The industry as a whole, including Nintendo, is incredibly inconsistent with their nomenclature about re-releases. It's obviously all just marketing, and companies trying to figure out which naming convention and marketing strategy nets them the most sales for what are essentially upgraded ports. But it's pretty disingenuous to act like Sony are the only ones who do this, although perhaps I shouldn't expect better from someone who said:
Some Nintendo fans are so annoying I swear to god
Sir, this is a Wendy's
This is a remaster done while the company is currently busy (and struggling) with other projects. I imagine this was just a "break box in case of Factions delay" situation.
The state of triple a games is such that a studio like naughty dog and even rockstar now can only put out one new release per console generation, if we are lucky. The risks have gotten so much larger now, that developers have come to rely on remasters to bring in revenue, and maintain interest in their brands in the 6 plus year wait between releases. Then there are studios like insomniac who are anomalies. Thats why I’m worried about nintendo pushing for higher fidelity in a new system. I dont want their output to be negatively affected like Sony and microsofts have been
Do an encanced BC patch at 60fps 4k and call it a day. It's a gorgeous game by any standards.
Yeah, can’t disagree with that. Honestly, that’s about all the vast majority of PS4 games need imo because most of them honestly still look and run really good. It’s previous generation games or maybe a PS4 game that wasn’t well optimized or just ran poorly because of how ambitious it was or whatever that would need a full on remaster
i don't think they've ever said they're working on a new IP - even their next game looks incredibly likely to be TLOU Pt 3 but Shaun Escayg who did Lost Legacy is heading up a team on something (but you'd have to consider Uncharted is not unlikely and may not be a new IP either) - I think for Naughty Dog budgets, Sony obviously want the proven IP so I wouldn't expect a new IP til next gen - I don't think Druckmann has really had time to put together a whole new IP working on the TV show, TLOU Pt 2 and involved with the MP game, and he has sort of hinted that it's Part 3. But yeah this is all media now - everything is driven by IP that they can show there is a built in audience for
It’s the best stealth action game I’ve played since MGSV and it’s also a damn good survival-horror game
Just out of curiosity, what would you say are the politics in question? I found the game overt in pursuing a more personal story, eschewing any commentary much wider in scope than that of the problems the characters themselves were facing.
An old Vice article painted the Wolves/Scars as an Israel/Palestine allegory. That take has been repeated online ever since, especially in light of recent world events. The game’s writer (Neil Druckmann, an Israeli American) has citied incidents between the two states as inspiration for the themes of violence in Part II.
yeah I don't think Pt 2 paints anyone or any side as the hero of the story (I guess Lev would be the closest the game has to a character in that conflict whose actions and morals are generally portrayed in a positive light/gets some kind of happy ending?) and yeah I'm not sure the Israel/Palestine comparisons really holds up beyond some surface level inspirations - the game is very much as you say something that denounces the cycle of violence.
While this is true, there is also a not so quiet group of people who lump the inclusion and representation of more minority characters (read: people of color and queer people) as being political, so I do always love hearing how people feel about that. From my experience most people calling the game political are in that camp. I think Druckmann's politics suck ass and his writing reflects that, but that conversation has been more niche from my experience.
they're extras and not in the main story of the game. you seem load into them separately and walk around the spaces with developer commentary more like a DVD extra for a deleted scene or something - I don't think there's gameplay as such in them, they didn't finish the levels, they are just slices of what was developed
I found the Israel/Palestine allegory fairly off-putting in the way its overall conclusion seemed to be a reductive "both sides are bad here", but I suppose given Druckmann's background and politics it could have been much worse
yeah for sure, it's definitely a little simplistic and trite, and obviously the WLF & Seraphites are mainly there as a mirror to Ellie and Abby (fodder for Ellie to murder and continue down the path of violence til its too late and she has lost everything she could have had in her pursuit of revenge; and for Abby to see (through Lev) that there is "another way" and try to escape it before being dragged back in by Ellie) rather than being really there as a commentary on Israel and Palestine (imo) - obv it inspired his exploration of "violence" as an idea however problematically but I don't think the game itself really has much to say about that specific situation beyond just the general violence is bad (just imo, others may choose to read into it deeper) - but yeah, it definitely could have been way worse.
Hmmm, I don't really agree with this. The Seraphites seem like a pretty obvious Palestine stand-in to me, and while there is some lip service paid to the idea that their ideology has been twisted from its founder's intentions - Lev says that they were never violent until after the Prophet died - it is still largely portrayed as primitive and out of touch with reality, which is not great.
fair - i think the fact there is at least one other writer involved in Pt 2 makes me think its less Druckmann's sole vision and therefore while it was probably the original inspiration for the conflict and the direction they took it, i feel like it had evolved beyond that, I don't want to erase what Halley Gross contributed to it, which was probably a lot considering they were thinking of scrapping the entire game til she was on board bc they couldn't find a story.
