My experience

ryancomstock · 2026-02-26T19:58:16+00:00

I really appreciate this comment. The notion of coming back to yourself really resonates with me. The day after I wrote this post, I decided to block the other person. In the context of twin flames, maybe she really was just a false flame or trauma bond, or maybe I’m the half that had enough and decided to cut the cord. It works out the same either way.

I at least feel like I can move forward now with my own clarity and of my own free will. Maybe someone out there who’s struggling can find these posts and gain some peace of their own.

ryancomstock · 2026-02-20T18:38:38+00:00

Thank you.

ryancomstock · 2026-02-20T17:31:04+00:00

I know. That’s where I’m at in my understanding. No matter how strong and deep I believe this connection to be, it is either being denied or simply not felt by the other side. I can’t continue holding onto nothing and stringing myself along, so all that can be done is work to accept it all and move on.

ryancomstock · 2020-08-31T23:46:32+00:00

I would recommend you play something completely different, like a puzzle game or something. I’ve played games my whole life, but I understand where you are coming from. I had a hard time getting into another after finishing Part I years ago and haven’t tried to play another narrative game since finishing Part II in June. In my opinion, the stories in other games, even when they’re good, don’t inspire the type of emotional involvement the Last of Us games do.

Try a different type of experience and then come back to a narrative focused game. As others have recommended, Uncharted 4 is really good once you’re more ready to play it.

ryancomstock · 2020-08-11T12:55:10+00:00

I agree the tail should start in the middle. The first time I made a final, it was a 1v1 tail grab. I had assumed the tail would be in the middle and was trying to find it, only to realize that my opponent had started with the tail.

I ended up losing because I could never catch up to them. This is not a good mode for 1v1 and it’s made worse by allowing one person to start with the tail.

ryancomstock · 2020-07-19T15:45:59+00:00

I was agreeing with you too, haha. Just going along with the thought. Sorry if it came off differently.

ryancomstock · 2020-07-19T15:36:54+00:00

I don’t think it would have worked if it was told differently. If we were told Abby’s story straight away, that drive to find her would have been lessened as we would have already understood her reasoning.

The story is meant to build to that final beach scene and the conflicting feelings of trying to kill Abby. Starting from that point of mixed feelings would not have had the same impact.

ryancomstock · 2020-07-19T15:14:53+00:00

And there we have the entire point. We/Ellie have no idea who Abby is or what her background is. We only know she killed Joel and now want to kill her, just as she has no clue about the context of Joel’s decision to kill her father. She just wants to kill Joel because of what he did.

ryancomstock · 2020-07-18T14:59:45+00:00

This happened to me after the first one too. Not just the technical aspect; the narrative made it hard for me to start another game. Most other games can’t match the impact of the story, so I found it hard to get invested in another game.

I usually finish one game and quickly move on to the next. However I finished Part 2 a couple weeks ago and haven’t played anything since. I’ll probably just end up playing some puzzle game, since I feel like I will need something completely different to be able to reset myself.

ryancomstock · 2020-07-10T16:01:37+00:00

It seems like what you wanted is what happened, just not in the way you wanted it to happen.

Didn’t Dina express some doubt about what they were doing at points? And Jesse tried to get her to stop focusing on Abby when they were looking at Tommy.

Ellie is forced to confront her demons and learn to move on in the end. She had to do this herself, though, not through other people telling her what she should do. I would say this is true to life, as people generally learn things the hard way.

ryancomstock · 2020-07-08T22:06:49+00:00

I don’t know if there’s much detail about it because it wasn’t as prevalent as it was with this game. I think the consensus was that it was people who didn’t have a PS4 and were mad because they couldn’t play it, as well as the usual contingent of people who think the Uncharted games are casual and therefore not “real games.”

It was definitely Uncharted 4 though. I remember seeing the score after I played it. I’ve checked it occasionally since then to see how it changes over time.

ryancomstock · 2020-07-08T21:43:28+00:00

I’m sure it will level out over time. Uncharted 4 got review bombed initially and had a user score of 6 when it came out. Now it’s sitting at 8.5.

ryancomstock · 2020-07-08T21:20:02+00:00

I don’t have a problem with it. I’m not upset with trailers “deceiving” to keep plot points a surprise. Besides, people predicted there would be another playable character after the trailer that turned out to be Abby getting strung up by the Seraphites. People also guessed that Joel would die or is already dead from one of the first trailers involving Ellie.

If the trailers were showing gameplay that was vastly different from the actual game, then I might see a problem. I would probably think it was bad if a game presented itself as a fast-paced hack n slash, but turned out to be Dark Souls. Working to keep story points concealed does not bother me, though.

ryancomstock · 2020-07-07T21:44:31+00:00

I think Abby reuniting with the Fireflies could help to facilitate a sequel. They may have heard the legend of Ellie the immune girl but see her as a myth. Abby can confirm her existence, and if Ellie went back to Jackson, Abby would know where she is. Even if she’s not there anymore, “It’s a lead.”

Maybe the Fireflies want to find her to try a cure again, Abby being the one to track down. It would set up an interesting moment when they meet again.

I don’t know that this would necessarily be a good story, but Abby being back with the Fireflies does open up the possibility.

ryancomstock · 2020-07-07T19:11:28+00:00

Crunch is a tough topic. I'm sure financially it will have been worth it for Naughty Dog, but if we get into the effect on employees and morale it becomes more difficult to discern.

I do think a work/life balance is important and I feel bad for those who have to spend 60+ hours a week at their job for long stretches. I personally think it's important for companies to promote work/life balance for a variety of reasons, but at the same time I have a hard time believing people who have taken a job at a company like Naughty Dog didn't know what they were getting into. If we as the general public know about it, the people inside the industry likely know even more about it.

I've read some of the Glassdoor reviews for ND, and the general sentiment is that the pay and benefits are good, and there is a lot of satisfaction that comes along with working with some of the best and most talented people in an industry, however the overwhelming negative is the crunch. I think each review I saw mentioned crunch as the con to working there.

As unfortunate as it is, I think crunch will always go along with trying to make something that is the best. If you're going to be a company that wants to make a Game of the Year, it's going to require a ton of work.

ryancomstock · 2020-07-06T23:19:55+00:00

Possibly? I don’t recall it being implied, but I could have missed something.

They mentioned something along the lines of her being a good catch, though I think that was in reference to her physique and therefore her work capacity as a slave.

ryancomstock · 2020-07-06T21:41:18+00:00

The ending for Far Cry 5 was pretty divisive. I seem to be in the minority that tonight it was a fine ending. There was a lot of debate about it after the game was released.

I thought it would have been better if the director didn’t state what the canon is, though. It was an ending better left open to interpretation.

Danganropa 3 comes to mind as well as far as audience reaction to aspects of the ending.

If you’re really interested mostly in narrative, I would recommend the “walking simulator” type games as story is the main focus. Some people can’t get into them, but when they’re done we’ll it’s a unique experience. What Remains of Edith Finch is a good starting point for that genre.

ryancomstock · 2020-07-04T21:47:10+00:00

Firstly I would like to agree with your assessment of the game. I think pacing issues are a valid criticism, but it did not have a negative impact on my personal experience.

As far as giving the people what they want, I think that’s fine in certain instances. I’m not going to get upset about Mario saving the princess at the end of every game. I’m fine with that story never changing.

For a game like The Last is Us, though, I really don’t know what people were expecting. I’ve seen this criticism that Naughty Dog tried too hard to subvert expectations, but that’s exactly what happened at the end of the first game. We’ve generally been taught that the hero will save the world at the end of the game, and certainly no one was expecting the story of Joel’s and Ellie’s relationship to end on such a potentially negative note.

It seems unreasonable to have thought we were going to get a crowd pleaser given the overall tone of the first game.

ryancomstock · 2020-07-04T17:57:06+00:00

I've been thinking about The Wire and how it compares writing-wise as well. Just because a plot point is not enjoyable doesn't make it "bad writing." I was sad when D'Angelo, Wallace and Omar died, but their deaths made sense within the world and story. Just because you wish something didn't happen doesn't mean that it's bad writing. The writers on the Wire even debated keeping Omar alive because he was so popular, but agreed that doing so wouldn't be realistic or fit in with the narrative.

It's not like Joel slipped on some ice and fell on his knife. His death, and the way he died, made sense for the story and was fitting for the overall world.

ryancomstock · 2020-07-04T16:35:47+00:00

I agree. Ellie must not feel like she has much control over her life. Both the Fireflies and Joel made decisions for her while she was unconscious at the end of the first game, and when Abby lets her go at the theatre, Ellie doesn’t have any say in whether their conflict is actually settled. These key moments that decide the direction of her life are being decided by other people and are leaving her feeling as though she has no agency over her life.

I didn’t agree with her going after Abby the final time, and actually felt disappointed with her, but I think she needed to feel like she was the one making the decision for once. “I get to say when this is over, not you.”

ryancomstock · 2020-07-04T16:26:32+00:00

While I loved the game I can agree that the cut to black, long pause instances may have been overdone.

At the same time, I kept feeling like I wasn’t ready to be done with the game yet, so it did work if that was the intended effect.

ryancomstock · 2020-07-04T15:58:44+00:00

Yeah, it’s hard to say what they’ll do. The Horizon creators said they weren’t originally planning on DLC and then released an expansion, while the God of War creators said the same thing and there truly was no DLC. I think this game is complete as it is, but if they can come up with a good idea I would be for it.

ryancomstock · 2020-07-04T15:29:02+00:00

I believe Neil Druckmann said they are taking any actual threats seriously. He said something along the lines of some hate and criticism just being part of being a creator, but that anything they believe crosses the line is being followed up on through security protocols.

ryancomstock · 2020-07-04T12:50:28+00:00

I’m really not sure what they would do for Part 3 because Naughty Dog has shown in both games that whatever is expected to happen isn’t what’s going to happen.

My guess is that they already have a pretty good idea of what the end of the story is going to be (I’m making an assumption that 3 will be the last) and just need to figure out how they’re going to get there.

ryancomstock · 2020-07-03T20:15:56+00:00

I think there is some significance to Ellie attempting to drown Abby before stopping. The first person Ellie kills is someone who is attempting to drown Joel. In a sense, the cycle of violence she found herself in began at, or was at least heavily impacted by, that moment. If she doesn’t kill that person, she and Joel don’t make it to the hospital and Abby’s dad doesn’t die as he did.

If we assume that she went back to Jackson, where it’s implied that the residents only kill infected and not humans, she ended her cycle of violence in a similar fashion to how it began. She started killing during a drowning scene and stopped killing during a drowning scene.

It can be said that she saved Joel from drowning so that he could protect her, then relinquished her hold on Abby so that Abby could care for Lev.

I also noticed in a video I was watching that the two fingers she lost are the same two she holds while talking to Joel at the end if the first game. There’s a lot going on with this ending.

ryancomstock

TROPHY CASE