Potsy Gaming and Art

31/10/2024

For all those looking for the DYED HARD Metal Cover (normal price $99.99), DCBS has it for $69.99 currently... That's a steal!

From the creator of Junior High Horrors, X-Liefelds, and The Mango Lorian comes a bloody tale of the Easter Bunny trying to enjoy a simple vacation, only to find out that an evil group of mercenaries have taken his destination and all its visitors hostage. Now it's up to Peter Cottontail to return t...

30/11/2022

So true.

One day.

18/11/2020

So I was thinking about Mass Effect this morning, and thought Mass Effect 2, you cloned Shepherd bat the beginning of the game, so what if in the next iteration, they cloned Shepherd 600 years in the future in the Andromeda cluster?

Something threatens the new galaxy so much that only one person (since they could be male or female) would be able to stop it, after building a crew, gaining their buy-in and having to save or destroy everyone, again?

Yea, it'd basically be the same plot as 2, except he would not have any friends, and have to build the paragon or renegade tiers again. It would also allow for new aliens to be the menaces and really allow the creators to explore, while still allowing them to say that Shepherd's story ended, and this is a new Shepherd.

23/09/2020

If this is true, someone is finally listening to me!

https://www.gamesradar.com/amp/the-original-metal-gear-solid-is-reportedly-getting-a-ps5-exclusive-remake/

And the three successive sequels could be getting remasters.

06/07/2020

So, I completed Last of Us Part II last night and I will give my thoughts, including my attempting to understand people's hate because of it.

Let's talk about the positives first:

The game is not just gorgeous, it has stretched the PS4 to it's absolute limits, and this is in terms of sound, presentation, graphics, physics, mood, lighting, everything. This game does the same thing the first one did for the PS3 with the PS4.

The acting in the game not only deserves top gaming awards, but top entertainment industry awards. The performances, emotion, determination, nothing like this has been accomplished in a game before. Sorry Kojima fans (for which I am one), this took everything Hideo had done in his 30+ year career and says "hold my beer."

Now, let's discuss the story (SPOILERS):

The story is done in a very Taratino-esque way, starting near the 70% mark, and filling the story in with Bendis style (for comic fans) flashbacks that if it had just started there would not work. You start with meat and potatoes and eat the appetizers later.

The first half of the game is about Ellie seeking out revenge on a group of wolves (the WLF) who straight up take the Began killing of Glenn and turn it up a notch as they murder the character you grew to love, Joel. Ellie starts finding them one by one and with the help of three of the people she's closest to, kills them all...except Abby. Abby has Joel's brother Tommy dead to rights, and then the game does something unexpected...it makes you take the role of Abby.

As Abby, you do the same as Ellie, scavenging, caring, and plotting your way to get to her former boyfriend, Owen, who's impregnated a woman named Mel, but you see that Owen had to leave Abby because she NEEDED revenge on Joel. It was the only thing that gave her purpose.

Abby gets saved by a transboy Lev and his sister, and Abby starts realizing, much like Owen, that People matter most, not who they are or their affiliations...that is, until you are forced to kill EVERYONE in your path because your own people want to murder all the religious followers, for which Lev was kicked out for not wanting to be a wife, he wanted to be a boy.

Abby makes her way back to where Owen and Mel are waiting, only to find them dead (a scene you played out as Ellie) even though the dead dog Alice was the heart wrenching one. This is where you get to have the showdown between Abby and Ellie, and you aren't playing as Ellie, you are Abby, and it ends in a unsettling way of Abby telling Ellie "if I ever see you again I'll kill you.

That isn't the end, though, as the game forces a drawn out "happy Ellie" moment, and then a "happy Abby" moment, only to lead to another confrontation that felt like it dragged on like Metal Gear Solid 4's last three hours.

I won't spoil the end because I want to talk about the area where people "hate" this game.

The Hate:

People Hate that Abby killed Joel. Particularly that they killed him so early on. More Troy Baker in this role, and more time with Joel would have made it mean more, but I get it. What I still don't get is why Joel would ever just tell the Wolves who he was. That's the part people don't get and I'm one of them. Joel after all this time, no matter how soft he's gotten, would never let his guard down.

People Hate that you play as a trans-character. I don't mind this, they didn't make it blatantly obvious until the odd s*x scene, and it also was jarring to have Abby denounce her people for Lev because he was "her people." I've met women the size of Abby, so that body type even if she wasn't trans was okay with me. Her dad and Owen both accepted her for who she was, and in the military group of wolves, they seemed to as well. The part of the story that I think was supposed to gain empathy was Lev didn't want to be Lily, and wanted to be a boy. The Seraphites wanted him to be a vessel of procreation, something that if he loves as a boy, he can't do, so it leaves a lot of other questions considering in a post apocalyptic world, is procreation important to everyone, or is it okay to live how you'd like? Again, THIS factor didn't matter as much to me as it seems to be mattering to the hidden faces of internet trolls.

Things I didn't like:

I didn't like that Tommy survived the gunshot to the head.

I didn't like playing as Abby in an attempt to lengthen the game and make me care about a character that meant nothing to me at the beginning. I still didn't care as much about Abby as I did about her father, Alice the dog, or even Lev. I would assume Lev will be the main if they make a LOU3.

I didn't like the second end after the initial showdown. Maybe as DLC but I felt the leaving Ellie and Dina was a perfect ending. Adding a whole new faction that had no stance prior seemed forced and done just to give the player a chance to fight as Ellie in the finale. And the very end with her returning to an empty home is what she deserved.

Overall, I'm glad I played it, I'm glad I finished it, and the pedigree of Naughty Dog really made this stand out, but the flawed ending fight just felt off to me until Ellie returned to an empty home. Revenge isn't love, and it destroys.

Some will disagree, but but this was not their best effort in delivery, while it was easily their best effort in the presentation.

25/06/2020

I am now at the halfway point of Last of Us Part II and so far it is everything I expected.

Unfortunately, for the rollercoaster this is, I know I am now at the point the game goes "bad." It does lead to a serious question though...
SPOILERS POSSIBLE
When you take over playing as Abby, you first wonder what her motivations are at the beginning. It doesn't take long after taking over her character to know what made her so cold and heartless to Joel.

You see, Abby saw her dead father on the floor as Joel made that guy wrenching decision at the end of the first game. Abby's father was a genuine man, realizing it was his duty to save the world, rather than think about Ellie as a person, think of her as the cure. So the game really thinks about THIS question:

What happens to the families of the "villains" of games, specifically when the morality doesn't exactly make them a "villain?"

When you take over as Abby through the game and play her flashbacks, you are seeing it from the other perspective...her well-respected father having to make the moral decision, and the aftermath of Joel's selfish decision.

Now, did Joel deserve the bludgeoning of a golf club splattering his brains all over a ski lodge? No, that's something only a sociopath would do, right? That's the question, the dilemma, and I am thinking that's what everyone is complaining about.

Naughty Dog is the type of developer that wants you to CARE about the characters, and the placement of Joel's demise so early on makes it very difficult to FEEL for her, even when you find out that her life was turned upside down by his decision.

I hope I am wrong as I will be powering through, but I currently understand the disgust of playing as Abby, not for a company pushing politics, but mainly because her behavior after Joel saved her earlier should have bought some credit, but she turned on him instantly.

It also goes against the code set by the first game that Tommy and Joel would ever say who they were to a group of unknowns. They wouldn't let that guard down 20 some years after the pandemic broke out, but that's an irk for another day.

Agree or not, be respectful in the comments and let's start a discussion.