tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904713839696769313.post4062312069460226549..comments2024-02-26T00:27:47.712-08:00Comments on Cross-Up: On The Last of Us: Left BehindVoltechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01038586008627390463noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904713839696769313.post-89510949677402681132014-02-18T22:05:22.638-08:002014-02-18T22:05:22.638-08:00That's probably a fair assumption on the whole...That's probably a fair assumption on the whole TLoU vs. P4G front. To be fair, that's only because my rage -- once unleashed -- is a great and terrible thing. Seriously, people have assumed (perhaps rightly) that I would make an excellent berserker. I'm not in any rush to prove them right, but it could happen one day. One dark day, indeed...<br /><br /><br />If nothing else, I'm thankful that Left Behind at least TRIED to be the game that, you know, THE ACTUAL GAME SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN THE FIRST PLACE. Maybe Naughty Dog -- and plenty of other devs -- aren't interested in trying to push the boundaries of games, storytelling, gameplay or otherwise. For now, at least. But maybe there's a chance that people will play LEft Behind, realize the key differences between that and TLoU, and realize that there's more that can be offered. <br /><br /><br />Among TLoU's maelstrom of problems, there's one thing I hope people take away from the DLC. People need to understand that being dark is not having an absence of joy or hope or levity. Those aren't immature things. Those are things that make life more honest, more colorful, and more worthwhile -- be it in the real world or fiction. But then again, if people understood that more readily, then my brother wouldn't have dragged me kicking and screaming to see RoboCop and I would have done a post on The Lego Movie instead.<br /><br /><br />So yeah, look forward to that. Gruff white males all day, EVERY DAY -- only this time, with ARMOR and MORE GUNS!<br /><br /><br />...Can you tell I'm not happy about RoboCop?Voltech44noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904713839696769313.post-51268764169073827752014-02-18T06:15:47.554-08:002014-02-18T06:15:47.554-08:00...Yeah. Your hatred for The Last of Us is much gr......Yeah. Your hatred for The Last of Us is much greater than mine to Persona 4 [Golden]. It's only comparable due to how much we groan, moan, and want to hurt ourselves over an over-bloated "masterpiece" seen by the vast majority of the planet.<br /><br />Okay, nevermind. It's practically the same. *mutters* God I hate that overblown -<br /><br />Anywho. Back on topic.<br /><br />The only time DLC ripped me off was Mass Effect 3's $15 Omega. I still play it since I feel obligated to do a galaxy-wide victory lap on each save file (aka 100% completion - minus multiplayer), but it should've been $7. It was just not worth that much. I'll get to it eventually on my blog, but I know the problems it has is far different from Left Behind. At least you had relatively nice things to say about Left Behind.<br /><br />As for The Last of Us, I still won't buy this game. I just won't. You gave me plenty of reasons to just not bother with it. This game will not change my mind on zombie-apocalypse plots, the generic video game protagonist I will forever bitch about until change happens, and unlikeable characters overall. But I think I'm beating a dead horse by this point. On the other hand, I can say Naughty Dog is not a developer I should think fondly of for this generation. Not even my free copy of Uncharted 3 convinced me that this company is worth my time. It has too much of the Call of Duty paint job to make me find anything worthwhile beyond it.<br /><br /><br /><br />And sheesh, this game. I wonder once we get out of this stagnating phase of our culture's lifespan and we'll call ourselves out for the late 2000s to early 2010s' borefest. The infection just needs to stop. If I see one more buzz-cut, brown-haired, buff, muscular, gruff caucasian straight male toting a gun -<br /><br /><br />And if the new Robocop fits most of this criteria, expect a nuclear explosion on the eastern seaboard.Melanie Lightnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6904713839696769313.post-33382761568838695742014-02-17T22:25:19.370-08:002014-02-17T22:25:19.370-08:00"I am the reason Naughty Dog made Last of Us...."I am the reason Naughty Dog made Last of Us. I liked Jak and Daxter, Jak II, and Jak III."<br /><br /><br /><br />Well there's your problem. You should have sung praises about Jak X: Combat Racing so as to appease the gaming gods! That would have stopped The Last of Us from happening!<br /><br /><br />I admit that I don't know much about the Jak games, since I didn't have a PS2 until somewhere around the time after Jak 3 came out. But that really is an interesting (if harrowing) look at the series; I never would have guessed that there were so many parallels between that and TLoU. Makes me wonder if The Misadventures of Joel Grumpybuns was Naughty Dog's dream game -- the sort of thing they always wanted to make, and most of the other stuff was either practice or a way to build consumer loyalty. It's possible, if you're the optimistic sort...even if they botched it.<br /><br /><br />The other alternative is that TLoU is the game that it is because of pressures from the industry. I was thinking about mentioning this in the post (even if I kind of implied it), but I didn't want to play THAT CARD or be THAT GUY. But I guess I might as well say it now: I can't shake the feeling that Left Behind is the extra stuff because Naughty Dog was afraid of what would happen if they didn't have a gruff white male as the player character. Everything seems to point to Ellie being the protagonist -- or at least getting the role she deserved -- but for some reason we have to play as a guy who we're not supposed to care about nearly as much as Ellie...so the question is, why is he there in the first place? <br /><br /><br />There was an article on the now-defunct Penny Arcade Report a while back that suggested that the reason games are so rigid in their practices (gruff white males all day EVERY DAY!) is because the devs behind them aren't diverse in the slightest. No women, no different ethnic groups, and now they've aged enough to reach a point in their lives where suddenly they do/have to/should care about the presence of children in their lives and the world at large. Given BioShock Infinite and (to a lesser extent) Telltale's Walking Dead, I wonder if that's true. But TLoU doubles down by being crippled by triple-A expectations. I can't in good faith buy into the hype/praise of the game, because in my eyes it's still just the same old, same old with more sad guitars, hollow worlds trying and failing to have meaning, and attempts at being emotional just because there's a girl who looks saaaaaaaaaaaaaaad in virtually every piece of promotional art.<br /><br /><br />So basically, TLoU strikes me as a game that's for Naughty Dog, but just so happens to be a game for others because of the usual big-budget trappings.<br /><br /><br />...You know, I was going to ask if you were all right over on your end, given how much volcanic rage erupted in this comment of yours. And I was going to ask if you needed to, I don't know, look at a picture of a cute puppy to cheer up. But now I'm seriously starting to sympathize with you. And now I need a picture of a cute puppy.<br /><br /><br />In summation, fuck this game.Voltech44noreply@blogger.com