Poll: Poll: TLoU vs. Bioshock Infinite

[ATRAYA]

Other than the intro to "The Last of Us", I found the entire story boring, predictable, and not nearly as emotional as everyone said it was (the intro was obviously predictable, but not boring or emotionless). The ending was especially bad, but ya gotta lead up to them money-making sequels, right? The combat was flat-out crap as well. 'Twas prettier than "Bioshock: Infinite", I'll give it that, but if you played it on console, you would've had to make a steak dinner for six each time you loaded an area, just to pass the time.

I thought "Bioshock: Infinite" would've won by a landslide, but... maybe I'm just out of it. Or people are struck harder by "The Last of Us" because it came out quite a bit later, so it's still fresh in the mind. :/

"Bioshock: Infinite" suffered from ludonarrative dissonance hardcore, but so do most action games ("The Last of Us" suffering from it just as much). The combat was at least competent in "Bioshock: Infinite" - pretty fun most of the time, in fact - despite its ability to drag on and on. I felt very detached from Ellen Pa-- er, "Ellie" in "The Last of Us", but Elizabeth was a great character (and Courtnee Draper is a FANTASTIC singer).

Ultimately, I voted for Bioshock: Infinite, hands-down. The poll results baffle me, and I'm a grumpy old man who's going to bed... *grumble grumble*

 

[The_Scrivener]

Both games had bad game play and good stories.

Both games had an appealing female character whose name began with E who outshone the gruff male protagonist who was voiced by Troy Baker. Both games featured a central narrative about fathers and daughters and shots at redemption for a troubled past.

Personally I preferred Infinite. The game play was merely tepid, instead of actively broken-bad, as was so frequently the case with The Last of Us. There were times in Bioshock Infinite where I found myself thinking "I wish this had been done better". Nearly half the time I was playing The Last of Us I actively hated the game.

What games have better gameplay than these? If you think the gameplay on either is "tepid," then it's hard for me to imagine a game within the last 5 years you'd enjoy.

 

[IceForce]

Ahhh how I miss when vs threads weren't allowed.

Except there's an entire forum full of vs threads here.

Why are they allowed but not this one?

 

[Roxas1359]

Why are they allowed but not this one?

Because that's a promotion like how March Mayhem was, so there are special occasions. Hell that's tame compared to the body count that March Mayhem used to garner. While it's sad that the voting has pretty much been hijacked, it's not surprising if you've been here for a long time and been through more than one March Mayhem.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

I'd like to point out that Joel doesn't seem to be ashamed of his past, but rather over it

Both TLoU and BS: Infinite were OVERRATED GARBAGE, the Uncharted boardgame is where it's at!

The escapist in a nutshell. We have to find "ok" things to like cause people ***** about all the popular ones. Or hide behind big names like Half Life and Pokemon

I didn't vote in the poll because I have yet to play Infinite. I imagine I'd still vote Last of Us though. Because of the game of the year polls, Infinite has moved up on my list of games to play just cause so many people griped about it and now I have to play it for myself to see how wrong they are

 

[Windcaler]

To be honest I didnt really care for either one all that much. Both games were very similar in the sense that they had good stories with pretty mediocre gameplay (I even made a thread about that for the last of us). Honestly a bunch of indie games beat both titles down in terms of being great games (Zeno clash 2, Shadowrun returns, and Thomas was alone come to mind) instead of great stories with gameplay tacked on

However if I must pick one its going to be the last of us because everything in that game at least had a purpose. I remember playing BI and thinking that the vigors were just an add on because the devs felt to be bioshock you had to have plasmids. However vigors didnt even really have a story to them unlike plasmids which caused the downfall of rapture. Last of us also had much better characterization that the characters stuck to for the entire game (i.e. Joe's selfishness). However last of us also had a lot of technical issues with it being locked at 30 FPS which for me made the game feel like it was moving at full speed while Im playing in slow motion mode

 

[Church185]

I voted for The Last of Us because it was the only one out of the two that I managed to finish. About halfway through B:I I gave up on it because it was incredibly boring to me.

 

[GundamSentinel]

Both great games, I liked both, I liked The Last of Us more.

So, uhhhh... yeah... I really don't see where the 'both games were horribly flawed' crowd is coming from. If a game is great, but not the second coming, it's apparently badly broken. Go figure.

 

[Lightknight]

I take a slight issue with "clearly better". I personally place the last of us in a much higher ranking, but both have their place in my memory.

 

[mindfaQ]

Bioshock Infinite, because I like the design better and it released to PC.
Still, both are far away from being the best game of the year (Dota 2).

 

[Casual Shinji]

So, uhhhh... yeah... I really don't see where the 'both games were horribly flawed' crowd is coming from. If a game is great, but not the second coming, it's apparently badly broken. Go figure.

Every new game that gets loads of praise better damn well reinvent the wheel, or else...

 

[Roxas1359]

Ahhh how I miss when vs threads weren't allowed.

Except there's an entire forum full of vs threads here.

Why are they allowed but not this one?

Well far be it from me to write the rules, but the mods used to shut down vs threads instantly. Now they're just rampant.

They still stop most of them because of what they would devolve into. I think they're probably watching this thread like a hawk. I mean a lot of community members sorta wanted this because the actual contest's poll was hijacked and it's basically turned into another Zynga match, with Papers, Please taking the role of Zynga.

 

[oversoon]

I hate coming off like I'm just a hater, but I am again completely one sided on this one; not just because I loved The Last of Us, but because I couldn't get into Bioshock Infinite... I'm also one of the people who couldn't get into the first Bioshock. Aside from finding both games clunky and just entertaining to PLAY, I think I just hate Ken Levine's work. They may well have great story elements in there, but they are just SO instantly pretentious. The game is way too aware that it has a message. I was barely into Infinite and I was thinking "Ugggh, Ok, I get it! I'm Alce, this is some kind of wonderland, racism is bad, religion homogenizes people, and I'm way too obviously heading for yet another of those endings where it's somehow all an illusion, I'm actually the bad guy, or something equally vacuous and overdone". The original to me was "Unsubtle Juxtaposition - The Game" and Infinite outdoes it in the first 10 minutes.

My intent isn't to bash those who enjoyed it... I just thoroughly couldn't.
I'm not a hate it cause it's popular kind of guy. My favorite games this gen have been mostly big hits. It just kills me when it seems like I can feel the dev's self-importance radiating from the screen.

I do however STRONGLY applaud the design of the game. It looks truly stunning.

 

[Bruce]

I didn't like Infinite.

The story just rubbed me the wrong way at several points and when you consider that was supposed to be its saving grace...

It'll have to be the Last of Us.

 

[SadisticBrownie]

I really enjoyed the story and setting of both, but Infinite was just such a slog to play, found the combat bland and the plasmids uninspiring.

 

[Saidan]

The Last of Us, game of the generation. Still loved Infinite, I really did.

 

[Requia]

Bioshock was superior because it wasn't an exclusive.

 

[The_Scrivener]

For what it's worth I find the poll answers to be misleading. There's no wrong answer here. These games are the two best of the year and I think most people who value gameplay/narrative context, good storytelling, and inspired art will find these a few rungs up from whatever is below them.

Obviously there are thousands who enjoy Pokemon or Animal Crossing or whatever else more, but in terms of advancing the medium and putting the medium on display, these two are 2013.

 

[COMaestro]

I hate coming off like I'm just a hater, but I am again completely one sided on this one; not just because I loved The Last of Us, but because I couldn't get into Bioshock Infinite... I'm also one of the people who couldn't get into the first Bioshock.

I was the same way with the first Bioshock. I've tried twice now to get into it, but I feel I always quit a few hours in because I get bored. I'm really not sure why. The game presents an excellent environment that is both majestic yet creepy, the controls seemed to work fine, even the story seemed like it should be entertaining, but it just...wasn't.

I'm going with The Last of Us. I've played through the story three or four times now and thoroughly enjoyed it each time. Also felt that I noticed new things on every playthrough. I haven't played Bioshock Infinite, but it sounds like it's coming to PS+ next month, so I'll get to it at some point. Hopefully it will be able to hold my interest more than its predecessor.

 

[sky14kemea]

Ahhh how I miss when vs threads weren't allowed.

Except there's an entire forum full of vs threads here.

Why are they allowed but not this one?

Well far be it from me to write the rules, but the mods used to shut down vs threads instantly. Now they're just rampant.

They still stop most of them because of what they would devolve into. I think they're probably watching this thread like a hawk. I mean a lot of community members sorta wanted this because the actual contest's poll was hijacked and it's basically turned into another Zynga match, with Papers, Please taking the role of Zynga.

Yes, we are keeping an eye on it.

I'm allowing this because it's not simply "Which do you think was better" or "Who would win?" like most VS threads seem to be.

This is a which do you prefer and why. The asking "Why" can be very important to help a thread have actual discussion.

Having said that, I'm having second thoughts on leaving this one open with how it's going..