Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - The Last of Us Part 2 Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast Ep. 24

Episode Date: June 12, 2020

Tim, Greg, Blessing, and What's Good Game's Kristine Steimer FINALLY give their review of The Last of Us Part II. Game provided by PlayStation. FOLLOW KRISTINE STEIMER: https://twitter.com/Steimer https://www.youtube.com/WhatsGoodGames Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up guys? Welcome back to the Kind of Funny Games cast. As always, I'm Tim Getty's joined by one of the coolest dudes and video games, Greg Miller. It's finally here. We can finally talk. We can finally say this is exciting. I'm so excited for this. I've been waiting for this for the whole week.

It's just been so hard to pint up in me. I can't wait to talk to you. And Blessing Adioia Jr., the new face of a video game. How you doing? I've been waiting to talk about this game. Man, Clubhouse Games, 51 Worldwide Classic. Oh, thank God. I've been waiting to talk about this game for a week.

Oh, man, I'm ready. And making a return to the Kind of Funny Games cast, Christine Stimer from What's Good Games. Well, wow. It's been like four years, five years. It's been a long while. We got you here for a good one, though. Oh, yeah, for sure.

If I'm going to pick one, this is going to be the one. Definitely, definitely. Of course, we are talking about the Last of Us Part 2 review, which is the topic of the show, the entire show, here on the Kind of Funny Games cast, where each and every week we get together, talk about video games, all the things that we love about them.

You can get this show, ad free and with the post show, by going to patreon.com slash kind of funny games, most of the time. And you can watch it later on YouTube.com slash kind of funny games, roosterteeth.com. If you want to listen to it,

you can download it on your favorite podcast service. Just search for it, Kinda Funny Gamescast. If you want to support us on Patreon, not only do you get the fun perks, you can also be a Patreon producer, like Muhammad Muhammad, Muhammad, Connor Nolan, James Hastings, Sancho West Gaming, Julian, the gluten-free gamer,

Delany, Twining, Aaron Bonilla, Bonilla, Jeffrey Long, Jesus, Jesus, Berrio, aka Bent Fork, PR. All of you are fantastic people, and we appreciate you very, very much. But let's just get right into it. It's been way too long. We've waited years for this game to come out. We've now played it. We can now talk about it, the last of us part two, provided by PlayStation. Kevin, can you please bring up the little thing you thing? let people know. FTC, they're interested in me today. Not today.

Greg Miller. So much is just a big ass fine. You know, Stimer, I'm afraid of anybody. I don't want anybody with any kind of federal authority coming forward. Leave me alone. Yeah, nobody needs to be looking through our archives. Greg Miller, I want you to kick us off here. Last of Us 2, review.

You being one of the biggest Sony affiliated people in the entire world when it comes to PlayStation. You've been covering this forever. Naughty Dog, kind of your specialty. Sure. Part 2, go. The Last of Us, Part 2. First off, too,

spoiler-free review is what we've decided, right? And obviously, that's also what the embargo says. Last of Us Part 2 is a masterpiece. And I don't use the term lightly. And I think it's Nottie Dog's best video game by a country mile. I think it does things no video game has ever done before. You know, I've talked to all of you privately about it. And the thing I keep coming back when I talk about this is that it's more than a video game.

And I feel it's this perfect spot between being a video game, a movie, and a really great book. Like, it's this sweeping story. It goes on these great tangents. You don't know what's around the next corner. And that's the other thing, too. You know, obviously there are so many spoilers out there beforehand. Like I had the game, quote unquote, spoiled for me. And I did not at all.

I think it's a technical marvel in terms of graphic fidelity. in terms of audio. I think it's the best gameplay naughty dog's ever done. I think the game plays on another level. I think the story is incredible. I think characters are incredible. I can't say enough nice things about it.

Blessing. The game's really, really good. It's like it's, it's, to what Greg just said, right? I think it's the best naughty dog game

that I've played. It being the sequel to Las Vos, you know, like LastFuss is one of those games where if you would ask me before they announced this game, I would have said the game doesn't need a sequel.

like last was i think stands so well on its own and it's one of those things where i look at the last list as one of the i guess one of my iconic video game stories when i look back at video games that i've enjoyed and i've looked back on as like tent pull stories for video games like last list is that and so i think the biggest compliment i can pay it to last this part two is that i think it is probably the best sequel to a video game i've ever played right like i think for me my experience of Lastness Part 2 kind of mirrors my experience watching Avengers Endgame, which sounds like I'm overselling it, but I think the thing that Lastless Part 2 does so well

is that it constantly rewards you for being a fan of the first game. It constantly references the first game, constantly celebrates the first game, and constantly points back to the first game, and it doesn't feel, like, the ways in which it succeeds in being a sequel, it doesn't necessarily feel like it was a cash-in, or it was like a story that they put together last minute to like try and make sense as a sequel to Laswist. Like LastSys part two feels like its own story and its own game while at the same time feeling so authentic to the events of the first story.

And they do that better than I think I've ever seen before in a video game. Stimer. So I'm with Blessing in that originally, if you had asked me, I would say I didn't want this game or I didn't need for this game to exist. But I and I'm so, so glad that I'm an idiot, right? and that I shouldn't do it because Nile and the team at Nottie Dog have made something that I think is even so much better than the original in a lot of ways that I would have never anticipated. I thankfully did not manage to see any of the spoilers on the internet like Greg and I got to go into it fairly blind. Like I did watch a few of the things that they had done, PR trailers or whatever here and there. But for the most part, I just kind of got to go in.

and experience this with fresh eyes and just allowing it to take me where it wanted to go. And I think that that was what made the experience really special for me and why, even when I talked about it on Arsha, what's good, I like, I'm always hesitant to say a little bit too much or anything about even if we're speaking so generally, I still get a little nervous because I don't want to ever, you know, to ruin that for anybody or to take any of this experience away from them.

because it was just such a beautiful ride full time. To me, to me, this is undeniably one of my favorite pieces of media, period. Like, it's not just, you said it's more than a video game, Greg. I totally agree. And I feel I just played through Lassovus Part 1 and the DLC right before this. And like I stand by that I think those games hold up entirely and are a fantastic still. Playing this, it's just so far ahead of that. It just refines it all so much.

And it is difficult, Stimer, to your point, to kind of talk about this game and why it's so special without getting into the spoilers because everything is so perfectly connected to each other from story to gameplay to dialogue, to characters, to the way to when you interact, when you don't interact, it's playing with you constantly. And anything that made the first game special, they just doubled down, tripled down, quadrupled down on. This game is just, it's more, but not to the point of extra. It's to the point of every single element of this game has a reason and a purpose for why it's happening, where it happens. And that to me is what is so special about this is I guarantee that a decade from now, we're going to still be talking about this game as being extremely special and important for video games. And I honestly even think it will transcend the conversation of video games. Totally. I think what I always like to say

the drum I always beat on any video game, especially if it's story driven, is I feel like traditionally they are very poorly edited. They just, they usually have a lot of fluff in there, there's a lot of turns that you are like you can easily anticipate or there's, even in the last

uncharted, I kind of complain about the fact that it was always like, oh, it's just around the corner, just around the corner. And I was like, no, it's not we're 10 hours into this. No way that's true. But so this, I'm like, they absolutely nailed the editing on it. And that's, I think what your point kind of was, Tim, with there's nothing in here that feels like excess fat. It is all intentional.

And more than that, it's so much. Like, it's not just like, like normally when we talk about movies so much here. And like I feel like any single time we watch a movie, we at somebody has the criticism of, oh, I wish it was 30 minutes shorter. They should have cut this. They should have cut that. This is Avengers Endgame portal scene levels from beginning to end, where it's just like all of it keeps going. But it is like 10 Avengers End games.

Like the amount of quality here, the amount of Noddy Dog at peak performance that we get in this package, how is this $60? This feels like more than one game to me. See, that's my thing. That playing it in no spoilers and nothing else. I feel like it's like three games. Like I feel like there are like so many distinct points of this. this game where you're like, holy shit, like what is about to happen? How does this go? And like,

like you're saying, they're always, uh, toying with you, teasing with, they're, they're taking you on a journey. And I think the biggest thing I took away from it, right? And I'm gonna, you know, obviously with this review and, uh, PlayStation game provided by PlayStation, giving us so much time with it. I was in any unique place with it where I had watched or I'd watch, you know, Nick do his last of his play through. What the fuck was that? I'd watch Nick do his last. Something's howling outside all this. I'd watch Nick do his play-through as he's like co-pilot, right? So I wasn't playing Last of Us Part 1. But I was up again on the story.

It reminded all the beats great. Played through Last of Us part 2 and then immediately went right back into Last of Us again, this time to play myself again. And we had done this. Yeah, Last of Us 1. And for the spoiler cast we did last week. And in last week's spoiler cast, I say, you know, like, at times it felt like a telltale game. And I was, I don't know if I described it well enough then of like what I was talking about

stiff animations. and the way clothes don't move and all this litany of other issues because again, yeah, you're talking about a game that is from 2013 compared to something that is 2020. But what really this comes down to is evolution. And the fact that when you play this game, Last was Part 2, you see the same things you did. You experience similar things of what you experienced Last of Us part one. But they're all done so much better. They're all done way more uniquely, way more seamlessly.

The environments are more detailed, more beauty. It's everything I think that worked about the last of was part one amplified. And the things that people didn't like about it, which I know gameplay comes up a lot with, I think greatly improved to the point. Can I say something crazy? Yeah. Gameplay wise, this game reminded me of Metal Gear Solid 5. Oh, 100%.

I think that this game feels as good as Metal Gear Solid 5. And I've said for years that Metal Gear Solid 5 has perfect gameplay. Dude, running as Ellie, I'm running around, right? you can run, you dive, you're prone, it was as a stealth game fan all of a sudden, a completely, not even, I don't want to say competent stealth game, because I think that's how most people would put last of us there, right? Like, it's a fun one. The gameplay experiences are great.

As, you know, I'm grinding on the platinum right now and going back and replaying areas, I'm excited to do it and I'm excited to do it a different way. I'm actually exploring my inventory and trying something different. And you've beat the game twice now. Correct. Yeah. So I went through to Last of Us and left behind and then went back to. to last of it was part two and beat it again. Oh my god. Lord. Man, that's a lot. It is,

but it's back to what I'm talking about of going back to my statement and expounding a little bit more on it of it being a this weird tri-corner meat right of video games, movies, and books where, you know, when Christine beat it and texted me and do you have your notebook full of crazy ideas right now this time? I haven't. And like you started talking about it and we had this conversation about what the game's message was, what it was, you know, what the symbolism of it, what meant in a way that honestly, and I'm not even trying to be hyperbolic here, I haven't had about a game ever. And when you talk about actually talking about a game, that way you're talking about college or high school courses, where it really is of like, what did all this

mean and why did it happen? And this is Ellie's character arc and why did that make sense for that to happen here? Why into, you know, the editing thing? Why do they choose to play this flashback here or this thing here, tell you this part of the story there? Hyperbolic is such an interesting word for this game because I personally, I don't think it's possible to be hyperbolic about it. The story is incredible and it's backed up by incredible gameplay. And every time it's trying to make you feel an emotion, at the end of the day, when you're talking about any form of media, the goal is you feeling something, whether it's anger or accomplishment or fear or whatever. I've never felt from a video game more than playing Last of Us 2. This is the scariest game I've ever played.

This is the most intense game. I couldn't play it for more than like three hours at a time because I would need a break just to be like, I need to see some light right now. I need to like get some air. And that's not even necessarily saying that the entire game is always dark and burning. It is a lot. But there's always moments to balance that. And it's an emotional roller coaster, but it's not like the roller coaster at your local amusement park. It is like the greatest roller coaster of all time.

you know what I mean? Like it is always taking you exactly where it wants you to go. And it's very rarely where you expect it to. Yeah. I think that's the thing that kind of surprises you when Greg says he played it twice. Because like this game, I think can be bowled down as being described as the journey, right? Like this game is a journey from beginning to end. And like you mentioned him that it's like the scariest game you ever played.

For me, my takeaway after beating it was that like, man, this is kind of, this might be the darkest game I ever play, but also like the most tender game I've ever played in terms of how it kind of sways back and forth from having those moments of like, you know, like moments of connection between characters, moments of genuine like, you know, emotion between characters, but then also moments of like, I can't believe this is happening right now. And also moments of like, man, I can't believe this characters went through this. Like there's, there's so much navigation from going to like the darkest or dark places to the warmest of warm places in this game in ways that I don't think I've seen a game touch on.

Like for me, the, the, like, I have critiques here and there about the gameplay because I, I, like, I've gotten the, the Metal Gear Solid comparison from, from both Tim and Greg. And, like, I can see where that comes from, for me, like, the biggest. And I think Greg also compared it to this, but the biggest comparison I would make is Hotline Miami, which is funny because they, they represent it in the game. And I think, and I think Greg was the one that pointed out, but I think, like, you know, they referenced it for a reason. I think for me the combat and the gameplay is very kinetic in a way that Hotline Miami is.

Right? Like you feel like it's similar to Lastless One, right? Where you feel like what's in your arsenal is what you have and you have limited resources. You have to make use with what you have. And last part two, that is taken up to like the highest level in terms of, all right, cool. I have this melee weapon. I can craft it to be stronger. I have a smoke bomb.

I have my mine trap. I have my hunting rifle. All right, what can I make use of here? All right, cool. I have zero bullets in this gun, this gun, and this gun. All right, but I still have this gun and this gun. And so you're really using everything in your arsenal to try and make do and to try and make it out of every situation. And every situation also isn't a situation where you have to necessarily kill every enemy.

Like I found it surprising that there are multiple parts where I was like, all right, I'm definitely outnumbered here. What am I going to do? And then I just thought to myself, like, what if I run away? What if I just run to where I think I need to go? And sure enough, like, I figured out a way to escape. And actually, it was that, that PlayStation state of play demo, actually, like, where they had, where they, where they did that gameplay demo, right, where at a certain point, I was like, all right, I am very outnumbered here.

I've been fighting these guys for a while. What if I just, like, ran to the door that I need to go to and try to escape? And I barely escaped and I barely made it. But I still made it. And that felt like a moment. And I think that's, like, the biggest, like, there are a lot of biggest things that this game does. But that's one of the big, that's one of my biggest takeaway. is that they make this game within the gameplay, within the moments, within everything,

feel like such a great story experience, feel like such a great journey, and they ingrills you in it. And the ways in which they do that is super impressive, right? Like for me, like the story here is what shines above all else. But still, like, the gameplay, right, to the Hotline Miami thing, right? Like, they do such a good job of making it feel kinetic. And I think that's the thing that I absolutely love about the gameplay. It's interesting to bring up the state of play thing of the demo that we recently saw because I've watched every single thing that they've shown for this game of the state of

plays or the E3 demos, all that stuff. And any time those moments came up, every single time I was blown away like, oh my God, this is just like I remember feeling watching it. But now I'm playing it and I can't believe it's somehow even better than I was hoping it was going to be. It's always just so much more intense with the context of it all. The intensity is so like every time they showed in the state of play right, like the silencer you can craft for your pistol. Every time my silencer broke, it felt like like a movie moment where I was like, oh shoot, my silence is gone. What am I going to do now? And you feel like you're on your

toes the whole time. And the specific point that I want to bring up is there was the, I forgot forgot what demo it was that we saw this or even if it was just like bits of a trailer. But it is when Ellie is sneaking through the like, like grassy areas in this really dark forest and it's when those the religious people are around that we saw in the original trailer back in the day and like they're hunting you and they have their their fire out and that's kind of the only thing that's lighting the area i remember looking really cool in whatever that was playing it that to me was the section where i was like nothing has scared me this much in my life like i am legitimately in fear of playing through this

segment like there was just something about it the way terrified from the infected what's up I said you were more scared of the seraphites than the infected. Well, because with the infected, it was like the jump scares they're going to get you. With this, it's this thing of they're hunting you down. Like when you're hiding underneath the tall grass and it just feels like it is not a scripted thing. This is real gameplay of what I'm doing. And this is when it goes back to the stealth stuff. It didn't feel like am I in their field of vision?

Are they going to get me? And it's this creepy stuff of like the way that they communicate with each other is a unique thing that like, like normal people don't do that it's it's this unsettling thing that reminds me of hereditary like of that type of horror movie not the like slasher jump scare type stuff which this game has plenty of and i think is actually really really well paced in terms of how many jump scares there are and when they put them but to me it's this underlying like really hereditary is a great way to put it just unease and in the terms of this being a video game fear of you need to move the movie's not just going to keep going. You need to keep crawling as you see them hunting around you and you see the

fires. You hear the fire coming around you. Oh my God. Yeah. So intense. Yeah. Like I talked about it coming out because the section you're talking about is the one we were allowed to preview last time on PSI Love You. And it was that idea of like the fact that the different groups you run into, whether it be the WLF, the Washington Liberation Front that LA talks about or the scars, the seraphites, this cult with the fire, right like they all have a unique feel to them that i think like uncharted never did when it's just pirate after pirate after pirate and i would even go back to last of us part one where really it is like you know replaying it sure it's more about clickers infected but even when we run into the ambush and stuff like that and even when you run into the fireflies it's like all right cool i'm you're all

just our normal people having the scars walk around and they communicate via whistle is terrifying because for the first time you don't know what they're doing because you're hear them whistle and they're like doing call and response and then sometimes it is an agitated whistle and it's like did they discover a body or are they on to something else and like what are they actually communicating right now and I want to give a shout out to all the accessibility stuff that they have been touting for the last couple weeks and how intense when you start at the game like you really need to go through and customize the game in a way that we haven't seen before there's so many different different options and you know I'm lucky enough that a lot of that stuff isn't stuff that I need to be able to play this game but the amount of options they give you for somebody It cares so much about audio fidelity and 3D audio and all this stuff. This game was unlike anything else playing in here of this giant theater screen with surround sound. Freaking terrifying. Like hearing the whistles like around it is unmatched to me. And this game doesn't even have like Atmos and things like that.

Like they did a really good job with the tech side of not just the visual. Obviously this game's beautiful, but it sounds so good. On the point of accessibility, right? like, you know, a lot of that stuff is stuff that we all aren't necessarily going to need, but like it's still cool to mess around with and stuff that can be useful. Like for me, you know, there have been the articles and there was a whole PlayStation blog where they detailed like what the accessibility options were. And when I went in there, I was like, oh, snap, I can turn on subtitles, but then I can also,

I can also make it so that names appeared with the subtitle so I know who's speaking. Then I can also colorize that and like make the names a certain color so that I can and I can change the size. Dude, I went and tweet, and it got to a point where I was like, this is perfect. I hope every game does this because the fact that I can make subtitles perfect for how I want it.

That was such a small thing that made such a big impact on my experience. But also back to talking about the enemies and stuff. Again, to the whole thing of this game being a journey and being like this cool cinematic experience, they do a thing in this game

that I don't think I've really seen a game do on any sort of similar level at all where they make every enemy feel like they have consequence, right? Like, and this is the thing we've talked about before in Dembles and stuff where the enemies will say each other's names.

The enemies will say a dog's name if you kill the dog, right? Like, the way in which they tackle that and the way in which that stuff manifests is really impressive. And also the way in which, like we talked about the scars in the WLF, right? Like, the way in which they like dive in,

the different factions and maybe you kind of understand like you know who these people are and what's going on and like like they go they go beyond like hey these are fireflies or hey these are hunters they go way beyond that in a way that you know makes every kill feel consequential in a way that is crazy to me that i've never experienced in the game yeah there was actually a point in the game where i hit where i tried to then go non-lethal as much as possible um it didn't always work Sometimes I'm not going to lie. But otherwise, I did try and just be like, how well can I maneuver around everybody and not have to do anything? Like, I think blessing that you had mentioned this before, and it was, you were talking about what you discovered, you could actually kind of like just hunchback run to wherever you're trying to go or like at least go prone sometimes and just wiggle your way around.

Because I was always into the thought, I was still going back to like regular games, right, where you just. systematically take out people one at a time. And then eventually it'll be like, oh, your character will say something. And then you know that it's okay for you to stand up and run around and go look what you want to look for. But yeah, there's definitely sections of this where, I mean,

you could still do that, but it would take you a while. And it's really, somebody who did it, it doesn't take as long as you think. Yeah, I played that way as well. I sit too long with it though, Greg.

And so I was, okay, what's their pathway? I'll sit there and watch and then maybe I'll make a move instead of just kind of moving around and taking it at one time. That's also like the thing I think that that's really cool about this game is that at no point do they really gamify like the killing. They never really gamify you getting past the waves of enemy to a point where you don't necessarily feel like you have to kill everybody.

You feel like you're so much in the story experience where at points I was asking myself like, what would Ellie do in this moment? I think Ellie would run because like fuck all this. Like I can get to the next point. without having to kill all these people. I'm just going to run. And at all, at any time where I had that thought where I'm just going to do what I think would make

sense in this moment from a story or like just a human perspective, like that stuff usually worked out in a way where where I thought was really impressive. Yeah. Totally, man. You know, I'm taking everybody out as we play right because I'm trying to scour it for collectibles. I want to make sure I'm knocking out as much work as I can or whatever. But definitely, again, with how expertly done the story is and how well-paced it is

and how fascinating it is and personal and emotional. There were definitely the moments where it was, I'm right there with you, blessing, where I was, fuck the collectibles, fuck whatever I'm trying to do. I'm just going to run. I'm just going to chase. I'm just going to flee for my life. I'm going to try to.

I see the door. If I just sneak over there, I can get it. And I can worry about the trophy stuff later or whatever. Like, you're right. It is a game you get to play the way you want to play it. And I think a big part of how you want to play it is what's happening in the story. To me, this game is it's the ultimate illusion. Like they pulled a trick on us that makes,

is not remember we're playing a game. And that to me, it's crazy. Like, we're talking about, like, calling up the, like, the characters' names that you're killing and stuff, in addition to them all feeling, like, unique factions. And there's, and that's just not like, oh, they use different weapons. It's like, they feel different, they act different, they sound different. And then they have their names and all of that. And when you add on these characters in the story that you're so invested in, you start

to forget that they're not real people. Like it, and I'm saying that even just from a, Christine, you were talking about the whole, like, staying there. waiting to see what their paths are more often than not like i didn't notice a path like i felt like they could do anything they there wasn't some AI controlling them it's like this i was tricked into thinking like they were real people that are coming after me and if they hear me move they're going to come find me like it wasn't like oh i can trick them just sit here long enough and they're going to go away like that kind of all added to the the experience of it where i've never experienced that in a

video game not once it just totally grabbed me i didn't mean like they have like a, like just go in a circle. And I'm not, what I'm saying is like they did it though in Uncharted. Like even an Uncharted forward felt that way. It's like if someone to hide behind a rock, they're going to pop up. If I can chime in. If you don't mind. Go for it.

Is that they do have paths in here as somebody who's fucking watched them all. But it's the fact that the individual characters have individual paths. So it's not as easy to look at you like, oh, you're a green, you're a green hat red shirt, which means that you're just going to go here to there and back to there. You know, it is a thing of you walk in and it is, all right, I see four or five different guys. I got to watch and see what their deal is and when do they break apart. And to your point, if you make noise or you do stuff, it does change how they act and they will go together and they will combine. And even more so, like, it almost feels like it's less paths and more so like patrols.

Like it feels like at all moments, I felt like the characters were doing their job as opposed to like following like the algorithm or doing like the Horizon Zero Dawn thing where you pull up the focus and you can see the paths. monsters are taking, like the exact path. Like, for me, it felt, it always felt like, you know, they're, they're on their patrols. They're doing their lookouts. Like, it felt like that kind of routine in a way that, you know, like, when you, when you interrupt it, you get, like, that's the cool thing is that I feel like whenever you mess around with the AI, the AI fights back, right? Like, when you interrupt their patrol, when you interrupt something or when you make a

noise or you kill somebody, right? Like, whenever somebody, whenever somebody finds that body, like, you know, things are going down, right? like it doesn't feel like the like the uh i guess stereotypical uh reaction where you get a game and you in uh or you get a you get an mpc that sees that a character is dead and then for like a minute they're like on alert and then i guess this is making a bell your solid reference but for a minute they're on alert and then all of a sudden forget that that person exists like from then on there they're on alert and they are like they're i i feel like they're on

different paths but i don't know but with that though it's not just day it's like steve is on alert because Dave just died. Yeah. And it's like, that sounds like such a stupid thing. And I know that they keep talking about it as if it's just this like, like, we got to get this in there because it's a new unique thing to this game. It's like really, it changes the game. It's, yeah, it means everything to this game.

Like the fact that people have names and the fact that like, like, you, you feel guilty sometimes when you're killing in this game. Like, in fact, a lot of time I actually felt guilty. Like the first dog I killed, I was like, I don't know if I want to keep doing this. And the more and more I played the game and more than I was like, yeah, I don't know if I want to keep doing this. And, you know, there, there was the early quote from, I think, Neil Druckman, where they were talking about this game being a game about hate or a game about revenge. I forget both. I forget which, but it might have been both. And in that way, right,

like, the more and more you play, the more and more, like, you get out of what they were talking about as far as this game being, being a game about hate. And, like, it manifests through everything. Like, in some ways, this game almost feels like an analysis on hate, like, or analysis on hate and revenge, right? Like, the way in which they make you really feel that as you're playing and the way the way the game goes deeper and deeper into that, I think is really fascinating and really cool. Here's where Christine breaks out her notebook.

I can't wait to actually be able to talk about this, like, you know, no holds barred because there's so there's so much to get into it as far as that. But yeah, like, you know, to the point about this game being about hate, right? Like, in a lot of ways, this makes Last Swiss One feel like a good story. By the time I finished this game, I was like, man, I kind of want to go back to last this one so I could actually feel something good because this game kind of go this game kind of

goes for it as far as like making you feel those feelings that like what ellie's going through oh go for it uh sorry i keep i'm like i think he's done he's not done shit all right um what you and tim both said are you're both talking about like how it's sort of like you it feels like both of you are are feeling as if the game brought you down but i felt like i definitely had my moments of laughter i was laughing a lot in this game i was smiling a lot in this game. So I do want to make sure no one's listening to this and feeling like they're just going to be gut punched. I mean, you will at some point. But the game will take you different places. Some of those are going to be dark and uncomfortable places. But there's also going to be a lot of

very positive, very fun. Like I had also a lot of fun with this and fun watching the characters do what they wanted to do. And so what I've kind of likened to this too is the game and the theme for me is it's more of like a magnifying glass on the duality of human nature and how we act as humans. That's what it is. And I talked a little bit about this earlier with the other girls. I was like, this is not a zombie game. This is not even a game about the end of the world. Those things are a vehicle to be able to strip away a lot of the access and the things

that we get caught up in as humans in order to really dive in and look at how we act and how we treat each other. 100%. And I think that was what I've been so taken aback with as I've talked to people about it and reflected on it and just thought about this game, right? Is the way that I feel, again, an evolution of Last of Us part one where I think that everything I loved about Last of Us One is amplified here. And a big part of that is what I always talk about with Last of Us One is the ending where I know it's a tired Greg story. But like, hey, I waited for the choice to pop up. Would I be able to let her be the savior for humanity? take her back and then when I realized I got killed and I had to I have to do that because Neil Druckman was telling me a fucking story and like it's not you're not you have no choice in this matter again I love that even though I didn't agree with Joel's decision at the time

now to be here that's pulled out and it's rather than be I think the end of the game it's the entirety of the game and so it's to this part of Stimer you say it better than I'll ever be able to and more eloquently than I ever would it is not a zombie game it is not a end of the world game it is a human game and it is about these characters and emotions that we've all felt in some way or another not obviously probably in these horrible situations but having those amplified and saying legitimately what would Ellie do in this situation all right she does that what would this character do in that situation and seeing how those dominoes and cards fall and tumble out of it and I was talking recently about it I was saying like somebody was like oh it's just you know the trailers

have been so dark and it's such a dark game and I don't know if I want to get like into that level of darkness or depression. And I'm like, I don't think of that, this game, having beaten it twice even, that way. Like, yes, it is dark, obviously, literally. There is killing in it. There are mature themes we're wrestling with. But I think even in spite of it being fantastical with these infected, it's so human. It's the human experience. And there is dark and there is light. And there, again, in a way, I don't think I usually talk about video game stories. Like, there are characters you connect with. There are journeys you see. You know at least path and then you can compare to somebody else and be like, well, that person is on a similar path, but in a different way.

And this is what I would take. Like my long and short of it is like when I finish the Walking Dead season one, right? And spoilers. Clem in my game killed Lee and then was on her own and she's this little girl literally lost in a giant field by herself and two strangers there in its credits. I remember standing up in like the next morning waking up and still having that weight on me of just like what a fucking gut punch like you're talking about beating the last of us apart to you either time i didn't feel that kind of weight i felt weight of man what happened what what is what you know like those kind of things of like wondering where stories have taken the different characters i've been on this journey with but it was like all roads led to one place and

then they go somewhere else and it wasn't to me like this whole like so fucking depressing kick your teeth and I remember there was so much concerned about it being a violent porn or what that's not how you call it. Torture porn. Torture porn. Thank you very much. Right. And it was like, violent porn. I also like violent porn. It wasn't that, right?

It was very much like, I was told the story that involves dark moments and horrible things, but like that wasn't the synopsis of it. That's very interesting you say that. Because I agree with a lot of what you're saying about there being so much optimism and, you know, like,

bright sides to it all, but like no game has ever been this dark. It is a human game, but like it is like the worst of humanity and sometimes the best of humanity, but we do see the worst. And I think that that is, and they handle it in a way that to me is brilliant. And it's, we keep saying the word masterpiece. It is a masterpiece talking about Last of Us One last week on the spoiler cast. And I love the story of Last of Us One. And I think that there's so many elements that make it unique.

But there's so many. things that are tried and true zombie tropes of the cannibals or the you know the this and that we know like one of your team is going to get infected like we've seen all that stuff before last they did it for me they did it very very well but we've seen that stuff before we haven't seen this before the last of us too this story is incredible and it is extremely unique and it is every single moment has something going on that i said this earlier about the emotions like i felt every emotion probably more with this game than I've ever felt in another video game. Did you journal, Tim?

I didn't like physically journal, but I definitely had to like, I mean, I've been talking it out with people here and there, but it's just like it. I wish I journaled. I had to be real talk at the end of every night. Like I said earlier, like it was so intense that I would need to like take breaks. That isn't just intense from it being dark. It's also intense from just like me being so happy for something that just happened. Like it's just, it's a emotionally taxing.

But I would end every night after I played the game laying in bed, not able to fall asleep because I'm thinking about it all. See, that's why you... I didn't. Yeah, tell me about your journaling experience, timer. I mean, so similar to what you guys have been saying, but I didn't know, first of all, I wasn't sure who else had a copy. So I just kind of was, I knew I was left to sit with these emotions by myself.

And the only avenue I really had was journaling. So every session after I finished, I would just sit down and write. And I would write about how I was feeling in the moment, some of the moments that had stuck out to me both in terms of, yeah, whether or not I had laughed or whether or not I had felt queasy about it or like whatever, like whatever the moment was just talking about that and then how the character must feel or, you know, the different avenues that they might be taking or having those mental gymnastics because we all do. And so I have almost like 20 pages in here of just shit that I've scribbled down. And then obviously, as I texted with you a little bit more,

Greg, when I, like, rabbit hole dive, deep dive down in of, like, trying to analyze all of these different aspects of the game and looking for more pieces of symbolism and looking for, you know, how to break down. I'm trying to be a spoiler. Yeah, I know right. But, yeah, like, I really just had to sit and, like, sit with my feelings because this is a game that asks you to listen. And this is a game that asks you to be contemplative in a way that I think most games do

not and that I think is what's really special about it. Before we move on, ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you that this episode is brought to you by Sun Soil. These days, it seems like companies are putting CBD in everything. If you don't know where to start, there's a company in Vermont that's down to earth, there we go, and does things differently. And they are Sunsoil. Gia's been using this recently.

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Gia really cares about all that a lot. So that meant a lot to her. Sunsoil makes pure and simple CBD products at an unbeatable price. You can get 30% off your first order by going to sunsoil.com slash kind of funny. That's S-U-N-S-O-I-L dot com slash kind of funny for 30% off your first order. One more time, 30% off your first order by going to sunsoil.com slash kind of funny. Yeah, obviously spoiler free, but like that's something I'm excited to talk about in the spoiler cast is the fact that I didn't journal,

but I did have those conversations, you know, with Jen or, no, I guess none of you were there yet. And it was those conversations of, like, like I'm saying,

they pull what I love of, I'm telling you a story. I'm going to make you do this. I'm going to blah, but there were the days where I, like, it would end on a note where I'm like, I'd wake up the next morning,

like, I'm not excited for this. Like, I'm not like, I need to jump back. I can't wait. And it was like, I know what you're trying to do.

Like, is it really going to work? And then playing it and be like, holy shit, like by the end, holy shit, this work. And I think that's what's going to be interesting is to watch the real-time reaction

to this game as people play it. And then also the real-time reaction of the difference of the people who drop off and don't finish it and don't come by and see it all the way through. They're insane. Yeah, they're 100%. I don't know if they're insane.

I could see being like, you may have having. I'm so cute. I'm with Greg. I'm sorry. No, no, no. You go to them. It's your,

Sometimes when we start talking, your mic cuts off altogether. It sounds like you stopped in the, you know. Oh, really? Oh, whoops. No, no, no. It's totally okay because now I've also let that train of thoughts gone. So. But yeah, I'm, I'm so curious to see what the response to this game is going to be because I don't know, like, we're all, all of us here are extremely positive about it.

I don't know if the reception is going to be positive, positive about it. Like, across the board. Like, I think critically it will be 100%. I think in terms of fan reaction, I'm very curious to see how people will. people come down on this because it is so I think they're like this is naughty dog's most ballsy game I think 100%. Like I think this is

naughty dog's most like brave game in terms of where they take things like it's this is their most unpredictable game in terms of where the story goes a lot of the time. And also like it's also a very naughty dog game in terms of you know how the game kind of feels to play in the beats that it goes

through in the ways that you kind of expect from a naughty dog game. But in the ways that it's unpredictable like you know, I absolutely love it for those things, but I'm so curious to see where people fall at the end of the day. It's back to what we're talking about, right?

It's doing things and asking things of you as a player, I think was Christine saying that most games don't. And I think that's the interesting point where, you know, I think where we lost train of thought was this idea that you're crazy if you don't finish it or turn it off. And I feel that, and Christine, you're smarter than me.

So I feel like that's, a weird thing and something unique to video games where it's like, oh, I don't like this twist. Oh, I don't like this person. I don't like this thing. So I'm going to stop playing here. Whereas with a movie, you want to do that. With a book, I feel like most of the time you wouldn't do that. You'd see it through on its journey, what it's trying to tell you and understand that it's going to, it's doing this for a reason.

And I feel like that's something not new to games, but in this instance, in the way they're using it in terms of story, gameplay character. I think it's going to be different. divisive. Because games traditionally don't typically make you the level of uncomfortable that you could get during this. Sort of to Tim's point earlier that this is some of the darker things you'll probably ever see in any aspect of media. That's not even video games.

So I don't necessarily fault anybody if they do get hung up on a point and are like maybe it's, this is not for me. But I would ask you to continue forward. However, that may be, because one of the beautiful things about this game is, as we've mentioned already, the accessibility options. So if maybe you're feeling like this is too much, I'm highly stressed, knock it down a notch, right? Like, you can make it so that you can then get through the gameplay parts and not maybe be as hyper-stressed, but still continue through the story. So that was something that I did at some parts where I was like, you know what? There's enough in the world that's to worry about.

I don't need to worry about whether or not this asshole is going to flank me right now. No, you can't. Sorry. Yeah, going back, go for it. Going back to what I was saying about like that you're insane is like, I just think that the level of quality of this game kind of deserves you being uncomfortable and not liking decisions they made and like to see it through because they really like, to me, prove for so many hours that like, yeah, no, this is going to be continually this good.

You got to keep going. And it reminds me a lot, actually, of the Walking Dead, where the Walking Dead season seven, like, everyone was kind of in on Walking Dead, but then it got a little shaky. And then it was like this moment where with Glenn, where it happened. And pretty much unanimously, everyone's like, done with the show. I'm out. And that's because the quality of the show wasn't there to back up decisions being made. And like, that's the difference with this is when with characters and the power. ads they're going down, I was like, cool, I'm here with you to the end of the story,

even if I don't agree with what you're doing and I don't like what you're doing. Whereas with Walking Dead, I was just like, I did not like how you handled that. You're done. If I can toss in a more, I think, relevant answer than I'm sure somebody in the YouTube comments is already attacking me for, or you're yelling it in your car at the radio, I think it's comparable for me personally to Red Dead Redemption 2, where I did 20 hours and I was like, I just don't like John Marston at all. And I don't really like the gameplay I'm doing and I'm not interested enough in the story to go on, right? It wasn't, that wasn't like, you know,

20 hours in, right, is a healthy part of a normal game. Red Dead there was even more to do. Whereas this one, I think when you get to these points where you're like, I don't know if I agree with this decision. Oh, I guess that's painting with too broad a brush. I'm going to say you don't have much of the game left. There's enough decisions in this game and weird things that happen that, no, it happens early on, I guess. But I still feel this. this is more in line with what I was talking about earlier, like a movie or a book where it's like, I don't like this or I don't know about this,

but I'll give him a shot because of X, Y, and Z. Whereas 20 hours into Red Dad, I was like, I've given you the shots I'm willing to give you, and this just isn't for me, right? Whereas this one, I feel like comparably the ride is short enough to where you're like, well, I've already come this far as might as we'll see what. Did you mean two or one?

Red Dead Red Dead Red Dead Red Dead Redemption two. Did I say, well, I'm sorry, nope, sorry, sorry, Arthur Morgan's the one I did not like. I was like, what? I mean, even I think to do that, right, like for me, there are some directions, there are some decisions in this game that I, that don't necessarily vibe with me, right? Like, I think story-wise, like, narratively, I think I loved pretty much everything. I thought it was phenomenal.

But there are some gameplay choices in there that, like, as the game kind of progresses and goes on and goes on further, that kind of did rub me the wrong way. And I understand why they made some of those choices. And I think, like, at the end of the day, the whole game. works together well enough to justify the direction that they went with with quite a few things. But there are some moments in the game where I'm like, all right, cool. Like I didn't necessarily, and it's so hard to talk about this without doing the spoiler cast. Next week's is the spoiler cast, right?

That's when we're talking about. We're still figuring out timing on some stuff with that. We'll announce it later. Gotcha. But I'll be able to talk about it more in the spoiler cast. But there are some things where I'm like in there that kind of hold it back for me in terms of some risky decisions they made, like some, like, very brave and very, like, out there a little bit, decisions that, that they made that, that, that, that, that, that didn't necessarily

vibe with me. But, you know, at the end of that I still kind of, I still kind of respect those decisions. And, like, overall, the whole, the whole package still works super well. Yeah. In terms of, go for it. Um, sorry, there was only one moment in there, and it was super minor that, and I already texted you about this, Greg. I was like, this is the only moment that felt off to me in a character. And it's one very small thing at one point. But that was literally the only time where I felt that something that they were doing felt out of character. That doesn't mean I agreed with what they were doing. But it meant that I could understand their perspective and figure out why they might think that in that moment, that was the correct thing to do.

Yeah, all the criticisms I have of this game, they're very few. And I feel like most of them are things where I'm, it sounds like we're all kind of in agreeance here where it's like, that's not how I would have done it. It's not what I wanted, but they did this. and I got to respect that they did it because they nailed the execution of what they were trying to do. Like there are certain parts where I'm like, this feels like it's going on a little bit too long, but it kind of had to. And I get why they did it that way. And it didn't feel like padding at any point.

It just felt like, okay, this is trying to, again, make me feel something from this. The one criticism I do have from a gameplay perspective is the amount of combination locks that are in this game. Like, this game doesn't have many of those things where it's like, you know, it's so easy to talk. about the like oh man you have to squeeze through this little section because it's the game's loading or oh you need to boost me up and like the first game had those things in abundance where you can point to a whole how many times are you going to pull the little thing on the water with ellie on it right this game doesn't have those like it doesn't have a ton of things that are like oh i'm annoyed by this the rope in this game is awesome anytime you have to throw the rope to like solve a puzzle it's always in a way that i've never seen in a video game where it's like you know how i want to this to work is this and then that works every single time i was like what if i throw it over this thing which will go in between these two things so it'll lock i'm like oh that worked awesome yeah and they don't go down that well too many times but the combination locks they use so often in this game which i'm totally fine for the safes yes they're there's safes with the the combination locks on them so

everybody in this world own everybody in this world owns a safe and i don't understand oh you babies there's like nine safes in the game no but here's me hear me out hear me out hear me out i don't have a problem with the My problem is with the combination, how every single time you get the combination, it's just from a letter. Every single time, it's from a letter. You get the letters. Then to get the combination, you need to pull it up, go to the letter, find the thing. It's like if I have the letter and if I've already read the letter, open the safe. Don't make me manually put the thing in.

It's so annoying and it just reminds me on playing a video game. Dude, I, sorry. So you can figure it out yourself. Like, not all of them, but there are some where it's like, it's this, but this. and you have to go find those numbers in the world and, like, actually crack the safe. See, that was my thing. I loved the safes in this game. And part of it is because I didn't even remember they're being safe number one and last of us,

part one. And then when I did run through and replay it, it was that you read the letter and you know the safe combination. Otherwise, you go to the safe and it goes, oh, you don't know the combination. So this time around, like, the safes are always so close to the numbers that it would be this fun game to me at least because I guess I'm a huge dork, where it would be of like, I read the letter or I see it on the wall or I understand something. I'd be a runner like, all right, 3876, 76, 96, 99.

You know what I mean? I understand what you're saying. I like to figure it out nature of it. Like, I like the fact that it feels like you are, like, this is the thing that would happen in the real world where you have to figure out what the safe combination is and like find the letter or find like the thing that's written somewhere. Yeah, the clue somewhere in the world.

Yeah, like I think that's cool. I'm just wondering what the who the safe manufacturer is that like is selling everybody that game is safe. Acme's getting that money. To me, it's just, it's wasted animation. It's wasted loading screens. It's things where it's like, it feels like a game. And the other one to me is the weapon upgrade stuff.

Super neat. The graphics are so impressive when you're upgrading your weapons. And it's like, how can things look this good? But it's also the thing I'm like, well, I do enjoy that at any point I can just take the pills and get my upgrades that way when it comes to the rest of the stuff. Why isn't there an option for weapons to do that? Like it just seems admittedly, the workbenchers are way better in two than they were in one. One, they were so spread apart from each other that they almost felt like they did. didn't need to be there.

Whereas this one very much upgrading your weapons is a part of the gameplay because as Blas was saying, you use every weapon you have way more than you do in the first game. You can't just stick to your favorite gun. Like you are using everything. So the workbench matters more. But I don't know, it's just like it's the video game shit that in a game that doesn't feel like a video game at all, bother me and stand out. Sure.

I think for, yeah, I love, I love the workbenches. but I feel what you're saying. See, I got excited by the workbench as being there. They're better than one. I think there's more of them, and I don't have that on actually written down, but they're better paste at least, where it would be that thing of,

I feel like I would get the scrap and then finally be like, oh, there's one awesome, and I get excited to do it. I mean, but I'm with you of like, yeah, if I'm just eating pills and then going through my upgrade tree of what I want, which again, I think is done better

than last time around where it was, it's the laundry list. This one, it's like different skill trees. You have way more options to pick and choose. Very cool. Yeah, a really cool way to do it. I think for me as far as as critique goes, right? Like, I think the, I think the story and narrative pacing is absolutely perfect.

Like, I think they absolutely nailed that. I think the gameplay pacing was a bit off for me. Like, I feel like at a certain point, there were multiple sections that felt like they stretched just too long in terms of sections of the game. Like, I felt like those kind of went on longer than they needed to in a lot of places, especially for what the gameplay is. Like, I absolutely love the gameplay. I don't necessarily absolutely love the gameplay for as long. as I got in the game for as long as I was playing the game. Like I feel like at certain points it kind of overstayed is welcome.

And that all played well for the story. That all worked for the narrative experience and how that experience was being dealt out. But as far as like me being in it and me doing the last was things of getting into combat, fighting humans, fighting and infected, solving how I get to a certain place. Like at a certain point, I was like, all right, if we squeezed everything a little bit closer together, I feel like that could have been a bit tighter because I don't know, I don't know if the game needs, like absolutely needs to be as long as it needs to be.

Yeah, I was talking to Tim about this, I think, yesterday, right, Tim? We're in the last section, no spoilers. But him being like, oh, man, then that happened, and it kind of kept going. And for me, was the second playthier, I was shocked at how fast everything went. Because I think the first time around you are very much like, all right, I got seven bolts in this gun, this thing.

I got to quietly take this person out. And then on the second one where I'm like, all right, cool, I know I'm just three rooms away. I'm shooting explosive arrows at this guy. I'm Molotoff and that dude. And it's like, I know I'm about to get through this thing. And so it actually went a little bit quicker for me. Now, granted, I enjoyed the first experience, I think, more where it was I'm in that

moment as Ellie. I don't know what's around the corner next time, right? Like, I need to figure out and sit there with all my weapons. And again, back to what we're talking about with gameplay. And I know I've said it on PSI love you, but like I think hats off to them. I don't know how you design game AI the way they do that it felt like every battle came down to my last bullet or my last arrow or whatever. It was always by the skin of my teeth. I got through these sections.

Every single time. Yeah, every time. Yeah, no, it's that that is the most impressive thing that they do. Like they somehow manage to. And again, it goes back to the emotions and feeling. Like this game does that. And like to kind of speak to some of the more like tender moments, it's like in the first game, when I replayed it and we talked about it last. week, I was so impressed at how many characters there were, where Joel and Ellie get so much

praise all the time, deservedly. But when you look at, you know, even characters like Sam and Henry, and they're in the game a lot longer than I remember. And Tess is like so great. And like, these characters are so memorable and like full of life. This game is, I would say, succeeds that even more. There's a, a larger cast of characters. And there's not a single character I wasn't invested in good or bad i might have hated them but i was not supposed to hate them but like i they were hateable they were created as a character that i'm just like yeah like fuck you you know like that to me is what makes it special because you can have a great story you can have you know fun dialogue and all it stuff but if the characters don't feel unique and like they back each other up into the choices

that the story's making and themes then it it's all for not but all of it works together and such a beautiful way that like i'm i know i'm just rambling here but But the they back, the characters themselves and the environments they in work together so well. Like we've seen so many different environments now. But with this game, there's so many biomes you're in that I didn't expect to see. And the game constantly wowed me in the same way that playing left behind when you're in this mall. And the way that they handled the duality of going back between where Ellie is trying to save Joel and her and Riley in more of like an active mall. This game has so many things that just feel like that to me where I was like,

didn't see this coming. Wow, it's fucking good. Yeah. And I mean, to that point, right? Like, shout out to how well they did Seattle. Like, they, as somebody who lived in Seattle for four years right before moving down here to the bay, right? Like, there are moments in the game where they point out certain locations or they're, they're talking about like, you know, what was life like before the outbreak or whatever?

And they're talking about it in relation to Seattle. and I remember tearing up at a certain point like I've been talking about how like yeah man people used to like walk through here and do this and do that and like legit like tears my eyes I was like I used to walk through there like I was one of those people and like that was legit me in the game

forgetting that like in the real life we're fine well you're not fine but like in real life we're not experiencing out we're the dog room on fire we're not there yet we're not there yet as far as where the last is part too is and so like you know I think that they they recreated Seattle super well.

They like super nailed so many different aspects in different locations within Seattle. So shout to that. I also want to shout out to like how I feel like this game learned quite a bit from a chartered four in a way that I wasn't expecting, especially because I felt like in charter four learned from the last list.

But like there are quite a few action sequences in this game that felt way more actionier than the last one. Like there are certain moments in this game where I'm like, oh yeah, that's definitely. feels very uncharted for in a way that doesn't feel out of place like in a way that works it's grounded actually and then that's that's exactly you're nailing it like there is a a car scene where you're in a car

and it feels as visceral and intense as anything we've seen in the uncharted series but when things are happening you fear for the characters in a way you never did in uncharted you were never worried that oh man like some spikes are going to come through and kill this character and then they're gone, you know? And like, it's that type of thing where there's always a fear of something might happen. So as fun and riveting as it is, you're scared about what's around the corner in a way that Nathan Drake can get dragged behind a jeep through the money. You're just like, fuck yeah, let's go. That's Nathan Drake. Yeah, the scenes for sure are, I think, way more cinematic. And that's what I was talking about

again, evolution. When I think, when I think of last of us, I'm like, oh, my God, it was such a cinematic game and blah. And you go back and play it in like the environments and the way they act in them and the way the camera is usually anchored. It's like, oh, wow, we really have come really far and you didn't think about it. And that's, then you play this game. And it is on another level, I think, of how to direct and how to express action, how to do just scenes in general and show characters. And I mean, like, you know, it's even in, I forget which one of the trailers, but like Ellie's shaking hand right after an intense moment, like the veins on characters' arms, the way their clothes will ripple. Like, there's so many crazy things like that, let alone what you're talking about, Tim.

And I think the way the game establishes every time it needs to, but early on, of like, no one's safe and no one is going to get a grand sendoff. You know what I mean? Things can happen here in a second and you don't see it coming. You don't know what's going on. And that's the world Ellie lives in. And you need to get used to that and have your mind that way too. Man, video games are cool.

And especially this year, like there's been so many times I'm playing a game and I'm just like, how is this real? Final Fantasy 7 remake, Resident Evil 3 remake in different ways playing them. I was like, how does it look this good? How does it feel this good? How is all of the elements, are all the elements coming together this well? And then playing Last of Us 2. Like that, I don't understand how it feels somehow even better than what I was just saying.

Like everything comes together so perfectly in this game where I'm just like, damn, suddenly I have a lot more criticism to Final Fantasy 7. One of the little things that I appreciated a lot. about it was the way it would seamlessly flow between cutscene and gameplay. So there'd be a lot of times where like it just felt so natural to like

you are more like anxious or whatever and you're inclined to push the stick and you realize you can take over the character again. You're like, oh, it is me. Okay, let's cut like, we're doing the thing now. But it really, I appreciated it a lot, but mostly because like I was talking about this earlier

with some people like, nowadays if you have a like a regular, loading screen, I'm checking my phone. You'll just disconnect so much more. So the fact that they are just seamlessly flowing in and out, obviously help keep the pace of the game, which is really smart, but then also just keeps you engaged the whole time. Yeah, you talk about coming out of it, right, in terms of like, oh, I can move the character. I had it the opposite so many times where it's a, you know, mash square, try to fight this

thing off. And then I would notice that I'm still mashing square into the cut scene. And I was like, oh, this is going. This doesn't need me anymore. And also for load screens, they just totally deserve a shout out for how quick reloads are on death. Insane. I was like, I don't like, it happened multiple times, but definitely the first few times where, you know, it's a tip screen and it's got like, you know, hit R1 or whatever it is to see the other ones. And it would be like, oh, it popped up and I put the control on.

I look at my phone and I look up and be like, oh shit. Like it's, there's the X button comes up so quick on these, you die in the game and reload that I had to get used to like, no, just sit there for two seconds and it's, you're back into it. Yeah. One thing that I talk about the cutscenes. stuff that was so impressive to me. Anytime I'm playing through a video game, I will make a custom save, like a separate save when I'm like, this is so cool or so great that I want to show someone. And usually it's geo where I'm like, this looks so good.

I want you to just see this. I want you to understand what I'm playing, what I'm doing. This game has more saves than I've ever had before. I think I have seven or eight where I'm just like, I need to show you these things. And last night I was showing her this bit. And she watched me play for probably five minutes. And then she was like, wait, so when are they going to let you play? And Hall's like, and I put the controller down and Ellie stopped moving.

And she was like, what the fuck? You were playing that? And I'm just like, yes. Like, that's where video games are. Yeah. I think we're wrapping up here. So one final shot I want to give is a total Greg Miller thing. Like this trophy list, fucking after having probably the worst trophy list I've ever seen for a Sony

first party game. even last of us part one. This trophy list is so great. Yeah? Yeah. Obviously, Embargo doesn't let us publish it or anything like that. Not that we'll list the trophies for you. But like they put this into their accessibility post that there's no difficulty trophies.

So you don't have to worry about that. You can go through this game and play on whatever you want and experience it. And then if you want to come back and you want to go do all the different things and find all the different collectibles, it's there for you. Oh, man. I might want to do it, Greg. Yeah. I want to talk to you after this. I want to know what's up.

Oh, man. Any closing thoughts, guys. Go play this game. Game of the year got heated. Like, game of the year got heated. I'm scared to see like what fire styro punk brings because like I don't know what, I don't know what other game can do it.

Like I'm sure there might be some surprises that come through towards the end of the year. But man, like, it's the conversations are about to be on fire by the end of the year. Yeah, I'm fascinating to see what everybody's reviews and takes and podcasts are about this. Because I think this game is immaculate. unlike anything we've ever seen before. I legitimately think this game has a chance to get more tens than any video games ever gotten before. We'll have to see. I'm sorry, real quick, too, blessing.

Can you remind me who has The Last of Us Part 2 in the PlayStation Draft for PSI Love You XOXO? Oh, man, I think that might be Greg Miller. I think is this. Listen, it's Cyropunk. Cyropunk still has a chance to come out and be just as excellent, all right? Let's not, let's not get ahead of it. Can you a mad video games are so cool. Stimer, where could people find you?

Man, I'm just like, no, now I want to fight about it. No, fight about it. No fight. Well, I was going to say, while I think Cyberpunk 277, it's going to be amazing. It's not going to be a statement the way that this is. I just don't think it can be. I think it'll be a fantastic game,

but I think as Greg has mentioned, and we've been kind of talking around, is like, this is slightly more than a game, and this makes you think in ways that I don't think a lot of other developers are even really going for. so I don't think it's necessarily fair to pit them against each other. All right, that's it.

If anyone does, wouldn't it be CD-Praget, correct? That's what I'm saying. I'm pin them against each other. Then Halo Infinite comes off the bench. Pardon man, Miles Morales. Oh, my God, you guys. Stimer, where can people find you? You can find me on the What's Good Games podcast.

So we release a show every Friday. I'm horrible at this, by the way. Or you can find me on Twitter. I'm just at Stimer. And, yeah, that's true. And yeah. Well, thank you very much for joining us. This has been a great one.

Ladies and gentlemen, there's going to be a lot more last of us content here on YouTube.com slash kind of funny games. P.S. I love you next week on Monday. Oh, I don't know. Sorry, on Tuesday will be a your questions and answer questions answered. Q&A. You know what I'm talking about here. So go submit those over on patreon.com slash kind of funny games. We will be doing a spoiler cast.

No details on that yet, but it is imminent. It is in the next couple weeks for sure. Now, do you not want to because we need to decide stuff or do you not want to because certain things aren't locked in? A little both, right? Okay. Right? I mean, basically what we had talked about before is basically what's going to happen.

Not the thing. Don't worry about it. We'll talk about it. But stay tuned. It's exciting stuff. Anyways, until then, love you guys. Bye. Game provided by PlayStation.

Please bring it up one more time, Kev. Yeah, do it, do it, Kev. One final. Ah, good job. There it is. I dare you to come after me now. I dare you.