The Last of Us Part II is Zionist Propaganda

Roger

Roger

He/him
AKA
Minato
It's definitely the most emotionally draining gaming experience I have had in a long time. I played it on Hard, which is doable for the most part but the Abby section gets kinda BS. When you have to defend yourself from a horde of infected while the siblings are out looking for a way to open the door, you are inevitably already utterly out of ammo, low on health and then two Shamblers come into the small confined area you are defending yourself in and it's pretty unclear what triggers the sequence to end. I know I got down to just the two Shamblers, was juking them around the place more then once without the kids coming back, then one time the shambler, and bunch of stalkers, clickers and regular infected were left and suddenly I get the okay to leave. Very stressful and frustrating.

It's a beautiful game, and I get an extra kick out of it primarily being set in Seattle and an aquarium (or one at least partially based on it) me and other TLSers visited there being a recurring area. You get (well, I was aleady) highly invested in Ellie's character.

The early part, just scouting out places using a map with Dina was probably the nicest part of the game. After that you sadly don't get to do much exploring, it's setpiece after setpiece where everyone and I mean everyone, lives or has their base, next to, above and or below an infected nest. It gets pretty maddening.

Tommy coming back, having found himself unable to move on and unable to do anything about it, then Ellie falling back into it was the most heartbreaking part. That got me to tears.

Musical score is awesome, has all the guitar jingles you expect but also some downright MGS stealth music stuff along with it. Part of me wants to replay it, just to see how all the weapons look when they are fully upgraded, getting to see them be retooled on screen is always cool. I recommend picking a gun or two you wanna upgrade all the way and saving all your upgrades on that.

As someone that generally came down on Joel's side of the argument having Ellie be the only immune AND Abby's father being the only human being on Earth capable of using her immunity to make a vaccine seems an awful convenient plot device so that all the Fireflies (and Isaac and who knows how many others) can know what happened, know Ellie is out there and a vaccine remains physically possible, give up on saving the human race and blame Joel for it. But it's the plot device needed to start the Ellie's story so I can forgive it.
 
Lex

Lex

Administrator
I'm having an incredible time so far but I'm not very far in - I just set out from the theatre for the second time (following Hillcrest and a flashback). I'm enjoying taking it slow tbh, it's a good experience.
 
C

Clement Rage

Pro Adventurer
My main impressions (from Youtube, admittedly) so far is that it's... well, not very different from the original game. Mechanics and encounters seem very very similar. The first big encounter just reminded me very much of Pittsburgh.
 
Prism

Prism

Pro Adventurer
AKA
pikpixelart
I keep switching back and forth between wanting to try it and wanting to pass. Right now? I'm back to wanting to try it. I think I just have to tune out the noise and think for myself.


Though I'm hesitant to give ND money for the sake of their workplace practices.
 
Lulcielid

Lulcielid

Eyes of the Lord
AKA
Lulcy
Not TLoU2 per se but it involves Naughty Dog people:

Former IGN employee Mitch Dyer speaks out about the company's toxic work culture, including being forced to publish false claims that Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley pushed Amy Hennig out of Naughty Dog

Transcript of the twitter thread:

Solidarity with my IGN coworkers who endured emotional terror from Tal Blevins and Steve Butts. In my time from 2012 to 2016, I felt taken advantage of, exploited and manipulated, and afraid for my job at nearly every turn. And I was one of the "lucky" ones working for them.

When Tal wanted something done, or didn't agree with something I said -- which happened often, as the IGN employees were mostly amazing people pushing them to do better -- he would CC Steve to intimidate me into following through with his request.​

These guys stayed at $3000 Air BnBs while employees shared rooms in roach hotels. When we pushed to have our own rooms (which I'm pretty sure they legally had to oblige?) they told us to deal with it because the company didn't have the money. Bullshit.​

In 2014, I was halfway through my work permit timeline, and I opened conversations with Steve about renewing it in 2016. For two years, I was uncertain if I would have a job, or be allowed to stay in the country, because I never got a positive answer.​

Steve Butts and Tal Blevins reprimanded staff for standing up for friends. They created a culture of fear among the best people I have ever known. We only had each other. None of us knew what to do to feel better about facing these guys every day.​

When I reported on Amy leaving Naughty Dog, Steve Butts and Tal Blevins forced gossip into the story. They heard it was a hostile takeover. We didn't want to publish it. I tried to take my name off the story. They would not allow me to do so.​

They forced an unproven claim onto http://IGN.com with my name on it, against my will, to "protect their relationship with Sony."​

When Sony justifiably condemned our story, Steve and Tal were SILENT. They never went to bat for me for a second. To Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley who were caught in the crossfire of IGN's hostile, toxic leadership, I'm so sorry.​

I am responsible for the anger, disgust, and disappointment you lived with then, and I'll never forgive myself for buckling beneath these manipulative monsters.​

These are the guys who would later publish a story on http://IGN.com stating THE LAST GUARDIAN IS CANCELED. When we confronted them about publishing an unsubstantiated (hilariously bullshit) story without consulting the news team, they said "you should have chased this."​

When I pushed for a promotion, I was told to "Not until you say yes more." They wanted someone to agree with their wretched decision making and horrible leadership practices. I got a cost-of-living raise every year, and nothing more. Nothing was ever enough to earn you anything.​

Steve Butts and Tal Blevins are responsible for creating an unsafe and toxic work environment that torpedoed my mental health. It was much worse for many more.​

I hope these two never have a voice in games again. Never hire their consultancy firm. It's called LEVEL 74.​

The end. I'm over a lot of this. But I think about it a lot, many years later. I think about my friends who experienced worse, and what I should have done to help them, career be damned.​

Listen to the stories you're hearing. Ejecting shit heads is the only way we fix this.​

Let me actually end on: IGN fucking rules. I adore those people and that place, and my friends there are SO MUCH HAPPIER now than they were when I was there.​
Progress has been made as they rooted out the rot inside. Change is possible.
Never let these motherfuckers win.​
Click to expand...
 
Tetsujin

Tetsujin

he/they
AKA
Tets
Well I just finished it. To be honest, it went on a bit longer than it needed to. I think this took me around 30 hours.

Like, the gameplay doesn't really have enough diversity to sustain 300 cases of "oh the road is blocked let's cut through yet another mushroom-people infected building where you can't see shit except that tiny circle of light from your flashlight" at some point I just wanted to pull my hair out because y'know
gimme a break

Well it does give you a flamethrower at some point and OH BOY is that satisfying

Also, this game has its own FFVII Trail of Blood moment lol

Before I learned of that boss' official name ("The Rat King") I dubbed it the "Chonker" I felt that was appropriate and somewhat in line with the usual naming scheme for infected :P
 
Roger

Roger

He/him
AKA
Minato
Tetsujin said:
Also, this game has its own FFVII Trail of Blood moment lol
Click to expand...

Every time we get a evidence of Tommy having been there I kept thinking. "Sephiroth would never use a gun. Nor would Gray Fox, must be Tommy then."
 
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Tetsujin

Tetsujin

he/they
AKA
Tets
Also, the one thing that kind of blew me away graphically...

They actually bothered animating characters taking off clothes. I'm not sure I've ever seen a videogame where they bothered animating something like that. It's probably very complex to do and not a lot of payoff for something so visually mundane which is why devs never do it but here they did. I was stunned, lol
 
Tetsujin

Tetsujin

he/they
AKA
Tets
Photos that I took~

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Lulcielid

Lulcielid

Eyes of the Lord
AKA
Lulcy
The Last of Us Part II sold 178.696 units on first week in Japan.

More Japanese numbers.

Part I (PS3) vs Part II
The first game on PS3 sold 128,893 units on its first week ^source, meaning the sequel sold 38.63% more than its predecesor.

Part II first week vs other First Party PS4 Exclusives first week Source

Game | First week sell
  • Days Gone 114,319 units
  • Bloodborne 150,245 units
  • God of War (2018) 50,257 units
  • Horizon Zero Dawn 109.739 units
  • Gran Turismo Sport 150,286 unist
  • Killzone: Shadow Fall 25.978 units
  • Knack 322.083 units
  • Knack 2 2,106 units^source
  • Marvel's Spider-Man 132.520 units
  • The Last Guardian 68.368 units
  • Uncharted 4: A Thief's End 124.028 units
  • Uncharted: The Lost Legacy 21.275 units
TLOU2 is Sony's first party with second best opening sells in Japan.

TLOU2 is now Naughty Dog's second best opening in Japan:
  1. Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped (294.718 units) ^source
  2. The last of Us Part II (178,696 units)
  3. Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back (172.253 units) ^source
  4. The Last of Us (128,893 units) ^source
  5. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (124,028 units)
  6. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (122.552 units) ^source
 
dz

dz

Lv. 25 Adventurer
Last of Us 1 is my favourite game of all time. I played and enjoyed LOU2, and I am going to have to play it again before I can come close to processing where it falls in my “games of all time” list. It certainly wasn’t the story I’d have made or wanted for the protagonists, but I appreciate the courage in what was delivered, it was definitely not the safe choice for a part 2, it was edgy, and thought provoking. The gameplay, audio, and visuals were everything I hoped for.

The first game was mostly us (Joel, Ellie, and the player) against them (pretty much anyone who stood in our way). In the second game, we are compelled to consider the experience of someone who represents the worst sort of them - i.e. a nemesis of us. Switching that perspective is a mindfuck, it causes all sorts of uncomfortable cognitive dissonance. Attempting to understand, empathise with, bond with, even become the other side is difficult, and the difficulty of that challenge was the genius of LOU2 I think.

We bonded with Ellie and Joel in Part 1, as they bonded with each other: we shared the same journey, so that by the end, regardless of where you would objectively sit on the "kill one to save the many" question, most of us could understand Joel's actions: they were what a father would do for his de facto daughter.

How can we switch perspectives when we are so attached to our beloved protagonists from Part 1? Letting go of that bias and almost familial bond is hard, it feels unnatural and disloyal, yet I found it insightful to try.

For me, Last of Us 2 was darker in so many ways: not just sinking to greater depths of brutality, but the glimmer of hope was immeasurably dimmer. Brutality breeds retaliation, and I appreciated watching that mirrored on both a micro (personal) and macro (faction) scale. I found the challenge of forging empathy for them real hard, and it made me so aware of how strong bias can be, how strong bonds for loved ones can be. I wanted Ellie to make better choices, but filled with survivor guilt, having only just begun her journey of trying to forgive Joel, only to have him brutally tortured to death in front of her... I can see why vengeance was easier than other ways of moving forwards.

My interpretation of the ending when Abby let Ellie live for the third time was that Ellie came to see something of Joel in Abby: Joel did real bad things to protect his loved one, and that was the Arc Abby eventually took as well; to kill Abby would be to akin to killing Joel. Joel was due payback, and Abby’s actions weren’t healthy, but showed how much Joel’s actions, assisted by the post-apocalyptic environment, had damaged her. I think also that she saw something of herself in Abby too: Abby's thirst for vengeance was mirrored even more fiercely by Ellie's.

Tl;dr LOU2 for me was a challenge of empathy and perspective, giving me the opportunity to appreciate that the us story that so many games present comes hand-in-hand with the largely untold or superficially told story of them, which that we seldom consider. That good and bad are often strongly influenced by perspective, it's easy to condone the bad actions of us, and easier on our conscience if we don't consider them too closely. For me that's something to consider not only in games and in many other aspects of life. Now just gotta hope REMAKE part 2 doesn't follow suit and play from Sephiroth or Hojo's perspective ;)
 
Strangelove

Strangelove

AI Researcher
AKA
hitoshura
i'm not going to read what the petition specifically demands, but i have never understood these sort of things. is this 'the customer is always right' taken to such a degree that a story disappointing you is grounds to demand changes

are these nerd karens

just take your lumps and move on, it's not that big a deal. just on online and whine about it in forums like the good old days and don't harass people on twitter you little terrorists

at least they're not suing them. did someone do that before? i feel like they have, but i'm not sure. (i'm not counting the no man's sky class action suit since that was more about a lot of advertised gameplay mechanics being missing iirc?)
 
Strangelove

Strangelove

AI Researcher
AKA
hitoshura
in my wavering feelings about this game, i am back on being closing to just buying it now

but are they going to release dlc like left behind for the original, and there will be an all in one pack later. which is why i don't buy soulsborne games when they first come out and wait for the bundled edition later

i just want to see what people are so mad about for myself, but i have limited money
 
Roger

Roger

He/him
AKA
Minato
Strangelove said:
in my wavering feelings about this game, i am back on being closing to just buying it now

but are they going to release dlc like left behind for the original, and there will be an all in one pack later. which is why i don't buy soulsborne games when they first come out and wait for the bundled edition later

i just want to see what people are so mad about for myself, but i have limited money
Click to expand...

PS5 will be out before any DLC chapters get released for this game, so I dunno if waiting on that will save money.
 
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