Is Last of Us the Last of the great PS3 titles?

My review of Last of Us

     

    I picked up my copy of Last Of Us, expecting another Uncharted type of game, but this time, more stealth, more action, and more gunplay. Obviously, this swung far from what I had expected, and in terms of video games, this is one to enjoy. Making use of stealth or attacking, you are forced to make moral choices throughout the game, starting in the middle of the beginning, when you first meet Ellie. Spoilers aside, as I am still finishing the game myself, I did start playing multiplayer, and I have to say: this beats Black Ops 2. I love BO2, but this is more of a survival multiplayer, and I didn’t think I would like it at first.

                

   In Last of Us multi, you have to choose a side from the beginning, and are given so many actual real life weeks to complete these missions, and to out survive the other teams. 12 weeks seems to be the timer, though my only gripe so far is no split screen co-op multiplayer, forcing both my wife and I to play taking turns on our accounts. But, the maps are quite interesting.  

                

   Upon further playing the multiplayer, I am well into the weeks of the campaign of multiplayer, and a story is coming together, but not much happening. I did lose my entire clan though, as I thought I would, because it is extremely hard playing online multiplayer unless the team has headsets, or has parties, no parties dlc only and private matches. This has since been added, and offers an up to the enjoyment of the game. The object is still the same, yet, there are two forms of gameplay. There is of course, Supply Raid, which is one whole round, with a number of total lives per team. Then, there is survivors, which allows one to play so many rounds, but with one life per round, and the object is to dominate the other team each round, to win more rounds total than the other team. Also, we now have interrogation added, which is when you beat an opponent, but not kill them, or down them as the game calls beating an opponent, and then getting them to confess where the hidden items are you need to survive the apocalyptic world of Last of us.

                

    Naughty Dog really topped themselves with this game, as fans of the series Walking Dead, will find the atmosphere quite similar at first. Now, the zombies, however, evolve to that almost like Left For Dead. They become bloaters, and also clickers that detect sound waves and movement, but they are blind.  Ellie can be influenced as well, based on your method of playing. You can teach her how to shoot or not shoot, and it all depends on later in the game…though the ending is the same, the gameplay to get to the ending is amazing.

                

    Now, according to some, the game glitches on the 2nd playthrough, but I have not noticed anything at all. I do like the render modes, though, and an interesting point will be the Last of Us 2, which is rumored but not expected yet. I will be sure to keep all of you on tabs when more news is revealed. So upon further review, I gave the last of us a 10/10 because the storymode is both amazing, graphically and sentimental, and the multiplayer, though difficult, offers a "survival" of the fittest gameplay mode, where you really have to think to survive, just as if a zombie apocolypse broke out tomorrow. No pun intended. 

                

Call of Duty Ghosts: The Invisible Enemy?

            I know the title above isn't much, but given much gameplay testing/playthroughs, I decided to attack this review head on. The first part I want to talk about is the rumours of the short campaign. I can't say much, since I am playing on hardened for the first time in awhile, but, I can however, say that given respect to several friends of mine who completed the campaign on normal, it is long enough. My one friend clocked in 6 hours of gaming, while the other one, a stealth based approach.

         We've come along way from the World War II era shooter, which at one time competed with the likes of a well missed game, Medal of Honor, and then onto compete with rival Battlefield, made by DICE and EA. After testing out both games, both have their strengths and weaknesses. Yet, now, the current gen systems are pushed to their final limit. True, it may be at least 2 more years until the death of both systems, but Battlefield 4 pushes the system to its limits graphics wise, whereas Call of Duty Ghosts doesn't really improve on graphics, but yet takes a small step backwards. It would seem like the focused all of their attention at Infinity Ward towards making decent size maps, a movie-like campaign, and the all new squad mode.

         Focusing on the campaign mode first, you have two brothers, whose story opens up with their father telling them a story about a group of 60 men were sent in to fight over 500 soldiers. They were assigned to keep the hospital safe from harm. Eventually, the 60 were cut down to 15, but they evacuated the hospital and sent one left to defend. The trap was set, they lay in wait under dead bodies. Thus, they became known as Ghosts. This is the opening to an amazing movie. And, an amazing movie it is. If this was a definite movie, I'd pay to see it.

     I'm still well into the story, but since clan wars have begun, my biggest gripe may also become my biggest balance. What this mode consists of, is small maps, parts of the world, which must be taken over in order to win the clan wars. For my clan, we were placed in Los Angeles, and had to fight the majority of our time on team deathmatch. We still were not able to make it, though, since we, as a clan haven't been online much.

    But, I am stating the negatives first, then the positives. The negative side of this mode is that it requires you to play the game....ALOT. The reasoning behind this, is if your clan wants to top all clans, you have to be able to play all game modes, particularly, one at a time, until your clan has enough points for that game mode.
Unfortunately, not all gamers have the proper pads, and the Windows 8 version of the app is still a work in progress. Yet, it can be made to create interesting gameplay, and makes coming back to the game worth it.
The way it works is, you get one point per clan member, per win of the team you are on, and you must secure the highest points to take the objective. Then, you move on to another game mode.

  This is where the benefits of having a larger clan comes in, as you have people good at a wide variety of gaming modes within the game, and people online at different times to play and secure points for your team. This is the key to enjoying the game mode. There are a multitude of game modes, and if you are suffering as a gamer, you can also go and join the squad mode with or without friends and practice on different game modes, coming up with strategies.

   Not to say, we also must say, Squad mode replaces bots in a stronger way, since you actually get experience points from the squad mode and squad points as well, which are used to unlock pieces, attachments, guns, and other items such as more soldiers and such. You can also unlock clothing for your soldier from this mode, but camos can only be unlocked during the actual multiplayer. It is strongly my recommendation to play squad mode alot more than actual multiplayer, since you unlock and level up faster, and this mode gets you used to hiding, ducking and covering, and camping spots on maps. A great practice tool, especially with other clan members, where you can actually play against their clans.

  Moving on to the final game mode, which is Extinction. Replacing the old zombies modes from the Treyarch side of things, we have aliens. It takes place shortly after the beginning of the story, and your objective is to destroy the hives, and then each main hive. The final objective is to destroy the meteor in which crashed to Earth. Heaven knows what happens once you make it there. I've only gotten to round 2 after the second set of the four hives. But, I have noticed that the game seems to randomly change the map locations of items and guns. I like this. It adds to the game, rather than guns on the walls.

    My final verdict for this game is 8/10, as it takes me awhile to get used to it. The campaign is amazing, the squad mode is an awesome addition, and the alien mode, as a standalone, makes the game worth at least $40, but when it comes to multiplayer, unless you learn how to go in all out war, realistically in the game, you won't appreciate this rare gem. Activision CEO was right when he said that he would not really care what the reviews said, but rather look at the success through the eyes of the fans. This is how I beleive.Critics critisize a game unless they are paid big money to sponsor them. Companies like IGN and Gamespot are very reserved when it comes to being reviewers. I've noticed they tend to show favoritism in their reviews. In the end, it is all up to the eye of the beholder.