The Last Of Us 2

coolisin

So my postman arrived a few hours later then usual but sure hey game is loaded updated just need to feed the little lad get rid of him to bed to get a couple hours in.

Joshua J

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

What happens in the lodge, to keep it vague. It’s one thing to not like it as a plot beat, but to spend weeks ranting about it online is beyond baffling.

I'm about half way through and have avoided spoilers for the most part but this is what folk have been losing their minds over?. No. It can't be.

BelovedAunt

BelovedAunt wrote: »

Lads I'm about three hours in and just wondering if all the outrage and leaks were regarding

what happens in the lodge solely or other stuff later as well?

A lot of the outrage was about

Joel dying

. Not just the fact that it happened but how it happened, how graphic it was, how the character we know from TLOU would have not been so dumb etc. Just bad and contrived writing in order to create a revenge scenario. And then of course

you play the killer for much of the game.

Some outrage is about the

woke stuff

and i'll leave you to judge that for yourself when you get to it. There's an entire storyline about a

transgender boy who runs away from his group because they don't accept his gender identity.

It goes on and on for ages, it's boring, far-fetched, preachy, the dialogue is cringe. Personally I think it's obviously in the game for virtue-signalling reasons, it is very ham-fisted. Just the whole idea of

trans kids

being pushed in our faces and used for woke points makes me uneasy, particularly in light of the revelations in the UK this week. But, judge it for yourself.

Grumpypants

BelovedAunt wrote: »

Lads I'm about three hours in and just wondering if all the outrage and leaks were regarding

what happens in the lodge solely or other stuff later as well?

Kind of. There is a bit more.

To answer your question

It is mainly about that lodge scene and who you controlled in the build up. But there is more to come later. I'll put that in a separate spoiler in case you don't want to read it yet. But if you are this far you have pretty good idea of how it will play out. But I did want to add the extra spoiler buffer for you

The later bit

You play as Abby again later for a really big chunk to build out her character.

It still makes the whole fuss pretty silly. But the best bit is after all the transphobic rants

Abby isn't a trans character. She is a girl that lifts heavy weights

ItsHoggie

The Raging Bile Duct wrote: »

€60 in Smyths at the moment.

That’s not bad actually, might pop in there. Cheers!

The White Wolf

Grumpypants wrote: »

big chunk to build out her character.[/SPOILER]

It still makes the whole fuss pretty silly. But the best bit is after all the transphobic rants

Abby isn't a trans character. She is a girl that lifts heavy weights

I'd be curious to know the logistics of whether they could have amended the story in time after the backlash.

To be honest I wasn't fan of the idea of a psychotic and violent trans character as that feels like an insult to people going through it and their experiences. That is what IMO the backlash should of been about.

IrishJedi75

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I think I'm ok taking advice from the professional reviewers I trust and not listen to the ranting incels on YouTube with no moral integrity.

You mean the “ professional reviewers “ who gave the game 10/10 and didn’t even mention Naughty dogs and Neil Druckmans attempts to strike down and demonetize YouTube channels that DID NOTHING WRONG EXCEPT GIVE THEIR OPINION AS WELL AS SUSPEND TWITTER ACCOUNTS OF THOSE WHO DARED CRITICIZE THE GAME for fear of losing access to the game?

By the way, most of those channels who were hit by copyright claims have successfully challenged Naughty Dogs ILLEGAL behavior and had those strikes reversed.

But hey, the game is Woke so the critics won’t mention these facts.

Gamer Bhoy 89

The White Wolf wrote: »

I'd be curious to know the logistics of whether they could have amended the story in time after the backlash.

To be honest I wasn't fan of the idea of a psychotic and violent trans character as that feels like an insult to people going through it and their experiences. That is what IMO the backlash should of been about.

Even if they could, why would they amend it? What we get is clearly the story they wanted to tell. Just because a handful of eejits (and yes it is a handful. They were just the loudest. The other 80% didn't give a crap and are enjoying it) didn't like the story doesn't warrant them getting what they want.

If they don't like it then tough, they may move on.

That'll be the day when art is changed entirely to fit a minority group of outraged bigots' backwards opinion.

At the end of the day it's just a video game. The "tropes" are only angering people because they're [insert opposite gender/identity here]-phobic, and it isn't even hurting anyone.

Plenty of controversial art out there in music, TV and films, and even games. Doesn't mean they should removed.

A few years ago lots of countries were pushing equality and passing LBGTQ-rights-esque bills (marriage etc.) and ridding themselves from out of date laws and now all of a sudden we hate them again?

I dunno.

I had the game paused to write this. Dunno why I bother sometimes lol

Retr0gamer

IrishJedi75 wrote: »

You mean the “ professional reviewers “ who gave the game 10/10 and didn’t even mention Naughty dogs and Neil Druckmans attempts to strike down and demonetize YouTube channels that DID NOTHING WRONG EXCEPT GIVE THEIR OPINION AS WELL AS SUSPEND TWITTER ACCOUNTS OF THOSE WHO DARED CRITICIZE THE GAME for fear of losing access to the game?

By the way, most of those channels who were hit by copyright claims have successfully challenged Naughty Dogs ILLEGAL behavior and had those strikes reversed.

But hey, the game is Woke so the critics won’t mention these facts.

No i mean the reviewers who did their job as a reviewer by, you know reviewing the game (the reviewers I trust didn't give it a perfect score) and ignored the non controversy around it because it had absolutely nothing to do with the review.

Also you have to realise as well that a publisher, marketing and legal team are separate entities to the developer of the game. Naughty dog and Neil would have been way too busy getting their game out the door to bother with YouTubers and Twitter trolls.

And to end hitting someone with a copyright claim on a platform might be wrong but isn't illegal in any country.

Critics don't mention the drama because it's not their job to and nobody cares so it won't generate hits.

Retr0gamer

The White Wolf wrote: »

I'd be curious to know the logistics of whether they could have amended the story in time after the backlash.

To be honest I wasn't fan of the idea of a psychotic and violent trans character as that feels like an insult to people going through it and their experiences. That is what IMO the backlash should of been about.

Nothing to amend. The bigot brigade and incel insurrection made assumptions based on their own bigotted world view which turned out to be daft and false.

The White Wolf

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Nothing to amend. The bigot brigade and incel insurrection made assumptions based on their own bigotted world view which turned out to be daft and false.

Aye it turned out to be hysteria for the sake of it.

As I said I would have cringed if that's what the story was just not for the reasons the bigots had.

Zero-Cool

Started a thread for SPOILERS discussion for full story thoughts and leaks.

Mods, feel free to do whatever ye want with it, just don't want anything slipping here.

https://touch.boards.ie/thread/post/113786484

It may very well become a **** show and need closing but worth a shot.

ERG89

Post was late even though I wasn't expecting to get it today. Didn't take as long to install the data disk as I thought (in comparison to RDR2).

Played about an hour so I can't really give much of an opinion to plot points.

I'm glad they kinda followed up on the first games ending with Joel talking to Tommy about it but then the 4 year jump sickened me. (I have only played an hour but can that 4 year gap be made into some DLC).
At first I thought Abby was another time jump for Ellie.

Hope to play some more of it this weekend.

ItsHoggie

What way is the fan noise on the standard PS4?

pauldavis123

ItsHoggie wrote: »

Where’s the cheapest place to pick this up? I’ve a week off work and was thinking this would be a good time filler.

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/ps4-the-last-of-us-part-ii-4499-plus-6-months-spotify-for-new-customers-currys-3489202

Retr0gamer

ItsHoggie wrote: »

What way is the fan noise on the standard PS4?

You ever put your ear to the engine of a jumbo jet?

RedRochey

The Phantom Pain wrote: »

That said, I have a 10pm curfew with this game and will be playing a more upbeat game before bed as a palette cleanser. It's just too stressful lol.

I'm still playing Animal Crossing, bit of a change in pace alright

awec

About 2 hours in or so, controller ran out of battery so had to stop. It's good so far.

The first one took me quite a while to get through as I find this game too much to sit and play for hours on end, it's way too intense. This one is the same, when that music starts and you hear the clicking noise and the runners etc really makes you tense.

ItsHoggie

Retr0gamer wrote: »

You ever put your ear to the engine of a jumbo jet?

That bad? Ffs my PS4 is loud enough as it Is.

goon_magee

Played the first couple of hours and it's fantastic as expected.

Not sold entirely on the direction the game goes a couple of hours in. A certain story moment came of slightly hacky to me; if it was any other developer other than ND I would say it screams of a developer who were scraping the bottom of a barrel in order to justify a sequel, but given their pedigree and how early on I am, I'm willing to give the game the benefit of the doubt as I'm sure they'll have decent narrative justification for the choice when all is said and done.

MarkY91

Took me 40 odd minutes to realise there was a second disc to play the game. I was wondering why my white disc wouldn't boot the game up after installing it. Ffs haha

Bigbooty

Seems like a lot of the hate stems from there being no real male voice in the game so it's somehow a wokefest. How insecure must one be to hate a game based on bigotry? It's honestly really refreshing to play a videogame that's not told from the perspective of an emotionally stunted grizzly dude.

The AI is dumb as **** and so predictable. I should have played on survivor rather than hard. Hopefully it gets a bit more difficult.

Underground

Played about two hours so far. Visually it looks amazing. In terms of gameplay it's doing nothing special, just more of the same from the first game.

Yet to really see what the controversy was about, something dumb and not worth fretting over no doubt. Oh, and The Quartering is an absolute ham.

bot43

I’ve avoided spoilers and am 4/5 hours in. Enjoying the F of it. The tension is magnificent.

Looking forward to going back in.

As I have a family I may need to pop to Smyths for some gaming headphones though.

Chris_Heilong

Bigbooty wrote: »

Seems like a lot of the hate stems from there being no real male voice in the game so it's somehow a wokefest. How insecure must one be to hate a game based on bigotry? It's honestly really refreshing to play a videogame that's not told from the perspective of an emotionally stunted grizzly dude.

The AI is dumb as **** and so predictable. I should have played on survivor rather than hard. Hopefully it gets a bit more difficult.

I dont think that has anything to do with it at all, most games have female leads these days, it is what is in vogue right now, I think it is more to do with story beats and the bleak world it presents as well as the writing.

The Raging Bile Duct

Chris_Heilong wrote: »

I dont think that has anything to do with it at all, most games have female leads these days, it is what is in vogue right now, I think it is more to do with story beats and the bleak world it presents as well as the writing.

That's horse manure. Plenty of games out there with bleaker world views that never got an ounce of the hassle this game has from the armchair incels. The writing had been top notch so far for me in the couple of hours I've played.

My daughter was watching me play for a while before she wussed out - the tension, and the clickers, was getting to her. She didn't know anything about the first game so she was delighted to see an openly gay character being the protagonist in a game. Thanks for spurring me into action to preorder the game. You're a gent.

johnny_ultimate

Chris_Heilong wrote: »

I dont think that has anything to do with it at all, most games have female leads these days, it is what is in vogue right now, I think it is more to do with story beats and the bleak world it presents as well as the writing.

Emm...

Chris_Heilong wrote: »

This literally sounds like the worst case of feminist far left propaganda I have ever heard, Anti Straight, anti Male, anti Christian and also it seems anti making money.....never mind I heard Anita Sarkeesian was involved so that explains that. When will they get it that regular people just dont like this kind of woke culture in their entertainment and it always seems to follow a successful franchise. Companies get a good, game, Movie or comic out there and as soon as they are successful and have a fan base someone in the company tries to turn it into a device to preach they twisted world view.

johnny_ultimate

Few gameplay thoughts thus far:

The combat’s dull. Sorry. I just sorta groan when I reach another room full of infected. I simply don’t find it fun or particularly tense to battle through them, and they’re more just an obstacle between me and moving to the next good bit. Oddly enough I enjoyed the first encounter against human characters more, as it felt more brutal and consequential. The body count is, like all Naughty Dog games, still ridiculously high though. Lot of game ahead too

I liked it in Uncharted 4, liked it in the Lost Legacy, and like it here too: the semi-open areas are the best thing about Naughty Dog’s current attempts to flesh out and evolve their gameplay philosophy. It’s a compromise between linearity and an open-world and I dig it - in just an hour or two, you get to know the space in a way you rarely get with actual open worlds. It’s a good opportunity to simply poke around the incredibly detailed and technically dazzling worlds, discovering bits of environmental storytelling and cool little asides. Granted, you also spend too long rummaging for ****e (the stuff you find is a mix of useful upgrades, semi-useful resources and useless collectibles) but it’s still fun to poke around. And as contrived as it is, I thoroughly appreciate how the game overtly says ‘you’re done here, you can move on’ when you’ve picked a place clean.

The quiet moments are, as always, the highlight. The guitar bits - with its insanely detailed mini-game - are simply lovely. Characters chat, banter, flirt, joke in ways that are smartly written and confidently acted. I’ve said it before, but I’d genuinely love to see Naughty Dog go full hog and make a game that isn’t an action game and instead completely focused on exploration, story and characters - they’re so good at those moments (most brilliantly realised in Left Behind) that I’d be extremely thrilled to see them try to figure out how to cut out the combat arenas. Not going to happen, of course, so I’ll appreciate the downtime here where I can

Jordan 199

Do the infected look worse this time around in the game? Imparticular the clickers? My blood always went cold when I heard them in the first game.