played BioShock Infinite as well, but... yeah, doesn't come close imo), is arguably Naughty Dog's best game ever, and a lot of people have been throwing around such statements as 'Game of the Generation'. Now that's far too grand of a title for me; I could never just choose one, but it's definitely one of my top ten GOTG at the very least.

Comparing it to Bioshock is interesting to me, given that liking Bioshock kind of comes from an intellectual place, and Last of Us from an emotional one. I just respond more to The Last Of Us. They both have solid gameplay, though.

I'm not sure about game of the generation, but it's hard for me to think back about the whole generation (I wish Giant Bomb would do a podcast on that!). The last game I've really, really loved is Dark Souls. Before that I'm not sure.

so question for folks, i just hit "fall" in the game, just had the game's first big emotional punch imo (the conclusion of the 2 characters you met)

how far am i in the game?

more power to you folks really loving this game btw, but what ive played so far, bioshock infinite's still the GOTY for me personally

You're getting up there now, probably what you could call the final third of the game. Though that still leaves you with, perhaps, another 4-5 hours left on average I'd say.

Yeah, I recognise that it's primarily a matter of preference as they're both stellar games. Infinite aspires to be this high-concept, sci-fi thing, whereas The Last of Us is a much smaller scale character-driven drama. As such I much prefer the way of things with The Last of Us.

Plus Infinite's gameplay got really stale and was disappointingly simplified overall from the first two BioShocks. That, and Rapture to me was a much more alluring and interesting environment to explore than Columbia. Anywhoo not to derail this into an Infinite discussion...

The Last of Us is great!

Whenever I start feeling slightly worse about The Last of Us I just boot up the singleplayer and within 5 minutes I'm already completely immersed in the world again.

ah, alright ill see it through. thanks.

@yummylee said:

Haha. I actually was totally disappointed in Bioshock 1. Bought a new video card for it and everything... just didn't live up to the hype for me. Didn't play 2, LOVED Infinite. But yeah, Last of Us just speaks to me in a way Infinite doesn't.

Doesn't matter much to me if we stay on topic. GOTY stuff should be really, really interesting if GTA5 delivers the way I think everyone expects it will. Maybe 2013 will be one of those storied gaming years.