The Last of Us II - 60 fps PS5 patch out now

twitter.com/dark1x/status/1271350906546720768

The sequel feels like a time capsule from 2013, the year the first game was released in real life and the year of the fictional in-game zombie outbreak. The Last of Us Part 2 seems doomed to walk in a well-worn circle, unable to break out of the ever-thickening carapace forming along its skin, just like the victims of the Cordyceps fungus that you fight throughout the game.

That is the game’s central problem, and what makes so much of it such a challenge to get through: This is a story about characters who seem unable to learn or grow, and more specifically, unable to consider the humanity of the people they kill. If you already think violence isn’t the answer to many of the world’s problems, the repeated lesson that killing is bad makes the game almost maddening.

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Maybe the most surprising thing that The Last of Us Part 2 offered me was the surety that, while the game was made with great skill and craft, we are actually much, much better than Naughty Dog thinks we are.

The Last of Us Part II feels complacent, yet also preoccupied with its predecessor. Every facet of the original game has been expanded and enlarged in the sequel, but not actually improved. It is as if its only inspiration is the original game, and the well of pop culture it was drawing from. There is practically nothing here we haven’t seen and done repeatedly throughout previous Naughty Dog games. It sets out to surpass its predecessor, but the only meaningful contrast between them is in its even more oppressive bleakness and violence. It digs two graves, fills them with blood, and then just strawberry floating wallows in them.

Saint of Killers wrote:I hope the people who wrote those reviews and think that (i.e. that humanity is better than the game portrays us to be) go on to make the changes they want to see in the world.

Tafdolphin wrote:

Saint of Killers wrote:I hope the people who wrote those reviews and think that (i.e. that humanity is better than the game portrays us to be) go on to make the changes they want to see in the world.

Do you have to be in a position to change the world to be qualified to comment on its state?

Saint of Killers wrote:I hope the people who wrote those reviews and think that (i.e. that humanity is better than the game portrays us to be) go on to make the changes they want to see in the world.

Saint of Killers wrote:

Tafdolphin wrote:

Saint of Killers wrote:I hope the people who wrote those reviews and think that (i.e. that humanity is better than the game portrays us to be) go on to make the changes they want to see in the world.

Do you have to be in a position to change the world to be qualified to comment on its state?

I wasn't suggesting that, Taf. If it wasn't clear, it was meant with sincerity. If that's a problem... well, sorry.

Rapidly-Greying wrote:Oooooh no it's too violent. strawberry float off ya sissies,I can't wait for it.

Tafdolphin wrote:
EDIT: Vice/Waypoint really didn't like it either

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wxqn ... t-2-review

The Last of Us Part II feels complacent, yet also preoccupied with its predecessor. Every facet of the original game has been expanded and enlarged in the sequel, but not actually improved. It is as if its only inspiration is the original game, and the well of pop culture it was drawing from. There is practically nothing here we haven’t seen and done repeatedly throughout previous Naughty Dog games. It sets out to surpass its predecessor, but the only meaningful contrast between them is in its even more oppressive bleakness and violence. It digs two graves, fills them with blood, and then just strawberry floating wallows in them.

Mafro wrote:

Tafdolphin wrote:
EDIT: Vice/Waypoint really didn't like it either

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wxqn ... t-2-review

The Last of Us Part II feels complacent, yet also preoccupied with its predecessor. Every facet of the original game has been expanded and enlarged in the sequel, but not actually improved. It is as if its only inspiration is the original game, and the well of pop culture it was drawing from. There is practically nothing here we haven’t seen and done repeatedly throughout previous Naughty Dog games. It sets out to surpass its predecessor, but the only meaningful contrast between them is in its even more oppressive bleakness and violence. It digs two graves, fills them with blood, and then just strawberry floating wallows in them.

Was hoping Rob would be reviewing it You could tell on Monday's podcast he's just bored of Naughty Dog's stuff, so today's podcast is going to be GREAT.

Off to ResetEra to laugh at all they crying fanboys.

Playing The Last of Us Part 2, a game that supposes that humans will enact violence upon one another to their dying breaths, is a very strange thing in 2020. Naughty Dog created a world in which people across America react to a massive structural crisis by dividing and disconnecting from others, rather than uniting together to demand something better — not just for themselves, but for the most marginalized people in their communities.

I see a widespread level of selflessness and an intense care for the preservation of human life in the real 2020, in fact, and an increasingly loud demand for a society that meets that need. Our systems have failed, in large part, but individual people remain strong and kind. Things have rarely been worse, but there is hope to be found in the actions of average folks fighting to do the right thing. We don’t need a video game to rub our noses in hatred and violence to know that other people who are just trying to survive aren’t the real enemy.

Tafdolphin wrote:

Mafro wrote:

Tafdolphin wrote:
EDIT: Vice/Waypoint really didn't like it either

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wxqn ... t-2-review

The Last of Us Part II feels complacent, yet also preoccupied with its predecessor. Every facet of the original game has been expanded and enlarged in the sequel, but not actually improved. It is as if its only inspiration is the original game, and the well of pop culture it was drawing from. There is practically nothing here we haven’t seen and done repeatedly throughout previous Naughty Dog games. It sets out to surpass its predecessor, but the only meaningful contrast between them is in its even more oppressive bleakness and violence. It digs two graves, fills them with blood, and then just strawberry floating wallows in them.

Was hoping Rob would be reviewing it You could tell on Monday's podcast he's just bored of Naughty Dog's stuff, so today's podcast is going to be GREAT.

Off to ResetEra to laugh at all they crying fanboys.

I've recommended that pod to about 3 people now, it's a great dissection of why games aping other mediums doesn't work. Listening to the second half of the 1886/prestige conversation knowing his TLoU2 score really put everything into perspective.

Hime wrote:Looking forward to the cycle of positive reviews > people being happy > negative kickback > edge lords saying it's the worst game they've played/worst story in a game

Hime wrote:

Hime wrote:Looking forward to the cycle of positive reviews > people being happy > negative kickback > edge lords saying it's the worst game they've played/worst story in a game

On the money

I will never understand this edge lord bollocks, if you don't like a game fair enough but not liking something based purely on popularity is pathetic.