GRcade

NickSCFC wrote:

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The most impressive thing is the enemy animations. Such attention to detail, the way movements flow together, how they respond to bring hit during mellees, the facial animations.

Remains to be seen how much of this is driven by AI rather than being scripted, but the whole thing just came together so well.

Still not played the first one, something about these games just don't pique my interest but I can't put my finger on it.

It does look lovely but the sneaky, stabby, shooty stuff just bores me these days. Dark - check, forest - check, stealth - check, lots of violent death animations - check. I never really clicked with TLOU so it's no surprise that the sequel does little for me.

This might be an odd thing to notice, but there’s a lot of Asian people across the media for this game. I wonder if there’s something going on to do with that.

I’m really glad the item selection looks the same, you see Smoke bottoms, bottles, Molotov’s and the arrow indicator has an up down arrow for different types.

Ellie is referred to as Wolf on multiple occasions.

When you get close ups of the faces on people Ellie is wrestling with the way they animate is incredible. Looks like some next gen stuff.

Crafting menu shows silenced pistol and lead pipe, parts include: nuts and bolts, petrol, something explosive, a water droplet and a scissor.

I watched the reveal. Interesting to see Ellie's grown up, her face has changed and her voice matured. The opening scene of her going from the soft intimacy of a kiss to, what might have been the bedroom, but was in fact her stabbing a man in the throat repeatedly! Was shocking for the change of scene to such violence. Ellie's 'old man' was referenced so that probably means Joel, hopefully there is a chapter where we can play as him. I do like the stealth component as it reflects the gritty realism of the world and its dangers that must be handled with caution. I was never excited by the first game's trailers but it was only when playing it that I became totally absorbed into the story and the world.

the eponymous bollock wrote:This might be an odd thing to notice, but there’s a lot of Asian people across the media for this game. I wonder if there’s something going on to do with that.

It's in Seattle, a lot of Asians there.

Just watched it again.

- I still think the violence is way, way too much. As our very own rudderless pointed out on twitter, this isn't some 18 rated niche title, this is as mainstream as it gets for gaming. The gore on display here, especially the guy being disembowelled, was repellent. I'm no flushing violet when it comes to violence, but this was gratuitous.
- I think it played into the 'Joel is dead' theory that came about after the first trailer: the opening and closing sequences are flashbacks and Ellie is hunting down those responsible for destroying her camp and killing Joel.

Don’t think it’s any more violent than the previous game, the graphical fidelity probably makes it seem that way though. People can make their own mind up of course but I don’t see this pushing any boundaries of acceptablity when it comes to interactive violence.

Personally I felt that the violence was over-the-top. I like the idea of the game but I don't really want to play something that appears to display the action in such a graphic manner.

I only played a little of the first game in the series but I don't recall it having quite this level of violence. I'm not sure if it did later on?

the eponymous bollock wrote:Don’t think it’s any more violent than the previous game, the graphical fidelity probably makes it seem that way though. People can make their own mind up of course but I don’t see this pushing any boundaries of acceptablity when it comes to interactive violence.

This, I remember blowing Hyman's heads off in the original and l saving them with nothing more than a neck stump.

I think the difference here is that the antagonists now look eerily life-like, the models, the expressions, the animation, at times I thought I was watching a movie.

I'm just glad they decided to keep the crafting mechanic as it means it should be in the multiplayer as well.
I had no problem with the kissing and it seemed part of the story of the trailer.

Remember when the violence in Soldier of Fortune got everyone in a tizz? It must look so tame nowadays, this won't be any different 10 years from now.

Mainstream for for gaming isn't exactly mainstream though is it? Your average person on the street wouldn't have a clue what The Last of us is. I'm not sure why it's an issue when it's OK for mainstream Cinema, TV and Literature to be just as if not more gory.

Maybe this game isn't for you.

Preezy wrote:Remember when the violence in Soldier of Fortune got everyone in a tizz? It must look so tame nowadays, this won't be any different 10 years from now.

This is, as your straight vs queer kiss example, a false equivalency strawman. Soldier of Fortune may have looked good at the time but no-one could ever have called it photo realistic. We're getting perilously close to the latter with this game.

the eponymous bollock wrote:Don’t think it’s any more violent than the previous game, the graphical fidelity probably makes it seem that way though. People can make their own mind up of course but I don’t see this pushing any boundaries of acceptability when it comes to interactive violence.

Go back a few pages and have a gander at Parksey's excellent post. I straight up disagree that there was anywhere near the level of detail and voyeurism in the violence present in the first game. TLoU was indeed violent, but it didn't revel in its violence, or the pain being inflicted by or to its characters. When Ellie killed David the camera cut away, when Joel got injured the wound was not lingered on. Two of the 3 trailers for TLoU2 have featured long, lingering shots of torture and pain, of a woman slowly being hung, of Ellie gradually pushing a shiv into a man's throat, of her methodically executing a downed man. The footage so far has revelled in its violence instead of utilising it as a narrative illustration of desperation.

Hime wrote:Maybe this game isn't for you.

Maybe. Which is heartbreaking to me as the original is one of my favourites. Not because of its graphics or gameplay but because it changed the way narratives are handled in games. Because it was uniquely melancholic in its presentation and genuinely touching in its handling of the central father/daughter relationship.

TLoU2 might very well push that even further, but I have not liked at all the way in which they've chosen to market it so far.

Tafdolphin wrote:

Preezy wrote:Remember when the violence in Soldier of Fortune got everyone in a tizz? It must look so tame nowadays, this won't be any different 10 years from now.

This is, as your straight vs queer kiss example, a false equivalency strawman. Soldier of Fortune may have looked good at the time but no-one could ever have called it photo realistic. We're getting perilously close to the latter with this game.

Let the hand-wringing commence!

Nah I get you, this is very real-looking. But it'll no doubt be rated 18 and not marketed to children, so it will only be adults (or the children of irresponsible parents) that actually get to play it and roll around in all the gore. If grown-ups can't handle hard violence in a videogame there are plenty of other milder games out there.

Winter.
The scene where Joel tortures the two guys to find out Ellie’s whereabouts. That’s as graphic as anything seen in the trailers so far. He also kills them both when they’re both tied up as well.
Stabs him in the knee and twists the Knife. around causing excruciating pain. Then he chokes the man to death. Then needlessly beats another man to death in the same room.

He also shoots a man in the groin later on in the game for similar reasons.

They’re both violent games as they’re both set in a grim and uncompromising world.

The first game revels in showing Joel torture someone and then murder another he doesn’t need to. In the first hour it revels in showing you his daughters death and lingers there for you to watch it, child like howls and squeals of pain and fear and all. There’s also the lingering sequence where you go through the sewer and it revels in giving you notes and background on a family unit, making you like them before it straight up shows you the decaying corpses of children.

Oh and Joel breaking Robert’s arm at the beginning.

It’s got giraffes though. Do the giraffes negate some of the violence?

It's a simplistic response, but I'm just going to straight up dispute that any of those scenes are anywhere near as violent or, crucially, painful as the disembowelling scene, or the hanging scene.

the eponymous bollock wrote:There’s also the lingering sequence where you go through the sewer and it revels in giving you notes and background on a family unit, making you like them before it straight up shows you the decaying corpses of children.

This is absolutely not what I'm talking about and I think you know this.