The Last of Us

Get the game: UK or USA

You sacrifice the few to save the many.

That’s kind of shitty.

I thought my gaming days were over. I guess not.

I first got into gaming with Metal Gear Solid. It had a great story that owed nothing to most films. I still remember the words “Goodbye, Mr. President” mumbled bellow Revolver Ocelot’s bushy moustache. It was cinematic, despite its poor graphics. I loved the way I could advance the game in different ways. I could choose to kill everyone I encountered or slip by them unnoticed. I usually chose killing since society frowns upon shooting and choking people to death in real life. Damn you, society!

In my teen years I played a lot. I stayed at home, remote in hand. Avoiding the sun and eating chips. Making everything in my complexion ready for the pimples, zits and blackheads that were soon to come. Spyro, Bandicoot, Mario, Sonic and all the other jumping and running fellas. All Tekken games, Dead or Alive and similar fighting gmes. Most of the Final Fantasy games. Gran Turismo, Lara Croft, and… my memory fails me, but those were just a sample of a very long list that brought me many hand calluses. In more than one way.

Eventually I got sucked into the world of online gaming. Playing online takes the excitement of defeating an opponent to the next level. It’s a virtual way of saying “I’ve got a bigger penis than you” (posting that as a Facebook status eventually gets tiresome). If you do it as a team, it’s a collective “We’ve got bigger penises.” Even the girls join in on the chant.

This ruined me for games. Online gaming is to offline gaming what TV shows are to movies. They provide immediate reward. I found myself skipping completely the offline mode and going online, the same way most times I prefer watching a TV show over a movie. Instant small pleasure vs. Bigger delayed pleasure. The first one almost always wins.

Get the game: UK or USA

The last of Us is