I stumbled upon this "Rat King" (Rattenkönig) specimen today at a museum.

According to the plague plaque: It consists of 10 black rats with their tails entangled. It was found trapped in ice back in April 1895 in Germany.

Maybe Naughty Dog really took inspiration from some disturbing real-world phenomena to create the creature in the Seattle hospital basement...

I am playing the game mainly for the apocalyptic vibes. And really enjoy the difficult survival aspect. But now that I’m at Abby’s story line, it all sounds dumb. She’s on this vengeance spree because of her father’s own mistake getting him killed. She has little reasoning for targeting Joel and his people. The entire gameplay has a goal of killing the other person for someone else’s mistake. Then I’m going to be forced to fight elie as abby? The story is really annoying me.

Or is it always been like that?

Tlou1 is my favorite game of all time and I started tlou2 two times over the years.

I lost the focus on it and now went back in but in the middle of a playthrough.

I am Seattle day 2 I believe, right after the flashback with Joel in the hotel. I just met the seraphites in the park.

Should I continue this playthrough because to far in or is starting over still valid?

It's a shame such good gameplay is ruined by a poorly written story.

With all the forced gay scenes and political agendas in the game, I'm starting to believe the writers were hired more for their willingness to incorporate woke BS into the game than for their actual writing abilities.

Seriously, Dina’s “Don’t worry. It’s not yours” was actually kind of funny. Then HBO gave us the cringiest line with “I’m gonna be a Dad”.

Part II was disappointing, but at least there were SOME redeeming qualities (Mostly gameplay and music), but the show is working hard to ruin even that.

I just recently tried to do practice recordings for the last of us part 2 and I have been having stuttering throughout the recording. When entering new areas, my cpu usage can jump all the way up to 100% which is what I assume is causing the stutters. The games runs smoothly on my monitor, but when I play the recording back I see multiple stutters. Keep in mind I have a 5080 and a 9800x3d so I doubt it’s my setup or my current settings. Has anybody had this issue before with recording the last of us part 2 and if so is there any fix for it?

I’m also playing the game on the AW3926QW so I’m using a 5k2k resolution to record as well.

I’m also using OBS as my recording software

So, I’m replaying LoU pt 2 for the 3rd time rn, and I got to thinking, what if Ellie went with Tommy instead of Dina? I mean we’ve seen what Tommy was capable of solo in the game. And we’ve seen what Ellie was capable of solo in the game too. I like to think that the main story of pt 2 would’ve changed a lot and Abby and gang would’ve been obliterated if Tommy and Ellie went together initially. But that’s just my opinion.

I love the first game. It's my favorite story based game alongside the original TLOU.

I'm just curious. This game also got a controversial sequel that destroyed the original. Why does that sound so familiar 😏...

Just finished my first playthrough. Went in as blind as possible, even though it was virtually impossible to avoid spoilers on the game's pretense (Joel's death) and ending (Ellie sparing Abby). I have to say, I find the game a masterpiece on a whole, despite plot amor (all main characters surviving numerous lethal injuries), heavily coincidence-driven plots, and some plotholes (e.g. Joel walking right into the trap). With suspension of disbelief out of the way, I'd like to discusss what I felt about Abby's story and the game's message.

Against popular opinion, I NEVER disliked Abby, even before playing her personal chapters that were supposedly designed to make players like her. I find her revenge against Joel mostly justifiable. The torture was brutal for sure, but given the fact that the entire Salt Lake crew were orphaned by Joel, I wouldn't blame them if each one of them wanted a swing on Joel. Then I played Abby's personal chapters. They indeed made me like her. Saving Yara/Lev, not judging Lev, turning away from WLF, and most importanly, sparing Ellie and Dina, convinced me that she possessed above-average moral standard in this cruel post-apocalyptic world.

In the end, it feels kind of even between Abby and Ellie. Abby lost nearly all her friends and spared Ellie twice. Ellie lost Jesse and saved/spared Abby once, twice if you count Joel's rescue. The cycle of violence is broken. While playing the game, an ancient Chinese saying keeps ringing in my head: "revenge upon revenge upon revenge, when does it ever end? (冤冤相报何时了?)" It's not a new message for movies and games, but I'm still shaken every time when it's portayed well.

I played the first game just one year ago. I also bonded with Joel as protagonist, at least I thought so. But somehow, I didn't feel much rage when he was killed in the second game and I ended up liking Abby too, unlike what I assume is most of y'all who hated Abby and how the plot played out. I wonder why is that. Is it too little bonding with earlier story protagonists, or too much openness for "the other side of the story"? Or I simply happened to be Druckmann's target audience.

Glad to hear you guys' opinion on this. Any opinion welcome (unless of course if it's just lazy hating on LGBT elements and scrawny female characters).

Edit: spoilers.

Physically beside her built I believe she looks just as realistic as it could get for Abby. But one thing I didn’t like was the lack of muscles I believe this was a huge part of her character, losing her natural youthful feminine look after losing her dad and training to go after Joel it all made sense. I loved that her actor had a similar voice to Abby but the muscles were such a big part of the story in my opinion I wish they could’ve fixed it somehow. Like what is this?? so close to perfection if she was just a little bit buff and just. Little more expressive id say this is a perfect Abby. Let me know if I make sense

I know what she did.. and I know societys views on her, but omg I'm 3/4 (I think) through her playable section and I'm in love

Where can I buy a flashlight that’s very similar to Ellie’s?

Not trying to hate.... but this is how the game felt really

In downtown Seattle for a conference (homeless veteran support organizations, so I'm definitely going to heaven) anyways we round the corner from the hotel looking for this nice little Italian restaurant and I come across this place, I have died so many horrible deaths in this garage, was like walking by my own grave

The building is literally a federal courthouse, didn't want to leave my horse behind to scope it out tho.

I've said this repeatedly in comments that the premise of the sequel has never made sense to me. In a world like that, without clear roads, readily available resources (or any stores!), and a total lack of even the ability to capture and train horses for the past 25 years (let alone the time to spend on that!) this story is impossible for me to suspend disbelief. How do you go out and catch horses when there are infected?

Seeing things in the second episode makes it even more clear with live action. Abby and crew traveling to Wyoming from Seattle in winter knowing there are infected (but not knowing where) and being "city people" who don't know what they'll encounter along the way makes it even more ridiculous. Not to mention the clear and potential danger of tendrils (or infected) under the snow?! I suppose tendrils could be dormant? Who knows, though? And sure they traveled from SLC to Seattle (in good weather!), but that would have taught them exactly how hard traveling unknown terrain actually is.

They may be more familiar with hardship, which likely makes them capable and resilient people, but that should also give them a heightened awareness of their limitations and possible dangers, too. That they don't seem to have that awareness to the point Abby will, on her own, leave her group to follow a patrol in a place she's never been just makes her (and this whole story) impossible to believe or embrace.

Nothing is more important that survival. So even if I could get past the stupidity of seeking revenge, I can't get past them doing so in the winter and then her behaving as she did, with utter stupidity. This concept was rejected for the first game for exceptionally good reasons. But one man's overwhelming obsession with telling his story no matter what made sure it was resurrected. And if it still makes no sense for the world, as he once agreed? Well, "Who gives a shit?!" is his attitude. In the game he even seems to rub it in Bruce's face with over 10 trips of hundreds of miles each (including a lone woman and two petite women), and then he was lucky enough to find a partner who agrees with that sentiment to bring it to HBO (with three more ridiculously petite women!).

The horde attack in the show just highlights the immense danger and utter stupidity of Abby and crew even more. The cluelessness of showrunners these days will not stop shocking me in how they expect people to just accept stupid premises and story elements. They really have an utter lack of talent and storytelling capability added to their contempt of audiences.

This probably an old take whatever but i just finished playing so here i am, ellie not killing of abby was pure ragebait, i spent the entire game watching this girl spiral further and further into revenge, losing pieces of herself and ruining every single thing she had left, only for her to finally get her hands on the person she’s been chasing this entire time and just LET HER GO?

abby’s plot armor was actually insane. the amount of shit she survived just for the story to keep her alive was ridiculous, and for WHAT. i genuinely feel like they could’ve pulled a sicario and committed to the brutality of the story instead of giving us another “revenge isn’t worth it” conclusion. how many people did she kill to get to abby just to have some heroic whiplash right before

Would the original Idea that Joel and Tommy were part of hunters who raided her caravan worked better for you?

My personal take is that it would‘ve been less hypocritical and preachy as we know that Joel did stuff he ain‘t proud of and wouldn’t have this whole BS of „Feel bad for killing the terrorists who wanted to leave you to die and the surgeon who wanted to harvest a child UwU“

Not saying I would switch the camp, I‘d still pick Ellie and Joel over the bitch but it would‘Ve probably achieved what Drucksmann was going for if he worked it out properly (keep dreaming)

And it confirmed my suspects of why this game is considered a step under the first one. I think from a gameplay point of view it has positive aspects, some of them already were in the original. But the story is where the game crashes. The uncomplete revenge plot makes no sense, if they want to teach revenge doesn't give happiness is a lot better if Ellie killed Abby and realizes it has changed nothing, and her life is now even worse. Splitting gameplay time beetween Ellie and Abby is another crucial mistake, this isn't a film or a TV Series, it's a videogame. In the first one after the first parts with Joel and Tess, you always have Ellie and Joel and you get a bond with them because you are with them until the rest of the game. If they wanted to give Abby's perspective and introduce new characters it would have been a braver choice to give her the full gameplay, but they had no guts and thinked without Ellie gameplay the players would have to really like the new story for the game not becoming a flop, and deep in their hearts they knew no one would like this story that much.

Also, thanks for sharing so many movies; I think I have enough material to put together the post I had in mind. I still need a little more time, but I find it surprising that in 2026 people are watching movies as old as the ones from 1964. Which is a good thing ❤️

Games can be bad, yeah but to this level extent of bad? TLOU2 wasn't just bad. It felt like betrayal. It felt depressing and it just felt mentally tiring. Only good thing about it was the musuem scene and the gameplay. And I got invested because of the story, that's what made it great. Joel and Ellie made this great, not some horribly written, buff psychopath, extremely hateable character I couldn't give two shits about. The dissapointment, the anger, its something that stays with you. Real ones who've loved these two characters (Joel and Ellie) know what im talking about.

https://reddit.com/link/1x3ist6/video/9vh6jc5iewuh1/player

Also, would it be better if Carrie spared Chris at the last moment. Despite killing all those people at the prom, she would refuse to kill the person that poured the blood on her in the first place because "revenge bad" /s