Games.com News. CityVille, FarmVille, CastleVille games news

EA will return to Wii U when Nintendo "sell more boxes"

Thomas Chamberlain, The Koalition — 2013-06-17T15:45:00+00:00

EA have pledged that they will begin to support the Wii U again, but only when the system sells more units. The remarks were made in an interview over atJoystiq where EA Labels President Frank Gibeau spoke about their lack of games on the console.

"The only thing they can do to fix it is to sell more boxes. We're a rational company, we go where the audience is. We publish games where we think we can make a great game and hit a big audience, and make money. That's why we're here, that's why we have an industry."

In response to this Nintendo of America's head of corporate communications Charlie Scibetta has said, "We're confident that once some of these games come out that we have planned between now and the holiday and into 2014, that it will help drive theinstall base and when that happens the platforms will look more enticing to third parties."

Read more at The Koalition >

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Ubisoft is working on three different Assassin's Creed games

MegaGames — 2013-06-17T15:40:00+00:00

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot revealed that three different Assassin's Creed games are currently in development but promised that each of them has its own gameplay and innovations.

Much like Activision's flagship Call of Duty, Ubisoft is having two or three independent teams work in parallel for 2 or 3 years each and release their games in a staggered manner.

"We are making sure the teams who are creating the different iterations have enough time - two years, three years, so that they can take risk and they can change the concept enough so that it can be appealing and fresh," Guillemot assured.

"Really, what we see is that we can have the capacity to regularly come with innovation," he added. "That is, for me, the formula: if you can really change the game on a regular basis and bring in innovation your fans want a product very regularly. Our job is to make sure the teams have enough power, enough energy and enough time to take the necessary steps to create a high quality game."

Guillemot was careful not to reveal any details about the games that are still to be announced; nonetheless, the first of the trio, Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag is scheduled for release on October 29th, 2013 in the US and November 1st, 2013 in the UK.

Read more about Assassin's Creed at MegaGames >

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Everything you want to know about the Xbox 360 Stingray

Kelly, FleshEatingZipper — 2013-06-17T15:30:00+00:00

At Microsoft's E3 press conference they announced a redesigned Xbox 360 to look more like the Xbox One design. I thought it was a very strange move but some of the guys here thought it was a cost savings thing for Microsoft. It turns out it wasn't "we redesigned Xbox 360 to give it a fresh new design and a similar look and feel to Xbox One. Although we're very excited about Xbox One, we remain dedicated to Xbox 360 now and for years to come."

It's really disappointing to hear that instead of transitioning to the new Xbox One, Microsoft wants to keep the Xbox 360 around for the long haul and as a fallback for those who have shoddy internet connection like our military. Related to this, a lot of people expected to see the Xbox 360 get a significant price drop, that won't be happening for a long time it looks like.

This leaked PR document talks answers tons of questions about the Xbox One as well if you want to take a look. I've placed the text relevant to the Xbox 360 Stingray below.

Q: What is the new Xbox 360 you unveiled at E3 (Stingray)?
A: Today, we unveiled the redesigned Xbox 360. It offers an amazing new design and form factor that brings Xbox 360 in line with the look and feel of the Xbox One family. We see this as another indication in our investment and long-term vision for Xbox 360 and its millions of owners worldwide.

Q: When will the redesigned Xbox 360 be available in XYZ country?
A: It will ship in the U.S., UK, Ireland, Canada, and Australia starting Tuesday, June 11. It will launch in other regions this fall, with exact dates to be confirmed later.

Q: Was this a cost saving move for Microsoft?
A: No, we redesigned Xbox 360 to give it a fresh new design and a similar look and feel to Xbox One. Although we're very excited about Xbox One, we remain dedicated to Xbox 360 now and for years to come.

Q: What is the price of the redesigned Xbox 360? Are you dropping the price of Xbox 360?
A: The redesigned Xbox 360 will be available for the same great price and available in the same value-packed editions: 4GB, 250GB and 4GB Kinect bundle.

Q: Why have you not/do you not plan to drop prices on Xbox 360?
A: Xbox 360 continues to be a great value with a full gaming and entertainment experience starting at $199 (MSRP), which includes access to the largest portfolio of games available and an amazing array of entertainment services.

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Madden NFL 25 could be EA's last

Samantha Earwood, PlayStation Gang — 2013-06-17T15:00:00+00:00

Madden NFL 25 is a promise to gamers who stuck with the series and begged for more gameplay options and features.

On the PS4, it's a glimpse into the future. With new gameplay, visual engines, and a brand-new step-based locomotion system, Electronic Arts believes the pigskin action will never be the same.

"There's that wow factor when you pick up the controller," said Electronic Arts Football General Manager Cam Weber. "It feels amazing."

A celebration of 25 years of the franchise, EA Sports spent significant time developing a next generation football game they felt would change the genre. The IGNITE gameplay engine will have approximately 300 "live" characters on both sidelines, reacting to the action, as well as a crowd that looks more "real" than the cardboard cut-outs and static virtual fans gamers have become accustomed to seeing over the years.

The new True Step Locomotion system also promises a better rushing game. Madden 2013 focused heavily on passing and True Step, combined with the enhanced A.I. offensive linemen, as well as defensive players. The end result, Weber says, is a more authentic and instinctual game of football, with authentic route running, more realistic downfield blocking, and better moving player models.

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Pet Rescue Saga cheats and tips

Chris Buffa, Modojo — 2013-06-17T14:55:00+00:00

Popular Facebook game Pet Rescue Saga finally brought its addictive match-up puzzles to iOS and Android. Candy Crush Saga fans will find certain parts of the game familiar since it borrows a handful of concepts from the aforementioned smash hit. Newcomers may need some advice, so we put together a beginner's guide to help them beat their friends.

-You only have five lives and lose one for each failed puzzle. When lives run out, you can purchase five for $0.99 or wait for a refill.

-You can ask Facebook friends for lives and vice versa, just like Candy Crush Saga.

-You can request lives before playing a puzzle. Select the desired level and tap the heart icon to the right of your friends' Facebook photos along the bottom of the screen.

-You don't need to eliminate all blocks from the screen to clear a puzzle. That said, pay close attention to each puzzle's goals. These may include rescuing seven pets or scoring a set number of points.

-Boosters like Color Pop and Block Buster are there to make puzzles easier. Just don't waste them. Otherwise you'll need to buy more.

-Some puzzles only provide you with a certain number of lives. Don't be wasteful. Running out of lives means game over.

-The Column Blaster is great for clearing blocks of different colors. Drag the rocket (lower right) to the desired location and make sure it's in the correct place before launching it.

Get more Pet Rescue Saga cheats and tips at Modojo >

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PS4 pre-orders doubling Xbox One at GameStop

Matt Liebl, GameZone — 2013-06-17T14:40:00+00:00

With the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 both having their retail price announced at E3 last week, gamers can finally begin pre-ordering their next-gen console of choice. And with that, early data indicates the PS4 is ahead of the Xbox One in pre-orders by approximately three units to two during the period between Monday, June 10 to Wednesday, June 12. DualShockers has put together a nice little comparison between the two consoles, but over the weekend we found out a few more details.

The PS4 is outselling the Xbox One by two units to one at GameStop, a GameStop representative told GameZone. This was according to a local retailer who didn't specify whether this was chain wide or just at the individual store; however, I think we can presume, given what we already know about the two systems' sales, that the PS4 is outselling the Xbox One overall. Whether it's at a rate of two to one everywhere is still a bit of a mystery.

Despicable Me: Minion Rush review

Nadia Oxford, Gamezebo — 2013-06-17T14:30:00+00:00

Despicable Me: Minion Rush proves there's still some personality left in licensed endless runner games.

Same as every dog picks up a case of fleas sometime in its life, those of us that play video games on a regular basis have been burned by licensed games at least once. There are no exceptions. As a result, we immediately assume the worst about licensed fare, sometimes prodding at it with a tissue when interaction is necessary. But one benefit to approaching licensed games on the defensive is that it makes the decent games that much easier to appreciate. Despicable Me: Minion Rush, for example, is an endless running game that's well-polished and surprisingly charming.

The action in Despicable Me: Minion Rush revolves around the "minions" from the animated Despicable Memovie series by Universal Pictures. These lemon-yellow, pill-shaped critters are devoted servants of Gru, the series' main bad guy. Gru may be a villain, but he's not a heartless boss. Each of his innumerable minions has a chance to win the coveted title of Employee of the Month. All they have to do is race for it. The minion that you control in the game is likewise eager to prove himself to his superior.

But this is no ordinary race. As you'd expect from an endless runner, Despicable Me: Minion Rush throws plenty of obstacles and pitfalls in your way. As your minion charges forward, you swipe left or right to help him dodge objects and cliffs. You can also swipe up to make him jump, or down to make him slide under laser-beam traps. There are hazards and narrow pathways galore, so your reflexes need to be sharp or else you'll wind up with a sad minion.

Despicable Me: Minion Rush has a few small surprises that help distinguish it from the ocean of endless runners on the app store. For starters, its graphics are fantastic. The minions are so expressive and well-animated that it's hard to believe they didn't jump straight off the movie screen and onto your iOS device. They're amusing to watch, even when they fail.

Read more about Despicable Me: Minion Rush at Gamezebo >

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Microsoft's Don Mattrick: '$499 isn't a ridiculous price' for the Xbox One

Matt Liebl, GameZone — 2013-06-17T14:25:00+00:00

Sitting among the crowed at Microsof't E3 press conference, you could here the gasps when Microsoft announced the $499 price tag for the Xbox One. In the grand scheme of things, it's only $100 more than the PS4 (likely due to the Kinect), but even when you compare it to other electronics, it's not too unreasonable. And that's exactly the justification Microsoft Xbox boss Don Mattrick is using when defending the Xbox One's price.

"It's a lower number than some of the analysts had forecasted," Mattrick said on Bloomberg TV. For the record, esteemed video game analyst Michael Pachter had projected a $399 price for the Xbox One.

"We're over-delivering value against other choices I think consumers can get," Mattrick continued. "Any modern product these days you look at it [and] $499 isn't a ridiculous price point. We're delivering thousands of dollars of value to people, so I think they're going to love it when they use it."

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Games.com Summer of Giveaways

Gibson Johns — 2013-06-17T11:25:00+00:00

And now introducing...the Games.com Summer of Giveaways! Because, really, what better way to kick off the summer at Games.com than to give away a few free games to our loyal fans?

For the next five weeks, we'll be giving away one FREE game to a lucky winner (one game each week). Here's the weekly giveaway schedule filled in with the game we will be giving away each week:

Monday, June 17 (Facebook) - Madden NFL 13 for Wii U
Monday, June 24 (Twitter) - F1 Race Stars for Xbox 360
Monday, July 1 (Google+) - The Sims 3: Seasons (Limited Edition) for PC & Mac
Monday, July 8 (Facebook) - PES 2013: Pro Evolution Soccer for Xbox 360
Monday, July 15 (Twitter) - Sing Party (Microphone included!) for Wii U

Pretty awesome, right? We're looking for build our fan base on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus even more and we'd love your help in doing so. Each week's contest will take place on one of our social media sites and start on the Monday of that week, with the announcement of the randomly-chosen winner coming that Wednesday.

Here's how YOU could get any of the above games completely free (you must be a resident of the US):

If the giveaway is happening on our Facebook, you must LIKE us and by the end of Tuesday (11:59 PM EST) that week, you must SHARE the official giveaway post for that week.

If the giveaway is happening on Twitter, you must FOLLOW us and by the end of Tuesday (11:59 PM EST) you must tweet at us using the hashtag #GDCsummergiveaways.

If the giveaway is happening on our Google+, you must FOLLOW us and by the end of Tuesday (11:59 PM EST) you must RESHARE the official giveaway post for that week.

Don't worry, we'll also remind you each week via Facebook, Twitter and Google+ but keep checking back here for updated information about how YOU can get some free games this summer.

Here's to a great summer of gaming and giveaways!

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Despicable Me: Minion Rush cheats and tips - Upgrades

John Bedford, Modojo — 2013-06-17T10:45:00+00:00

Despicable Me: Minion Rush picked up a 4 out of 5 star score in our review last week, and we also brought you some handy hints and tips for getting started with the game. In today's guide, you can find out all about the power-ups in Minion Rush, and which ones are worth investing in.

Premium Items

Item: Golden Banana
Effect: Make any Banana you collect worth double forever.
Cost: $4.99
This is at the high end of the in-app purchase store pricing, but if you're in it for the long run, picking this up will help you unlock all of those Banana-based power-ups much quickly.

Item: Golden Shield
Effect: Upgrade the Shield to be invincible when it's on!
Cost: 1,200 Tokens
We have a hard time justifying this particular purchase, as it's going to cost you an eye-watering $9.99 to buy the necessary tokens. The shield doesn't come along as often as we'd like to justify spending money here.

Banana Currency Items

Item: Freeze Ray
Effect: Freeze and smash obstacles apart
Unlock Cost: 150 Bananas
Unlocking this item will allow you to deal with upcoming obstacles, and is particularly useful for the more frantic stages of the game. Make sure you know what you're doing before frittering (no pun intended) your Bananas away on this.

Item: Banana Vacuum
Effect: Let the Bananas come to you! The Banana vacuum attracts Bananas for 10 seconds
Unlock Cost: 150 Bananas
A pretty useful item, the Banana Vacuum will allow you to gather up lots of Bananas without having to worry about getting in the right lane. Note that this effect expires after a pretty short amount of time.

Item: Banana Splitter
Effect: While active, each Banana counts as two! The Banana Splitter doubles your Bananas for 10 seconds.
Unlock Cost: 150 Bananas
Self-explanatory. If you have this power-up active, every Banana you collect will count for two in your tally. A good alternative to investing in the premium Golden Banana.

Get more Despicable Me: Minion Rush cheats and tips at Modojo >

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EA discusses why console wars are good for business

Magadala See, PlayStation Gang — 2013-06-17T10:30:00+00:00

The battle between Microsoft and Sony for the next best generation of gaming has been growing ever since rumors emerged, and press conferences gave us insights into the next gaming evolution.
Many fans out there do enjoy the war that is going on between the two major companies but others may find it quite annoying.

Just imagine how it would be like if there was only one gaming company. Everyone in the gaming industry wouldn't be as successful as they are today, if they did not have one another to compete against.

Chief Operating Officer Peter Moore of EA discusses why the two major companies competing, is good for the gaming industry.

Moore talks with Polygon at E3, "It keeps them focused. They have to outdo each other," he said. "The amount of investment they make in our industry is important. If it's true that Microsoft has some catching up to do, having spent a lot of time in Redmond, Washington, I know what will happen up there. I can guarantee you that Don Mattrick has the resources corralled to make that happen. Steve Ballmer will be driving that hard from the top.

"The dust will settle on E3. People are going to declare winners and losers. It's just the nature of the beast. Then you have the critical period, which I've run twice. E3 is over. Now it's launch minus 122 days. It's less about what you see at first blush at E3, where you're still working in a lot of instances with alpha software, or even pre-alpha. What you're going to see at Gamescom, which I think is going to be a very important show this year.

"Late August, if you're not cranking on next gen in late August and that stuff isn't looking truly next gen, then you have a real issue you have to be able to deal with."

Read more of EA's thoughts at PlayStation Gang >

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E3 2014: When and where?

Matt Liebl, GameZone — 2013-06-17T10:25:00+00:00

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has revealed that E3 2014 will take place from June 10 through June 14. It will again be held in Los Angeles at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The ESA, which owns the Electronic Entertainment Expo, also announced the attendance numbers of this year's tradeshow. 48,200 "video game industry professionals, investor analysts, journalists, and retailers" from 102 different countries attended this year, generating nearly $40 million in revenue for the city.

Microsoft confirms $59.99 price for Xbox One games

Matt Liebl, GameZone — 2013-06-17T10:20:00+00:00

The price for next-gen games on the Xbox One will not be going up. Microsoft representatives confirmed first-party games on Xbox One will cost $59.99, the same price as most new releases for current-gen consoles are sold for. It's important to note that this only applies to first-party games, and that third-party titles could be sold for more depending on the publishers wishes.

At E3 last week, Microsoft also revealed a $499 starting price point for the Xbox One. And while the PS4 will be $100 cheaper at $399, Sony has still yet to reveal the cost for its own first-party titles. Back in February, Sony America CEO Jack Tretton suggested that games for the PS4 will "welcome free-to-play models, games from $0.99 up to those $60 games."

There's been some speculation leading up to the launch of PS4 and Xbox One that next-gen games could see an increase in price due to increased development costs.

Read more about Xbox One at GameZone >

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Nintendo on used games: make games that people don't want to trade

Thomas Chamberlain, The Koalition — 2013-06-14T15:40:00+00:00

After E3 everyone is now well aware of Sony's and Microsoft's opinions on used games, however Nintendo have been pretty quiet about the situation, obviously their platform supports them but what does Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime think about it?

Speaking with Polygon, Reggie gave a long and honest opinion on the matter, plus added some insight into what the publishers think as well:

"That impacts games that are annualized and candidly also impacts games that are maybe undifferentiated much more than [it] impacts Nintendo content," he said.

"Why is that? Because the replayability of our content is super strong. The consumer wants to keep playing Mario Kart. The consumer want to keep playing New Super Mario Bros. They want to keep playing Pikmin. So we see that the trade-in frequency on Nintendo content is much less than the industry average - much, much less.

"So for us, we have been able to step back and say that we are not taking any technological means to impact trade-in and we are confident that if we build great content, then the consumer will not want to trade in our games."

"We will see what happens with publishers, but it seems to me that every major publisher has come and said we don't mind used games," he said.

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Countries that are not supported at Xbox One launch

Magadala See, PlayStation Gang — 2013-06-14T15:25:00+00:00

When the Xbox One console is released this November, it won't be supported in Poland and Portugal because they are considered 'unsupported regions' they would have to wait for the console to be available for their locations, because their Xbox Live account won't be able to activate their games.

News broke out on this when a man that likely resided in one of those two countries, asked an Xbox support worker a couple questions on twitter and was not pleased with the support's response.

A man named Robert Hallahan asks "Does the Xbox One disclaimer imply you won't be able to authenticate a disc-based game if not in one of the 21 countries?"

Phil, the Xbox support worker responds, "They would want to wait until the console is available in their region."

He then asks another question, "But say someone from Poland, not listed, imports it from the UK. Will they be able to play disc-based games?"

The Microsoft employee again answers, "They would want to wait until the console is available in their region."

Read more about Xbox One availability at PlayStation Gang >

The 21 countries that are supported for launch are:

Australia
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Canada
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Ireland
Italy
Mexico
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Russia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
United Kingdom
United States

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Watch Dogs E3 impressions

Christian Mills, Pure Nintendo — 2013-06-14T15:15:00+00:00

Even though I wasn't able to get any hands on time with Watch Dogs, I was able to get access to the promo booth Ubisoft was running that showed some exclusive new footage of the game. The demo was in two parts, the first part was the same scenario that was shown in the Ubisoft Press Briefing, where Aiden aides his hilariously named cohort "T-bone" out of danger. Even with a human playing the mission, it looked almost exactly the same as the pre-recorded run. I don't know if this is because there is only one way to play the scenario, or if it is the Ubisoft approved method of completing it. Either way, we didn't get to see anything new.

The original footage began when the demo finished the mission and entered the Open World section of the game. It showed Aiden walking around the city, exploring, stopping crimes in progress and hacking electronics to his heart's content. At one point Aiden stumbled across a guy beating up a girl, presumably his girlfriend. Aiden interfered and the guy took off running, and our demo player escalated the situation by pulling a gun and trying to shoot him down. Domestic abuse is a horrible thing, but trying to gun a guy down in a crowded street? Aiden is hardcore.

Read more about Watch Dogs at Pure Nintendo >

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Star Thief review

John Anthony, Gamezebo — 2013-06-14T15:10:00+00:00

Star-swiping your way to success.

Melvin the moon's buddy Sammy has disappeared! Sammy just so happens to be a star, which is where the game Star Thief gets its name! Combining a little piece of Fruit Ninja with a sidescrolling platform game, Star Thief keeps things simple while providing a lot of excitement. It's one of those games you just won't be able to put down.

Each level presents a short scrolling scene filled with stars, platforms, breakable blocks, tossable stones and other objects. It looks like your standard platform game, but instead of running and jumping, you're star swiping! Stars are arranged in all sorts of places in each level. Your goal is to collect as many as you can before reaching the end. Think that sounds easy? You've got a thing or two to learn about saving stars.

Most of the time stars are simply sitting on the screen waiting for you to tap/swipe them. But then there are stars locked in cages, ordered stars, split level stars, stars that phase in and out, and so on. Each one requires a little extra work in order to collect them. For locked stars you'll have to find a way to break open the cage, usually by tossing a rock or removing a supporting block. Ordered stars must be tapped according to the numbers on their faces. Split stars are groups of stars that force you to break out a second finger to trace simultaneous paths across the screen. That's right, you'll need some dexterity! There are plenty more tricks designed to trip you up, but half the fun of Star Thief is discovering new obstacles and finding ways to overcome them within a fraction of a second.

Read more about Star Thief at Gamezebo >

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E3 2013 Preview: Super Mario 3D World introduces Wii U owners to competitive co-op

Matt Liebl, GameZone — 2013-06-14T14:25:00+00:00

Despite the lack of a traditional press conference, Nintendo actually brought a broad range of titles to E3 2013. One such game was the recently announced Super Mario 3D World, a cooperative 3D platformer exclusively for the Wii U.

In Super Mario 3D World you work together with other players to complete a level. Each of the four characters -- Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad -- have their own special abilities. Luigi can jump higher; Peach can glide; Toad runs fast; and Mario was described as sort of an "all-around" kind of guy.

Thankfully, there was a group of us playing, so I was able to experience the full multiplayer blowout. The first level was more of your traditional 3D platformer. We hopped form platform to platform, up and down clouds that would go in and out of the mountain; it was your typical Mario level design, except in 3D.

The catch here is that your playing with three other players. Things can get a little chaotic, and somewhat clustered, with four players all heading in the same direction, fighting for the same coins, and looking to jump on the same enemies. Keeping track of your character can get difficult with all of the chaos happening on screen, but it's a fun experience playing with others.

Read more about Super Mario 3D World at GameZone >

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Watch the official PS4 E3 2013 trailer here

Gibson Johns — 2013-06-14T12:47:00+00:00

Sony released the official PS4 trailer from this week's E3 conference. It's nothing that we haven't seen already but, if you're as stoked for PlayStation 4 as we are, it's totally worth the 30 seconds it takes to watch it and get hyped up about it.

Check it out here:

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Review: The Last of Us paints a brutally honest picture of an apocalyptic world

Matt Liebl, GameZone — 2013-06-14T12:35:00+00:00

The Last of Us is not a "feel good" game by any means. Rather, it's a brutally honest take on a humanity's survival in a post-apocalyptic world. While the use of zombies, or in this case zombie-like infected, is nothing really new -- zombies being one of the most milked ideas in video games, movies, and television -- The Last of Us is about more than just survival. It paints a grim picture of humanity 20-years after a horrific outbreak, while exploring human emotion and evolution during such a horrific time. I'm not talking physical evolution (aside from becoming an infected), but rather the mental transformation one must undergo to get into the mindset of "survival of the fittest." You won't be proud of your actions in the game, but you'll damn well have to do some pretty horrific things in order to survive.

Joel, a smuggler with a dark past, is tasked with escorting Ellie, a fourteen year old who only knows life inside the quarantine zone, across the United States to meet up with a group of survivors known as the Fireflies. The relationship between the two characters is some of the best I've seen in a video game. The back-and-forth dialogue between Joel and Ellie -- and any character you come across through your journey, for that matter -- is authentic and believable.

Naughty Dog wasn't joking when they said The Last of Us was heavily story driven. Seeing this father-daughter-like relationship develop between Joel and Ellie grow as you progress is as beautiful as it is terrifying. For fear of losing either one of them is always on your mind -- especially toward the latter half of the game. Throughout the 10 to 12 hour story, you become invested in this developing relationship between this bitter older man and this innocent young girl, and the transformations that take place as the story progresses. It's this type of investment that leads to a constant state of paranoia and fear of death.

While the narrative is easily one of The Last of Us' strongest elements, it also becomes one of its greatest obstacles. For the story is so enthralling that gameplay, at times, seems to get in the way.The Last of Us prides itself on offering a realistic take on an apocalypse. To its credit, it mostly does a good job of being a believable story. But as many games tend to do, especially as you build up towards the end, it loses focus on narrative as the main driving point and begins to rely on combat -- lots of combat. In turn, the narrative gets disrupted as you're forced to eliminate wave after wave of enemies (again, especially towards the end) before the story progresses.

The problem isn't necessarily the combat itself; The Last of Us' gameplay is actually some of the best I've played (I'll touch more on that later). Rather, it was the actual process of the combat sequences that took me out of the mood. I was so captivated by the characters and story, especially as the tension builds towards the end, that I found myself annoyed by the disruptions. And part of that is how the game handles death. Naughty Dog has attempted to build a believable world, where humans are reacting realistically to the apocalypse around them. You lose that sense of realism when you start to encountering unbelievable amounts of enemies and, particularly, when you die. It really took me out of the mood and by the time I found that by the time I got to the next cinematic to move on in the story, I wasn't as into it. The combat effectively took me out of the mood.

Again, that's not to say the combat or gameplay in The Last of Us is bad, because it's not. In fact, it does a fantastic job of balancing that survival element with action gameplay. Thanks to the limited supplies at your disposal, each encounter is heightened - do you choose to engage in combat or do you prefer to sneak around? Unlike what you may be used to with Naughty Dog'sUncharted series, it's sometimes better to avoid combat altogether than to run in guns blazing. A useful crafting system also makes scavenging for supplies a central focus throughout your exploration.

The decision to avoid combat is important for two reasons: one, ammunition is scarce (especially on the harder difficulties) and two, shooting or any type of noise is sure to attract Clickers. Clickers are the final stage of the infection and are absolutely terrifying. One wrong move around a Clicker will definitely result in your death. As you can imagine, some of the more intense gameplay moments in the game occur with infected.

Read more about The Last of Us at GameZone >

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Games.com News. CityVille, FarmVille, CastleVille games news

EA will return to Wii U when Nintendo "sell more boxes"

Ubisoft is working on three different Assassin's Creed games

Everything you want to know about the Xbox 360 Stingray

Madden NFL 25 could be EA's last

Pet Rescue Saga cheats and tips

PS4 pre-orders doubling Xbox One at GameStop

Read more about the console wars at GameZone >

Despicable Me: Minion Rush review

Despicable Me: Minion Rush proves there's still some personality left in licensed endless runner games.

Microsoft's Don Mattrick: '$499 isn't a ridiculous price' for the Xbox One

Games.com Summer of Giveaways

Despicable Me: Minion Rush cheats and tips - Upgrades

EA discusses why console wars are good for business

E3 2014: When and where?

Read more about E3 2014 at GameZone >

Microsoft confirms $59.99 price for Xbox One games

Nintendo on used games: make games that people don't want to trade

Countries that are not supported at Xbox One launch

Watch Dogs E3 impressions

Star Thief review

Star-swiping your way to success.

E3 2013 Preview: Super Mario 3D World introduces Wii U owners to competitive co-op

Watch the official PS4 E3 2013 trailer here

Review: The Last of Us paints a brutally honest picture of an apocalyptic world