The world was just kinda generic post-apocalyptic though. Once again, I have to disagree completely. If anything, I'd like to see a direct continuation of the characters stories. So have the game starting like a day after the first one ended. Maybe starts with Ellie figuring out Joel had lied.
@Dezzy The fungus zombies are interesting, and I'd like to learn more about the factional conflicts in the broader wasteland of America. It's not a hugely original setting, but I think things could be done with it.
I'm done with Joel and Ellie, though, and I don't see need for their stories to continue endlessly in some sort of soap opera-esque fashion. Besides, the ambiguity of their relationship and Ellie's apprehension of the situation is crucial to the way the first game ended.
@MsJubilee People like spectacle, I guess. Although I feel like Naughty Dog's combination of state-of-the-art visuals and presentation with relatively simplistic game design works better for something like Uncharted, personally. Action movies should be fast and loud and fun to look at, and that leans into ND's strengths as a game designer. Slow-paced post-apocalyptic dramas, though? Ehhhhhh.
@Ralizah I'm not a fan of the horror genre so my biases certainly play into my evaluation any time TLoU comes up, but I've never seen the appeal of the series really at all. It always seemed bland and derivative and not in a good way. ND has never made excellent video games, but they tend to make "fun" experiences. Crash (sorry UK, I realize I'll never be invited now) was a terrible plat former. But it was a fun experience. Jak is honestly an awful series (the first one was actually kinda good for it's time though), but it was a fun, interesting world and characters to be in. Uncharted is by-the-numbers shooting gallery gameplay. It's a timeless genre, but get's repetitive fast. But the world, characters, and high-speed trip through exciting 80's action flick pacing makes it an enjoyable, even memorable experience. ND does best creating a fun classic adventure with over the top characters, bombast, fast pacing, and ridiculous over the top action with "big heroes." Their gameplay doesn't stand up without that. TLoU was never their kind of game. There's a different necessity in a slow, artful, expositional narrative of subtle characters in a plodding plot. Even if it weren't zombie horror and were instead a war piece, a D&D game, whatever....ND isn't the right set of traits for that.
BUT I could appreciate it as an arthouse standalone attempt that went well for them. Franchising it just breaks it. It's one of those things that worked once and contained itself well... the whole thing that made the story was that interaction of the girl and the ruffian. Taking the "survival and vulnerability of a child and forced trust with a not so trustworthy tough guy" story that made it interesting and turning it into "lesbian romance revenge story" is just...trying too hard?
But the comments on this game will be more fun than a thread about a FE:Fates x Pokemon game feat. Camilla as Gardevoir! Invariably it will descend into shouts about "homophobic over-represented privileged males angry about one game featuring a lesbian story!!", completely missing the point that the idea that in the middle of a zombie apocalypse where the first game thrived on the idea of uneasy coexistance, the second one becomes an in your face political statement where somehow the most important thing in a zombie filled fungal infection induced zombification of all humanity in the ruins of civilization is getting your groove on, and THEN stacks it with also being 21st century politically conscious. Maybe it's me, but were fungal zombies behind every corner and possibly on everyone, direct contact with other humans wouldn't exactly be high on my list of priorities beyond necessity for existing.
But this game goes in all directions. "We're socially conscious in our narrative direction!" "We have obscene amounts of gratuitous violence in slow, graphic detail with our all new, enhanced Torture Porn Engine(TM)" Yes, I'm jaded. It's not my genre. But even if it were my genre I'd be cracking the same jokes about it. Everything about the game feels like trying too hard to be in the forefront. And it'll work, only because it says ND on thebox and is Sony exclusive. If it were made by 343 and on XBox it would be the punchline of the internet.
@Dezzy "Lol yeah it's more like 'Young girl furiously braces for diarrhea attack'."
I legit LOLed at that ... that's just cruel and so great!
If anyone is in the market for a console and doesn't mine used, Amazon is doing an extra 20% anything from the Warehouse right now. Snagged a Pro for less than $270!
On the topic of TLOU2, it's confirmed that it won't have any multiplayer at all which is quite surprising. Hope the game delivers for those who have been waiting!
@NEStalgia I don't think TLOU Part II is trying to be a political statement (I mean, ND has been 'woke' for a while now, but not in an especially obnoxious way). Gay people would still exist after the fall of civilization, and I don't know that Ellie's revenge quest is meant to be portrayed as anything other than the product of desperation and anger at having someone she loves taken away from her.
But yeah, if they want extreme gore in TLOU Part II, they should have the decency to go full splatterfilm with it so that it still manages to be some fun. Exploitation cinema was fun because the filmmakers knew they were making something they probably shouldn't and, watching it, you got to share in a bit of that elicit thrill. It's subversive and self-aware. TLOU Part II is going to be incessantly joyless with its violence, though. Because it's art™.
I'm glad at least one other person hasn't drank the koolaid regarding Crash Bandicoot. The games were horribly designed and, like everything ND makes, somewhat shallow. Replaying CB: Warped a while back made that clear to me. Even if you tightened up the terrible vehicle controls and improved the presentation, you'd still be left with a mediocre game.
@Ralizah If the romance story began before the apocalypse and is part of her past, it's fair game. But we know that wasn't the case, because we saw her as a child during the apocalypse. Starting a new romance story in the middle of a zombie infested, fungus ridden apocalypse is shoehorning. Doesn't matter if it's homo or hetero, a romance story is shoehorned in this series. She could have been fawning all over Nathan Drake an a shocking crossover, doesn't matter, it doesn't fit. And making it a "woke" as you say, story, just adds to the "media bait" value. If there's a fungal infection ravaging the population into zombies and you're thinking about "exploring your sexual identity" between doomed survival camps, there's a politically correct label for you: "Corpse" or "Zombie" It's just the wrong story for the wrong environment that seems obviously tuned to draw media attention because an entertainment product in 2019 makes it's money on media attention. And it's working. I mean do you even need to read Kotaku to read the article they're going to write? Just imagine the article in your mind, and you're done. it's 76%+ verbatim. Call my a cynic, but I've learned I'm just not pessimistic enough.
Yeah, I agree about splatterfilms and such. I'm not a fan of it either, but I see the thrill in that sense. TLOU2 is like watching a documentary on WWII field medics in reverse.
Hah, yeah, well, technically I'm not sure that outside the UK everyone has drunk the Crash Kool Aid. I was floored how popular the re-release was. It's kinda fun in an arcade way to play the first....but....all 3 games are just the first level over and over, and the design of that, while unique, wasn't great. You're not fighting the obstacles, you're fighting the terrible camera positioning married with bad controls/physics.
Personally I find Wrath of Cortex to be the best of the Crash series....which was not actually an ND game....
@NEStalgia Romance and sex will happen in pretty much any scenario, no matter how apocalyptic it is. People yearn for companionship and love, and that deep-seated need isn't going to go away just because fungus zombies have made the world a dangerous place to live. So there's nothing at all unrealistic or pandering on that front.
The first game was violent, of course, and there was a lot of brutality, both seen and implied, but it never really felt gratuitous, and it certainly didn't market itself with edgy trailers where women get beaten to death or edgy twitter posts about wanting to commit horrible violence. I have no idea what they're going for with this game.
Crash games are designed like literal hallways, and, yes, the camera perspective often makes it difficult to judge how far you should jump. In that sense, they're definitely quintessential ND games, although I think ND has gotten better about hiding the claustrophobically linear nature of their games a bit. I actually quite liked the "wide linear" style of Uncharted 4, and hope they adopt a similar style for TLOU Part II.
Anyway, people in the States might not worship at the feet of the Bandicoot quite so grossly, but the games were popular here as well, and people remember them fondly. Hell, I thought I liked them until I actually tried playing them again.
@Ralizah No wonder the black death nearly wiped out all of Europe....... humans confuse me. I would pretty much avoid every would-be-zombie carrier with a distance of 5 feet or more. Dealing with people in the camps is essential for vital tasks, but all caution should be exercised. The "gala" event in that trailer had my head spinning. Save it for after the zombies aren't crashing the party, mkay?
The violence aspect is, IMO strange. All starting with the E3 reveal trailer where it was a whole section of garroting, slow cutting, just horrid gratuitousness. But where splatterhouse films are bloodbaths of spraying everywhere in rediculous levels for the sake of it, this tries to be realistic on portraying human injury and slow execution. That's probably just a graphic symptom of the general problem of modern game dev: It's about imitating the minute of reality in such minuscule detail it's not really entertaining, it's just a tech demo. Like the 90/00's PC games where the obsession of every game is how realistic the water is. Now it's just extended beyond physical materials movement into how accurately can we simulate human tissue damage and the related blood flow exiting the wound. I hope they are more entertained making it than we are watching it.
I don't mind Crash being literal hallways since that level design is vital to their game design. What I mind is the camera angles and random guesswork about clearing obstacles or not. And the fact that the "running into the camera" design means memorizing the traps rather than reacting to them through endless failure. That plus...well you don't really do anything else in the games.... In modern games they fixed the jumping by ensuring you can't miss and snapping you to the destination. It's like a magnetic dart board with a magnet only on center red. Agreed on Uncharted 4. That had a good "feel" - though they also made the puzzles and action feel better (finally) too.
"Worship at the feet of the Bandicoot"
Ok, now I'm not going to sleep for days.
I may know nothing about The Last of Us, but expecting a teenager not to try and have romance sounds ridiculous to me, no matter the situation. It's those darn hormones.
As for Crash, it's... well I enjoy the N. Sane trilogy, I do. But Crash will never rise above a B-Lister to me, fundamentally thanks to the nature of his games. That's why I'll always push for new Spyro over Crash, Spyro has tons of room to grow as a series.
@link3710 Heeey kids, here's a bunch of other kids, and they may all be carrying syphilis. Or already be so deep into infection they have gone insane, and may be cannibals. Have fun <3 <3
Only replace syphilus with fungal zombie disease and insane cannibals with super powered mutant flesh eating zombies. Same thing.
I sincerely hope some things curb even teenage raging hormones in that situation
Remember the "10/10 would bang" internet meme? Wonder how that works with a picture of a Clicker....
@NEStalgia Humans aren't rational animals in the first place, and the degree to which rationality rules our behavior decreases the closer one gets to the primal instincts that have been baked into our DNA and the DNA of our ancient ancestors for billions of years. Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, will ever stop people from hooking up, much to the chagrin of the anti-natalists among us.
RE: Spyro, it's probably an unpopular opinion around here, but I've always thought of the PS1 Spyro games as being some of the best early 3D platformers. They arguably rival the best ones on the N64. It's a pity that the Crash Bandicoot remasters have probably outsold the Spyro remasters by millions of copies. I'd be shocked if Activision isn't actively working on a brand new Crash Bandicoot for PS4.
I really loved the last of us when it first came out. Seeing it made me want to buy a PS3 just for it and I thought it was one of the best things ever. Over time though, I’ve soured towards it.
I like Zombies but in the end I think I sort of just began to feel like it was a fairly generic game overall. That feeling has sort of transferred over to the Last of Us II so far. That and I have a feeling Naughty Dog will tell a completely predictable story after what was originally fine as a one of story for Ellie and Joel.
I’m sure the game will be gorgeous and play well but I’m probably gonna skip it.
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