The Last of Us is totally Uncharted with zombies. ..

I was planning to do a favorite games of E3, but considering aside from the known quantities coming out this holiday, everything is so far off in the magical land of maybe 2014 (especially when we are talking next-gen titles, right now it's hard to make a good argument to get either upcoming system with a lack of truly next-gen titles at launch. Not that there isn't stuff I'm looking forward too. Virtually all of Nintendo's line-up over the next 6 months looks great. Arkham Origins looks to be just fresh enough to still be really fun. I'm hoping despite the jokey trailer that South Park: The Stick of Truth will actually come out this year, because that probably my most anticipated rpg since Xenoblade. Just none of it so exciting as to make some list of big things that impressed me. 2013 seems like a solid year to either stick with what you have or buy a Wii U. 2014 seems like a time to hopefully get real excited for the next year.

Easily the last big exclusive release this year on PS3 (does the 360 have any exclusives anymore?), The Last of Us is Naughty Dog's last attempt to squeeze every bit of performance out of the PS3 and probably so they are known as something other than those Uncharted dudes. The story is your standard zombie apocalypse but it's well paced and acted, and absolutely gorgeous. I'm not sure you could do this on a 360 period. It shows when someone knows what to do with the system how awesome PS3 games can look. Seeing as the PS4 is also more powerful than the Xbox One yet far easier to develop for than the PS3 was I think a lot of exclusive titles will be looking noticeably better than anything on the Xbox One in a couple years as well.

But when it comes to the gameplay, well it's Uncharted with clunkier combat. And there are just some idiotic game logic flaws. Ammo is at a premium in this world, so why aren't heavily armed enemies dropping much if any? That's completely arbitrary and a stupid way to go when you are trying to be somewhat realistic. Think of the combat as a clunkier version of Uncharted, which isn't that fine-tuned to begin with. You can argue that the protagonist Joel, is no Nathan Drake, but he is a grizzled hardened survivor who has lived in this world for 20 years. His fighting and survival skills should be pretty damn well tuned to reflect that, and they aren't, even with the upgrade system you have in place. Finally, as much as Naughty Dog was trying to stress that The Last of Us is not Uncharted with zombies, it totally is.  Whenever you are not in combat, it has the exact same kind of land-traversal puzzles that series is known for, down to helping people open doors and giving them boosts up to higher levels.

If it sounds like I'm casting the Last of Us in a negative light, I'm really not. I'm about 6 hours in and having a good overall time with it. Just based on Naughty Dog's own hype and the reviews I was expecting a unique refreshing experience. What I'm getting is Uncharted with zombies, which is fine just not worthy of the extreme praise it's been getting.

That's all for today, I should have another post up by Tuesday, until then, here's your VIDEO GAME MUSIC OF THE DAY: