Jaded Alyx Editor-in-chief at SpecialCancel.com Verified Oct 25, 2017 40,215 Stellar Blade can be pre-ordered on PC, however as per sony's longstanding policy: People are complaining, and it seems the Stellar Blade X account did not know this was going to happen:   Last edited: Friday at 1:42 PM NovumVeritas Member Oct 26, 2017 11,131 Berlin Seems Sony fucked ShiftUp over here ? (Bad communication)  dex3108 Member Oct 26, 2017 24,745 One day Sony will pull out their head from their own ass. NovumVeritas said: Seems Sony fucked ShiftUp over here ? (Bad communication) Click to expand... Click to shrink... They f-ed Arrowhead too because if i remember correctly Arrowhead never fully implemented PSN account into Helldivers 2 but sony still region locked that game while it was hot.  Trick_GSF Member Nov 2, 2017 1,644 This thing is so, so dumb.   Linus815 Member Oct 29, 2017 24,097 sony is so ass   Dest Has seen more 10s than EA ever will Coward Jun 4, 2018 16,028 Work Sony has gotta figure this shit out   Audiblee Member Mar 14, 2025 1,551 What is the reason it's blocked? Because PSN isn't in those countries?   senj Member Nov 6, 2017 8,698 It's a hell of an act, what do you call it? "Sony's PC Publishing Strategy"  super-famicom Avenger Oct 26, 2017 30,601 New Pope is furious   NeoRaider Member Feb 7, 2018 9,166 Audiblee said: What is the reason it's blocked? Because PSN isn't in those countries? Click to expand... Click to shrink... But PSN isn't even required for few months now... And this is a 3rd party game.  Jawbreaker Member Oct 25, 2017 8,998 New York City Classic. Hope this can serve as a catalyst for breaking down the region blocks.   NovumVeritas Member Oct 26, 2017 11,131 Berlin dex3108 said: They f-ed Arrowhead too because if i remember correctly Arrowhead never fully implemented PSN account into Helldivers 2 but sony still region locked that game while it was hot. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Yeah I remember that. People were pretty angry about this. Sony is so out of touch on PC..   Audiblee Member Mar 14, 2025 1,551 NeoRaider said: But PSN isn't even required for few months now... And this is a 3rd party game. Click to expand... Click to shrink... What is the reason then? I guess I'm confused.   senj Member Nov 6, 2017 8,698 Audiblee said: What is the reason then? I guess I'm confused. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Nobody knows. There does not appear to be any good reason.   Arubedo Unshakable Resolve Member Dec 24, 2018 1,219 Sony are the dumbest PC publisher i've ever seen, what even is the point region locking the games when they removed every PSN account restrictions?   cowbanana Member Feb 2, 2018 16,364 a Socialist Utopia At least they spent big bucks on Denuvo to watch their abysmal launch numbers on Steam, lol.   dex3108 Member Oct 26, 2017 24,745 NovumVeritas said: Yeah I remember that. People were pretty angry about this. Sony is so out of touch on PC.. Click to expand... Click to shrink... i mean they show it constantly, even with pricing. Their games are late and almost full price if not full price at PC release. Even if there was no region lock i get brand new games for 30-50 euros like Expedition 33 and Mafia The Old Country, while their late releases are 50-80 euros.  nsilvias Member Oct 25, 2017 30,114 cowbanana said: At least they spent big bucks on Denuvo to watch their abysmal launch numbers on Steam, lol. Click to expand... Click to shrink... oof the first? sony game with denuvo   SirKai Member Dec 28, 2017 10,174 Washington This continues to be the biggest Sony Playstation fumble in years. They've made the PSN linking optional and STILL region lock their PC releases! I genuinely, fully, do not fucking understand it.   jitteryzeitgeist Member May 26, 2023 9,180 A quiet place Sony can't be stopped. SirKai said: This is the biggest Sony Playstation fumble in years. They've made the PSN linking optional and STILL region lock their PC releases! I genuinely, fully, do not fucking understand it. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I can wrap my head around most corporate decisions and at least see the weird MBA bro logic behind them. Nothing Sony is doing makes any fucking sense, even with that mindset.  Kneefoil Member Oct 25, 2017 4,953 I'm guessing region availability is limited to countries with PSN accounts because of this completely optional thing.   NovumVeritas Member Oct 26, 2017 11,131 Berlin dex3108 said: i mean they show it constantly, even with pricing. Their games are late and almost full price if not full price at PC release. Even if there was no region lock i get brand new games for 30-50 euros like Expedition 33 and Mafia The Old Country, while their late releases are 50-80 euros. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Yeah. The price point for this game is also really hilarious. It has the same price when it was released new on Playstation 5. It's fucking dumb. Also using Denuvo and doing this PSN crap, Sony doing everything this will go wait for sale direction or it will bomb.   Polk Avenger Oct 26, 2017 6,011 Audiblee said: What is the reason then? I guess I'm confused. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I wonder if that's just default settings for Sony PC releases and nobody bothered to change that.   harinezumi Member Oct 27, 2017 20,530 Buenos Aires, Argentina   J-Skee The Wise Ones Member Oct 25, 2017 13,287 NeoRaider said: But PSN isn't even required for few months now... And this is a 3rd party game. Click to expand... Click to shrink... They publish it, so they treat it like everything else. It's a smaller that no one really cares about, but Midnight Murder Club is also like this.   Raysoul Fat4All Ruined My Rug Member Oct 26, 2017 3,459 HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAA! A year has passed, GoT and Helldivers 2 are still region locked. Then this happened.  dex3108 Member Oct 26, 2017 24,745 Polk said: I wonder if that's just default settings for Sony PC releases and nobody bothered to change that. Click to expand... Click to shrink... It's not, they are aware because it was 170 regions up until few months ago when they unblocked 40 countries.  andshrew Member Oct 27, 2017 2,897 Audiblee said: What is the reason then? I guess I'm confused. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Sony really messed up with all the drama around this last year, so the assumption would be Sony legal say these are the countries we do business in (ie. countries where PSN is available); and those are the only countries we will now sell in whether or not a PSN login is required.  Xando Member Oct 28, 2017 37,627 Don't understand why they don't learn. Like why even walk into this PR mess with every game   P40L0 Member Jun 12, 2018 9,582 Italy super-famicom said: New Pope is furious Click to expand... Click to shrink... Dead! 🤣   HardRojo One Winged Slayer Member Oct 25, 2017 28,859 Peru Title needs an update to sound less clickbaity, made me think countries were blocking the game for some reason and hides the fact that it's Sony's actual policies causing this, something we've known for a while now and shouldn't be hidden in the title.   dex3108 Member Oct 26, 2017 24,745 Xando said: Don't understand why they don't learn. Like why even walk into this PR mess with every game Click to expand... Click to shrink... Because there is actually no PR mess. Nobody questions them from outlets, people who can't play game kinda don't have anywhere big to complain for Sony to notice so they simply don't care.  Bishop89 What Are Ya' Selling? Member Oct 25, 2017 42,737 Melbourne, Australia Sony you buffoons. My god   OP OP Jaded Alyx Editor-in-chief at SpecialCancel.com Verified Oct 25, 2017 40,215 HardRojo said: Title needs an update to sound less clickbaity, made me think countries were blocking the game for some reason and hides the fact that it's Sony's actual policies causing this, something we've known for a while now and shouldn't be hidden in the title. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Not sure how you got that from the title though.   Letters Prophet of Truth Avenger Oct 27, 2017 5,199 Portugal What possible reason could there be for this decision? What's the problem with people buying from other random regions? Or lying about location when creating PSN accounts? Does it devalue the data they sell on people or what? I'm genuinely curious about the reason from their point of view for such an unpopular decision. Kneefoil said: I'm guessing region availability is limited to countries with PSN accounts because of this completely optional thing. Click to expand... Click to shrink... How nice of Sony to avoid making players feel sad or upset because of missing out on this one costume.  Last edited: Thursday at 1:04 PM Fulcrum Member Nov 7, 2022 2,088 I didn't know it required PSN. Guess I won't be buying it on PC. Maybe I'll grab it on PS5 sometime.   Arubedo Unshakable Resolve Member Dec 24, 2018 1,219 Fulcrum said: I didn't know it required PSN. Guess I won't be buying it on PC. Maybe I'll grab it on PS5 sometime. Click to expand... Click to shrink... It doesn't require PSN tho.   HardRojo One Winged Slayer Member Oct 25, 2017 28,859 Peru Jaded Alyx said: Not sure how you got that from the title though. Click to expand... Click to shrink... The title doesn't mention Sony at all, so my first thought wasn't Sony's policies. It's just as I said, the title should reflect the fact that it's because of Sony.   dex3108 Member Oct 26, 2017 24,745 Jaded Alyx said: Not sure how you got that from the title though. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I agree with that post, you should have added "devs apparently weren't aware how dumb Sony is"  OP OP Jaded Alyx Editor-in-chief at SpecialCancel.com Verified Oct 25, 2017 40,215 HardRojo said: The title doesn't mention Sony at all, so my first thought wasn't Sony's policies. It's just as I said, the title should reflect the fact that it's because of Sony. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Ok fair enough, I just assumed it was obvious since it's a Sony-published title.   Sabretooth Member Oct 27, 2017 5,673 India What are those unknown country codes? What shadow nations is Sony hiding from us   Fulcrum Member Nov 7, 2022 2,088 Arubedo said: It doesn't require PSN tho. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Oh, I misread. Guess I'll find out when it releases.  Mobius and Pet Octopus Member Oct 25, 2017 16,813 Jaded Alyx said: Not sure how you got that from the title though. Click to expand... Click to shrink... It's how you said it was blocked when it's actually the product doing the blocking.  Catchphrase Member Nov 28, 2023 2,322 Sabretooth said: What are those unknown country codes? What shadow nations is Sony hiding from us Click to expand... Click to shrink... AN is Atlantis, clearly   sderttreds Member Jan 6, 2023 1,249 oh what, sony is the publisher? won't really trust them with steam release   chrominance Sky Van Gogh Member Oct 25, 2017 16,264 HardRojo said: Title needs an update to sound less clickbaity, made me think countries were blocking the game for some reason and hides the fact that it's Sony's actual policies causing this, something we've known for a while now and shouldn't be hidden in the title. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I sort of get where you're coming from, and someone who isn't aware of Sony's policies around this could definitely be confused. At the same time: did people actually think 130 countries all decided, independently or in concert, to block Stellar Blade? How often do 130 countries agree on ANYTHING?  Greywaren Member Jul 16, 2019 13,085 Spain Reset the "Sony fucks things up for no reason" clock once again.   Acidote Member Oct 26, 2017 5,834 cowbanana said: At least they spent big bucks on Denuvo to watch their abysmal launch numbers on Steam, lol. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Thanks, I didn't notice that. Removed from the wishlist.   Raysoul Fat4All Ruined My Rug Member Oct 26, 2017 3,459 Title should be "In a very baffling decision, Sony doesn't want these countries to play Stellar Blade on PC"   jitteryzeitgeist Member May 26, 2023 9,180 A quiet place chrominance said: How often do 130 countries agree on ANYTHING? Click to expand... Click to shrink... Just about every nation on earth agrees on one orange, bloated, stupid thing being awful, but that's about it. 

GameStop must be trying to clear out some space, because the national video game retailer is selling a huge assortment of AAA games, remakes, and recent releases for $15 and $30 as part of a new sale. So why not take advantage of this corporate clean-up and grab some big games for less than half the normal price?Suggested ReadingTHPS 3+4 Does Away With The OG 4's Career Mode, Here's Why Share SubtitlesOffEnglishview videoSuggested ReadingTHPS 3+4 Does Away With The OG 4's Career Mode, Here's Why Share SubtitlesOffEnglishEarlier this week, GameStop started up two different sales of physical games. One is dedicated to offering games at a discounted price of $15 and the other is doing the same but with a $30 price tag. I’m not sure when the sales are going to end, but I’d guess once they run out of copies of stuff, that will be it. So don’t wait too long to grab some of these games. Here are some of the best deals we spotted. We’ve split them up into $15 and $30 categories.Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II - $15 ($50)Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III - $15 ($70)Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed - $15 ($40) Dragon Age: The Veilguard - Deluxe Ed. - $15 ($70) Tekken 8 - $15 ($40) Diablo IV - $15 ($60) Dead Island 2 Special Edition - $15 ($100) Visions of Mana - $15 ($60) Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden - $15 ($60) Tomb Raider I-III - $15 ($30) Final Fantasy XVI - $15 ($40) Alone In The Dark (2024) - $15 ($60) Persona 5 Tactica - $15 ($20) Skull And Bones - $15 ($90)Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora - Gold Ed. - $15 ($60) Samba de Amigo: Part Central - $15 ($40) Remnant 2 - $15 ($25) Star Wars Outlaws - Gold Edition - $30 ($110) Super Mario RPG (Remake) - $30 ($50) Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown - $30 ($90) Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla - Ultimate Ed. - $30 ($110) Mortal Kombat 1 - Premium Ed. - $30 ($110) Starship Troopers: Extermination - $30 ($50) .

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here Contents hide Lara Croft is one of the most famous and popular video game characters of all time, and lately she’s been travelling into the world of other video games such as Call of Duty, Dead By Daylight, and Fortnite again. Naturally, despite the excellent remastered trilogies, Tomb Raider fans are desperately awaiting the reveal of Crystal Dynamics’ next AAA game starring the legendary heroine. While not official, there are rumors for the next game possibly appearing at Summer Game Fest, meanwhile, a recent Crystal Dynamics’ job listing possibly means Tomb Raider 12 is in the late stages of development. Job listing hints next Tomb Raider game might be in late stages of development   As first spotted by OP somethingisnotwight on the Tomb Raider subreddit, Crystal Dynamics posted a Senior Level Designer job listing on May 17th. On LinkedIn, the job listing post says Crystal Dynamics are seeking a Senior Level Designer who can: Spearhead strike teams as a high-impact individual contributor Take ownership of designing levels featuring compelling puzzle elements Apply Unreal expertise to build, iterate, and refine designs Image credit: LinkedIn This is interesting because of the mention of “strike teams”. Typically, strike teams are used during the late stages of development such as at the alpha stage, beta testing, or final polishing, as per Game Developer. Strike teams are small units wholly focused on specific areas and bugs, and they are usually started at least six months before the intended release of a game. While the job listing doesn’t explicitly mention Tomb Raider by name, it does mention “Strong focus on puzzle design, ideally within third-person action-adventure games”. This seems to be a clear reference to Tomb Raider 12, as it’s the only game Crystal Dynamics are currently developing, aside from Perfect Dark which they are co-developing with The Initiative for Xbox. However, that game is first-person. If the next Tomb Raider is in the late stages of development, we could be looking at a 2026 release, which would be appropriate as it’s the 30th anniversary of the series. Assuming it does come out next year, the timing will be interesting cause of the delay to GTA 6. Jason Schreier recently reported about the concerns amongst other developers about the possibility of another delay for Grand Theft Auto, so, if Tomb Raider is to come out next year, it will either want to launch before May or plan for Summer/Fall and risk the chance of another postponement from Rockstar. TR12 reveal at Summer Game Fest? Although nothing is official, there is the chance Tomb Raider 12 could be revealed at Summer Game Fest. Recently, renowned leaker, NateTheHate, was asked if either Tomb Raider, Project 007, or Wolf Among Us 2 will be at Geoff Keighley’s show. In response, NateTheHate said, “At least one” of the three will be present. Image credit: @NateTheHate 2 on X In addition, movie leaker, vthescooper, posted on April 11th they “can see the announcement coming anytime soon…”. Vthescooper has a thread of verified leaks for a wide range of different movies, and Tomb Raider 12 appears to be the only video game they have leaked details about. According to the leaker back in May 2024, the next TR game will be fully open-world set in India, with Lara able to freely traverse the landscape using a motorcycle, parachute, and other tools. The story will allegedly involve Lara racing “against a Society of Raiders and other rivals for powerful relics,” and there will be a “new feature based on recruiting teams and allies to strategically aid you in missions and defeating rivals”. None of this is official, but vthescooper’s post about a “Society of Raiders” was uploaded before being mentioned on the official Tomb Raider website as part of a sign-up process for fans. Image credit: @vthescooper on X It remains to be seen if Tomb Raider 12 will be shown off at Summer Game Fest. Right now, official details are light. All we know is that it is being developed by Crystal Dynamics using Unreal Engine 5, it will be published by Amazon Games, and it is a unified Lara with the survivor trilogy recognized as her origin. We also know her default unified attire thanks to it appearing in several crossovers, such as the recent Pinball FX. In other Tomb Raider news, Crystal Dynamics has assured fans that recent layoffs do not “alter plans” for what they are working on. Tomb Raider Platform(s): Android, iOS, PC, PlayStation, PlayStation 3, SEGA Saturn, Xbox 360 Genre(s): Action 8 VideoGamer Subscribe to our newsletters! By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime. Share

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here Epic Games took players to a Star Wars fantasy with Fortnite’s Galactic Battle mini-season, transforming the island into a war of Jedi and Sith, featuring new locations, force powers, lightsabers, and starfighters. Players are completing challenges, such as the Han Solo Found challenges, and gaining XP in Battle Royale, Creative, and Zero Build modes to earn exclusive rewards. The season’s Battle Pass and Item Shop are brimming with Star Wars skins, such as General Grievous, Mace Windu, Poe Dameron, Captain Phasma, and a customizable Mandalorian, as well as added rewards like the Vanguard Zadie. To add to the excitement, an AI-powered Darth Vader NPC, voiced by James Earl Jones, was also added to the game for fans. The Darth Jar Jar skin, which was the galaxy’s most anticipated arrival, transforms the clumsy Gungan into a terrifying Sith Lord, confirming a long-held fan idea. However, to get the skin, players need to indulge in a tedious grind that has been a topic of frustration lately. Fortnite players feel exploited with new Darth Jar Jar skin grind The Darth Jar Jar skin, which was released on May 17 as part of Fortnite’s Galactic Battle mini-season, has sparked outrage among players due to its steep 1.28 Million XP requirement—roughly 16 Battle Pass levels—to unlock the purchase option in the Item Shop’s Prove Your Power tab, as well as a 1,500 V-Bucks ($15) price tag for the skin and 3,200 V-Bucks for the full bundle. To buy Darth Jar Jar, you’ll need to earn around 1 million XP. Image by VideoGamer. This dual barrier has left players feeling exploited, and many have taken to social media to vent. Casual gamers juggling work and school will find the grind—demanding hours in Battle Royale, Creative, or Zero Build modes—nearly impossible by the season’s June 6 deadline. One X user complained, “Epic has turned a fun meme into a full-time job. 1.28M XP? “I’m not giving up my life for this!” The XP gate, along with the high price, has raised allegations of exploitative monetization. Players believe that Epic is catering to Star Wars nostalgia by not offering a free unlock path like previous event rewards. Players underscore the grind’s inaccessibility, with one user saying, “I’m a Jar Jar stan, but this feels like a cash grab disguised as a challenge.” Even dedicated gamers who have crossed the XP obstacle feel the V-Bucks cost, especially after putting in so much effort. Some have compared it negatively to previous skins, such as General Grievous, which needed less grinding. Players believe Epic has ruined a beloved fan theory’s moment, with one comment summarizing: “Darth Jar Jar could’ve been legendary, but Epic’s greed made it a chore.” While it’s not the first time Epic has brought an XP locked Item Shop, the Renegade Raider skin comeback was definitely worth the grind. If you’re looking to rack up XP faster, check out our full list of best XP maps to play. Fortnite Platform(s): Android, iOS, macOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X Genre(s): Action, Massively Multiplayer, Shooter 9 VideoGamer Subscribe to our newsletters! By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime. Share

Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal in "The Last of Us." Credit: Liane Hentscher / HBO If you thought the death of Joel (Pedro Pascal) would be the most heartbreaking part of The Last of UsThat honor falls to Season 2, episode 6, a flashback episode all about Joel and Ellie's (Bella Ramsey) years in Jackson — and why they grew apart.The episode's heartbreak comes in waves. Early sequences of Joel and Ellie's happiest memories become tragically bittersweet with the knowledge of what's to come. And of course, watching the two fall out is a surefire recipe for sadness. By the end of the hour, your eyes will be damp and your heart will have shattered into a million tiny pieces. But hey, at least we got Joel back for a bit!Here, in chronological order, is every time The Last of Us Season 2, episode 6 broke our hearts. When young Joel's father gets vulnerable about parenting.Episode 6 opens with a flashback to Austin in 1983, when young Joel (Andrew Diaz) tries to protect Tommy (David Miranda) from a beating from their father (Tony Dalton). But instead of physically punishing either of his sons, Joel's father decides to tell him about the warped blueprint of fatherhood he inherited from his own abusive dad, and how he hopes to improve upon it, bit by bit. "I'm doing a little better than my father did," he tells Joel. "When it's your turn, I hope you do a little better than me."That line proves to be the thesis of the episode, with Joel trying to do a little better than his own father during his time with Ellie. Knowing how limited that time is — and how the two ended things — kickstarts episode 6's heartache. And guess what? It's not about to let up anytime soon. When the opening credits change to bring back Joel.After Joel's death, The Last of Us' opening credits made a devastating change. Instead of ending on the image of two fungal silhouettes, meant to represent Ellie and Joel, they ended with just the Ellie silhouette, highlighting her new loneliness. In episode 6, however, the Joel silhouette is back! It's both a welcome return and a reminder that we're on borrowed time with this pair. Who knew a shadow of a fungus could make me so emotional?When Joel sings "Future Days" to Ellie. Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal in "The Last of Us." Credit: Liane Hentscher / HBO So many elements of Ellie's 15th birthday tug at the heartstrings, from Joel's reaction to her burning her arm to hide her bite mark to him customizing a guitar for her. But the moment that opens the floodgates is undoubtedly Joel's rendition of Pearl Jam's "Future Days" (teased by Ellie herself back in episode 5).The song's lyrics — "If I ever were to lose you / I'd surely lose myself" — are a resounding reminder of how much Ellie and Joel have come to mean to each other. (It's also a dark portent of how Ellie may be losing herself on her revenge quest.) But the performance is also a payoff of a story thread from all the way back in Season 1, when Ellie asked Joel to sing for her and teach her to play guitar. Well, it's finally happened, and I wouldn't blame you for getting teary-eyed. When Joel and Ellie visit the museum. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in "The Last of Us." Credit: Liane Hentscher / HBO After a full season and a half of watching Joel and Ellie run from Infected and human enemies alike (and in Joel's case, you know, dying), any scene where these two can just relax and enjoy themselves is a blessing. And what a blessing Ellie's 16th birthday is!Joel brings Ellie to a museum, where she spends the day clambering on dinosaur statues and blasting off to space in an old capsule. In one of the season's most poignant moments, her imagined space flight becomes reality, with the light of the real world fading around her until she's drifting in the dark void of space.The entire sequence is Joel and Ellie at their happiest. She gets to actually be a kid for once, and Joel revels in her joy, knowing he's doing a good job as a father.Of course, the scene also serves as the calm before the storm. Ellie's insistence that she goes on patrol is a reminder of the dangers Jackson faces, as well as the fateful patrol that will one day rip Joel from her forever. For now, though, we get to enjoy Joel in dad mode, attempting to give Ellie "the talk," all while being clueless about her sexuality. Talk about bittersweet.When Ellie moves out of their house.If Ellie's 16th birthday celebration is Joel's dream, then her 17th birthday is his nightmare. He walks in on her smoking pot, getting a tattoo, and hooking up with Kat (Noah Lamanna). "All the teenage shit all at once," as he puts it. Mashable Top Stories Stay connected with the hottest stories of the day and the latest entertainment news. Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up! While Joel's exasperated dad act seems funny at first — what's worse, dodging Clickers or teenage rebellion? — it moves into upsetting territory pretty fast. Dismissing Ellie's relationship with Kat as an "experiment" is awful, plain and simple, as is his assertion that Ellie isn't currently herself. No wonder Ellie wants to move into the garage: Having her own father figure refute her identity like that marks a major blow to their bond.Thankfully, Joel recognizes the error of his ways and tries to help by giving Ellie more space, but this fight and subsequent move mark the beginning of the end for Joel and Ellie. You want to grab them through the screen and yell at them to communicate with each other, that they only have a few years left. Instead, all you can do is watch the tragedy snowball.When we learn what Ellie's moth tattoo means. Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal in "The Last of Us." Credit: Liane Hentscher / HBO One of Joel's attempts to bond with Ellie post-fight is to ask her about her moth tattoo. It echoes her drawings, which he used as inspiration when decorating her guitar. Ellie says she chose the moths because of what they represent in dreams. Joel mistakenly believes they're symbols for change and metamorphosis, but therapist Gail (Catherine O'Hara) reveals the truth: They represent death.That means Ellie has been carrying around the deaths of everyone she's lost, like Riley (Storm Reid), her mother (Ashley Johnson), and more. As seemingly the only person in the world who's immune to Cordyceps, there's also a layer of survivor's guilt here. Ellie's surrounded by death, yet protected from it too. That's a crushing burden to bear, one that's defined her entire coming-of-age — and one that Joel will never truly understand.When Ellie questions what happened in Salt Lake City. Bella Ramsey in "The Last of Us." Credit: Liane Hentscher / HBO On Ellie's 19th birthday, she gets what she's wanted since moving to Jackson: to go on patrol with Joel. But now, she wants something else, too: answers about what really happened in Salt Lake City at the end of Season 1.Before she and Joel head out to patrol, she sits in her room, rehearsing questions she has about Salt Lake City. "If the Fireflies spotted us a mile from the hospital, how did they get surprised by an entire group of raiders?" she wonders. "If the raiders could kill all those soldiers and Marlene, and you had to carry me the whole time, how did we get away?"These brief moments signal how much Ellie has replayed that pivotal day, how these discrepancies have been eating at her for years. Deep down, she knows that Joel lied to her. Perhaps that subconscious knowledge influenced her need for space from Joel, further widening the rift between them that Joel may have just attributed to teenage rebellion. Based on episode 1, we know that that rift is about to get a whole lot wider, so the inclusion of Ellie's questions here suggests the other shoe is about to drop.When we finally learn what happened with Eugene. Joe Pantoliano in "The Last of Us." Credit: Liane Hentscher / HBO This is the big one, folks. Ever since episode 1, The Last of Us has been talking about Joel killing Gail's husband Eugene (Joe Pantoliano). Now, we finally get to see it play out.Eugene is marked for death from the moment he gets infected on patrol. He accepts that, but man, do his final moments sting. It all starts when Ellie insists that Eugene has enough time to make it back to Jackson and say goodbye to Gail before he fully turns, and she makes Joel promise that he'll help. But Joel, thinking to protect Ellie and Jackson, goes back on his promise and shoots Eugene anyway. It's a brutal betrayal not just of Eugene, who gets a few seconds of false hope before reality sets in, but also of Ellie, who realizes that Joel's promise mirrors the very promise he made to her after the events of Salt Lake City. Related Stories "You swore," she says, all the weight of years of pain and questioning coming through in just two words.Ellie's discovery of Joel's lie plays out differently in the show than in the game, where Eugene is already dead from a stroke. Still, watching her put the pieces together — and watching Joel betray her even after their relationship seemed to be tentatively mending — is nothing less than devastating.When Joel and Ellie take steps towards healing in the porch scene.Up until now, episode 6 has revealed why Joel and Ellie aren't on speaking terms by the start of Season 2, as well as what happened with Eugene. There's only one major question left to answer: What happened the night before Joel's death to make Ellie say she and Joel were "better now"?The answer plays out in episode 6's gorgeous final scene, a continuation of the porch scene from episode 1. Here, The Last of Us reveals that Ellie didn't just turn in for the night after seeing Joel out on the porch. Instead, she came back to ask him, point blank, about what he did to the Fireflies. Her line of questioning serves as a direct parallel to Abby's (Kaitlyn Dever) interrogation of Joel right before his death: The two both know the role Joel played in the massacre, but they want to hear him confess it for himself.The conversation that follows is full of lines that double as gut punches. Upon learning that making a Cordyceps cure would have killed her, Ellie says, "Then I was supposed to die! That was my purpose. My life would've fucking mattered. But you took that from me, you took that from everyone."Joel's response? "Yes, and I'll pay the price." Little does he know he'll pay the ultimate price the very next day. In fact, the whole scene hurts even more knowing that the journey of forgiveness that Ellie hopes to embark on will be cut short in a matter of hours. Episode 6, you've already made me tear up several times before, but this might take the cake.Adding salt to the wound is one last callback to the Austin flashback. "If you should ever have [a child] of your own, well, then, I hope you do a little better than me," Joel tells Ellie. The line hits especially hard after Ellie's reaction to Dina's (Isabela Merced) pregnancy: "I'm gonna be a dad."With that, The Last of Us comes full circle, making episode 6 a stunning, heartbreaking story of parenthood — and a season highlight.New episodes of The Last of Us Season 2 premiere on HBO and HBO Max Sundays at 9 p.m. ET. Belen Edwards Entertainment Reporter Belen Edwards is an Entertainment Reporter at Mashable. She covers movies and TV with a focus on fantasy and science fiction, adaptations, animation, and more nerdy goodness.

Look, y’all, I try to start these recaps with lighthearted jokes and gags that all of us, both lovers and haters of The Last of Us season two, can enjoy, to set a welcoming and pleasant tone before I start unleashing my critiques of a given episode. However, I don’t think I have it in me this week. I’ve been dreading writing a recap for the sixth episode of this season because it is exactly the kind of sentimental, dramatic episode of television that often captivates audiences and gets award show buzz, but it is also one of the most nauseating adaptations of the original work the show has given us yet. This is where all of showrunner Craig Mazin’s odd creative choices collide like the gnarliest 10-car pileup you’ve ever witnessed, and the result is the absolute bastardization of the most important scene in all of The Last of Us Part II.Suggested ReadingNintendo Switch 2 Price Is Set at $450 for Now, But Could Go Higher Share SubtitlesOffEnglishSuggested ReadingNintendo Switch 2 Price Is Set at $450 for Now, But Could Go Higher Share SubtitlesOffEnglishNintendo Switch 2 Price Is Set at $450 for Now, But Could Go HigherDoing betterAlmost all of this episode is told in flashbacks that, in the game, were sprinkled throughout Ellie’s bloody quest for revenge in Seattle (and after, but we’ll get to that), but here are condensed into a single hour of television. But before we get to that, we start out with a brand new scene of a young Joel (Andrew Diaz) and Tommy (David Miranda) in their home, long before the cordyceps fungus was a concern. It’s 1983, and the younger brother tearfully tells his brother that he’s scared of their father, and that he’s going to get “the belt” whenever dad gets home from work. Joel assures Tommy that he will take the fall for whatever it was his brother did, and sends him up to his room to wait for their father alone.When J. Miller Sr. (Tony Dalton) arrives, it’s in a cop car. He walks into the kitchen and doesn’t so much as say hello to Joel, instead telling him to “talk fast” about what happened. Joel tells him he got into a fight with a pot dealer, but his father already talked to the witnesses and knows Tommy was the one buying the drugs. Joel stands firm and tells his dad he’s not going to hurt his little brother. Rather than getting the belt, Officer Miller grabs two beers out of the fridge and hands one to his son. He then tells a story about a time he shoplifted as a kid, and his father, Joel’s grandfather, broke his jaw for it.“If you know what it feels like, then why?” Joel asks. He then proceeds to justify his own abuse by saying his was “never like that,” never as bad as what his father inflicted upon him. He says he might go too far at times, but he’s doing a little better than his father did. “When it’s your turn, I hope you do a little better than me,” he says as he heads back out on patrol without having laid a hand on his son, this time.So, I hate this. Depending on how cynical or charitable I’m feeling, I read this as both an uninspired explanation for Joel’s misguided, violent act of “love” at the end of season one, when he “saved” Ellie from her death at the hands of Abby’s father, the Firefly surgeon, and then lied to her about it, and a tragic reason for why he’s so hellbent on giving Ellie a better childhood, even in the apocalypse. Last of Us fans will likely run with both interpretations, but in the broader scope of the series, this previously undisclosed bit of backstory is the exact kind of shit that lets people excuse Joel’s actions and place the blame on something or someone else. This sympathetic backstory is the kind of out the show has been oddly fixated on giving viewers since season one as it tries to soften the world’s views of Joel and Ellie, even as they do horrific things to those around them. First, it was players and viewers creating their own justifications, telling themselves that the Fireflies wouldn’t have been able to distribute a vaccine anyway, or that they couldn’t be trusted with such a world-shifting resource, though Joel clearly doesn’t give a fuck about the prospect if it means Ellie’s life. Now, it will be “Joel was just perpetuating the same violence his father put on him and his brother, but at least he didn’t hurt Ellie. He’s doing better, and Ellie will in turn do better as well, and this cycle of generational trauma will eventually be broken.” What is with this show’s inability to confidently lay blame at its leads’ feet without cushioning it with endless justifications and explanations?The maddening part of this addition is that it’s much harder to just call this another overwrought Mazin embellishment because this episode is co-written by Last of Us director Neil Druckmann (who also directs the episode) and Part II narrative lead Halley Gross, alongside Mazin. I’ll never know how some of these scenes came to be, but I’ve seen what this story looks like when Mazin’s not in the room, and many of his worst tendencies are still on display, even with Druckmann and Gross writing on this episode. But I’ll be real, if I had been rewriting what is essentially my magnum opus for television, I would have fought to keep the kid gloves off. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Giving Joel even more tragic backstory to justify his actions is hardly the worst crime this episode commits.We jump forward a couple decades to the small town of Jackson, just two months after Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) settled in following season one. Joel’s putting his old smuggling skills to use to make deals with local bigot Seth (Robert John Burke). He found a bag of Legos for Seth’s grandkids, and he wants something in return. Whatever it is, he needs it by tomorrow, and he needs it in vanilla flavor. Before he goes, however, he says there’s one more thing he needs, but Seth has plenty of it, so it shouldn’t be a problem.Image: HBOJoel sneaks through his house and verifies Ellie isn’t in her room, then takes his prize out from his coat pocket: a bone. He takes it to his workshop and starts carving it into the shapes he needs to finish a woodworking project he’s been saving for this day: a refurbished tobacco sunburst acoustic guitar with a moth decal on the fretboard. The guitar’s origin is more or less the same as the game, but with a few added details like Joel carving in the moth based on one of Ellie’s sketches. It inverts the origins of Ellie’s moth tattoo, which was originally implied to have been designed based on the guitar Joel found rather than the other way around, but it’s a cute personal touch for the show to add.Joel gives the guitar a quick once-over before his work is interrupted by Tommy (Gabriel Luna) and Ellie arriving with the latter loopy on painkillers. While working in town, Ellie intentionally burned off the bite mark that kicked off this whole series. She apologizes before finally passing out in her bed. As we saw in Seattle, Ellie justified this as wanting to wear long sleeves again without an infected bite mark scaring the hoes, but I still prefer the interpretation that she did this because being constantly reminded of the cure she never got to be was more painful than a chemical burn. When she wakes up, the pain has mostly subsided, which is good, because today’s not a day for pain: It’s Eli’s 15th birthday. At least, that’s what the vanilla cake Seth baked says on top. An illiterate bigot ex-cop who can’t spell “Ellie”? This is who survives in the post-apocalypse?Ellie, still a bit doped up, is unfazed, shoves a fistful of the cake into her mouth and says it’s good. Sure, queen. It’s your day, and silverware is for people who aren’t the birthday girl. One of the surprises Joel has is not edible, though. He brings the guitar into the kitchen and reminds Ellie that he promised to teach her how to play last season. Ellie wants to hear something and insists that Joel sing. He protests, but Ellie reminds him that it’s her birthday. So Joel huffs and puffs, then sits down and finally sings Pearl Jam’s “Future Days.” Well, I mean, I guess it’s a Pearl Jam song? As we went over last week, this song should not exist in the show’s timeline because the album it came from wasn’t released until 2013, and the apocalypse began 10 years earlier in the show for no real discernible reason beyond some weird Bush-era anti-terrorism hoopla in the pilot. So maybe “Future Days” is a Joel Miller original in The Last of Us? Eddie Vedder, who?Pascal’s performance, like Troy Baker’s in the game, is very understated and sweet, and sounds like a person who can’t really sing doing his best. Ellie says the impromptu song didn’t suck, and he hands her the gee-tar. She holds it in her lap and accidentally touches her bandaged arm with it. Joel tells her he understands why she burned the bite mark off, and they’re not gonna let that ruin her birthday.Sweet 16Next, we jump to one year later for Ellie’s 16th birthday. The duo is walking through a forest as Ellie tries to guess what Joel’s surprise is for her big day. He says he found whatever they’re traveling to see while on patrol, which prompts Ellie to bring up that she’s tired of working inside Jackson when she could be fighting infected alongside Joel and others. She says Jesse told her he’d train her to help expedite the process, but Joel changes the subject by asking if something is going on between the teens. Our funky little lesbian chuckles at the notion, and Joel insists he has an eye for these things. “I don’t think you do,” Ellie laughs.This interaction is pulled from The Last of Us Part II, and I love it because it says a lot about the two’s relationship. Most queer kids have stories of their parents assuming that any person of the opposite gender you’re standing near must be a potential romantic flame, and in the best case scenarios this comes from a place of ignorance rather than malice. I had always attributed Joel’s extremely off-base theory to a growing distance between the two after they made their way to Jackson, and a sort of southern dad obliviousness that’s incredibly real and also endearing. Yes, yes, Joel did terrible things, but he is also Ellie’s surrogate peepaw who wants to be part of her life, and when he’s not being a violent bastard, he has a softer side which Naughty Dog developed brilliantly, and it’s a huge part of why millions of players still stand by him after all the mass murder and deception. HBO’s show? Well...put a pin in this, we’ll get back to it.Image: HBOWe finally arrive at our destination, and it’s an abandoned museum. Right out front, Ellie finds an overgrown T-Rex statue. Immediately, she climbs up to the top, which just about gives Joel a heart attack. Standing on top of its head, she sees the museum in the distance, and Joel tells her that’s the main attraction, if she doesn’t break her neck falling off the dinosaur. Once inside, we see what Joel wanted Ellie to see: a huge exhibit dedicated to space travel. So far, Ellie has only really fueled her passion for astronomy through textbooks and sci-fi comics, so getting to see a full diorama of the solar system is a dream come true. But her real dream is to go to space. In another life, one in which a fungal infection hadn’t leveled the world, she would’ve been an astronaut going on intergalactic adventures.Joel can’t take her to space, but he can give her a chance to imagine what it was like. He walks her a bit further into the exhibit and shows her the remains of the Apollo 15 Command Module, which went to space and back in 1971. Ellie is speechless as she excitedly climbs inside, but before she gets in, Joel points out that any astronaut worthy of the title needs a helmet. He hands her a rock to break into one of the suit displays, and she picks her favorite helmet of the bunch.“How’s it smell in there?” Joel asks.“Like space...and dust,” Ellie replies.The two get inside, and Ellie starts flipping switches and narrating her space trip. However, Joel has a better idea. He pulls out an old cassette tape, and Ellie asks what’s on it. He says it took a great deal of effort to find in this fucked up world, but doesn’t answer. When Ellie puts the tape in her Walkman, Joel tells her to close her eyes as she listens. When she presses play, she doesn’t get some old world music Joel liked as a teen; instead she hears the countdown of a real orbital launch. She closes her eyes and imagines herself flying up into space. We see the spacecraft shake, the lighting change as it passes through the atmosphere, and then finally, the sun shine over her helmet as she comes back down to Earth. Joel asks if he did okay, and Ellie just lets out a flabbergasted “Are you kidding me?”Alright, yeah. This scene is still incredible, and I imagine it’ll hit even harder for newcomers who haven’t played the games because they didn’t get a similar scene in season one in which Ellie imagines playing a fighting game. Even before Joel or her first love, Riley (Storm Reid), died, Ellie was a girl in a constant state of grief. She mourns a life she never got to have as she gets nostalgic for a world whose remains she gets to rummage through while scavenging, but that she will never truly experience. Joel can’t give her the world, but he can give her the chance to imagine it, just for a little bit. Joel’s love languages are obviously acts of service and gift giving, and my guy knows how to make a grand gesture even in the apocalypse. God, I know there’s someone out there wagging their fingers about the war crimes but leave me alone, that’s fucking ohana. He’s just a baby girl trying to do nice things for his baby girl.As the two head back to Jackson, Joel says they should do trips like this more often. Ellie agrees, but then briefly stops as something catches her eye: a group of fireflies gathering in the woods. For a show that loves to just say things to the camera, it’s a nice bit of unspoken storytelling. Ellie stares at them long enough to convey that what happened at Salt Lake City still haunts her, but it’s subtle enough that a viewer who isn’t paying close attention might not catch it.Dear diary, my teen angst bullshit has a body countNow it’s time for the 17th birthday. Joel comes home with another cake, but this one spells Ellie’s name right. He heads upstairs to give it to Ellie, but hears giggling inside her bedroom and barges in without so much as a warning. He finds Ellie on her bed with Kat (Noah Lamanna), freshly tattooed, smoking weed and fooling around. Joel goes into full-blown angry dad mode and tells Kat to get out.“So all the teenage shit all at once,” he barks. “Drugs, tattoos, and sex...experimenting with girls?”Ellie says it wasn’t sex, and it certainly wasn’t an “experiment.” Joel says she doesn’t know what she’s saying and storms out.Well, homophobic Joel Miller was not on my bingo card for this show, but it’s done almost nothing but disappoint me, so maybe it should have been. As I wrote when we learned about Dina’s bigoted mother in episode four, the way The Last of Us weaves old-school homophobia into its world has far more long-standing consequences to the series’ worldbuilding than I think Mazin, and now Druckmann and Gross, considered. The more people who are shown to have carried bigotry into the apocalypse, the more it makes it odd that Dina and Ellie have no idea what Pride flags are. The more that queerness is othered in this world, the more its indiscriminate, post-apocalyptic loss of culture instead reads like a targeted one for queer people specifically. I already wrote about that enough for episode four, though, so I want to focus on what it means for Joel to dabble in active bigotry rather than exude the passive ignorance he did in The Last of Us Part II.There’s an argument to be made that adding this layer of disconnect between Joel and Ellie helps add weight to their reconciliation. If your dad has had homophobic outbursts most of his life, then starts wearing an “I love my lesbian daughter” t-shirt, that’s a feel-good story of redemption worth celebrating. However, was it necessary? Did we need Joel to become a late-in-life homophobe on top of all the other questionable things he’s done? The reason I love him asking if Ellie is interested in Jesse is that it’s a silly, light-hearted interaction. In Part II, the fact that he hasn’t picked up on her being a raging lesbian when he asks about Jesse speaks to how distant the two have become by the time she’s turned 17, and ultimately underlines that he’s a clueless dad at heart. This change for the show, however, replaces ignorance with malice, and the dynamic is entirely different. Yeah, homophobia is inherently ignorant, but Joel asking about Jesse isn’t malicious, it’s just dumb. My man is not reading the room. Here, Joel is reading the room and doesn’t like what he sees.It’s another example of the show not being willing to leave well enough alone. HBO can’t be content with all the subtle shades of grey the game provided, so it has to expound on everything, no matter how unnecessary or damaging it is for the characters. Joel is no longer just a well-meaning (albeit overbearing and violent) dad to TV viewers, he’s a well-meaning (albeit overbearing and violent) dad who also was secretly a bigot the whole time. Fuck this.Image: HBOEllie heads out to the shed in the backyard to get away for a bit. It’s dusty and full of tools, but Ellie’s got a vision and starts to move her mattress out of her room. Joel wakes up and asks what’s going on, and he says Ellie can’t move into the shed overnight because there’s no heat or running water. Ellie says she’s not sorry she smoked weed, got a tattoo, or fooled around with Kat. Rather than admit that homophobia is so 2003, Joel agrees that she should have her own space and says that he’ll spend a few days making it livable. As they put the mattress back on the bed, Joel asks to see the tattoo. It’s not quite finished, but the moth illustration is already inked over the mostly healed burn mark. He asks why she’s so fixated on moths, and she says she read they’re symbolic in dreams. Joel asks if it represents change, and Ellie, clearly not wanting to dig into what it actually means, just says it’s late to get him to leave.Ah, crap, I forgot about Gail. Hello Catherine O’Hara, I wish you were playing a less frustrating character. Joel ambushes the doctor at the local diner and asks what moths mean in dreams. Gail says moths usually symbolize death “if you believe in that shit.” When Joel seems paralyzed by the answer, Gail, annoyed, asks why he wants to know. He doesn’t answer and heads home.Ellie has wasted no time getting her shit together to start moving out. The camera lingers over some of her moth sketches, including one that reads “You have a greater purpose” in between the drawings. She grabs them and puts them in a box, but it’s clear the purpose she thought she had weighs on her mind when we see her next.All the promises at sundownThe show jumps forward two years, almost bringing us to the “present” of the show. A 19-year-old Ellie sits in her hut and rehearses a speech she wants to give Joel. She’s been thinking about his Salt Lake City story and some of the odd inconsistencies with what he told her four years ago. How were the Fireflies surprised by a group of raiders when they saw the pair from a mile away in the city? How did Joel get away from the raiders while carrying her when she was unconscious? Why haven’t they heard from any of the other supposed immune people besides her? Before she can finish her spiel, Joel knocks on her door and says her birthday present this year is that she’s finally getting to go on a patrol. All the animosity melts off of Ellie’s face and is replaced by a childlike glee. She grabs her coat and a gun, and they head out.The pair head onto what Joel describes as the safest route they’ve got so she can learn the ropes. Ellie’s clearly dissatisfied with wearing training wheels, but the two banter and scout out the area until Joel says it would be nice if they could spend more time together. Ellie hesitantly agrees, clearly once again thinking about Salt Lake City. Joel asks if she’s alright, but the conversation is derailed by a radio call informing them that Gail’s husband Eugene (Joe Pantoliano) spotted some infected and needs backup. Joel tells Ellie to head back to Jackson but she protests, reminding him that she’s not his kid, but his scouting partner. Joel realizes he’s losing time arguing, so they head out.Image: HBOAs the two scale down the side of the Jackson mountainside, they hear gunfire and infected screeches in the distance. They follow the noise and see the corpse of Eugene’s patrol partner, Adam, being dragged by his horse, but Gail’s husband is nowhere to be found. Joel leads them down the path the horse came from, and they soon find the aftermath of the scrap, and Eugene leaning up against a tree. Joel asks if he got bit, and while it seems like he considers hiding it for a moment, he shows a bite mark on his side. Joel keeps his gun trained on Eugene, who asks if he can go back to the Jackson gate to say goodbye to his wife before he turns. While Joel isn’t entertaining it, Ellie asks Eugene to hold out his hand and count to 10, and verifies that the infection hasn’t spread to his brain yet. There’s time for him to see Gail. They just need to tie him up and bring him back. Joel hesitates, then tells Ellie to go get the horses, and they’ll meet up. She starts to leave but then stops and turns to Joel with an expectant look. He sends her off with a promise that they’ll be there soon. But he’s promised her plenty of things before.Joel directs Eugene to a clearing next to a gorgeous lake. But the awe is short-lived as he realizes that Joel never had any intention of taking him back to the town to see Gail. Joel says if he has any last words for his wife, he’ll pass them along. But Eugene didn’t have anything to tell her; he just wanted to hear her last words for him.“I’m dying!” he shouts. “I’m terrified. I don’t need a view. I need Gail. To see her face, please. Please let that be the last thing I see.”Joel doesn’t relent and says that if you love someone, you can always see their face. Eugene gives in and stares off into the distance until he dissociates. Then, finally, he tells Joel that he sees her. We never hear the gun go off, but we see a flock of birds fly away from the scene.Image: HBOEllie finally arrives with the horses, and Joel merely apologizes as she stares in horror at what he’s done. He ties Eugene to one of the horses and says he’ll tell Gail just what she needs to know. Ellie is dead silent. She tearfully realizes that Joel’s promises mean nothing as they slowly make their way back to Jackson.Inside the Jackson wall, Gail cries as she stands over Eugene’s body. Joel tells her that he wanted to see her, but didn’t want to put her in danger as the cordyceps overtook him.“He wasn’t scared,” Joel says. “He was brave, and he ended it himself.”Gail hugs Joel both for her own comfort and as thanks for his kind words. But it’s all bullshit. If there’s one thing Joel is good at other than gift giving and torture, it’s lying. But Ellie is here and knows this better than she ever has, and she’s not about to let him get away with it.“That’s not what happened,” she says. “He begged to see you. He had time. Joel promised to take him to you. He promised us both. And then Joel shot him in the head.”Joel is stunned, then turns to Gail to try to explain himself, but she slaps him right across the face and tells him to get away from her.“You swore,” Ellie growls at him before walking away.For the uninitiated, this entire side story with Eugene is new for the show, and I have mixed feelings on it. It’s well acted, with Pantoliano giving us one of the season’s best performances in just a few minutes of screentime, but it’s also a very roundabout way for the show to finally create what seems like an unmendable rift between Joel and Ellie without them, you know, actually talking about what happened between them. Yes, it’s an extension of that conflict, as Ellie realizes that Joel is a liar who will do what he wants, when he wants, and anyone who feels differently will find themselves on the wrong side of a rifle or with a bogus story to justify it. But we’re not directly reckoning with what happened in Salt Lake City here. As illustrated in the first episode, Joel doesn’t even realize that Ellie’s anger is rooted in what he did to her, and he chalks the distance between them up to teen angst. If I didn’t know any better, I would also be confused as to why Ellie didn’t talk to him for nine months. My guy doesn’t even know that Ellie is on to the fact that he committed the greatest betrayal she’s ever suffered. Which makes the show’s actual unpacking of it all the more oddly paced, and dare I say, nonsensical?With one more leap forward, we finally reach something familiar from episode one. It’s New Year’s Eve, and Dina (Isabela Merced) is the life of the town’s celebration. Joel is sitting with Tommy and his family and watching Ellie from an acceptable distance. Tommy’s wife, Maria (Rutina Wesley), says that her calling him a “refugee” five episodes ago was out of line, and that he’s still family and has done a lot for Jackson in the years since he and Ellie moved to the town. The sentimental moment is interrupted by Seth calling Ellie and Dina a slur for kissing in the middle of the crowd, and Joel remembers that homophobia is not it and shoves the illiterate, cake-baking, bigoted ex-cop to the ground. He quickly leaves after Ellie shouts at him for interfering, but hey, at least you decided to remember not to be a bigot yourself in your final 24 hours.Oh my god, I’m bracing myself. I have spent weeks trying to gather the words for talking about this next scene. I work with words for a living, and they usually come naturally to me. But when I first watched this scene recreated in live action, all I could do was fire off expletives as my skin crawled off my body. The tragic part is, this scene is my favorite in all of the Last of Us games. It is the foundation of everything that happens in Part II, and originally, it is only shown to you in the last five minutes, after hours of violent conquest for which the game refuses to provide neat, softening explanations. Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson’s version of this interaction is everything that makes The Last of Us Part II work, condensed into a stunning five-minute scene of career-defining performances, sublime writing that says everything it has to without having to explain it to the viewer like they’re talking down to a child, and a devastating reveal that explains every painful thing you’ve witnessed and done in this game with heartbreaking, bittersweet clarity. I’m talking about Joel and Ellie’s final conversation before his death, and y’all, I cannot believe how badly the show tarnished this scene, and that Druckmann and Gross let it happen.Part of the issue is that the show’s version of what has become colloquially known as “The Porch Scene” not only has to bear the weight of what was originally Joel and Ellie’s final conversation, but also that it mashes the original scene together with another in such a condensed fashion that it kinda undermines the entire point of Joel and Ellie’s year of no contact. In Part II, there was an entire playable flashback dedicated to Ellie traveling back to the Salt Lake City hospital and discovering the remnants of the Firefly’s base to confirm her worst fears about what Joel had done. It’s much more straightforward than the game’s approach to driving a wedge between the characters, but maybe Mazin and co. thought it was too implausible for show audiences to buy, or they didn’t have the Salt Lake City base set to use anymore. Who’s to say? Instead, we got the Eugene subplot to serve a similar purpose, and Ellie lives with mostly certain but never confirmed suspicions that Joel lied to her about what happened at the hospital. So, on top of the two talking out the Eugene stuff, they also have to lay out the entire foundational conflict between them at once. The result is an extremely rushed revelation and reconciliation, while the show is also juggling Mazin’s overwrought annotated explainer-style writing. So the once-perfect scene is now a structural mess on top of being the show’s usual brand of patronizing.At first, Ellie walks past the back porch where Joel is playing her guitar, as we saw in episode one. Long-time fans were worried this brief moment might mean the show was going to skip this scene entirely, but it turns out that was just a bit of structural misdirection. The two stand side-by-side at the edge of the porch with their hands on the railing. They occasionally look at each other, but never outright face each other as they talk. Neither of them is quite ready to look the other in the eye just yet.Ellie asks what’s in the mug Joel’s sipping on, and he says he managed to get some coffee from some people passing through the settlement last week. My king, it is past midnight. We all have our vices, but do you think you need to be wide awake at this hour? Anyway, Ellie’s not here to scold him for his coffee habits; she’s here to set some boundaries. She says she had Seth under control, and tells Joel that she better not hear about him telling Jesse to take her off patrols again. Joel agrees to the terms, and there’s a brief, awkward silence before he asks if Dina and Ellie are girlfriends now. Ellie, clearly embarrassed, rambles about how it was only one kiss and how Dina is a notorious flirt when intoxicated, and asserts that it didn’t mean anything. Joel hears all this self-doubt and asks a new question: “But you do like her?” Ellie once again gets self-deprecating and says she’s “so stupid.” Then Joel goes into sweet dad mode.“Look, I don’t know what Dina’s intentions are, but, well, she’d be lucky to have you,” Joel says.Naughty Dog / HotoP GaminGThen Ellie says he’s “such an asshole” and gets to what she actually wants to talk about. He lied to her about Eugene and had “the same fucking look” on his face that he had when she asked about the Fireflies all those years ago. But she says she always knew, so she’s giving him one last chance to come clean. “If you lie to me again, we’re done,” she says.Then Ellie asks every question she wanted to ask on the morning Eugene died. Were there other immune people? Did raiders actually hit the Firefly base? Could they have made a cure? Did he kill the Fireflies and Marlene? For the first time, Joel gives honest answers to all of her questions, and says that making a cure would have killed Ellie, to which she says that she should have died in that hospital then. It was the purpose she felt she was missing in this fucked up world, and he took that from her. He took it from everyone.All right, so here we go. Most of what’s happened up to this point is, bar for bar, the original script. And then Pascal just...keeps talking, prattling off embellishments and clarifications in keeping with Mazin’s writing style, massacring what was once an excellent example of natural, restrained writing and conflict resolution, all so there’s no danger that the audience watching could possibly misinterpret it. Incredibly complicated characters who once spoke directly to each other without poetic flair are now spoonfeeding all the nuances to viewers like they’re in an after-school special about how to talk to your estranged family members.I’m going to type up a transcript of this interaction, bolding the dialogue that is new for the show. Take my hand, follow me.Joel: I’ll pay the price because you’re gonna turn away from me. But if somehow I had a second chance at that moment, I would do it all over again.Ellie: Because you’re selfish.Joel: Because I love you in a way you can’t understand. Maybe you never will, but if that should come, if you should ever have one of your own, well then, I hope you do a little better than me.Ellie: I don’t think I can forgive you for this...But I would like to try.Welp, glad that’s resolved. Ellie learned about the greatest betrayal of her life and is ready to try moving past it in all of five minutes, rather than taking a full year to sit with that pain before even considering talking to Joel again. Yeah, maybe at this point Ellie is just trying to resolve things with her surrogate father, and that’s less about one thing that transpired than it is everything they’ve been through, but it still feels like the show is rushing through the biggest point of tension these two face in favor of a secondary conflict.Besties, there are bars on my apartment windows put there by the building owners, and if they hadn’t been there, I cannot guarantee I would not have thrown myself out of my second-story home and suffered an inconvenient leg sprain watching this scene. In just a few additional lines, The Last of Us manages to turn the game’s best scene into one of the most weirdly condescending ones in the show, spelling out every nuance of Joel’s motivations, and explaining his distorted view of what love is with all the subtlety of a Disney Channel Original Movie. It’s not enough for Joel to boldly say he’s seen the fallout of what he’s done and would still have saved Ellie’s life, the show has to make sure you understand that he did it not because he’s a selfish bastard trying to replace one daughter with another like all the meanies who hate him say online, but because he loves her…while also quoting his newly-revealed abusive father. God, I can already hear Ellie likely quoting this “doing better” line when she makes a big decision at the end of Part II’s story in a hokey attempt to bring all of this full circle. I already hate it, HBO. It’s not too late to not have her quote an abusive cop when talking about her as-of-yet unborn child.Watching this scene feels like having an English teacher’s hand violently gripping my shoulder, hammering down every detail, and making sure I grasp how important the scene is. It’s somehow both lacking confidence in the moment to speak for itself while also feeling somewhat self-important, echoing how The Last of Us as a whole has been publicly presented in the past five years. Sony and HBO’s messaging around the franchise has been exhaustingly self-aggrandizing in recent years, as they’ve constantly marketed it as a cultural moment too important to be missed. That’s why it’s been remastered and repackaged more times than I care to count, and why we’ve reached peak Last of Us fatigue.The Last of Us has reached a point of self-important oversaturation that even I, a diehard fan, can’t justify. But while Sony’s marketing has often felt overbearingly self-important, that quality never felt reflected in the actual text. Here, however, the Last of Us show insists upon driving home the lessons it wants to teach so blatantly and clumsily that I once again find myself feeling that this adaptation was shaped by discourse, reacting to potential bad-faith (or just plain bad) responses in advance rather than blazing trails on its own. It knows this moment is important to fans who spent a whole game fearing Joel and Ellie parted on bad terms before his death, so it’s gotta make sure viewers, who only had to wait halfway through the story, know how significant it is, too, by laying the schmaltzy theatrics on real thick when understated sentimentality would’ve sufficed. Even the best moment in the game isn’t immune to the show’s worst tendencies.I’ve spent the whole season racking my brain about why Mazin chose to rewrite The Last of Us Part II’s dialogue this way, because the only explanations I can come up with are that he believes this to be an improvement on the source material or that he thinks the audience couldn’t follow the nuances of this story if they weren’t written out for them like in a middle school book report. But after seeing how the show butchers Joel and Ellie’s final talk, I don’t think his motivations matter anymore. The end result is the same. Even though HBO is stretching Part II’s story out for at least one or two more seasons, I don’t think there’s any coming back from this haughty dumbing down of the game’s dialogue. The Last of Us has already fumbled the landing before the story’s even halfway over. The show will continue, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s a failed experiment, and it’s fucking over.Now, we’re back in the present day. As Ellie walks through a rainy Seattle back to the theater where Dina and Jesse are waiting, and we’re back in the midst of her revenge tour, I have whiplash. HBO has already shown its hand. We’re at least another season away from seeing the resolution to this entire conflict, but we already know…almost everything? We know Abby killed Joel as revenge for him killing her father. We know Ellie is so hellbent on revenge (well, that’s debatable, considering the show has drained her of that drive and given it to Dina instead) because she was denied the opportunity to truly reconcile with Joel. The show has demolished so much of its narrative runway that I don’t know what the tension is supposed to be anymore. Wondering who lives and dies? Well, fucking fine. I’ll watch the show aimlessly and artlessly recount the events of the game, knowing its ending, which feels more predictable than ever, is coming in a few years.

Smitch The Unshakable Resolve of "this guy are sick" Member Apr 21, 2022 4,752 New ‘Marathon’ Info: Bungie Morale, Launch Worries And Changing Plans After a rough playtest and now plagiarism confirmation, Bungie is changing some Marathon plans and internally, things are bad. www.forbes.com Chaos has engulfed Bungie after an artist, ANTIREAL, came forward to accuse Bungie of ripping off her 2017 work as its upcoming extraction shooter Marathon was starting to take shape as early as 2018. Bungie admitted to the plagiarism, supposedly the work of one ex-artist, and promised to make things right, but the story gained traction among gaming outlets and reaction streamers alike, and it's poisoned the previous positive conversation about the aesthetic of the game. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I've spoken to some current and former employees about Bungie's excuse for the art theft, studio morale, the possibility of a delay and some very real changes when it comes to the upcoming presentation and playtesting of the game. Here's what I've learned: The public explanation for the art theft, one ex-employee taking things in 2020, is the same one being given internally at Bungie among the rank and file. Sony and Bungie legal are now sorting through this and there is unlikely to be any much new information as all of this continues to unfold. It is not clear how long an "audit" will take of the assets to remove or find any more plagiarism, as it's an expansive enough process to have Bungie not even show any footage at all in its recent livestream. Morale is in "free-fall" across all departments, and "the vibes have never been worse." Everyone has the same concerns about what happens to Bungie as a studio if Marathon bombs, which is something they absolutely cannot afford. There are not even hints or jokes about a delay from the September release date internally. With that said, it is entirely possible, if not likely, those conversations are happening privately between higher-up Sony and Bungie leadership. It's unclear what the plan is to launch the game in a "now actively hostile environment" just a few months from now, or how to turn that around. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Some changes to future plans had been made even before this new plagiarism development. Mainly as a reaction to gameplay footage and now the Closed Alpha. At the start of this month Bungie pulled the plug on its main Marathon marketing plan which was going to have a new trailer in June along with the launch of pre-orders. The whole campaign needs to be reworked now. A heavily marketed Public Beta in August may be changed into a "roadmap of public playtests" with no actual details set yet. This would align with Bungie's stated multiple opportunities to play before launch, rather than just the upcoming Beta. Marathon was originally pitched by higher-up "good old boy" Bungie leadership and as far back as five years ago devs were telling them what would and wouldn't work and were often ignored. Many have said previously that it needed to have some sort of PvE component. Click to expand... Click to shrink...   Crossing Eden Member Oct 26, 2017 58,458 It's a shame what has happened to Bungie. Since their inception every single one of their titles has had development woes and issues and that shadow has been steadily catching up to them since they left Halo, most especially when it comes to their tech debt and how much of a hinderance that must be for production. It's so strange because when you actually play Bungie games there are often few signs of the dev issues but now it's like, "Hey btw if you get this game you're gonna be pretty lost because they removed the intro campaign."  Last edited: Yesterday at 11:04 AM Maelstrom Member Apr 22, 2025 95 This sucks, for everyone. I hope their studio will be stronger after this.   Red Kong XIX Member Oct 11, 2020 13,234 They probably have to delay it.   maze001 Member Sep 18, 2024 628 Crazy thing is even if they delay 6 months that means Arc Raiders and Tarkov (Steam release) will be out by then and it will put Marathon closer to GTA6 and maybe Fairgames release dates so it may end up even worse for them.   Jagi Member May 6, 2025 43 Whatever it may be, the livestream yesterday made it insanely difficult for Sony and Bungie lawyers to create a narrative of their own. Its all in 4K: the accusation, the admittance, even the trial was online yesterday. If they could've saved face, yesterday stripped them naked of all absolution.  Vourlis Member Aug 14, 2022 5,836 United States Sometimes it's just amazing that anything gets made, ever.   MANTRA Member Feb 21, 2024 1,113 maze001 said: Crazy thing is even if they delay 6 months that means Arc Raiders and Tarkov (Steam release) will be out by then and it will put Marathon closer to GTA6 and maybe Fairgames release dates so it may end up even worse for them. Click to expand... Click to shrink... *If* the delay results in a better product I think thats a worthy trade-off imo. Miyamoto quote etc.   Mini-Me Member Oct 25, 2017 1,126 I genuinely don't know what they do with this. Any delays would need to be significant enough to add and/or re-tool a lot of content to make it more exciting and more than just a basic ass extraction game but then that puts it closer to something like GTA (unless they delay by a year or more which seems unlikely). Not delaying seems like a death sentence. Not delaying and launching it instead as an early access title or something like that also seems futile. The entire thing seems doomed to fail, especially as public sentiment online nowadays is so, so hard to turn around.   Gamer @ Heart Member Oct 26, 2017 11,418 Red Kong XIX said: They probably have to delay it. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Unless they have a magical way of generating hundreds of millions in revenue the rest of the fiscal year, then that means Bungie leadership will likely get pushed out by Sony. They have metrics to meet to stay whatever ridiculous floundering semi independent status they are in. Which is probably a good thing  IDontBeatGames ThreadMarksman - Saved Transistor's sanity twice Member Oct 29, 2017 21,030 New York MANTRA said: *If* the delay results in a better product I think thats a worthy trade-off imo. Miyamoto quote etc. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I don't disagree but I do wonder if this entire fiasco ends up sticking around Marathon like a bad cloud even if it gets delayed a few months, meaning like, I wonder if folks will choose to not actively support it even if the game is delayed a few months and gets fixed due to all of this.   ianpm31 Member Oct 27, 2017 7,397 Probably getting delayed. I don't understand Bungie at all. Just make Destiny 3 along with a single player co op project like the halo days.  Man Called Aerodynamics Member Oct 29, 2017 8,315 Everyone has the same concerns about what happens to Bungie as a studio if Marathon bombs, which is something they absolutely cannot afford. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I just don't understand how a big studio with so much history and talent gets to a place where they're betting the entire farm on this one risky project.  Truant Member Oct 28, 2017 6,914 If they play this right this might be just what this game needs.   maze001 Member Sep 18, 2024 628 Mini-Me said: I genuinely don't know what they do with this. Any delays would need to be significant enough to add and/or re-tool a lot of content to make it more exciting and more than just a basic ass extraction game but then that puts it closer to something like GTA (unless they delay by a year or more which seems unlikely). Not delaying seems like a death sentence. Not delaying and launching it instead as an early access title or something like that also seems futile. The entire thing seems doomed to fail, especially as public sentiment online nowadays is so, so hard to turn around. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Yeah, given a lot of the feedback I've heard it doesn't seem like a September > March delay would give them enough time to spice the game up beyond super basic extraction shooter. They would definitely need more time than that.   Lowrys Member Oct 25, 2017 14,650 London Jagi said: Whatever it may be, the livestream yesterday made it insanely difficult for Sony and Bungie lawyers to create a narrative of their own. Its all in 4K: the accusation, the admittance, even the trial was online yesterday. If they could've saved face, yesterday stripped them naked of all absolution. Click to expand... Click to shrink... What trial?   ElFly Member Oct 27, 2017 3,719 ianpm31 said: Probably getting delayed. I don't understand Bungie at all. Just make Destiny 3 along with a single player co op project like the halo days. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I think the cost of developing Destiny 2 constantly has scared them of single player or PvE elements it's why Marathon is strongly oriented towards PvP, cause making campaigns or tons of maps for one story event or animating NPCs is expensive. Meanwhile people are still playing Counterstrike. They want that level of non production. Maybe they can put new guns into it constantly, that's one thing they've learned to do predictably at Destiny. But that seems to be the level of investment they want to put in.  Mini-Me Member Oct 25, 2017 1,126 maze001 said: Yeah, given a lot of the feedback I've heard it doesn't seem like a Sept > March delay would give them enough time to spice the game up beyond super basic extraction shooter. They would definitely need more time than that. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Yeah I put about 8 hours into the alpha and the game just does not have much of anything going on. It feels akin to something like DMZ in COD or whatever the Battlefield extraction mode was in that it's a mostly fine but very simple extraction mode that's part of a larger package of multiplayer and single player offerings. Except in Marathon's case that's it, that's all they have. I don't think 3 extra months fixes anything. I don't even think 6 months fixes anything.   theSoularian Member Oct 25, 2017 3,942 ianpm31 said: Probably getting delayed. I don't understand Bungie at all. Just make Destiny 3 along with a single player co op project like the halo days. Click to expand... Click to shrink... If only it was that simple. A Destiny 3 would be years away.  Chumunga64 Member Jun 22, 2018 17,133 Sony should have really noticed the red flags when Microsoft, during the time they were buying everyone didn't even entertain the thought of buying the studio that gave them the franchise that prevented the xbox brand from being dead on arrival   wellpapp Member Aug 21, 2018 528 Gothenburg My gut feeling says it's going to bomb in Sony's eyes regardless.   Risev "This guy are sick" Member Oct 27, 2017 3,889 theSoularian said: If only it was that simple. A Destiny 3 would be years away. Click to expand... Click to shrink... If they started right now? It would take 5 years minimum most likely. But the wish would be that they would have started working on a Destiny 3 years ago, just like they did Destiny 2. I just don't understand why they didn't take Destiny through that same few steps. Those were Destiny's best and most successful years.  Zok310 Member Oct 25, 2017 6,019 Gamer @ Heart said: Unless they have a magical way of generating hundreds of millions in revenue the rest of the fiscal year, then that means Bungie leadership will likely get pushed out by Sony. They have metrics to meet to stay whatever ridiculous floundering semi independent status they are in. Which is probably a good thing Click to expand... Click to shrink... They got that covered with the Destiny stans, just drop a "new strike" that we already paid for into D2 and 1 billion dollars overnight.   DieH@rd Member Oct 26, 2017 12,012 Hopefully they'll pull through, D2 is great to play but it's hard to attract new players due to large amount of expansions, vaulting, and complicated UI/progression. I still play it regularly, and the upcoming expansions sound interesting. Marathon looks nice, but I'm mostly solo player...  Dekuman Member Oct 27, 2017 20,993 Sony throwing good money after bad. The whole live service push has been a boondoggle. Wiping off years of PS profits off the books.  Mr.Deadshot Member Oct 27, 2017 23,141 These mega studios need to get a grip. They need to make smaller scale games with a clear vision and focus. They can expand on that. And they fore sure need to steer away from chasing the "forever" game bullshit. Right now it feels like Marathon will be delayed for 6-12 months and then bomb anyway. It would be nice if Bungie could salvage the art and make a true Marathon 4 but we all know that won't happen in nowadays industry.  Audiblee Member Mar 14, 2025 1,461 It was in trouble before the theft was discovered. Reaction to the alpha was mid at best.   Smokey Member Oct 25, 2017 4,471 Chumunga64 said: Sony should have really noticed the red flags when Microsoft, during the time they were buying everyone didn't even entertain the thought of buying the studio that gave them the franchise that prevented the xbox brand from being dead on arrival Click to expand... Click to shrink... They did entertain it though. The only reason they didn't is because Bungie wanted to "independently publish and creatively develop our games", which MS wasn't willing to do iirc  GameAddict411 Member Oct 26, 2017 10,093 I just don't see a happy ending for the studio and the victims in the end will be all the devs. We all know all the shitty executives will get golden parachutes.   super-famicom Avenger Oct 26, 2017 30,483 Man Called Aerodynamics said: I just don't understand how a big studio with so much history and talent gets to a place where they're betting the entire farm on this one risky project. Click to expand... Click to shrink... It's not the same Bungie that existed 15+ years ago. Upper management changed, along with what they valued and wanted to focus on. Other employees changed too.  Sydle Member Oct 27, 2017 4,576 It's crazy to me that they didn't start on Destiny 3. If the formula was tuned a bit, I feel like it has an incredibly high shot of being another cash cow. Chumunga64 said: Sony should have really noticed the red flags when Microsoft, during the time they were buying everyone didn't even entertain the thought of buying the studio that gave them the franchise that prevented the xbox brand from being dead on arrival Click to expand... Click to shrink... Isn't the rumor that Microsoft was in talks, but thought the asking price was too high? With the Xbox division's increasing focus on their studios having to each be financially healthy I'm not sure Bungie would have been better off at MS. AAA development is so insanely expensive now that it demands to be run like any other business with a ton of cash at stake. Ultimately, it seems like Bungie leadership needs a shakeup.  Jarmel The Jackrabbit Always Wins Member Oct 25, 2017 22,658 New York Mini-Me said: Yeah I put about 8 hours into the alpha and the game just does not have much of anything going on. It feels akin to something like DMZ in COD or whatever the Battlefield extraction mode was in that it's a mostly fine but very simple extraction mode that's part of a larger package of multiplayer and single player offerings. Except in Marathon's case that's it, that's all they have. I don't think 3 extra months fixes anything. I don't even think 6 months fixes anything. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I'm thinking full year delay.   Billfisto Member Oct 30, 2017 17,859 Canada I'm livid that they tacked the Marathon name onto this for basically no reason and now it's absolutely poisoning it. We're never going to get a "proper" Marathon sequel because this entire ill-advised excursion has made the name so toxic that they'll never be able to justify using it again to the money people, even if they wanted to.  Tobor Died as he lived: wrong about Doritos Member Oct 25, 2017 34,006 A new actual Marathon game, or even a full remake, would have been a big deal and had lots of people talking about Bungie being back. But no, let's do an extraction shooter.  Killer Member Oct 27, 2017 2,961 Bungie's fate hang on Marathon. That really grim. People from the other thread said if it bombed Bungie will be fine   Kyuuji The Favonius Fox Member Nov 8, 2017 38,287 Whole situation is shit. It was troubling enough following the feedback from the alpha but art theft at the scale found, in a game sold and hyped on its aesthetic, is a disaster. I don't know how you get back to good will on that, let alone in 4 months. Obviously it has to start with making the situation with Antireal right, but past that it still feels like a mammoth task with where general sentiment is at after it all. This is as someone who loved the alpha and was completely sold on the game. I still can't get my head around not having had Destiny 3 being developed in the background to baton-pass to following the conclusion of The Final Shape.  DieH@rd Member Oct 26, 2017 12,012 Sydle said: It's crazy to me that they didn't start on Destiny 3. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Destiny 2 was a mandate from Activision, but IMO, that was just just another in a row of expansions. I don't think D3 is coming, but they need better way to onboard new players.  Steamy Manatee ▲ Legend ▲ Member Oct 18, 2022 2,949 Bungie's legal team is in deep trouble to say the least. They will have to audit every single texture in the game in probably less than two weeks while getting absolutely railed by Sony management who will intervene and reprimand them. Direction at Bungie should definitely use this is a (great) excuse to delay the game. But also if the marketing plan is being reworked from scratch mid-May, I think this means the game is definitely getting delayed. Either way, I feel so bad for the team. I know the feeling of working on something you just know it's not going to work out well. The odds of success were stacked against them, now it feels like it is almost impossible unless they delay to Q1 2026 before GTA VI  Last edited: Yesterday at 11:35 AM 03-AALIYAH Member Jul 21, 2023 1,367 ianpm31 said: I don't understand Bungie at all. Just make Destiny 3 along with a single player co op project like the halo days. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Not an expert, but I don't understand why they didn't choose to pursue that option years ago as Destiny seems to still have a large fanbase ?   DrScruffleton Member Oct 26, 2017 14,856 How do you release, let alone on time, after the art situation? Just try to pay off the artist as quickly as possible?   artsi Member Oct 26, 2017 3,368 Finland I hope I'm wrong but my feeling is that Bungie is done already. This game will be the final nail in the coffin.   Mifec Member Oct 25, 2017 19,347 Smokey said: They did entertain it though. The only reason they didn't is because Bungie wanted to "independently publish and creatively develop our games", which MS wasn't willing to do iirc Click to expand... Click to shrink... They would only pay 2bil max and wanted exclusivity was the rumor yeah. Well once this flops and they're reassigned there goes the exclusivity too.  ElFly Member Oct 27, 2017 3,719 Killer said: Bungie's fate hang on Marathon. That really grim. People from the other thread said if it bombed Bungie will be fine Click to expand... Click to shrink... to be fair, they always say this to make the employees work extra hours and then they fire them anyway  Bardeh Member Jun 15, 2018 3,827 I'm amazed that a studio the size and pedigree of Bungie, after 5+ years of development, isn't more confident in the direction of this project. The bones and foundation should be absolutely rock solid by now. They should be immutable. These final months should be 'betas' that are stress tests and marketing tools (like ARC Raiders recent test was, to huge success) to build up to release as final tweaks and bugfixes are made. Instead the feedback from the Alpha seems to have shaken them and thrown things into disarray, even before the plagiarism shitshow made things even worse. It really looks like the whole project has been absolutely terribly managed, and a whole lot of money and time spent on something that still doesn't quite know what it wants to be. Things aren't looking good.  Man Called Aerodynamics Member Oct 29, 2017 8,315 Jarmel said: I'm thinking full year delay. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Perfect, it can release once Arc Raiders is already well entrenched.   Mini-Me Member Oct 25, 2017 1,126 Jarmel said: I'm thinking full year delay. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Mhm, they need a lot of time to get away from the discourse and add in a ton of extra content. But a year is a massive delay and I doubt it gets that   Lampa Member Feb 13, 2018 4,003 I dunno, I don't think they can delay it. They probably should, but at some point a product has to come out from Bungie and we know they have a lot of them in development, They have to start making money, Destiny certainly won't be carrying all those projects in development anymore.   Jarmel The Jackrabbit Always Wins Member Oct 25, 2017 22,658 New York Man Called Aerodynamics said: Perfect, it can release once Arc Raiders is already well entrenched. Click to expand... Click to shrink... If they can't outshine Arc Raiders then they were cooked anyway. It's not like they're first to market regardless and Tarkov is the market leader. Mini-Me said: Mhm, they need a lot of time to get away from the discourse and add in a ton of extra content. But a year is a massive delay and I doubt it gets that Click to expand... Click to shrink... 6 months pushes it right into GTA. 9 is possibly but GTA Online might be really ramping around then. It's not how much time the game needs but GTA looming in the background.   Lampa Member Feb 13, 2018 4,003 Bardeh said: I'm amazed that a studio the size and pedigree of Bungie, after 5+ years of development, isn't more confident in the direction of this project Click to expand... Click to shrink... It was rebooted last year or so, when they replaced the director and some other top people on the project.   IMCaprica Member Aug 1, 2019 10,982 Should we have taken it as a sign that the project that was reported on as being the studio's favorite (Gummy Bears) was the one that got that team spun-out into their own PlayStation studio away from Bungie? Billfisto said: I'm livid that they tacked the Marathon name onto this for basically no reason and now it's absolutely poisoning it. We're never going to get a "proper" Marathon sequel because this entire ill-advised excursion has made the name so toxic that they'll never be able to justify using it again to the money people, even if they wanted to. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Tobor said: A new actual Marathon game, or even a full remake, would have been a big deal and had lots of people talking about Bungie being back. But no, let's do an extraction shooter. Click to expand... Click to shrink... What would honest expectations for that game be, given that Bungie as a studio hasn't made a game like that in 15 years?  

Elden Ring Nightreign may look familiar in many ways, but FromSoftware’s stand-alone multiplayer spinoff of Elden Ring will play differently thanks to its battle-royale-inspired map and a roster of playable characters. Unlike the blank-slate, highly customizable characters of the original Elden Ring, the playable heroes of Nightreign — known as Nightfarers — are predefined characters with class roles — think rogues, sorcerers, barbarians, archers, and mages. There will be eight confirmed Nightfarers in Elden Ring Nightreign. Here’s a guide to everything we know about all Nightreign’s character classes announced so far plus gameplay video of them in action. We’ll update this guide as more information becomes available. Duchess The Duchess is “a nimble fighter who specializes in stealth and prefers daggers,” according to her official description. She’s essentially the rogue of the group, a speedy glass cannon who fights with quick, up-close slashes, and can provide crucial combat support to her team. If you’re a dexterity-focused Elden Ring player, she’s your Nightfarer. Passive Ability Magnificent Poise: Dodge and attack swiftly with reduced stamina cost. Allows up to two consecutive evasive actions. Character Skill Restage: Reapply the last few seconds of team damage to enemies. Ultimate Art Finale: Obscure nearby allies to hide from foes. Enemies lose track of the caster (and her allies), wandering aimlessly or becoming prone to leaving themselves vulnerable. Basically, it’s an invisibility spell. Guardian The Guardian is a “pinionfolk captain” — a flying birdman, in other words — who is skilled in offense and defense, and who prefers halberds, poking enemies from behind the cover of a heavy shield. Passive Ability Steel Guard: Plants his feet and braces with his shield raised for a more powerful guard. Greatly improves guard boost, but prevents running while holding up shield. Character skill Whirlwind: Guardian beats his wings to summon a cyclone that draws in enemies, knocking them off their feet. Whirlwind can be charged to enlarge its range and can repel light projectiles Ultimate Art Wings of Salvation: Dive from above to attack a large area and protect allies from damage. While in the air, Guardian can move briefly. Ironeye Iron Eye is an archer class with “split-second judgment and pinpoint accuracy.” If you like bows (and giant bows), Iron Eye’s your guy. Passive Ability Eagle Eye: His keen observation increases drops from downed enemies — allies get the same boost. Character Skill Marking: Marks enemies to create a temporary weak point. Iron Eye cuts his foe with a dagger, creating a temporary weak point. Inflicting damage on that weak point to damage and stagger foes. Damaging the weak point extends its duration. Ultimate Art Single Shot: Shoots a supersonic arrow that pierces any defense. Single Shot pierces all types of enemies, terrain, and structures. Raider Raider is a “powerful sea-farer who favors enormous weapons.” If you like walking around with a giant sword, axe, or hammer, and playing offense, you’re a Raider. Passive Ability Fighter’s Resolve: Taking damage boosts the potency of Raider’s character skill, Retaliate. He cannot be knocked down while using it, and will stay in the fight with a sliver of HP even after taking heavy damage. Character Skill Retaliate: Assume a defensive posture that reduces incoming damage and unleash a vigorous punch that can stagger large enemies. Ultimate Art Totem Stela: Summons a giant tombstone that deals damage, boosts nearby allies, and can be climbed and used as a platform. The tombstone radiates a protective aura, boosting strength of nearby allies, and blocking arrows. Recluse Keep your distance as the Recluse, a witch of the deep forest who deftly wields ancient sorceries. Elden Ring players who focus on intelligence builds will gravitate toward the Recluse. Passive Ability Elemental Defense: Collect elemental residues to replenish FP, and grant allies residues of specific elemental affinities. Character Skill Magic Cocktail: Combine elemental resides into different powerful spells. Collect the affinity residues of targets to unleash an affinity-exploiting magic cocktail. Complex affinity combinations create more powerful spells. Ultimate Art Soulblood Song: Brand foes with temporary blood sigils that increase damage taken by enemies. Those sigils also restore the HP and FP of caster. Wylder The Wylder is your classic all-rounder, with well-balanced abilities and easy-to-handle skills. Probably a good starting point in Nightreign before specializing. Passive Ability Sixth Sense: Cheat death a single time. Can be restored by dying or passing through a Site of Grace. Character Skill Claw Shot: Launch a grappling claw to rope in foes or move swiftly. Only certain enemies can be pulled in with Claw Shot, but it’s effective at breaking guard. Ultimate Art Onslaught Stake: A powerful single attack that launches an iron stake with a great explosion. Executor Official details on the Executor Nightfarer are forthcoming, but the class appears to borrow from FromSoftware’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, with a focus on deflection and Faith-based skills. Revenant We also don’t know much about the Revenant, but it appears to fill the role of healer.

Monster Closet Games is a small studio with big ambitions – and the experience to match. Most of the core team has been in the industry for 20-plus years, and they’ve worked on a number of gaming’s biggest franchises, from Assassin’s Creed and Prince of Persia to Far Cry and Halo. They’re currently developing an online multiplayer title codenamed Project Shrine, with plans to launch on PC and current-gen consoles.“High-level, it’s a third-person co-op dungeon raider,” says Monster Closet CEO Graeme Jennings. “You and your group get together, build synergies between your characters, and raid dungeons for treasure. It’s about working together as a team.”Teamwork is at the heart of Monster Closet’s approach to game development, and the studio plans to stay tight-knit and focused. “I’d rather have 40–50 developers who love working together, who love the way we work, and who build great games because of that,” says Jennings. “I have a genuine belief that great teams, with the right tools, can build great games.”Monster Closet’s artists and developers are used to working with a powerful tech stack of proprietary solutions. Starting over from scratch meant this wasn’t an option, so in the first few months, the team carefully curated a toolchain that would scale with their ambitions.For Project Shrine, Monster Closet is accelerating production with Unity’s engine-agnostic DevOps solutions and automations, including Unity Version Control for source control and Backtrace for error tracking. We interviewed Monster Closet’s lead online programmer, Patrice Beauvais, and CTO, Thomas Félix, to learn about what they’ve been creating and how they built a tech stack designed to scale.What did you consider when you started building your tech stack?Thomas Félix: A few of us have had different experiences with live games, and we wanted to have a solid DevOps foundation that could support that in the long term. Even though GAAS [games as a service] is not at the core of our game, we wanted to make sure we had a powerful tech stack that would help us release and iterate quickly.We all had experience with Perforce, but we’re not necessarily big fans – it works well enough, but we had been doing things that weren’t really meant to be done with it. We were also looking at Git as a solution, but then we found Unity Version Control.On paper, Unity Version Control mixed the great approach you get with something like Git, but also something much more powerful like Perforce to manage data. We were seduced by Unity Version Control’s task branch workflows; after about six months of evaluations, we decided to give it a try. At that time, we were around six or seven people. Because the team was growing slowly, it was a nice, smooth ramp-up. We’re now at around 43 team members, and so far, so good.What was your process for testing this version control system?Patrice Beauvais: For us on the tech side, we didn’t want to have half our project on Git and half on Perforce. We know how much of a burden it is to have to use and maintain two different source code management tools – it’s common with live service games where the online systems and game data aren’t necessarily fully integrated.And a team of your size just couldn’t support that type of approach – the fact that Unity Version Control can facilitate both of those workflows is helpful?Patrice Beauvais: Totally.What kinds of problems have you encountered previously using two different version control systems?Thomas Félix: In game development, you always need to build customizations for the tools you use, no matter how good they are. Unity Version Control is a great example – even though it works well, we still found ways we wanted to tailor it to our workflows. If you have to support two source control systems, you double that work, which is always painful. Someone who’s good with Git might not be as familiar with Perforce, and vice versa. Training people takes twice as long.Patrice Beauvais: For me, the worst part is integrating data between two different version control systems. If you’re using Perforce but your data library is stored in Git, that data will need to go back into Perforce, so the two need a way to interface. Even though there are many solutions, these interactions aren’t really meant to happen, and sometimes you lose the project history. A bigger team can make it work, but I’m not going to spend six months building a solution to migrate data from Git to Perforce.It sounds like your team has used many different version control systems over the years. What are the benefits and challenges of some of the solutions you’ve explored?Thomas Félix: Let’s start with Perforce – it’s super resilient, it manages data very well, and it’s not that complex for nontechnical team members. You don’t find that anywhere else, really, except with Unity Version Control. On the other hand, the big monorepos you see in Perforce aren’t really suitable for game development – fast integration, multiple branches, that kind of thing. You can manage with Perforce, but it’s far from ideal, especially if you want to build a robust CI/CD pipeline.Patrice Beauvais: Git’s UI is great for programmers, but I probably wouldn’t ask an artist to work with it. It’s not ideal for managing large files and data, and it doesn’t support locks natively very well, yet.Thomas Félix: Unity Version Control is a better solution in many regards – the UI is tailored for content creators, so it’s great for usability. We see Unity Version Control as the perfect marriage of Git and Perforce.Programmers usually want to be in Git, and you can get pretty much the same workflows in Unity Version Control. For nontechnical content creators, it’s easy to submit their data, which solves one of the biggest problems teams run into with source control.Data loss is the worst thing that can happen to us. Code is easy to handle in every source control solution, but data is always tricky. We cannot afford to lose work, and each mistake made on the data side means paying for it a thousand times later on. We try to be very, very careful with that. With Unity Version Control, it’s a win for both our programmers and content creators.Do you have any best practices you can recommend for maintaining build integrity?Thomas Félix: For a small company like ours starting out, we knew we couldn’t afford to have broken builds because we submitted bad data or code to the main branch.With Unity Version Control, we never work in the main branch. We’re always in control of it, it’s always stable, and the mergebot actually does most of that work for us. That really resonated with us when we were trying it out, and it’s one of the first things we put in place, even when we were just five people working on the main build. It’s worked really well: The main branch is almost never down, and it’s been like that for almost two years now.How does Unity Version Control handle speed when working with large files and switching between branches and workspaces?Thomas Félix: In terms of task branches and switching back and forth, that works well, too. It takes a bit of time for people to get used to this workflow – task branches are a new concept to many people, and it’s maybe not as fluent immediately for artists as it is for programmers.That being said, every week – not every day – we do catch small problems through mergebots and our CI/CD processes, but they never enter the main branch or break the build. It takes a bit of time to get used to, but working in one branch will always be quicker than working across two – not by much, but if you step back and look at your pipeline as a whole, you start to realize it’s a much, much better way of working. At least for us, as a small-to-medium-sized company, it’s perfect.So there’s a culture and learning change you have to make to move to continuous deployment, but it seems like you’re saying you’ve already caught a lot of bugs or other potential issues before they even hit main.Thomas Félix: Totally. I would never go back to one-branch development. A team like us just can’t afford to spend days debugging or fixing problems that hit main.When we interviewed Apocalypse Studios, they discussed the “culture shift” that task branch workflows can require. They were using Perforce before Unity Version Control and talked a lot about branches versus streams. What’s your take on that?Thomas Félix: Branches and streams are quite different to me. If Unity Version Control didn’t exist, we could probably build something around streams and try to get the same thing going, but it would be complex and error-prone. In Unity Version Control, it’s much easier and much safer, because branching is what it’s built for.In Perforce, streams are the equivalent of tasks. If you’re super technical, you can make it work, but I would never put that in the hands of artists. With Unity Version Control, currently we have more than 1,000 branches – most of them are archived, and we have about 10–15 open at any given time. I’m not sure I’d like to have 1,000 project branches in Perforce.What challenges do you anticipate as you move further along in development? What challenges have you faced already?Patrice Beauvais: As we mentioned, people aren’t immediately used to the task branch way of working. For artists, it’s really new to them, so we’re careful to explain how it works and why we’re doing it.Thomas Félix: That’s true. People weren’t resistant to it or anything, but it’s definitely a cultural switch. Anyone looking to switch to Unity Version Control, like we did, needs to take that into account. It’s a better way of working, but you have to be willing to think outside the box. We started fresh, from pretty much nothing – no office, no infrastructure, and a very small team – so it was a little easier for us than it might be for other studios. Building your infrastructure in the cloud sounds cool, but it comes with challenges in terms of iteration time, costs, setup, security…. In the end it’s a win, but it took us some time to get a reliable workflow up and running.You’re also using another of Unity’s engine-agnostic solutions: our verified solutions partner, Backtrace. Can you tell us what your error tracking pipeline looks like?Thomas Félix: We use Backtrace to track every single bug in most of our applications – the first ones, obviously, being the game and the Editor. We mentioned before that we built some tools around Unity Version Control – Backtrace is integrated there, too.It didn’t take long to set it up, and it gave us access to some top-class tools, dashboards, and workflows. We were able to get a lot of the things we had in place at previous companies up and running pretty easily. After being operational for around six months, we already had visibility on all the crashes in the game, the Editor, and our tools. It wasn’t something I expected to get so early when starting a new studio, to be honest.Patrice Beauvais: It’s a super good tool. At Ubisoft, I worked on a proprietary solution like Backtrace for two or three years. Backtrace is really feature-forward – it’s even faster than what I was working on, and was easy to implement. Again, we did add our own customizations for custom data, and worked to integrate it with our server, which is on Linux.Thomas Félix: We were quite impressed by the time it took to set up Backtrace. Two or three days and we were already receiving crashes, so we decided to move forward.What did you do to ensure the process of implementing Unity Version Control went smoothly?We’ve shipped a lot of big games, and we try to use that experience to think about how we can apply it in new contexts. That’s why we ended up going with Unity Version Control, and with Backtrace as well. The tricky part is making sure we don’t invent problems we don’t have – we’re not a 1,000-person studio anymore!We’re always trying to find a balance between how we leverage our experience while reminding ourselves that we’re not trying to build the next big AAA game. We still want to make something great, and to do that, we need the best workflows – and Unity Version Control fits perfectly.What was your process for testing this version control system?Thomas Félix: The tricky part was making sure we could put it in the hands of artists, both in terms of the UX and data integrity. We worked with several artists on the team to make sure they understood how to use it. It was really important to us to nail data management for our project. The more people we added to the team, the better the feedback we got – people were happy, and we knew we were onto something.How are you using Unity Version Control’s Gluon workflow for artists?Thomas Félix: We do use Gluon, but for something else, what we call the raw data – data that’s not tied to the engine. Let’s say you’re an artist and you’re modeling a mesh: You’re using the raw data, the source file, in something like Blender. This doesn’t have to reach the engine; only the data you export from it does. This data is managed in a task branch, but we manage the source files in Gluon.These files can be really heavy – character artists using tools like Zbrush can generate files that are 2, 3, 4 GB per asset, if not more. You don’t want programmers having to sync 1 TB worth of original character meshes, so we manage those in Gluon using partial workspaces. Character artists only synchronize character files, modelers will only synchronize model files, and it’s the same for audio, textures, and so on. It’s all stored in a separate repository, away from the task branch workflow.So, to recap, you’re using Gluon for scenarios where you’re working with huge files so someone doesn’t have to download the whole repo – they can just use a partial workspace.Thomas Félix: Exactly. It’s an archived version of the original data, so we don’t use task branches for that. We don’t need to have a task branch for those materials, as long as creators submit their latest work every once in a while.What advice do you have for smaller studios looking to scale up and tackle ambitious projects, like you’re doing?Thomas Félix: That’s a good question. From day one, you need to know where you want to go. For us, we started with a small team, and we knew we wanted to grow, but we didn’t want to scale to 1,000 employees – even 200 isn’t our goal. We made many decisions – decisions that we’re really happy with! – that we might not have made if we had different ambitions.Building your infra in the cloud does make it easy to scale – just be careful, because it can cost you an arm and a leg. Always try to be in control of your workflow. If something doesn’t work, do the work to understand why. Make sure you have strong foundations, basically.Looking to optimize your game development pipeline? Get started with Unity DevOps, built to work with any engine.