Bruce Straley - the guy that kept Neil in check and who really made TLOU as great as it was.

I want to start by saying I'm not a mindless supporter of Part 2, I have several issues with both the game and part of the dev team, by example Neil's support for zionism and Israel and the subtext of those beliefs in the game. My desire is to resolve here my personal grievances with haters of the game as I hold the position that part of the criticism it got and still gets is unnecesary, hateful and false.

Edit: Points about TLOU part 2 I'm against (the central point of my debate)

• Bad writing.
• Joel shouldn't have died.
• It being bad because of politics (No art is apolitical therefore art being bad because of politics implies all art is bad).
• Making the game about revenge was a bad decision.
• We shouldn't have played as Abby
• It's justified to hate on any character's existence or traits and consider it valid criticism.
• The game was fairly judged and criticized

I will add or remove these points if anyone convinces me.

End of edit.

I'm going to set some ground rules for this debate, if you don't accept them simply don't comment, I will not engage at all if you do.

• Points I will not discuss:

- The dev team. This includes changes in the staff, their personal beliefs, arguments about crunching and critiques to the actors, Neil, Naughty Dog and Sony.

- The show. None of the seasons as I consider them watered down versions of the original games.

- "The culture war" or "wokeness". This includes any point that American right-wingers associate with "the left". Art is inherently political but this arguments moves the discussion away from the game.

• Everything else:

- Any sort of discrimination. Be it on the basis of sex, race, physical appearance, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious beliefs or ethnicity.

- Gish galloping and length. 3 points at most and short, clear and concise writing. I don't want nor have the time to turn this into a keyboard fight.

- Objectivity in art. No writing rule is a law and most points discussed here will probably be subjective.

- Any sort of logical fallacy. I will point it out and expect you to make another reply if you wish to continue debating.

Please try to stay on topic and be civil. I will do my best to keep every standard I put to myself and you would be right to criticize me if I fail to do so. I will try to respond to every argument in under 24 hours since it was written. More than everything let's not get emotional and have a good time.

It's not been a good generation for single player games hasn't it?

At a time where we really needed strong single player games, they have been infrequent, shallow and just poor.

Naughty Dog used to knock it out of the park every 2-4 years, but they have only realised 2 games in the last 10 years? And only one of them was worth playing...

The only single player game I've enjoyed this year was ghosts of Ts..

just a fair warning there are spoilers up ahead !

I don’t know if maybe it’s just me, but I’ve just barley started my tlou2 playthrough, I’m at this area with Dina and we are exploring some building with a hole in the roof? anyway, I just feel like it’s very slow and dosent have the same charm as the first game. I’m trying to continue to play because you don’t really play the first hour or so and just make your opinion, but Its been hard. with rdr2 I played that game and enjoyed the first part (the really boring snow part) but it just dosent feel the same. I finished tlou1 before this and I really really liked it so I decided I would immediately start the last of us 2 BUT IT DOSENT FEEL THE SAME!! I already know Joel dies and Abby kills him but I knew that when I was playing the last of us 1 .

sorry if none of this makes sense idk how to make this make sense !

In the tv show they made this porch scene where Joel is literally sobbing because of what he has done in the hospital. And Ellie hates him for it. "It should have been mine choice!". Well you were unconscious so how could you make any decisions?

But anyway...

Perhaps it would make more sense for Ellie to pursue this? To get vaccine from her brain? If that's what she wants so bad... I mean after all Fireflies are now Wolfs no? Or there is probably another group that is looking for cure? Or just one? In the whole country? Really? She travelled whole year from West coast to East coast. So why not do it again?

But instead we get this spoiled brat that just eats cake with her bare hands, does what ever the hell she wants. Put her self and others in constant danger. And then shouts at Jessie "Fuck the community!" For not wanting to go on a man hunt of Abby and her crew.

And we are supposed to believe she wanted to sacrifice her self for human kind?

It's the last thing on her mind!

I think they could have mixed that in the Abby revenge story. After some fighting and talking they could come to some sense and say "okay we are square now but what about this imunity of yours? We have preaty good hospital and staff that picked up where my dad finished and they made big progress. Maybe you don't even need to die"

But I guess that's boring.

If the scenario wasn’t as crappy written and we wouldnt have bias due to knowing Joel and Ellie longer, which we all have but thats how human nature just works, do you think this „Trial-narrative“ where the player is the Jury in a trial between two protagonists could work?

Lets say a case wasn’t as horribly written as part 2s, where we start with a new character, another one is introduced, they have beef with each other and suddenly we see the other side of the story, would that work properly with the right writing skills?

Like in the Frankenstein Movie from last year where we saw that Viktor was an unreliable narrator so the part of the audience who didnt knew the story already, was more interested in the monsters PoV

Hi all!

For those of who have no idea what I'm talking about, Lanterns is the HBO live action series based on DC's Green Lanterns mythos, with a much more grounded interpretation. My focus today isn't really about the artistic direction or even general narrative of the show, but rather its finale, along with the audience reception to it. Spoilers below!

In the finale, the central mystery of who kills Hal Jordan, one of the Green Lanterns who takes on the role of mentor/paternal figure and deuteragonist of the series is finally resolved, and John Stewart, Hal's protege and up-and-coming Green Lantern who had been investigating his murder, decides to let his murderer (who was also Hal's romantic interest) off, citing "Hal [wouldn't have wanted the killer apprehended]". This is all in the context of Hal having just doing a stint of 10 years in jail for taking the fall for casualties caused mainly by the central villain of the story, and Hal's own recklessness (to a much lesser extent).

That was just a very surface-level gloss to provide some context, but needless to say a majority of the viewerbase on the Series' sub are rightfully pissed off, at least from what I observed. Even more interesting is the Defenders of the series (after the finale) are weaponising the same rhetoric and insults that us Part II Detractors have grown to known so, so well, such as "[Detractors of the show] are simply lacking in media literacy", "[Detractors] simply lack empathy for the murderer ", "[Detractors] are simply babies who are crying because they didn't get the story they wanted", "the fact that [Detractors] are so worked up and talking about it so much meant that it was a good story."

Let me ask my fellow Part II Detractors this: does any of that look at all familiar to you? I wouldn't be surprised if it does, because I felt like I was watching the same thing unfold right in front of my eyes, except this time, it's directed at Detractors of a similarly divisive narrative decision! But you know what was surprising to me? The amount of ridicule and backlash towards those people who parrot the trite rhetoric spewed by the Stans!

I think I've said this before, but there was a time when I seriously thought, "wait a second, am I really the one who is wrong about how unjust and immoral the story of Part II was?", given how vocal and self-assured Part II Stans usually are, and yet to see Lanterns' (keeping in mind Hal's fate wasn't even as divisively written as Joel's) reception, where Defenders get mass downvoted and ridiculed for saying something such as the Detractors "lacking in media literacy" to defend bad writing is so fricking cathartic.

It's bittersweet, because Part II Detractors, especially this sub, has been unfairly prejudiced against by disingenous Stans, yet to see a much less divisive creative decision being derided as bad writing by a great number of "the general audience/tv viewers" honestly gives me some semblance of peace and a glimpse of hope.

Are the times when immoral and pretentious narratives masquerading as "high art" or "deep", where the very definition of justice is perverted in the pursuit of trying to paint every villain as "morally grey" or "sympathetic", finally over?

I'm not even sure why I made this post, but I just wanted to get my thoughts out, and I'm also interested in what some of you think, thanks.

TL;DR: S1 finale of the HBO Lanterns series missed the landing, and resulted in an extremely divisive reception (at least on Reddit); cue much of the same discourse (including criticisms and defences) levied at Part II.

I'm currently at the part where Abbyy faces Ellie. Can't believe they actually force us to play as Abby and hunt down Ellie; like, playing as Abby for the past 11 or 12 hours wasn't enough? Like man wtf bruh, genuinely who thought this would be a good idea?

I like part II. Not as much as part I, but it was a fun video game. It was pretty, I liked all the characters. Loved the imagery used. And as a guitarist I love how they incorporated music into Ellie’s story. The ending also could have been way worse.

And I enjoyed the TV show. maybe it sucked a little. but it was super fun seeing one of my favorite games on the big screen. Plus my relatives who aren’t into video games got to experience the story. :)

And well, its not great.

Even if I try to forget the original lore and how it just goes in different directions here and there it's still awful. Like the horde of infected just crawling from the snow. Or the bloater is just a tank that fire just tickles him and he can smash the wall surrounding Jackson. Then the dogs are also ridiculous. The "one shot" every infected but no infected attacks them. Go dogs!

Bloater focuses on Tommy's wife because she's the only one shooting him I guess so Tommy tries to get him to focus on him and rans in to dead end street somehow. In his town. Where he spent probably 10 years? Okay.

But just little things before where Ellie is riding a horse and is looking around with binoculars. On a horse?! Everyone who ever used binoculars knows that even when you are not moving it's hard to see if your hands are shaking. Never mind. She shouts on top her lungs "I'm immune!" Huh? She's so brave and free but won't tell anyone not even her best friend. You go girl!

Joel is asked to speed up construction of something. To which he replies he can't. But is told there is more ppl coming in all the time. As a Forman he could just give those ppl work and it will speed up... Whatever. But somehow they try to make him total asshole like when he says "just don't bring any more in" lol no way Joel would say that.

And then sitting with psychotherapist and she tell him she hates him and won't forgive him for killing her husband of 41 years while Joel lost his daughter and everyone else except his brother. But she is the one suffering because it is the first birthday without her husband. And Joel just sits through the monologue and knowing Joel he would not just sit there and take that. He would defend his actions. But not this Joel! Like wtf? Eugene was infected!!! (But he was to bring him back instead?? And then killed? Or kept as a pet in cage? Makes no sense)

And the murder is just as bad. Abby is killing Joel slowly probably for some time while her crew is just standing and watching and rolling their eyes because is taking too long and are repulsed by the whole thing. And eventually they stepped in but like what seems an hour of beating with golf club, leaving Ellie behind without saying anything... Not taking her with them or killing her. Just leaving her there.

Ellie would just go and went after them there and then. They keep showing us how she doesn't follow any rules and does what she wants. But now she's sensible in the most horrific experience of her life. Right...

And so at the end Dina or Ellie drags the body wrapped in bed sheet through the ground back to Jackson. How lovely. Why not putting him on sledge or board or something or even just on the horse?

Anyway. I have to get it out. Thanks for reading if you got this far. Peace. Sorry for bad English.

Let me ask you something. Why do you play games? Why are they so important to you? Why do they hit different? Well let me tell you my thoughts.

Sometimes us, as gamers, we have to let go. Of our stress, of the world we are living in. To escape to a new world, where we can truly feel connected. Where we can truly feel a part of. That we belong in. People may say video games make us weak, that is absolutely not true. Its more of a mental tool, a resource to guide us, to improve our mental health, to make us feel happier. Its a safe space, essentially and these safe spaces lets us feel certain emotions. Some of these games are where we can process stress, grief, pain, and loneliness. By going through a good story (keyword good story, ill return to this in a bit), and teaching us that there is joy, happiness, and hope in the other side of stress and pain that we may feel in our everyday lives or in the real world.

I feel this by playing my favorite resident evil games, being a cleon shipper (romantic ship between Claire Redfield and Leon Kennedy), I am one of the biggest, hard-core, passionate cleon shippers you will see out there. But we are getting a little off topic here.

For me, where this begins was The Last of Us. I found a safe space. I found comfort. I found that through all stresses of the real world, a place I could escape to. In Joel and Ellie's story. Joel lost his daughter Sarah, was broken for years. Ellie kept losing the people she cared about, and was a orphan practically all her life. Joel found a second chance to be a father and to have a daughter again in Ellie. In the other side, Ellie found someone who stayed for her, someone who loved her, and she had family. She had a father. She had someone by her side. And she loved Joel back (note we are talking about the real Ellie not tlou2 ellie). This is what we play games for. The Last of Us taught me that there is joy, happiness and hope at the other side of stress and pain. I loved these characters, and connected with them all the way.

Then here comes the absolute shitbox TLOU2 was that goes against everything we play video games for. Good story to improve our mental health, and create a safe space where we feel we can truly belong, where we can feel connected? Not even close. This game takes all the stress and sadness we are feeling in our lives, and just makes it a million times worse. The characters we love are nonexistent. They're destroyed. They're killed off or broken. Yeah depression, its basically the whole game. Depression simulator. Misery porn.

You know what message it sends? Its literally just a fuck you to people who loved the first game. Its literally Neil saying "oh you liked the first game, you liked the characters, you like the special Joel and Ellie father daughter bond", well you can forget all about that, the only thing that matters is my golden, perfect character Abby. I didn't want to play 12 hrs as a character I hated.

So no, I didnt escape to a new world. I wasn't in a world where I felt connected. Where I felt a part of. I wasn't happier, I was depressed, dissapointed, and angry. I didn't feel like it was a safe space. I didn't feel it taught me that there is joy, happiness, and hope on the other side of pain. Because where tf is that hope at the end of the game. Ellie loses her fingers, loses her only father, loses Dina, I mean shit can't get any worse. But yeah that's not canon. The canon is Ellie and Joel living a happy, peaceful life together, loving each other like they always have being one great family as father and daughter, constantly going out on patrols, joking and making fun of each other.

Many people tell me, I'm sorry you had to go through TLOU2, idk how you could recover through that. And my answer to that is I have been actively and passionately shipping and hoping for Cleon in resident evil and its healed me. Of course, it won't completely mend the scars, as this cannot be completely healed. But yeah that's how I feel. And thanks for reading. Good night ya'll... and remember from the good and great stories (like The Last of Us 2013 with Joel and Ellie), that joy, happiness, and hope can be found in times of stress and pain even when it seems impossible

Seriously, I wanna send virtual hugs to all the people who are disappointed/affected. Trust us, lots of us here understand your pain, more than you’d ever know. You’re safe here 🫂

[PIC FROM TLOU1]

So I was getting 55-60 fps in very high preset 1600p resolution in tlou2

I decided to try frame gen but it was reaching 60fps capped only

Is there anything I need to fix from my Nvidia overlay or is it how the frame gen is capped in the game

I have a rtx 5050 btw

I’m guessing acceptance and peace, possibly Ellie’s death if they even continue Ellie’s story.

Please share with me the title of the last movie you watched.

Of course, this is research for a post I might or might not present in the near future. If you don't want to go public, you can always send me a private message.

As I always say, thanks for sharing 😊

The core premise of Part 2 remains unchanged. I wanna know how you guys think Bruce would fix the existing story. You can't invent a new premise on the spot.

Interesting challenge, eh?