Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us is a 2013 masterpiece that perfected what had started back on Uncharted 2 - the formula being adapted to a 'mature western survival horror cinematic action game', with enough grit to attract the attention of hordes of baby-mans that enjoy feeling like adults by consuming “complicated violent male daddies” media.
Anyway, jokes aside, this is a fantastic game, the kind of game so good that, back then, generated fresh interest in the medium from folks that weren’t already into it. In other words, The Last of Us is probably one of the great examples of games that made people into gamers. Yes, gamers are not people.

Nowadays, shows its age with some of the level design, but still, we have here an unflawed absolute hit - if you can stomach what it offers and what it entails.

Played it "remastered" on ps4.

The second excellent iteration of the formula established in Uncharted 2.
For this one I remember there was a lot of hype. The resulting money probably funded the ambition leading towards the juggernaut that was The Last of Us.

Nevertheless, with other joints reproducing the cinematic action game formula, it’s not hard to see why Naughty Dog ultimately decided to put this series on ice for half a decade, waiting for the moment in which new technology could bring something new to the table, with the 4th game (to then put the formula to rest for a still-elapsing amount of years). Just imagine the disappointment that would be a fourth mainline uncharted game in 2013.

Anyway, played this one on the Nathan Drake collection, on ps4.

A playable adventure movie. The first of its kind.
This monster of a game kind of consolidated the "cinematic third person shooter action game" formula. We're talking about games like Dead Space 2, The Last of Us, 2013's Tomb Raider, and many more – even to this age, with games like 2018's God of War and its sequel.
This one is just shy of perfect because it hasn't yet completely abandoned the "ps2 era shooter" stink still present in its play, with aspects like difficulty, animations, and puzzle, encounter and level design. That would come on the 4th title and its expansion.
Played on the Nathan Drake Collection, on the ps4.

amogus

Nice ps2 action game shooter from 2007, with a bit of a cinematic flair, nothing very crazy.
Played on the Nathan Drake Collection, on the ps4.

I can't imagine what people were expecting from it before its release by the folks who made the edgy mess that is Jak II, or what would happen when the next game descended on us like a train falling from an airplane, forever shaping the medium. I'll think about 2007's Uncharted when i'm playing Forspoken.

The funny thing is that I’m pretty sure this game had some its plot and aesthetics stolen in the making of 'Fools Gold', a movie released the following year; and in turn, even funnier, eventually they stole back from the movie and put some of it on the 4th game. Fools Gold (2008), with Mhatthew Mhacghonhaughey, is a better Uncharted movie than the actual Uncharted movie. Now that's some crazy business.

Infamous was a series that, around 2010, continued some of those open world action patterns that started on the age of the Playstation 2, after Grand Theft Auto III.
I have the impression that the ps360 generation was filled with games like these, most of them mediocre and forgotten.
The thing is, some years later into that decade, the age clearly started to show, and in 2014 the formula was already tired.
This game has some fine ps4 graphics and nice animations. Its worth a look if you can get it cheap, similar to other joints like "Killzone Shadowfall" and "The Order 1886", games that pointed in some directions towards the future but were themselves very flawed.
Playing this one, there’s no wonder to why this formula of open world action games has been abandoned - I mean, we're talking about ps2's Spider-man 2, Hulk Ultimate Destruction, some movie tie-ins, maybe some of Pandemic's games, Prototype, and others from the 7th gen; you know, old stuff.

Fantastic, indispensable expansion, with more of the main game's open world gameplay loop, added a little variance.

Just short of perfect because it should've been more integraded into the main game; also, the story of what Jin's clan did on the island should have been referenced on the main campaingn.
In general, the expansion explores some of the protagonist's character facets, with him reflecting on his past and legacy, adding to his internal arc on the main plot.

If you liked the main game, this one is good too.
Played it in a continuous journey between one of the final chapter transitions of the main story.

I digged up a memory of this arcade machine on the mall some 20 odd years ago, remembering that I saw it a few times but never played it because of the price!

Forgetting that the arcades died because by that time the games were flashy trash created to screw up the players, I decided to go throught the effort to play this game on the only emulator/software it runs, tecnoparrot.

And oh my! Thank god my mom didn't let play this game!
The game is freaking hostile! Its made to kill you!
I was pulling my hair out when I crashed my car on the 36th dude, last of the hard category of levels, thinking I would see credits, and felling sad because they made this game in wich it would take hundreds of dolars to arrive on the 36th dude, BUT THEN! The machine pulls out 12 more (repeated) guys from the roster, in a new VERY HARD category!

Fortunately, I have been cured.
The image of 2003's nice-arcade-graphics and cute-police-car-in-night-japan-city-vibes from this game used to cause me nostalgia, but now they only cause me paaain!!!! And aanger!!!
So be warned my friend.

God of War Ascension was a very weird experiment from 2013.

Two main factors seen to influence its existence: the first is a corporate mandate to make a god of war multiplayer, to surf on the then-growing money printing machine of online games; the second resides in an attempt from Santa Monica to renovate the franchise's moment to moment experience - which can be seen since at least God of War III's variation on the 'hack n' slash' / character action gameplay.

I think the large disinterest on the multiplayer speaks for itself, and personally there's nothing I can add on it, since I didn't play this mode. The problem is that I couldn’t see if eventual changes to accommodate multiplayer might have impacted the overall combat formula of the single-player game itself; nevertheless, its necessary to acknowledge that, at least in part, this game was made to unleash an online death-match version of god of war, and it ultimately didn't work out (what I personally think it’s a very good thing: just imagine all that would be lost if the series pivoted to become multiplayer focused).

To me it seems that the single-player campaign is largely regarded as mediocre - and with reason, since this game is a prequel's prequel and, in this matter, unable to move the story anywhere impactful, as to not mingle with the series' continuity. The fact that a large portion of the tale is told through flashbacks, comprising what it seems to be 80% of the game (with the inexplicable choice of making Kratos amnesiac!), certainly did not helped. God of War as a tale is always characterized by action. Present-tense action.
And this was a shame because from the very beginning, God of War's 'epic' gameplay is moved by what happens in the narrative being communicated to the player - this is a part of the stablished formula.

So we have a very strange game, with touches of a mediocre, B-side, 'AA' joint, but with very high, 'AAA' production value, with impeccable sound design, and coming very late in the ps3's lifespan, bringing a graphical quality that makes the game look like an early ps4 title, like Arkham Knight or Until Dawn. The level of artistry on display here is high, and worth a look by itself.

To this I can add my impression that this game, in its design, constitute the missing link between the old God of War series and the new one, from 2018-2022.
The mix of story and gameplay, the number of changes made to the combat formula, 'QTEs', storytelling and level design, all of it, in retrospect, seen to indicate the intention of breathing new life on the series by completely changing the formula, the narrative themes, and aesthetics of God of War. And by the quality of the games that came after this one, I can say that was a valiant effort, virtuous in its desire to renovate and to not conform, even inside a long running series.

This part of the saga not only ended up closing the book on its initial formula, but it also kind of started the effort to make sense of what exactly was Kratos' Greek-tragedy told in the past titles. How can we make sense of all that late-90's edge, and all the sadism that constituted a relevant part of the series' appeal? Is there any way to see that the violence wasn't, itself, the point? This line of thought appears more prominently in 2018's game, is directly faced in "Ragnarok" on Kratos' character arc, being concluded only in "Valhalla".

Still, the low variety of encounters and environments, and the limited scope of spectacle really bring this game down. This, coupled with some mediocre puzzles, reused bosses, frustrating enemy design, and an incomprehensible lack of traversal and combat options being offered to the player, contradict some of the best elements that made god of war such a popular series, and thus denounce the exhaustion of its old formula, and the necessity for the renovation that came later.

So, I would recommend this game for someone interested in this aspects discussed above, especially in comparing God of War's old incarnation to the new one.

Further expanding some of what was pointed here, I very much recommend Noah Caldwell-Gervais' analysis of the God of War series on his youtube channel.