I’m glad we had the chance to do this, and frankly I wish it’d been reasonable (or realistic) to record a much longer, more organized conversation with such smart people about such a smart game as The Last of Us. As this longest console generation winds down, it seems reasonable to say that this game will be remembered as its crowning achievement, a Shadow of the Colossus for the PS3 era – and that’s two generations in a row wrapped up not with some great bro-shooter epic but with something melancholy, thoughtful, often heartbreaking, and deeply meaningful to those who played it. The Last of Us, from serial hitmaker Naughty Dog, is a game based on a lie. There are zomboids and bandits, there’s beating people to death with bricks, there’re set piece battles aplenty. But it started with the lie, it’s about the lie, and maybe in the end the lie is all that really matters.
If you haven’t played The Last of Us – maybe you’re my Mom, or maybe you lack a PS3, or maybe you’re just odd – our podcast may be rather difficult to follow. This is four people who played the game and thought about it a lot, and perhaps unfairly to listeners, we don’t bother to bring anyone up to speed on much, or provide any real context or background. It’s sort of a conversation for people who know what the conversation is about. If you need a primer, read Dix’s excellent review, or my own impressions, or type the title into Google and you’ll find all the setup you could possibly require.
This whole thing started as a planned Bioshock Infinite podcast, but I sort of dropped the ball scheduling it, and then The Last of Us came out, and it just made more sense to start there. Our special guest, Kristine Chester of Fanboy Comics, was really the driving force behind it all.
It was a great conversation about a great game, one that’s going to be remembered and studied long after most others are forgotten. We barely scratched the surface of The Last of Us, an unforgettable game about a lie, and how our journeys shape us in ways we can’t consider. Enjoy!
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Or just download the MP3 here.
