I watched some let’s-plays of the “Lost Levels” from the remaster, the Jackson Party is most interesting of the three, but still in such an unfinished state that it’s hard to see how much it would have improved the story. It would come at a somewhat awkward point in the story, a deep flashback when the core drama has already climaxed. But then we get the first kiss between Ellie and Dina, which is its own emotional climax and the best scene of the game imo. Creating that cinematic moment in a gameplay format would have been a challenge, and to some extent maybe lessen the impact because it is an intensely sentimental/nostalgic memory for Ellie. The way it is presented in the final cut - cinematically - lends it a dreamlike quality that works perfectly imo, so I’m not so disappointed this level was cut. The other two, Sewers and Boar Hunt, seem to be fairly redundant, frankly. What I was much more curious for were the rumored “infiltration” levels where Abby supposedly would go into Jackson searching for Joel at the game’s beginning. That could have been really cool.
this is probably why I'll pick up the remaster eventually for 15 bucks, the commentary tracks! Theoretically if it goes on sale would that 15 dollars be discounted as well? I'd love to get this down to five bucks to upgrade (and commentary tracks!)
15 dollars Canadian for me to upgrade so I'm curious if it'll get even cheaper when the ps5 version goes on sale at a discount in a few months. Anyway Whole 2 hour making of Last of Us Part II documentary!
Catherine O'Hara has been cast for season 2. What role she will have hasn't been released but people are speculating it is the prophet from the second game.
TLOU2 game related spoiler Spoiler That would be interesting because in the game we never meet her and she's supposed dead before the events of the game, right?
Spoiler Yep. In the game all we hear are some things people say about her and I believe we ruin into a couple paintings of her. Other than that that's it. The Prophet would probably be one of the first characters that Mazin would want to expand upon though as there would be some really interesting storytelling there that the games barely touched upon. If she does end up playing that character though it will be interesting to see what structure the show has as that part wasn't even touched upon until people were well into the game.
ah, that's an idea. I thought maybe she was going to be a female-version of Jeffrey Wright's LoU2 character Isaac but that makes way more sense. As for Wright, all he'll say now is "Anything is possible. We shall see." (it's totally going to be him)
So for the past say three hours or so I played through the "lost levels" of TLOU2 and then watched the Grounded documentary. The deleted levels were all right; you get why they were omitted in the first place. But that documentary is a MUST watch for anyone who is a fan of the game as well as the LA show. Just about two hours featuring interviews with the cast and crew, raw footage of the Naughty Dog studios participating in crunch-time meetings, the big game shows with leadership's reaction, etc. Pretty much everything you could think of is covered in this doc. Such as: Spoiler: Game and show spoilers Troy Baker talking about how he first felt about Joel's death (you even get to see the Mo-Cap performance of the actors), Ashley talking about playing Ellie's mother in the show, the leak of raw TLOU2 footage in advance of the game's release in 2020, and how the pandemic affected the company's long standing culture overall. You get emotions from the crew that you don't normally get from docs like these; such as the female writer who took it personally when critics were suggesting that the game "promoted violence against women". It was all just smh considering how many women contributed to the game's script and design but also were among the actual cast. And I couldn't even believe how the game's raw levels had been leaked in the months before its release; and how the critics were already hating on it well before they got the chance to actually play it.
Isabella Merced (Dina) binge played Last of Us Part II in a weekend! Which puts her ahead of Pedro and Bella Merced described how she used to stay up until 4:00 AM gaming on her ex’s console every night. “So, I have a very unhealthy obsession with video games, and I told myself I wouldn’t get a PS5,” she explained. However, when she learned that the show’s creators wanted to talk to her, she decided she needed some preparation. “I had already watched the show, and so I went to my friend’s house, and I played [The Last of Us 2] all in one weekend on the PS5,” said Merced. “It was amazing. It did 25 hours of gameplay. So, I really liked the second game, but I haven’t played the first game yet.”
I know how most people feel about reaction videos in this forum (and for the most part I can't blame them), but I just thought I'd share this one that I'd recently come across for the TLOU: Left Behind game. It's being played by Anna Demetriou, who was the official English VA for Sophia in the A Plague Tale games. Spoiler
It's funny just recently a well known leaker said something about the filming of season 2 that could have given significant hints to the structure that season 2 will have. Well HBO today came in and said that that rumor was bullocks. I usually think that studios should just ignore these leakers because all acknowledging those people does is convince more people to get into the rumor mill game. But in this situation I like the fact that they did it because although the leaker didn't 100% spell it out anyone who has played part 2 would have an idea about what he said if true would mean for season 2. So in this situation I think it's good that HBO stepped in and put a stop to that rumor. The rumor was Spoiler That Pascal had already wrapped filming for the season even though filming has only been going on for about a month. If that rumor was true most people who are familiar with part 2 would have a good idea what that would likely mean for the structure of the season. HBO stepped in and said no he isn't finished filming season 2.
About that there is the notion that Spoiler Pedro will be filming Fantastic Four in the summer. So they could have Joel's early scenes done but he's "not finished" due to the probable multiple flashbacks that Joel has
Dina better spend five minutes telling Ellie how to turn on a generator or it's not true to the source
The generator part is trivial, but as I've said in an earlier post, if Dina doesn't at some point discuss her Jewish heritage with Ellie, I'll certainly be disappointed.
Spoiler It will be interesting to see how the show handles Days 1 and 2 of Ellie's Seattle section (but especially Day 1). As that section of the game was mainly just Ellie and Dina walking around exploring the city and talking to each other. Which probably would get boring relatively quickly in the TV show medium. Spoiler .
Jeffrey Wright has just been confirmed to reprise his role as Isaac. Spoiler Chances are now we see flashback episodes of Abby going to Seattle.
True but there were a lot of people saying that Isaac probably wouldn't appear until season 3 as Spoiler Isaac isn't in the game until Abby's section of the game. Spoiler With him now being confirmed for season 2 it means that the games structure likely will be switched up a bit for the show.
