Not TLoU spoilers (not my fault if you stalkers out there end up geting TLoU spoilers despite of what I just said)
Drake "is not portrayed as a cold blooded murderer", but neither is Indiana Jones, or most American action movie protags that the Uncharted games mirror. There is some value to be had in a fiction that doesn't remind you all the time about the moral implications of every single action being displayed. Or that these "heroes" would've probably been killed or institutionalized a long time ago IRL.

But maybe the movie comparision isn't the best approach, since watching and playing are different things. Playing is about being in control, and with TLoU I am in control of a psychopath, with no choice but to kill a shitton of dudes, while being constantly reminded that "what I am doing is wrong". I don't see the fun in being "preached" by a game, only to have said game force you to do what it'd been preaching against. But then again, if I had decided to never play either Uncharted or TLoU, and watch a Let's Play of them instead, I could praise TLoU over Uncharted for being more consistent with its characters and for its morally ambiguous ending. But these games aren't movies (quite yet).

I also would like to point out that my complaints on this specific subject is mostly due to what happened during Winter and after, being aggravated by the absurd bodycount. Before that I was too busy being annoyed by how TLoU underplays its "zombie" apocalypse setting. ...And also by those bullshit instakill Clickers.

Relevant how? Maybe you meant "in agreement" or something? Because of the whole "we gotta survive, even if it means killing our 'equals'"? With Joel having 20 years worth of experience in killing dudes like you do during the game?

But I don't see how this makes killing an army's worth of dudes (during Winter and Spring) more "justified" than in Uncharted for instance. Specially since this was supposed to be a more "down to earth" action game. And don't even get me started on Joel's motives...

Mixed feelings. Some ups and some downs... but mostly downs towards the end.

It's not so fun to play as a sociopathic mass murderer on a game that makes you this self aware... If that makes any sense...

It better be, or else-

I can imagine hardware limitation being a problem, but the size of individual maps aren't really the problem. Enemy placement and behavior are too obvious, and each mission only has 3 or 4 maps. I spend way more time managing my base than actually playing what should be a stealth game.

People like to hate the likes of Metal Gear Acid, for instance, but at least that game advertises itself correctly, as a turn based strategy. I knew Peace Walker would have some sort of unit management, but I would never have imagined it would surpassed the stealth action in importance.

I see you have played Suikoden 2, how is that?

Does that game force certain characters to be in your party at certain times, or is the player allowed to always choose the party composition? I just beat the first game and was very annoyed at this feature. If the second game doesn't have that, I'll probably want to check it out some day.

Hmmm, interesting. Thanks for the links. When it comes to analysis about the series, I've been watching these videos each time I beat a game in the series:

[Link]

They're not quite same caliber as what you linked, but I found them interesting nonetheless. I think titling them "reviews" as they now have been does the videos a disservice. The same person has videos up going over some of the Zelda games, and he's still being active uploading more.

Edit: I also admit, I don't think I "get" MGS2.

I absolutely agree with that. The FOXHOUND members in the first game are definitely better established as characters. It would be nice if the Cobra got a little more screen time before the battles, and maybe also had death scenes similar to the bosses in the first game (although I think those are clumsy devices to deliver characterisation, but still better than nothing).

Heck, I had no idea The Fury even existed before he suddenly showed up and I was fighting him (edit: or well, there's Volgin's "That leaves only The Fury" line, which took me by surprise). His "I went to space and became angry" motivation seems hazy too. Besides, wasn't The Boss the first person in space? After the Cobra guys had already teamed up? So what was The Fury's thing before he went to space? Or then I misremember and Soviets were already sending people to space before USA sent The Boss.

When it comes to MGS2, though, I barely even remember the characters in that one. Dead Cell isn't memorable or interesting at all to me. The game tells next to nothing about Vamp, and Fortune is quite a flat character with only one thing going for her. Even Solidus is left to be more of a mystery than I feel he could or should be.

I also got an idea about how they could make another prequel starring The Boss, that would give the Cobra a chance to be more fleshed out.

I accidentally spoiled some of those ways to myself before playing. It's been hard to avoid spoilers for these games, as they are so old. Finally, after fifteen years, I can actually read stuff about MGS!

In the end, I was expecting a lot from the fight, but actually found it quite disappointing. The easiest way to do it for me was to run around until he took a shot at me, revealing he's around, and then just locate him and shoot back. I wish his shots would have been more lethal to make that kind of tactic harder. Pretty anticlimactic. It was fun before I figured that out, though. Really intense to try to find him before he finds me. At first I tried to go for the bird, but I didn't see a glimpse of that thing. Very well done forest level, I like it.

I read your post only after coming to update my page that I just beat The Fury. That one seemed difficult at first, since he does so much damage at once, but it got easier after I figured out he's field of vision can't reach all the way across the room.

Overall I find the bosses a bit better than in the previous games, I feel like they integrate the main mechanics of the game better and are less gimmicky than before. They're also shorter, which I think is an improvement. The fight against RAYs is still probably my favourite, though.

I could go on and on about this and the previous games. If nothing else at least they make the player have an opinion about them instead of just being mediocre.

You, a Journey person!

I've been wondering about Journey. Would it still be worth getting, when it's not brand new and maybe not so many people play it anymore?

I mean, people have touted its multiplayer features. In the hypothetical situation that I'd end up playing through the game mostly alone, would it still be a good game? Or is it basically just a multiplayer game, and the experience is watered then when playing alone?

Thanks. Journey is a pretty cool guy too.

Nice theme.

The ending? Which one?