Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - The Last of Us Spoilercast - Kinda Funny Gamescast Ep. 23

Episode Date: June 4, 2020

Nic Scarpino joins Tim, Greg, and Blessing to recap The Last of Us Part 1 and give their thoughts 7 years later. Time Stamps - 01:09:00 - Discord crashes 01:20:18 - Left Behind 01:30:50 - American Dreams 02:07:06 - Post Show 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 Geddes. Join by one of the coolest dudes in video games, Greg Miller. I have the love of the last of us coursing through my veins. You see my tweet, 24 hours, I beat the game. I beat the left behind and then I read American Dreams again, Blessing. Come at me.

You don't know nothing. The new face of video games, blessing at Ayo Ye, Jr. I've actually never read, what's called American Dream? American Dreams. Tim, please, Kevin, dismiss, blessing. I don't want to spoil this more. on me. Blessing,

we gotta dismiss you. He doesn't want to spoil it for you. Don't you want to know where she got her switchblade? Coward. No, not at all. No. And joining us for a rare experience on the kind of funny games cast,

the producer slash seducer, Nick Scarpeino. I'm trying to figure out what a Hugh Grant movie has to do with The Last of Us. It's a good question. Is it behind a Hugh Grant movie? No, American Dream is. Oh, sorry. I bit on the wrong part of it.

It is bad joke. When I think I think nodding Hill, you know, I think love actually. American dreams. I think that movie looks like the Kingsman, but isn't the Kingsman. I think American Dreams, I might be mistaken in the title, but it was the one where it was like an American Idol knockoff, remember, where he played like a Simon Cowell character. And it was one of the worst movies I've ever seen in my life. So I don't like I shouldn't remember it.

Oh, here's the problem, of course. I was thinking of American Dreams with an S. This is American Dreams with a Z. You fool. You fool. You absolutely. Absolutely. You absolutely.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Kind of Funny Games cast each and every week right here on YouTube.com slash Kind of Funny Games. We get together to talk about video games and all the things that we love about them. And let me tell you, this one is going to be talking about a game that we all love very, very dearly, the last of us, part one. That's right. We're starting a kind of month of The Last of Us in a lot of ways to give you a couple updates here. Nick played through The Last of Us for the very first time. He didn't know the spoilers.

He didn't know anything. All he knew was in the giraffe. Sat and played and played through the entire game on Twitch. And we're trying to get that up on YouTube. Just so everybody knows, we're having a lot of technical issues with exporting it and getting it uploaded. We're on like B4. It will be up eventually. I promise you sometime this month, hopefully in the next day or two as of recording this.

But after that, we are also doing now the Last of Us One spoiler cast. then next sometime. I'm not sure when, Greg? What, the review for last was part two? Yeah, we can say it. That's June 12th, 12. 11.

A.m. Didn't know if I was allowed to say. We have confirmed that already. Don't worry. Dude, like, that's the one thing is, like, people, the embargo stuff you have to deal with and like what you can say, what you can't say,

what you can't confirm, what you can't confirm. What I can confirm is then next week we will be doing the Last of Us Part 2 review. And the crew for that will be, Greg Miller, blessing, me, and Christine Stimer of What's Good Games. Hey, hey.

Very fun, very exciting stuff. And then at some point after that, we will be doing a Last of Us 2 spoiler cast. We're not getting ahead of ourselves then. We don't know exactly when we want to let it all sink in, sit in, let us think about it, get all that stuff. We will keep you updated, though. Stay tuned to the show for that. But it's good. Like I said, it can be a very last of us month, very exciting stuff for everybody.

You can get this show live by going to patreon.com slash kind of funny games. you also get the exclusive post show. If you are a Patreon producer, you'd get your name shouted out. Like Muhammad Muhammad, Connor Nolan, James Hastings, Sancho West Gaming, Julian the Gluten Free Gamer,

Delani Twining, that's a new one. Aaron Bonilla, that's a new one too. Jeffrey Long, another new one, and round it out the new ones. Jesus Barrio,

aka Bent Fork, PR. Thank you very much for all of your Patreon. Oh, God, series, listen to me. And it says Jesus Barial, aka Bent Fork. That sounds about right. That's not serious. I'm not as far as usual.

Great. Tim, can have the floor for one second? Yes, you can. Kevin, I sent something to you on Slack. I need you to throw it up because I need daddy, Nick Scarpino's discerning eye here, all right? So it's an image. And what this image is, Kevin, and, of course, audiences you're about to see in Nick Scarpino is at least at least it's one. I was getting a donut, so I got chocolate all over my fingers.

What? Don't get mad at me. Nobody's man Oh now everything's frozen Did I drop the call? Oh dear In real time What happened?

Can you throw it up for us? Can you throw it up? Yeah, sorry, you guys froze For like 10 seconds there Okay Well, I don't know if we froze as much As we were in stun silence That might have been more of the case

Nick, so here we go We're looking at the American Dreams poster All right, you can see it here Hopefully everybody else can obviously we have Mandy Moore here to what that'd be you know like you're 11 o'clock right at noon we have Hugh Grant Mr. Graham one o'clock we have Dennis Quaid who is this at two o'clock because it looks like Tom Welling with a mustache and a goate it's not I've gone to the IMDB but everybody doesn't look the same as they looked when they made this movie yeah so it's hard for me do you remember this character or this name no I'll be honest with you guys I

and this is going to come as a shocker I put this out uh as indoor content without that much context as to what the American Dreams was. I just remember there was a movie called American Dreams that I maybe have seen half of. Look at that. I would say what, four o'clock in my thing? Chris Klein in this movie. Hold on. Let me look at this poster from my side.

The one o'clock looks like Vince McMahon. Right? No, I was thinking the same thing. Oh, yeah, Dennis Quaid. Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Willem Defoe is in this apparently as the chief of staff. Dennis Quaid is President Staten.

Now, this movie wasn't good, you're saying, because it's got a killer lineup. Absolutely terrible, for what I remember. But, you know, it's 2006. It was different about me. It's got a 5.4 here on IMDB. Okay, so let me look at this. Let me see if this one loads for me here. Oh, gosh, oh gosh.

I have no idea who. That's Chris Klein for sure. Yeah, no, we have that part down. Who's that? Who's the woman? Is that, uh... That's me anymore. That's me.

No, no, no, no. The other one far left. Like all the ways you go. Marisha. Marisha. Uh, uh, I'm sorry, Marcia Gay Harden. Does that make sense?

Oh, that's Marcia Gay Hardin? That's not Marcia. Who is that, though? Because I thought it was Marisha. This is the kind of funny games cast where we talk about video games and all things that we love about. Let's talk about the last of us. Here's the thing, guys.

I would say that one of the most iconic pieces of kind of funny content, it's not even kind of funny content. It is the last of a spoiler cast that Greg Miller was a part of at IGN. I feel it. For beyond. It was me, Colin, Neil and Bruce, yeah. No, that's not the one I'm talking about. I'm talking about the one that was you, Colin, Altono, and Mitch.

Okay. And that. Whatever it was. I remember this. I think I'm looking right now, last of us, the 21st of June, 2013, last of us, spoiler cast. Beat the game, come listen to come discuss the masterpiece with the podcast beyond boys. I can't skip. Hold on.

No, got an ad. Got an ad and it's really loud. God damn it. It looks like it's just an IGN video. I'm looking at the one right now. It's not really associated with any of the shows it looks like. But it is last of the spoiler casting is Greg, Colin, Mitch, and Altono. Okay.

So the reason I bring this up is whenever there's a thread of like, where did you first get into kind of funny? Like, where did you first hear Greg Miller? Where did whatever? Beyond is obviously a very common answer. But an answer that I think I see even more is specifically the last of a spoiler cast. Sure. So here we are seven years later with a whole new casting crew, Nick playing it for. the first time. I replayed it for the first time in many, many, many years. Greg Miller just

rebeating it, rebeating the DLC. I beat the DLC. Nick played the DLC as well. That wasn't on stream, but he did that. Bless has also been replaying one and watching a lot of videos of the DLC, which he's beaten before. Greg's even reading American Dreams, which we didn't even explain what that was. Go for it, Greg. American Dreams is a comic book written by Neil Druckman, illustrated by Faith Aaron Hicks. She's thanked in The Last of Us. It is a prequel to The Last of Us detailing Ellie and Riley's first meeting. If you have gone through and played Left Behind again, it basically gives you the backstory of what's going on at that mall and the people.

Because like, you know how you drop in and like they go in this and left behind. And of course, this whole thing is a spoiler for spoiler cast for Last of Us as we know it before, everything before Last of Us part too. So it's all spoilers from here on out. But when you drop into the mall and you go to the Winston's tent and you talk about how he died of natural causes and what happened to his horse and all that. And then at one point, Riley even mentions the, you know, remember that firefly you bit. His name is this, yada, yada, yada.

You see all that unfold here in the comic book. And you see Ellie and Marlene meet for the first time. This is where Marlene gives Ellie the note from her mother that you can read in your backpack in the last of us when you take control of Ellie. This is where Ellie gets your switchblade, which was her mother switchblade that Marlene's been using as a tribute to her. Exactly. So Sean from Minnesota writes into patreon.com slash kind of

in games and says, hey, gamescast crew, my comment is regarding your spoiler cast in general. I'd love for you to start these off by doing a story overview before getting into the weeds. I'm a single console gamer. I play Xbox, as that's what fits my life best. Yet I'm still passionate about games and the conversation around them, regardless of the platform. In some of the prior spoiler cast, you just kind of jump into various discussion without a broad summary. As someone who wants to hear about these games, but likely won't be able to play them, it's confusing. And he then goes on and stuff.

I will say I don't think that we'll always do this because I think that sometimes it's better to just experience the game for yourself or whatever. But since this is a game that's been out for so long, and I feel like there are people that, you know, at this point, aren't going to freaking play it. Greg Miller. I don't want the Greg Miller in review plot. I sure you don't want it. Are you sure you don't want it? I kind of want it. Daddy, you want it? You want it? Busting do you want it? I do want it. I do want it. Daddy got a full cup of coffee right now. He's sitting back. Oh, daddy does everyone. I'm sorry, baby does it.

Context, whatever you guys. There's like always one person in the community. It's like, Nick should be on more gaming stuff. This is why I am not on more gaming stuff. I'm happy you're here because I do want to get to all of your thoughts, Nick. But before we get into those, just as the refresher, Greg, can you give the Greg Miller last of us one? And put it all together. You can put it all together.

The American Dream. It's all in the one thing, which I like that all the one thing. This is, you don't need to rush through it. Like, I don't need, like, machine gun saying it super fast, all right? But I want as quickly as possible, condense the Twitter version of what are the major plot beats of The Last of Us. That's going to be tough. You know what I mean? Hold on.

We got to call Andy, don't we? He has to give me the plot. I can't get hyped for it if I don't know the plot thing from into review. I texted Andy as soon as you ended this because I didn't know you're doing this. And I was like, call me right now and do the plot, plot, plot. No response. No, you're not going to answer a phone call. You know what I mean?

It's 2.30 is probably sleeping. You want to slack him? No, I'm slacking him right now about KFF stuff. He's around. He's just not looking at his phone. I hate it when there's too much, you know, your phone, your computer, there's too many things. Hey, they were asking me to recap The Last of Us. Can you give me the plot song real quick?

The plot song for Las Us? Yeah. Oh, okay. Let me look at my notes. Hold on. Let's see here. Got a big Google drive-up stuff. Man and the girl.

Are you just looking for plot, plot, plot, plot, sorry, I thought you were just going to do plot, plot, plot, plot, plot. I didn't realize that you had written a song already in a Google Drive. Sorry, back to it. It's such a popular game, it's such a game of the year. Sure, no, exactly. I'm sorry, back to it, back to it. I apologize. A man and a girl on the run, there's zombies everywhere.

In fact, grab a gun. It's the end of the world. She has the cure. but her heart is much too pure the last of us oh the last of us and then like there's a there's a there's a like a little instrumental break there that's about it.

Nailed that thank you very much. We love you. Mm-hmm. No problem. Ladies and gentlemen, the date is September 26th, 2013. In younger man, named Joel comes home. He has a daughter named Sarah. She is asleep on the couch. Of course, this will be

his birthday, number one. It might be the 25th then, but outbreak day is, of course, September 26th. Sarah gives him. He might be 5'6, 5, 7. We don't know. Maybe Sarah's like 4. She might be 14, maybe 13. Her favorite pet. The pony. She gives me

a watch for his birthday. He jokes that it's broken, but it isn't. And then everybody's happy and they are very sweet family and they go to bed. Well, she falls asleep. And then she wakes up and dad's not there and she's in her room and she comes downstairs and basically it's outbreak day there's a cordycep fungus ladies and gentlemen that has been making its way around the world and is the start of a global pandemic sounds familiar right that will lead all sorts of

quarantine zones and whatnot uh it all pops off people start going crazy people are infected with this fungus not zombies Andy nice try in the song infected sir that makes them grow these different cordisept mushroom kind of things out of their heads that take control their bodies that keep them alive but they're just passengers in the seat and they don't know what's going on it's horrible So yeah, I'm trying to escape their town in Austin in Texas or the outskirts of Austin. Joel is with his brother Tommy and his daughter, Sarah. They get, you know, they try to drive away. They get into a car accident and there's a bunch of people running over.

This is just the day it all falls, right? The world falls. When they get separated, Joel and Sarah try to escape, but they run into a military man who calls his other military men. And they're like, nah, man, cap these people. They can't be helped. And he's like, really? And he's like, yeah, do it. He's like, no. And so Joel sees what's about to happen and tries to turn away, but

shots are fired. He falls down. The guy comes over to kill Joel, who's like, no, don't do it. And then Tommy shoots him because Tommy caught up to him. Everything seems all right, but no, Sarah has been shot and she's about to die. Joel runs over there in a moment that tugs on your heartstrings, and Sarah passes away there. Incredibly sad. Great acting, though, of course, by Troy Baker. Well documented, obviously, in a number of different places, including, of course, retro replay where you can go see them all play through this and give great commentary and talk what was happened. From there, we jump 20 years later. Joel is a smuggler who has done very, very bad things to many, many people. We are in Boston, a quarantine zone, a QZ, as they call it

blessing. Remember that. It'll be important. Cool. Oh, I'm fine, you guys. I'm enjoying you. So, yeah, basically through Hooker Crook, there's another smuggler there by the name of Tess. They have some guns that this other guy has. They go to get the guns from him. Guess, well, actually, he tried to kill. test. She, of course, made short work on that. I'm sorry, Nick Serpina. Is test useful or completely useless? Tess actually

ended up getting a point from you. So she is, in fact, useful. By the way, I've decided for simplicity's sake, we are just going to do the games. They were going to do the game, then left behind, then the comic book. All right? Okay. So you can all hold your questions then. Or I can combine them. What would you like? What would you like? I think you should do

them. I think you should do them how you just said. That makes sense. Okay, cool. Um, uh, so, yeah, Robert sucks. That's the guy. But Robert is that dude from Game of Thrones a lot of you like, right? He's the one who hang out. He hung out with Dinklebot for a long time. Remember, they were bros. He gave him some kind of princess or something.

Dinklebot, which was the small robot? Was Dinklebot the small robot? No, remember, of course, you fake gamer Nick. Dinklebot was the original bot that Peter Dinklage played in Destiny. Fucking coward. Before no one of Lord. Who David would be. Robert from the beginning.

Do you remember this part? Robert, the guy who's like, they, he tries to kill a test through people. You end up killing him or whatever. That's that dude from Game of Thrones. I don't know his name. He's the dude from Game of Thrones that was like Peter Dinklage's right-hand man for a while. And like he gave him a kingdom or some shit. And then like, no, he had to do one more like, you're back in it.

Oh, no, no, no. No, not the other guy. The older dude who was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that sounds right. Yeah, that think that was right name. I can help with the video game part. You got to meet me halfway with the Game of Thrones part. That's awesome. You threw me off with Dinklebot.

I don't know what that is. What's a Dinkle bot? So I can tell you the history of Destiny really quick too. Yeah, can you get that for me? Here's before Destiny was to be released. IG and leaked all the stuff. information about destiny and piss people off. No, okay, we'll talk about it.

The seven-year plan. The seven-year plan for Destiny. They catch up to Robert. Finds out that he sold the guns to the fireflies, actually. They were their guns, but he sold them to the fireflies because he had to or whatever. He didn't really have to do it. And he has this great line where he's like, you know, please just let me go. Give me a week and I can get the money, I can get you the guns back or make the money back.

And Tesla, like, I probably would have if you had, didn't try to kill me. And she blows him away, thus setting the stakes that these aren't good people. You know what I mean? The smugglers here, which I think the game does a great job in terms of its storytelling of kind of making you forget where it is like, oh, you're a survivor's part. And then we'll get to the end where, of course, Joel's popping off kneecaps and making people point things on the map. And like, I believe him. He's just fucking hitting people in the head with pipes. She's like, all right.

He's a cold-blooded killer. So it turns out that, yeah, the fireflies have it. We got to find a firefly. Luckily, Marlene comes around the corner. She's like, hello, but she's been shot. So she's actually more like, hello, what's your deal? And she'll know each other, right? They go back and forth in the quarantine zone.

And so, yeah, she took the guns. She needed the guns. And she can't give you the guns unless you help smuggle a package for us. And she's like, well, why don't you? And she's like, well, you know, a whole bunch of people have fucking died, right? Like, a whole bunch of people are dead. I need your help doing this. All you got to do is take it to the Boston, like, dome capital or whatever.

It'll be super simple. Do it for us. You get the guns and then some. And before they can really debate it or whatever, they're on the run because there's more bad guys coming. And so eventually they kill a whole bunch of things and do a whole bunch of things. and we end up getting to Ellie, getting introduced to Ellie. There's this girl there named Ellie if I haven't said Ellie enough.

And it turns out she's the thing that needs to be smuggled. They don't know why and they don't understand why, but they're like, whatever, we'll do it. You know, we're smugglers. And so they're like, cool, let's smuggler out of smuggle. And Marlene's been shot. So she's like, you know, she'll be okay, but she can't be part of this job. And so she's like, see, she's like, goodbye. And she creeps back around the corner.

And then they're like, all right, we got Ellie. Let's fucking go. You know what I mean? But it's that Ellie and Joel split off Marlene and Tess go off on their own. and Tess is going to verify the guns. They'll come back together. There's a great moment here where, you know, when Joel and Ellie are alone for the first time

and Joel doesn't give a fuck about her, they walk into a room, and immediately he's down to take a nap. And she's like, what are you doing? He's like, killing time. And she's like, what am I supposed to do? He's like, you're figured out. And then he covers his face with his broken watch or whatever.

And she walks by and she's like, your watch is broken. It's like, oh, yeah, remember Sarah? She did. Eventually, though, Ted and Mark are your daughter? She's fucking dead, dude. You dumb idiot? Couldn't save her, could you?

Somehow Tommy's ass keeps living. Anyways. Then it's like, all right, cool. The guns are real. Let's get GTFO. They go out and they start getting outside of the quarantine zone. And there's a whole bunch of like different things happening. They're out there going.

There's, you know, the infected out there. Ellie's impressed to be outside for the first time. When they finally, oh, yeah, when they're actually about to leave the quarantine zone, when they actually get out of the quarantine zone for the first time, and they come through the water pipes and there's people up there looking for them, they actually come through and get captured real quick. and they get put down and they test everybody's clear, clear, and then Ellie knows she's going to ring infected because she's infected.

And she turns around and stabs the dude, and then it all pops off and they all take them all out. But then test picks up, it's like, holy fucking shit and toss it. And Joe, he's like, oh, fucking Jesus, no, she's infected. How's that? And Ellie's like, no, I'm not affected. I can explain. And she opens her arm and she's like, this bite is weeks old, three weeks old, I think.

And they're like, and everybody turns in a couple of days. You would already be showing signs and stuff. Like, no, this is, you're a lying fucking piece of trash. And she's like, no, I can prove, like, look, it's this. And it's, like, it's real, it's real. And I'm fine. Like, when in a turn, look, it's already healing and shit like that. And they're like, ah, we don't fucking know what to do.

What we got to keep moving on. And, like, you know, Tess is like, wants to believe, but can't believe, but wants to believe. And so they then keep on going. And yeah, they're going and they're going. And eventually, yeah, they drop into a thing, right? And it's, we fight a bunch of infected. We introduced the concept of the different stages of infective where there's runner. Well, first off, there's the ones who are still being taken over.

They sit there and they just moan. They sit there and they just moh. they're doing that shit, right? Because it's them, you're, I talked to Neil about this back in the day. Like, it's them, you're inside still. You're still alive. You know that you've lost the ability to control yourself

and you're there as this fucking thing is taking over your consciousness. I think, and those might be the, I don't know, I always kill them before they do anything. I don't think that's the start of a runner, but then there are runners that run around and do stuff. Then there's the clickers who are the ones like, and they like fucking run at you.

Yeah, they got the really hard, the exoskeleton. Yeah. I don't have eyes, so they can't see. Exactly. They echo location like that. So anyways, Joel and Tess and Ellie are making their way through, making their way downtown, walking fast.

Collectors passed as their homebound. And at some point, I believe it's in here, right? In this whole thing. They go in and they introduce the concept of spores, of course, which are the things that are like, you know, that'll infect you if you breathe them in. But they put on masks, Ellie doesn't. It actually fall by accident, I think. And they notice, I go, fuck, she's not lying.

Like, she got bit. And this actually proves the fact that. she's fine. And so I think that's where it happens. But they keep going. They get to the Boston Dome, whatever, the Capitol building there. Find all the fireflies dead. Test starts to just lose your fucking shit. And Jill's like, what the fuck, man? Why do we care so much about this? And she's like, clearly it's real and she's the cure. And she's like, you have to do this. And he's like, why so much? And she's like, I got in. Ellie figures that out. She goes, oh, she's bit. And she pulls out. She's like a bit. And like, Joe's like,

oh, fucking God damn it. And test is like, no, like there's something here between us. or this means something enough to us. Like they've clearly fucked, but they don't love each other. You know what I mean? It's a lot. It rhymes to a lot of Nick and me. They fucked,

but they don't like love each other. It's not that passion. But they're like, it's the opposite with us. We love each other. And one day we're going to fuck. Okay, cool.

And, you know, they've been partners forever in this smuggling ring. Look at a blessing's face. Look at blessings face when we say things like that. And he lets it slide. He's going to get,

one of these days is going to call us up. Listen, I'm not going to get it. I'm not going to get in between all this. This is between you two. That's fair. And so she's like, you've got to see this through. You've got to do this.

Take him to Tommy, your brother. He used to be a firefly. He's out there in Jackson, Wyoming. He'll know what to do. He'll know how to get in contact. And Joel's like, no, she's like, you have to fucking do it. And then, like, people start showing up. And she's like, you got to fucking go.

Like, I'll stay here. I'm not going to become one of them fucking things. I'm going out gun blazing. And so we run away and you share, but she gets killed. And then it's like, oh, no, she died. And so then like, you and Ellie keep on moving out of Boston. doing your thing or whatever. And, you know, there's more people you kill. You're sneaking around. You're breaking stuff. Ellie's throwing stuff. Uh, your idea here, though, is that you're

going to go to Bill's town. Bill has a town he's hold up in. Bill is a man who can get things and has things. And he owes Joel favors. So we're going to go there. We're going to get a car and we're going to go see Tommy in Wyoming. Super quick trip just across the country. No big deal. And, uh, Ellie's like, cool, whatever. Sorry about Tess. And Joel's like, don't fucking talk about her. You know, you haven't earned any right to talk to me, little girl. And Troy Baker's like, And so you guys get going and you eventually get to Bill's town and it's all fortified and there's all these traps and stuff. Turns out Bill's not, he's just, he doesn't trust people and Joel's technically never actually been to Bill's town. Bill's always come to them, but they do have a relationship.

Eventually, though, we get there. We get saved by Bill and we're fighting some clickers and stuff. And he pulls us into a room, but Bill being the procrocious old man he is, doesn't trust anything. And so he handcuffs Ellie to a pipe and then he puts Joel down at gunpoint and starts looking for bites. And Ellie's like, I ain't about this life. And she breaks the pipe off and she turns around. hits him in the arm and he's like god damn it and then joel settles the whole situation just like calm down my god you only you are some favors and he's like i don't know you shit joe he's like yeah you do and he's like yeah you do and he's like all right i guess i do owe you some shit it's like okay and so they need to just get a car and get out of here and he's like oh fucking car why don't i think of that's

easy as hell i'm fucking bill and i'm angry about everything and so it turns out that there's another section of town where he doesn't have any working cars uh there's another section of town though where the military was driving by and they got overrun by some clickers and they drove into a gym. And so if you go there, there's probably a battery in that car that we can get and then put it into one of the trucks Bill has. You get on your happy little way and get out of my fucking town. And they're like, deal. Cool. Let's do it. And so then like, Ellie picks up a porno mag, well, we don't know that. And then they go to the gym and they open up the thing. And I'll fuck the battery's not here. And then there was a callback that Bill had a partner.

And like that was like, oh, we already heard that he had a partner that he's gone, they don't work with anymore. And that's one of the reasons he was talking about where's test. and he kept asking about tests and Joel was getting real testy about it. They get there though and there's no battery. Good one, Greg. Thank you, buddy. You get there, there's no battery. And he's like, ah, fuck, no battery.

Somebody must take it. And then all these clickers start running in. And this is where one of the bloaters runs in. And this is our first introduction to the bloater who can take off these corticep like bombs and throw them at you and they go off and you get all choky. And he's just really vulnerable to fire. So he just run around and burn them really easy and get them done. You climb up the bleachers and you get out.

And then it's like, cool, we're going to keep going through this town. And as they do that, we eventually come across a house we walk into where there's a person who has hung themselves. It's a guy in a Hawaiian shirt who actually turns out is Bill's former partner, who actually is Bill's former lover. When he said partner and got choked up talking about earlier, he was trying to, you know, bring up the fact that he wasn't, not trying to. Actually, he kind of stumbled into the fact that he was gay with this guy. And like that, that was their whole thing. And like, I don't think he understand. He's not, Joel, this Texan, and granted, what?

It's 2033. We're not sure how progressive they're going to be. and he doesn't understand to you. And Bill, what do you know about him? Other than he looks like he'd be on Sun's Anarchy. Anyways, he's like, only my former partner to wear a shirt that ugly. They cut him down. You find the battery there.

You also find a note, though, from the partner who's like, fuck you, Bill, you fucking suck. I always hated you, and I'm glad you're going to die in this town. I thought I could get out, but I couldn't. It's like, damn, this is a thing. And so on the way out, of course, Bill's super depressed. You can either give him the note and tell him about it, or you can not give him the note and whatever.

And, you know, Bill's, but Joel does have a great moment again, where we see that he is sympathetic and understands the situation where he's like just so you know back there with your partner like that was a bad deal I'm sorry man and like bill's an asshole about it because Bill's an asshole but whatever um we get in the car and Ellie knows out of pop a clutch and we push it around and these fucking monsters keep running at us but we keep pushing the truck and eventually we jump in and go on our happy little way uh bill gets out maybe that's where we say goodbye to him and they're like all right cool uh we then are driving on the road uh this is you know some infamous last of us cut scenes going on here uh this is where Ellie reveals she stole the porn pro pro prolog mag talks about how does he even walk around with that that thing referencing a giant dick nick oh i got it greg okay just make sure and why these pages stuck together and jose like uh-uh and she's like i just fucking i know you idiot and she tosses up then he's like come up here and take a nap she's like i'm not even tired she falls asleep immediately we have a camera cut to her being asleep in the car uh this is then the infamous cutscene of them uh driving down

the road and the way is blocked by cars and they go down and on ramp and the guy comes like uh help me she's like we need to help that guy and joel just has that great line of like oh oh he even heart and just accelerates into him. The last second pulls out his gun. And then it's a huge thing of us fighting a whole bunch of people trying to take us down. This is the hunters, right? Yeah.

Yeah, man. Cool. It's really cool. Yeah. This is the one like infamously was the first thing I ever played of The Last of Us where, you know, you want to slam that guy's head into the fucking glass in the, can we eat and all that shit. Yeah, exactly, exactly. And like, what we were talking about on PS I love you right the other day, bless of like, people are like, oh man, man.

The Last of us part two looks so violent. I'm like, last of it was part one was really violent. It was just a PS3 game, so it didn't look as good. You know what I mean? Like, this has always been brutal and gruesome and fucking grotesque. You kill all these clowns, though, and you keep moving. And yeah, there's hunters all over it. As you're moving through the town, you at one point see another couple get gunned down.

They're clearly not, they're in a similar situation either. They just kind of ran into this area and now all hell's breaking loose. As you advanced, though, you eventually run into Henry and Sam, a big brother, little brother combo that is out here trying to work as well. They were with this group of people. They got here. They got separated. They've been getting picked off.

Sam and Henry are trying to make their way to the fireflies, just like we are, of course. And so, you know, we go through. And as Nick and I know, they eat some fucking beans. And let me tell you, the Twitch chat was not happy when all we wanted to talk about was these beans during these crucial story beans. Listen, man, my heart was beat out of me a long time ago. Okay, mostly by Tim. I'll just put it that way.

It's Tim's fault that I have no heart left. So we have some great moments here of really seeing the relationships start to be built and how much everybody means to each other. There's obviously the moment of them being on the run from the military truck like with the turret gun. And when Joel and Ellie gets separated, like Joel falls down when the truck's about to come down, he's trying to climb out of something. And Sam and Henry, yeah. I, hold on. Henry, Sam.

Henry's the older brother, right? Sam's the little brother, I believe, right? Wait a minute, Greg. Hold on. What just happened here? I'm trying, I can picture all the, I can picture the characters, and I'm pretty sure he goes. How he would say it to be like, what name? Henry's, Henry's the older brother, because I remember Sam being yelled more than

than Henry. I believe Sam was the younger brother. Nailed it, crushed it. Yeah. Killed it. See, you can make fun of me all you want, Tim. But when I go up here, I find the information, all right? You go up here, it's just fucking gerbils.

Henry's 25 and Sam. And Sam is 13. The younger kid. Yeah. So, yeah, at one point they get separated and Joel falls down, leaving the three of them where they could be to safety and run and leave them for dead. Instead, Ellie hops back down. It's like, we're in this together. You guys, of course, get three of a run away.

As you're running from these people, though, you fall into the water and get washed away. Joel gets knocked out. When we come to, we're on the beach. Sam and Henry are reunited with us. Joel goes to punch. Yeah, he knocks down Henry. And is, like, going to shoot him in Henry. and the fucking badass he is. Sam's like,

don't Sam, put it down. He's not going to, and he won't break eye contact with Joel. He's like, he's not going to do anything. He's just mad. Everything's fine. It worked out the way. You left me to die. You got out okay.

I knew you could. And he does the class thing of like, I had to protect my brother. What would you have done if rolls were reversed? And Joel kind of calms down a bit. This is where we run into the great story of Ishmael, the man who had been out at sea on his boat, brought his boat in to the dock or whatever.

He's like, I got to fucking take a chance of this. And through environmental storytelling of finding letters and seeing it all, devolve in their little water shelter there or watershed shelter there in. We find that it didn't go well, but Ishmael was sick of being alone and had invited some people to start a community, which went well for a while until Clickers invaded and killed everybody. And then people had to start blowing their brains out and killing kids in the fucking playroom as well. So they didn't see him in this shit. We get all the way through that, though.

And at one point, Sam picks up a little toy too, like a transformer go-bock kind of looking motherfucker. This isn't really key to the story. Just interesting. then they get back to HQ, and that's when they want to eat some more beans. And Sam's down and nobody really knows why. I know they try to cheer him up because they've been hitting it off.

They've been tossing blueberries in each other's faces. They've just been having a good old time, kids being kids, you know what I mean? Some good old-fashioned American fun out there in the pandemic. And Sam's all like, I'm counting peaches. He's like, all right, fine, fuck, man. I just wanted to hang out and talk about your blue toy, but fuck you. She leaves and it turns out, well, Sam was bitten. So like, oh, fuck, you know, this shit's about to pop off.

So the next morning has not played the game, that sound effect is not in the game. So you're not going to be. Wow. Wow. Then, yeah, so then like the next morning, Sam's, you know, infected body. Yeah. So this is, yeah, so runners are just early infected. They were fighting.

Attacks Ellie gets her down. Joel tries to shoot him, you know. What a good scene. Huh? So I just watched this scene yesterday. It was one of those ones where I was like, God, they did it. Like, they knew what they were doing with these cut scenes. So yeah, Henry shoots before Joel can get his gun and he's like, I got to stop this.

I have to stop this, Henry. Like, Sam isn't Sam anymore, blah, blah. He's like, he's my brother. And Joel's like, oh, to hell with it and goes to get his gun. And there's one shot fired. And it's Henry shooting Sam. And so then, like, there's this moment of it. And like, yeah, Henry turns the gun on.

Joel is like, you got to fall. He's like, it wasn't my fault. This is one of his, like, just put the gun down. He's like, ah, and he just turns and shoots himself without any hesitation and kills himself. So fast. Yeah, exactly. What a fucking powerful scene. Like this this to me is an example and I don't want to get you off too much here, Greg, but from the Marine, the Marines, the Marines, I don't know why I'm saying that.

The armored truck that's like shooting people down like shooting down or the hundred. That whole thing could have been like an uncharted style action scene where it's like you're running away from the camera, crash bandicoot style, whatever. It's not. It's done in a way that makes it a lot more real and grounded, which is what this game is. And that leading into this scene of Henry just dealing with it and then immediately shooting himself, like how quick you. he does it. It's like it hits harder and it makes you feel like you're part of this experience more than like any like quick time of that ever could. The one question I have about this scene is that did Sam have a room to himself like during the night? Like was it just him in that room?

And were the other three like sleeping in the other room? Because that I feel like that's a weird like split. You would think that Henry and Sam are sleeping in the same room. This is the thing that bothered me. I know it's like a very little thing that doesn't really matter to listen to the story. But that's the thing I've been thinking about a lot. I just played it yesterday or two days ago. And I felt like the space we were in was big enough that they honestly could have all had their areas, their own areas. It's not that they were sleeping in different rooms. They could have slept in the same room.

He was sleeping too long, which is why they sent Ellie in. Oh, okay. So he could have been in there and it could have just been happening like over the last hour. Yeah, but I feel like, Tim, we shared hotel rooms together. And if I got up in the morning and you were like grown fungi and like bleeding out your eyes, I mean, I know, I know. noticed. You know what I mean? Yeah, because my,

my impression that was that it happened overnight and that, like, he was just in there the whole time, um, being infected. But I think that does make sense. If they, like, woke up earlier and they were just hanging on the living room and then, like,

that was, like the point, like an hour ago where he turned. Yeah. That would make sense. Um, with them dead, it's on to Tommy's or whatever.

Uh, they, we, this, I think is, I could be wrong in this one. This is the first time jump where it's like, well, not time jump.

That's not correct. It's the, it's the next season shift. Is that right? Is that right? We go to fall here. Yeah. So it's fall now.

And we are approaching the, it's hydroelectric dam outside of Jackson, Wyoming and Jackson County, outside of Jackson, Wyoming. And, you know, you have to move a whole bunch of stuff around, some puzzle solving here. You know, how do you get this thing up to cross this thing? And Joel's got to go underwater and whatnot. As you go as well, you know, we start to see it, start to, the relationship, again, start to deepen. And I think that's one of the, you know, underplayed moments. underplay themes of the game, obviously, is like in the beginning when, you know, she wants to

talk about Tess, he immediately cuts her off. Here, she wants to talk about Henry a bit. This is, I think it might actually be a side thing. If you go the, when you're going to the dam, if you go back the other way and you find a little gravestone and a little grave, Joel's like, oh, man, no grave should be this small. And, uh, Ellie's like, oh, man, I still have the stupid go bot. I meant to put it as grave or whatever. And then she starts to try to to talk about it and Joel cuts her off. And she's like, but I want to talk about this. And he's like, what is the point of talking about it? like they're dead, they're gone.

This is how it works in this world. We don't, there's no reason to look past. In the past, you have to look in the future of the present. You're going to die. She's like, I guess you're right. We advanced with the idea of cutting through the power plant to get to Jackson. And when we get to the door of the power plant, Maria at the top of it in her group stops us and it starts asking us questions aiming down.

And then finally another guy up there goes, I can, hold on. And she's like, you know this guy? He's my goddamn brother. they embraced. This is interesting, of course, because when Tommy left to be a firefly, him and Joel had a huge fight about it in which he had told Ellie earlier. Recapping this that he never wanted to see his goddamn face again is what Tommy told Joel when he left. But they embrace here and they're happy for a second. We go through and get the rundown of what's happening here. Tommy's married to Maria. She's the leader of this Jackson community. They've come out here to this hydroelectric name because it stopped working. They've been working on it for, I want to say a week, right? Is that right? It's yeah, I think it's weak. It's not that long, but it feels like it's forever is what Tommy says, as he gives Joel the tour. Maria and Maria takes Ellie to eat while Joel gets the tour and sees what's up or whatever. As this is going on and we're exploring the whole thing, eventually, you know, we meet the guys who are trying to get the fucking hydro thing turned on.

They get it turned on. And Joel's like, I need to talk to you in private, Tommy. He goes into privacy with Tommy and he explains, of course, that like, listen, I got to get this girl to the fireflies. like, you know, she's the cure. We skipped all this, by the way. The reason she's being exported outright is that she's immune to all the cortisept stuff. We're taking to the firefly to hopefully synthesize a cure out of her, like make a vaccine or whatever. That will then like the joker will spread like an aerosol all over the studies.

I don't know. I made that part up, but I hope that's how they're going to do it. And so he's 37 minutes into this podcast and I think we are 50% through the game. Oh, this is all moving. And this is moving quick. Don't worry. People aren't doing this. No,

I'm just making observations. Just making observations. You want. Then you break your dick off and you try to stop me again, all right? I'm out of. Go ahead. Get a harm? Break it off.

Just like in Goonies. Anyways, back to it. Yeah. And Tommy's like bullshit. And Joel's like, listen, I've seen her breathe enough spores to take down a dozen men. But Joel adds the wrinkle here of like, listen, you got to take her. You take her. You take her to the fireflies.

And Tommy's like, why? And Joel's like, just do it. All right? You have to do this for me. Like, it's up to you to do it kind of thing. At one point in the, before this conversation too, Tommy tried to give Joel a photo of him and Sarah that had been in the house in Texas. Tommy had gone back to Texas like last year or whatever. And he had been holding on to it.

Joel rejects it and does not want it. Tommy's like, okay. And then they get all this stuff like, I don't know. Is this really what it's all about? Like, I don't know. Yada, yada. And Tommy's like not sold in this idea. Like, why do you want me to take?

They're your boys. I haven't seen them in years. We're talking about while this conversation's happening. Oh, actually, no. Joel shoves Tommy up and it's like, they get to like an altercation here because Tommy calls them out on like, I don't owe you anything. Like, you know, my years with you,

meaning the years between outbreak day and where we are now, we're the worst of my life. Like, we did things, unspeakable things. We did horrible things. And it's all your fucking fault, Joel. And Joel's like, I kept you fucking alive. Like, I taught you how survived kind of thing. And shoves them up.

And they, it settles for a second. Tommy's like, this isn't fucking Boston anymore. If you do that again, like you're going to be in a world of pain because I fucking run, like, I'm the first man of this presidency.

I don't know. Maria will make sure your balls are cut off and fed to take. And so Joel's like, and then while this happens, siren goes off. He's like, what's that? He's like,

intruders. So we run out and there's a whole bunch of fuckos who are here and I are trying to take down the dam or whatever. We fucking clean these guys' clocks. We just beat the shit out of them, senseless. You know what I mean? And eventually,

though, we're reunited with Maria and Ellie. and Joel runs over to Ellie and very much in the father-daughter way. She's like, are you okay? What happened? Are you? She's like, oh, yeah, it was this.

It was great. And I took this guy out. You'd be so proud. And Tommy has this thing over there where he looks over there and is like, I get it. God damn it. All right, I'll do it. I'll take her because clearly you're falling in love with this girl. This girl reminds you too much of Sarah.

That's why you can't do this. And she's like, all right, I'll do it. I'll take her. Whatever. And so, Ellie, he overhears all this. this of like, oh yeah, like, I'll take her for you and is like, what the fuck. We don't see her say what the fuck, but we know that's what she would say or whatever. And so she bounces.

She runs away and they're like, she ran away and she took a horse. And everybody was like, ah, fuck. And Joel in time, like, ah, fuck, let's go get her. So they ride off to get her. And of course, there's a bunch of bad guys. We got to kill along the way. And I think there's probably some clickers here too and are infected or whatever. Eventually we meet up.

We get to a house where the horse is parked outside. We go in the house. We come upstairs and we find Ellie reading a girl's diary. She's like, this is really all girls' head. to be worried about was boys, what shirt went with what skirt and going to the movies? Like, this is fucking ridiculous. And just like, what the fuck's your problem? Like, why would you run off like that?

She's like, what the fuck do you, Karen? And finally she's like, listen, everybody I've ever care about is dead. And you're the only person, the only fucking person who hasn't abandoned me and like shoves them. And now you're trying to push me off onto Tommy. Like, fuck you or whatever. And then she drops the bomb of when you left me to go get a sandwich with Maria, Maria just fucking told me everything. So I know about Sarah.

And I, and Joe cuts her off. I'm going to, you're walking on some mighty thin ice there. And it's fucking dope as hell. And he's like, we don't talk about Sarah. We don't say the yes word. And so like, he's like, you're, I don't care. He goes, you're right. After she goes through this whole soliloquy right, like, you're right.

You're not my daughter and I sure is hell ain't your dad or vice versa. So they go back outside. They ride back to town. We get a cut scene playing out. That's very beautiful. And then when we get back to the overlook of Jackson, Joel's like, Ellie, give Tommy the horse and get on with me. I'm going to take you.

We have to go to Eastern Colorado University. Go big horns. We got to go out there and we got to find these fireflies that Tommy told us about and like, I'm not going to leave you behind. You know, you remember Batman and the Justice League gift? Superman comes back. That's Ellie. So they ride.

We jump again now. Maybe this is the time. Jump to fall. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. But we ride up and Joel's explaining football to Ellie, which is very cute. Or she's actually reciting it back. We get to the, we get to the university.

We're looking for the science building. That's a mirror building. You know, we go through a bunch of shit as usual. We're turning on generators. We're climbing up things. We're pushing around dumpsters. Eventually, we get into the building. Nobody is there.

We find a recorder from the last Firefly, who was on watch duty up there. Like, well, everything sucks. And I'm going to die now. So I'm going to leave this. If you want them, you got to find them in Salt Lake City. Like, all right, it's Salt Lake City. Not so bad. What's that?

Another fucking one of these fuckos is here trying to kill us again, right? I don't know why these motherfuckers always come when we're around. I'm like, all right, let's go kill these guys. So we start killing these fuckers. And at some point we're going to open a door and the dude burst out of the door and he puts, he gets Joel up against a rickety old awning. He's like, I want to fucking kill you. And you're like, yeah, fuck you are, fuck oh.

And the thing breaks when they fall. You are, fucko. I can write dialogue from this game. You could. Why aren't you using me? The fuck you are. They fall on a piece of rebar. It goes right through Joel's side.

It's just fucking brutal. Just fucking brutal. Through him. I want to stop you again here. This being a spoiler cast of Last of Us and kind of just like the storytelling of it, especially now seven years later after playing this game. I feel like even at the time, it was kind of well-worn territory in terms of apocalypse stories, zombie stories, you know, twist this, change that, whatever.

Like so many things that have and so many story beats like we've seen before in Walking Dead, which is even referenced directly in this game multiple times. But something that is crazy to me is now knowing things that happen. in Walking Dead, like, with Rick, with Rick's, like, what ends up happening with Rick in the TV show is, like, the exact same thing that happens to Joel here, where he, like, falls on something and gets like the pipe put right through him. And it's just like, it's crazy how for some reason, it seems like so many of the good, I didn't mean to use quotes that, the actual, the good storylines when it comes to these, like, a post-apocalyptic, like dealing with infected type stuff have such similar kind of bases all. the time and then plot beats and moments and characters and you know like interactions because it's like there's something core about that i don't know what it is but like there there must be something that yeah it always comes back to the same stuff yeah yeah i think when you start taking away

technology and scaling the world back but having the relics of our world you start everybody starts playing in the same sandbox which is like why i would think things start to funnel a certain direction. Yeah. And you see people running into the same ideas concepts, actual like plot beat moments and stuff like that. Even you figure like, and I, because I had no point would ever sit here and tell you that I think naughty dogs copying telltale, right?

But like even like the way Walking Dead season one of the game went, right, of being Lee to in Clem and then season two being now I'm Clem, right? We see that now with, and granted you played as Ellie in the first game for a bit too in the DLC as well. But it was like that weird handoff. Like you're teaching. we're we're teaching this surrogate right and then taking control of the surrogate and the single car yeah i think i think for me it's just good storytelling right which is that it's less about like

don't get me wrong the game mechanics and and sneaking through the worlds and fighting the infecting and all that stuff is fun and the puzzle solid elements are fun too but the good at the heart of why this game is great is it because it does give you those it puts you in those choice moments where you have to choose between like the like the moralistic tales all that stuff and that's the same level of storytelling that telltell brought to walking dead and what they brought to the the show, which was like, like, you, you always, there's something kind of sad and, but fulfilling about having a character put in a lose, lose situation where they have to pick between the lesser of two evils, and that just kind of mirrors some of the struggles in

real life. There's just, just a good story telling. Yeah. For me, like the, the, the Joel falling moment and him being essentially impaled, for me was the moment in the game where I was like, all right, I'm curious on where this is going to go. And I know Greg is going to recap the rest of it, but like seeing how immediately, the rest, the, the rest, the, the, rest of the scene plays out and is like, oh, yeah, Joel, okay, Joel's making it. And like, the more and more you go, the more and more, the more as a player, you're like, I don't know if Joel's making it. And then you get to the next chapter and things go on. But this, while rewatching and re-experiencing the game over the last couple of weeks, this was,

where it kind of reminded me, like, why the last was as great as it is. Like, I've been talking about this on PS-Love that replaying the game is one of, it's, it's, it's, it's been interesting to see, like, what elements of the game feel very 2013. And then what what elements of the game still feel like they're ahead of their time. Like, the game still looks beautiful. The dialogue is still great. The cutscenes are still awesome. But it's been one of those things where the more and more I've played it over the weeks,

the more and more I've been like, oh, man, like, maybe I like God of War better than this. I kind of still stand by that. But that, for me, Joel falling and getting impaled and everything that happens from then on was the reminder of, like, oh, yeah. Like, they, like, they figured out how to make some. an interesting story from such from from from subject matter that feels well um like well travel through yeah i guess yeah well worn right like like we know what a zombie story is we've had discussions on previous game games cast uh with emron especially on our um controversial controversial

opinion games cast talking about tropes and how like yeah like last list is pretty tropey as far as like zombie tropes go um but yeah like when you when you pull when you pull in like the main character getting impaled thing and then like whether are they going to live, are they not going to thing? Like, I think the last was does such a good job of playing with those tropes. And even though, like, it does feel like well-worn territory, they, uh, they keep it fresh and interesting and attack it with such a quality that I think maintains, like, the master level of which this story is told.

Here's my question. And because when I'm around was talking about a controversial game opinions, I knew we would get into it on this or whatever. Is the last of us tropey? Like, I, I know we can say that. And I mean, yeah, oh, there's zombies. and you're in this post-topic, and like there's things we're referencing and stuff,

but I don't, I feel like a trope is like a crutch that you're using over and over again. And I guess like, I think when I got it in the sense of tropey stuff, Greg, I think it's like, it's like, it's like,

of course there's going to be cannibals. Of course there's going to be hunters. Of course, like, it's funny that like you can look at the names of Walking Dead arcs in the comics and pretty much one for one. Okay. Find them how,

how it like works here. But it's like, I think that tropes aside, it's like, at the end of the day, it's all about characters. because it's like all these zombie stories, they're not about the zombies,

they're about the humans. And it's like, really, though, when you have a character like Ellie, like I love the amount she says fuck. And that's such a weird thing because it's so easy for that to be a crutch, for that to be something where it's just like, oh,

like you're edgy and you get to say whatever you want. It feels like she's such a real character because like they commit to that, you know, and it's like the way she talks to everybody. She is that. And it's like I love that type of stuff. And to me, it's working with intropes to,

to still like nail the storytelling, but really make you connect to the different characters. Yeah, that's like my main thing is that I don't necessarily think tropes are a bad thing. Like, unless it's one of those things where you're, you're being tropey and also like uninteresting in how you tackle them. Like, you know, in any zombie story, yeah, you can predict, predict cannibals, you know, being a thing. You can predict humans being the real threat.

You can predict a zombie story to tell an actual deeper story about how humanity can still exist in the worst of times. Like, I feel like there's so many things that. Laslist does where you can probably point to Walking Dead like Tim was saying or I know there's like a lot of inspiration from from the road. You can point to plenty of different pieces of fiction to be like, all right, yeah, this is where Elas was probably pulled this from. But I don't think those are, I don't think those are bad things by any means. Like I think, you know, in some points it could be like, all right, like I've seen this before. But for the most part, in the ways that the last was tackles them,

I especially in 2013, I feel like those things are, are fresh and still, as I've been, been replaying the game and re-experienced in the game. Like, for me, still stayed fresh for those, for the characters and the performances and, like, the ways in which those puzzle pieces come, come together that make it feel like a, a bigger thing than, then the, I guess, the different puzzle pieces, right? Like, it feels way bigger than the, than the tropes that are at play. It feels like, yeah, through the characters and through the storytelling, all those stuff, like, that stuff comes together and works.

Yeah, for me, it comes back to the old, like, the story, like, the writing concept of, like there are no original stories, just just different way, like finding a new way to tell the story. And I feel like this succeeds in that more often than it doesn't. I mean, yeah, it's full of jokes, of course. It's a survival horror genre. Every survival horror genre is going to have that moment where you run through the little hole and guess what? Something's going to grab your fucking foot. You know it's coming.

You know these things are coming. But it's the fact that they're still impactful because you care so much about the characters that makes this a work of art. Okay. That'd all makes sense. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Joel gets impaled. A great moment here where L.A.

hops down. She's like, oh, Jesus, God, what do we do? And he's like, move. And she's like, what? And he fucking pushes her in the door burst open. You shoot from the floor and you can kill some clickers. Eventually, she pulls you up off the rebar. You're bleeding like a stuck pig. You can barely walk, but you need to fight a few times until Ellie takes over and, you know, really takes control of the situation and starts killing people for you. Eventually, though, you get out. She gets you on the horse. You start to ride away. You fall over the side. She hops down, Joe, Joe, you got to tell me what to do. And then, then we cut to winter.

When we come back, it's a money. He gets hit with an arrow, and it's Ellie here. I think now, obviously, this is, again, seven years later, but playing this back in the day, I remember being at that moment of that playing and they're like, fuck, is Joel dead? Like, you know what I mean? Did they really kill Joel? Are we now switching? Is this a raiden or riding, like, moment for Metal Gear?

Ellie kills this rabbit. It's not a lot of food. Sees a buck, shoots at the buck. It starts bleeding and running away. You continue to hunt the buck until you finally get to the buck's corpse and two people show up. David and Buddy Boy, as Ellie keeps calling him, I forget what his character name is. It doesn't matter.

There's sirens are on my end, by the way. Ellie is very much not trusting of these two people. She keeps the bone arrow drawn on them at all time. David is very much like, hey man, this is a chill situation. It's James. James, thank you. She calls him Buddy Boy.

And it's yeah, yeah, okay, cool. And she's like, he's like, hey, there's a bunch of food here. We just want to trade for some of it with you. I'm sure you could use ammo clothes. And she goes, medicine. And it's like, oh, I, Joel's alive. Joel's alive. Jesus Christ. And he's like, she's like, you get me medicine. You can have the entire buck. And so he says to James, go get two bottles of penicillin and a syringe. He's like, really? He's like, go. He takes off. David stays.

Ellie's like, I'll need that gun. He's like, of course, hands over the rifle. He's like, why don't we drag this, go indoors? I'll drag the buck in there. She's like, all right, cool. He drags the buck in there. She never really lets it down. As they're in there, just chatting a little bit, and he's like, oh, you know, he's like, they're catching up a little bit. Infected roll up. David pulls a gun out of his ankle holster or whatever, shoots them. I was like, you had a gun. He's like, I'm sorry. He's like, can I have my rifle back? She's like, no, you have a gun. You're fine.

You fight off a bunch of infected. Then you get on the run from the infected. You continue to be on the run from the infected for a while. There's a bunch of different arena battles and fights you get into here. I remember Nick really hitting this one. I remember my first play through really hitting this one too, where you get in there with the long hallway into like the work zone into the elevated platform there and you have to like manage how to do there's a lot of waves. This is like one of the most uncharted moments of it. Totally.

Yeah. What it is what it is. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's the thing of like better for worse. Yeah. It's crazy to play this and like, you know, to be playing this after two previews of the last it was part two. You know what I mean?

The two big sections I did last year and then the two hours I just did recently. It's so crazy to be like. like, holy shit, is that a different game? But no future spoilers in terms of how they do a lot of stuff. You eventually fight these people off. You're like, holy shit, we did it or whatever. You go back to the fire pit to just chill out and wait for James. And this is where David lays it all fucking out.

And he's like, you know, I believe everything happens for a reason. And he's like, I'm sure this is whatever the fuck you do. He's like, no, you don't understand. Like, you know, it's been a particularly cruel winter. Nolan North is just crushing it, by the way, here. You know what I mean? Once again, showing what an actor he. isn't what a schlub Troy is.

You know, Troy, I always said, oh, Troy, hair, Nolan, North's like, I can do voices, I'm the penguin, I'm Drake, I'm David. To the point that I didn't know is Nolan North. Oh, really? Until this play through, I did not know that. Like that, I don't know how to look it up, or did he say something that queued it for you?

I watched the last of us documentary for the first time after, and I saw it and I saw it was like, what the fuck? And then now it's like, you hear it. You're like, oh, totally. But like, yeah. I remember being very confused, because sometime after I'd played the game, probably like a couple years later.

I saw somebody reference the fact that he was in the game and I was like, no, that's Troy. And like I had like look through and be like, oh, he played date. Like I did not realize. That's crazy. Yeah. And just real quick,

because I'm here because I was confused by this. You were saying that the voice of Robert in the beginning is the Game of Thrones guy? I definitely don't think so. It's saying that Robin Atkins downs. I'm looking at it. I'm like, I was like, wow, Brown looks hella different with hair like this.

And then I'm like, oh. Wait, what am I thinking? What's that actor's name? Robin Atkin Downs. No, no, no, I know Robin Atkin Downs. I'm talking about the actor from Game of Thrones. Let me look. Every stop.

It's a full stop. We have a full stop. Bron. Bron is played by Jerome Flynn. All right. Who seems to have never done a video game. I mean, literally putting Jerome Flynn last of us. He's the image there and it says Robert, last of us.

He bears, oh, maybe I did fuck up. He bears an uncanny, hold on, control, I have control finding thing. He bears an uncanny resemblance to Game of Thrones actor Jerome Flynn. But I guess we go. Okay, okay. He does look like him and it is. He looks like him.

Maybe your own voice actor doesn't need to like get a lawyer because this is uncanny. These guys look exactly like. To be fair, I am reading a Reddit thread from five years ago right now that says, today I learned that Braun from Game of Thrones is in the last list and it's a picture of Robert. And so Greg is not the only one who made this connection. He also kind of looks like the guy. This is like a man. No way.

Where I'm like, I'm positive. This is the fact. And it's like, no, it's not. Oh my God. It's so funny. Anyways, here we are. It's wintertime. David's here.

He's giving it all up. He's like, hey, there was a man. Well, first of all I apologize, Robert. I've met Robben many times. I knew he's in the game. I just totally mess that up.

Yeah. So David lays. it out, of course, that, like, there's a man and a little girl picking off our fucking people and killing all of our people. And I think it might be you and this guy. And Ellie understand what's up. She gets up. She holds them at gunpoint with the rifle. And David never taking eyes off her. He's like, James, put your gun down. And Ellie turns and sure enough, James has been there. He puts the gun down. He's like, give her the medicine. He's like, give her the medicine. He gives her the medicine. And I forget what he says or something. David says

something good as a one-liner and it gets the fuck out of there. Ellie rides back now to where she's got Joel hold up in a basement or whatever. She puts the horse in the garage. She goes downstairs. We see that, you know, she had done a really, the best job she could stitching Joel together where he got impaled. She gives him the injection of penicillin or whatever. She's like, you know, you're going to make it.

She sleeps next to him. She wakes up because there's noises outside. Of course, these people tracked her back to her camp. She's like, I got to get him off our trail, Joel. I'll be back. She runs out to the horse. She gets on the horse. We ride out of the town on the horse.

Bad guys are jumping on us from David. his crew trying to get us off the horse. You fight them off. You go. Eventually, you get off the horse and you got to fight. Or you see the ways over there. You get off the horse. You fight your way through, blah, blah, blah, blah.

But eventually, yeah, you get knocked out. You wake up in David's camp now. In you're like a cell, a cage or whatever. This is where David goes even further into it. He's hacking up a body right now because, yeah, as we said, Trophy, they're cannibals. She gets up. He offers her food. he swears it isn't it's just deer

I believe him. She starts eating and calls him an asshole all these different things. She won't give him any information as to who she is or what's going on. He's like, what am I supposed to tell these people? I don't fuck you. Eventually she breaks his finger and he's like, ah, goddammit, yeah, and he's yelling up.

He breaks his finger while he's very, very creepily like implying that he wants to have sexual relations with it. He's like you're special essentially and then caresses her hand, which is the thing that I only caught this play through. For some reason, I've missed this my last two playthrus. And I caught at this playthru.

And I was like, oh, God. Like, I got, the goal. The plan here is that, yes, she will be a, she will be a bride of David kind of thing. Yeah. She breaks his finger, though. And he's all pissed off at it. She's like, Ellie. And he's like, what?

You tell everybody the girl who, you can tell my, the, the, my name's Ellie. And I'm the girl who broke, the little girl who broke your fucking finger. And he's like, what did you say? Chop me up in little pieces. Me, he leaves. We cut back now to Joel waking up. And he's like, what the fuck's going on? This penicillum just chipped in, man.

I can see through time. He, you know, gets out of there. You're still moving slowly, though, but you find that, yeah, Ellie's gone and there's a whole bunch of bad guys here. We, I'm just going to see. I think we might fight people. We might not fight people. We just immediately knock these two dudes down and then drag them in,

tie them up. You separate them. You have the map. And you ask the guy, like, you know, on the map, show me where the fucking thing is. And he's like, I'm not telling you. you stabs him right in the fucking knee. He's like, ah! He's like, I'll pop your knee right off.

Tell me where the fuck they are. He takes the thing and marks the map or whatever. He's like, I'm going to go ask this guy or whatever. Make sure it's verified. He turns around then. He chokes the guy who just gave the information, kills him. And he walks back over to the other guy who's like, chained to the radiator. And he's just like, I'm not going to tell you a fucking thing.

He's like, don't worry. I believe him. I just fucking hits him with a fucking metal. He's so good. And this is when you're like, all right, Joel's like a fucking fucking psycho hardass, badass, badass, he's seen some shit guy, which is like, obviously we've killed dozens of people at this point. But again, like to see this, like, oh, right, like this is, you get the vibe.

This isn't his first time doing this. It's similar to an understated line of, right, when after the ambush we were talking about earlier, right, from the truck, when Ellie's like, how did you know that was going to happen? He's like, I've been on both sides of it before. Like, and she's, you know, she asks you if you, have you kill a lot of people or whatever. And he's like, whatever. She's like, that's a yes. Anyways, back to current timeline, sorry.

David and whoever, whatever bad guy, maybe James, I'm not even sure. They have Ellie down on the table now, and they're, like, you get it on this. They, you know, take out the cage, put her on the table. Like, you cut it in this easy way, but you're going to get chopped up now or whatever. And she bites David. And he's like, ah, you, and before he, he, like, goes up to a killing. She's like, wait, wait, I'm infected.

I'm infected. I'm infected. Like, the fuck you're infected. What are you talking about? And she's like, I'm infected, and now you are, too. It's like, the fuck you are we talking about. and they pull up her sleeve and see the bite there and the other guy starts freaking out. He's like, that doesn't make me

sense. And David's like, that doesn't make any sense. And they let their guard down long enough for Ellie to get the blade, knock, chop it into the other guy or whatever. David's like, oh, fucking goddamn. Ellie escapes, then runs outside. It's a blizzard. You have to run around. It's a great scene, by the way. Anytime they use that ambient

like blizzard or there's a fire happening and then all of a sudden it's subtle, but you can't see anymore. It adds so much more to the tension. They, you know, run all over. No, they, Ellie runs all over the place, eventually ending up at like a diner. So then we're there as we try to leave that place. David appears, pushes us back in. He's got hit the machete now.

And we get to a boss battle, one of the few boss battles in this game, kind of. And I hate this boss battle. I love the story elements of it. The battle itself is very, it's obtuse of exactly what you're supposed to do. And like, it's one of those things where eventually it's clear. It's never fun. And I think that the gameplay elements is one of those examples of like, you don't do this stuff often enough for this to be fulfilling.

But the biggest issue I had is that I had a glitch this time I played through. And it's been so long that I played that I didn't remember everything. So he's outside of the cabin diner thing, right? Yeah. And like he's eventually like he opens the door and comes in. Then the boss fight starts. And eventually things start catching on fire. and the whole place is on fire, right?

For me, what happened was the door never opened. He stayed outside. Cool. And eventually, the whole place lights on fire. And I'm just in here as it's burning. And I see him outside and he's shooting. Like, at the window. And I was like, come in.

I didn't, please come here. And I was so confused. I was like, why the fuck is? I died like three times trying to figure out what to do. And I ended up having a hard reset. And then eventually he just came in. I'm like, oh, okay. that's really funny uh yeah and so there's this yeah the battle here between uh david and ellie where yeah

i agree with you again it's like the only boss battle in the game outside of like the bloater but i don't really count because that happened inside the world as you know it whereas this was this weird like all right you have to sneak and you have to crawl over these plates and this that and the other and again like i remember the first time being like what do they want me to do whereas and then now playing it again it's still not fun because it is just like i kept it in the one area the entire time You walk around one corner and he goes there. Yeah, exactly. And it's just like, okay, I got him.

He's done. Eventually, though, yeah, so you keep hacking at him with your switchblade. He eventually knocks you to the ground. The machete is just out of reach of you. I forget if this is the tradeoff right here, but I'm going to do it to anyway. Meanwhile, Joel makes it to town finally. It turned out the information was there. The blizzard's there.

He's still sneaking around killing people too. Eventually, he walks into a room and finds Ellie's backpack there. There's a whole bunch of kids clothes and stuff, too, though we never see any kids in this place. Um, he then makes his way to the restaurant as well. Uh, back inside the restaurant, uh, you know, Ellie is pinned down, uh, by David, who, what's he about to do? Um, she reaches over, gets the machete, though, turns around, knocks him down, or catches him in the arm and he's like, ah, he rolls over and she just fucking goes to town

slamming in his head over and over and over again. Oh, brutal. Joe runs up way too close for anyone wielding machete from overhead, grabs her though, doesn't get hit. It's like, and She starts freaking out. He's like, calm down. It's me. It's me. Look, it's me.

Ellie is very destroyed by this, this brutal murder. And then also the fact that she was about to become kind of weird sex slave and is like, he, he's like, I know honey. It's over.

It's okay, baby girl. That's a beautiful moment. Like the way that it would be mirrors the beginning of the game with Sarah. But then also like I think that is like that is a very pivotal moment for both of those characters in terms of their connection, right? Because the whole,

the point of the whole game is that as their journey goes, they're becoming closer and closer. Yeah. and they're building that father bond relationship. And this for me was the point where it's like, all right, yeah, this is like the thing that seals it. Right. Like,

like, Joel finally sees Elliot as a daughter in the way that he wants to protect her. And then like, as you get into the next chapter, you can already see like, oh, yeah, they're, they have this relationship. Like,

they're cool. Like, they're all the way there. And with that, like, it's funny to me that I think that there's about a 15 minute stretch of content here where it goes from like one of the worst examples of gameplay in the game with some of the best storytelling,

followed up with some of the absolute greatest reasons why video game storytelling is different than movies and interactivity matters, where we have this whole scene of the boss fight, David dies, they get connected, we get the jump, we get into the draft scene and all that stuff.

And this one task that we've done a million times of trying to like do the boost up or whatever, the way that it's interrupted is so fucking beautiful and movies can't do that. Yeah. And so yeah, at your point, yeah, we are in Salt Lake City,

now we are very close to the hospital as we continue to make our way there. It is made clear that Ellie is completely distracted, lost in her own head, her own thoughts. You know, Joel is trying to be the dad to her and ask her all these questions and engage with her and she's just not hearing it, not in a dick way, just in a lot in her mind way. Obviously, she's been through a very traumatic incident and now her journey is very close to ending. Yeah, so she's clearly depressed in her own head, wrapped up and stuff. Joel boost her up. She goes, oh my God, you got to come see this. You get up there thinking it's going to be a clicker, a monster, or whatever, and you follow along as the lights shining in beautifully and these shadows are going.

And eventually, yes, you were out in the corner and it's a giraffe that you can walk up and pet. And then you go out to the next room and this overlook and you get to just sit there as long as you know as you want. I don't know how long. But you hit triangle and you can sit there for the most part as long as you want. And just watch this, you know, Nick, I'm sorry, what's a herd of giraffe skull? Gaggle. Gaggle.

I grab giraffes make their way across this parking lot in this world that's been reclaimed by nature. And of course, this zoo that they had referenced, you know, and signs and stuff that has clearly been overrun the monster the animals have now taken over the city. When you decide to break away from this beautiful touching scene that did get me choked up, I remember my first play-through, I remember I paused shortly thereafter and went out to walkboarding. And I remember it all catching up to me because I'd been like marathoning it all weekend to make it for whatever embargo it was at IGN.

And I remember it being like, I got choked up and thinking how beautiful that was. And I was like all of a sudden where Ellie was. All right. So we're not. Yeah. It crashed. Oh no.

You can see me? Yeah, we see. Well, we see your picture. Did it record? Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, it's still recording. We're actually recording this, too. Cool. We're live streaming, right?

So, I mean, that's all. It's out there. Can I pick it back up? Two seconds. Pop out. I wanted to show you guys that a group of giraffes is called a confusion. Sorry. A confusion.

It's not a gaggle. Well, that's confusing. It's not a joke. Can't see you any. That's a joke. Hello, hello. I'm like Greg, get all the good ones. Good job, Tim.

Right now we see the Fiji... See, I'm seeing it's called a tower, Kevin. A tower of giraffes. I just Googled it, so... Guys, I'm thinking that Jerome Flynn is in the last of us. That is such a mind-boggling thing. I was so sure. I was so sure that I'd run into that information somewhere.

A group of hyenas is called a cackle, which is pretty interesting. A group of hippos is called a bloat. Makes sense. You know what a grip of crows is called? A murder. Oh, yeah, a murder of crows. Murder was the case that they gave me.

I'm also seeing power. You know what I heard of cows. Sorry, we're good to go. We're good to go. All right, everybody. Yep. All right, everybody. So then, yeah, as I was saying, you saw this,

I almost cried when I was out there walking party or whatever because I was in the same spot as Ellie of reminiscing on this trip that was about to end. However, very pivotally that will, you know, aid to the debate that I'm sure we will have in this show. as Joel and Ellie go to leave the roof and go downstairs, Joel stops her and is like, you know you don't have to do this. Like we can just turn around and go to Tommy's right now, forget all this,

go live our lives together happily. And Ellie, after a couple of lines, says what's most important I feel of like, this can't all be for nothing. This entire trip, everything I've gone through, all the murdering we've done,

it can't be for nothing. We can't get here and not have this happen. I'm here to restore humanity or whatever. They're like, all right, go, you go into the hospital. Or actually, I'm sorry, you go downstairs. There's a little hooker, correct, it's like your last run of infected through this subway tunnel kind of thing.

You eventually get onto, you know, your rickety platform over water. You're walking on top of a city bus. Joel falls through. Elie, of course, can't swim and still can't swim, which is ridiculous, even though they're on water every fucking day, walking across country, plenty of time to teach you to swim. She jumps on top of the bus to help you. We saw on the trailer for last of us, too.

She learns how to swim. Sure. Share, sure. I would have been helpful. It really would have been helpful, you know what I mean? Joel, she tries to help the door open for Joel, but the bus shifts. She falls into the water, gets knocked around. Joel gets out of the bus, finally swims over there, finds her lifeless body, underwater, gets her above water, dragged her to the shore, starts doing CPR.

And again, you want to talk about, you know, a call back to the beginning of the game with Sarah, right? Or he's come on, come on, baby, come on. He's doing the thing, like, pumped on her chest or whatever. At this point, the fireflies are actually here. two of them approach with guns drawn going, Haynes in the air. And he's like, she's not breathing and he keeps working on it. He refuses to stop.

And they eventually knock him out, hitting him on the temple with their guns. This whole moment is like, I get it. And like in context, it's great. And like all those like, you know,

it kind of mirroring the other moments we've seen throughout the game is great. But I do think that this was another, this story wise, an uncharted moment where it's just like, I don't know that I needed this much kind of like, twist, twist, twist, twist, twist, like so close to each other. Like, I kind of wish that the giraffe moment,

would just segue to the end of the game a little bit cleaner without having this one more moment of like, what's gonna happen? Is she gonna die here? Like it's just, it's a little too much like, too much of a roller coaster where I'm just like, holy shit, like let me breathe for one second.

That's kind of, I mean, if you want, I mean, we're critiquing the game and talking about it and stuff. And like, obviously I adore The Last of Us. I think it's a masterpiece. But like, if you want to like start talking about it,

like it's still this thing of like, what a wholly unbelievable ending this is. Where it's like, they knock out Joel and Ellie is also still knocked out. They bring her to and put her right into surgery. There's no conversation. You know what I mean? Like it's like, wait.

Like this whole thing seems like it could have been solved if you put them in the same room. They both woke up together and they sat down and like, here's what's happening. You are the cure to humanity. We need to go into your brain. Which is what I would imagine to happen. Because again, when you talk about it with, um, God,

why am I blanking our name? The leader of the fireflies right now. Oh, Tess? Marlene. Marlene, Marlene, you know, knows Joel. She gave him this job. She's there when he wakes up. They have a conversation.

Like, and how hard this is on her because she made, you know, Ellie's moms, these promises or whatever. But like, remember when Ellie wakes up in the car after all this, she goes, what happened? And Joel's like, we found the fireflies and turns out there's dozens like you and they're not even going for a cure. So from this interchange, we're to believe that Ellie, even though she was breathing again,

after the water in this downtime never was conscious again and they just rushed her in there without ever talking to her and it's just like it's believable if you knew if it's the person that sent you on the mission that knew what was the package was right like why would you waste any time why would you even bother waking her up and resuscitating her all you need is her is the cells in her brain so just throw her ass into surgery you're gonna kill her anyway so who cares right but i mean to you to your point that was that was new information to her like when this all starts she doesn't and I'm doing I want to say Maria I got Marie on the brain I'm sorry Marlene Marklene fuck why am I forgetting that I know the character I said Miranda earlier

sorry Marlene when you go through the tapes and stuff she talks about wrestling with this information oh my god we're gonna have to kill her to do this like this is new information from the last time she saw Ellie so she has a relationship with Ellie I just find it wholly unbelievable that you would just be like do it straight away and I guess the Joel part sure he's he's I don't if I was you know UPS man delivers me a chicken I'm in a deep fry I'm not going to explain to him like hey i'm going to kill this chicken like i get i get that part of it right like in my god sorry let's out of this back do you get a lot of uPS deliveries of chickens at your apartment you know i love a lot to like take in a process i recently found out that

you can still transport chicks in the mail so what he's actually saying makes a lot of sense thank you thank you Kevin did you figure this out from your sister yeah because the other day your came up to me in the kitchen and handed me three chicks and was like hey hold these and I was like wait what and then she gave him to me and then went out the room no they didn't show like I never want to do about this again but I are you guys are you raising chickens at the house now my sister louis had chickens really god that's jen she wants that at our she wants me eggs I get you some eggs well not right now we're fighting so oh you in the chickens or you and jen who's fighting him and his sister's that this fucking show is so good All right. So, okay, so, so, so. Anyways, back to back on track, back on track, back on track.

Joel wakes up and Marlene's like, hey, man, it's a middle of her time. Great job getting the package here. And he's like, cool, can I see her? And she's like, no, you don't need to see her. It's, it's, you got her here. You got her here. She's like, she's in surgery. It's going to happen. She's got to die. This is what it's always been. And Joel starts getting, oh, I'm grump of Joel. And she's like, listen, man, don't fucking do this. And he's like, I'm going to fucking do this. And she's like, all right, dude, I'm out of here. Other dude, put him at gunpoint. Don't let him do anything crazy. Shoot him if he gets nuts. And then everybody's like, got it. And so they start walking out in the hallway. And Joel's meeting like, you want to get nuts? Let's get nuts.

He sees his backpack. And he's like, that's all I needed to see was a backpack. And so he fucking stops. And the guy's like, what do you doing? And he knocks the gun on me, turns around and he fucking ices. This dude gets his backpack. We got all our shit back. And so, yeah, we just run Ruckshot over this hospital.

Just fucking killing every firefly we see, right? Because nothing is going to stop us from getting to our baby girl. We go through, kill a whole bunch of people. I'll tell you what. You know, you talk about, you know, that I replayed it for this. Tim at the beginning of the show. What's no worthy is, you know, it's rare that I replay games. And since last of us, you know, is well known for having, notorious, I should say, for having

a terrible fucking trophy list. I've never replayed the last of it since I originally played it. Like, I've looked at cut seats and I've watched retrospectives and stuff. And I know it. Obviously, I've had millions of conversations about it. But I hadn't ever sat down and replayed it or watched somebody played it until Nick was playing it all the way through. And to get to that final run of enemies before the door in when I was like, oh, Nick, you're

about to get your lunch eaten and the chat was like, no, just stick to the side and go and kill that one guy and you can walk by. It was like such a backbreaking moment of what it's like to play a game before anybody else has it, where that was like, I remember that being like 30 to 40 minutes of me like screaming into a pillow of trying to kill everyone in that fucking room and just not having enough bullets and not having it and not having thought through it. Point, just point of clarification, I did in fact kill everyone on my second try on that one. No, no, I'm not talking about that room. I'm talking about the last room before you open that door. Before you open the door, right? If you recall, it's the one where you go around to the right,

and I eventually just killed everyone. Okay. I mean, we want to read a couple times. And you said sneak past that, but I was like, I'm a man, and I'm going to wait for these guys to come to me. And remember, this was also the level that I discovered that the, what's the little explosive power sugar? Smoke bomb.

Yeah. Was actually useful. Because at this point, I was like, this is useless. They should get this out of the inventory and put a brick in. Yeah. You didn't want more bricks. That is true. You burst through that door, though.

let some guys go past you, then you make your move into the surgery room, you go in there and sure shit, here's this fucking doctor and these two little nurses over there, Ellie out on the table. And they're like, what the fuck are you? Just kill us people. You can leave the neat nurses, right? But I'll tell you, I fucking killed everybody. At this point, I'm in the same thing Joel say to, God damn it, Marlene. Marlene. Marlene, the same thing Joel say to Marlene in a couple seconds is, you know, like,

you just come back. just come after her again, right? Like, I'm leaving nobody alive here. They've all got to go. All right. At this point, I got it in the Florida Marlins. Got it. I just love that Greg remembers the entire plot beat by beat by beat with with very like accurate

detail and somehow doesn't remember Marlene. Now, for the record, I want you to know that like the real thing, you can see me saving over the information in real time where in the beginning of the show, I had no idea. I had no problem remembering Marlene. I remembered her well. And then as we've gone is just erase, erase, erase, erase.

So yeah, you get her off the table. You go down the elevator to where Marlene confronts you and he's like, Joel, stop. Like it isn't too late. We can still do this. We can save humanity or whatever. And Joel thinks about it. It looks like he's thinking about it. He's not thinking about it.

You know what I mean? And so then we cut away and it's him driving. We see his hand. And then we see his body. And then we hear rustling in the back seat. And it's Ellie waking up going, what happened? Oh, yeah. There's dozens of them.

They're not even looking for a cure anymore. It can't be done. And she rolls back over super sad, as you would be too. Because guess what? It was all for nothing. then cut back to see the ending where it is that he thinks about it for a second and then no just this great scene of having Ellie and just turning and he's got the gun underneath her legs and shoots Marlene and she drops and then he puts her in the car and comes back she's like

wait you can you can let me go and he's like you just come after her again wheyes her and then we're into the car and so they drive back to Tommy's place Jackson we take control real briefly we're Ellie in this one as we walk behind Joel as he's making small talk as we are heading our way back up to the overlook here to see Jackson. And once we get up there, we go into another cutscene, the final cutscene, where, again, you want to talk about just dynamite acting, especially for a video game and why I think this game is so, you know, you know, Ellie, holding your fingers, like as I do or anybody does when you have to have this uncomfortable conversation you don't

want to have and ask some point blank, like, you know, tell me everything you told me about the fireflies is the truth. Or swear to me, swear to me. And Joel goes, I swear. And there's that great scene of her just, okay and she it's that it's that okay you say to somebody when you know they're full of shit but they're still lying to you and you can't prove it so you're just like okay like i clearly love you and i don't know why you do this or what really happened but okay and it's fucking credits

jesus christ it's powerful every time now let's go let's jump into the left behind then this one's super fast him this one's super fast left behind of course is two things it's the prequel to ever uh meeting joel you're playing as ellie and that's also the insert of what Ellie was doing when Joel was hurt and we had that downtime or whatever. So this one picks up in the, I'm going to say current time, but you understand how this works. Joel falls off the horse. Ellie gets him to a mall, puts him in one of the shops and then goes out looking for supplies. This triggers, or at least runs coincidentally with how she got infected hanging out at a mall

with Riley, her best friend. Riley, of course, left unceremoniously just disappear from the boarding school. Ellie was at and she was at. she returns one night 45 or 46 days later she has become a firefly she has the pendant to show it and wants to have an awesome night with ellie basically like go out and be friends again and so she takes her to the mall where she has found out that the power isn't out everywhere they just flip the circuits so she flips on the circuits the mall lights back up we find out about Winston and his thing they they drink some alcohol actually I met him in the comic book no they drink alcohol here they drink alcohol here

they ride the carousel you take some photos you fuck around in the mall there's this awesome scene of going into the arcade and even though the turning the game machine she talks about all the time is broken she uh uh uh uh she Riley has Riley has Ellie close her eyes and then enact everything and like the screen goes dark and make you see the reflection like so fucking powerful so well presented love seeing the health bars love seeing it's just it was so well done again back to video games and acting and how they can tell stories and how far we've come right in even in the photo booth right when the photo booth breaks there's this moment of you can tell that there's something more than friendship there between Ellie and Riley

and either of them know how to do what to do next. Going through it, I like, I forgot like when's the moment where they kiss, right? And spoilers for a couple minutes after this. But like, I was like, oh, yeah, when is the moment? And as they're in the photo booth, I was like, oh, I guess this is the moment because you have that,

you have that thing where they're taking the photos. You can tell they're having a blast. You can tell that they're connecting. You can tell that there's something deeper there and they stop and they finish. And they do that thing that I think like so many people have this moment of like, so. So and like what do we like sit there and they're like all right so what do you do? And they're like, all right, so let's go.

And they dip out from there. Like the way they, the way they handle that right there has so much just like nuance in the in the delivery and in the animation of the characters. So good. Yeah. And it's that thing of it's one of my, IBI, you know, Last of us and everything else is, you know, tied to my career as PlayStation and beat reporting and IG and all that jazz. one of my favorite stories ever stick with me is from 2017 that's not that's they updated i'm looking at as you in 2014 when i went to my first momocon in Atlanta Georgia and i did the last of us panel and it was there with uh troi and actually that actually talked about and i was hosting it actually

talked about what watching kathleen mms on youtube uh see this and react to it and if you want to go look it up it's got 125 000 views Kathleen mms uh she's I don't know if she's gay or, you know, by or whatever, but she's queer. And her reaction, the video that is upright that I link to in the IGN article is her getting the, oh, like, okay, I see the photo booth thing. Like, oh, wait, are they hinting at that? That's really cool. And then when they kiss, like we're talking about, she breaks down in tears to finally

see that represented on the screen in a video game. And it's so powerful. And then Ashley telling that story at MomoCon made her cry. And it's like that awesome cypricole. relationship, you know, the creators have with the audience, the audience has with the creators, I think, to see all that power in, you know, creations and reactions. I digress. So, yeah, eventually, you know, they make through, they have a squirt gun fight, they throw some bricks

and some stuff. You go to Halloween store. You put on masks and stuff. All just in like this is. I schooled her at that sport. Nice. I took to the fucking store. Actually, I didn't do that well on it, but I just wanted you guys think that was cool.

Also, the brick breaking thing. We're like throwing the bricks at the cars and stuff. Like, I love it, man. Like, make gameplay out of the little moments, too. It doesn't need to be like us having crazy action scenes was like infected. Like, it could just be the two girls getting into each other and playing around. Like, I love that stuff. Yeah, it feels like a lot of the left behind as far as like the gameplay of it in those moments.

Feels like they're like, all right, let's just throw a bunch of shit at the wall, right? Between the fighting game thing, between, yeah, breaking the cars with bricks between the square gunfight, right? Like a lot of creative ideas in there that you imagine like we're in the main game just because they couldn't figure. There's no way to figure out how to put a squirt gun fight in the main game between Joel and Joel and Ellie. At that point, it's like, what the fuck? It's a cool. No, go for it. I think they're able to experiment in so many different ways because at that point, it's DLC so you can tell whatever story you want to it.

And I think there is this importance to showing like what it's like to be a kid in this world. And that you also, not that they did, but paint yourself in a corner with what you can do because you figure when Ellie kills people in the game, the full-fledged game, it's a big. deal. Those are big character moments of the firsts. So you know what you can and can't do in this world. And so that's why I think it was so cool of pairing it with her going through this mall, killing a whole bunch of people and clickers trying to get Joel Medicine, eventually doing it from the army helicopter, bringing it back and giving to him, pair it up with when she was as innocent as you could be in this pandemic world and to be lost in this mall. And that's why this DLC I think is fucking brilliant. And I think that I enjoy it even more now than I did the first time I played through

it because like watching it all happen i think from a story perspective it's so great of having both take place in the mall and having all the you know kind of mirroring back and forth there but then also yeah squirt gunfight being uh juxtaposed against like ellie now straight up fucking murk in these fools that are coming at her it's like all that's up is so great and like survive like by herself in this like dire situation where she's in the middle of nowhere and like doesn't have any and it has to take care of a person who's dying and having this is the first time i played last of us and then the DLC together. And it's such a great experience that makes you realize how much better left behind

gameplay is than the original Last of Us. There's just something about it that just feels tighter. Ellie feels a lot more maneuverable. But like she wasn't like good in the first game too. But I feel like it's more fun to play as her in the DLC. And it's little things like the AI, the amount that they focus on having humans and infected in the same arena where you can like throw the bottle. to like cause the infected to fight them.

That stuff's fucking cool. And it's like I, it's so much more advanced than what anything we get in the first game. Yeah, I agree 100%. That was what I really wish they would have done more of that in the first game or the real game or whatever. I don't know how to the game.

Yeah, exactly. But I do love the fact that yeah, for this DLC there like we can get weird and yeah, let's take what we already have mechanically and put it into what kids would do just running around a mall if they had nothing. The masks going into the Halloween store. Halloween store is great, dude. The uncharted

Max. Oh, yeah. Just like the uncharted board game and stuff figures for Jack and Nathan in the kids' room in the core game. Anyways, though, yeah, as we've said, all this goes on, you know, and Riley finally reveals that the reason she's doing all this is that she's leaving. The fireflies, now that she's an official firefly, want to send her to a different encampment of fireflies.

They don't want her stay in Boston anymore. So tomorrow she's going to, she'll be gone for good. And, you know, Ellie freaks out at this at the first time. go or whatever and says it an asshole way, they come back together and make up, or you should toss the squirt guns, they have a fight. She's like, listen, I said it in a bad way, but like you should go. Like you should, you know, it's what you've always wanted. You want to go do this. You should go do it. And then, you know, and she's like, who might stop you? And then Riley's like the only person who could. Riley takes to her Walkman, which in American Dream, she steals for a little bit, puts on some music that

she made for her. They get up and dance on the thing. They're having a good time. And Ellie finally stops and has this moment. And Riley goes, what? And Ellie says, don't go. Like, like, do you just just don't go, stay. And Riley does the same thing, reaches up, grabs her firefly pendant, rips it off and tosses it on the ground. Ellie kisses her in a beautiful moment. And like, you know, I get choked up when Sarah dies and watching that again. This is the one right tiered up, where Ellie has this beautiful moment, right,

and is happy for a second and kisses her. And then steps back and he goes, I'm sorry. I says sorry. And Riley goes, for what? And it's just like fucking nailed it. You know, like, what a fucking awesome moment. And there's this brief thing of like, what do we do now? We'll figure it out.

Well, Marlene's not going to, there's noises over there. And it's all the infected running in. From here, we're on the run from the infected. Run an all overshu. This is juxtaposed with, you know, going back to present time and fighting people off trying to protect Joel. We're running from them. You know, they eventually jump on you and claw you and whatever.

You run away. You get away from them. Yeah. But when you finally get to the end, you know, Riley goes, Ellie, your arm. And she looks down and she's bleeding. She wipes it away. And there's the bite mark and it fills back up with bloods,

and she's like, no, no. And then Riley goes like this and has a bite on her gun hand too or whatever. And this is the moment we had heard about from at the end of the last of us in the same conversation of, you know, did you lie to me about the fireflies? She also said, you know, I lost my friend. When I got bitten, I wasn't alone. when I was with my friend Riley, or I was with my friend. And she was basically like, you know, we should go out together and it'd be all poetic

and shit. And then, you know, I'm the only one. She's the only one who went. I stayed. We get to live that moment here of, you know, Ellie freaking out, smashing a bunch of pots Riley being like, there's more stuff over there to break if you want to. And the way I see, we have two options. We can either take the easy way out, you know, she references the gun, which I'm not a fan of.

Or option number two, you know, we just spend our time together here. go out all poetically right lose our minds together poetically or whatever uh and she's like basically she sets this up of i vote for option two because every second with you whether it's two days two seconds two minutes or whatever is worth it to me and i'd rather do that then uh go the other way and she say okay or whatever well option option she's like sorry which i really like you know what about what's option three sorry that's all she says and eventually she's like oh let's get out of here and you get up and we come back to you know you with joel or whatever, and it's you saddling up, dragging Joel behind you on this, like, a plank after you've stitched him up and done all this different stuff.

And you ride out and it's credits. That's left behind. There you go, man. Then last of us American dreams. I've pretty much already done it. Again, it's basically it is when Ellie comes to the boarding school for the first time, she meets Riley pretty quickly thereafter. Riley, you just calls her new kid for a long time. Steels or Walkman at one point, gives it away, or gives it back, I should say, when Riley sneaks out to,

try to go find the fireflies. Ellie comes with her, begrudging leader Riley. Eventually, you know, they run into a whole bunch of trouble. They help the fireflies. They go to the mall. They steal from, I forget his name, Winston, they steal his smoke grenades. You know, Riley, unbeknownst, Ellie uses her as a distraction to steal this stuff and a radio. They leave. They help the fireflies. They then run into the fireflies and Marlene, got it. Full force who's like, get the fuck out of here or whatever, blah, blah. They, helper went, and more people come out of this thing and it's like, you know, you got to pay a bridge

toll or whatever to use this tunnel. They're like, oh, shit, it's fireflies. And the guy's like, I don't give a shit, it's fireflies. They kill the guy with Marlene. Marlene jumps down, Ellie and Riley moved to a different section. They throw some stuff or whatever to distract. You know, Marlene, of course, like a folk hero. She's like a big, big old deal. And Riley's like, we helped you again. That's twice in one day. I want to join the fireflies. I've memorized the entire creed. I'm ready to do this. And Marlene fucking grabs her and it's like, you're not ready to fucking to do this. She's like, she shoves, she grabs

Marley and throws her down to the guy who just got killed, the firefly, her friend who just died. He was fucking ready to be a firefly. Are you ready to be a fucking firefly? Because I'll save the trouble right now and pulls the gun on Marlene, to which point Ellie, who's been standing by this whole thing, grabs a gun and is like, don't fucking do it. And Marlene's like, hold on. I wasn't really going to kill her. And they de-escalate

the situation. And this is when Marlene's like, Ellie, she's like, how the fuck do you know my name? And she's like, I was a friend of your mother. and she's like, what's my, you know her better than, Ellie knows nothing about her mother, it turns out at this point. I was a friend of your mother. I'm combining two conversations that happened. I think they were interrupted by the argument. But she's like, what's her, what's her name?

And she's like, Anna, and that's news to Ellie or whatever. This is when she hands Ellie the letter. This is when she gives her the switchblade as well and says like this, I've been, I've been looking after you, even though you didn't know it. Every time you've bumped around a military school or whatever, boarding school. I've been behind that. I've had people looking out for you. Like, you're very important. and I made a pack to her to keep you safe.

And then that's pretty much the end of it. We set all that up to get you to the game and all this other stuff. And Riley and her are friends. They go back to the boarding school. And Ellie has the letter that is on her bed. She has the knife or whatever. And then the comicans. That's the last of us.

I have two questions. Kevin. Yep. Oh, I mean a foot long hot dog. Did you listen to all that? Because you've never played these games. You never know anything. Did you get the story?

Yeah. I got it. Good. Fantastic. Who is Marlene? That's the lady with the fireflies. There you go. Now, question number two, Nick.

Yes. How was your first time playing the last of us? I liked it a lot. I wish, I mean, to be fair, it was fun. We were making content, so we had to be a little bit more lively, and we obviously sailed through some of the more intense moments, namely Sam. We, upon reflection, looked a little bit too much into who got the beans after Stan and died.

Oh, the chat was mad, everybody. Oh, they were pissed. They were like, someone in the chat was like, I literally cried for like a half hour after this happened. And Greg and Nick are yelling about, now we get the beans. We get the beans. But, you know, I think it's a great game.

I think I kind of wish I had time and the wherewithal to go back and play it again just in the comfort of my home by myself. I think those moments would have been a lot more poignant. Similar to when I played that left behind, all those moments hit for me to the point where I was like, you know, I get frustrated a little bit with with stuff not moving along. I'm like, I got things to do episodes of that 70s show to watch. But this one really like, I really,

that moment where you hit the Halloween store, I remember thinking I've been looking around the store for a solid five minutes. And it's, and nothing's happening. It's just because it's fun. I want to see what the next mask is. And it reminds me of like when Kevin and I will walk into like a Halloween spirit over in like Colma. And we're like,

don't tell Tim that we wasted 30 minutes here and then we go to a Best Buy. And honestly, I think, I think the relationship between her and Riley was so, well done and so understated and so organic that it feels it just feels good to watch these two people fall in love with each other and like express that um so i think yeah i think the i think the game overall is just phenomenal yeah bless how has been your uh kind of play through it's been very uh very interesting it's been kind of a a roller coaster as far as like

starting it up and and re-experience in the beginning of it which at this point like i've played slash watched the first 15 minutes of the game probably like six or seven times. But yeah, then like going into the actual game and kind of making those those rounds. Like the thing, I think that my takeaway from this playthrough is that, you know,

the game starts off very strong, but then I think has kind of a lull. Like I look, while playing through Billstown specifically and the level leading up to Billstown, a little bit after Billstown, like I feel like there's a bit of a lull there that for me, while playing

it, I was like, oh man, is this really doing all the things that I felt like it did back in 2013 when I recently played it. Like is this really like is this the game that I've had up there is like one of my favorite games ever? But the more more I played it and especially like getting into the later half

of the game like winter is probably one of my favorite chapters in a video game ever. Like the winter like aside from the boss battle which I think is like the only negative thing about that chapter, overall what they do with what they do with the story, what they do with kind of subverting your expectations by starting with Ellie and having you kind of be in limbo

as far as what's going on with Joel and then kind of bringing it back in the way they introduced David as a villain for that chapter. And the ways in which that thing goes, like that chapter keeps to involve the whole way through in a way that I think it's very impressive, especially when you look at summer and fall, right?

Like summer and fall are still like pretty good chapters of the game, but winter is just on another level as far as what they do with those characters and how they bring you in. And the way the game ramps up and wraps up from there. like, you know, now that I've actually had the chance to put a ball on it, you know, for this third time and actually reexperiencing it, re-experience it for this third time. It's back up there for me, right?

Like, it's back up there. It's like, oh, no, yeah, I was right. Like, this game is incredible. Like, you know, it still remains as one of my favorite games I've played. Yeah, overall, like, I can't wait. I think I can finally say that I have the code for the game because I read through that embargo. But I have not, I don't know if I can say if I started. it yet for part two yeah for part two um you can say that you have the last of us part two which

assumed would be playing it and you can only preview that one portion that they talk about in the thing that i previewed on p s i love you okay um well let me just say that i have the code that's all i'm gonna say safe play safe yeah what i think's interesting you know about it is you talk about how uh winter is one of the best chapters in video games i feel it's one of the best chapters in video games because it's the payoff to that right it like even for the for you know fall spring summer beforehand it's the payoff of those right i get why i say what it would just be the fall summer whatever you know what i'm saying it's the payoff of all that like the reason winter hits so hard is because we've done everything else up until that point we've seen that relationship grown

we've seen that go on and it is that thing of you know in a lot of ways i wish uh and i you know i don't wrong i love the game what they did in a lot of ways i wish david wasn't remarkable evil. You know what I mean? I wish he wasn't going to rape Ellie and I wish he wasn't going to, he wasn't a cannibal. I wish he was just, hey, we're a community of survivors as well and we've been out doing all sorts of stuff. And two people have just been, I wanted to be that I am legend moment, not of the short story, not of the book, not of the movie, right? Where when the vampires show up and Will Smith's character, but the book is like, you're the fucking monster. And they're like, you're the monster. You're the legend. You're the one thing that's out there killing.

all of us. We're just trying to survive. Like we're right now the majority of it and you're the one trying to stop us. And I thought that for me would like when there's that moment at the fire, I remember the first time. And it was revealed of like, no, somebody's out here killing our people. And that's what, you know, it's been a particularly cruel. It's like, holy shit. But then you get to that thing and it is like it's not even gray. Like, okay, well, you guys are psychos. Like you're really bad people. We, you know, I think it would have been cooler to cast us in that light that the game definitely talks about and shows. But like, I could have gone for more of. because it's an old thing, but I, you know, I've talked to Hill's the story so many times

he's finishing him the last of it was the first time. And you know, like, Joel's the bad guy. Like, Joel, you know, turned his back on humanity and is this smuggler who's done these horrible things. But, you know, I think it would have been interesting to see it really played with that. He is the bad guy. You guys are into these people, the bad guys. And that was a really driven home that, like, oh, no, there is a great area here.

To even speak to that, right, like, seeing the end of the game this time around and having it be so that, like, you get you, you get to the hospital and Joel has that moment where he realizes what's happening to Ellie. And he turns on Marlene and everybody. And he has that point where he's going on that murder spree. Like I remember I remember to listen to you on podcast and hearing you say that like, oh yeah, like I had that moment where Joel was the bad guy or where I realized that Joel was the bad guy.

For me, when I recently played the game, I didn't really have that moment. For me, I was like, oh, no, I get it. Playing it this time around. And I don't know if it's just me like watching and seeing more zombie stories play out or if it's just me at the age of 25 being the way I am. But I did have that moment this time around where I was like, oh yeah, Joel is like really kind of just not giving a fuck about any people.

Like, and granted for David's crew, it's hard to give a fuck about them at all because they're, yeah, like remarkably evil. And so like when Joel kills the two dudes, even though at that point, like I don't really think Joel has an idea of how terrible these people are.

No. It is still like a signifier of like, oh yeah, Joel just doesn't care when he chokes that dude out in the chair and then murders the second guy. Question. Like, are they horrible people? Like, David, for sure, is.

But it's like the whole, all the cannibal stuff and all that. It's like, we don't know that the, like, we see the bodies and stuff. But unless I miss something, it's like, those could have just been dead people. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, that's to me the strength of the story telling this game, right? Like, I've only played it once. Granted, I haven't played it like 15 times like blessing. I was rubbing it in our faces or whatever.

But I, you know, for me, it's not about, I don't, I never pegged Joel as the bad guy. In fact, I never pegged anyone as a bad guy and or a good guy. I think that's the whole point of this game is that there are these gray areas that everyone is forced to operate in because of this, the nature of what's happened to the world. And to me, that's, that's why I love and also dread playing games like this because there is no 100% clear cut answer. Granted, when David goes ham on Ellie and she kills him, you're like, okay, she was in the right for that one. but the end the question of should he sacrifice the one for the needs of the many you know obviously has been as is a phrase for a reason because that's a that's a hard question to ask yourself are the needs of the many do they outweigh the needs of the few or the one as spock once so

eloquently put it and to me it's like i don't know i guess it's a personal decision would i have let her die know would i have let test die in a heartbeat oh my god see that was my thing about it back in the day in the arguments where really when everybody was playing it everybody having this discussion. So many people were like, well, you know, you don't understand the love of a father for their daughter, right? And like he's imprinting that on, on, he's imprinting Sarah on her and vice versa. And I'm fine with all that. But from the moment, like on top of the fact that like this could have been the cure to stop this from ever happening, you know, stop the cordyceps and stop whatever. That aside even, it's, for me, it was always this violation of trust that like,

Ellie says, like this can't all be for nothing. Like, you know what I mean? Like she, I, even though in, in this is where again where I'm the whole like she's a we never even talked to her she's knocked out right where uh marlene tells joel like you know she'd want this you know she'd want to do this and it's like well yeah but like offer the choice but that's everything it's just like this is very clearly not what ellie would have wanted to do and so for joel the robber of that decision that's what always got me in terms of yeah when i say he's the bad guy i don't mean he's like he's like the fucking joker twirling his mustache it's just like man this is a game where like there's not a right and wrong.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying, right? Because you say that's an evil thing. But to me, Marlene's even more evil for not giving her that choice, right? For taking that choice and basically committing murder. And so that's why I empathize with Joel because I'm like, it would be different if they sat both of them down and said, here's the rub. You have the cure, but there's a 95% chance. I mean, even like, pat it out a little bit. There's a 90% chance you might die and a 10% chance you might live with a lie to him, whatever.

I don't know. That's a little more. A little bit more forgivable than just being like we don't work. You're unconscious. So that's, we'll take your unconscious. You would want this. We're not going to wait for you to wake up. We're not going to wait for you wake up and ask you that, right?

And so that's money here. We got to get this fucking antistole distribution cordycept antifengal. But as the storytelling mechanic, you can understand why they chose to keep her knocked out. Because given the choice, the ending would have been totally different. She would have said, of course, I want this. And then Joel would have had to watch is they wheel her into the room. And that's the end of the game, right? Maybe he kills Marlene out of just sheer rage.

And then he is a maniacal maniac. But, you know, that to me is that that's what's so great about this is that they, the storytelling was so tight that they kind of put them in that corner. And then you had to just deal with the ramifications. And it's a long term thing. There's no, there's no real resolve to the end of this game, right? We don't feel like, oh, that's wrapped up nicely. Everyone's going to live happily ever after. Like, oh, she's going to figure that out eventually.

And they're going to have a come to Jesus moment with each other. And presumably that's what's going to happen or be at the core of at least the beginning of the last of us, too. Yeah, I think we're being really excited and playing through this again with, with, with, very fresh eyes, all things considered it being so many years, is knowing that there's an HBO show happening, which is so fucking exciting. I forgot about that. Truckman involved, like, all, everything we're hearing is just like 10 out of 10 perfect, right? From that, though, I remember when it was announced, being extremely excited, but also being like,

I don't know that there's enough story in Last of Us to be this, to be, to be a season of a TV show. And that was just me thinking about what's the story of Last of Us? And I cut out so much. Like, I just, I jump to like, you know, the kind of key moments and the things that we all talk about. But I didn't remember that what really makes this game extra special in addition to the major plot beats and Joel and Ellie's like relationship is the supporting characters. There are so many characters that almost every single one, I'm just like, damn, I forgot how much, I'm sorry, Nick, I like Tess. I forgot that Sam and Henry actually have way more to do in this game than I remember.

I remember them being like, writing them off like, oh, they were in a mission. They're not an admission. They're in like a chunk of the game. Yeah. They're a major, like, signposts when you think about like, yeah. Are you in the game? And, Tommy and Maria, and you just keep going with these characters where it's, and even the characters that we don't see like Ishmael, like all that stuff.

It's like there are so many characters, Robert, like these unique storylines that are all in this world and they're all believable because it's, they all feed into each other. And it, I just think that that's what makes this special is that. They over the course of this, whatever it is, 13-hour game, like introduced you to a world that feels like its own character. You travel around a whole bunch of different places and it all feels like it's in one thing. This feels like one world. It doesn't feel kind of like, oh, well, over here we have these fucking crazy people. It's like they're all crazy.

Do we know, is the HBO show picking up with the main characters is just retelling the game or is it going to be a completely different story? It's retelling the first game. Yeah. See, that's the, like, so here's my thing. I love that. I hope it's one season. I hope they don't continue this on. And I hope they follow the games because this, like you guys,

at the nail on the head, I think the thing that really differentiates this, for me, at least, from like Walking Dead is that you actually get immersed in the experience. And I'm wondering how they're dealing with the inevitable comparison if this goes beyond one season, if it's not just a mini-series, if it's not just a one and done of, are we really going to go on this right again? is Rick really going to go until the actor himself because I don't want to be in this series anymore? Can I get the hell out of this?

Are there going to be so many parallels drawn between Rick and Carl versus Joel and Ellie? And is that going to start to wear, you know, on the brand of The Last of Us? Because there are a lot of parallels. And you're right. I mean, the tropes are there and we understand it. But like, how do you show them running away from a horde of infected and not have that obvious comparison be made of like, there's just zombies? Like, we're just running away from zombies.

So I don't know. I'm not too worried about that. I think that we have behind it. It's the team behind Chernobyl, right? So it's like, that's a one in the other. They know what they're doing there. And with Druckman in charge, I feel like, if anything, we have a last of us two coming. So there's season two.

I mean, I'll point out that, you know, PlayStation Productions has never had a miss as a television film company. Have they done anything yet? You know, that's that's superfluous. It's a percolous in the admiration. No, I mean, obviously, HBO is picking this up and HBO doesn't fuck around. They, in my opinion, make some of the top, if not the top original program. out there right now. So looking definitely forward to it. And again, if they can even capture 80% of the vibe of the game, I think they got a hit on their hands. I just think it's going to be so

interesting to see who they appeal to, the mainstream people who have never played the game or the hardcore who know every story beat and how do they, how do they keep it fresh for both? So throughout this, and I think throughout this episode and of course the last seven years of talking about the last of us, the thing I always talk about is the story. Joel's the bad guy, this push and pull, the characters, all this stuff. The thing people will always toss back at me is like, yeah, but the gameplay wasn't that good. Or I didn't like the gameplay that much. And that's never, for me, that's always been a thing that I found interesting because I would

never, when I talk about it, I don't talk about the gameplay, but I also don't remember not liking it or not feeling it. What was your reaction playing through this in 2020 with playing a 2013 game in 2020, I guess? I'm with you in the sense that I don't really understand the gameplay's not good criticism that this game gets like hit with a lot like I feel like it backs up the storytelling which is the point of the game like it is this is a gameplay style and I like it and comparing it to uncharted which is a very similar gameplay style that we don't see often it's like there is a very unique feel to these games that are kind of you know telling you a story but you're being able to control

and have fun set piece moments like they are they are movies that you are interacting with and that's the goal and I think that the gameplay backs that up adequately. And I think there are moments that we've talked about a little bit like the boss fight, which even that I don't think is like the most egregious or worst thing.

Yeah, like that's not like a last list thing, right? Like there's plenty of games that have those one off moments or those one off boss fights that feel out of place. And every game at that.

There's one boss fight in every game of a player. I'm like, I hate this. I want this to end immediately. To me, I think the criticism, if I were to render one, comes a little bit more

in just the clunkiness of the game mechanics themselves. And what I don't like, is when I play a game and I feel like it's not my fault that the character is not reacting fast enough or I'm not pulling out the right weapon. It's the actual, the clunkiness of the UI that's getting in the way of my ability to react fast enough

to deal with these levels. You bring up the level with that long hallway where you kind of get pigeonholed into the tail end of it. And I just remember being frustrated. And again, being frustrated when I popped back into left behind of thinking like there's gotta be a better way to do this control scheme. that doesn't make me feel like my character is slower than they need to be in this situation.

And sometimes I get the feeling like I don't like when you can feel the hand of the developer right behind you going, no, we slowed this down on purpose or we made it so that this was obtusely hard on purpose. So it would frustrate you. I just don't like when I can see behind that curtain, which doesn't happen a ton in this. But, you know, going back and forth between that and like a more traditional like third person shooter, you're like, oh, God, man, this could get updated a little bit that would make it a little bit more streamlined. Yeah, I don't know. I just because it's like, I see what you're saying.

I just think that if it was updated and streamlined, then the set pieces that are happening would need to be, the ante would need to be upped. Well, it would be more like uncharted. And I understand they didn't want to do that, right? They didn't want it to be so good that you feel like your character is not real. And that's a hard balance. I'm not a game developer, so I don't know how to strike that balance of saying like, maybe it doesn't need to be a little slower because that's how human beings really do move.

but the fact that Joel can't do a pull-up, and I mean that in all sincerity, not joking like I had it before, is absurd. Why can't he pull himself out of the water if we're going for hyperrealism? Why would, you know, why after four seasons of being together

for six months would they not take five seconds to teach his poro or how to swim? Just teach her how to swim. Every obstacle we meet is either an infected dead person or water. So like we can mitigate half of the stress of this game by doing that. And again, same, why don't they doing it?

Because we wouldn't have a story. wouldn't have a game. I understand that completely and it's their game. And again, to me, it's a solid, you know, grade A experience. But there are moments where I'm like, I shouldn't, like, to me, really, really, really good core mechanics are those where you jump back in the mouse memory takes over and it never did for me in this. And it has a lot to do with the item wheel where I'm like, there's got to be a better way to do this. It's got to be a bit more way to do this. It's funny because I feel like there's been seven years of criticism and maybe maybe I'm alone in this, but with the item wheel and just kind of like the gameplay itself. And so going

back into this, I thought it was going to feel outdated and it was going to feel like, ooh, we've come a long way. And I found myself being like, wow, this is one of the rare examples of a game that has a unique control scheme where it's like L1 to sprint. That's not normal. We're not used to that. I don't think we were ever used to that

in games. Like, it's usually like pushing the stick, right? Or, you know, whatever it is. And the other times I fucking went into photo mode by accident. I'm like, God damn it. Because I was hitting that the wrong. Well, I mean, you remember, Greg, there was a solid 30 minutes of, I think, the second stream where I was like, I cannot run in this game.

And it was because I was constantly holding down L3 instead of L1, which I felt stupid. But then I'm like, wow, what a waste of L1. That could have been a totally different thing. Because the thing for me is like it works. The standard now is clicking in L3. I mean, don't get wrong. I'd much rather hit L1, but unfortunately, the industry standard has become that. So it's so weird to be fighting against that constantly in your own brain and have that just

be a little bit of an interrupt every time you want to go and do something. Yeah, I don't even think the control scheme is that unique. I think in the PS3 360 generation, I remember quite a few games having, like, L1 to Sprint, or, like, one of the back buttons to Sprint as opposed to L3. Yeah, like, aiming with the shoulder, the R1. Yeah, like, aiming would have been L1, R1, and then Sprint would have been, like, L2.

But, yeah, this generation is very much, it very much has been standardized. Like, the L3. Like, L3 was very much, like, a first-person shooter thing during the 360 generation, and now, I think, more so. I call that out. I want to know some examples of L1 to sprinting games. Yeah, I'm curious to see if people, People might be longer.

The chat says Skyrim, L1 to sprint. Yeah, Skyrim known for its amazing control. Well, it's interesting for me because where I was driving at with this gameplay discussion was that, and this is, I don't think, a knock against it, because I think it controls fine, it does everything fine. I was amazed by how dated the gameplay felt I felt when I was in this one. I did feel there were so many, like, clear gear changes of like, all right, cool, now this one's going to be your fighting infected.

All right, now we're going to, how are you going to get, get this giant clunky ladder and move it around. Like, there was animations and stuff too of just where I was like, man, like, it's rose colored glasses and it's seven years and it's the PlayStation 3, now a remaster on the PlayStation 4 and yada yada, but there

were times where I was like, man, like, this kind of looks like a telltale game right here in terms of like just the way the characters were and how stiff their animations were in certain, very, very specific. It was giving me those callbacks to it. not and I don't mean that as a derogatory term. I just mean the way of this game that I remember being hyper realistic.

It felt like this and how small the environments felt when it was like I remember, you know, originally when I first played this, you know, running around and being like, what the fuck am I supposed to do? Where am I supposed to go? And granted, you're learning the rules of the world and all these different things. But having it be it, it felt like there were so many different entry points. And then you run through now, you're like, oh, it's clearly that thing. Like, I remember being stuck here.

Why didn't I think to go underwater here and do this? Like clearly, that's what it should have been. And it all works and it all is an amazing masterpiece of a game, right? But it was interesting playing it and being like, man, this feels dated. This does feel. And granted, I'm lucky enough to have played, you know, two parts of the last it was part two. And no, like, you know, every time I talk about it, right, I talk about how blown open the environments are and how they are doing this metal gear stealth kind of thing. And like not having some of those in your belt playing this and you just feeling the evolution, I guess.

And then coming back and seeing where it came from. I'm like, oh, man, like, this does feel like an older game when I didn't expect it to feel like an old game. And see, to me, imagine my, you know, again, in my brain, I'm like, I know, I know you say it's a PS3 game, but I played it on PS4. Sure. So that's kind of what I'm coming at as well, where it does feel that way, it's to some degree, because it is an older game. But it, I don't have that realization. I don't have that one to one because I'm literally looking at the newest console playing it on. So I kind of, yeah, I feel that.

So what Nick was saying earlier about the swimming, swimming thing to rewind a bit, like, I think it is a bit of a lost opportunity for them to not have done that toward the end of the game because they did they they had that they had that with the latter thing right where we've had so many times where we've boosted up Ellie in the game right like you've done it about about a hundred times toward the end and they have like that small moment where you you it's uh it's after winter right you get back you get back to the city where the hospital's at and you're about to boost Ellie to the ledge and you're like waiting for her and you're like Ellie and she's that's the part that's the part

where she's dejected and thinking about her own thing. And NadiDog has done that in like Encharted 4 and Lost Legacy, like more and more as far as like referencing back to the mechanics that we've seen traditionally in their games and subverting them in a way where where, I remember in Archarted Lost Legacy. I think I think it might have either, I think it might have either been like a boost thing or some sort of like character interaction thing where I remember Chloe and Nadine being like, oh yeah, no, I don't need help with this. I got this.

And so yeah, yeah, the swimming thing I think is a lost cause. but as far as like the gameplay, for me replaying the game, I was surprised by how much I really like the combat. Like the combat still, I really enjoy. In fact, even the gunplay in the Last West I really enjoy. This is the thing that Greg talked about during the controversial opinions podcast when Last Was came out, as far as like the cinematic nature of it. That's the thing that like in the first few uncharted games,

I was never really a fan of like I didn't really like the gunplay that much in the earlier Unchartered games. In the Last Plus, it was one of those things where I think it worked better than ever. I think the brutality and like the the visceral nature of the combat like the up close feel of it and like the amount of like the fact that there are combat systems that are at play that work that make the game actually fun right where you can you can craft and you can put together your bat with the automatic kill if you add a shift to it right you can you can have the Molotovs you can you have time to like figure out like okay cool do I want to go into this battle with my hunting rifle or do I want to go go into a with a shotgun. There are like enough gameplay choices at play in the combat. And I think the combat works and is fun enough that like, I think in the game it's a, it's very much the success.

And then also as far as like a- Coach, I know one thing is a praise to what you're talking about right there. It was the fact that, you know, off of both the last of was two previews I did, I was talking about like how, man, you get in these fights and by the end of them, you've used all your, everything you have and you're out of everything,

but you've survived by the skin of your teeth. I forgot that that's in last of us, Like I had so many fights that were like, fuck, it's down. I have one arrow. I have one arrow and there's three dudes. And it was like, get a brick, stun him, run up, stab. You know, like do these whole thing. Final Molotov.

Oh, yeah. If you watch my playthrough, there are multiple moments, Greg, where you react to that? We're like, oh, you're just going to go for it. Okay, great. You know, I'm like, I don't have a choice. I have nothing left. Totally. It puts your back against the wall and makes you think in an interesting way.

I'm sorry. You know, go ahead. Go ahead, Buzz. Well, I'll say the two what Greg actually just said, right? Like there are I've had those moments too while playing and for a 2013 game I've had moments where I'm like how do that? Like how do they figure that out to make me like get out of this battle with uh through the skin of my teeth right and feel like I'm barely making it. Uh like there there are a couple moments while playing where I where I've noticed that uh all like counter an enemy right who's like grabbing me from behind all like tap square or whatever and get him push him to the floor and I press aim and then it'll automatically aim at his head because they want that cinematic moment to happen that way like you notice that every now and then but like. Those are the things that I think that works, right?

Like, I like the fact that they... ...aimatic experience than a pure gameplay experience, and I'm totally fine with that. Right? Like, it is... It's an interesting balance that they tried to have because... Sorry, it froze. You were like, I like the fact that, and then it froze for a second.

Oh, which... Wait, which... I think I say that a lot. Which part... Which I like the fact that. It froze for like 10 seconds. Okay. But let me...

To rewind a bit, right? Like, I like the fact... that the there's a balance there as far as, hey, we want this to be a cinematic, cool movie-like experience, and we want this to be an actual gameplay experience, right? Like, we have actual combat systems here. And I think, I think it works. I think they balanced it perfectly, at least for my taste. Yeah, something that I enjoyed and enjoyed from me, like, kind of just gameplay experience

of not moment to moment, like, my controller's doing something, but just more like, oh, game design. That's really what I'm looking for here. is playing Final Fantasy 7 remake recently, it felt like there was a lot of rooms and there was no incentive to explore them because nothing was in them ever. You go in the room and you're just like, okay,

maybe there's one of those Shinar boxes you can hit and then you're just getting whatever. It doesn't matter. It's like it's inconsequential entirely. There's no collectibles. There's no better yet in-game storytelling stuff, environment of storytelling. And this game's just full of that.

Any room has something, even if it's not what you're picking up. It's like there's something to look at the wall that's building the story and feels meaningful when you're in different houses like the house feels believable it doesn't just feel like a set of rooms that they put together and like it's all

just kind of like stock footage almost the video games tend to feel that way it's not like there's that trash can again right like they definitely use chairs and trash cans again but I'm saying that these were these all this world all of these worlds feel believable and that was always the thing that I stand by with this game is the environmental storytelling is so top notch

to where you are on this journey with Joel and Ellie, and that is the narrative, obviously. But, you know, even we always bring up ish, but like outside of that, finding the other narratives, finding the other storylines, finding the other people who, what happened to them in their house, or finding notes in a house that are about a safe or finding a safe and then trying to find the combination in the house somewhere else for it. Like, there's stuff going on in this game that, yes, makes it not only fun but rewarding to go room to room, check every drawer. And that's always the funny thing I think when people want to watch it. Go ahead. Sorry.

What's not fun and rewarding in the exact same breath is in those rooms having to just do this. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. And just like, just move the analog stick and have your character kind of like pick everything up. It's just like I just wish that there was some way to make that gameplay more rewarding and fun and not just feel like a task that you have to do to get the scissors or get the this or get the that. It's like, because at some point it's just like watch a movie. You know.

Yeah. But you know, and that's always funny for me because at some point you're like, am I not going to pick that up? Like, why would I not? I just want to take up, right? The only time I'm not going to take it up, but then my end of doors is full, so why don't you just let me,

like I freaking hate when games make you have a conscious choice to pick this thing up. Just let me get close enough to it, pick it up. It's a foregone conclusion. You're just adding another hour, really, to the game,

overall gameplay, which is not necessary. Yeah, it's weird. But again, I don't, I don't really have a great solution to it. To touch on the swimming thing for a second. For the second, I'd be, it wasn't fun. but it did feel rewarding as a pack rat in games.

I do like going and finding stuff and picking it up and going. Sure. Sure. Yeah, why wouldn't I go to that? I'm glad, though, they have like a good medium, though, because it's not like a far cry game where, like, if you want to lose something in Far Cry, you, like, have to bend down and, like, you do, like, this thing with your hands.

And it feels like it takes, like, 10 seconds just to, like, skin something. The animation is fluid, for sure. They're fluid, right? And it's like, you just get away with that last far cry game. But, yeah, with you not all that was a matter. The swimming is another thing that I didn't love in this game. Gameplay-wise, where it's like swimming's still not fun in video games. And this game doesn't have it too much, but it has enough of it that I was like,

I don't like this. And that's the one thing that I'm happy they didn't have Ellie actually swim because then we would have just had more of it. I just think for the amount they focused on Ellie not being able to swim story-wise, there was no payoff to that unless there's some type of like metaphor I'm missing. Because like it's weird how much they focused on it and didn't bring it back. No, I think it's just a mechanic they fell in love with and thought it'd be cool for puzzles. Which, I mean, to a degree the first couple times you do it, you're like, oh, that's interesting. That's cool.

But then by the 15th time, you're like, you know what? You're on your own. Just throw her in the water and see. Talk the ladder. Move the power. But, you know, I don't know. Again, these are all, you know, such a tight story where, like, anything that is, like, dialogue and story-based has a, that's backing up gameplay really has a reward storyline-wise.

That's one that just doesn't. Well, I mean, it's one of those things, too, I'm like, I think this game was a decent length. but I'm always of the mind that a lot of these games can be shorter. I'm always in mind when some of these tasks start becoming cumbersome or redundant, that these are the kinds of things that I'm like, I don't need this level. I really just, I really am invested in the story.

And that to me is always priority with any experience that I have. And so any mechanic or anything that starts to feel redundant and gets in the way with that, starts to draw me out. And that's when I stopped playing games. Not that I would have stopped playing this one because I really wanted to see how it ended. But yeah, it could have been a little, it could have been a little less of everything around it.

So where's your hype levels now for Last of Us 2? Talking to me? Everyone in general. Very high. Yeah, I'm very much looking forward to it. I'm coming hot off the heels of my first play. So to me, it's not like Greg that played it 87 years ago when he was just a weep up.

And he's played 15 times since. This is my first to go about. I mean, I just played left behind two nights ago. So I'm ready to go. I'm looking at my email, not see my code anywhere, Greg. So. I wanted to have you read American Dreams? Like, it really is kind of, yeah, the very judicious process at PlayStation right to get a code.

I apologize. I apologize. Bless, what about you? Like, for clarity, I'm not, I'm not started the game. And so, like, I got the code last night. And I did, I did the thing where, like, as soon as I saw it, I did a dance. I was like, oh, man, like, I'm ready for this. Like, I can't, I can't wait.

And I haven't touched it yet because I, because I've been wanting to catch up with the first last list. But that said, I'm very excited about it. Yeah, very exciting times. Well, ladies and gentlemen, like I said at the top of this show, we are going to be covering last of us, one and two, for the month to come. And I'm sure for the next seven years at the very least until we do the next one. But thank you very much for sticking around with us. We are about to do the Kind of Funny Games cast post show for anyone that's on Patreon.com slash Kind of Funny Games.

Thank you very much for that and all of your support. Until then. Hold on. I want to call out that. When the review goes live next week on Friday, June 12, 201 a.m. Pacific time, I'm going to be in the comments. So I'll be live there for like an hour. Fun, fun, fun.