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    The Last of Us | Happy Birthday to Ashley Johnson!

    August 09, 2021

    The Last of Us | Happy Birthday to Ashley Johnson!

    Happy Birthday to Ashley Johnson!

    Posted: 08 Aug 2021 04:13 PM PDT

    If the last of us part 2 had a lego game

    Posted: 08 Aug 2021 11:12 AM PDT

    May your survival be long, may your death be swift... Or just look for the light.

    Posted: 08 Aug 2021 10:26 AM PDT

    "Alone" This took weeks and I'm so exahhhsssted and excited to show y'all <3

    Posted: 08 Aug 2021 04:57 PM PDT

    Just received this masterpiece !

    Posted: 08 Aug 2021 01:27 AM PDT

    Me as Gustavo Santaolalla at a party yesterday

    Posted: 08 Aug 2021 07:58 AM PDT

    a little work in progress

    Posted: 08 Aug 2021 06:11 PM PDT

    Just finished my first playthrough a few days ago… boy do I have thoughts! (Spoiler: TLOU2 is phenomenal)

    Posted: 08 Aug 2021 02:54 PM PDT

    Naughty Dog did it yet again. The quality of everything in TLOU2 from graphics to story is just unbelievable — game engine wise, I wouldn't be surprised if they're years ahead of anybody else. In no particular order, let's jump right in!

    Interactive animations

    Every animation in this game is so meticulously well crafted that simple things like grabbing a bottle of pills is a joy to watch. The bottle actually ends up in your hand! Parts still sadly disappear into the void, but they make up for it with that really nice briefcase closing animation.

    When you open a cupboard, Abbellie will peek into it like a real person. And if they're in combat, they'll violently yank the thing open with another gorgeous animation.

    Oh, and don't even get me started on the workbenches! Damn is selecting a gun satisfying — the movement is just so crisp in an almost inhuman way that screams of raw talent. The bullet flying out? *chef's kiss* (Though I do always wonder where it goes since you don't see Abbellie reloading the gun before leaving.)

    Cinematic aspects and sound

    There were a few scenes that were just so damn good.

    Before the final fight when Ellie finds Abby strung up, the camera looks up at Abby through Ellie pulling out her switchblade as it clicks open. The menace in that framing made me think Ellie was going to end it right there. And then later right before the fight starts as Ellie looks back, you get the brrawwwrr of final boss music that makes you go, "Oh shit, we're actually doing this."

    On that note, bringing in Mac Quayle was an excellent choice. Gustavo does a phenomenal job of creating music that you feel, but the fight music was a bit meh for me in the first game. TLOU2 nailed the fight music.

    When Abby is going through the sky bridges, having the fog dissipate as you make progress was genius. You could kind of ignore how high you were because you couldn't see jack, and then suddenly… the entire city is in view! Next you're thinking about how maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. In addition, the stretch effect was a perfect way to help us see Abby's fear of heights.

    The red lighting in the subway station was absolutely gorgeous. 'Nuff said.

    Ellie becomes more violent when not with Dina or Jesse

    I don't have evidence to back this up, but it felt to me like Ellie was more verbally abusive when she killed people while not around Dina or Jesse. This was a great way to make me feel like Ellie would lose her shit without human connection (and Santa Barbara was pretty much an example of that).

    The war sequence

    I would argue that this is one of the best set pieces in the entire game. 1917, Dunkirk, and co. come close to having you understand what war is like, but riding your horse through the Scars and WLF was something else. The sheer amount of death and carnage paired with a disinterest in which side you were killing made the experience that much more haunting.

    And holy smokes! Fuck sickle dude. His encounter is easily in my top 3 most disturbing moments for the game (along with Ellie strangling Abby and the Rat King). I play on a monitor, so that guy's sliced open jaw was right up in my face the whole time. And he just. Wouldn't. Die. That felt like the most realistic human death in the entire game (setting aside headshots). If you can still draw breath, you betcha you're going to do everything you can to live just one second longer.

    The Rat King

    The best part about this sequence is the way ND primes you for something awful. I love how empty the hospital was and how the clickers you fought were just a tad too easy to kill. I kept having to psych myself up before opening doors because it felt like things were going way too well.

    The hospital sequence also mirrors when Joel is in the hotel basement from part 1. Again, that's a great way to prime the player into thinking the worst will come when you turn on the generator. And yet it doesn't — that's what really got me.

    Bloaters and stalkers

    Bloaters charging at you in part 2 is actually scary AF. Same idea with stalkers: the way they don't attack you right away and hide instead gives me the heebie-jeebies.

    Use of expletives

    Sometimes characters will throw "fuck" and co. around everywhere to the point that it loses any meaning. TLOU2 did a superb job of letting you know when Ellie was truly serious: in her arguments with Joel, she never swears. It's so unusual compared to the rest of the game that I misremembered one of her most important lines, "If you lie to me one more time..." I thought she had said, "If you lie to me one more goddamn time..." Notice that when Ellie is a more relaxed kind of pissed at the end, she says, "My life would have. Fucking. Mattered."

    As a side note, I love how calmly Ashley delivers the make it or break it lines: you can feel the anger and guilt and despair clawing to rise to the surface.

    The snowball fight

    This scene shows that games can truly bring an experience to life in ways other mediums simply can't replicate. The magic of the children's laughter and Dellie (yes, I'll die on that Dina + Ellie superposition hill along with Abbellie) shouting out taunts when you got one of the kids had me grinning like a maniac the whole time. Naughty Dog also ended the fun just early enough that I was bummed out we had to go, just as Dellie would be feeling.

    Optional encounters

    Uncharted 4 started this type of level design approach with the Madagascar driving chapter where you could skip investigating certain areas if you didn't want to, but I feel like TLOU2 1-upped that by making the optional areas a little more hidden. At the very least, the optional areas in TLOU2 didn't feel as in your face as the ones in U4.

    In general, the optional encounters felt like a super cool way to authentically present side quests without some task list. I also thought it was cool that either Ellie or Dina would tell us the side quest was over once you left the area with dialogue that still felt natural.

    WLF attack on Ellie at the workbench

    This attack is arguably the best jump scare of the entire game. It's brilliant because it breaks established game mechanics, bringing you closer to Ellie's emotional state in the process. There's the obvious side where you, the player, have placed your trust in in-game menus, only to have it broken which makes you lose your trust in all the other workbenches (I was always tense using a workbench after that). The deeper side is that your sense of safety in trusted places is lost, mirroring Ellie's state of mind: if the game menus aren't safe, then what is? If Jackson isn't safe, then what is? I don't think I would have been so on edge at the farm without the workbench attack.

    The farm

    I loved every bit of this level, from the bonding with Dina and JJ/Potato to the undercurrent of fear permeating the level. I kept thinking an attack would come out of nowhere or that I would find Dina dead when I came back into the house. To have no external source of anguish and only be left with Ellie's trauma perfectly explained her decision, or need rather, to leave.

    Character deaths

    I know this was the point, but every death in TLOU2 (except for Joel's) happened so suddenly with seemingly no one in control of the situation. While it made sense from a narrative perspective because the loss of control shows that your plans will be burned to dust and the cycle will continue whether you want it to or not (Owen and Mel's deaths for example), I didn't like the quickness of those deaths from a storytelling perspective. I didn't feel like I had time to grieve or let the horror of the situation really sink in.

    In TLOU1 with Henry's death for example, you have an entire cinematic building up to that moment, and you still weren't sure what was going to happen until he turned the gun towards himself. In TLOU2, the deaths either feel inevitable (Owen and Mel) or so sudden (Jesse, Manny) that they're ignored entirely.

    WLF vs. Scars conflict and cultism

    I love the way this story pieces itself together starting from an outsider, then from an insider becoming an outsider — you get to see the pointlessness of it all. The irony is that Isacc knows neither side is right and chooses conflict anyway: he has a line where he says "We could try another truce, but how long before some asshole on their side *pause* or our side unravels the whole thing?" I get the feeling that he wants peace but doesn't know how to get it without violence.

    More broadly, the tribalism on both sides is a great portrayal of the state of some parts of the internet. People get stuck in a single minded idea and are unwilling to consider alternatives, deeming anything that doesn't align with their world-view an attack on their very existence.

    Lily/Lev

    I thought Lev was a great character except for one bit of optional dialogue that really annoyed me: "Did you hear what they called me? / Yeah. / Do you want to ask me about it?" *haha nope, I'm not telling you*. I don't get the point of that interaction besides maybe making sure the player notices that the Seraphites called him Lily. I also think Yara's speech about how she regrets being mean to him was unnecessary, and if anything, taints their relationship — they could have just left it at Yara explaining that Lev was to be a wife to the Elders and let us figure the rest out. That aside, I loved Lev's moments of boyish innocence and wish they'd leaned into that further, maybe developing the relationship with his mother more so I would actually care when she died.

    On a somewhat related note, it's cool how Lev's story personifies the cult's self-contradictions. They're this back to nature's roots cult that finds excuses to use guns, elevators, and women fighters, but somehow draws the line at Lily becoming Lev. I would guess the cult was more afraid of losing control by having someone be able to reject their assignment than Lev specifically.

    Joel attacking the bloater

    This was such a badass scene in general, but Joel going ballistic also has important character ramifications. It shows us in no uncertain terms that Joel is willing to die for Ellie. Interestingly enough, I think Ellie comes to that realization along with us as she's piecing together her relationship with Joel.

    Yara saving Abby (by shooting Isaac)

    The soldiers' reaction made an already painful death so much worse: Lev has to watch an entire squad riddle her with bullets.

    Ellie's remarks to Joel at the end of the dance

    I thought Ellie basically telling Joel to eff off were her last words to him, especially since her journal kept mentioning their last conversation. I actually had to pause the game there and spend a moment to take it in. Props to ND for being so cruel!

    On a related note, the final scene explains Joel's actions: he wasn't protecting Ellie so much as her "raison d'être." He was protecting her chance at finding meaning in this world, her chance at happiness.

    The only place I cried

    When Joel said yep. Troy's acting there was unlike anything else.

    Ellie and the Rattlers' trap

    Ellie's laugh in that scene was utter perfection: it begged for violence in an insane, "I've got nothing to lose," self hating kind of way. That one laugh captured Ellie's entire state of mind at this point in the game.

    I also thought it was interesting that she shot the Rattler anyway, reminding us of the nearly identical scene from part 1 where Joel kills the guy in winter who provided Ellie's location on the map. I can't quite figure out why, but I felt bummed out when Ellie killed him whereas I kind of enjoyed it in part 1. Maybe it was the cold efficiency with which Ellie took the shot? Joel seemed to be enjoying himself in the part 1 version, so perhaps we mirror those emotions whereas in Ellie's case she seems dead inside and completely detached.

    Rattler level Ellie beginning

    I'll need to check this on my second playthrough, but I would swear Ellie's level starts with eerily similar traversal mechanics to the first time we play as Abby way back at the beginning of the game. There's some climbing up steep slopes, you have to run and jump over a mini-cliff, and there's a press X to scootch through this tiny space. I like to think this is intentional to remind the player that we're now doing the hunting, as was the case with Abby at the beginning.

    Tommy not being dead

    Tommy being alive in his current state honestly felt worse than if he had died. That whole scene where he berates Ellie was painful to watch.

    Other scene mirrors from part 1

    There's Abby carrying Lev as Joel did with Ellie and then the David fight v2 with Ellie being David. Both of those were really well done, but the Abby carrying Lev one was interesting to me because Ellie doesn't actually know that's how Joel got her out of the hospital, and yet she understands how to leverage Lev to trigger Abby.

    Joel funeral scene

    The lighting in this scene was fascinating to me. Typically, funeral scenes are portrayed as this dark dreary thing where it rains and everyone is wearing black. ND did a complete 180 on that stereotype with their brilliant blue sky. I think this may have been a way of showing us the harshness of the world Ellie was born in: it doesn't care about Joel's death and will unrelentingly push onwards.

    Survivor's guilt

    Beyond Ellie feeling guilty for surviving all the events of the first game and being the cure, Abby killing Joel is super interesting from a survivor's guilt perspective. I don't think Ellie ever actually finds out the true reason for Abby's heinous act — instead, she's left to believe the reason Abby came after Joel was because he destroyed humanity's (and Abby's) last hope for a better world, leaving the fireflies with no path to redemption. This misunderstanding places the ultimate guilt on Ellie, leading her to believe that Joel's death is her fault: with every breath she draws in, humanity's hope at restoration is denied. She caused Joel's death by taking away those fireflies' purpose. Ellie is missing crucial context for Abby's actions that would have made the cause of Joel's death far less personal, thus partially explaining the obsession and self-hatred she falls into.

    Eugene

    I'll have to pay more attention to this on my second playthrough, but I totally missed the point of his story. Was he the tipster? I don't quite understand why they talked about him so much.

    Themes of the game

    Boiling down the game to single words like revenge, love, or hate feels too simple. There were three main takeaways for me.

    First, all of these characters were shitty people, perhaps with the exception of Dina. And yet, they were also good people. They're human. It took me a while to figure this out: I thought the game was trying to show me that Abby was good, when really, it was trying to show me that Ellie was bad.

    That brings me to my second point: people are shaped by their environment. Both Ellie and Abby, good people initially, are driven to awfulness through events transpiring around them beyond their control. In letting themselves be consumed by the horrendousness of the world they live in, Ellie and Abby become the very people they hated in the first place. It's only by actively fighting for goodness with purposeful intent that they break free.

    Finally, we come to the theme that spans the entire series: purpose. All of our characters are left trying to find meaning in a world devoid of the distractions our timeline has to offer. Tess dies at peace having found meaning in her perceived redemption through Ellie. Henry kills himself having failed the only purpose he had left: protecting his brother. Joel takes a look at the broken people and pieces of humanity and, not liking what's left, chooses to put his family first. In the process, he destroys the fireflies' last hope at achieving their goal of restoring humanity. At the end of part 2, neither Abby nor Ellie have found meaning in their lives. Abby seeks the fireflies in part because she wants to honor Owen's legacy, but also because she wants to be provided with a greater sense of purpose. Neither will be satisfactory (unless she takes charge of the fireflies perhaps). Ellie, on the other hand, seems to understand by the end that meaning comes from within and goes off to figure herself out (I don't think she would be satisfied settling down with Dina). Interestingly enough, Joel is one of the few who had his shit together: he never sought out redemption, instead finding meaning in caring for his family. I think behind all the torture, he actually died a happy man having started the healing process with his surrogate daughter.

    "Look for the light" to me is about finding meaning in a broken world, which almost invariably means finding the light within yourself to do something good for other people, thereby making you happy.

    Game engine stuff that still sucks

    • Going up or down a flight of stairs still looks totally broken if you point the camera down at your feet. It appears that they're translating your character parallel to the lateral face of the staircase, i.e. 1D motion up a cheese wedge. That's not how climbing stairs works.
    • Bad textures: it's so sad when you go to look at a poster or the ground and it's all blurry because they weren't expecting you to really pay attention to it. I'm super excited to see what ND will be able to do with the PS5! I'm hopeful this problem will go away entirely.
    • Where's the collectibles menu? I get that there were so many different timelines and that organizing everything would probably have been a pain in the butt, but still.
    • Same thing about not having a cinematics menu. I get that loading times would suck and they'd have to give the character default guns, mud, etc, but having readily accessible cinematics would still be nice. Maybe the main issue is loading times, so they'll be able to bring the menu back in their PS5 game?
    • In-game facial animations: these are waaay better than they were in Uncharted 4, but they're still really bad compared to the incredible quality we get in a cinematic.
    • Liquids in cups still look plain wrong. My guess is that they don't have the budget to run an accurate fluid dynamics simulation. Again, maybe something the PS5 will fix.
    submitted by /u/SUPERCILEX
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    TLOU2's cycle of hatred

    Posted: 08 Aug 2021 06:23 PM PDT

    I think the second game did a great job at showing how blindly we follow hatred like sheep. It gives a good perspective from both sides.

    The WLF and the Seraphites who hate each other. Their members blindly follow propaganda and hate the other half for no real reason. Owen began to question this and ended up going AWOL. Lev began questioning Seraphites traditions, shaved his head and also went AWOL. He tried convincing his mother who was too far brainwashed.

    Ellie and Abby hate each other. Joel kills abbys dad, Abby kills Joel, Ellie kills abbys friends. Again, blindly following never ending hatred. Jesse questions Ellies motives just as Owen questions abbys.

    After Ellie kills abbys friends, she is finally ready to give up and leave Seattle until abby shows up due to the consequences of her action. The cycle of hatred continues.

    This game succeeds in creating a very real and gritty world. So, aren't we wrong to blindly hate abby for killing joel?

    Her character has a lot of depth and it's not poorly written so the only real reason to hate her is for killing Joel which lacks empathy.

    I think people blindly hate on this game which is ironic because the game is all about hate.

    submitted by /u/MDMAMAZINGG
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    New interview with Halley Gross about TLOU2 one year later

    Posted: 08 Aug 2021 07:23 PM PDT

    I honestly wish they had picked a different story to tell for the HBO series.

    Posted: 08 Aug 2021 11:11 PM PDT

    It would have been so much cooler to see something like Dina and her sister in Mexico, or maybe a story that follows Tommy during the two games.

    I think the show should try to be it's own thing instead of just a retelling of something that has already been told more than well enough. Imo there's a reason the story is in a game and not some kind of movie; the pace of a show is far different from the pace of someone playing a videogame.

    submitted by /u/I_Have_The_Lumbago
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    Bottom floor, please!

    Posted: 08 Aug 2021 03:09 AM PDT

    After honoring P5 on my left forearm, I decided to do Ellie's tattoo on my right one!

    Posted: 08 Aug 2021 08:22 AM PDT

    Giving my room that Last Of Us feel

    Posted: 08 Aug 2021 03:56 PM PDT

    The Last of Us Part 2, but if it was directed by Zack Snyder.

    Posted: 08 Aug 2021 09:49 PM PDT

    https://preview.redd.it/38w9h2l9g9g71.png?width=2160&format=png&auto=webp&s=dba25bc170a51e9bc2efe98ffb54886cf2663efe

    *This will contain Major Spoilers for The Last of Us Part II*

    This is an experimental series of Screenshots where I attempt to emulate the look and feel of Zack Snyder's films (during my first playthrough, no less), using both In-Game Photo Mode at HDR Mode and GIMP 2.10 (For Exposure adjustments and "Camera Repositioning") in order to preserve the integrity of Neil Druckmann's creative vision.

    Initially, I started it off as an inside joke after playing around with Photo mode after discovering 1.12.1 Aspect Ratio, but early on; I legitimately want to continue with that Aspect Ratio after realizing that it works too well in most Cutscenes.

    After completing my playthrough, I've taken more than 188 Screenshots (and some didn't made it to the list)- and man- it's alot. It was a bit of a challenge figuring out which shot I wanna take during my playthough while learning new tricks along the way.

    As the huge collection of screenshots won't fit in Reddit: I compiled a set of images over at Imgur or Twitter for you guys to check out!

    In the meantime: Here's a quick preview of one of four screenshots I personally liked:

    https://preview.redd.it/2g3h9hlnh9g71.png?width=2416&format=png&auto=webp&s=cc481ba04de26d37d2474e92fda3ad45b35734e7

    https://preview.redd.it/9fu15ullh9g71.png?width=2410&format=png&auto=webp&s=51980511e7dcf1e16678c12448393c10d1e29206

    https://preview.redd.it/m48i8swxh9g71.png?width=2416&format=png&auto=webp&s=aba7c153819f18bfab91e6ed892ef6de873a5599

    https://preview.redd.it/e94t6q7jh9g71.png?width=2416&format=png&auto=webp&s=594c113dfc3eb2e6f2ceab48fa7a48ea2c5ce7bb

    submitted by /u/AL2009man
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    Manny foreshadowing

    Posted: 08 Aug 2021 03:18 PM PDT

    A detail I just noticed - when playing Abby Seattle Day 1, someone at the FOB medical tent comments to Manny that he isn't going to keep all his fingers. Manny replies "that's ok, you only really need 3." Ellie ends up losing 2 as well! /u/thelastofus

    submitted by /u/calculon86
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    Finished PT2 a while ago. Wanted to share my thoughts and hear what y'all think

    Posted: 08 Aug 2021 09:10 PM PDT

    (a lot of it is personal preference/ opinion and things that were said in some videos I watched after playing the game that better framed the thoughts that were in my head) I enjoyed a lot of the gameplay, and this is truly a technical and visual masterpiece I must say. For me, the idea of playing the "villain/ antagonist" was really cool also their conflict you on who the antagonist really is, but I agree with a lot of other people who say that it could have been better if it was side by side rather than being two entirely different sections. Personally, it was hard to relate with the characters as Abby knowing they're going to die anyway. But imagine playing as Abby first not knowing they're going to die then playing as Ellie to then having to kill them, that would've been so cool! Other than that, I felt like when we played as Abby and even Ellie in some cases at times there wasn't really any sense of direction/ purpose of what we're doing. One example being basically what can be said as a 2-3 hour glorified fetch quest to get supplies for Yara. Don't get me wrong, the gameplay was enjoyable, from making our way down that building full of infected to eventually fighting the rat king, but that thrill was short-lived for me and I would become bored when I realised what my goal actually was. The salt on the wound was finding out it was all for nothing cause Yara dies anyway. I also felt that there wasn't really a proper character arc/ character development for the characters. People might say that there was for Ellie and Abby since they chose to spare each other, but is it really character development for Abby when right before sparing Dana and Ellie she said "good" when she found out Dana was pregnant? Or for Ellie, when right before sparing Abby she was literally threatening to kill an unarmed, unconscious Lev? Idk that's more like a split-second decision right at the end than character development. Also, Tommy's behaviour was so odd afterwards, I mean I think the way Tommy behaved after the Abby incident would've made more sense if he was like that when his own brother died, but that time he was actually stopping Ellie, so overall his character arc just confused me. One of the reasons why the first one was so good was because people loved Joel's character development from being emotionless/ closed off to being empathetic and loving to Ellie. I mean I won't deny it was a good game but after playing the first one it was a disappointing step down for me. You could have all the amazing visuals/ gameplay you want which this game clearly does, but the narrative is always the foundation and if that's weak it'll have a huge impact overall.

    Edit: wow, I'm so glad I wrote this I'd been thinking about so many things and was able to hear so many opinions about stuff. Regardless of what I think about how the game was, I will say that it's one of the few games that still got me thinking about it a lot after finishing it whether it be positive stuff or negative.

    submitted by /u/MadRipjaw_17
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    promised that i wouldn’t kill any dogs but this was me shortly after being mauled by one

    Posted: 08 Aug 2021 08:47 PM PDT

    Most difficult Grounded moments in TLOU2?

    Posted: 08 Aug 2021 09:03 PM PDT

    I am currently playing part 2 on grounded difficulty. That is the only difficulty that I ever played in part 1 (3 times) and I already finished part 2 twice on survival, so I pretty much know what to expect. I'm currently at the beginning of Ellie's day 3 and I am wondering if there is a particularly hard encounter where I should have plenty of ammo. There are a couple that come to my mind, but all of those are in Abby's chapters. I'm pretty reluctant now on wasting ammo and I've played stealth-ish but I wanted to know specific encounters where I should come full prepared. This way they won't be so difficult and I could enjoy the game a little more knowing I can spare a couple of bullets. Thanks a lot in advance.

    submitted by /u/yerry21
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    which story is better in your opinion??

    Posted: 08 Aug 2021 05:47 AM PDT

    tlou 1 or tlou 2 ?

    View Poll

    submitted by /u/DragDisastrous6335
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