The Last of Us Part II

[Moonface]

Yeah, a huge amount has come out and while I've managed to avoid all but one thing that doesn't overly bother me, it seems these leaks are being very divisive for those who see a good chunk of them. It makes the divisiveness about the ending of Part 1 seem like a kids show in comparison.

[Moonface]

The Last of Us Part II Releases June 19
Whether it was spurred on by today's leaks or not, Sony has announced that The Last of Us Part II will release on June 19.

[Dragon Lord]

100% spurred by the leak. There's no way Sony randomly goes from "indefinite delay" to "oh shit never mind we're releasing in June" for no reason. They know they can't wait if they want to salvage any bit of success this game may have, especially after how badly people are ripping the game for the story leaks.

I haven't read any of the story leaks myself, but after seeing many people basically call the story fan-fiction levels of bad, and being someone who has played a series with fan-fiction levels of story writing (Kingdom Hearts), that's all I need to know about how potentially bad this is.

[Mr EliteL]

Goddamn leaks. 

I'll avoid the plot leaks as much as I can. Well, definitely not going to search for them and not even going to search on Google for the game because there'll be undoubtedly news/videos on it, then that'll lead to comments. *sigh*

This will hurt the game in some way, maybe people who couldn't wait and read some, then didn't like will cancel their order.

I'll read a little of reviews when the release is here, but I was already on the fence anyway on whether or not I'll be buying TLOU II. Hm.

[Moonface]

I've seen people wanting to cancel their orders, but I've seen a lot of people jumping to horrific conclusions. For example, that one buff lady in one of the earlier trailers where Joel and Ellie are never featured, is being labelled as a trans character just because she's a) buff and b) apparently 4chan jokingly called her trans in light of these leaks and the internet ran wild with it.

Leaks or not, the game will still sell well unless it is received poorly in reviews because the outcry to the plot is really a minority and I expect a number of them are just bitching to troll. Uncharted 3 sold well and if we look at that games plot it was easily the worst one Naughty Dog made, and I'm not judging that as just a comparison to their other stories but as a story in general, it's badly done. Had some good ideas but as a whole package it doesn't work in a lot of places. Fine, that didn't leak before, but it also didn't exactly hurt Uncharted 4, which some people had issues with it, and that in turn didn't hurt Lost Legacy. It would need to be a real fucking trainwreck in terms of how the story is told for this game to sell terribly. Even the first game doesn't exactly do anything special in terms of story beats; it's just the way it tells it that makes it work.

I've seen some people say they're cancelling because they don't like the apparent level of violence this game is going for and that if you found that one trailer I already spoke about in this post unsettling, then you may find the whole game to be difficult to sit through and should reconsider your purchase. That I get, same as I get if people think the plot just isn't for them. Just the ones screaming about trans and SJW's come off as just having a stick up their arse.

[ShiraNoMai]

I'm just sitting here, waiting for the damn release so all this drama can go away

[Moonface]

I don't think the drama will go away with the release. If the game is actually received poorly in ways people hope, it will just give justification to their behavior. If not, it'll just turn into arguments over whether people should have supported the game, or that people are just ass kissing, or whatever. I don't think many already against the game are going to change the hill they die on even if the release turns out well.

[Moonface]

The Last of Us Part II - Official Story Trailer

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Holy shit at the level of detail!  
Leaks be damned, I'm still really looking forward to this and seeing for myself how it all turns out after playing through the whole game.

[ShiraNoMai]

Yeah same, I don't honestly care about all the drama. Would rather see for myself.

[Moonface]

I'm trying to figure out where Joel and Ellie are at 0:09 in the trailer. It's obviously before Part II takes place, and judging by their outfits it takes place during Summer of Part I. The only city we see Joel and Ellie visit is Pittsburgh, but there is no moment in that arc where the player is not present for a new moment to arise. They enter Pittsburgh by car, and from that moment there is no time skipping until the end of the Summer arc, but that doesn't occur in a city. The only other explanation would be that they walked through another city on the way to Tommy's Dam and that's when that cutscene takes place. Also, the police car doesn't match the ones from Pittsburgh either. While most lack writing, there is one that does, but the letters are bold and yellow.

[ShiraNoMai]

New State of Play Announced Featuring The Last of Us: Part II




Tune in this Wednesday, May 27th for a new deep dive into the story and gameplay of The Last of Us: Part II, featuring Naughty Dog Vice President and The Last of Us Part II Director Neil Druckmann. The presentation is expected to last a little more than 20 minutes, and will end with an extended sequence showing off about eight minutes of never-before-seen gameplay. Air times will be as follows: 1PM PST/4PM EST/9PM BST on Twitch and YouTube.

[Moonface]

It'll be interesting to see how close this gameplay footage is to what was shown back when the game was first announced. I remember how the hotel sequence of Part I was completely different in the final product compared to the early footage, with a lot of what the enemies did or what Joel could do completely cut down or removed. There's a lot of contextual stuff in Part II's gameplay that's been shown that I can't help but wonder will it be in the final product, or was it a vertical slice that Naughty Dog had as a vision for the game that ultimately couldn't be realised.

[Moonface]

Here's the video for anyone who missed it or wants to rewatch it:



I am so hyped for this game after watching this video!
I can't wait to see what the new infected are and look like, and the gameplay looks to be really fun. I like that enemies have really gritty death sounds, it helps to convey how this situation would play out in reality instead of enemies just collapsing like piles of bricks with some gamey scream or something. That dog kill is going to absolutely send social media into a frenzy, if not for the realism of it then for the sheer fact that in this video it wasn't proven to be necessary. Saying that, I'd have done the exact same thing the player did in the video, unless when I play the game for myself I find the act to actually be uncomfortable to perform.

[Moonface]

So obviously the entire thing is pre-rendered CG stuff, but I liked this commercial Sony put together for the game that just came out:



I don't know if it's intentional or not but I like how Ellie bursting through the double doors at the end is very similar to the debut trailer for The Last of Us when Ellie and Joel burst through the hotel doors and you see the city outside all overgrown.

[Mr EliteL]

...and the video is already unavailable. Noes! 

Did watch most of the State of Play, glad it wasn't loads of shots of people to talking at the camera, instead had gameplay and scenes from the game.