Pros:

• Unlocked Frame Rate that Stays Near 60fps at 1080p at all times
• Graphics are more detailed and livelier than ever
• Online multiplayer has seemingly been re-tuned for the next gen console
• Characters are more believable than before, as well as their environments
• The original game remains intact, and is refined
• Collectibles still remain very well hidden and fun to find
• Multiplayer items have been added for more, and higher, rates of customization

Cons:

• Multiplayer match finding seems to take a bit longer than normal
• For frame rate junkies, there are dips in some areas, but it doesn’t last long
• Enemies still remain hard for newcomers and will provide a hefty challenge
• Some weapons are extremely over powered in multiplayer and do need reworked

Final Verdict: 9 out of 10

Final Thoughts: As much as the Zombie-Type genre has been overloaded, The Last of Us is one of those entries that breaths a new fresh breath into the genre. It’s one that offers an emotional trek, across the United States, with Joel and his foul-mouthed, joke-filled partner, Ellie. In their adventure, players will get to revisit, once seemingly, lush environments, but this time they are more believable than before. With no zoom in resolution changes or pixilation and higher particle density, the world is much more alive, and much more realistic than before. This isn’t just a mere-remake, but a pure re-imagining, but with the original fully intact. No changes were made, except under the games hood itself. For those wanting multiplayer, they are not left behind at all, the game features all previously released content.

When saying this is the campaign portion, you’d expect this to be about the story, but instead, many of you have possibly played the original and know what’s going on. Some of you have not, but the problem is: spoilers. That is one thing that makes discussing the campaign difficult, but at the same time, keeps the game fresh as possible. This portion will instead be about the performance changes, the enhancements that have been made, but also some of the things that still need fixed from the predecessor. 

The Last of Us as we know changed the way the Zombie-genre could be seen. The game implied limited ammo, difficult enemies, puzzles, slow-paced moments that made the heart pound inside your chest, and ‘abilities’ that Joel and Ellie possessed to make them unique. This time around, we are given the idea that the game itself has been enhanced, and it has. When playing the title during intense action scenes, the frame rate was smooth, not that thirty frames a second smooth, but the sixty frames per second kind, which made combat much easier to go through. Aiming guns seemed precise, and not delayed due to the limitations the hardware gave it. This was a problem in the original since players would have to be concerned about a frame rate drop, and possibly miss their shot, only to suffer the consequences. With the Remastered Edition, this is something that has yet to be experienced, even with the sequences sometimes being filled with enemies, particle effects, and animations that would, otherwise, have slowed the PS3 to a crawl versus the PS4’s powerhouse, that backs it. For many of you, you may recall the spore filled hallways, water-filled tunnels, and the lighting effects that took place to give the game that realistic feel to it. Guess what? That’s been enhanced too now.

Thanks to Naughty Dog, we are able to see something a bit more interesting when exploring the vast lands, of the United States, during Ellie and Joel’s travels. Many will be able to point out the fact that in one of the starting scenes, Joel and Tess are exploring the outer city limits, which have been blocked off by the remaining government based forces. When having explored the area. I was capable of seeing the world, as if I’d never seen it before. It wasn’t that watered down and layer-mapped area that sometimes had flickering leaves and water animations, instead it was if I had seen the world Naughty Dog created for the first time. Water moved, with Joel’s steps, the grass seemingly pushed down beneath his feet, and even the snow, in some of the later stages, left foot prints for enemies and me to track. This was what began to make the game a bit more unique than before. One of the levels players explore, a building is collapsing and they have to make their way through it, but with the infected, this was a challenge. In this stage, I got to see one of the biggest advances, in graphics, in the game, thanks to the use of flashlights, Joel’s listening ability, and the random debris that floats within the air quite often. This was something I was not expecting, and highly applaud the team for. 

With all the changes having been made under the hood, players can truly expect the game to be astonished with many of the graphical upgrades, but also amazed that everything remained intact, in this transition. The game has not seen any changes from where hidden secrets were, how puzzles were performed, or anything. Players are seeing what I could consider a true HD remake of all the games content.

Want a good reason to take the fight online between Hunters and Fireflies? In the multiplayer, players will choose a faction, unfortunately, from what has been experienced, factions can’t be changed immediately, but only after completing a “12 weeks” type situation within the multiplayer itself. These weeks can be completed through the three game modes available: Survivors, Interrogation, and Supply Raid. Unfortunately, both Supply Raid and Survivors are team death match type modes, but survivors; being the one without respawns.

 Much like the campaign, the multiplayer features all the campaigns creatable items such as: bombs, first aid kits, smoke bombs, cocktails, shivs, and my personal favorite, melee weapon upgrades. All of these function in multiplayer just like they do in campaign. Each is brutal, powerful, and gives a heavy tactical advantage, depending on the play style.

Like in most multiplayer titles, The Last of Us features a class building system, which allows players to choose weapons, feats, and “weaponry buys”, which they can access through kills and resources. These perks do get stronger, but cost more slots within your custom classes. These upgraded perks will give you an edge against your enemies. However, do note that it doesn’t change your chances for survival or even how powerful you are against them, which is based on pure talent, weapon chance, and teamwork. Thankfully the maps all play to each play style, and allow for players to enjoy the game how they want to, gladly setting up combat scenarios, no one player would expect For snipers, you may not be able to use your stamina to listen for them, as they may have a feat not allowing themselves to be spotted, you may not be able to even hear them at all for that matter when wanted, or needed. The only thing that may give them away might be the flare off their scope. The multiplayer does require a lot of teamwork, and coordination, in order to survive the requirements for a players “village”. 

Players will be required to meet certain requirements, in order to keep their survivors happy, and also take on special scenarios, via weapon kills, wins, losses, and or gatherings, in order to keep their survivor population up, in order to make it past the twelve weeks mark. This is something that makes getting a high population difficult as the attacks, raids, and such goes up, and also come in seemingly higher frequencies.

Overall, The Last of Us Remastered is a true masterpiece and deserves to be recognized as a host, to the once upon a time, Game of the Year title, which earned more than two hundred Game of the Year Awards. This one sets itself up there, if not higher, on the expectations players have. For those wanting to experience it, The Last of Us Remastered is now available physically at all major retailers and digitally through the PlayStation Store and requires approximately 50 GB’s of hard drive for both multiplayer and single player portions. For digital, memory requirements may vary based on what portions are downloaded.

Editor’s Note: This is a 2 part review, done by 2 team members, our Writer extraordinaire, Josh Turner & our Founder, Dustin Murphy. This is part one, done by Josh Turner

I held the box, within my hands, feeling old wounds begin to re-open, the old pain feeling fresh, once more. “Again, I must go down this rabbit hole again” I thought to myself. “The journey, the tears, the heart wrenching surprises… I must endure this all again.” I press start, and am greeted by an old Violin that has become signature for this title. Yes, back down the rabbit hole. Back to the cross country journey of Joel and Ellie, back to… The Last of Us.

The first thing I want to make clear, before I even continue, is that even though I’ve already played, and beaten this game, buying this game again on day one is completely worth it. Why, you might ask? Mainly due to the DLC, for myself; seeing that I never had an opportunity to experience the Left Behind story DLC, let alone the fact that I never touched the multiplayer when I originally had it made the purchase easy.

So, in case you lived under a rock last year, or didn’t own a PS3, The Last of Us was a defining example of what gaming should be. Rich storytelling, innovative to its genre, tight controls, great gameplay, and most of all, something that leaves you begging for more! The original release scored a perfect ten here with us, at BATGR, as well as countless other review agencies. This was a reason to buy a PS3; and in the current state of affairs when it comes to limited releases on the PS4, this is a reason to make the upgrade.

The story is one that is simple, yet complex. A man, who has become broken due to tragedy brought on by an apocalyptic plague, must take a young sixteen year old girl, across a dangerous country in an attempt to save the world. Simple enough, right? Wrong… dead wrong. Coming into this game, Naughty Dog threw out any and all topes you could think of when it comes to a thriller of this caliber. Every time you think you have figured out enough about the story to accurately call what will happen next, the developers throw a monkey wrench right into you blowing your mind, and changing everything that you think would’ve happened. Another thing this game excelled at originally, and carried over perfectly to this version, is the amazing voice acting and character development, of not only the main character, but nearly every side character you encounter. Naughty Dog created one of the most human experiences with this game, and it was something that affected many gamers, including myself, causing us to cheer when we succeeded, and cry when we failed.

With the addition of the Left Behind DLC, players are allowed to see the pivotal moment that starts it all, while revealing more of a human side to Ellie. This segment of the game mainly focuses on the story, instead of the action. Not to say there won’t be a few intense battles, but not nearly the same as the main game. What makes this DLC so, uniquely, awesome is you get to see Ellie be well, Ellie. The main story circles around two close friends breaking into a closed down mall running amok, but what makes it work so well is you get a look into how she enjoyed her life prior to becoming the walking cure, for the world.

When it comes to the multiplayer, it was a whole new experience for me. Seeing that I originally borrowed my copy of TLOU off of a friend, I didn’t want to be “That Guy” and use his online pass to play it. So I regrettably never had a chance to experience this games multiplayer the first time through. What I have found though, is a multiplayer I can truly get behind and enjoy. Back in the day, when online multiplayer was really first booming, there was a game called SOCOM. In all honesty that what this game reminds me of; It’s slow, methodical, and team orientated. To properly play, and win at this you must be in communication with your team nearly at all times. There are no one man hero’s in this multiplayer, and that’s something very unique in this current age of the “Twitch Shooter”.

Last but not least is the “Remastered” part of the game, which is absolutely jaw dropping. They truly pushed what their engine could do, and recreated a world that was already vibrant, turning it into something photorealistic. In all honesty, just in the first segment of the game when you’re escaping Texas was enough to take my breath away. I personally can’t wait until I get into the winter portion of the game just to see what the new snow effects are going to be like.

I’m going to make this quick, and to the point. If you own a PS4, you need to own this game. Whether you have played it before, or not; the content within this packaging is worth the $50 (USD) price point. It’s just as gripping, and action packed, but now comes with a slew of extra content you may or may not have experienced. This game is truly a masterpiece.

I give The Last of Us: Remastered a…10 out of 10

Verdict: 9.0 out of 10

I know, I know. MLB 14: The Show was released on PS4 on May 6th and I’m just now writing the review. I however cannot control this because I joined the B.A.T.G.R team 2 ½ weeks ago and yesterday learned a review for this game had not yet been done. Fear not! I know you’ve been clamoring for it so here it is! Well, that might be an overreach but if you are a baseball fan, than maybe not. MLB 14: The Show rewards the most die-hard of baseball fans. The bigger the fan and the more you understand the game, the more you can appreciate the nuances SCE San Diego Studio introduced to this latest installment of the franchise.

If you are looking for a detailed breakdown of each feature that this game has to offer, then this article may not be for you. You could, literally, write a 100 page manual on all of the different game modes, customizations, and intricacies that are at your disposal. I’ll admit, it can be a tad overwhelming at times. Do I want to play a scrimmage online to test my skills, practice my pitch selection in practice mode, start a season with my favorite team, create a player named Justin DiMaggio and bring him from Single-A all the way to the Bigs, and the list goes on and on. The options, at your disposal, are numerous but I found myself sticking to single game exhibition mode versus the PC, playing a shortened season with my Texas Rangers, Home Run Derby, and online play versus friends. You can tailor the settings to make it as easy or difficult as you want the game to be. I mean you can make pitchers your facing get tired quickly, throw a higher percentage of strikes, and even reduce the break of his slider to make it easier to hit. It’s pretty amazing.

Earlier I wrote that the bigger a fan you are of baseball and the more you understand the game, then the more you’ll appreciate what this game has to offer. What I meant by that is you can set your defensive positioning, call for a hit-and-run, choke up on the bat for a 2-strike count to try and make contact, call for time if the pitcher is taking too long, adjust your swing to hit a fly ball to try and let a runner tag from 3rd, etc. Honestly, that’s not even scratching the surface. What I’m getting at is that this is a true baseball sim. The players, their gestures, the stadiums, crowds, even announcers all appear as realistic as I have ever seen in a sports game. Even with all of these controls, the game does take time to figure out. The ‘Rookie’ setting takes a lot of the controls away such as fielding and sending the runner so that you can focus on the pitching and hitting. There is even an interactive setting that adjusts the difficulty depending on how well or not-so-well you’re doing. Even if you’re not a big baseball fan, you can have fun playing this game with simply trying to time your swing correctly or strike out the competition. This is essentially one big game containing hundreds of mini-games.

As long as you have an internet connection, current game scores and stats will scroll along the bottom of your screen allowing you to keep up with what’s actually going on in MLB. You can also download the latest MLB lineups each week which takes into account whether a player is hurt or is playing well in real-life or not and adjusts their stats accordingly. Even if you create a player or a team, you’ll be able to import them to next year’s version of the game, a new feature that was added to this installment. The button layout, albeit technical, is very intuitive and customizable. Baseball games can be long but you can set the game to ‘Quick Count’ which automatically takes you to a decisive count during an at-bat, speeding up the game. You simulate just about every aspect of a game, jumping to a particular inning or at-bat. You’re not forced to watch a runner round the bases after a homerun or wait for a pitcher to understand his catcher’s sign. Playing a 9-inning game straight through without simulating anything takes roughly 45 minutes to an hour.

After reading this, you probably think I leave and breathe baseball and that I feel this is the best videogame ever made. However that is not true and there are parts of the game that are not as appealing and fun. Load times are extremely long but they only occur right before a game begins. Playing a baseball game time and time again can get old and leave you wanting to play a different game. While the soundtrack is descent, I would like to have seen more songs as I’m sick of every single song that is on the soundtrack. Check-swings don’t always happen when you intend. Online play can lag which is horrible for this type of game, making it nearly impossible to even get your bat on the ball when hitting. Also, the in-game currency that can actually be purchased for your hard earned money is unnecessary. I was given 5,000 stubs as a consolation by Sony when the game wasn’t available to download from the PlayStation Store until 2:00 PM CST on May 6th. It was valued at $5.00 however I never used any of them. Finally, that brings me to the digital release issue. I had this game pre-ordered on the PS Store and stayed up all night trying to download it. When I went to work that morning exhausted with nothing to show for it, I was actually pretty darn upset. The $5.00 in in-game currency and a $10.00 PSN gift card helped, but I vowed to never pre-order a game from the PS Store again. I know that’s not the fault of the game itself, but that issue did make the game look bad, whether that’s fair or not. It was being called MLB 14: The No Show.

To sum it all up, I came away from this game feeling like I had won a game with a Walk-Off Hit-by-Pitch. While the game was great leaving me with the feeling of a walk-off, the HBP of not getting the game when it was first supposed to come out left me stinging a bit. It soon wore off however and I have a winner, winner, chicken dinner.