"WARNING THIS ARTICLE HAS SPOILERS FOR THE PLAYSTATION 3 EXCLUSIVE TITLE, "THE LAST OF US". IF YOU HAVE NOT BEATEN THE GAME OR ARE THINKING ABOUT PLAYING IT DO NOT READ THIS ARTICLE."

Note: I figured I would take a break from doing my Top 5 Games so instead I decided to write about a game I enjoyed a lot & why I loved its ending so much. So please enjoy, it's a long one.

THE LAST OF US is an amazing game from Naughty Dog that tells the story of Joel & Ellie. If you’re reading this then you probably know what happened & you’re trying to process it’s very open-ended ending.

Why did Joel save Ellie? What about the cure? Would the cure have saved mankind? Why can’t I grow a beautiful beard like Joel’s? There’s a lot of questions surrounding the ending of this game & I personally found my own way of understanding it. So I’ll get started.

The calm before the storm.

As Joel awakens after the bus being submerged in Salt Lake City, he awakens to find out that The Fireflies & Marlene have Ellie all ready to go in order to proceed with getting the cure to the virus. But in doing so, Ellie would die in the process.

Joel proceeds to go into full on gorilla mode & push his way desperately to save Ellie. As Joel bursts the door down & probably shoots the last brain surgeon in North America, Joel steals Ellie & makes off into the emergency elevator. As the door opens, Joel is stopped by Marlene.

Marlene is a believable & ruined individual.

Marlene then proceeds to barter with Joel for Ellie in order to convince him that one little girls life is worth the sacrifice for the entire human race to prosper. Joel decides to neglect her offer & shoots Marlene. He then finishes her off with a headshot because even allowing Marlene the option to survive would result in a wild goose chase. Joel then takes a car & leaves Salt Lake City with the still comatose Ellie in the backseat.

As Ellie awakens disorientated by her location, Joel reveals to her that they found The Fireflies & lies to her about pretty much the entire situation. The car breaks down, Ellie changes into her teenager gear & the pair set off back to Tommy’s dam hideout in order to live. Ellie stops Joel, professes her guilt by revealing her friend Riley died as well & asks Joel to swear to her if everything he said was true.

The emotion is heartbreaking in the final scene.

"I swear it." Ellie nods clearly knowing it’s a lie but comforting herself in it by saying softly, "Okay." The credits then roll. The ending to me was extremely realistic yet as well extremely polarizing to many fans. People think Joel was selfish to put his own needs before everyone else’s but I think there’s one question I’d like you to ponder as you read.

Was humanity worth saving?

What I mean by this is you’ve gone on this long journey throughout the apocalypse witnessing human atrocity after another in a variety of ways. The government kills people as do The Fireflies & other affiliated groups. Would a cure really save these people? Or the better question being is---Would you even want to save them?

Is this a world truly worth saving?

The entire game you’re probably thinking you’ll get Ellie to The Fireflies, they’ll make a cure & they will distribute it & everything will get back to normal. But in reality if Ellie were killed & the cure was created, which by the way was never said to be 100%. They could have literally just killed her to SEE how her body fights against it but that doesn’t ensure they could make a cure to begin with.

But let’s go with the possibility that, yes, they make a cure. Now what? The Fireflies will go find those human cannibals you fought in the Winter segment & be like, “Oh you eat people? That’s cool. Here’s a vaccine.” Or The Fireflies would go to the destroyed & militaristic government & say, “You guys gun down people for disagreeing with you? Wanna be immune?” Seriously think of the leap in logic in how this would make sense.

Even in extinction, mankind persists to survive.

Realistically what would happen is that The Fireflies would obtain this “cure” & use it as leverage to sway what’s left of humanity in order to create a unified group under their rule. They would barter salvation in order to enslave us all. This isn’t a world of happiness either. People kill & rape one another because there’s no more rules. You really think that guy who worked a dead end job before everything went to shit will just magically accept his minimum wage job again because society can return?

Or do you think he’s more content with taking what he wants, when he wants, however he wants? This society doesn’t have to save up money, apply with insurance companies & make sure their line of credit is good enough in order to buy a car or house. Instead they just take it because they want it, that’s a lot easier & natural to the primal features of our species.

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.

You have a nice cave, I want your cave. I kill you, your cave is now my cave. I think Tess pretty much summarizes exactly what humanity has come to when she’s talking to Joel earlier in the game. "We're shitty people." Tess says. That couldn’t be more true in a world like this one.

So with that in mind, let’s dial back to the ending of THE LAST OF US. Joel kills others in order to get what he needs in order to survive, which is Ellie & takes off. Can you seriously blame him for what he did? Would you allow your sister, brother, daughter or anyone you would fight to the death to protect in order to, on the off chance, that it MIGHT make some sort of cure?

Would you risk your happiness & well being for the likes of others?

The loss of innocence is evident throughout this world.

Joel isn’t a good person after all. This is a man that witnessed his daughter get gunned down, hell even himself almost by a military soldier because it was either that soldier’s ass who would get burned by his chain of command or just follow orders & survive. From the moment you start playing this game, THE LAST OF US constantly shoves that idea in your face.

We are not worth saving. The entire experience also displays the fact that nature is getting along fine without us. The horses, rabbits, monkeys & giraffes are all doing completely fine. They’re not raping each other, well maybe the monkeys are, but in general they’re not destroying their environment in a way only mankind is capable of.

A world without mankind is calm & peaceful.

All humanity has done up until this point is exhaust resources, fight over territory & exploit one another for self gain to further enhance our own existences. Joel kills people because that’s the world he lives in, Ellie kills people because she knows the alternatives. Even that creepy David guy who gets butchered by Ellie shows that once upon a time, he was just a regular guy too.

Many people were creeped out by David & his fascination with Ellie, but really is Joel any better than him? How many people did you kill & disfigure throughout your journey in THE LAST OF US? How desperately did you want to protect Ellie against the human enemies? The only reason why you care about Joel & don’t initially antagonize him is because you’ve witnessed his losses.

A brutal & realistic scene that made me cry.

You witnessed Sarah die, you witnessed the lifeless body of Tess soaked in her own blood. You’ve been along with Joel this entire time & that’s why you sympathize with him. But when David is talking to Ellie by the fire & talks about the rumours of a crazy man who has been killing all of David’s friends, how do you think David’s people interpret Joel & Ellie?

They probably think they’re monsters, demons with horns ripping out of their human shells for all we know. But it’s the context, the sole reason that you KNOW where these two are coming from. If you knew where David was coming from in his life before, would you judge him?

Probably not.

In different circumstances you would've sided with David's plight.

So I believe the ending to THE LAST OF US was more about the reflection of our own humanity being thrown in our faces & clearly people didn’t get it or liked it because the simple answer is this.

You couldn’t face yourself.

Joel represents what a capable & willing person would resort to in order to survive in this world. No one is a good person in this society. You might say Ellie is, but then I’d disagree with you & just remind you of all the people you shoot & stab with a switchblade in the Winter segment.

A video game that transcends its own genre.

In order to survive we have to sometimes become the things we fear in our own thoughts. It might manifest in the form of a lie, saying goodbye to someone you love or grasping onto whatever’s left in your life in order to convince yourself that life is worth living.

THE LAST OF US has an extremely powerful & thought provoking ending that I believe just displays how truly disfigured the face of mankind really is. We are not good people, we are not truly worth saving & most of all—-We are not integral to the survival of this planet. That’s why the ending is amazing.

Thanks for reading! Tell me in the comments what you think of THE LAST OF US! Follow for more! Thank you.

Hello! In honour of the editors on IGN giving their top games of all time, I figured I'd do the same. I have a lot to say, so I'll write one blog post per game. Without further delay here's my Number 4.

Into the darkness.

Dark Souls is without a doubt, one of the purest games I've ever played.

When making this list I thought back to games that made me feel true genuine emotion in ways that only that particular game could do. Dark Souls is unforgiving, brutal but it's a game drowned in the teachings & architecture of classical video gaming bliss. It makes no apologies, nor does it even really explain much at all either. You play an Undead, a lost soul left to rot in the Undead Asylum as the end of the world reigns all around you. Until one day, a knight drops a key into your cell & you're suddenly released from captivity.

I remember the first moments of Dark Souls as if they were Shakespearean poetry. The dark diseased walls that gave off a foreboding evil feeling as you stumbled over the remains of other slain people. The way the game simply explains things in such a bare minimum way that you're actually forced to learn how to play the game. Dark Souls from the moment you start it grips you in a way that I don't think any other game could.

The atmosphere is enthralling.

The unanimous response to the victims of Dark Souls is that it's a hard game. In an era of gaming where so many video games pamper the player & don't present any sort of resistance or test of skill in order to advance, it's why I find the first boss fight of Dark Souls to be brilliant in not only design but presentation. The first boss comes unannounced as this massive disgusting demon. It stands meters above you & wields a massive axe that looks powerful enough to cleave your character into minced meat.

And I love it.

The reason being is, The Asylum Demon is brutal & unapologetic the moment you face it & immediately causes the player to either do 1 of 3 things. The first being you panic, flail & die horribly. The second, you run around looking for an exit so you can take the time to survey the situation. Or third, you accept the situation & proceed to fight it with everything you got. What I love about the first boss is that it perfectly sums up the entire experience of Dark Souls. You will not be prepared for everything that happens to you & you will be thrusted into trials that will truly test your skills as a gamer.

Prepare to crap your pants.

But that's what makes Dark Souls such an entertaining experience, it strips away the safety net from beneath you & forces you to embrace the classic era of games. An era where you weren't spoon fed directions with blatant marker placements or presented the controls of the game with the awful "controller set up" screen. You just figured it out & through mistakes learned how to function as a being in this world. Not only did Dark Souls exemplify the brilliance of hardcore gaming but it proved through critical acclaim & sales that there is an audience out there eager to be tested.

Dark Souls is in a nutshell the best third-person action-RPG ever created, thus far. The level design is intricate & weaves itself in a way that the player needs to learn the layout in order to effectively survive. I travelled the environment of Lordran so many times that the games layout is engraved within my brain. Dark Souls is also responsible for utilizing multiplayer in a way that feels exciting within the confines of a single player experience. Other players could invade your game & murder you for your souls.

Talk about badass.

Your body has to always be ready when playing online.

As if giant poisonous rats & death defying ledges weren't enough for concern, sometimes another player who probably knows a lot more than you will invade your game & come lurking for you like a bat out of hell. It's an awesome experience & truly drives home that this game wants to test you. You aren't safe, even the community wants to murder you. I also love that you can't pause the menu when playing Dark Souls, so you are never given any sort of breathing room to assess the situation, rub your eyes & ponder how you'll survive your encounter with a giant monster wolf that's wielding what seems to be a sword the size of a city transit bus.

That's the beauty of Dark Souls, you have to trust in your instincts & I love it.

The world of Dark Souls is also designed so that every level feels distinct & challenges you in ways that previous areas did not. Sen's Fortress is a cluster you-know-what of traps designed to murder you in creative & brutal ways. Then there's Blight Town, which in my opinion is the one area of Dark Souls that makes or breaks most players. It's a giant underground cesspool of disease & danger that tests your perseverance in a way I don't think many modern video games can.

The monster designs are brilliant & are truly the stuff of nightmares.

But besides the death, tribulations & white knuckle situations you get into as you trek through Dark Souls, there's a feeling of profound accomplishment when you overcome the imaginative bosses within it. There's a real feeling of progression & "I just did that?!" moments that makes every boss encounter feel dire & thrilling throughout. The game feels like its built like a 3D Castlevania game with plenty of secret little areas & bosses that are only accessible if you really look for them. Not to mention the games deep & rewarding level up system that allows players to create various builds ranging from heavy armoured knights to fire wielding pyromancers.

Did I also mention that the game gets harder every time you die? Or that when you die you lose all your souls which is basically your currency? Yeah it's pretty awesome.

Every battle is meaningful & determines your fate, it's incredible.

Amidst all of that however, Dark Souls feel perfect in its execution. If you die, it was your fault & you will learn through death that you can improve yourself.

I could go on much longer as to why Dark Souls is a riveting & satisfying experience from beginning to end but it's a game I think every gamer needs to play through at least once so they can appreciate just how pure & powerful a video game can really be. Everything counts & each encounter could very well be your last if you don't rise to the challenge & I love that. The story is also deep but requires you to seek it out & that pretty much encapsulates the entire idea of Dark Souls, you get as much as you put into it.

Dark Souls is a beautiful & extremely rewarding experience that I implore you try at least once. Whereas Demon's Souls separated the boys from the men, it was Dark Souls that separated the men from the gods. It's a wicked game that you need to play. Thanks for reading.

By: Milan J Email: AscendancyMilan@hotmail.com

Note: I'll be doing the rest of my Top 5 Games Of All Time shortly as well. So keep checking back or follow me if you want! Thanks for reading!

Hello! In honour of the editors on IGN giving their top games of all time, I figured I'd do the same. I have a lot to say, so I'll write one blog post per game. Without further delay here's my Number 5.

"An experience that made me face myself."

So I finally beat PERSONA 4 GOLDEN & I have to say without a shadow of a doubt, it’s one of the best games I have ever played in my entire life. I’ve played a lot of video games & I hold no other genre at such high regard then the Role-Playing genre. Persona 4 Golden is more then a game to me though, it’s one of those games that transcends its genre & becomes something that meshes real life & fantasy into something unlike anything I’ve played before.

To put it into perspective, Persona 4 Golden is a hardcore Japanese Role-Playing Game with a heavy emphasis on Life Simulation. What this means is, as you fight & level up by defeating enemies ( which is half the game ) the other half is all about real life. That might sound boring to you, trust me I was worried about it too, but it turned out to be Persona’s greatest strength & achievement in the long run. The story starts with you playing a young man who is sent by his parents to live with his uncle & cousin in the remote town of Inaba.

If only I knew the kind of adventure I was getting into.

Upon arriving, you have a strange dream & awaken in the back of a highly decorated limousine with a strange man telling you that you will become involved in a great mystery. As you attend Yasogami High School, you start meeting friends & forming relationships. Then these murders start happening & people close to you begin to disappear in what seems to be random kidnappings. There’s rumours of a television program called “The Midnight Channel” & one night you feel compelled to touch the television screen. Only your hand enters the tv, like dipping your hand into water. You discover another world & devote yourself to solving the murder case & the kidnappings. If only you knew what was going to happen.

The great thing about Persona 4 Golden is that it’s the kind of game that only gives you as much as you decide to put into it. Much like real life, you can experience as much as you please & live as much as you need to but you need to put the effort into life to get those memories & experiences out of it. So as you form relationships with the citizens of Inaba, you start forming bonds with them & learning their inner struggles, strengths & personalities. What’s amazing is that these interactions aren’t just for story sake but actually heavily influence the other excellent half of Persona 4 Golden’s formula.

You see, as you start forming relationships you unlock new “Arcanas” each as unique as the people you meet. For example, one of your party members is Yukiko Amagi, a beautiful elegant girl who is extremely modest. Her Arcana is that of the “Priestess” & by forming a relationship with her & pursuing it you unlock more “ranks” in her Arcana.

By doing this, you then unlock the ability to create stronger & more varied Persona’s of the Priestess type. Think of it like Pokemon except instead of being cute little animals you’re wielding giant demons. The combat of Persona is turn based but extremely fast paced & flashy which kept every encounter fresh & interesting throughout. The battles start out deceptively simple with your typical basic attack commands & weak magic attacks. But just like real life, as you form relationships with people & pursue your life goals, you change as a human being. Your “PERSONA”-lity becomes influenced by everything around you. Your family, friends, dreams & interests. The in-depth choices of freedom range in a incredible amount of ways that allows you to form yourself into the person you want to be.

The Social Link features are fantastic & really connect you to the world.

I decided to join the soccer team & because of that I formed a bond with one of the players, Daisuke. Suddenly I was learning about Daisuke’s struggles about commitment issues, rejection of love & his inability to realize his full potential. I saw myself in this character & I grew emotionally attached to his struggles. I also then unlocked the ability to create stronger Persona’s of the Strength Arcana. The amount of people you can form relationships with is staggering & each brings their own uniqueness to the table so that no one character feels the same. One of the main characters, Kanji Tatsumi, is a metalhead badass punk who dyes his hair & uses his powerful physique to overcome others in order to intimidate them.

But as you delve into his story, you realize Kanji is a misguided & scared individual who struggles with his role in society. He can’t get close to others & uses his appearance to shut himself away from the world because he’s afraid to show who he really is. He’s afraid to reveal his love of things that contradict his appearance & the game even delves into his struggle with the fact that he might just be bi-sexual. What I love about this game is that it doesn’t shy away from tackling the social norms. Every character you have in your party is so distinct & so meticulously crafted that they not only become a loveable bunch of companions but became one of my favourite casts in a video game ever. The writers did an amazing job fleshing out their personalities & giving them each a distinct voice & reason to being involved in the story. Not to mention the level designs of each dungeon are so unique & cool that’s it’s amazing how at times I completely forgot I was playing a game anymore.

The cast is amazing, I loved how perfect all their personalities meshed together.

I was enveloped in an experience, with characters I truthfully cared about.

The game took me a staggering 100 hours & 28 minutes to complete on my first playthrough. The story is so in-depth & so twisted that I actually stumbled upon the worst ending in the game first. I then re-loaded my save & made some different choices at a crucial part & suddenly the game didn’t end. It turned out, I was only 2/3’s through the game at this point. That’s crazy. Suddenly right where I thought the game was going to end, it kept going. And things I didn’t expect to happen started happening, truths about the game started coming to light & by the time you reach the true full ending of the game, you feel fulfilled in your time with Persona 4 Golden. I learned a lot about myself playing Persona, I saw myself in many of these characters & I formed a bond with people that don’t even exist. It may sound sad, but if you’ve played Persona 4 Golden to it’s end, you understand what I mean.

The feeling of the game reaching out to you is amazing.

It’s more than a game, it’s truly a masterful experience.

It’s incredible how much this game opens your eyes to the world around you. How it presents you the idea that you’re not alone in your struggles. That we all suffer, doubt & feel misplaced in a world where were constantly searching for who we truly are. The game is also insanely funny & I laughed out loud more times then I could count. The game does a beautiful balance between solving the murder case, dealing with life & even having the time to go on trips & get involved in wacky adventures.

Inaba feels like a place that could exist & sadly at times I wish I lived there.

Inaba feels like my second home, I love this world.

I’m 21 years old & feel like I don’t connect with anyone in my city. I feel distant & jaded by the things around me. It’s hard to connect to others & it’s even more difficult to open myself to people because of my own fear in my head. This December that just passed, which consisted of quite a few shake ups on a personal level, left me quite slumped for a few days. It was around this time I bought Persona 4 Golden having no idea what I was in for & ended up having the experience I had. As I pushed myself in the game world to become a better person, it influenced me in my real life to pursue what I truly wanted. I’m happy now & I’ve done things in such a short time that I never dreamed I was capable of.

And that’s…well that’s kind of amazing, isn’t it?

I see myself in each of these characters, like mirrors into my own personality.

I understand that people look at video games, movies or television/books as something only shut ins do because they’re afraid of real life & responsibility. But I feel like that’s misguided & stupid.

I play video games because they allow me to explore the fantastical side of my personality. They allow me to delve into the childlike wonder that so many people around me have seem to have lost in the race of life. So when a game like Persona 4 Golden can come along & unlike so many games before it which felt more like an escape from reality, it instead made me face my own reality in a way that was entertaining & relatable. It showed that it doesn’t matter who you are or what your strengths & weaknesses are as long as you have the will to pursue your goals & stand up when you fall down, you’re capable of wonderful things. That’s why Persona 4 Golden is more than just a game to me, it was a wake up call & a reminder that I’m not alone. I have friends, I have family & I have my love for the things in life & if I can just grasp onto the things that make me, I can be truly happy.

Persona 4 Golden helped me realize what life has to offer.

The ending of this game also made me cry like a little baby by the way.

I’m 6 feet tall, 210 pounds & I have a lot of things going for me but man, that ending just made me tear up so bad I was glad I wasn’t in the company of other people at the time. I guess this blog post has been long enough & if you came this far I’m glad you read it. If you want to experience a truly beautiful game that might be the wake up call you’ve been searching for, look no further than Persona 4 Golden.

It’s the game that sits there with you & says, “Look we get it. You’re struggling with finding your place in the world & we just wanna show you that video games don’t just have to be an escape from reality. So let’s have some fun & maybe you can even learn something about yourself, okay?” That's why Persona 4 Golden is one of my favourite games of all time.

Thank you for reading.

By: Milan J Email: AscendancyMilan@hotmail.com

Note: I will be doing my next game soon as well. Also my Top 5 is in no ways in a particular order besides number one, so yeah. Thank you!