The Last of Us Franchise - Because it's apparently a franchise now. This thread has been double-DMCA’d by Sony Interactive Entertainment.

[Kurtis Trent]

When you thought Abs couldn't be more possible of a Mary Sue the game literally tells you this. Apparently she's also the best archer in the team even though there's absoultely no fucking reason for her to be one.
Forget the Star Wars chick, this is a completely new level of shit character writing

 

[CWCissey]

Cuckmann's bringing his characters to the forefront while attempting to assassinate the characters of the first game...

 

[ZehnBoat]

When you thought Abs couldn't be more possible of a Mary Sue the game literally tells you this. Apparently she's also the best archer in the team even though there's absoultely no fucking reason for her to be one.
Forget the Star Wars chick, this is a completely new level of shit character writing

but guys, it's not the writers fault, it's the leakers fault
think of all the people who worked on this, even though i'm not going to address the working conditions
and lack of payment

 

[Judge Dredd]

Can I ask why they went down this path? I mean if you already have the weaboo demographic nailed down, why jeopardize that monopoly by actively maligning it?

It's not just Sony, other companies do this.

1. Appeal to niche audience.
2. Make money appealing to that niche audience.
3. Expand.
4. Repeat 1-3 until you're big enough to go mainstream.
5. Piss in the face of the niche audience because too big to fail/don't need the niche audience/think the niche is holding back true mainstream appeal.
6. Get btfo'd so hard that the only way to survive is step 1.

There's some variation of course. Nintendo keeps trying to use gimmicks to repeat the success of the Wii and DS, and when it fails they go back to pandering to the MovieBob's of the world who will re-buy their NES collections every few years, but it's the same idea.

For weebs games, there is this stupid idea that the existence of anime boob games on a console will scare away the normies, or that frat bros and soccer moms would buy Atelier and Fire Emblem if the boobs were smaller and the pelvis's were removed.

 

[BlueCandle]

Is the secret super-clean, pristine gym full of chads supposed to be the big 'Gotcha' the writers were talking about when they whined that people didn't know the full story from the leaks?

If thats the case then I guess forget everything bad anyone ever said about this game. Wow, how could we be so dumb not to expect while everyone else on the planet lives in dirty, barely hospitable shanty towns, that She-man had access to Planet Fitness. This game is perfect now.

 

[Francis York Morgan]

When you thought Abs couldn't be more possible of a Mary Sue the game literally tells you this. Apparently she's also the best archer in the team even though there's absoultely no fucking reason for her to be one.
Forget the Star Wars chick, this is a completely new level of shit character writing

View attachment 1263200

Well, you see, there is a couple of "good reasons" for that.

1. Ellie started learning how to use a bow in the first game as a matter of survival and Druckmann's OC that he wants to become the new main character has to be better than Ellie.

2. With this being kicked around for nearly a decade, I wouldn't be surprised that this is a holdover from the Hunger Games popularity.

3. (More practical reason established from the first game) The fungus zombies are drawn to noises so bows are very practical for taking the things down without making too much noise.

Considering the lack of respect for anything else from the first game, I am certain that the first two points were considered more than the last.

 

[YourMommasBackstory]

but guys, it's not the writers fault, it's the leakers fault
think of all the people who worked on this, even though i'm not going to address the working conditions
and lack of payment

Imagine if you had to crunch for years in hopes to get nice cash at the end and an addition to your portfolio, but company laid you off.
I would hate the product I worked on just because of that. Most people work not for the art, but for money and career benefits.
It’s ridiculous how AAA gaming industry in US is considered as high-end job but at the same time companies allow themself do this to workers.

 

[Buddy Booth]

This is making the rounds as the reason why the leak happened.
I know it's reddit, but it doesn't sound particularly far fetched, so eh.

 

[Notgoodwithusernames]

For gods sake MGSV has a better story about revenge and the toll it takes... and that game doesn’t even have much of a story to begin with.

I think this game may mark the end of Sony’s dominance at least for the time being. Unless the PS5 does some real spectacular shit like say being backwards compatible with all previous Sony Consoles and the best launch line up in the history of launch lineups I only see 3 possible outcomes

1. Much like the ps3 it stumbles out of the gate until Sony eats humble pie and regains it’s footing. The PS5 still gets third place but the latter half of the systems lifespan is definitely a great improvement over the first half.

2. The PS5 becomes the company’s Wii U: A flop that causes Sony to rethink its strategy and shift gears by introducing the PS5.5/PS6 as a fresh start.

3. The PS5 is such a flop that Sony is forced to bow out of the console game.

 

[Clem Fandango]

it's okay, they got GYM

View attachment 1263083

Oh boy, I hope there's a training section where you have to repeatedly bash X to make the tranny lift dumbells!

 

[Hangula Hungui]

„...I‘m Redfield.“

Oh boy, I hope there's a training section where you have to repeatedly bash X to make the tranny lift dumbells!

Press X to dilate

 

[Miang]

View attachment 1262655

Okay, there's that word again, "honest." It feels "honest." I feel like this has been turned into some buzzword that ND creative has latched onto as their first bulwark against criticism and spread around the talent and the office to parrot.

Actually, where have I heard that before...ah here we go. 1:05 - 1:40.

"...and you start asking yourself a lot of questions - 'do I have what it takes to do this again?, 'will people love it?' - and the beauty of being under the auspices of Naughty Dog and Neil Druckmann is that question is irrelevant, because we're not doing this so that people like it, we're doing this because it's honest, we believe we have a story to tell, and the second that we start trying to make something that we think you'll like, that's when we've failed. Neil writes honestly. He asks us to perform honestly. And ultimately, all we want to do is make a game we want to play [...]"

That video is from 2018 but oh, listening to it now, it's like the first whiff of a freshly uncorked red you've been saving for a while.

 

[Aqua Panda]

I refuse to believe Abby wasn't a man or transgender in the original concept. I'm betting she was changed last minute because someone at Naughty Dog realized how badly that would come across. The proportions just don't work. The gym looks entirely out of place and is likely a last minute addition to save face.

As for the leakers being motivated by pay bonuses, not suprised. Gaming is one of those few industries that can pay you substantially under market in hope of bonuses. (Basically glorified tips)

I just hope that Sony opens up and does a real reflective investigation over this. The fact ND corporate culture got this bad should be a major warning sign.

Edit: Hell, the first game goes out of it's way to tell you that food is scarce and most people are gaunt and thin due to it. That's a whole lot of food and water for those gains.

 

[TexOffender]

Okay, there's that word again, "honest." It feels "honest." I feel like this has been turned into some buzzword that ND creative has latched onto as their first bulwark against criticism and spread around the talent and the office to parrot.

Actually, where have I heard that before...ah here we go. 1:05 - 1:40.

That video is from 2018 but oh, listening to it now, it's like the first whiff of a freshly uncorked red you've been saving for a while.

Well that special edition comes with an Ellie figure and a steelbook with ellie's face that the fans should like enough to spend the extra money for. Then the story they tell just shits on everything about her lol.

Druckman thinks he's George RR Martin or what?


Edit: ummmm, so was pointed out to me. That book Abby has is City of Thieves. Written by David fucking Benioff.

 

[Aqua Panda]

Druckman thinks he's George RR Martin or what?

Ya know, with how popular GoT got with people, it's possible. Ripping Martin's kill em all strategy has been popular the last few years.

 

[Overcooked Raccoon]

Sounds fake, no one makes multi-disk games amymore. If anything, it'll be "episodic" and I don't see it coming faster than like two and a half years.

Only company I know of that has released a two disk game in our current BD age is Rockstar with Red Dead 2, and that was because the first disk was only an installation one.

If this is true it's gonna be a patch, DLC or some crap like that. It's prob gonna be like Mass Effect 3 all over again but this time people actually know what they're getting into.

 

[Kurtis Trent]

Well, you see, there is a couple of "good reasons" for that.

1. Ellie started learning how to use a bow in the first game as a matter of survival and Druckmann's OC that he wants to become the new main character has to be better than Ellie.

2. With this being kicked around for nearly a decade, I wouldn't be surprised that this is a holdover from the Hunger Games popularity.

3. (More practical reason established from the first game) The fungus zombies are drawn to noises so bows are very practical for taking the things down without making too much noise.

Considering the lack of respect for anything else from the first game, I am certain that the first two points were considered more than the last.

Literally just a bigger version of Ellie, but better at everything with no flaws at all. She even has no problems getting guys and all that. How was her life "ruined" again?

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

Are they actually copying fucking lisa of all things?

Now I really want someone to add in that workout music over footage of Abby beating the shit out of Ellie, matching up the "UH HUH" grunts with her punches.

 

[madeinabyss31]

I refuse to believe Abby wasn't a man or transgender in the original concept. I'm betting she was changed last minute because someone at Naughty Dog realized how badly that would come across. The proportions just don't work. The gym looks entirely out of place and is likely a last minute addition to save face.

As for the leakers being motivated by pay bonuses, not suprised. Gaming is one of those few industries that can pay you substantially under market in hope of bonuses. (Basically glorified tips)

I just hope that Sony opens up and does a real reflective investigation over this. The fact ND corporate culture got this bad should be a major warning sign.

Edit: Hell, the first game goes out of it's way to tell you that food is scarce and most people are gaunt and thin due to it. That's a whole lot of food and water for those gains.

They stated going in they wanted to "blur the lines" of what male and female look like to be more trans friendly. The SUPPOSED trans person is Abby's friend, the bald Asian.

 

[Gar For Archer]

@Dave. brought it up with UEG's take on things, and I felt the need to chime in a bit.

While there's many problems brought in by the woke brigade's pathological need to virtue signal and pander, UEG is right when he brings up that one casualty of the night-endless focus on identity politics is that people are now beyond hypersensitive to it. It has gotten to the point where even the slightest hint of kowtowing to wokeness can lead to a pull-out by people who would otherwise support a given game.

This is, by far, the cruelest aspect of these progtards' need to push shit, because what used to be no big thang in almost every form of media is now constantly leading to a need for affirmative feedback. Anyone with any experience in media can tell you that enormous progress has been made in the last two decades, absolutely none of which was due to this pandering bullshit. It was because there was no institutional barriers once shit like the Comics Code Authority and Nintendo of America fucked off, and artists were freer than ever to express themselves. No one cared what a character's race, sexual preference, or professed gender was; they cared if they were a well-developed character, first and foremost.

We're looking at the beginning of a time when that level of expression isn't going to be received as well, because these fuckers ruined it, and solely so they could intellectually masturbate over everyone else. History will not be kind to them in any regard.

I think people can generally identify when something is done for the sake of wokeness vs. genuinely being part of the creator’s design intent. It’s like the nontroversy about how the new Cyberpunk game will have a slider for gender (or something like that, I’m only aware of it through Yong’s video) - nobody really gave a shit, it fits into the setting, and everyone’s still super hyped for it despite “non-binary”/“non gender conforming” characters normally being a massive red flag of wokeness.

You also have to consider that there‘s a decent chunk of gamers that probably lean center-left and don’t mind genuine progressive themes/characters, but despise wokeness nonetheless. From personal experience having gone to university in NYC, there’s a growing class of young people who’d be considered bleeding-heart liberals in a sane world who are as sick and tired of woke shit as everyone else, if not even moreso because they can actually see the harm that woke trash does to causes they genuinely care about.

I think the new BL3 DLC proves that customers don’t automatically associate gay character = woketrash game. If anything, I’ve seen more people praising Hanmerlocke for actually being decently written (... ya know, for a Borderlands character) and having a relationship that goes beyond “ha gay”. The only people complaining about it are the usual suspects bitching about the Lovecraftian influence because Lovecraft RAYCISS and is a BAD MAN.

I just don’t think the pushback against woke will necessarily translate into a pushback against all progressive expression. If anything, I think it will result in people embracing and uplifting games that manage to have progressive themes or characters without being preachy and woke.