That's good to hear! Like I said just playing devil's advocate. I'm happy to talk to people about favorite games of mine. I like hearing from different perspectives.

Like I say, it was still my #3 game of 2013, and I'd give it a solid 9/10.

The game never ever once tried to tell you it was about your story.

Doesn't matter, it made me do something I didn't want to do, and for that I like it less.

SPOILERS

The game perfectly made a story of 2 very flawed characters which made immoral choices in order to survive. The interaction between Ellie who never had a father and Joel who lost his daughter due to military fire (Damn that opening was intense). Made 2 very flawed but oh so love able characters, in a way this game is a lot more mature than most games. Even though all the humans you brutally murdered, which only tried to survive in a fucked up world you still manage to see Ellie and Joel as like able.

It also shows that if you listened to all the tapes how desperate humanity is for a cure and that a dozen of mutants as Ellie already died for that cure. The world Joel and Ellie live in has become pretty much a hopeless, terrible place until everyone is born with the same mutation as Ellie and till that time surviving is all that matters. No matter how immoral, sometimes people are forced to do terrible things but that doesn't mean they are necessarily bad people like what happened to Jacob. Shooting or murdering a mere child shouldn't be under any circumstance considered even close to moral even not for a cure which needed way more research anyway before retracting any form of large amounts of tissue.

The protagonist in The last of Us isn't evil neither is the antagonist it's all up in the grey, the only people who are evil are those in the village with the upgraded Humvee and the cannibals. The good people are respectably the people who live at the dam, even though they defend that at all cost. Instead of sharing and building up new villages around that dam it has enough power to maintain entire cities, perhaps later on they will. This place is the bacon of hope for humanity while the rest is pretty much an unruled wasteland full of people who lost all their humanity, it shows perfectly what the good and bad sides of humans can become with the right push.

The last of us features in my eyes most realistic wasteland, the desperation and horror which is found all over the game and the beacon of hope which is the settlement at the dam. Make it a very believable and incredibly well acted game which can compete with great movies in therms of depth and maturity which is very rare in games. The plot perfectly fitted the game with the greyish choices Joel needs to make to safe Ellie from a probable worthless death (just look at their laboratory, no way a vaccine can be made let stand mass produced there).

All of that combined in one game made it one of the most immersive experiences of the last gen and has yet to be beaten this gen for sure in my opinion.

You know there were 13 people like Ellie before, which potentially could provide a cure, but just look at their laboratory, they are not able to make a vaccine there. Even if it would, it probally takes an enormous ammount of lives oreven testing multiple forms of vaccines since it is a bit of guessing until you found the right thing. You must make the choise Ellie or a small (5%) chance for humanity to find a cure which can't be massed produced and probably becomes a force of power anyhow since might makes corrupt in a lawless place. The choise isn't black-white neither is  barely anything in the game.

Clickers have become a part of there world and avoiding them is all that is left, humanity is to scattered to rebuild again a cure probably isn't going to change that anytime soon. The world of the last of us needs a strongholds like the dam to rebuild communities which can live a reasonable live and after a long period of time probally will become immume over a longer period of time or the fungus will partly be eaten and attacked by evolved micro organisms. If Joel and Elie are returning to the dam is unknown, but if they do protecting that place and scourge for food is the only goodish ending possible since a large ammount of humans are beyond saving and completely have lost their humanity which Joel and Ellie after all they've been through stil have.

the story is just BS... the rest is solide to good.

somebody should send those guys a book how vaccines are made...

I wholeheartedly agree here. I just legitmately wanted some opinions on what games suit them as "classics" or has a perfect rating. Now I did say in recent times. Sure, there are a bunch of games that belong in the classic category that's no denying. Graphics, cinematics, etc don't make games classics. SMB 3 is and always will be one of the greatest games of all time. Along with quite a few others. Unfortunately for me I'm not interested in RPG's. I can't get into them. So I never have an opinion on them one way or another.  So games like FF, Persona, Xenoblade, Fire Emblem, Shim Megami Tensei, etc I've haven't played and I hear nothing but great stuff from them. I don't deny that they aren't great. Just wish I had an interest in them.

Now as far as the first Modern Warfare, that gaem was excellent. Then again I loved World at War just a bit more. Gears to me is fun and it's an incredible game, but it's not something I herald as a classic. Halo 2 is a classic to me. Everything from storytelling to even the MP back then was phenomenal. Top 3 best game of the 6th generation. At the same time I feel as SSMB Melee is also one of the top 3 I mentioned. So my taste for games hasn't really changed from the time I was younger til now.

You may be right about the age still though. Being 33 now, it's hard to really impress me on what's considered a classic. I always thought GTA games were fun, but too violent. Even when I was younger. I never thought it was that cool. So I haven't played GTA since  San Andreas. That game was the epitome of fun. You could do anything in that game. Hehe

Anyway, I always feel this game gets put on the chopping block and it doesn't deserve that. I don't know how many threads we're going to have about this game. Then it'll turn into a slugfest between fans of each console giant with their exclusives. TLoU isn't a classic in the definition, but it's certainly one of the best games of last gen. I just don't think it is THEE best.

You make me wanna play Bloodborne. Again, I just can't get into rpg's. Still, at least there is a game that even some Xbox and Nintendo fans believe to be good from Sony. Whether people believe that good games from Sony are far in between or not, at least there are some gems that everyone can agree that's good. Same with the Wii U and Xbox. Just wish some fans would get off championing for one console only and parading like that console is perfect with no flaws and that their games are superior to others. All 3 consoles have fans like this. It's annoying! Oh and of course as always, these are my opinions as well. I always feel I have to say that so it's not misconstrued as facts.

I never said it was black and white. But it didn't let me choose my own shade of grey, it assigned me one, and I found the one I was given unappealing, and that slightly damaged the overall experience for me.

My bad, since you said ellie or the world it did sound pretty much black or white choise, perhaps a choise would have been better, but that would decrease the odds of a sequel. I for one think the ending is fitting for 2 characters which have there flaws.