The Last of Us Part II

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JaySevenZero
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The Last of Us Part II

Post by JaySevenZero »

We finally have a release date for Naughty Dog's anticipated sequel, 21st February 2020

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DomsBeard
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Re: The Last of Us Part II

Post by DomsBeard »

That'll be a day one purchase for me.
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Re: The Last of Us Part II

Post by JaySevenZero »

ThirdMan wrote: September 25th, 2019, 11:46 am Am I just being hyper-sensitive or have Naughty Dog spoiled a pretty cool scene in that trailer?
I don't necessarily think so. As with many trailers I think there's a lot of very deliberate editing and an awful lot of context missing from the scenes used. I reckon that character is probably in the game a fair bit before the scene in question.
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Re: The Last of Us Part II

Post by JaySevenZero »

Just got around to watching the most recent trailer to The Last of Us part 2 and for a moment I forgot I was watching a trailer for a videogame. The overall sombre tone, the acting and the impressive animation has left me really keen to see where they go and what they do with this sequel.

One of the rare occasions I've pre-ordered the game because of my interest in it.
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andthenweplay
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Re: The Last of Us Part II

Post by andthenweplay »

I am not a fan of Naughty Dog games besides Jak II (which I love). But I hope people who are looking forward to the game enjoy it
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Re: The Last of Us Part II

Post by Jon Cheetham »

I'm largely unsusceptible to pre-release hype and wait for price drops but I'm counting the days until I can continue this story. I only recently played TLOU Remastered for the first time and got obsessed; nearly at the end of that one again , had to go for an immediate replay.

I must say it's nice to look forward to a game coming out so much again.
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Re: The Last of Us Part II

Post by Flabyo »

Well I see this has turned into another Twitter shitstorm then.

Short version:

Some reviewers really loved it, but in their articles probably turned on the hyperbole a bit with statements like ‘this is gaming’s Schindlers list’.

Some other reviewers had a poke at that, for a bit of fun.

The CEO of the developer than goes on a full tirade saying that the press has it in for them.

Those journalists come back with ‘well maybe if you didn’t have such a horrendous crunch culture, maybe we’d be nicer”.

End result? Fans of the game starting a campaign to say that games with crunch are always better than games without crunch.


So yeah, thanks for that. Always fun to have another fucking stupid thing thrown at me on Twitter because I don’t want to kill myself making video games.
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Alex79
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Re: The Last of Us Part II

Post by Alex79 »

Yeah I've seen plenty of shouting about 'paid for' reviews too. I just don't believe that happens, at least not with reputable sites.
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Re: The Last of Us Part II

Post by ratsoalbion »

It doesn’t.
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Stanshall
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Re: The Last of Us Part II

Post by Stanshall »

Sorry to see that this is the conclusion of twats, Flab. I thought that Barlog and Druckman came across as total bells in that exchange. My ultimate conclusion was 'Bob Mackey is great'.
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Re: The Last of Us Part II

Post by rob25X »

Alex79uk wrote: June 15th, 2020, 6:04 pm Yeah I've seen plenty of shouting about 'paid for' reviews too. I just don't believe that happens, at least not with reputable sites.
I heard a lot about this over TLOU - Part II as well. Is it that reviewers aren't allowed to reveal the story or something and if they do they get punished or lose their future review copies or something like that?

Paid for and bribe reviews have always been a thing I think. Personally I usually take review scores with a pinch of salt anyway, so many badly reviewed games have turned out to be hidden gems in my experience.
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Re: The Last of Us Part II

Post by ratsoalbion »

rob25X wrote: June 16th, 2020, 3:05 pm Paid for and bribe reviews have always been a thing I think.
While sometimes the relationships between individual journalists and PR companies can be quite cozy, I can assure you that, as a former professional reviewer, paid for reviews are absolutely and categorically NOT a real thing.

I have been in and around reviewers since the 1980s - I am friends or acquaintances of dozens of professional games writers who have written for hundreds of different sites, magazines and papers. While I’m not saying there have never been dubious incentives and assurances offered in the dim and distant past (Rise of the Robots anyone?), the idea that publishers pay individual reviewers or websites to attain a certain score today is a total fallacy.

In fact reviewers generally get paid quite poorly and abused for their efforts. It really isn’t a gravy train worth hopping on.

Bought reviews on mainstream websites is only a slightly more valid conspiracy theory than the Earth being flat, and I wish that people would stop propagating it.

Individual YouTubers/influencers doing promo work however, now that’s a slightly different situation and is worth looking into.
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Re: The Last of Us Part II

Post by Flabyo »

Some publishers will blacklist certain sites or reviewers, I think Kotaku still get nothing from Bethesda after they leaked some Fallout stuff years ago.

But the idea of paying a reviewer? Not worth it. It’s a small pool of people, they talk, and it’d get out pretty quickly.

I think the major twitter storm here isn’t so much the good reviews but the meh ones, Naughty Dog seem to be going on a crusade to rant about anyone that didn’t proclaim it to be game of the generation, for some reason.

Of course a lot of the stirring is coming from Jason Schreier who has the dubious distinction of being pretty much the only investigative journalist operating in the space. He’s broken most of the stories these past few years about poor working practices and such like.
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Re: The Last of Us Part II

Post by Suits »

ratsoalbion wrote: June 16th, 2020, 3:36 pm Bought reviews on mainstream websites is only a slightly more valid conspiracy theory than the Earth being flat, and I wish that people would stop propagating it.
The whole situation with Jeff Gerstmann and GameSpot.

Wasn't that over an honest review, that didn't fall in line with how a sponsorship deal was supposed to go between the publisher and the website.

That's essentially a paid for review isn't it ??
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ratsoalbion
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Re: The Last of Us Part II

Post by ratsoalbion »

That was thirteen years ago and the fact that it resulted in such a fallout demonstrates why, as Flab says above, it just isn't worth it for either the producer of the game or the website, to potentially get found out and disgraced.

As I understand it, Jeff wrote an honest review, his employer wasn't happy with it due to the relationship they had with the publisher and so Jeff said he wouldn't alter his score and quit, if I recall correctly.

It's not wholly inconcievable that editors - under pressure from the complex capitalist relationship between advertisers and shareholders - have dishonestly tweaked scores upwards on the sly in the past to avoid such situations, but it would be incredibly rare, and done without the knowledge or permission of the author.

But again, going by my own experiences and those of everyone I know in the industry (which is quite a lot of people over a very long period of time), that is not acceptable practice, let alone widespread.

For anyone who has ever worked in a journalistic role in or around the games industry, the idea that you would ever get offered a shady (virtual) brown envelope of cash to bump your score from (say) a 7 to a 9, is laughable.

I spent twelve months being sent games for review in 2013. While it wasn't for a dedicated hardcore games site it was for a mainstream homepage with potentially massive traffic. It was all working from home too so if anyone had wanted to 'get at' me they easily could have done.

All I ever received - hundreds of times over - was a disc in a jiffy envelope. Sometimes it even had a case and maybe a compliments slip. Usually a few bits of printed paper with some instructions on and maybe a polite request not to spoil elements of a story. Never any cash, or offers thereof.

Similarly, with Cane and Rinse, we receive dozens of emails from various PRs every week offering us stuff to cover but none of it ever comes with any demands or bribes. Do you think I'd still be working full time for the NHS if I could review games for fat cash?
:roll:
rob25X
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Re: The Last of Us Part II

Post by rob25X »

So what made TLOU - Part II review thing any different to other games then?
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Re: The Last of Us Part II

Post by Flabyo »

The developer is on a twitter crusade complaining about any review that isn’t giving it ‘game of the generation’ style accolades.
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Re: The Last of Us Part II

Post by ratsoalbion »

Yeah, which is embarrassing. The fact that, despite a whopping 96% average, there is a spread of opinion is completely normal, just as with any other medium or art form.

You can’t make something that absolutely everyone will enjoy and games reviewing has gone beyond “great graphics, sound and gameplay: 97%”.

They’ve made a game that - as with its predecessor - a lot of people will actively dislike, for a number of reasons. And that’s ok.
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Re: The Last of Us Part II

Post by Suits »

ratsoalbion wrote: June 16th, 2020, 4:39 pm Do you think I'd still be working full time for the NHS if I could review games for fat cash?
:roll:
Wow. That escalated quickly.

I simply pointed out that a pretty large scandal relating to paid review scores within the industry was uncovered - that was after you said it categorically doesn't happen.

So it does, or did happen in the past. You can't get frustrated if people think that it's still happening. (well, you can, but you know what I mean).
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Re: The Last of Us Part II

Post by ratsoalbion »

Sorry Suits, that eye-roll emoji wasn’t aimed at you, so much as the general concept. Probably should have used a chuckly one instead.
😄

I see what you’re saying about the Gerstmann case, but I maintain there’s a significant difference between a publisher throwing its weight around due to ‘expectations’ based on where it spent its advertising budget, and an actual under-the-counter ‘bung’ to an individual writer resulting in a dishonestly written review.
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