zupertramp

Big question for me is, uh, why doesn't it have it and why are there no plans for it? That's a pretty essential feature if you ask me.

@ShadowofSparta I'd respond by saying there's a real difference between NPCs not speaking Elvish (when they could be) and asking people to pay up for gun sounds in COD. Like, again, Elvish - not exactly necessary. In the same way that it isn't necessary for everyone to be speaking French in The Last Duel, or Comanche in Prey.

But to answer your question if I find the bundles of any game to be gallingly nickel and dime I either buy the cheapest bundle or I just don't buy it at all. It's fairly easy not to play their game, both literally and figuratively.

I'm not so much defending this as I am registering my surprise at how up in arms everyone has gotten over this. It's VO work for NPCs in a game no one in this thread was gonna buy anyway.

@Jaz007 @Korgon yeah I was fairly certain even when posting those examples weren't great comparisons (but then neither is the Capcom example) and i'd also agree this decision is a bit nickel-and-dime-like. So I'll acknowledge some level of eye-rolling is a little warranted.

However, this is voiceover work that's just not that integral or necessary. It's only something a LOTR nerd would really appreciate. And it's bundled with other things that nerd was probably going to want anyway. And so it works more as value added to that bundle or DLC than taking away from main game. So I just cannot see getting worked up over this is all. It's such a minimal loss to the overall experience.

Honestly @burning_as_souls put it better in comment 33.

@Jaz007 @NoFaceBigFoot @Korgon Hard to come up with any concrete examples on the spot but I'll make up an imaginary scenario of a sports game selling a champions edition that includes previous era championship players but it costs more. Is that wrong?

I mean, I figure you care that much about the extra content or you don't. And then you can purchase whatever product you want accordingly. There's 3 price tiers for the new Diablo. I'm definitely in the standard version tier because I look at the extra content provided in the others and kind of chuckle, as I'm just not that into Diablo. But other people are and those options are there for them, but yeah they are more because you get more.

And with this game specifically. I'd be fine without the elvish-speaking NPCs so I wouldn't care about not having it. Which would save me money. Seems like a good thing.

Think people need a clarification that SEGA is buying Rovio and not just Angry Birds specifically.

Maybe I'm just as unmoored to popular sentiment as these devs but this doesn't seem at all that egregious. Resources went into hiring and recording elvish for NPCs that didn't really have to because the casual fan probably isn't going to care. For those who do care, however, there's an edition for that. And yeah it costs more, because, uh, there's more included.

What am I missing?

It's too expensive for me so it's gonna fail. Or I just have an inexplicable hatred for VR, so it's gonna fail. I'm quite sure it's one of these anyway.

@Tharsman given the original rumor, I'd be on board the hate train with everyone else if it were delayed a few months but like, stands to reason that if the rumor was only half true about how much of a delay we'd see maybe it's also not completely true about how much is changing.

Just seems bizarre to already write the game off when we really have no idea what'll happen by Feb '24. And that's assuming this is the last delay.

@havoc33 Also don't have a great opinion of the recent Ridley (alien?) films but I totally agree... like give us an end at least!

@Tharsman yeah that much of a delay must mean something. not sure why so many folks are so certain they just pushed the game almost 11 months but everything's going to stay as planned.

@ItsBritneyB_tch @havoc33 Newt and Hicks was a gut punch for sure but I was okay with it because yeah, that fits the franchise. Even Cameron's Aliens is fairly brutal so I wouldn't go as far as to say it hasn't aged well but that's just me. Overall though 3 felt like an overall good conclusion except the fx really haven't aged well in some parts. Then you have the Assembly Cut improving things and getting it mostly right but for the dog/cow switcheroo and sloppy looking effects. So I absolutely wish it could get some kind of anniversary post-release revamp.

But with Fincher essentially disowning it and Fox or Disney or whoever owns it now being entirely apathetic, I doubt we'll ever get anyone to care enough about it to put in the effort, or money.

Probably sit this one out. Isolation pretty much ruined me when it comes to Alien games. Everything else seems so underwhelming by comparison. Like wow, top down zombie shooter but with aliens. Let me get my wallet. 🙄

@FinneasGH same thing for me. stupid I had to redeem them individually. even dumber I got an email for every single one.

Have to get this out... David Harbour looks absolutely ridiculous in a fire suit

That said, I'm still probably going to watch this.

@UltimateOtaku91 I've certainly kicked myself a few times after a game purchase turned into yet another Plus giveaway but at the same time it is nice to not have any anxiety about how long you'll have to play games when you actually buy them.

And wow, apparently even first part titles aren't safe.

Yeah never seen that actually despite a similar amount of hours played. But then I absolutely hate those things and avoid them whenever possible.

Cool though.

I only have CotM, which came bundled, and GT7, which isn't strictly VR. So I guess I contributed nothing to these sales charts. I will try Switchback eventually, when it's on sale.

Mostly just waiting on Beat Saber upgrade atm.

@Hoodie718 Resident Evil has a vibe or tone that I just can't take seriously so I don't find it the least bit scary. Horror is kinda like that though. If it can't hit just the right notes it can come off unintentionally comical.

I'm still holding out for Alien Isolation in VR. That's true fear for me. Or maybe a Silent Hill.

I'd think this were dumb but my cheap phone won't do remote play and I've no interest in replacing it with something more expensive so at the right price point I could maybe be persuaded into buying one of these.

There's no way this comments section goes anywhere good.

Not interested in Meet Your Maker but I appreciate a day one release. Looking forward to Sackboy though. And the third game is the usual throwaway that the third game always is.

But overall not bad.

@NEStalgia what you're describing though, it just seems a tad self-fulfilling. Like it's definitely a way to look at it but I'm not sure you have to have that perspective.

I'm probably gonna see the tag and look at it one of two ways... someone has money to burn for a status symbol or they care about the well being of a website they use. And I'll think it'll be obvious who's in what camp most of the time so, idk, I guess that doesn't worry me terribly. Not just yet anyway.

@NEStalgia i totally get what you're saying but on the other hand it probably already felt that way to a lot of folks. I can't be the only one who thought there's this subtle separation between the usual suspects and the rest of us. But I suspect that changes if you're here long enough. And really if you're here long enough, will the badge really carry the weight you're suggesting?

yeah I use adblock and really don't have time to go through and set exceptions but even then who wouldn't at least consider supporting something they use frequently, or get value from?

Meh, idk. I have a life (sort of) and a job so games like this that require a huge time commitment, or savant like architectural skills, just aren't realistic options. They sound cool in theory, but when how you spend your time is kinda zero sum, I'm not seeing doing anything more with this game than booting it up once just to turn it off 15 minutes later and never touch it again.

@ATaco I mean it kinda makes some sense that they wouldn't want to advertise games leaving the service.

Well it's LEGO so this will either be absolutely stellar or a hastily thrown together cash grab.

@Grumblevolcano makes sense. I wasn't really paying attention to whether it was live service or not. Honestly a game this far out from release just isn't much of a priority. Definitely even less of one now.

@get2sammyb okay, I watched. Looks like a third person Doom Eternal to me which, is awful imo, but as much as everyone loved that game you'd think this maybe would get a better reception. So I'm kinda confused there. Unless it's just a matter of everyone expecting something a little more Arkham-ish.

Purple orbs? Maybe I really should be keeping up with these SoP things.

Must resist urge to feed the troll.

Unfortunate read, I was really looking forward to this game. Then again I still haven't finished CotM and still have much to do on GT7 but VR just isn't VR if I can't be scared out of my mind. That's like the 2nd best reason to have a headset, and the number one reason is unavailable as well so definitely room for improvement this gen.

@Th3solution yeah I've certainly warmed to Pascal the more I see of him. Had only really seen him in the baby Yoda show and as a terribly corny villain in WW84 so not much to go on there. Still not 100% sold on him playing Joel but they definitely could have done worse.

I guess I didn't realize you are American. I assume everyone on this site is from the UK by default. Whoops.

It's understandable she'd be inexperienced. But she is an actor so I assume they were leaning into that inexperience for the show instead of training her to be capable with a firearm. I actually can't even form an opinion here because I haven't watched this far but I have no doubt, with British actors being some of the best in the business, she could have seemed more proficient if that's what they'd wanted.

But to revisit my original point, normal or not, kids can definitely be deadly. There are examples of this since the advent of guns or you can even look at the child soldiers in Africa for a more contemporary example. A kid with a gun ain't nothing to mess with anymore than an adult with a gun. Turns out it's kind of an equalizer across the board. "Oh you're bigger, stronger, and older... awesome, well I have a firearm so..."

@Th3solution Well context is always good. But don't let me disabuse you of the notion that America is full of crazies lol. And it's kinda funny you mention not knowing she was British. I got in a bit of hot water with a fair few PushSquare members for saying she looks too British. Which I should reiterate wasn't a slight at all, just simply that Ellie isn't and therein lies the rub (for me). And another disclaimer: i'm not at all saying all Brits look the same either. okay. well anyway hopefully i'm done being offensive for the day as it is quite early.

@BadPlayerOne definitely no biggie. I wasn't so much offended as worried you might think of me as a typical gun toting American. I actually lived in England for roughly 3 years. Cornwall. I loved it and dearly miss going about the day without a fear of randomly being shot. And that's about all I'll say there.

@Th3solution it really kinda depends on who you ask honestly. For some it's a tyrannical government, for others it's a right to protect themselves generally. But yeah it's original intention was a check on government power. So basically we have Britain to blame lol. I mean, I've a pretty unpopular opinion on guns, even amongst fellow (US) leftist, so really I just try not to talk about it.

@BadPlayerOne well yes, all of that is true because they wrote it that way. If that makes sense.

But no need to take a dig. Explaining what's normal in America is different than agreeing with those things.

@BadPlayerOne plus Bill single handedly fortified and defended an entire town, because of his vast experience as a... paranoid doomsday prepper. Not sure how realistic that is.

@BadPlayerOne maybe it's my southern upbringing but I don't find the idea of a 14 year-old holding, and efficiently firing, a rifle to be at all unrealistic. Now could a 14 yr old take down dozens of men or zombies... Eh, maybe not a dozen but a few sure. Zombies would need to exist though and they don't so we're kinda back to that suspension of disbelief thing.

In any case, I certainly wouldn't go running at any teenager holding a rifle that's for sure. But again maybe this is a southern United States thing where you got kids in middle school and younger skeet shooting and hunting and all kinds of other things. Fairly normal.

Also, just as an aside, I told my family that we'd never see the infected hive mind thing play in again after it was introduced and I'm thinking I'm right. Like other terrible shows it was contrived for convenient plot purposes for one episode.

@Ambassador_Kong omg someone else who gets it! "Show, don't tell" is like the first rule of any visual storytelling. But yeah, no one seems to know this anymore.

@Flaming_Kaiser indeed. They make the joke about unsold MGK's and it's funny because it's true. Like multiple versions of a halfway popular artist whose demographic imo doesn't immediately jump out as the Funko demo. But yeah then you throw in all the marvel and star wars variations and all the different sized figures they have now and dioramas of bands on a stage and you can see why they're tanking financially, the way they just flooded the market.

@Stevey_Mac I have a Joel and an Ellie. And it drives me crazy that it's a Part 1 Joel but a Part 2 Ellie. It's bizarre the characters that get Funko's and the ones who don't. You'd think a Part 1 Joel and Ellie or a Part 2 Joel and Ellie would be a no brainer but nah, one from each lol.

@tallythwack lol well I mean I know that's all a bit sarcastic but as others have pointed out, the planet is fine. We're simply endangering our ability to live on it. So I mean, I wouldn't get too worried about the planet just for the sake of the planet.

@EarlyBird94 so yeah I definitely don't wanna come off callous in regards to the environment. I do care. A great deal. But you've touched on something very accurate in that people are usually quick to codemn some form of waste so long as it's something they aren't really interested in.

Though this does remind of how ag ended up leaving many a harvest to sit and rot during the depression because it was simply cheaper. Sigh.

Idk guys, this seems like the kinda thing that happens every day on a smaller scale at just about any place that manufactures anything. I work in printing, for example, and the amount of chemicals and paper and just all kinds of materials that get thrown out is staggering. On a daily basis.

Not saying either is good... but maybe we could dial back the "funkos are ruining the planet" rhetoric. Like, we're on a PlayStation fansite after all. None of our hands are particularly clean.

@ItsBritneyB_tch I couldn't agree more. Like when Ellie gave her "everyone except you" line to Joel it felt so unearned. Feels more like they barely just started out together and still barely know each other.

@arsmolinarc yes we now have Joel with a black woman and Ellie and Tommy. It's like c'mon guys. Don't get me wrong, my wife is one of the lightest women I've been with and she's Mexican lol, so I get the appeal but like it's just getting weird now.

I mostly just laughed at Maria's race-swap though. Definitely not even close to the worst aspect of that episode.

@InsaneWade @kcarnes9051 @LimitedPower there's blubbering and crying when a loved one is dying in your arms and there's blubbering and crying during a therapy session. I think those are pretty different.

But it's true the pacing is different. As a result we've seen none of Joel's brutally. We've been told about it ad nauseam but thus far it's been Joel killing people under fairly understandable circumstances and even then somewhat hesitantly.

In any case far more apologists have popped on since I last got on here and started this reply and rather than turn this into a serious wall of text I'll just say adding complexity can fundamentally change a character that wasn't too complex to begin with. Joel was a regular dad and then stuff happened and then he became cold, disillusioned, bitter, and mostly uncaring. That's not really complex. And at some point the more you add, the more the character changes.

So agree to disagree here I guess. Like if in the upcoming GoW series Kratos starts crying and spilling his guts to Freya I'm not gonna call that adding complexity, no matter what Christopher Judge says.

And to be clear the changes aren't necessarily out of order, so no one need justify the why... I'm just saying he's different than the game, by a mile. And I didn't expect that, and don't particularly welcome it. But again that's just me.

@kcarnes9051 Joel has been noticeably hesitant, he's having panic attacks and blubbering and crying. You don't see that as a fundamental change in his character?

I think it can safely be said that this is something of a reimagining (especially in regards to certain characters) and while there's nothing wrong with that, it would have been nice to know that going in imo. I mean, when one of your main characters is just so fundamentally different it's, at the very least, a little jarring.

And don't get me wrong, obviously not everything can carry over from one medium to the other. Changes are expected. But like, imagine "Harry did you put your name in the goblet of fire!!!" but it's like that for every scene. That's just a different Dumbledore entirely.

Just one man's opinion.