Why is The Last of Us a generation-defining game?

By that logic, Minecraft and whatever the first big free to play game was (Spiral Knights?) define this generation.

I'm fine with that, totally forgot about Minecraft and could easily argue it as the game that defined last generation.

Is the Last of Us story and writing better than Telltale's The Walking Dead in any way. I don't think so. Walking Dead has choice and just way, way more WOW! I' can't believe that just happened moments in it. Last of Us is Super over rated. Numerous frustrating moments with the game play and A.I. My games of the generation would be: Red Dead Redemption(Story,Open world) Mass Effect 2(Story,open world), Bioshock(Story), Call of Duty 4(multiplayer influence), Gears of War.( Best co op; everything has a horde mode now)

I don't know what those words mean.

Not sure how a game coming at the END of a generation could really define a generation; I mean, to me "generation defining" means it's what makes a generation what it is, which is impossible if it's released at the end.

That said the OP likes Shadow of the Colossus and that game is a masterpiece that I've gone back to several times, so props for that.

Over rated Game. Neil Druckmann designer of the Last of US thinks Gears is the best franchise of last generation. That's probably why his multiplayer is an over the shoulder, tactical, cover based, 4 versus 4 game with Execution moves. Sounds familiar. I thought it was an average survival horror game with terrific cut scenes and voice acting. Nothing more. I understand the combat, it's unique and satisfying but also frustrating. It's like playing a civil war or WW1 FPS game. All the weapons are single shot. Pistol, sniper, rifle, bow, Don't get a machine gun until the end and it's useless. The combat in the hospital was god awful. Made me long for killing Blue Mutants at the end of that other Naughty dog game. The Hype and praise in unwarranted. I find the first 9 episodes of The Walking Dead game I've played through to be a lot better as far as this genre go's.

I always said it's a good game that plays sort of average and is a jack of all trades and a master of none. That said there are plenty of people who think the shooting is excellent or that the stealth is perfect. I personally don't agree with that but hey, everyone has their own preference. The stealth to me is downright poor and the shooting feels average as it seems to straddle the fence between survival horror and third person action doing no favors to either one in the process.

The main reason I like the game a lot was basically the Fall chapter which was really emotionally engaging. In all honesty I was struggling to find a lot of enjoyment in playing the Last of Us up to the point as I thought the levels just weren't all that interesting and the puzzle solving boiled down to finding ladders or boxes to climb onto - in a game that tries to constantly punctuate realism having to repeatedly tackle the issue of clearing slighlty higher ledges really broke the mood for me.

It's a really well made game, but personally I don't think it should be considered as genre or generation defining in the slightest. The press seem to love it, apart from Jeff, so naturally lots of people will form a positive opinion through osmosis. The fact of the matter is that if the story and particularly voice acting wasn't as good as it was, the flaws in the gameplay would be a lot more apparent than people care to admit.

@fredchuckdave: Pretty good generation if you ask me. Took a while to get going but when it did we got plenty of quality titles. Better for some genres than others though.

From a lot of different standpoint it epitomizes the efforts toward innovation this generation. Story telling, character development, human animation, and world building from both an artistic and narrative standpoint, are all done extremely well here. It also has a deep, rewarding multiplayer that many people latched onto. It actually helps that it came out at the tail end of things, being able to build off of a decade of experiments.

Then again, to me generation defining isn't necessarily a hugely positive thing, it's just the game that kind of summarizes that generation the best. This game even has fucking not-zombies and shitty, price-gouged DLC.

@xcharliesheen: they are very different games. Even though I enjoyed TWD more TLOU is a very good game and I can see why many prefer that title. Overrated? Every popular game is. Like Dark Souls and Persona 4 on GiantBomb despite loving both games.

What a meaningless semantics debate and what a bunch of jaded, cynical dicks coming out of the woodwork to hear themselves state their "obviously right" opinions.