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

That's not a growth wrote:Taff, what was your opinion on the first one?

Loved it. Teared up at the end of the intro, was totally captivated by the world and characters. Great ending too. However I've despised all the marketing around the second one. I thought it was exploitative, manipulative and lingered excessively on pain and suffering for no real reason other than mature = grim.

So we'll see. I've managed to avoid all spoilers so I'm pretty excited.

I'm looking forward to your reaction to the first few hours

I've not played this but yikes at taf playing it. Just yikes.

I envy anyone getting to play this through for the first time

What I'm expecting going off the marketing:

- Bury Your Gays tropes all over the shop, ie "Yes we have gay characters, YES we will immediately kill and or hurt one of them for cheap emotional impact"
- Lots of torture scenes where the camera lingers on painful stuff happening. Because as previously mentioned mature = grim
- I've heard there's a transgender character so I'm expecting them to be immediately deadnamed and a bunch of hamhanded metaphors linking transgenderism to all sorts of trauma.
- Perhaps a black person?
- Lots of women getting hurt.
- Pretty, pretty graphics

No one tell me if I'm right

Tafdolphin wrote:What I'm expecting going off the marketing:

- Bury Your Gays tropes all over the shop, ie "Yes we have gay characters, YES we will immediately kill and or hurt one of them for cheap emotional impact"
- Lots of torture scenes where the camera lingers on painful stuff happening. Because as previously mentioned mature = grim
- I've heard there's a transgender character so I'm expecting them to be immediately deadnamed and a bunch of hamhanded metaphors linking transgenderism to all sorts of trauma.
- Perhaps a black person?
- Lots of women getting hurt.
- Pretty, pretty graphics

No one tell me if I'm right

Pay close attention to how every black character is used.

Yeah, I almost added "...and they are immediately killed off in some tragic manner."

We'll see.

Mafro wrote:

Tafdolphin wrote:What I'm expecting going off the marketing:

- Bury Your Gays tropes all over the shop, ie "Yes we have gay characters, YES we will immediately kill and or hurt one of them for cheap emotional impact"
- Lots of torture scenes where the camera lingers on painful stuff happening. Because as previously mentioned mature = grim
- I've heard there's a transgender character so I'm expecting them to be immediately deadnamed and a bunch of hamhanded metaphors linking transgenderism to all sorts of trauma.
- Perhaps a black person?
- Lots of women getting hurt.
- Pretty, pretty graphics

No one tell me if I'm right

Pay close attention to how every black character is used.

I never noticed anything particularly obtuse, but they sure do love only writing white people as main characters. What did you notice?

At least hopefully we'll have Lev going forward.

How is every black person used?

And do you guys ever find it exhausting trying to find the hidden agenda in every piece of fiction?

Captain Kinopio wrote:How is every black person used?

And do you guys ever find it exhausting trying to find the hidden agenda in every piece of fiction?

I mean, I love the series to death, but



Anyway, I’m looking forward to Taf’s reaction to the rest of it.

Predictions:

Update: installed and ready but wife refuses to stop watching The Next Generation.

Captain Kinopio wrote:How is every black person used?

And do you guys ever find it exhausting trying to find the hidden agenda in every piece of fiction?

It's less "trying to find" and more "recognising". No art is made in a vacuum. And I find it fascinating, not tiring.

jiggles wrote:

Captain Kinopio wrote:How is every black person used?

And do you guys ever find it exhausting trying to find the hidden agenda in every piece of fiction?

I mean, I love the series to death, but

every black character, every last one, is killed off, and most times for the sake of empowerment or character development of the player characters (who are exclusively white).

And the use of the monstrously huge black “brute” as Abby’s “final boss” before the two stories converge (who has no character in the game, just pops up at the end) plays in to a disgusting stereotype that the scariest/most dangerous thing to white women is a big black man

I get that, and I'd make more of a fuss about it if this weren't Last of Us.

Literally everyone you meet dies, I mean here's a list off the top of my head



Having said that they REALLY need to make more of an effort to write more black characters who aren't just used as plot devices.

Welp, made it to the weed cutscene and so far I'm thoroughly enjoying it. The interplay between Dina and Ellie is really well done, like, really well done, and the small snippets of combat have been fun. First time I shot a pistol it made me jump as gooseberry fool it's loud (was wearing headphones by that point) and firing feels like a momentous thing at the moment, as well as a last resort.

The facial animations are something else too.

So yeah. A good start

Fade, I think that’s being dismissive.



And I say this as someone who didn’t cop to this as I was playing through it. I had it pointed out after the fact and even though I think the game is outstanding, it’s still strawberry floated up. This isn’t happenstance, the world and characters are all invented to be as they are. Even if it’s not done with malicious intent, but rather a subconscious prejudice they aren’t aware they’re expressing by just designing the characters and scripting the events “like they pictured in their head”, the fact that they’re not being questioned on this trend internally is cause for concern. Clearly Naughty Dog need more black voices in their ear, because as the titles roll out, the characterisation of this situation evolves from coincidence to trend to behaviour.

Oh god.

It was much simpler when Taf just assumed hed hate it.

Things kicking up a notch. Big chase, golf club to head.

To be honest, I reckon I know the basic outline of how the story's gonna go down.



I'll come back to this after I'm done, see how close I was. NO ONE TELL ME!

Again, I'm really enjoying it so far.

This was an enjoyable prediction to read

jiggles wrote:Fade, I think that’s being dismissive.

The fact that *none* of the black characters who have lines survive any of the THREE titles is not offset by “everyone dies” (they don’t) or “people of all races die”.

And neither does having fought the Trunchbull earlier excuse the climactic encounter of the war on the island being “ok, that, but now it’s a black guy” who must be honestly about 8 feet tall and you pass it by brutally and slowly slicing up his face with a sickle in vivid detail vs when you fought the white one who you punched until you crushed her head with her hammer, off-screen, in a fraction of the time.

The encounter with the king of the brutes (iirc, the only black brute in the game, naturally) isn’t just you winning by overpowering him like the other brutes, it’s a drawn out mutilation.

And I say this as someone who didn’t cop to this as I was playing through it. I had it pointed out after the fact and even though I think the game is outstanding, it’s still strawberry floated up. This isn’t happenstance, the world and characters are all invented to be as they are. Even if it’s not done with malicious intent, but rather a subconscious prejudice they aren’t aware they’re expressing by just designing the characters and scripting the events “like they pictured in their head”, the fact that they’re not being questioned on this trend internally is cause for concern. Clearly Naughty Dog need more black voices in their ear, because as the titles roll out, the characterisation of this situation evolves from coincidence to trend to behaviour.

I'm still amazed Nadine survived Uncharted 4.

OrangeRKN wrote:This was an enjoyable prediction to read