Latest news with #TheLastofUsPart2
Time of India
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Resident Evil Requiem leak hints at huge gameplay upgrade, and fans losing their minds
(Image via Capcom) The Resident Evil fandom just got served some juicy gossip, and it's not from Umbrella Corp's PR team. A trusted insider has spilled fresh gameplay tea on Resident Evil Requiem , and if these leaks hold true, we're looking at a serious evolution for the franchise. Think open levels, vehicles, dual protagonists, and combat that might give The Last of Us Part 2 a run for its money. Resident Evil Requiem Takes You Back to Raccoon City, But Not How You Remember It After the haunting vibes of Resident Evil Village , Capcom is steering us straight back to a wrecked, post-apocalyptic Raccoon City. Requiem , unveiled at Summer Game Fest 2025, isn't just a nostalgia trip; it's shaping up to be a brutal, atmospheric playground. Officially, we know Grace Ashcroft is our main lead. Unofficially? Leaks say Leon Kennedy is also tagging in, older, grimmer, and ready to throw hands (and bullets). Resident Evil Requiem Reportedly Has Open-Level Design with Vehicle Traversal Here's the headline-grabber: the game will reportedly feature open levels that you can traverse with an actual vehicle. Not a scripted 'drive here, watch cutscene' kind of deal, but actual gameplay integration. That means exploration, potential ambushes on the road, and maybe even using your ride as a survival tool. This is a big departure for Resident Evil , where transportation has usually been limited to set pieces. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like They Were So Beautiful Before; Now Look At Them; Number 10 Will Shock You Reportingly Undo Two Protagonists, Two Playstyles The leaks suggest a clever split in gameplay styles: Leon's gameplay : Inspired by The Last of Us Part 2 , with stealth-heavy encounters, gritty melee combat, and methodical pacing. Perfect for a veteran cop-turned-zombie-killer who's seen way too much. Grace's gameplay : More environmental interaction, using objects around you to take out enemies creatively. Add in light vs. darkness mechanics, and her gameplay loop sounds tense, strategic, and creepy in all the right ways. Aiming for Performance Without Compromise According to the insider, Capcom is pushing for smooth 60fps even in its open environments. That's ambitious, especially for a series known for tight corridors and fixed spaces. If they pull it off, Requiem could be one of the smoothest-running entries in the franchise's history. Vehicular traversal, dual protagonist design, and expanded combat mechanics aren't just bullet points; they hint at Resident Evil Requiem redefining the series formula. If the rumors are legit, this could be the most dynamic and replayable entry in the franchise. The official gameplay reveal is reportedly just around the corner, so we won't have to wait long to see if these leaks are fact or fiction. Catch Rani Rampal's inspiring story on Game On, Episode 4. Watch Here!
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Last of Us: Season 2 Episode 6 Review
Episode 6 of season 2 of The Last of Us is directed by Neil Druckmann, and when viewed through that lens, its intentions become clearer. It contains some of the scenes that fans of The Last of Us Part 2, and presumably its creator, hold dearest. This allows Druckmann to tightly control the sacred bond between Joel and Ellie, as well as giving space to further explore characters barely present in the game – the final moments of Eugene's life strains the connection between the protagonists in new ways. Joe Pantoliano imbues the doomed Eugene with a dash of class, Bella Ramsey slots nicely back into the role of a younger Ellie, and Druckmann steadily steers the whole ship, but this chapter is undeniably Pedro Pascal's. His pitch-perfect portrayal of Joel reminds us of what both Ellie and the show have lost. Framed around each of Ellie's birthdays following their return to Jackson, episode 6 delicately displays Joel's urge to fulfil his role as a father. It's rooted in the very first scene, in which we see him as a teenage boy: The conversation between Joel and his father, played with warmth yet underlying hardness by Better Call Saul's Tony Dalton, presents the poisoned chalice passed down from Miller to Miller. That struggle of generational fatherhood is what has driven Joel ever since. Sarah was his world before the outbreak. Then he grieved her, holding onto her memories until Ellie arrived. By the end of this episode, she's 17, and he's on the brink of losing another daughter. It's a crossroads he's contending with, and one brilliantly displayed by Pascal throughout, as he battles to do the right thing by her. It's perhaps best conveyed in the final moment between them – and the very last conversation between Ellie and Joel before his death. Their porchside chat is perhaps the most affecting in all of the game, so it's a huge relief to see it recreated so well here. The vulnerability in Pascal's face is all-consuming, as he barely utters a word but lets his eyes speak for him. He's terrified of losing Ellie, but he's expressing it in a way that he can't really control, and a way that will infect her, too – his tears filling that cursed cup once more, ready for Ellie to sip from and make the same selfish mistakes he did. It adds extra heartbreaking context to her 'I'm gonna be a dad' quip from earlier in the season. She'll aim to break this cycle, but little in her present-day actions suggests this. Though that's giving more thought to the present day than episode 6 can muster, which is my major reservation about this episode. The series of flashbacks is heartfelt and works excellently when it comes to building out the protagonists of The Last of Us' past and future, but I can't help but feel like momentum has stalled here. It feels off to spend a whole episode exploring Ellie's history when we've just ratcheted the tension on who she's become. And with only one episode left to go in the season, it feels like the only road to a satisfying finale will involve covering a lot of ground in a short period of time. It's not so much a criticism of what this episode does, but more of its place within season Ramsey feels much more at home as a younger Ellie, portraying a wide-eyed, excitable version of the character with a far greater verve than the more fearsome evolution we got last week. It's best shown in her and Joel's visit to a nearby museum, where Ellie takes a heartstring-tugging trip into orbit, thanks to a tape recording and a long-forgotten space capsule. The smile that dances across her face is a rare moment of levity in a show, that, up until this moment, has been irrepressibly bleak. As we watch the pair enjoy their respite, it feels like some of that season 1 magic has been rebottled. But, as ever, what The Last of Us giveth with one hand, it taketh with the other, not letting us sit with this flash of joy for long. Episode 6 finally answers a question posed in the season premiere: What did Joel do to Eugene to make Gail resent him so much? Pantoliano is given his time to shine as Eugene, a member of the Jackson community whose time is ticking away thanks to an infected's bite. His introduction enables Joel and Ellie's dynamic from season 1 to resurface, and echoes of their experience in Salt Lake City can be felt. Joel has lived long enough in this world to be wary of Eugene – any sense of optimism (or hope that Eugene can be healed) is long gone. Not Ellie, though: She still carries an element of naivety and wants to help Eugene. The mercy killing carried out by Joel only sows more seeds of distrust between him and his surrogate daughter. In his lie to Gail about it, Ellie realises just how easy it is for Joel to hide the truth. It's in this moment that the fissures in their relationship really start to crack wide open. What Joel did isn't necessarily wrong, but it runs counter to Ellie's moral code and how she would've dealt with Eugene. It effectively means that she now knows that Joel has been lying about what happened in that Firefly hospital, and the revelation of him lying about Eugene is a great choice by Druckmann. It's an example of adaptation for the better – which this season largely hasn't landed for me – and a much more impactful, and logical, option than having Joel and Ellie traipse all the way back to Salt Lake City as they do in The Last of Us Part 2. It's something the episode as a whole does to great effect as it further explores the intervening years and Joel and Ellie's dynamic, offering new glimpses into previously unseen moments. Joel catching Ellie doing things she maybe shouldn't be doing at 17 and his built-in resentment for Seth (due to his former life as a policeman, like Joel's dad) add more shades to the character, even though he's long gone in the present day. These little touches and grandstand speeches combine to great effect to help us fully understand why Joel made every decision that led to his death, all the way up to rescuing his eventual killer from a horde of infected. Above all else, it's the desire to be a protector that forged the Millers' poisoned chalice – and eventually led to his downfall.
Tom's Guide
06-06-2025
- Tom's Guide
Your PS5 games are about to look a whole lot smoother thanks to this new update — here's what it does
Sony just dropped a system update for the PS5 and PS5 Pro, finally putting the problematic VRR stuttering to rest. The PS5 system update, version 25.04-11.40.00, doesn't actually specify this particular fix in its release notes. Instead, Digital Foundry highlighted the change in a post on X, referencing an email correspondence with Sony PR. In the unlikely event you you don't get a system update message upon startup, first make sure you're connected to the internet. Head to Settings -> System, then System Software. Click "Update System Software," and you should be good to go. Sony PR contacted me yesterday to confirm that - as already detected by some - the latest PlayStation firmware resolves the VRR hiccup issue. Both the PS5 and PS5 Pro have long suffered from stuttering issues when using VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) for several months now. In an ironic twist, VRR is intended to diminish stuttering using some key enhancements. These include real-time syncing of the console and TV's refresh rate and an unlocked framerate to give games that buttery-smooth look. The PS5 initially used the technology without any constraints, but a more recent system update that went out in the past few months most likely caused VRR syncing issues when playing specific games in this mode. The problems persisted after playing for around 30 to 40 minutes across a variety of games. Luckily, the issue has been quelled across both Sony consoles, and you can rest assured that playing titles like The Last of Us Part 2, Diablo 4, and more will run smoothly in VRR mode now. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips.
The Sun
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
The Last of Us Season 2 stumbles with major changes
FOLLOWING the success of HBO's The Last of Us first season in 2023, it was a no-brainer that the second season would be greenlit to adapt Sony and Naughty Dog's controversial The Last of Us Part 2 video game and bring the story of Joel and Ellie full circle. However, with the new season, it is now clear that the 2023 season's success was nothing more than a fluke or an isolated lightning-in-a-bottle moment. Adapting hefty source material such as The Last of Us Part 2 – with its complex characters, themes, nuance and controversial creative decisions – to television was always going to be an arduous task but one could argue that it would also be easy, as the groundwork has already been set. Unfortunately, the second season of The Last of Us handles the source material as literal groundwork. In other words, the game and everything that transpires in it is treated as nothing more than a suggestion, which is how the show's co-creator Craig Mazin has developed the season. New threat Set five years after the conclusion of the first season, The Last of Us picks up with Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) fully settled into the normalcy of living in Jackson, a barricaded town consisting of other survivors from the Cordyceps pandemic. Everything goes well until a mysterious group from Seattle arrives. Belonging to a bigger militia outfit called the Washington Liberation Front, the small group is led by Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) to Jackson, looking for Joel due to his actions at the end of the first season. At the same time, an infected horde is riled up into attacking Jackson. In the ensuing chaos, the town suffers massive losses. The tragic events on that day lead to Ellie and Dina (Isabella Merced) trekking halfway across the country to Seattle, as they seek to settle the score with Abby. Radical changes, major damage Though the first season took creative liberties in condensing and expanding The Last of Us Part 1 into a nine-episode season, the second season makes far more radical changes to the point that HBO and Sony's properties look like different entities. Early in the season, it becomes clear Mazin has changed the order of events that occur in the game, as the domino effect quickly spirals into disrupting several other aspects of the narrative, such as how important secondary characters are removed from the story, leading to critical scenes, sequences and set pieces to be removed as those characters do not exist in the new narrative. With the passing of each episode, the aftermath continues to snowball, affecting other aspects, such as how certain main characters have their characterisation either reversed or swapped. A big victim of these changes is the main character herself, a 19-year-old Ellie, who is infantilised by Mazin to behave like a clueless, happy-go-lucky child that constantly needs to be watched over. From wrath to whimsy In the game, Ellie is persistently wallowing in depression and anger. Fueled entirely by an unquenchable thirst for revenge, Ellie's descent into an endless pitch black hole forms the crux and backbone to The Last of Us Part 2. From her brusquely calling Dina a 'burden' after finding out about her concealed pregnancy in the middle of their dangerous mission to committing acts of extreme violence, the heavy tone prompts players to plead – in their heads – for her to stop before there are further losses, either to herself or to those around her. In Mazin's new version, Ellie is consistently jovial five episodes into the season. In the fourth episode, several major tonal whiplashes occur, frenetically shifting between comically out-of-place jokes and Ellie behaving more her age and in-character. Mazin's fundamental misunderstanding of the character also robs Ellie of agency and the bloodthirst she is supposed to have from the traumatic incident that put her on the path for revenge. Fans familiar with the game often joke that Ellie 'kills half of Seattle' on her mission, yet this iteration of Ellie by Mazin struggles against the infected and barely kills three people, two of which were accidental. The poor writing and direction bleeds into Ramsey's performance as well, turning it extremely uneven due to the tonal inconsistencies. At points, it was so bad that whenever Pascal, Merced, Dever or any of the supporting cast were on screen, their great performances would completely eclipse Ramsey's. Missing voices, misguided vision Unlike the first season, a bulk of this season was written primarily by Mazin. Show co-creator and writer Neil Druckmann's – also the game's co-creator and writer – absence is clearly felt. It certainly does not help that Halley Gross, who co-wrote The Last of Us Part 2, was not involved with the first five episodes, which forms the most jarring bulk of the season. Already greenlit, the third season will cover the second half of The Last of Us Part 2 and if there is a merciful god, Druckmann and Gross should have majority control over steering the series back to what it is supposed to be: a story that is not dumbed down for general audiences and is brave with making hard decisions in its narrative, without being weighed down by infantilised main characters or having its nuance and complexity stripped. The Last of Us second season is streaming on Max.
The Sun
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
The Last of Us, defanged
FOLLOWING the success of HBO's The Last of Us first season in 2023, it was a no-brainer that the second season would be greenlit to adapt Sony and Naughty Dog's controversial The Last of Us Part 2 video game and bring the story of Joel and Ellie full circle. However, with the new season, it is now clear that the 2023 season's success was nothing more than a fluke or an isolated lightning-in-a-bottle moment. Adapting hefty source material such as The Last of Us Part 2 – with its complex characters, themes, nuance and controversial creative decisions – to television was always going to be an arduous task but one could argue that it would also be easy, as the groundwork has already been set. Unfortunately, the second season of The Last of Us handles the source material as literal groundwork. In other words, the game and everything that transpires in it is treated as nothing more than a suggestion, which is how the show's co-creator Craig Mazin has developed the season. New threat Set five years after the conclusion of the first season, The Last of Us picks up with Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) fully settled into the normalcy of living in Jackson, a barricaded town consisting of other survivors from the Cordyceps pandemic. Everything goes well until a mysterious group from Seattle arrives. Belonging to a bigger militia outfit called the Washington Liberation Front, the small group is led by Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) to Jackson, looking for Joel due to his actions at the end of the first season. At the same time, an infected horde is riled up into attacking Jackson. In the ensuing chaos, the town suffers massive losses. The tragic events on that day lead to Ellie and Dina (Isabella Merced) trekking halfway across the country to Seattle, as they seek to settle the score with Abby. Radical changes, major damage Though the first season took creative liberties in condensing and expanding The Last of Us Part 1 into a nine-episode season, the second season makes far more radical changes to the point that HBO and Sony's properties look like different entities. Early in the season, it becomes clear Mazin has changed the order of events that occur in the game, as the domino effect quickly spirals into disrupting several other aspects of the narrative, such as how important secondary characters are removed from the story, leading to critical scenes, sequences and set pieces to be removed as those characters do not exist in the new narrative. With the passing of each episode, the aftermath continues to snowball, affecting other aspects, such as how certain main characters have their characterisation either reversed or swapped. A big victim of these changes is the main character herself, a 19-year-old Ellie, who is infantilised by Mazin to behave like a clueless, happy-go-lucky child that constantly needs to be watched over. From wrath to whimsy In the game, Ellie is persistently wallowing in depression and anger. Fueled entirely by an unquenchable thirst for revenge, Ellie's descent into an endless pitch black hole forms the crux and backbone to The Last of Us Part 2. From her brusquely calling Dina a 'burden' after finding out about her concealed pregnancy in the middle of their dangerous mission to committing acts of extreme violence, the heavy tone prompts players to plead – in their heads – for her to stop before there are further losses, either to herself or to those around her. In Mazin's new version, Ellie is consistently jovial five episodes into the season. In the fourth episode, several major tonal whiplashes occur, frenetically shifting between comically out-of-place jokes and Ellie behaving more her age and in-character. Mazin's fundamental misunderstanding of the character also robs Ellie of agency and the bloodthirst she is supposed to have from the traumatic incident that put her on the path for revenge. Fans familiar with the game often joke that Ellie 'kills half of Seattle' on her mission, yet this iteration of Ellie by Mazin struggles against the infected and barely kills three people, two of which were accidental. The poor writing and direction bleeds into Ramsey's performance as well, turning it extremely uneven due to the tonal inconsistencies. At points, it was so bad that whenever Pascal, Merced, Dever or any of the supporting cast were on screen, their great performances would completely eclipse Ramsey's. Missing voices, misguided vision Unlike the first season, a bulk of this season was written primarily by Mazin. Show co-creator and writer Neil Druckmann's – also the game's co-creator and writer – absence is clearly felt. It certainly does not help that Halley Gross, who co-wrote The Last of Us Part 2, was not involved with the first five episodes, which forms the most jarring bulk of the season. Already greenlit, the third season will cover the second half of The Last of Us Part 2 and if there is a merciful god, Druckmann and Gross should have majority control over steering the series back to what it is supposed to be: a story that is not dumbed down for general audiences and is brave with making hard decisions in its narrative, without being weighed down by infantilised main characters or having its nuance and complexity stripped. The Last of Us second season is streaming on Max.
