Gaming's magnum opus, and the title that in one fell swoop came down from atop its already self-assured pedestal to snatch up every single Game of the Year trophy last year, including our own. Set in a variety of cities all of a post-apocalyptic ilk, you play as estranged father Joel, a man who has been around since before the virus that ravaged the world around you took hold. He presents a fantastic contrast to the energetic and always-optimistic Ellie, a young girl assigned for him to look after, and who he inevitably develops a father-daughter bond with. Needless to say what you get is the perfect mix of human-relationships flourishing in a bleak environment that drains the life out of everything else to eek out little victories aplenty, coupled with Ellie and Joel's contrasting world-views that in themselves could be dissected for years to come. Yes you can make the case that for something to be the aforementioned 'best game of all time', that it should be more routed in aspects that are inherent to the medium and game design itself, rather than that of filmic emulation; such as heavy reliance on studying animations, hand-eye coordination, stat-crunching, pure joy of gameplay mechanics over everything else and so on. However as that debate rages on, objectively The Last of Us represents the perfect mix of two worlds, portraying a story that needs actors and fully motion-captured cinematics to work, yet relies on a hefty runtime and the immersion inherent to gaming that allows you to spend literal hours in Joel and Ellie's company, building a relationship from the ground-up that cannot be replicated elsewhere. To really see how much a game can affect you, both through an unprecedented level of immersion and genuine emotional attachment to the characters you're portraying, there's just nothing else as fully-formed as The Last of Us. So which titles would you recommend to friends and other newcomers to the medium in 2014? There are other huge core titles that are important to the representation of the medium such as your Zeldas and your Morrowinds, but for someone who is picking up a pad for the first time, what should they play?
