Shagger

I can confirm that it's cannon, Riley and Marlene aren't related. I believe it is the American Dreams comic that confirms this, but I'd have to check it out again to point out exactly where and how.

It's not a can't let go thing, it's a don't want to let go. I enjoy playing the old games. A hell of a lot more than anything new. Old games were unique. New games are all carbon copy sequels. There is no originality in the games of today. That's why we play games that are 20+ years old. We don't like the new stuff, and we always liked the old stuff. There is no reason to give up something you enjoy just because it's old. I listen to 80's metal. It's the era I grew up in. I loved the music then, and I still love it now. Why should I stop listening to it?

I feel like I've got little to say now as Ellie and Dorian are the two that come to mind for me as well.
 
Dorian is very noble, courageous and, whilst he's obviously been tormented and exiled as a result of sexuality, he still retains a kind of pride and focus and that's makes him a very admirable and selfless hero. There's other LGBTQ characters in the game obviously, but he stands out for me because as he undeniably he wears his sexuality and how it affects his life on his sleeve, but you ultimately come to admire him not because he's deals with his sexuality with that aforementioned pride and courage, but because he deals with everything with that pride and courage. Gay or not, a good buy, but being gay may have shaped him into an even better guy in the end and that's a very positive message.
 
Ellie is quite different. She's more down to earth and relatable, but no less admirable and that was achieved through imperfection. She's very rude, stubborn and foul-mouthed. Despite that, she's also the kind of character that somebody in the closet can observe and look up to. As I think @Crazycrab pointed out in the other thread, the main story on TLOU didn't focus on nor even define Ellie's sexuality at all and instead focused on the father daughter like bond forming between her and Joel and didn't go onto her sexuality until the Left Behind DLC and that's good because it let us bond with Ellie in a similar way Joel did. This made us care about her to the point that we didn't care about her sexuality much at all. We were surprised perhaps, but not bothered and willing to support her, and that's they way it should be when somebody comes to somebody close to you coming out. That's a very different, but equally positive message as Dorian.

I have asthma as well, and due to MD I already have a compromised and weakened immune system. So I have been advised to stay home unless I have no choice but to get out, and to have as little human contact as possible for the foreseeable future. That doesn’t really change anything for me as that’s how I have always preferred things and chosen to live. But still, it’s a pain in the ass.

So the irrelevance makes it, well relevant.  That's actually a great point. Ellie being gay doesn't make any difference and that's the way it should be.
 
I would say it would be great to have to these barriers break without the world ending but let's face it!   In just the first few months of this year, the US tried to start World War 3, half of Australia has been on fire and now there is a global pandemic where people are going bonkers over bog roll.
 
I think it's time all people, regardless of nationality, political standpoint, religions beliefs, sexual orientation, gender identity or race stand together and declare in one voice!......(LINK)

What is your problem? Since I doubt that someone has strapped you to a chair and forced to watch the LGBT friendly content on Netflix "A Clockwork Orange" style, what is the point of this unceasing complaining about it? Netflix's content has nothing to do with the topic at hand anyway and none of us agree with nor give a shit about your homophobic ranting. You've clearly never played the game and most likely never will, something that's probably true of the sequel as well, so you've got noting of value to bring to this topic in the first place. So please, spare us your poison and direct your attention to other threads where you might have something to offer.

So the spec's have been revealed and, whilst this looks promising in alot of ways, to be honest one or two things are giving me cause for concern.

 
The positives. I like the CPU. The weak CPU's on the PS4 and XBox One were problematic right from the start so glad to see a major upgrade there. I also like that it has the Blu-ray drive, we've not gone fully digital, and that's good. What I'm not sure about is storage. Good speed on that custom SSD, but that's a very strange size and I feel that's too small. The drive also can't be removed and swapped out like previous Playstation consoles. Instead you get expandable storage through an empty NVMe slot, and that's gonna make upgrading the storage more expensive that it really needed to be. Also, compared to the Series X;
 

 
The PS5 has a weaker GPU, the same CPU, less storage as standard and more flexibility when it comes to storage upgrades.
 
Overall Sony, I'm not that impressed. Still have high hopes for the console as the line if launch games I think will be stronger, but especially with the retro compatibility confirmed I actually believe the Series X looks like the superior console at the moment.

As I would expect, as your level of technical adept surpasses mine by quite a margin, a great breakdown about what all this means. Thank you. I think I get what you're saying, the X-Box might be the faster runner, but it's wearing a greasy pair of shoes and just case use what it has as effectively, at least on paper anyway.

I've just seen Mark Cerny's breakdown of the PS5 and although it's how it looks on paper, it's not completely true and there is a bit more to it, the PS5's GPU has less Compute Unit's so It can run at higher clock speeds, the TFLOPS are lower but the actual game performance depends on whether the game want's to process faster or want a larger chunk of data each time it cycles.
 
I agree that the CPU in the XBox has the legs and I do like the fact that developers have to choose between SMT threading and higher clock speeds, I'd really like to know if they can do with a selection of cores or if they have to disable SMT for all 8.
 
When it comes to storage and expanding storage, I have some issues with both of them.  First of all wether, it is 1TB of 825GB is arbitrary to me since neither one is going to be large enough anyway.  I get why they aren’t bigger of course, high-speed SSD’s are very expensive the architecture in both systems has been designed specifically to work with them.  A regular HDD or even a lower speed SSD simply would not cut it, especially for XBox Series X or PS5 games. So in terms of balancing cost and storage, the ~1TB is a compromise that I am prepared to accept.
 
The difference here is in expansion options and again, I have issues with both.  The PS5 will allow you to use M.2 SSD’s but you can’t just use ANY M.2 SSD.  It has to be a PCI 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD that runs at 5.5GHz or better that fits in the SSD tray in the console.  Mark Cerny mentioned that there will be a certification process but not in time for the launch.  This is potentially a big problem because some people will want to expand the storage right away and I think ALLOT of users are going to end up buying the wrong thing.
 
With that in mind, XBox would seem to have a better solution with the proprietary storage cards, but these have problems too.  First of all they are almost certainly going to be VERY expensive.  I actully think they will be more expensive than the equivalent M.2 SSD you could get for the PS5 and you will need to buy another 2 or 3 over the course of the generation.  Also proprietary storage like this can be a real headache since it gives you less choice, just any anyone who has ever owned a VITA about the Memory Sticks!
 
Overall, I actully prefer the PS5 architexure because of the only differnce which I think is significant but a lot of people might not take much notice of:
 
XBox Series X
 

 
PS5
 

 
The PS5 will demand specifically a PCI 4.0 NVMe SSD for a reason!  The XBox might have slightly more powerful components, but the silicone fabric linking them all together has only around half the bandwidth.  This means that there is a significantly larger chance of bottlenecking between the CPU/GPU and the SSD storage, which means it's going to have to use more RAM to keep the data it needs closer to home and overall just be less efficient.  Whether this makes any difference further down the line only time will tell but Sony has definitely designed the more robust architecture here.

So the spec's have been revealed and, whilst this looks promising in alot of ways, to be honest one or two things are giving me cause for concern.

 
The positives. I like the CPU. The weak CPU's on the PS4 and XBox One were problematic right from the start so glad to see a major upgrade there. I also like that it has the Blu-ray drive, we've not gone fully digital, and that's good. What I'm not sure about is storage. Good speed on that custom SSD, but that's a very strange size and I feel that's too small. The drive also can't be removed and swapped out like previous Playstation consoles. Instead you get expandable storage through an empty NVMe slot, and that's gonna make upgrading the storage more expensive that it really needed to be. Also, compared to the Series X;
 

 
The PS5 has a weaker GPU, the same CPU, less storage as standard and more flexibility when it comes to storage upgrades.
 
Overall Sony, I'm not that impressed. Still have high hopes for the console as the line if launch games I think will be stronger, but especially with the retro compatibility confirmed I actually believe the Series X looks like the superior console at the moment.

But Ellie is gay 😆 Have you played the Last of Us game ?

I figured he was keeping her gay for the simple consistently.  I don't think they really need to use the show to "spread LGBT awareness" and to be honest, The Last of Us is not really a great story to do that with.  It's a society where along with these types of social and political stigma that come with it with regards to sexuality, race and so on has effectively broken down.  Most people in this would happily kill you for a fresh pair of shoes, there are bigger, or at least more direct problems! That's why the game doesn't put hardly any focus on in it, hell the fact that Ellie is gay wasn't even addressed at all until the Left Behind DLC came out.
 
Like I said earlier The Last of Us is a story about the relationship between Joel and Ellie and how it evolves as they journey together. We see Joel learn to love and care again, something he has been struggling to do since the loss of his daughter.  Likewise we see Ellie, a young girl who is fiercely independent and stubborn learn to trust and open up to him. That's what the Last of Us is about, it doesn't need a ton of focus on Ellie's sexuality, at least not in this story.
 
Now the sequel (judging from the trailers anyway) does seem to be putting a bit more focus on it but we don't know exactly how that's going play out yet.
 
 
hope this helps:
https://www.netflix.com/CancelPlan
 
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to listen to some music:
 

What is your problem? Since I doubt that someone has strapped you to a chair and forced to watch the LGBT friendly content on Netflix "A Clockwork Orange" style, what is the point of this unceasing complaining about it? Netflix's content has nothing to do with the topic at hand anyway and none of us agree with nor give a shit about your homophobic ranting. You've clearly never played the game and most likely never will, something that's probably true of the sequel as well, so you've got noting of value to bring to this topic in the first place. So please, spare us your poison and direct your attention to other threads where you might have something to offer.

So you're a full on homophobe then. I don't understand people like you. I don't see how the fact two people who love, respect and trust each other hurts you just because they're the same gender. But whatever, you be the horrid, prejudiced, disgusting you that you want to be, but no opinion you have on the subject will be taken seriously by me.
 
I'll give you one piece of advice though, if you hate gay people and that "SJW crap" that much, stay away from TLOU and especially it's Left Behind DLC and you'll almost certainly want to avoid THOU part 2 as well. All games that feature female leads and/or gay characters and/or female characters that are not just obedient dish washers or made purely for the spank bank. So also avoid the Mass Effect series, the Dragon Age series, the Life is Strange games, Horizon Zero Dawn, The Metal Gear Solid Games Control, Metrioid, Tomb Raider, pick the "right" COD's and Assassin Creed games, Skyrim, Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher games, Final Fantasy, Tales of Berseria, Detriot: Become Human, Until Dawn, Beyond: Two Souls... actually just Play Duke Nukem Forever quite literally forever because nobody is making games for you any more.
 
 

no violent video games do not cause violence. bad parenting and mental issues and society not looking after people who need help  causes violence. people just want a scapegoat so they say games did it

Thank you. “Strong grasp on reality.” That is exactly the matter in question here.
If a video game really did “influence” a given person to commit a violent act, what that draws into question is the person’s psychology. That person must have a difficult time identifying the difference between the fantasy world in the game (where there are no real consequences) and the real world (where there are real consequences).
Such a person is likely either 1-young and developing, and just needs more time and parental guidance, or 2-is an adult and requires psychological help from a professional so that they can learn the difference between fantasy and reality. It is this psychosis in their brain that ultimately produced their actions.
Video games do not feature actual violence. They feature simulated violence. No harm is done on any entity. When you riddle your pixelated opponent with bullets, nobody hurts. Nobody bleeds. Nobody dies. Nobody’s will is violated. There is literally no commonality there with an actual act of violence which entails pain, harm, loss of function, death, etc. for an actual person.
An actual violent video game would be one where if you push a button, a real living being on the other end would experience some kind of suffering. This thankfully is not something that exists. 
For a lot of us, gaming provides a safe psychological outlet where we can broaden our range of experiences without any actual loss of control.
It’s also worth pointing out that there are violent video games that teach lessons in morality. I would say that the BioShock series or The Last of Us are prime examples. Both series send messages of hope, kindness, love, and protection of the innocents.

I think I’m a prime example of video games not causing violence, being that I’m a clinically diagnosed sociopath. I play some of the most depraved, gruesome games imaginable. And I derive pleasure from picturing people in more pain and suffering than most can fathom. But never once have I acted on it. The game Hatred doesn’t give me the thoughts that I should try it just for whatever reason. I don’t care enough about people to waste the time and energy on them. All the planning and time it would take to set up a location to do it isn’t something I care to waste time on either. I can do it in game, and dream it up even worse in my mind, and I’m satisfied. It takes little energy and I get to experience what I want. The only time I would express any of these desires is if someone broke into my house. I’ve gone on record with the cops that anyone breaking in will not leave alive. It is my 100% intention to kill them. And I will succeed in ending a human life.
Did video games have anything to do with any of this? Not a god damn thing. Actually the opposite. They actually STOP ME from acting on my desires. The violence I get to experience in game keeps me in check. So I can straight up tell you that violent games can actually be a good thing.

I have an 8yo son who has played AC4 for at least 3 years. In life, he has not killed any ship captains or crew, plundered any ships nor hunted sharks and whales in that time because he has a strong grasp on reality. These criminals who blame video games for their psychotic behaviour are using that as an excuse to reduce their punishment. Many millions, if not billions play games. If we were all driven to kill because of them there would be literally nobody left. Frankly @Joshua Farrell, to believe that video games, or any entertainment media, instigate violence, means you're kinda stupid. Just because you can't play COD without feeling less respect for the sanctity of human life doesn't mean the rest of us are that unstable. Most of us can play these games, live in the fantasy, then when it's over, reconnect with reality and live our normal lives. If you can't, then that's your own VERY SERIOUS problem. Get help.

Thank you for the nomiation @The Blackangel, but I don't deserve it. Life has gotten the way in recent weeks and I have just not been active enough to warrant a  nomination. @Crazycrab, @kingpotato and @DylanC are my nominees.

That is a very cool and healthy attitude. Welcome to the forums.

Wow. I mean wow! It's not like I expected a response that would change my perspective on the matter, but I at least expected one that was mature worded with due respect, but apparently that was asking too much. You can believe whatever scapegoating nonsense that the right wing politicians have forced down your throat all you want, but can you at least conduct yourself like a grown up? Thank you.

Why aren't you posting links? I know, because those studies are corruptly funded by the NRA and other such organizations who want to deflect blame on gun violence to anyone else. @Crazycrabactually posted evidence, why aren't you?

Why aren't you posting links? I know, because those studies are corruptly funded by the NRA and other such organizations who want to deflect blame on gun violence to anyone else. @Crazycrabactually posted evidence, why aren't you?

Hi everyone,

I'm new here. I work in the game industry for a couple of years now as a Product Manager. 
I joined here to talk more about the project I am starting. 

I Found that lately, the disconnect between the gaming communities and the game developers and publishers is hurtful for the industry. So I decided to try a new kind of community, for which the only goal is to communicate directly to small, medium and big companies. thegamerloop.com if you are curious.

(I will also post somewhere else in the forum a shameless plug about it. I hope it won't frustrate too many of you!)

Why aren't you posting links? I know, because those studies are corruptly funded by the NRA and other such organizations who want to deflect blame on gun violence to anyone else. @Crazycrabactually posted evidence, why aren't you?