Board 8 > February Game of the Month Club Replay: The Last of Us and Alan Wake

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What is Game of the Month Club Replay?

Game of the Month Replay is a community project based upon the Game of the Month Club. Much like the GOTM Club, it's open to all B8ers where users share, discover, play and/or discuss a bonus chosen game every month. The two games featured each month are chosen by YOU the users (and Lady Luck).

The only catch is, it must be a game that the GOTM Club has already played, so it's an opportunity to replay games you may have missed out on the first time or just want to try again.

The Basics

- Each month will usually feature two games that were chosen via a random drawing from a pool of games that users nominated
- For each of the games you beat you get a cool point on our just-for-fun standings as well as a nomination for next month's randomized drawing
- In order to receive the point and nomination, you must beat said game within the calendar month
- If you beat one of the current month's games in the previous month, you can apply for a "recently beaten waiver," but you will only receive a point and no nomination should you do so
- Drawing for next month's game is usually on the 25th
- If you periodically keep us posted on your progress and/or talk about different aspects of the games, then everyone will think you are super awesome!

Nomination Rules

- You get one nomination automatically each month
- You receive additional nominations each month for beating one of the featured games
- Each game you nominate has to be one that was already nominated for the GOTM Club.
- You can nominate games that have already been selected for the Replay Topic, but not the same game twice in a row.
- Each game must be a standalone game that can be acquired and played on its own (aka cannot be DLC/expansion that requires the base game)
- Nominations only carry over if you beat a featured game after the drawing for next month's game but before the end of the month

Thanks to KCF0107 for giving permission for the GOTM Club Replay topic to exist. Most of the rules of the Replay Topic are the same as the GOTM club. If you're wondering what the Game of the Month Club is, here's the link to the current club; https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80296931

Games eligible for this topic; https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1X8E8oqzES42W4S82j7WTfNnzNa8c3uXdSE1rnqYG7WM

Just For Fun Standings

Seanchan 6
Cody11533 3
KCF0107 2
FakeAccount3000 2
Kenri 2
Wicklebee 1
MetalMindStats 1
ViolentAbacus 1
Suprak 1
HaRRich 1

Excited to finally get around to The Last of Us!

I will nominate Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

Nominate: Undertale

Probably nothing for me this month. I've wanted to give Alan Wake a try, but don't think I'll have time this month.

Probably nothing for me either though I have access to Last of Us so maybe I should try it? It's really not my style of game though.

Gonna change my nomination to Metroid Prime after today's Direct.

I've started on The Last of Us (maybe an hour or so in).

World is interesting so far. Brutal opening... Wasn't expecting such a large time jump. Joel's gotta be in his 50s right?

Combat is not, though that's likely me just not finding my footing with it yet...maybe. First time holding a PS5 controller in like 6 months, plus I'm just dog shit at aiming with a control stick.

Beat Alan Wake

Alan Wake was so damn awesome. Immediately in my top 50 games list for sure.

I've played a lot of games...

Worth doing another run on Nightmare to get those exclusive pages or maybe just look them up (probably on this very site)?

FakeAccount3000 posted...

Beat Alan Wake

Alan Wake was so damn awesome. Immediately in my top 50 games list for sure.

I've played a lot of games...

Worth doing another run on Nightmare to get those exclusive pages or maybe just look them up (probably on this very site)?

Not playing Alan Wake for GotM Replay, but I did beat it a few years back. I wasn't super impressed by it overall. The story, characters, and atmosphere were good but the gameplay was only okay. I remember thinking that the DLC went in some unusual directions (if you haven't played that). I also remember enjoying the XLBA release, American Nightmare, a bit more than the original as the loop was a bit tighter (at like 3-4 hours to beat instead of 10-12 or whatever the main game took).

Based on guides, I'm about halfway through The Last of Us. These types of games always seem to take me longer to play through than they should since I try to play stealthy and that means slow. I figure I should still have time to finish this and then get to Chicory (in regular GotM). Left Behind probably won't happen this month though.

The section that ended the last chapter, with the sniper, really sucked. Motherfucker was potshotting me through open windows while I was inside a house. Some definite bullshit. Sometimes it's felt like some sections exist just to get me to use resources, whether consumables or bullets. And then there was the story beat, which kinda felt like it was always what was going to happen in a game like this.

The Last of Us beated!

I'm not really sure I see what's so special about this game. The story is fine but it's pretty standard zombie fare. Personally speaking, I was much more affected by Lee and Clem's story in The Walking Dead Season 1. I was a bit surprised the clickers were the smaller chunk of the game than the human foes but then again, that makes sense. The stuff with David was extremely fucked up. At least the game gave you a little downtime after that with the giraffes. The part where Joel and Ellie murder almost every single motherfucker they come across was also extremely fucked up. And then there's the ending; I get it but how fucking selfish can you be. Murder your way across the country and then decide her life isn't worth the rest of the human race. What was the fucking point!

The gameplay is passable. I always feel like stealth games never give me enough options to be, you know, stealthy. Why was there no mechanism to whistle (ala Solid Snake) to get men off their patrol routes? Why do the bombs not trigger everyone in the area but molotovs do? Why was it more fun to play as Ellie and just stab everyone to death? I got kind of tired of the waves of goons, especially later in the game.

I'm going to play Left Behind (and eventually Part 2...) but I need a break with a little bit more cheerful of a game first.

Yeah, I'm pretty tired of zombie stories and Joel is kind of an asshole sometimes. I feel like a lot of that is a me thing though. Just started the bit after the sniper area you probably mentioned, with a dam.

The best part of The Last of Us is easily the multiplayer, which I think is not included in both the remaster and remake and was dropped in the sequel, so my interest ended after the original release.

That seems weird for such a story based game. What was it, a deathmatch? Also I think there's a place to choose multiplayer from the menu screen of the remaster, saw something labeled factions.

FakeAccount3000 posted...

Yeah, I'm pretty tired of zombie stories and Joel is kind of an asshole sometimes. I feel like a lot of that is a me thing though. Just started the bit after the sniper area you probably mentioned, with a dam.

Joel is definitely more than a bit of an asshole. Then again, so is just about everyone in the game. Kind of the nature of that world that "bleeding hearts" won't get very far.

About the dam... It was funny walking through it, I was like "there's sure a whole hell of a lot of waist high cover and bottles and bricks lying around..." Naturally you've got to fight your way back out past multiple waves of goons. But it was like "how the fuck did they get in here in the first place".

I'm playing the PS4 Remaster on PS5, and there's definitely multiplayer options in the menu. No real interest in it but I have to imagine that it still works.

Man that was quite the ending.

Last of Us Beaten

Nominate:
Super Mario World

Nominate: Phantom Dust (free on Xbox AND PC)

Phantom Dust is not eligible for this project as it has not been featured in the main project that this is a spinoff from. If you do wish to nominate it, you can post it in the topic linked below:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/80332900

Nominate: Nier: Automata

Just for completeness, I did finish the Left Behind DLC for The Last of Us. I guess I thought it was going to be longer, but I finished it in one sitting. A more breezy and lighter experience than the main game, it fills in some of the details of Ellie's story that were hinted at during the main game. Nothing amazing, but certainly worth playing unless you hated the main game.

I'm not pulling today; I'll be pulling tomorrow, so you have the rest of today to get your nominations in.

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse - KCF0107
Metroid Prime - Cody11533
Super Mario World - Seanchan
Nier: Automata - Kenri
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - FakeAccount3000
Great Ace Attorney 2 Resolve - FakeAccount3000
Remember Me - FakeAccount3000

Nominations so far

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse - KCF0107
Metroid Prime - Cody11533
Super Mario World - Seanchan
Nier: Automata - Kenri
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - FakeAccount3000
Great Ace Attorney 2 Resolve - FakeAccount3000
Remember Me - FakeAccount3000
Secret of Monkey Island - ViolentAbacus

Metroid Prime and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow are the two randomly chosen games for March! Congratulations to the winners!

Ugh I wish there was a demo available for Prime Remastered, I really don't want to buy it without knowing if I like the controls or not.

On the other hand I could just play the Wii version that I already know is a 10/10...

According to some people on our Discord, you can use the default modern dual-stick FPS controls or any of the legacy control schemes

You can but if I understand it correctly, the Switch doesn't actually have IR pointing capability in its controllers, it just kinda fakes it with gyro which is usually not the best. Also the layout/size/shape of the joycon seems like it wouldn't be a great match, but the IR is my bigger concern.

Dual stick would probably be fine but it's really hard to go back to that after the convenience of "just point at whatever you want to point at".

Pretty sure it's got motion controls too (ala Prime 3). Assuming I get around to Prime, that's the way I want to play it.

Yay Metroid!