@Jacanuk Are you for real? I don't use these forums often but I've been a Gamespot user for over a decade. It's not like I've just made an account to promote some Youtube channel - to which I have no relation, btw.

I haven't used these forums in a while but I didn't know things were this aggressive. Anyway, I think some of you are missing the point.

A few years ago some people started to make videogame photography. In the early days you had to make code changes and use other tools to do it. Now it has become so popular that games are starting to have their own tools to capture images in-game.

The thing about this "cinematic playthrough" is that this guy is trying to "make a movie" out of the game. It's certainly more than just black bars at the top and the bottom. And no one is saying that the game is better without the gameplay. This is just a different use of the game. And the question is: will this become so popular one day that games will bring their own editing tools so that you can not only play it but make movies from your playthroughs?

Final note: I've played TLOU and I've seen several playthroughs of it made by funny of charismatic youtubers. This guy is up to something different - by editing and removing certain things, and adding transitions and multiple points of view... there's a lot of work in there. All I can say is give it a try and judge for yourselves...

A youtuber called Grant Voegtle is currently presenting a Cinematic Playthrough of The Last of Us, an original Let’s Play series that's been carefully edited and restructured to deliver a true film-like experience. Fans of the game really shouldn’t miss it. Episode 1, 2 and 3 are already available. You can follow Voegtle’s Channel to keep track of upcoming episodes.

@Lulu_Lulu: That particular quote was an illustration of what some people believe gaming is, still, and not the point I was trying to make - in fact, it is quite the opposite.

@osan0: There is nothing wrong with the term "interactive fiction". They are interactive fictions. I'm just defending that they are also "games", in the sense that they are just as much entitled to be considered objects of this medium as a FPS or a sports simulation. What I'm saying is that "gaming" is a broad term. Tetris is a game. The Last of Us is a game. But are they even the same thing? And why isn't Dear Esther a game as well, in the sense that it contains the same experiential nature of any other game. You control the journey, and that is "making choices" as well. Why should it be diminished as something "not of this medium", just because it doesn't fall into template-based conventions of what a game is, with objectives and obstacles and levels...

@wolf503: Actually, Beyond Two Souls, as Heavy Rain, are in many ways reinventions of the point and click adventure genre that was very popular in the nineties. Quantic Dream has been exploring new interface solutions to engage the player but those titles share the same kind of narrative progression, mystery elements and puzzle solving that were the fabric of those early games made popular by LucasArts, Revolutions Software and others. I think there is some superficiality (sorry) in the way these games are quickly cataloged as being closer to a movie experience, because of their ultra-realistic aesthetics. If Beyond Two Souls was the same exact story, but had a dark/gothic comic book style, people would probably praise it for being artistic.

Thanks for the comments everyone.

@CarnageHeart: The premise is not that "the whole controversy was created by the establishment media to make YouTubers look bad". I'm not fueling a conspiracy theory here. What I'm saying is that, in many websites, this controversy is being boosted with demagoguery and partial arguments.

Personally I disliked playing the silent guy outside the animus. What is this, are we back to the silent video game protagonist from the nineties?

I also believe they could have established a much better balance, having a main male protagonist from the past (Edward Kenway), if you also had a female protagonist for the present. In my preferred "wishful thinking" scenario, it should be (surprise, surprise) Desmond Miles' secret sister. Tadaa...

As for the main topic, Japan would not only be great but it could also feature some magnificent naval battles. Mix that with Kublai Khan and the mongol invasions and you're on your way to goty epicness.

Am I the first one to mention Red Dead Redemption?

RDR is not only a game that offered great freedom but also a game that captured a real sense of open landscape. I will say that it surpassed even Skyrim in that regard, for one single reason. You could journey continuously through the world of RDR without any loading screens. In most games, when you transition into cities or buildings, you will face a loading screen. And here's the beauty of RDR. You could get on your horse, standing high in the mountains of Tall Trees, on the eastern side of the country, and make a continuous travel all the way to the west, to Gaptooth Ridge, for example, step down and walk into the deepest part of some mine. No pauses. No loading screens. All in "one take".

And then, of course, is that sprawling world, the wilderness, the wildlife. I played it without using "fast travel" once, because the experience of "being there", in that majestic landscape, was half of the game for me.

What are some of you talking about?! GTA in Space would be AWESOME. Or imagine a Space Police game set in a massive interstellar space station like Elysium or the Citadel. Whatever, everything Rockstar makes is "fabuloso".

But I'm betting it's Red Dead 4Ever!

Soundtracks that should be on that list as well: Assassin's Creed II, Dead Space, Dragon Age: Origins, Heavy Rain, Journey, Red Dead Redemption, The Last of Us, Tomb Raider (2013), Uncharted.

All considered, it's so hard to choose one, but my favorite would be TESV: Skyrim. Jeremy Soule's work is fantastic, and The Streets of Whiterun remains, to this day, my favorite video game song ever made.

I wonder how much of Xbox One's processing power is compromised with the management of all the multimedia functionalities that you can switch to in a second - even though you may never want to do it during a gaming session.

And I wonder if that will prove to be a disadvantage when it comes to processing games.

But, hey, I'm no expert...