I can’t stop playing The Last of Us

I get so lost in this game's world. Despite all the darkness, there is always light to be found.

At this point, my backlog for games I haven't played but need to play is getting slightly out of hand. With every passing Tuesday I see new games being added to the PlayStation Store, and I feel more and more overwhelmed. How am I ever going to have enough money and especially time to buy and play all these wonderful games? The answer: I'm not.

So what do I do? Instead of starting a new game that I bought during a flash sale two years ago, I fire up The Last of Us, which I have clocked thousands of hours into and beaten at least five times. This time, I'm playing on Grounded difficulty on The Last of Us: Remastered. I started my Grounded playthrough back when Remastered came out (four years ago just this past Sunday), and when I first started, I didn't think I would ever make as much progress as I have. I'm currently a little halfway through the game, and it's harder than I could have imagined. I thought Survivor difficulty was JUST right, but Grounded really takes it up a notch and forces you to be on your toes at all times. There have been plenty of parts that I thought I could never get past, and when I finally did, I felt so damn accomplished that I almost teared up.

Out of all the games I could choose to play, why do I keep coming back to The Last of Us, a game that came out five years ago? It's because every single time I play, I discover something new. A few days ago I was running away from some bad dudes trying to get to Tommy's place, and I noticed a small, white butterfly, or maybe a moth, fly across the screen. Similarly to the giraffe scene, it reminded me of the beauty that can be found in every situation. Even while I was getting shot at, this little creature caught my attention because it looked so out of place in that dark, lifeless world. It inspired me to keep going when I got frustrated after dying over and over again. "Look for the light."

So why don't I ever start new games? Well, I've been trying to figure that out myself. I think it's because starting a new game requires me to take a risk. What if I don't like it? What if I spend hours playing this game and it ends up being no-so-great? Why would I risk playing a mediocre game when I can just keeping playing games that I know are incredible? I do the exact same thing with music, television shows, and movies. I probably have some kind of disorder. I pretty much only start a new game if Jimmy forces me to because he knows I'm going to love it, or if it's something I've been looking forward to for a long time.

When games get delayed, I feel a slight sense of relief. Most people take to Twitter and get angry at the developer, but I, for one, am relieved because I will have more time to hopefully catch up on games I've been meaning to play before this new one comes out. Usually, though, I get so overwhelmed by my other obligations in life that I just end up going back to my ol' faithfuls whenever I have a chance to sit down with a controller.