Last of Us Part II

[Ashley]

8 hours ago, Dcubed said:

So… it’s a remaster of a remaster?

Re-e-master, when the crowd say bo selecta. 

[Cookyman]

I'll pay the tenner for the upgrade but what I'm still anxiously waiting for is the factions multiplayer (will it ever come out?).

 

[Hero-of-Time]

11 hours ago, Cookyman said:

I'll pay the tenner for the upgrade but what I'm still anxiously waiting for is the factions multiplayer (will it ever come out?).

 

It seems very much up in the air at the moment. I would love to hear just what has gone on with the project. The multiplayer mode in the original was very unique and it seemed like a no brainer to build on that. Someone clearly fumbled the ball when it's come to Factions. I wouldn't be surprised if they were trying to find ways of nickle and diming the userbase and just couldn't bring it all together.

[CrowingJoe79]

This is one of the best games ever made, along with the vastly underrated Days Gone. Just plays and looks so gorgeous. Never understood the hate for it. Although if you hate Abby as a character and her people, I can see why her parts might have dragged on for you. But in my opinion, her sections alone or with Lev, are the most fun and challenging in the entire game. Especially on the island when the barn is set ablaze, I really liked that long shootout.

The AI is unique in this game too. I like the way you have to deal with enemies sneaking around corridors, or how they use guard dogs to sniff you out. And yes, glass is breakable. You can't even shoot through windows on the doors in the Resident Evil 2 reimagining.

Chucking bombs or molotovs at enemies and then seeing some mofo walk into its path is so satisfying.

[Julius]

Trailer for No Return:

Looks like great fun!

You know what would make it better?

CO-OP! 

(seriously though ND if you aren't on this already get on it pleaseeeeeeee)

[drahkon]

Just release the rogue-lite mode for 10 bucks please...

[CrowingJoe79]

I'll have to trade my coffee for it. 

 

[Julius]

Grounded II: The Making of The Last of Us Part II is on the way ~

Loved the first one, so I'm very curious to hear about the making of Part II! 

Also @Ashley (sorry, I never know who to ask ), would it be possible to fold this thread into the dedicated TLOU Part II one at all please? The titling/early marketing stuff made it sound more like a remake, but it's basically a Director's Cut akin to ones we've seen for Death Stranding and Ghost of Tsushima, so probably deserves to be slipped into the end of the original game's thread if that's possible 

Edited January 15 by Julius

[Ashley]

I can. I'll give it a try tomorrow on my laptop. 

And will test it out first because on more than one occasion I've accidentally done it the wrong way round 😅

[Julius]

Thanks for the thread merge @Ashley, really appreciate it 

Remastered will be weighing in at 76 GB, with (unfortunately, but not unsurprisingly) no pre-load option for those going the upgrade route:

Additionally, as has frequently been the case with these PS5 remaster SKUs/Director's Cuts, you will be able to import your PS4 trophy progress to Remastered, including your Platinum. 

I have no pick-ups planned for the month after deciding to leave Infinite Wealth until spring/summer, and decided against picking up Tekken 8 to get in on the ground floor (one of these days I'll commit to a fighting game...probably), so right now I'm toying with the idea of hopping back in to clean up the Platinum for PS4 and then upgrading to try out No Return, as some of my friends are planning on picking this up and are either playing it for the first time or replaying it for the umpteenth time. 

If I do, this would be my first replay since launch. It's one of those games for me which is in the select group of being a better experience than it is a game, like how I feel about Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, but naturally for very different reasons (because Link commits war crimes ). It was actually on my list of games I wanted to replay this year anyways, so now would seem as good a time as any to get back into it, but I also remember how heavily my first playthrough weighed on me (I got through it in a weekend and then took a break from games for three or four weeks?) – is that how I want my early time with games this year to be defined?

So I'm not decided yet, but I do want to revisit it to clarify my thoughts, compare it to The Godfather Part II (a great excuse to revisit a great film) after seeing the similarities between the first game and the first Godfather film, and though I want to get fewer Platinums this year, this one wouldn't be nearly as involved as others considering it'd be a NG+ clean-up, but then after how much it changed and fleshed out my experience of the first game, I also like the idea of checking this out on Grounded (though probably not on Permadeath, because that sounds unnecessarily stressful). 

We'll see how I feel, I guess 

[Hero-of-Time]

3 minutes ago, Julius said:

If I do, this would be my first replay since launch. It's one of those games for me which is in the select group of being a better experience than it is a game, like how I feel about Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, but naturally for very different reasons (because Link commits war crimes ). It was actually on my list of games I wanted to replay this year anyways, so now would seem as good a time as any to get back into it, but I also remember how heavily my first playthrough weighed on me (I got through it in a weekend and then took a break from games for three or four weeks?) – is that how I want my early time with games this year to be defined?

So I'm not decided yet, but I do want to revisit it to clarify my thoughts, compare it to The Godfather Part II (a great excuse to revisit a great film) after seeing the similarities between the first game and the first Godfather film, and though I want to get fewer Platinums this year, this one wouldn't be nearly as involved as others considering it'd be a NG+ clean-up, but then after how much it changed and fleshed out my experience of the first game, I also like the idea of checking this out on Grounded (though probably not on Permadeath, because that sounds unnecessarily stressful). 

We'll see how I feel, I guess 

Scrap all of this and just Play Super Mario Galaxy 2.  

Additionally, I finally got around to watching the Godfather trilogy last year. Man, what an overrated set of movies. I'm with Peter Griffin, I would also rather watch the Money Pit.

 

[Julius]

9 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Scrap all of this and just Play Super Mario Galaxy 2.  

11 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Additionally, I finally got around to watching the Godfather trilogy last year. Man, what an overrated set of movies.

[bob]

Scrap all of this and just Play Super Mario Galaxy 2.  
Additionally, I finally got around to watching the Godfather trilogy last year. Man, what an overrated set of movies. I'm with Peter Griffin, I would also rather watch the Money Pit.
 

I've only ever seen the 2nd one, but I fell asleep halfway through.

It definitely insisted upon itself.

[Julius]

Features trailer:

Still remember being blown away by the accessibility stuff in 2020, kind of nuts (in the best way) that they continue to push that so hard. But, man, I completely forgot about the commentary mode...DAMN IT.

Think I need to start flipping coins to decide what I'm doing here, I really don't want to end up playing this through 3 or 4 times, but hopefully the exhaustion I feel after the first go through gets me to slow down 

Also, I know Remastered has its own director so it makes sense they'd talk over it, but it's interesting to me that Neil didn't provide the VO for this one, considering how front and centre he felt for Part II back in 2020 and for HBO's TLOU, too. Don't want to read into it too much but I hope that means he's really, really busy working on whatever's next. 

Anyways, unsurprisingly it's being well received in its reviews, seems like No Return isn't anything groundbreaking but is a solid roguelike in its own right. Still waiting on the DF breakdown of the improved performance here after re-watching the free PS5 performance patch from a few years ago (which, idk, to me renders the existence of this whole thing downright questionable), so the closest we've got for now:

 

EDIT: never mind, they just wanted to be casually late, apparently! DF's breakdown:

 

Edited January 16 by Julius

[Julius]

On 1/15/2024 at 1:04 PM, Julius said:

...so right now I'm toying with the idea of hopping back in to clean up the Platinum for PS4 and then upgrading to try out No Return, as some of my friends are planning on picking this up and are either playing it for the first time or replaying it for the umpteenth time. 

Welp, just went to start this tonight seeing as I was going to go through the PS4 version, and my cloud save from completing the PS4 version of the game has failed me, with my most recent auto- and manual saves being 25 hours into my time with the game...6 hours behind where I finished, so a good Act and a fair chunk has gone missing. No NG+ options available because, well, apparently I never finished the game  

Oh well, bit of a shame but think I'll just wait until Friday to upgrade to Remastered, play through it for the first time again (maybe at a higher difficulty this time?), play No Return, and then see where I'm at and if I'm up for going for the Platinum and/or a Grounded playthrough after 

On the upside, it means I have some time to sort out my PS5's storage and to play a shorter game in the meantime 

[Cookyman]

No return is great fun a very impressive addition to the game.  Gutted that online has been binned but this almost makes up for it.  

[Julius]

13 minutes ago, Cookyman said:

No return is great fun a very impressive addition to the game.  Gutted that online has been binned but this almost makes up for it.  

With Factions officially dead now, I'm praying that they do the wise thing and update No Return with an online co-op mode, similar to how Returnal got co-op post-launch.

It seems perfect for it! 

[Julius]

Grounded II: Making The Last of Us Part II arrives 2nd February on YouTube and in Remastered. 

Hype. Loved the first one and all the other docs we've had from PlayStation's first-party over the years, so I'm sure this'll be great! 

Edited January 25 by Julius

[CrowingJoe79]

Yep. I love these games. They are so great to play, and the story and visuals and gameplay as a whole totally outranks Capcom's recent RE remakes. Yes, even 4.

[Julius]

Just finished watching Grounded II, which released on Friday: 

Think that's the first actual acknowledgement we've had of Part III being in the works, and this was shot almost a year ago. 

Anyways, man, some of that really hit hard. Especially after finishing Part II for the first time since launch the other night – but I'll speak to that more at another time. 

I do just want to briefly speak about No Return while I'm here, which I checked out during and briefly after my playthrough. It's awesome. I love the gameplay in Part II, and well, it's more opportunities to experience that awesome gameplay...but while I love it, it has to be one of the weirdest pack-in modes in a game like this. 

It highlights the need to play through the story first to avoid being spoiled by characters and enemies turning up in No Return...but I seriously struggle to see how anyone could play No Return after Part II. It's one of those games where credits roll and I'm done with it – I played No Return more while in a party with friends and on a bit of a lower difficulty than I did after actually having completed the game! A very strange experience. 

Anyways, yeah. No Return is 100% getting co-op by the end of the year, I'm betting on it. It is screaming out for it.