The Last of Us

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Fadaar

That guy
10,934
11,956
Have you even played FO76? Everyone shits on it and I think maybe 1 or 2 people on this forum actually played it. And they seemed to like it.

it got the No Mans Sky treatment from everything i've read but I still won't ever play it
 
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Derpa

Trakanon Raider
2,009
664
it got the No Mans Sky treatment from everything i've read but I still won't ever play it

No Man Sky released as a better game than FO76, and at least NMS added a lot of free content on top of that.

As for last of us 2, I've heard from a few friends they already have sleeved or returned the game without completing it. Because the characters/writing/etc is just subpar.
 

rhinohelix

Dental Dammer
<Gold Donor>
3,043
5,008
So while I have owned TLOU Remastered for years, I have never sat down to play through it. I should just set it on easy and take my medicine but as a game it hasn't really interested me that much, despite owning a PS3 (for which I think I owned Heavy Rain and a bunch of Blu Rays); With all of this controversy, I wanted to see this game first hand, though, so I fired up Twitch and watched some native French-speaking dude yesterday and today play through to the end; (shoutout to MehdiRTX; audio was in English, captions were in French) who was starting at the beginning on Hard, practiced my high-school level Francais to boot. I skipped some bits but was unfortunately there for all of the things I didn't really mind missing. I probably watched 20+ hours of 28 the playthrough took. I also watched a ton of reviews, some other streamers, and the VGS summary. I wish I had just watched the VGS summary and nothing else and let this sit on the unplayed/unwatched pile forever.

My opinion is...what a damn shame this level of artistry is wasted here, for this. There are some genuinely amazing moments in this game, some truly affecting scenes, that in the end add up to so much less to the sum of their parts. I have never seen so much great work in service of so much terrible overall narrative. What a terrible, tragic ending. Maybe this game works as its own story in the TLOU universe, without Ellie and Joel, who are all-time famous characters; even if you haven't ever played TLOU, you know about the TLOU and the relationship between them. As part of the Joel and Ellie story, though, it's so spiteful to the fanbase I can't imagine what they were thinking. Loved Joel and Ellie Fuck. You. Watch them die, both literally and metaphorically. The amount of time spent with Abby, who I agree isn't doesn't seem to be the Trans we thought she was since we see her as a more effeminate kid (shoutout to her character's steroid addiction; she has been training for revenge for a long time), along with other characters we don't know or give a shit about but whose story mirrors Ellie's, makes this such a letdown. Don't worry, though, there is"T" in the game, just like there is"G" and "L" and "B". Maybe even some "Q" I missed, who knows.

They go out of their way to make Abby a better mirror version of Ellie; It really is a GOT S8, TLJ, creators destroying their creations to make a point in a way that seems so...unhealthy. It used to be that creators would try to hang on too long, and like Athletes, characters would live past their prime. Now, post GOT, there is this blood-lust that I don't recognize in American art. Normal things, or attempts at normal things, must be burned for the new to take hold. Ellies must die or be so changed beyond recognition so Abbys can be born. There is a boss fight with Ellie playing as Abby. Its terrible to watch. You spend a whole game trying to keep Ellie alive, the Original Sin of this game was keeping Ellie alive, so you get to punch and kick the shit out of her like she's the bad guy. In the end fight, a brutal affair between a shorn, emaciated Abby and seemingly more-muscular Ellie, Ellie loses a finger and along with it the ability to play guitar, the last thing she had tying her to Joel, which she played earlier to fantastic effect. It wouldn't be so bad except you don't get to choose, you just follow the game along; you are railroaded into this terrible ending. Some of these things are noted in other places and I am giving voice to them here but it was ghastly to watch, I can't imagine what it would be like to play through.

Not only do they attempt to humanize the "villain", they completely co-opt the story; its not really Ellie's story any more, it's Abby's. By the end, that's completely apparent. It's Abby that learns the lesson and comes out changed; Ellie the one who relents but still loses everything and everyone. Joel is the Daddy Killer, Ellie is the Dog Killer; Abby just wanted justice (and lats that matched her shoulders); She let's people ago time and again and "pays the price for her forbearance" by having Ellie kill all of her friends, just like Abby is saved multiple times by Joel and by Ellie. Ellie is the antagonist/villain of this story. Someone thought that is what people wanted. Now, art isn't always what people want but for fuck's sake, don't throw money at these people for these dark creations.
 
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Mao

Trakanon Raider
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1,593
So I said awhile back before release there was a news article about the making of The Last of Us. And how the story changed from its initial vision during production. How Neil's original story was a revenge tale. It was a story of Tess (His partner that dies in the beginning) and Ellie, and that Joel kidnaps Ellie from Tess in order to keep her safe. Tess, betrayed, chases them across the US to get her revenge. He's very vague when he is talking about it, but he talks about how other writers and editors helped shape it into what we saw as the finished product. How the voice actors would add in their input and how it was a collaborative effort.

I don't think the Last of Us is his story. Everyone has said it is, has praised him for it. But, in some portion of his dark twisted ego I think he's afraid The Last of Us wasn't his. Perhaps it was Amy Henning's. Troy Baker's, Ashley Johnson's. I wonder if he had his idea, his vision and when their version was so successful his ego took a hit. The original wins awards, game of the year and somewhere inside as he is being praised I wonder if it eats him up that people talk about how awesome parts of the original story are. Maybe the Giraffes were someone else's idea? Maybe he told that person it was stupid.

And so now we get to see 'his' story. His vision. It seems to me like he is killing Joel and Ellie, cause he hates them. He even mocapped spitting on them. He hates them. They aren't his. They are reminders that it was other people's work that elevated his idea. That the changes he resisted to 'his' story were what carried it to greatness. And by God he's going to show all of us (and them) that now that he is totally in charge, his story will be even better. He never needed them, and he show us all what he can accomplish when he isn't fettered by lesser minds.

And he will never accept that his creation is worse. He can't. If he does he will have to reflect on himself that maybe he's not that good, maybe he does need help. And from what little I've seen with his self inserts, his Dr. Uckman parts, that is not something he is prepared to do. His Ego won't survive the self reflection.

Narcissism is a hell of a drug.
 
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dizzie

Triggered Happy
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1592675028677.jpg
 
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Mao

Trakanon Raider
641
1,593


The Last of Us 2 has collectible 'Super Hero' trading cards that you can collect hidden around the game.

One of them is 'Dr. Uckman." Whose stats are listed as '100 brains' and '60 brawn' and his affiliation is the 'New Dogs'.

What else is interesting, is supposedly he has referred to the new regime at Naughty Dog as the 'New Dogs'. There have been some changes with old popular people (Amy Henning is an example) being removed from the company. Some have theorized that the prior people who have been ousted were the old Naughty Dog, and his new group of people he runs now Creative Director are the 'New Dogs.'

Now, this card is an obvious self insert. Look at the name, but he's also gone so far as to change his Twitter profile pic to the same as the card.

Narcissism is a hell of a drug :)
 
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Cybsled

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
17,087
13,610
Watching Strippin play this was funny. He would look at all the super hero cards and say these are all Z-Tier superheroes with the shittiest powers ever conceived.
 

Tarisk

Pathetic Reaction Bot
1,568
370
I got the remastered version of the first one with my ps4, heard nothing but good things about it. was honestly bored through most of it and was quite happy when the pain was over. Seems like a win because it killed any desire I had to even play this shit show of a sequel.
 
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Noodleface

A Mod Real Quick
38,274
15,098
So I said awhile back before release there was a news article about the making of The Last of Us. And how the story changed from its initial vision during production. How Neil's original story was a revenge tale. It was a story of Tess (His partner that dies in the beginning) and Ellie, and that Joel kidnaps Ellie from Tess in order to keep her safe. Tess, betrayed, chases them across the US to get her revenge. He's very vague when he is talking about it, but he talks about how other writers and editors helped shape it into what we saw as the finished product. How the voice actors would add in their input and how it was a collaborative effort.

I don't think the Last of Us is his story. Everyone has said it is, has praised him for it. But, in some portion of his dark twisted ego I think he's afraid The Last of Us wasn't his. Perhaps it was Amy Henning's. Troy Baker's, Ashley Johnson's. I wonder if he had his idea, his vision and when their version was so successful his ego took a hit. The original wins awards, game of the year and somewhere inside as he is being praised I wonder if it eats him up that people talk about how awesome parts of the original story are. Maybe the Giraffes were someone else's idea? Maybe he told that person it was stupid.

And so now we get to see 'his' story. His vision. It seems to me like he is killing Joel and Ellie, cause he hates them. He even mocapped spitting on them. He hates them. They aren't his. They are reminders that it was other people's work that elevated his idea. That the changes he resisted to 'his' story were what carried it to greatness. And by God he's going to show all of us (and them) that now that he is totally in charge, his story will be even better. He never needed them, and he show us all what he can accomplish when he isn't fettered by lesser minds.

And he will never accept that his creation is worse. He can't. If he does he will have to reflect on himself that maybe he's not that good, maybe he does need help. And from what little I've seen with his self inserts, his Dr. Uckman parts, that is not something he is prepared to do. His Ego won't survive the self reflection.

Narcissism is a hell of a drug.
As long as he supports GG and Anita it doesn't matter if this is someone else's story. It probably gave him a diamond cutter in his pants to have a tranny kill Joel.
 
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Sludig

Potato del Grande
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10,575
If I ever getting around to maybe playing the first. How open ended upset will I be with the ending knowing I will refuse to ever play 2?
 

Noodleface

A Mod Real Quick
38,274
15,098
If I ever getting around to maybe playing the first. How open ended upset will I be with the ending knowing I will refuse to ever play 2?
The story is pretty good, with good environments to slog through. It's just the gameplay is super boring. A million games do stealth better and a trillion games do shooting better. There's a real lack of different types of enemies and not much in terms of strategy. You just go area to area, occasionally in a fighting arena and keep going. The underlying story I thought was good. If you're a dad it might speak to you a bit.
 
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Vorph

Silver Baronet of the Realm
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5,242
Neil is a big supporter of the gamer gate movement and a huge fan of Anita sarkesian, thought that was common knowledge?
Still confused. Everything Cuckmann does is the antithesis of Gamergate, especially being a huge fan of Anita.

If I ever getting around to maybe playing the first. How open ended upset will I be with the ending knowing I will refuse to ever play 2?
Not at all, TLoU didn't even need a mediocre DLC let alone a worst-game-ever-written sequel. It was perfectly self-contained and the best possible thing is ignore everything else they try to do with it.
 
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spronk

FPS noob
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27,212
the fascinating thing is by all accounts Abbie is not actually a tranny, just a chick who decided to pump it up and roid out to get revenge. I don't really believe 90% of internet "rumors" and stuff but some say they deliberately made her ugly to be more "trans positive". There is a second tranny storyline in the game but its pretty minor.

Even outside the Tranny stuff the game still is like "normal" for 10-15 hours and then takes a huge nosedive and is just a slog of shit sewers for the last third, again a really interesting thing because at that point you are past the point of no returns on stuff like refunds. The entire game feels like it was designed as some sort of sadistic social experiment.

The real hero of all of this is the person who leaked the stuff months ago, while I doubt ultimately its going to change sales that significantly at least it saved me $60.
 
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