As I was about to write this intro, I was thinking there wasn't any thematic consistency with this blog, but then I realized that wasn't true at all! I'm writing about two short-ish things that I was able to play by getting codes to download them from friends. In this case The Last of Us Remastered from yummylee, and The Fall from Matlock Mat Paget...I don't remember what his GB user name is, and we'll see if I take the time to go back and check and remove this sentence before posting this blog!

Now, I know what you're thinking: The Last of Us isn't short! And you're right, it's not. But I played that game on PS3 a couple years ago, and don't have a ton of new things to say about it. I think it holds up well, it looks and runs better than it did on PS3. I think I enjoyed it more now than I did back then, but I'm not really sure how much of that is enjoying certain aspects of the story and whatnot more now that I've had a lot of time to think about the game, or because it runs (mostly) at 60 frames per second. However, I hadn't played the Left Behind DLC before, so I DO have things to say about that! And this intro is way longer than I expected so I should move on and stop compounding that!

Left Behind.

I'm going to preface this by saying that if you've played The Last of Us, but not Left Behind, go play Left Behind instead of reading this. I made the mistake of learning about one of the things from it prior to playing it, and while it certainly didn't ruin the experience for me, I do wish I had been able to play it without knowing anything about it. And I probably will be getting into spoiler territory here, both for the main game and for the DLC. JUST SO YOU KNOW. And no, I'm not going to say, "you should have played it by now" because I only just played it recently, and I'm not THAT much of a hypocrite.

Anyway, Left Behind is fantastic. It's all the best aspects of The Last of Us boiled down into a smaller experience that has way more heart than the entirety of most franchises, let alone most games. It's Naughty Dog doing what Naughty Dog does best, which is some of the best writing and voice acting in video games, along with some decent combat here and there. Which...

I'm a little torn on the inclusion of the combat. On the one hand, it'd definitely be really nice if they had put out a piece of DLC for the game that had ZERO combat on it. Just story stuff, character interactions, maybe some puzzle-y stuff. And I know that there are a fair number of people out there that did not like the combat or stealth stuff in The Last of Us. I'm not one of those people, and I think Left Behind actually does some really interesting things with the combat, even if it doesn't do it as much as I wish it did.

The Last of Us featured both human and infected combat. Both had similarities (emphasis on stealth), but never did the two meet in the game. Not so in Left Behind. It starts introducing situations where there are both infected and human enemies in the same area, which got me really excited. Why? Because my very first thought was to sic the infected on the human and watch them fight against each other.

And you know what? Fighting enemies fight other enemies in video games is still rad. Especially in this case where I was actively luring the infected near the humans by use of throwing bricks and stuff. It's not a revolutionary new thing, and a whole game of that wouldn't be interesting to play. These fights just kinda all ended with all the humans dead and only one or two infected left over for Ellie to mop up. But it was still really cool, and I wish the main game had some of this in it.

But it also made me realize some of the issues with the enemy AI. Namely, that even with infected coming at them, the humans will still attack Ellie. Which, doesn't really seem realistic to me. I mean, you're in the post apocalypse, and you're in a situation where there are not zombies that are basically zombies but the game never says zombies...and a teenage girl. Granted, she's a girl that is a survival expert and capable of efficiently murdering hella dudes. Still, I'd think that some sort of temporary truce or something would be more realistic.

That's never going to happen though, not for a piece of DLC, anyway. Something like that would either have to be completely scripted, or have a bunch of AI routines or something written specifically for it. I don't really know, I'm not a game designer. But I still think something like that would be really cool in something like, The Last of Us 2. Which, I know lots of people don't want there to be a sequel, and I certainly hope that the Ellie and Joel story arc is finished, but I'd totally be into playing another game of this sort set in this world. Just with a new setting and new characters. Maybe something a bit more open with some more dynamic AI like I was talking about. But I've gotten off topic, as I often do.

Anyway, I wanted to get the combat out of the way first, because we all know that's not the draw of this DLC. The draw is that it's more back story for Ellie. Aside from the aforementioned combat parts, which take place between Fall and Winter in the game. Last thing I'll say about that is that I do like how it switches between that and the flashback-y stuff.

Actually, now that I think about it, Left Behind kinda reminds me of The Citadel DLC for Mass Effect 3. It's a bit of a send off thing that has a bunch of nods and winks, and it just a fun time all around. Though, The Citadel had a much more lighthearted tone with a suitably ridiculous story to match, whereas Left Behind is more grounded and...heartfelt. I'm just gonna straight up spoil moments from it now, so there's your warning.

And there's other moments like that too. Like the water gun fight between Ellie and Riley, where you sneak around in a store trying to out shoot the other, using the exact same controls and mechanics as the rest of the game, just now with kid friendly water guns. It's full of great moments like this, and writing about it is just making me want to go in and play it again. It's just executed so perfectly that I can't really imagine a better way to send off the game. Plus, there's THE MOMENT that I had spoiled for me before I played the game, which I'll just say now. It's when Ellie and Riley kiss. And yeah, sure, lesbianism or whatever, but even if they weren't the same gender, that'd still be a beautiful moment that most games don't even approach, and it's fantastic. (But as an LGBT type person it's still nice to see it in the game, even if that's like, tertiary to the point of the scene.)

I wish more games could be like this. Just full of heart, and more than just dude bros shooting stuff. Not that I don't like dude bros shooting stuff, and don't think that can't lead to great stories (look at Spec Ops The Line, which of course is the deconstruction of that very thing), but we really need more games like this. And it's a real shame that we're not going to get nearly enough of them as we should. It's the sort of thing that makes me wish I could make a game, but I don't have the skills, or budget, or willing friends to make something like that happen. Oh well!

That's about it. Absolutely play it if you have enjoyed The Last of Us but haven't played it. Even if you read everything I wrote about it, you'll still get a lot out of it. I didn't spoil everything, even if I did spoil the best moments. But they're better to experience first hand than to read my retelling of it, obviously. Go play it. Please.

The Fall

I think I should get the negative out of the way first. I played the Wii U version of it, because my PC is bad at playing games, and Matlock had a code for the Wii U version. For the most part, it's totally fine. I think the frame rate was a little hitchy a couple of times, and some other stuff looked a little...weird in an unintentional way, but it was fine. Aside from the two times the game crashed and hardlocked the Wii U. Both not in exactly the same spot/way, but very close, and within minutes of each other. Now, two crashes isn't damning, and I can see how a Wii U port of an independently made game could be a little on the buggy side. But that also doesn't mean that it was disappointing when it happened, especially because it hardlocked the system to the point where I had to hit the power button on the console. Been spoiled by the PS4 just crashing back to the main menu when games (cough, Apotheon, cough) crash.

And the combat is, interesting, but kinda clunky. The game is a side scroller, and the combat is basically a cover based shooter, but purely from a side scrolling perspective. You can take cover, and even use a cloak to push up against a wall and hide that way. Shields take a LOOOONG time to recharge, so you can't really just stand there and take hit. But something about it just felt a little, well, clunky. Like it was a small game made by a small time that didn't have the time to refine and hone the "feel" of a game like bigger budget games do. Again, it's fine, it just feels a bit off, and I think the game would have been better if it had a little less of it. I also feel like a few of the fights are there just to extend the game, which while short, doesn't feel too short (especially since it's only $10 (or free if you're me)).

If anything, it left me wanting more, especially since it ends with a, "To be continued." But it left me wanting more in a good way. You know the feeling, the, "Man, that was great, I can't wait for the next one" feeling. And I do hope they make another. I have no idea how well it sold, but I do know it was a Kickstarter game (because it said as much in the credits). I obviously could have done some more research into it, but why would I do that when I can just play the game and write this nonsense instead?

The rest of the game is an adventure game with a lot of puzzle solving and story stuff. And for the most part, it's really great. The story stuff is consistently great, the puzzles not so much. There's definitely cool stuff in there, and interesting uses of the mechanics. There's also some real olde fashioned "well I've been looking around here for half an hour so I'm just going to look up what to do and oh, I probably would never have thought of that" moments. Well, only two that I actually looked up, one of which I think was a pretty cool way that I just boneheadedly didn't think of. The other I think was a cool idea on paper, but in practice, it was not nearly clear enough that it was what I needed to do.

There's also a really cool thing regarding how the character gains new abilities. In The Fall, you play as ARID, an AI on board a future space suit thingy who is trying to get medical help for her pilot. Yeah, I know, it's an AI, but voiced by a lady, so I'm sticking with her. Anyway, the AI is ruled by a very RoboCop feeling set of directives or protocols that guide what she can and can't do. Or, you know, like Asimov's I, Robot, but come on, RoboCop was the thing I thought of. I honestly didn't think of I, Robot until writing this blog. Huh. Guess it helps that I just rewatched RoboCop about a month ago, and I'm off topic again!

Anyway, there are several times where ARID has to use her primary directive of protecting her pilot to gain access to restricted functions of the suit. Things that only the pilot is supposed to be able to do. And to do this, she has to make it so that the only way for the pilot to survive is to put him in situations where the only way to survive is to access the restricted functions. And that's a brilliant way to do that! Sort of like Metroid Other M, only not idiotic and stupidly written into the game.

Sorry, I...kinda blacked out there for a minute when the thought of Other M came into my head. Lost my train of thought. Where was I? Oh, right, The Fall!

I think the thing I'll remember most from The Fall is the atmosphere. The game is dark, and just sets a fantastic mood from the very beginning that never lets up, despite having occasional moments of levity with some of the dialog, and some of the solutions to the puzzles. I don't want to get super spoilery on what happens in the game, but I'll discuss one puzzle. Don't read the next two paragraphs if you haven't played the game and want to (you should play it).

And I think that's a really cool and funny solution to that puzzle. I just wish I had thought of that instead of resorting to the internet. But to be fair, I stopped playing for the day after doing some of that stuff, and when I came back it wasn't totally fresh in my mind. And the game has a bunch more puzzles with similar solutions to that. At least in the sense that you kinda have to subvert what you think the solution should be. And it's great.

If you haven't played The Fall, you should play The Fall. I'm not doing it justice here. The story is great, the look and styyle of the game is great, and some of the puzzles are really great. Totally worth your time and money, and it doesn't even ask much of either. My Wii U says I played it for over four hours, but that's counting being stuck for a while a couple of times, and a few instances of leaving it on and paused whilst I was in the bathroom for...a while. But that's neither here nor there, because it's great. Play The Fall! Give them money so they can make another one!

But maybe play the PC version if you can. If not, and you have a Wii U, then play it there.

Anything else?

Well, I have been playing Rayman Legends, and I did get to a point where credits rolled in the game. Even though I have a full world of levels that I didn't touch, never mind a whole slew of "remastered" levels from Origins that I want to play (already having played some of them, well, really, all of them if you include originally in Origins). But, it's a bit of a hard game to write about in the way that I like to. It's a fantastic, gorgeous game that's a ton of fun. But there's not really much to write about unless you want to read me trying to stretch, "well the not touch screen implementation of this touch screen stuff is maybe not the best" into several paragraphs. Though, the last thing I'll say on that is that I don't really see how some of those levels would be playable if you had to use a touch screen mid level to do that stuff. The levels move too fast!

But that's about all I really have to say on the game. I dunno, maybe I can squeeze something else out after I finished all the levels, but probably not.

I've played more CoD: Advanced Warfare. Prestiged a second time and got pretty far again thanks to a 2XP weekend. That game is still a lot of fun, especially with friends. That is all.

I still need to play that Lara Croft game I got on sale. Staff of Osiris? It's the something of Osiris, but I don't remember what. But I'm looking forward to that. What else...I still want to play Deadly Premonition The Director's Cut, and maybe I'll get around to that soon. A FIVE YEAR retrospective on the original version of the game and whatnot would be an interesting blog. Also, not even kidding, it's been FIVE YEARS since Deadly Premonition came out. I know. I feel old too. There will be more PS+ games next month for me to play, and I'll write whatever I can about them. Probably.

Still nothing in terms of new big games I want to buy until late next month with Bloodborne and that Borderlands collection coming on the same day. I know one of those isn't really new, but I didn't play The Pre-Sequel, so that plus the DLC alone is probably worth the money to me. And I wouldn't mind playing Borderlands 2 again. It'd be nice if I could import my character from that game on 360 to PS4, but I can't. Alas. That's what I get for buying the game when it was on sale for $10 instead of waiting for it to be free on PS+ some time later. And no, I'm not going to play it on PS3 to level up a character in anticipation for that. That'd be stupid. I'll just wait for the better version.

Oh, PAX East! That's next week! I'm excited. Gonna finally get to meet internet friends, and hopefully get up to some stupid stuff. I'll be there on Saturday and Sunday, and if you see me, then say hi or something! How will you know who I am? You already know.

Anything else else?

Well, I now own and operate a website, along with a friend who co-owns it. Right now it just serves as a place for me to put podcasts I'm on (currently two, by which I mean literally there are only two audio files on the site), but I'd like to put up written stuff too. Maybe just reposting my blogs from here, maybe other stuff that doesn't really fit with Giant Bomb, I dunno.

Oh, the name of the site? Well, I should explain that the name originated from a really dumb joke, and it's not what it seems. Which is part of the joke. Anyway, the website is hotmales.net. Yes, you read that right. No, it's not a porn site. The slogan of the site is, actually, "It's not a porn site!" Trust me, I wouldn't be stupid enough to link to a porn site on the forums here. But make sure you put that in correctly, because well, we only have that one URL (and no, we don't know why it wasn't already taken either), and you can imagine what other, similarly named websites might be.

Anyway, it's a dumb thing, and I'll stop now because I've already said more than I was going to, and that's it.

The only other thing I'll mention before ending this is that...I'm kinda in a weird spot in my life. I know, my whole life is weird, but this is especially...strange. It's something I don't really feel comfortable discussing 100% publicly yet, but if you see me acting a little weird, or maybe not being as active as usual on the site, this is to explain that. Not that I'm super active these days anyway. I pretty much just write these blogs and accidentally comment too frequently during live streams. But I'll keep you guys updated as well as I can, don't worry, it's nothing bad, and hopefully will end up being a very good thing in the end run. Or it could end up being a nothing thing that I never mention again. I don't know. But it's confusing, and I've rambled enough.

Thanks for reading, and see you next time! :D