PixlBit

I gave in and bought another Wii-U game and saw a very cheap game I wanted and added that to my PS3 collection. Then I got caught up in The Last of Us. 

Tank! etc. ..  was about $12 and Untold Legends $2 at GameStop.

I've always wanted Tank! Tank! Tank!. This is based on, or a port, of a Japanese arcade game. I saw it at Round 1 arcade and tried to play it, but its seats were way too small for my adult body. It looked to be a game much like Battle Tanx or Earth Defense Force; jump in a tank and blast everything in sight. That sounds just right for me. 

Then I saw GameStop had a buy 4 for $10 sale, only it was for games under $5. There was very little at that price. I only got Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom because it was complete. I owned it years ago and played probably 50% of it co-op with my friend Mark. I had to have it again because the series is exclusive to Sony devices, and I love exclusives for systems not Xbox. I have the two PSP games they put out as well.  The series is like Diablo III or Gauntlet basically. 

Then I started The Last Of Us and realized my video settings were all wrong on my PS3, which I haven't played for years. When I set it for the right cables and 1080i output, instead of S-video and Standard Definition that it was on, the visuals improved dramatically. This game sucked me in the rest of the night. 

What a fantastic game! It has incredibly gorgeous environments. Perhaps the phrase "magnificent desolation" applies. You start in a rural setting but quickly switch to a city one. Society has completely broken down because of a plague that turns people into raving maniacs, basically zombies, but I'm not calling them that because it's some sort of fungus and it does special things to people that are unique. 

You play a guy tasked with delivering a feisty teenage girl to a medical facility somewhere you're not quite sure. Along the way, you fight the trigger happy military and random groups of infected (not saying zombies) people. You have guns but not a lot of ammo, so it's often better to sneak around and excute stealth kills with a shiv or just your hands. There are melee weapons that come in handy at times as well. The combat basically feels a lot like the Uncharted series (this is a Naughty Dog game after all), but it's much harder to run-and-gun like you can in those games. 

The stongest part of the this game (and really, all of it is strong) are the characters and the story. Every character is super well written and acted. I wanted to listen carefully to every bit of dialog. The cut-scenes are seemlessly inserted into the gameplay. You hardly know they are interrupting you, and you don't care because they are so good. This is something Naught Dog does really well in all the Uncharted games too. 

You can craft items on the fly (and you'll need to) and upgrade your basic skills by collecting pills. They are a reward for exploration. I was thrilled to explore anyway, this game is so rich in detail. I still can't get over how good this game still looks on a PS3. It has only been five years since its release very late in the PS3's life, but still. . . wow. 

I was surprised after a long playtime today that not a single trophy popped up. I thought something was wrong, but I looked at the list and there are only tough trophies for this game. You have to finish the game or complete something to 100% to get one. I'm fine with that, I guess. No easy trophies here. It's not why I'm playing it anyway.

Tomorrow, perhaps more Last of Us. I'm searching for the rebels called Fireflies still. I hope the stealth mechanics they ask me to do don't get too heavy. So far I've been stealthy but surviving with gunplay if it fails.

Oh, and I almost forgot. There's a segment where you have to fight upside down. I've never done that in a game yet. 

Toodles.