Naughty Dog Turns Off Intergalactic PS5 Trailer's Comments As Discourse Turns Nasty

I think it's a great idea to have no hair, after all, nobody does 'hair' properly anyway!!! Bring it on ND !!

Some people are clearly NOT OK, the level of brain rot / mental illness to conjure up hate and anger over a made-up character in a video game... open up the jails!

Erm the lass from the recent Alien Romulus film looks identical to the character from Naughty Dog, so not sure why people are getting funny about the looks.

I'd be more surprised if they weren't turned off. Culture warriors gonna culture war.

People really need to grow up and stop shouting about things that they don't like until they get their own way.

How much does it actually matter though?? You're playing as a fictional character in space in a fictional future. Some people need to get a grip and figure out what's really important in their lives. Screaming about the look of a fictional, digital character should be soooooooo far down your list of priorities.

I find it really strange how people get so upset about stuff like this.

I think the game looks great. So exciting to see a new IP from Naughty Dog. I’m learning to just ignore the perpetual losers who live on Twitter. The grifters on there are the most unserious people imaginable, led by their loser overlord Elon Musk.

I think it says more about these online non-entities that are so triggered by video game.

Is it really all you’ve got to worry about in your life?!

Without being nasty, I'm not a fan of female characters games, rather the choice like mass effect etc. Plus I've not been a fan of naughty dog since they canned Jake and daxter and sky racoon games and not into action hotter games like thr last of us, especially killing off an established character for diversity and inclusion or ehstever the reasoning behind it. Druickman storytelling pales in comparison to amy henning imo

To the people who hate on imaginary characters and their creators that exist in imaginary worlds that aren’t real. You’re the problem. Weak sauce all round. You don’t have to play the game or agree with the artistic direction. Nobody’s holding a gun to your head, ffs…

I think it looks really interesting but the shaved head look does kinda put me off.

Basement dwellers have a lot of free time on their hands sadly.

Headline is misleading. ND had comments turned off from literally the beginning. Playstation's channel has comments on, which is where the negative reacts are happening. ND never allowed comment for even a second as far as I am aware.

The character looks exactly like the actor. I don’t see how that’s a problem. It’s a video game character for gosh sakes. The gameplay is the thing that matters the most. I don’t care how the player character looks

With everything I’d heard about the game as well as the trailer (albeit not gameplay) I’m hype. I reckon it’ll be yet another great Naughty Dog game!

Wait, people are actually upset over this? Because a character is bald? Huh? People are so dumb.

I get that some people are anti woke or whatever, but lately some people on the internet are just becoming blatantly sexist, homophobic and xenophobic in their comments. Which isnt right, and is ruining gaming as much as the ‘woke’ stuff they’re fighting against. Dont get me wrong, i dont want to imply that you cant critique or have an opinion on a game, thats totally fine. But some corners of the internet can get very toxic, even if its a small minority.

Games used to be judged by their story, gameplay, level design and what not. Now whole games are being called trash or insisted to flop, because some people cannot relate to one character in a teaser trailer. Only because they think she’s annoying? DEI? Talks weird? Or that she’s gay? Or a woman? Or too muscular? Walks too masculine? Or too ‘exotic looking’? Bald? Ugly? I dont even know anymore, it’s sad that that is where we’re at. And all of this after just having seen like 3 mins of a game. Modern gaming audiences can be tiring sometimes.

Yeah the comments are pretty disgusting. Bunch off pathetic incels the lot of them.

People have opinions, this will never change. Going full manic mode because you don't like one is a bizarre behavior.......

Folks really need to just take a breath and calm the ***** down

The reality is that a bunch of classic games over the years wouldn’t fit their purity tests if they released today. Movies too. I cannot imagine being this miserable.

I have yet to see a single compelling reason why Neil Druckmann, Naughty Dog, and anyone associated with their projects get an unbelievable amount of crap from these guys. From the way they talk about him, you would think Druckmann broke into their homes and shot their dogs.

Sad to see a game get hate and more dislikes than likes just because a character looks a certain way. People are rubbish but is this a suprise to anyone anymore

Ah here we go again.

@LogicStrikesAgain Sexism, homophobia and xenophobia is quite literally what anti-woke means. That’s the whole deal.

This was going to be the reaction regardless of what Naughty Dog showed, it could have been a fusion dance of Black Myth and Elden Ring and the reaction would have been "nice try unoriginal Neil Cuckmann the game will still suck lolol Cuckmann get it 🤣" 😒

Sometimes I think something must be wrong with me...

I see characters of different ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations and appearances, and I just say "oh, cool" and carry on with my day. Is this the wrong reaction to take? Am I void of emotional response? Am I supposed to see a shaved head on a female character and either feel ecstatic or appalled?

I just don't get it. I don't understand humans anymore.

Theres just no winning in todays society is there. For years people said there weren't enough females in gaming, then it was they were made to look weak, and now we have corrected that and we have strong female protagonists we just hate the games outright and go after the actresses. Im a gamer but that word is now attached to stuff like this and it saddens me. Lets play games and have fun as intended

@Juanalf That Neil Cuckmann insult is maybe the laziest insult I've ever heard. I love a mocking nickname when it's funny, but I find nothing clever in calling Druckmann a "cuck". Outside of Abby having muscles, I don't know where this anti-woke religious mantra came from.

I don't care about the looks, for me it's the personality that didn't give me a great first impression. I'm not a fan of that overused 'acting cool + doesn't give a sh't' personality

@Thelegend159 Ripley goes bald in Alien 3 and Vasquez a fan favourite looks very masculine to the point you get the famous "hey Vasquez, have you ever been mistaken for a man?" "No have you?" exchange between her and Hudson in Aliens.

As I said before there is very little to have an opinion about on the game itself, because there was zero gameplay.

I thought the trailer was fine, I don't care whether the protagonist is like me or alternatively makes me feel all tingly inside, I want well written relatable characters and personally i found the later parts of Ellie's arc in TLOU2 to be unpleasant and totally unrelatable as her vengeance became more important than the ones she loved.

This trailer was all pretty generic sci-fi, edge-lord (edge-lady?) stuff with some egregious product placement to boot and I think without a Naughty Dog logo at the end, no one cares in the slightest right now but with their pedigree it is definitely one to watch.

@LogicStrikesAgain I HATE bald boys. Every time I see one I feel like I’m back in the pants.

@RBMango I find most of the time those who use cuck as an insult don't even know what it means.

@nessisonett I see your point. But i can get behind some points of anti woke like not pushing certain ‘facts’ to kids and stuff. But dismissing a game for having a female lead, getting angry because it has other races as protagonists or having gay representation in the game is not anti woke, its just prejudice.

Honestly, it’s confusing to me what all these terms even mean lately. But if that is what anti-woke means, then consider me anti anti-woke.

Ripley in Alien 3 shaves her head because of the lice in the prison population. It isn't style choice, everyone there is bald for that reason.

I don't have a problem with the shaven headed protagonist but Ripley's circumstances aren't comparable.

@Savage_Joe I really have a problem with people being this weird now does a woman has to look a certain way now to please the antiwoke crew? I saw some disgusting remarks about the girl in SH2 not being fuc*ble and then i knew the gaming race is a bunch of losers its getting sad.

The same here when a certain user on this site spoiled the whole story of the Last of Us 2 in a unrelated article because he didnt like what happened.

Lets be real here the antiwoke crew is the saddest lowest form of human life here and there are the biggest snowflakes around.

It's obvious why they would, but I think turning off comments is never a good move as now it just emboldens the haters. What's a huge bummer is knowing that I'll basically have to turn off the internet leading up to it's release as to avoid having the entire game spoiled. Don't feed the trolls.

@Medic_alert You dont know anything about the story yet so how do you even know what is going on?

Stoked for this, eff all the noise! I absolutely loved all the Uncharted and TLoU games. True classics in a sea of poop.

I wonder how it will do with Naughty dogs cost to develop. Last of US 2 took significantly longer to sell and likely this one will take longer to reach as well. Looks insane graphically and im sure it will be a great game. That said, probably gonna push alot of people away which is understandable, its not the Naughty Dog that Amy Henning built up along with its fanbase

Can games just be games? I don't like the character aestethics but I Will be there day one because ND!

@Savage_Joe I was never going to say he was a saint, but okay... What exactly did Druckmann say that was insulting? And can you link me to the source of these comments? I would genuinely like to know specifically what he said and where this came from.

@Loamy I think we gamers are such snowflakes now that they cant handle anything that isnt completely to their liking. Gamers are a sad bunch that is what i think.

From what I understand, the comments were disabled on Naughty Dog’s upload of the trailer from the beginning. Like, from the moment it was uploaded. So saying they disabled comments in response to bad comments seems a little disingenuous.

Unless I’m completely wrong, of course. This is a possibility!

@Johnnycide What does back in the pants mean? Im not familiar with the expression.

@Flaming_Kaiser I don't but you can't make a comparison without knowing what is going on either.

There may be a very good reason for her appearance, there may also be a really thin reason for it that works just as well because of her character.

But I do think the comparison is odd at this stage.

@DennisReynolds Cuck has a VERY specific meaning behind it. Druckmann giving the thumbs up to a bald lead female protagonist and Abby being built is not "cuckery".

i don't care because it's too late and we'll know NG have a woke agenda, but the made TLOU 2 (best game ever) so this game will be a masterprice.

People would be complaining regardless if she had hair or not. They're doing the same with Cire from Witcher 4. Its all to do with these weirdos complaining that the characters aren't reaching their beauty standards.

@dskatter No, you're correct. Push Square is just pushing a fake narrative for some reason.

It's true that many comments regarding this game are negative, as is the like/dislike ratio. It's true that ND has comments disabled. However, the headline/article makes it sound as if the first fact caused the second. That is not true, but it's a juicier narrative to push if you're running cover for a game that is getting a very divisive reception and trying to act as if it's a minority opinion and abusive to boot.

Xbox fan Boys strikes again

Reminds me of that scar girl in TLOU2. Who cares if she is bald or not. These people need to see a mental health doctor.

@glennthefrog Thanks for confirming! That definitely changes what the thrust of this article should be, then.

I guess accuracy doesn’t get clicks, though.

@Johnnycide it's illegal for you to ask me that

@glennthefrog Another point I always make is that this site seems like a Trojan horse. If you notice, most of the comments are against PlayStation and in favor of Xbox...it's bizarre...

@Savage_Joe It's so weird because I certainly remember him saying that he would rather have the game be considered anything than "Okay."

@voltum3l I mean any decent person should have a woke agenda giving what woke actually means. To be anti woke is admitting to be racist, a bigot and so on.

@AdamNovice Imagine the reveal of Samus in todays climate.

Just leave the developer ND alone and all this stuff.
Let them get on and probably given the Uncharted and Last of Us series of games make an amazing and top quality AAA.
That myself and others will enjoy.

@DennisReynolds I'm just picturing some basement dweller finally taking a shower and crying in the stall all because they were tricked into playing a buff blonde lass.

This is a prime example of why I've stopped discussing modern games on certain platforms, its just not worth it anymore with so many idiots spouting nonsense.

All I care about is if a game is going to be enjoyable to play and so far I've not seen anywhere near enough to make a judgement on that. As this along with many other announcements show far too much cinematics and almost zero gameplay but I'll certainly be keeping an eye on it

@DennisReynolds @AdamNovice LOL I was just going to respond with a comment about Samus's reveal. I can imagine the comments, YouTube video titles, and thumbnails:

"Nintendo finally went WOKE."
"Masculinity is DEAD in Metroid."
"Nintendo UNDER FIRE for WOKE Metroid reveal. Gamers are NOT HAVING IT!"

These people are the real NPCs they make fun of others for being.

@DennisReynolds woke has lost all meaning to be honest and every sane person should just stop using it because in any of the various definitions people like to use it has lost every shred of nuance in any discussion on the topics it encompasses.

A stupid, throw away buzz word is all anyone is left with.

@Savage_Joe Are you saying people who are "woke" are not normal and dont have money to buy... things? Truly weird behaviour.

If thats the case, well i'd rather be poor and not be an a-hole, I guess.

Unless I'm missing something this article is disingenuous. Naughty Dog turned off the comments preemptively. They didn't turn off the comments section in response to nasty discourse since no one even knew what Intergalactic was when they uploaded the trailer.
Doesn't change the fact that discourse surrounding this game is toxic though. Still, one would think fact-based reporting is important regardless.

@Zeldorf Dude, Ciri is one of the most beloved characters in The Witcher 3, and the comments about her from this Witcher 4 trailer echo the same nonsense these people throw at others just because she doesn't look like a model. She's older and more rough-looking. It must be that woke Western ideology agenda!

@Dragon83 I agree that Amy was a far superior writer.

What the hell is wrong with people? This game looks so good! So the main character is black and shaves her head - WHO CARES??? The vibe of this trailer/game is off the charts. It's like a video game version of Logic's The Incredible True Story.

A lot of people have a simplistic view on things, things are always more complex than people want them to be.

There is a vast ocean of characters between Stellar Blade characters and the character from this trailer. Most of us are somewhere in the middle.

The people who designed the characters in Stellar Blade had just as much of an agenda as the designers of the character from the Naughty Dog trailer.

@RBMango I think the problem is decisions like that used to be made in the name of a good story, then over the last few years the decisions have been made for corporate DEI reasons and now its gotten to the point where its hard to tell so people are expecting the worse. We can argue this is tiresome but that expectation has been set by gaming/media which is also tiresome.

@DennisReynolds If you are referring to the original meaning of the term "woke" as it existed in the 1930s, yes. Nowadays woke means something different for most people due to the insane political discourse on social media. I think both sides of the political spectrum have made the word utterly meaningless.

What a pathetic world we live in... this level of discourse belongs in a pre school playground.

As long as the games good, who cares. All of this debate over a made up character. What an absolute waste of time. Some people just need to grow up or, even easier, play something else.

We're in some proper dark times if this is the typical reaction to a new game from a big studio.
I really don't get it, a new IP from a studio with a great track record that has more than a few nods to culture classics like Cowboy Bebop and Alien, what's wrong with these people?!
There was even some BS about how Ciri looks in Witcher 4!
Can we not just look forward to new games while hoping they're good and not complaining for the sake of stirring up fake controversies.

@Zeldorf Nah any female character is hated now unless she looks like Eve. Look at the incel backlash over Ciri as proof, people have wanted her as the TW4 lead since TW3 ended and she looks freaking stunning in the TW4 reveal trailer yet the incel chuds have had a meltdown over it. Like seriously that Endyimon (or whatever it calls itself) straight away had a post moaning that Ciri looks "ugly", its pathetic. They would despise Samus just like they would Lara Croft and Jade from Beyond Good and Evil.

What!? The actress is bald in real life too? Unacceptable. Druckman has gone too far this time.

God himself indeed.

@DennisReynolds

Your first statement about any female lead not being liked unless she looks like Eve is simply not true and is hyperbole.

Is there any evidence to back this up or are you saying things like that just for dramatic effect?

I never really thought any of ND's games were more than okay, so I'm not interested in this one, but not for the reasons most are complaining.

Still, it's interesting to read the comments defending this game when some games from other studios are attacked for similar reasons.

@Robinsad I agree with most of what you said. I think it's undeniable that some companies cynically use racial and sexual diversity. Ubisoft does this all the time. They talk a good line about inclusivity and diversity while protecting alleged sex pests and treating their employees like garbage.

But I would argue that this Intergalactic case is a different situation because I do not see anything in that trailer that points to it as a cynical DEI woke product. The only examples some of the loudest and most well-known anti-woke people can point to are that Jordan shaves her head, is a minority, and has an attitude. By that logic, Vasquez from Aliens is woke.

I think a lot of the loudest people need to possess more thoughtful criticism and discern the difference between cynicism and an artistic decision with sound reasoning.

Does anyone think they'll ever be honest and admit that they don't hate wokeness or political correctness, but just a baseline of human decency?

They had them off from the start. They knew what they were getting into lol. I hate to be lumped in with those cringy people that wont shut up about games like concord and DA veilguard but her design is just not appealing. The thing is she would probably be far more well received if she actually looked like furiosa and had her personality. Furiosa screams bounty hunter desperate enough to go to a dangerous planet to catch some guy. But jordan doesn't really, at least to me

No matter how low you think people can go, they will always, and I mean always find a way to betray your expectations.

@FuzzieGinge88 Straight up, some people’s priorities are clearly a mess.

There are boundaries to everything in life and to take something way deeper than it needs to be is clearly an issue it really is bringing out the society in todays world there are far too many ‘know it alls’ and new gen brain dead gamers where all they know is a handful of games and have never touched grass.

Real shame, it’s not like the trailer forced anything in anyones faces there’s a difference to seeing it blatantly in your face gamers have played all kinds of fictional worlds with female character leads watched movies with all types of fantasy worlds.

It’s why we can’t really have nice things anymore devs aren’t willing to take risks to the extent where they would face criticism for their vision. I respect ND for thinking beyond the norm I’m sure they won’t care too much because they always deliver with their games so it will speak for itself.

Wow some people are truly pathetic.

Funny how the examples of shaved bald women you point out are some of the weakest entries in their respective series.

It's simple: if you continue to create characters that aren't visually appealing to the vast majority of your audience, you're going to get pushback.

I'm an NG fan and have enjoyed everything that they've put out to one degree or another. But people pretending these things don't matter or shouldn't matter are delusional. They DO matter. You can call that shallow or whatever, but it's all part of a package that you're selling to people.

Being "nasty" has also lost it's meaning since simply disagreeing with this sort of "masculine malish female" puts you on a list.

I am not sure if the article writer knew this, but the comments were never turned on to begin with on the Naughty Dog upload as other commenters have mentioned.

Only the Playstation upload had comments turned on.

@ChimpMasta I guess you are new here the actress got death threats, a doctor made a whole study to say that a woman could not be that buff and that were only two things.

If you say that wasn't a toxic crowd then something is clearly wrong with upstairs.

People here were spoiling the plot on day one in articles that had nothing to do with the Last of Us 2. With the current situation with rightwing snowflakes wow.

I think they are more easily offend then the biggest snowflake left winged activists at the moment.

Maybe im wrong and it was always this way but in the past that crew would stay in the basement and be more of adult.

By the Gods, what's up with people these days?
I come from a time where you just take someone's work and accept it for what it is. (It's their vision after all)
You like it or you dislike it... AND MOVE ON.

it is actually completely insane to me that people get up in arms over something like this. I saw someone point out on twitter that if games like Uncharted 4 and Witcher 3 came out today they would be destroyed for being "woke", when 8 years ago they were celebrated. The state of the chronically online gamer is so cumbersome at this point, when will we go back to judging VIDEO GAMES based on the GAME itself?

@themightyant the cry woke, DEI folks sometimes use that to mask the mask the misogyny, racism, and anti-Semitism. They’ve been emboldened to be upfront about it in recent months.

@nessisonett Not true since the term "woke" carries so many different meanings. Many people use it to describe virtue signalling and performative activism.

@Jedihillis There’s a difference.

Simply stating she’s not your type is fine. Albeit maybe a bit weird, but fine nonetheless. Saying it needs to flop because it’s woke trash, because she’s a woman, or a lesbian, or ugly is nasty. Can you spot the difference?

@GreatAuk Name me a female lead not named Eve of the past year that didn't get no notable backlash. I mean dude Ciri freaking Ciri the lead of The Witcher franchise, a fan favourite of TW3, a character people wanted as the lead of TW4 for years and has a jaw dropping design in the reveal trailer is getting incel backlash. As i said name a female character of the past year not named Eve who has received no notable backlash.

@ChimpMasta @ChimpMasta I know right, vocal minority my ass, even outside of YouTube, ppl HATE the game so far

@Nepp67 "think it looks really interesting but the shaved head look does kinda put me off."

Puts you off what?! Playing the game? Or something else entirely? 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Why report on the idiot minority??,we know they're out there, you can't change them so why put focus on them.

People are so sensitive, fragile, and unhappy with their lives. Is this supposed to be worth getting angry about? Gimme a effin break.

I like my sanity, I really do! So, as a person who enjoys playing videogames, amongst other hobbies, I always make an effort to avoid crazy discussions. But somehow, gaming discourse attracts the weirdest and simplistic people who are always readily available to spout some utter nonsense.

This woke and anti-woke business, what does it even mean? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Games are not made for you specifically. You can be critical, that's healthy even. It's fine to have preferences, everyone does. But this insane push, this brutal way to harass people when a game doesn't suit your extreme political views, whatever that may be, is ***** sad. It's not that hard to be respectful, it's not that hard to let people have their opinions, and it's certainly not that hard to not spit on a developer when they make a game that doesn't align with your views and/or preferences. Don't call yourself woke or anti-woke, be a human being. I'm so sick of this *****..

For the folks who are coming down negatively on Intergalactic, I'm legitimately curious - what's the issue with Jordan? Her personality seems pretty on brand for Naughty Dog. Ellie Williams is snarky, Nathan Drake is snarky, Chloe Frazer is snarky. It's just a vehicle for witty dialog and character drama. The fact that she's black and shaves her head seem like such non-issues. I live in a US city and there are so many black women who shave their heads. As far as I know, it's not really a reflection of anything outside of a hair style preference.

@LogicStrikesAgain those are all valid opinions. One is less "nice" sounding but it doesn't invalidate the point being made. And lots of people are sick of it.

Looking forward to this one. I love me some sci fi. And who cares if the protagonist is androgynous and unattractive, we have Eve after all. Maybe the personality of this character would just not suite her being pretty because, often, traditionally pretty reads as conformist, and that’s not a suitable visual shortcut for many characters.

@CallMeDuraSouka That is something the PlayStation community should have done electively years ago, but they refuse to and as such are people who are utterly incapable of accepting differing opinions to theirs, like those who say TLOU2 was rubbish, no they just call those people bigots 🙄

@DennisReynolds

There will ALWAYS be someone out there that is not satisfied with something.

What matters is in the aggregate and putting things in perspective.

Online media loves to amplify the far and few between weirdos that send death threats or make inflammatory remarks because it's good for clicks which means it's good for business.

People who you probably dislike very much (like certain politicians) also get death threats. That's doesn't mean they are the majority or that you condone them just because you are on the same side policy wise.

Same goes for gaming. This article didn't even need to exist; it was based on a false premise. The comments were never on to begin with.

As to whether or not the protagonist in Intergalactic proves likeable or comes off like the Beyond Good & Evil 2 swearing gorillas time will tell. (Still disappointed me when I just wanted to continue Jade's story there).

Thus far,it's hard to judge much on a cinematic. Will any spaceship parts be playable or more likely the ground based wannabe light sabre bits?🤔 Will it take an RPG lite approach like Horizon on upgrades & skill trees? Lots to learn yet before making judgements on the gameplay yet.

As for sensible discourse on such things, one only has to see the current flood of fuzzy camera "drone" footage & hysteria that an Independence Day Alien invasion is upon us to guess how likely that sort of debate will turn out! 2024....I still wonder if Biff stole Doc Brown's Delorean & squashed a butterfly with the sports almanac at some point!😬

I think this situation is only highlighting everything wrong with both sides of this tiring social feud. One side seem to have lazily chucked in a character whose identity enters the room before they do and the other are hyper focused on her appearance, when it's the lack of effort to create a protagonist with an interesting personality that's the real problem.

They cite Cowboy Bebop as inspiration, but they seem to have missed the main thing that makes him interesting, his flaws. I'm not sure ND are prepared to give this character any endearing genuine flaws, aside from having a slightly messy room, from a fear of some kind of backlash or seeming insensitive, which is ironically more offensive and dehumanising if you think about it.

Saying that, I hope I'm wrong. I haven't played the game and maybe the character won't be a complete edgelord know-it-all. The trailer didn't make a great impression in this regard though.

To be honest, the advertising is far more egregious in my opinion. If people have a right to be upset about this trailer, it's the full on mass product placement in a full price game they should be screaming about.

I don't care how she looks, but my impression on the main character's personality has me worrying.

@DennisReynolds
To be fair, Eve got a lot of backlash from a certain quarter for being “misogynistic” and “over-sexualised”.

@RBMango I think it's a similar thing to what From Software and Christopher Nolan are going through nowadays, people are just fed up with them being good and are ready for the downfall. They're looking for excuses to bring them crashing down.

@Ravix Relax man, character just simply looks ugly to me which will put me off playing the game.

It's a naughty dog game, it's going to be 🔥, if you don't like it because of your misogyny/racism etc against a fictional character then move on to something else.

@Weebleman
Well said, even I put something very sensible.

I don't care about the bald protagonist, or that she's female. It does bother me that advertising is in the game trailer and that the character seems snarky and unlikeable. Sony suits must be panicking lmao

"Oh no, she has a shaved head! Now I can't be immersed in this retro-charged space adventure, because no women in reality have shaved heads! And why doesn't she have bouncy DDD? I thought she was supposed to be a woman — why isn't she attractive?!"

I'm definitely getting too old to argue with middle schoolers/misogynists/mentals/the chronically lonely ad nauseum on the Internet over every innocuous thing in entertainment. If you think a character's design is the most important thing about a game, and this particular character design puts you off from said game, more power to you. Maybe just don't follow or play the game instead of complaining for months about something you've supposedly no interest in.

Personally, as someone fairly lukewarm on Naughty Dog, the retro sci-fi, brand-heavy universe caught my attention. I'll definitely be looking forward to an actual gameplay unveiling.

@thefourfoldroot1 in the west yes. People lunch insults to normal guys whom are a majority of the population for liking that female type. Yet get called some cel for criticizing new female characters that they don’t like as they were intentionally made to not be feminine. Hypocrites are everywhere. It’s funny for me to sit back and watch it all. People are so plugged in that they cannot think objectively.

@Vaako007 "Could have just made a male character."

Or they could've just made a masculine female. Even if gender doesn't pay an important role here, what's the difference?

@Savage_Joe so all game studios should have a white straight man that act cool?
Cause that hasnt been seen in most videogames made.

Eh some people of course have to be irritating about it like harassment and other garbage but I have to admit I really just don't like the way this character looks. I like the outfit but that skinhead look just doesn't do it for me. Weird that I'm using the infamous game as positive contrast for a change but if this character looked like Haymar from Concord (in my opinion the only good and visually appealing character in that game weird potato sack coat aside 😅) I'd probably be quite excited for this game but not with this character

@GreatAuk So you can't name anyone then? Check out the comments for this reveal on the Playstation channel just for a little taster.

@thefourfoldroot1 No she didn't. IGN France was the only noticeable outlet who took real issue with everyone else just eye rolling and moving on. The backlash against Stellar Blade was fake it never existed it was just BS made up by incel Youtubers and social media morons to fuel this pathetic culture war.

@Nepp67 ah, yes... but why will that ridiculous reason put you off playing the game? I'm genuinely intrigued why it matters, especially if you think the game looks really interesting.

Did you not manage to enjoy The Witcher 3 even though Geralt is literally a hideous mutant? 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️ why would you have to be attracted to a character to enjoy a game? 😅

@Vaako007 "because they criticize a female"

The lack of self awareness never fails to make me laugh. You ain't helping yourself with wording like that.

@Jedihillis Yes, everyone is entitled to their opinion. But not liking female or gay representation in games is still a bigoted stance, even if you frame it as your personal preference. It shows prejudice, and some comments of those people can get nasty. Way more nastier then just saying that someone isnt their type.

@Old-Red I read the situation very differently. There's so much projection happening with regard to Jordan as a character. She's said all of 5 lines of dialog in a 5 minute trailer. How can anyone realistically make any judgement about who she is or whether she has flaws or not? At the same time, those saying that it's another example of "woke" or "DEI" initiatives have already made up their mind, but are still asking Naughty Dog to prove a negative (which is impossible).

Regarding the product placement, I don't think that's an example of cash-grabbing. I think it's a deliberate choice for the vibe of the game. Lots of 80s and 90s anime had product placement, but I also think the vibe has some bleed from Hip Hop culture, specifically Logic's The Impossible True Story album. I don't think it's a coincidence that Logic was in TLOU2 and then this is the next game. Maybe it's conspiracy theory, but I have a strong suspicion that you'll be seeing Logic's name prominently in Intergalactic's credits.

People are weird, and gamers even more so at times. Trailer looked rad, can’t wait to see more.

Anyone that doesn’t like it is welcome to go play any of the thousands of other games in development without brandishing their prejudices like a peacock that’s packing faeces in place of feathers.

@wildcat_kickz I didn't even get much a sense of snark. She more seemed rebellious, self-serious, and tortured.

But, like you said, 5 LINES. It's really too early to tell.

@Jrs1 Setting the narrative early in case this is a flop, is all I can figure.

If it is actually a minority there's no need to give them a megaphone and the game will succeed regardless of their distaste. The problem is, if they're not the minority...it's Concorde 2. Blame cannons are being aimed for the latter outcome.

@wildcat_kickz fair points, we'll have to wait and see. It's a hard thing to discuss without taking sides or coming across as this or that. I simply felt like the acting and introduction to the character made me cringe a bit and it should be fine to say that, but every comment carries a lot of weight these days. I'll be more than happy to be wrong and they end up being an amazing character.

@Bentleyma Not without first informing the entire internet that it's not for them. Preferably as loud and as often as possible.

I wonder which AAA dev is going to fold first, and make their protagonist a stripper or Alpha Male in a way that is transparently collapsing to pressure from these idiots. It's ironic that the space I used to escape to, away from the jocks and rednecks, has replaced mullets with neckbeards.
To be clear, I'm just a guy. I like dumb things like GWAR, and Doom. I'm not polishing my monocle over here. But MAN gamer dudes SUUUUUUUCK.

@ChimpMasta they are future clippers, duh.
But really, you seem miserable. Someone created Count Chocula, okay? Life isn't all that bad.

@Old-Red Didn't intend to assign any blame to you; a qualm with cringy dialog is fair game in my mind - my issues are with the discussion as a whole. I see a lot of carts and no horses.

That dog ain’t naughty no more. I do see a lot of people saying they are shocked people take a video game character this far into their feelings. Did any of you forget that certain devs got death threats sent to them? This is at the moment merely disagreeing with a character. Everyone needs to act better in this industry. The lack of respect and empathy is outstanding and sad.

@Nepp67 why does it put you off. Did you watch Alien 3?

Looks rad. Haircut is rad too. Pet Shop Boys are also adequately rad.

@RBMango I think we are largely on the same if not similar pages.

The sad fact is there was a time when no one would have batted an eye at this, but there has been so much cynical dei that people see this and expect it to be that, whereas Vasquez was an organic story driven choice.

This medium has the most stupid, brain dead and bigoted audience by far .

I weep for humanity

I'm all for free speech, but it's times like this I really wish we could Thanos-snap social media out of existence.

I remember when I first joined Twitter and it was quite a nice, friendly place to be. These days, and for years now (and well before Elon, it must be said) it's just a cesspit of the permanently outraged. Pronouns, elections/politics, games, movies, music... there's always some bubble - from any and all political sides - that's outraged about something and completely closed off to any contradictory thought. It's really f'kin tiresome now.

This is an outrage nothing-burger from both sides, outrage for the outrage of the outrage for the sake of outrage.

Until there's proof that it's either cringy modern-day politics marvel-like slop OR a well thought out world with believable & grounded characters there's not much to talk about IMO.

@Bagwag82 Nope(In fact I've only seen Alien Covenant and Alien Romulus) but I watched Mad Max Fury Road and Furiosa. I just simply don't like the shaved look for this person personally.

@RoomWithaMoose

If a character's design should have no bearing on our opinion of a game's quality and whether we should play it then why do so many people demand diversity in their protagonist?

It should make no difference to them, correct?

In fact I have seen articles that review games on other sites and they subtract points for "lack of diverse characters."

The world would be a better play if comments were turned off everywhere. Also, the term actress isn't used anymore. They're all actors.

Looks bloody awesome to me - so looking forward to it.

As a guy who shaves his head, the only thing I saw that irks me is that she is using her clippers backwards.

Otherwise this was a good announcement trailer from a good developer who has only made good games for at least 30 years.

Given ND's track record, I'm looking forward to another good game!

@Anthony_Daniels hey man, I get it. I'm a dumb old combat veteran, and I work with the homeless. Basically, no adults make sense to me anymore.
I feel ya. What I do, as a nerd, is play Knee Deep in the Dead. Usually with some weird mod, because I have played Doom for a billion years.
Just install Project Brutality on your toaster. It's a great mod, but more importantly, it has a great manual that teaches you how to install rad Doom mods/wads!!!
SEE?!? LIFE IS OKAY!!!

It's pattern recognition at this point. We've been had too many times. If it doesn't matter like so many of you say then why do they keep doing it? The girl boss trope is so cooked.

@GreatAuk you should not read those reviews. You do not like those reviews.
I hope that helps.

@Ravix Geralt looks badass with his cat eyes and his long white hair flowing in the wind while slaying monsters. I just want that to play as a good looking badass character. If they look ugly and I have to play as them I'm not gonna be playing it for long.

We grew up playing games were no one really cared about the appearance of protagonists. Now people make a riot about a minor detail. Gamers are really devolving.

As always I'm hyped for a new Naughty Dog game. The character could be absolutely anything and I wouldn't care. I'm more interested in the experience itself and won't be crying over a female character with a shaved head. This is discourse that shouldn't even exist, games are for playing, not to facilitate ones playing with oneself.
I've noticed a good bit of backlash over the way Ciri looks in The Witcher IV as well, ya know cos she's not attractive enough. I'm losing faith in humanity.
@Nepp67 I mean really? I understand power fantasy as much as anyone, but really? A character has to be attractive or you can't play? I just don't get it. If a game's good it's good, the way the protag looks means nothing to me. I like them any old way ,what matters is if they're compelling and the game's interesting.

I've just received a load of hate on Twitter for supporting CDPR on Witcher 4... there are some truly nasty people out there. How sad.

@GreatAuk You can find this character's design off-putting. You can find a lack of diversity in a project problematic. Either way, judging the entire thing on those merits alone would be ridiculous.

Though, I will say, the Internet didn't seem to implode when Joel was revealed to be another white guy. So...

If the main character had been a dude with a goatee I bet all the comments would be "Naughty Dog Is Back"

I don't know how I feel about the game yet, it's been one trailer. But I certainly won't be writing it off that early.

Will Smith needs to hand out slaps to all those close shave haters.

Seriously though, I love the look, Abby was also fantastic. People have such a narrow perception of beauty. I assume this is a case of culture war brain farts.

I saw some of my friends comments on facebook who's mocking this game like comparing the video view with Elden Ring Nightreign and even wants it to flop just because the female protagonist looks kinda masculine and bald. Granted, most of them has very strong Nintendo bias aka Nintendo fanboys who praise everything that came out from Nintendo while mocking everything from Sony. So i don't take their comments seriously.

I mean, i get it that when comes to video game people wants to play as attractive male / female protags who has body and face like a supermodel. I also the same.

But i don't dismiss a game just because the protags isn't really attractive or female without hair, especially when this game has some Cowboy Bebop / 80's vibe.

Some of my fav movies are Alien 3, V for Vendetta, and Mad Max: Fury Road / Furiosa and all of them has bald female protags. So, Intergalactic could become one of my fav games...or not. I hope ND really nailed the story and gameplay.

@PuppetMaster I usually assume Nintendo fans don't have these perspectives on the necessity of attractive protagonists. Given most Nintendo characters have no sex appeal.

But I definitely see fanboys using whatever to s***talk a game, so I guess that's still on brand.

@tameshiyaku

You're going to criticize and judge what people are or aren't attracted to or find beautiful?

This is such an odd take.

I knew she looked familiar! Couldn't place her for the life of me, though. The Uncharted movie was ehh but I've never doubted Naughty Dog's storytelling in video games, so def hyped for this game! Granted, I am sure it will be years after it releases before I actually get to it. The ever constant aging of myself is really eating at my time spent gaming.

I'm just tired of female characters with a arrogant attitude. Would it be so bad, to actually have a likable woman in the lead?

@Steel76
I'm just tired of male characters with a arrogant attitude. Would it be so bad, to actually have a likable man in the lead?

Fixed it for you.

@Steel76 I would argue that arrogant and likeable are not mutually exclusive. E.g. Nathan Drake. Or Lara Croft. Or Iron Man. Or Goku. Or Spider-Man. Or Will Smith ("The actor or the Fresh Price of Bel-Air?" Yes). Or basically every likeable athlete.

Ripley shaved off all her hair in aliens so whats the issue the last thing you want is flees in space or having to manage a hair doo.

So funny the little weebs and losers getting upset because the main character doesn't look like Eve or some weird Hentai character,
Do they really have nothing else to do but complain,
Don't even know the story yet
These people make me embarrassed to be a part of the gaming community

Probably in the minority who thought TLAU2's story wound up being crap so I'm not just going to give them a pass for their next game. I also think the character design is atrocious but that can be ignored as well as long as the gameplay and story are good. Luckily TLOU2 at least had decent gameplay so I'll hold out hope for that even if I have to skip cutscenes.

What a bunch of children.

This really seems a case of multiple things being true at once. At least to me.

1. Decisions are intentional. It is an intentional decision to design and write this character in the way that she is designed and written. Also, this design is not the traditional female look. And no, that does not mean hourglass proportions or a subservient personality. There are countless awesome female protagonists all through media that are neither of those but that I would argue are “traditional”. But some, including myself admittedly, would rather see traditional looking female characters instead of one clearly designed to buck that trend. For instance, the main character in SW Outlaws upset people but that confused me. She looked like a typical, traditional female character.

2. While I am no fan of anything I’m seeing here, there’s no need to be a jerk about it. Just don’t buy it.

3. The same people upset over people being upset need to also calm down. You’re coming across like those guys at colleges who want to be “allies” to the progressive female students.

people are so dumb and it isnt funny anymore.

Everyone has opinions on games and to have the comments turned off is counter productive for the devs as they would be able to have a good idea of what the gamers want from a game, unless they don't care what we want? As this seems to be the case lately.

Do they just have to tick boxes in their productions now to avoid the DEI police coming after them?

I've now been put off western games for this reason, I would much rather play a game that has great game play and story line, rather than a game that is trying to pander to an audience that isn't even the majority of gamers, but to be honest if the game is good then it'll sell fine, if not then this could potentially ruin naughty dog, we still need to see more, but I'm thinking it could be a pass for me, same as Ghost Of Yotei

If they let people create good games and stop employing people based on what their sexual preference, skin colour or gender is rather than merit, then western game developers are done, gamers have seriously had enough

Just the usual insecure *****. I'm sure this poor woman will be doxxed, have many death threats and generally have to read and hear awful things. And all by a small subset of the worst kind of (sub) humans we have. Fear not!! I bet a good 15-20 million of us will enjoy and appreciate the work

@LogicStrikesAgain For sure, but I can understand it. People are tired of seeing "masculine female character" types everywhere. Jack in Mass Effect was fine. The problem is now almost every game has a "Jack" and many times it's the main character. Add the "woke" culture being shoved down people's throats everywhere, not just gaming, and you're going to have an equally ridiculous resistance to it all. I'm tired of it too, no one asked for it. Devs in their bubbles and echo chambers think this is what the world wants and many think if we don't like it too bad. They've forgotten we are the whole reason gaming is worth having an industry around. Voting against this excessive forcing of liberal culture with our wallets is the only power we have as consumers. Many games have already suffered for it and more will if they continue to push agendas like activists. That being said I don't think these more egregious comments are ok, just that I understand where that energy is coming from. I'm waiting to see how the gameplay looks and what the story is like. I think it sounds dope. A new bounty hunter game inspired by Cowboy Bebop with what looked like some great retro future style 👌🏽 But... if it's anything like Dragon Age where everything is Disneyfied or has some preachy cultural elements I won't support it with my money.

People complaining about her lack of hair or how they don't like her face, will just put on the first helmet the game provides and never see that head outside cut-scenes again anyway. lol

The character looks fine, like a grizzled bounty hunter . I just want to see some game-play, ND hasn't made melee focused combat since Jak 1.

@BuddhaBabboo That killed me too 😂 like guys... 🤦🏽‍♂️ how did no one notice that?

@glennthefrog You're right, and the fact that comments were disabled from the beginning is quite telling. ND is aware that the character is controversial, and afraid of the public's reaction. But they're willing to double down on it anyway.

Sure, they have every right to do whatever they want from a creative standpoint. But from a business perspective, it's a decision that fails at reading the room temperature, whether you agree or disagree with the "far right haters".

Money talks.

@themightyant Anyone can cherry pick a highly disliked video to support their argument... but I find it funny you use the very "unreliable" by your assessment like/dislike ratio to support your own argument. It's not exact, but it's a pretty good estimation based upon the people who use the plugin. Instead of attacking someone's argument for using it, and then with an amazing level of hypocrisy in the same reply using the same plugin data to support your own argument... how bout just be honest about it?

It’s understandable to have a reaction to seeing yet another female main character. I think it’s also worth considering that game companies would like to expand their potential customer base to the female audience.

As far as the hair style, it is what it is. Not really worth looking to far into it.

If the story and gameplay are good, it’s all a non issue.

@RoomWithaMoose Well imho Samus, adult Zelda, adult Link, and those Xenoblade girls has sex appeal. But just like you said, fanboys will use anything to sling muds towards the company they dislike / hate.

Imagine living such a charmed life that the biggest thing you have to complain about is the appearance of a video game character. Imagine being so unburdened in life that you feel like complaining about something that, doesn’t actually affect your life in any conceivable way, is a valuable use of your time. Unbelievable.

@Vega37 However this article is about the nasty comments that are tied with that preference. For example, what if people complaining said: “White straight guy, this game is trash, it needs to flop!” Doesnt that seem a little bit inappropriate to you?

People that arent white and male have had to watch movies and play as white male protagonists for years. You can enjoy game characters that arent like you. The enjoyment comes from the story and gameplay, not just the characters gender, race or sexuality.

And if the game turns out to be bad, then its bad. But we cant judge it until it’s released. Since we’ve seen nothing of the game yet, some people are judging the game based solely on one characters gender/race/sexuality etc, which is prejudice.

And yes ofcourse, if you dont like bossy characters, thats fine. But is it only bossy females you dislike? Even if the character/role calls for such traits?

Personally, i wouldnt describe this character as bossy at all btw. But thats just me.

Edit: Reading your post again, seeing some additions about not being interested if it has a disneyfied and preachy agenda push.
And i agree.

People are awful.

The DEI- Woke complainers suck the fun out of everything. Really tired of it.

This just drives me crazy. It's been so hard to find any videos actually discussing and breaking down the trailer. 99% of the videos are just incels crying about how the game is woke and Naughty Dog is finished. It's tiring.

A small minority, yeah of course lol

Just more dislikes than likes on the video, how is it possible from a “minority”.

By the way, this activism is to appeal to the minorities, isn’t it?

Honestly once they show off the game , I think most people will change their minds , and I think the game will be great if it is more jak and daxter type of gameplay style

Sci Fi, check. Cool Protagonist, check. ND, check. Single Player, check. I'm ready!

@Johnion

The majority are the millions of people who will just buy and enjoy the game and not care about this childish culture war internet garbage
the small minority are the thousands of looney tunes who log on to YouTube handing out their little dislikes on a trailer and writing dull hate filled comments about drukman because he killed off their white saviour in part 2
Yawn.

@Johnion because I don’t give a ***** about politics and the fact that this is about politics is just embarrassing.

@JoDoMac It’s a bit rich to say that given the 2010s were dominated by generic white male protagonists, we finally have some diversity and a very loud minority are acting like it’s 1984 up in this you know what.

@Anthony_Daniels
TLOU 2 hid it’s real main characters, was the follow up to one of the best game ever made, released during the PEAK of the pandemic, the best financial period in history for gaming, and released on the 3rd best selling system ever, and a few months later on a new system.

Regardless, it was the lowest performing modern title in Naughty Dog’s library, selling less than the Uncharted trilogy remaster.

It says a LOT about the reception. It’s not a minority. There is a majority of the market that don’t want a lecture or activism in their game.

You need to appeal to your audience, and this, as a new franchise, will make them realize how crazy it is to allow an activist to lead a game development team.

If Concord didn’t teach them, this will.

@Johnion yes censorship is always the answer! /s

@Johnion it says a LOT about the idiots who react to sh** like this. I doubt they want to sell the game to the those closed minded folk anyway.

Play games and live life with an open mind, it's not going to hurt you ffs 😅

Gamers really are pathetic

@Chimps

Okay buddy, keep believing the mass Audience cares

I am not sure why this is even news worthy.

@Johnion "Regardless, it was the lowest performing modern title in Naughty Dog’s library, selling less than the Uncharted trilogy remaster."

I can't find official Nathan Drake Collection sales numbers, although based on last year Insomniac leak the collection manage to sold 9.7 million copies.

But TloU 2 sold 10 million copies back in June 2022 or 2 years after released. So it's clearly not selling less than Uncharted collection.
https://blog.playstation.com/2022/06/09/the-growing-future-of-the-last-of-us/

These comments! BIG YIKES.

@ashipaw “ Also Furiosa was a box office bomb, so no idea why the article mentions that movie”

Isnt that part of the problem though? People dismissing this movie because of having a female lead, therefore missing out on a critically acclaimed movie? The movie was praised for its direction, performance and storytelling. If people judge movies solely on the fact that it stars a woman they miss the potential of the movie itself.

Same might be going on here, if people say this needs to flop because of woke, based solely on a small teaser trailer they might potentially miss a great game.

I mean, at least wait till the game is released before you judge. A masculine woman doesnt automatically mean it’s ‘woke’. Maybe there’s no agenda being pushed here. Women can be masculine, just like men can be sensitive or emotional. Do people here go to the gym? She doesnt seem more muscular or masculine than some of the women in my gym.

Also, remember, there are other characters to be introduced. Maybe one of them will be a badass straight male, if that would comfort some people.

Again, if the game turns out to be bad, then its bad. But cant we at least wait will it’s released before we jump to conclusions and yell that it needs to flop?

@Johnion You people need to learn your fractions. You’re not the majority, and you’re certainly not half. Just overly vocal and obsessed with social media nonsense peddled by grifters and king clown Elon. Try playing games instead of crying online about them.

@PuppetMaster Quick, go tell their accountants. Tell them their own numbers that were leaked are false and you have the right stats on hands!

@MasterTanookiChief Don’t know who talked about censorship.

The one asking to remove the politics out of games, or the group calling this the voice of a minority LOL

@Johnion what about TLOU 2 is activism or lecture? The continuation of the story seemed logical to me. The messages about revenge in the plot are nothing new too, it's been explored in movies, and books for years. In fact I'd say they sacrificed sales in order to make a really unique story (for a video game), it was a bold move. As well as letting you play as Abby in the second part of the game. I can totally see why people hated that, but it wouldn't be right calling it anything but a choice made for the love of the art.

My God what as the world come to, where low life's have to criticise a virtual character. Get a F**king life, get out more.

She looks cool! It just sucks that I have to play as exclusively female in all new games from this point on forever. I always prefer to play as male characters, and to not have the representation on my favorite console is kinda sad. I’ll play it nonetheless tho

@ILikeStake Glad to see some rational thoughts out here! I fully agree with your post. It’s refreshing how you acknowledge why people might fear an agenda being pushed, cause that is an important perspective as well.

And yeah they might be, but we just dont know yet. As you say, we cant jump to conclusions based on a female character with a shaved head. Lets wait and see how thse characters develop before making any assumptions.

@DylanP From my understanding it’s an ensemble cast, so you might be able to play other characters.

Oh that's weird. People are mad because of the characters look?

@Johnion the main issue is people are freaking out and they don’t even really know much other then the small amount we’ve seen so far. How do you even know who this game is supposed to appeal towards knowing little to nothing ?

@Johnion the one’s trying to force their views on the art. You. Much like a church attacks anything they don’t agree with. If you don’t like it move along, but instead you attack it and try to force the artists and developers to make something you want. Which from what I can gather is a bland, corporate cutout of safety so not to upset your feelings. Both sides seem to want safe bland characters that meet a certain requirement whether it comes to appearance, how they speak, sexuality, gender etc. soon we will end up with what you all want. Boring ass characters or silent ones. Which I guess won’t be entirely bad because people will just turn back to indies to find more interesting and compelling characters.

@Lavishturtle I agree that there seems to be a push for diversity, but why is that necessarily bad? Trying to be more inclusive by adding diversity in characters and trying to be more relatable to a wider audience isnt inherently bad. If the gameplay, story, acting etc sucks, thats what makes a movie or game bad. Not the diversity of a cast.

Just because a character is a woman/gay/of another race does not automstically mean theres an agenda being pushed. Are you saying that all protagonists must be made a straight white masculine male in order to avoid being called ‘woke’?

Again, if the game or story sucks, then it sucks. Why judge a whole game based on some character’s skin tone/gender/sexuality?

I don't like Pushsqaure twisted the fact here. But there is no denying the vocal minority are commenting and reacting in every post related to this game, some of them are racists, some have a beef with Neil re: TLOU, some are disguised Xbox fanboys. They are clearly minority basement dwellers but what they have is time and thus they easily overwhelm any post/article. The nasty immature comments they made overtime drove away the gamers who really have interest in the game and ultimately do have some impact on game sales. This kind, you always see in political news. You will notice how fake commenters litter every post with the same comments, for eg Ukraine war news, election etc..

So people try to spread more positive news. Don't waste your time arguing with those idiots as talking to them is talking to the wall. They would keep dragging you through many irrelevant points. You never have as much time as these trolls. Their hatred is more than a protagonist's look.

@Johnion This is their official sales numbers kid, not mine. I only corrected you who said TloU 2 sold less than Uncharted Drake Collection.

@nessisonett anti-woke means sexism, homophobia and xenophobia? Really?

It is genuinely so tiring at this point. The outrage is so fake and manufactured. Oh it has product placement... maybe it is a part of the plot where commercialism and religion clash.
Protagonist is Black American/Korean heritage and a woman who shaved her head!!!! Horrible and insult to the world blah blah blah.

I saw an image today where they gave her the Aloy makeover and unsurprisingly they removed the black skin and made her look like k-pop girl.

@ChimpMasta thanks for the sanity check. I had been following the comments and completely agree. Most seemed to poke fun at when the remaster would be out and the usual light-hearted bald jokes. Where these swathes of alleged nasty, sexist, homophobic and xenophobic remarks that some of the more hysterical commenters here are mentioning, I've no idea. Maybe the dark corners of the web where they belong.

@breakneck A plot something along the lines of what you describe seems very intruiging, totally up my alley!

@mrbone Agreed. There seems to be a lot more articles on the site lately where the truth has been warped and opinion takes over in an inflammatory manner. Maybe this increases engagement for the site, fair play, but puts me off visiting as often.

@LogicStrikesAgain
In my opinion it's great when it is included and not made a focal point (BG3) instead of using the game as a tool to lecture gamers (Veilguard). There will always be the true minority that literally only wants straight bald white dudes in gaming but the majority of people just want a fun game that doesn't feel like its trying to force something on them. People just wanna look cute/cool/hot and slay dragons or whatever.

Naughty dog should post the trailer on Bluesky. They will get a perfect reception there. All the negative comments will be deleted. Honestly I'm fine with the push back. I like seeing opinions from all angles. Push back rightfully gets crap like Concord canned. Turning off comments preemptively was weird though. I don't respect that at all.

Unfortunately, we have arrived at a place in which many gamers are reasonably suspicious of certain developers, especially when cinematic direction is self-consciously ideological. There is a history here. It's not as though the concerns are groundless. I don't see it getting much better in the near term.

The game aesthetic and character design are like a breath of stale air...

Which is understandable if development started 4 years ago, when the look and concepts were still on trend, but when this releases in 2025/26/27?

This is going to age before it even hits the shelves.

@waynesworld Yeah. My first playthrough with part 2 was around 25-28 hours but i never feel like i'm being lectured by the game.

Not saying part 2 story is flawless. Imho some part especially the flashback could be re-arange to give better pace and impact for the characters. Like Abby for example, ND could show her father flashback with the Zebra first then cut to the hospital after Joel finished with his rampage and cut to the present when she's searching for Joel. And they could give better character development and outcome for Jesse. But that's just me though.

@ATaco If a movie or games main point is diversity of characters, but their story and gameplay sucks, then yeah, the game sucks. But it sucks because its a bad game, not because of the diversity of the characters.

Honestly your second point i cant really relate with that much. I really couldnt care less whether my character is ‘hot’ or not. Some people who obsess over that Stellar Blade character might need to get out more. But i bet this Jordan character is probably hotter than some of the girlfriends of these guys complaining about her being bald and ugly. 😉

There was always going to be a lot of hate no matter what Naughty Dog did.

I mean there's a weird dedicated sub where a group of people (basically a cult of nutjobs in an echo chamber) post daily about hating Druckman and TLOU2 then there's the I fixed her meme losers who keep changing characters to look like pornstars they want to goon over (seriously get a life) and the obvious culture war grifters that have a bunch of absolute imbeciles hanging on their every word. I could go on but the point is there's no way ND was escaping the hate.

I actually had to watch the trailer again with no distractions after the chat went crazy on the stream I was watching and the YouTuber seemed like he was actually holding back tears just because it was a bald woman, it was embarrassing.

I'm definitely guilty of my fair share of trolling ofc but all the internet discourse over a lot of games lately has just became tiresome to the point even I can't be bothered with it anymore.

@LogicStrikesAgain
Money talks I guess. Whenever this game releases we'll see if ND made the right decision and that the people complaining are just the vocal minority. Let's hope it's not another Concord. Then again people were just tired of hero shooters....oh wait, Marvel Rivals is breaking player records...well. Money talks in the end.

@ATaco If this turns out to be a great game and people refuse to buy it just because they think its ‘woke’, then thats their loss. I would never want to see art being compromised to cater to the will of the tasteless masses.

Now if the game sucks and pushes an overt agenda, then it sucks and deserves the loss of sales.

But for now i cant say what the game will be like, cause i dont judge a whole game from seeing one character.

@waynesworld

My favorite part of that game was playing as Abby, thank goodness they did that otherwise I would have thought less of the game.

She was my favorite character from the original and sequel, her revenge and actions all make perfect sense story wise.

"Sigourney Weaver famously shaved her head for Alien 3, for example; last year’s critically acclaimed Furiosa saw Anya Taylor-Joy sport a similar look"

Not the best comparisons as there are meaningful and unpleasant story justifications for the baldness in both of those.

Alien 3 is set in a dirty prison and the doctor specifically mentions they have a lice problem and recommends Ripley shave her hair. There's also the fact that its a men's prison and a particularly feminine appearance could be dangerous.

Furiosa is in a post-apocalypse, which generally isn't the kindest times for women, and a shaves off her hair specifically due to an incident in her youth where she was grabbed by it.

Both are arguably metaphors for the character having to unwantingly give up their femininity so they could survive in harsh environments.

Who knows if there's a story justification for this character's shaved head or it's just a stylistic choice. I suspect the latter, as there seems to be a trend of making female characters in games intentionally unattractive by traditional standards as an overreaction to feeling guilty about pandering, sexualized characters in games over a decade ago.

@LogicStrikesAgain
Not just their loss but PlayStation's loss as well. They're a business afterall and if they keep pushing out Concord level disasters then you'll suddenly see them flip stances very quick. These "tasteless masses" decide what publishers do, the image they want to put out there and for the past few years "woke" was what was considered to be desired by, as you again put them, the "tasteless masses." Sony will always cater to the most common denominator, whatever they think will make them more money. They aren't preaching diversity because they believe in the cause, they're doing it because that's where they thought the world was heading, where all the money was. If there's no money in it though? Dump it in the trash and chase the next thing as far as they are concerned.

@__Seraph I want the character to look attractive or decent, especially if I'm playing as them the entire game. If the obese character with the blue jacket from Concord was a character I had to play as I wouldn't play the game very long unless it's for comedic purposes(Like maxing out all the character creator stats in Dark Souls).

@NintenGuy Most Japanese devs do it for their Japanese youtube videos because of vitriol. No reason why Western devs shouldn't follow suit

1: As others have stated this article is misleading. The comments were disabled right when the trailer was uploaded, and comments on other channels aren’t these psycho hateful dens that others are trying to say they are. Most were concord and bald jokes. Is that “nice”? No, but it’s not hateful or harassment either. People can give criticism whether it’s professional or crude and to say otherwise is toxic positivity which does exist.

2: People need to understand that making things beautiful or appealing is a basic intuitive rule of visual arts that’s only being subverted recently. Does that mean Jordan has to be a bombshell model with her sexual parts hanging out that inspires lust? No. But devs going out of their way to beat a character with the ugly stick is gonna rub people the wrong way on an instinctive level and that doesn’t make them bad or sexist either.

3: For me personally the character design alone isn’t a dealbreaker. However I and many others think that it’s a red flag of a broader design philosophy that many of us detest that doesn’t start nor end with how the character looks. A character that seems to made intentionally and spitefully ugly both in design and performance (her looking at the planet from the chair, literally looks like she’s drugged out or has a mental disability) also implies a spiteful narrative in the name of transgressive values, and gameplay/mechanics that appeal to their core progressive audience, which is to say dumbed down with no depth out of fear of being labeled “gatekeeping”.

Having said that, I will still buy the game because who knows maybe I’m wrong and I hope I am xD

@ATaco The Last of Us 2 was literally Sony's fastest selling game of all time and adored by millions. If you think having a strong female lead with a shave head is a recipe for disaster then you need to look back at the many successful Sci-fi films of all time.

This does not make the game "woke" at all. How ridiculous.

@CupidStunt
TLOU2 was released just a few years after what many consider to be a gaming masterpiece so of course it was going to sell monumentality by name alone. Again, we will see if ND's name and pedigree will help push this new IP but I and many others were turned off by their last attempt. While we may have purchased TLOU2 on good faith, ND has lost this faith and will have to earn it back with the next game. There likely won't be as many blind pre-orders and people buying it JUST because its a Naughty Dog game. For the record I'm not even saying this game is destined to fail just yet, I'm merely saying that it's already tripping a few red flags right from its first trailer alone. Obviously its impossible to fully condemn a game before it is out and I'm not one of those people just saying "woke lol" with no context. I've just seen this enough times to notice a pattern and am drawing attention to it.

There's a lot of comments here so what I saw looked kool I'm in

@justemu thanks for being open minded and not a “holier than thou” , virtue signaling , self-righteous typical aggrandizing push-squarian.

they turned off the comments before people could even comment because they knew that their disingenuous & forceful agenda would get ripped to shreds . they think the same way the public does about it , except the public (gamers) are the bad guys .

@ATaco I care about great art, whether thats fine art, music, movies or video games. If its good, its good, i dont care whether the character is female or male, gay or straight. I dont get too hung up on whether characters are too masculine or feminine, or how diverse the cast is in a game or movie.

Developers and publishers can do whatever they want with their creations. Whether they go woke or anti woke, i really dont ascribe myself to any group. Whether they go for a straight white male or a group of Asian lesbians. As long as the game is good, i dont really care.

As a side note: I wasnt implying that the ‘tasteless masses’ are the ones who are complaining now.
What i meant to was, if this turns out to be a great game(or even a piece of art), then the people who want to change it just to fit their preffered gender or character type are the ones who are tasteless.

@Vega37 I can acknowledge that men tend to be stronger than women. Can you acknowledge that there are still very strong women and that confidence in a woman is not inherently rude?

No issues with a female lead, but anything that reminds me of the existence of Sony's trainwreck Uncharted movie is an instant downvote.

People just suck.

@GreatAuk I think this lady looks feminine. Doesn't that kinda destroy your whole argument?

Did anyone stop to consider the possibility that she shaved her hair for practical reasons? You know, one less thing her enemies have to use against her? I mean she is a bounty hunter so she probably gets in fights pretty often.

To top it all off we have one short trailer that really doesn't give anything away and yet people are acting like they know everything about this character already.

Culture warriors might legit be worst. Regardless of which side they are on.

@breakneck I dont respect anyone that does it. Could care less where they are geographically.

@GreatAuk That is all subjective, i bet most people will still say she is attractive and feminine. But honestly, its hard to judge from such a short trailer.

Just curious though, when watching a movie with a male lead, do you also overly scrutinize whether he is masculine or feminine enough to everyones tastes?

@GreatAuk From the second I saw her, I knew she was a woman. Because she looks feminine.

I dunno what else to tell you.

@RoomWithaMoose

I'm talking strictly about the character's face.

But I guess we can agree to disagree.

@GreatAuk Sure, she might look a bit masculine to some people, but what is your point exactly? Women can have some masculine features sometimes, and some men look a bit more feminine. Are you saying thats not attractive? Cause that is highly subjective.

@GreatAuk Her face was the first thing we saw...

@GreatAuk Like, we can agree to disagree about how feminine her appearance is. But when the crux of your argument is that she's objectively masculine, that I immediately understood the character as a woman just destroys your proposition.

@LogicStrikesAgain "when watching a movie with a male lead, do you also overly scrutinize whether he is masculine or feminine enough to everyones tastes?"

THIS, THIS, 100x THIS.

I wish these people had the self awareness to understand this double standard.

It's okay to like or dislike the look of the game, just be decent about it. Debates about X or Y go around in circles. Move on, it's not that deep.

Character looks fine, story looks interesting. I'm not a fan of anything ND has done since the first Jak and Daxter sadly, not really my style of game and I've been burnt buying their games only to stop playing and not return, so a demo would be nice.

Regarding the politics, I do feel like ND are making a political statement with the character, so you are bound to wind some people up. Pre-emptively turning youtube comments off shows they knew this as well.

The bigger problem with the trailer is that they didn't show any gameplay. Hard to get excited about a game if you don't know how it plays.

I don't really give a ***** about what culture warriors on either side have to say about anything. The thing that vexes me is that there's a positive reception to this trailer at all. Is it just because Naughty Dog's name is on it? Cause when I saw that I just said "Oh, guess that explains why the dialogue is so awful." lol

There's nothing of substance here, I get pushing back on people having such a huge knee jerk negative reaction to the trailer for silly reasons, but at the same time, there's no reason why you should have a largely positive one. Demand better from VIDEO GAME trailers please!
Also yeah, others have brought it up but the person who wrote this article is conveniently leaving out the fact that Naughty Dog had the comments disabled from the start, likely to make the discourse sound worse than it actually is. Honest journalism? Never heard of it.

"We don’t think Jordan’s look is particularly out of place for a sci-fi story. Sigourney Weaver famously shaved her head for Alien 3"

Alien 3 is not a good example of anything, stop now.

I thought gamers were all about respecting the artistic vision of developers these days. I guess they only want a certain type of vision.

@sonicmeerkat Tbh Alien 3 is not that bad.

I’m excited for the game personally. But crazies gonna crazy.

@GreatAuk Not critiquing what anybody personally finds attractive, but rather how folks get mean if it's not what they like. If me commenting in a light way on the folks who go online to harass, discriminate or body shame others, irks you... that's a you problem.

@Sweetz Re. story versus style… Cutting one’s hair doesn’t require an external plot plot to have meaning to the story — it’s a well-worn cross-cultural trope symbolizing a character’s renewal and entering a new phase of their life.

Given the heavy anime influence here, it seems relevant that for samurai in particular, it signified that they were stepping away from their title and accepting a lower social status… maybe like being a bounty hunter.

ND has been my favorite studio for some time. Not only are they inarguably world class in visual detail, but I love the beautiful and harrowing stories they've told over the last decade plus. And like TLoU 2 or not, they aren't afraid to make something they believe in.

Now I'd be dishonest if I said I'm crazy about our first look at both the trailer and MC. It certainly looks promising, but without the ND logo I fear it's somewhat forgettable. The MC Jordan looks fine, but didn't leave a strong impression. And yes I'd prefer she had hair. Though one can make an argument it adds to her tough looking exterior, whether she does this intentionally or not.

Regardless, people can make the claims the game will "fail," it's clearly an "agenda," the same song and dance that people inflict on damn near every game. I have faith that Naughty Dog will deliver something wholly unique, memorable, and up to their standardsnin the end. I have no reason not to believe so. But I also understand no studio should be immune to failure, and valid/ good faith debate.

One last thing. I've said this before, but the hate Neil Druckmann receives, while not surprising in any way, I feel is truly unwarranted. So many people always calling him a garbage human, terrible to employees, agenda driven, etc. They act like they know him personally, like he spit in their cereal. Ive followed him for some time, and while I obviously don't know him too well, he seems to be a genuine person, trying to make something that stands out in the industry, and something that will be talked about for years to come.

Thank you president trump, for teaching every idiot in the world that you can always get away with saying the craziest, dumbest, most xenophobic sh*t, as long as you say it with enough confidence.

That’s why we have these incel armies now.

Game's gonna sell millions of copies and be critically well received. That's all that matters.

They never switched them on, they knew what kind of response they would get to this cliche ridden slop.

I know I'm going to regret this - but I scrolled down ... to comment #324; and apart from everyone expressing how everyone is such horrible people; I actually don't see much evidence (in this thread) of the thing that everyone is complaining about. And as for the trailer - from what I understood, the trailer had comments disabled from the start - though maybe I understood wrong. The article seems a bit click-baity to me if I'm being honest.

I just think there's something kinda weird going on with the discourse in this thread... it like's a CJ where no-one wants to come last with an affirmation of how bad and horrible everyone else is. There's a lot of horrible things being said online - we don't need to add to that by attacking others because they must necessarily be homophobic, xenophobic... list-of-phobic. There are those people online, and they don't need more oxygen.

For me - I just came out of the reveal feeling like it looks very familiar, and I think Concord just cemented how much I'm over the 80's motif now (whether it's Guardians or Stranger Things...). I think people should wait until they actually show something that means something before commenting so intensely - either way. I for one have very little idea what the game is, how it plays, what tone it has, how good the mechanics are, how interesting the characters - or whether I'd want to buy it. (Edit: I also don't think that ND should get a free pass from scrutiny or negative criticism either. That won't make a better game). Let's give it another 12+ months to bake.

Oh... crap... there you have it.... last comment. I know it won't be for long though. I hope... please... anyone....

@Fishnpeas I wouldn't really say I 'want' a masculine female. It's more that I don't expect character design to be based around what I personally find arousing.

Moreover, I don't really think it affects my opinion of a game much either way. The only game I can think of that I love that stars an explicitly sexy woman is Bayonetta (unless you count Samus, but she ain't flaunting much). And that Bayonetta is sexy really has nothing to do with why I love the game. Just as Gordon Freeman's sex appeal has nothing to do with why I love Half-Life.

EDIT: As for what's appealing about this character. I dunno. I certainly don't think she's unappealing in any way — yet, at least. We'll see how she's written; once we actually have a sense of who she is and how she acts, I'll understand if she's appealing or not. But then, also, an unappealing character can still be compelling.

@RoomWithaMoose thank you... now I'm not the last comment again.... D'oh!

To address your actual comment however, I think people should stop having to explain what they find appealing (or defend, or renounce - or degrade). The character in the story is the key. However, I think there's another aspect of this... people maybe don't need more dour stories from ND. I think they miss the fun. Fun isn't quite the impression I got from the trailer - so I think it may have missed that mark if it was aiming for it. The impression I got was that this was a game that was going to have a lot of cut-scenes. Rightly or wrongly... that's the impression I got.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare Oh God, I miss just talking about games as if they're just games. I spent so much time arguing in Concord's defense when I really just wanted to pick apart why it failed and why it looked so generic.

Ahem Anyway, I think that's fair. Somewhere lost in this thread, I commented that the world presented by the trailer piqued my interest. But the characters/plot? Not so much. And while there's a lot of cool designs in it, the overall art direction looks pretty generic. And I think there have been a few commenters saying the lack of gameplay was lame. And I wholeheartedly agree. The trailer really gave no impression of its gameplay, and, as you said, that might imply it's going to be excessively cinematic. And, as someone not too-too into cinematic PlayStation games to begin with, that's kinda disappointing.

Sniff I miss talking about games so much. Thank you for engaging with a comment and actually discussing the game.

@RoomWithaMoose I don't look for sexy in any game to be honest, I find it creepy and uncomfortable playing sexualised games when my missus is sat next to me.

What I do want from my characters is that they are aspirational, games are supposed to be an escape, a power fantasy that takes you to places and worlds you have no seen before.

There is absolutely nothing about this character that is aspirational, their arrogance oozes from every shot.

The biggest thing that annoyed my about this game that no one is talking about is the fact they ripped off the bar scene from Akira shot for shot, that is not homage, that is just hackery.

@GreatAuk So because the digitisation of She/Her actress of colour does not look feminine enough for you with a shaved head, it will take away your enjoyment of a game?

Gameplay and story does not count, just your opinion of the appearance of the main character?

I am literally pissing myself laughing at this. You best go away and play Gears of War and leave boundary pushing games to the rest of the gaming community.

@ATaco Millions consider TLoU2 to be a masterpiece but some people's wee brains can't cope with how subversive it is.

@CupidStunt
So now you're assuming anyone who didn't enjoy the narrative is just too stupid to "get" it?

@Fishnpeas While I would disagree about the arrogance — and, indeed, that arrogance would ruin a character — I think that's an entirely fair, non-problematic opinion to have.

It's not like I loved the character from the snippet of her I saw. And while I would say we should reserve our judgement until we see more, it's entirely fine if what you saw didn't mesh with you.

I wish we were just having conversations about legitimate impressions instead of how masculine/feminine her face is. But here we are...

@Overmind well done for saying it. Whether it's the people saying everything is a consipiracy to make men a subservient sub-species, or the other side that looks down on people and telling them they can't have a preference and not wanting masculine women means their pigs. People seriously need to chill the <insert expletive> out.

Let's all please stop trying to posture and signal (in both directions). We all know that people are into their games - from whichever side. Enjoy your games. Let others enjoy their games. And stop telling people not to buy games because of either a left or right agenda. And a little less preaching on both sides. Hopefully we can all enjoy better games - not less games. [Edit - people can and should express their opinions - it's also how studios understand the zeitgeist... whether it's for something, or not... just don't make it your life's mission, and be respectful]

At this time of year, is this really how we want to end 2024 by looking down at everyone? And having fights over a game that may not come out for years - if ever (ah... Factions). And also - give a thought to those families who have lost an income source through lay-offs... that is the sort of thing that actually sucks. Culture wars are such a 2024 thing... let's make 2025 better (groan - I really didn't want to be sounding like a GoW soundbite).

Edit - @get2sammyb Maybe this thread needs to be closed? For all our sakes.

A girl boss femcel apart of a shadowy group known as 2B, intent on destroying they/them's nemesis Stella blade the video game. "Everything is sexists, racist, homophobic, xenophobic, misogynist." Serious stuff....

Also you cannot judge a game that you haven't seen gameplay of.

@LogicStrikesAgain it’s from this sketch; https://youtu.be/pfjVJEhqM7Q?si=1D5mKBu7t0gtGkY_

Calling peoples comments nasty is subjective. I think they are on point. People have a right to make their own comments heard even if you disagree with them. I personally after reading the leaks of the story. I do think the game will be ok. If I only saw the trailer though, I would be saying hard pass right now.

They deserved it. Thank god Uncharted is not being made in these years....it would be a freak show.

lol people still going on about “ethical journalism”. GG never went anywhere did it? People still getting dragged in by sealioning and bad faith “debating”.

@RoomWithaMoose Yep I'm really not concerned about her femininity, I'm extremely cynical and I think they are masking lazy development by not coding hair and pushing it as empowerment. Hair on most characters is get shorter and shorter and I think it has nothing to do with anything other than compute cylces, it's far easier to code a bald head that doesn't react to the environment.

@CupidStunt Aw cmon there was nothing subversive about it, it was one of the most basic plots that you could write, and was extremely sophomore in it's handling of the subject, almost like a teenager was asked to write about revenge, there was absolutely nothing clever about the setup, it was filled with far too many conveniences and contrivances and lacked the most fundamental emotion to let you invest in the characters, empathy. You just didn't care about what happened to either of them because they were all round horrible people. Spending 5 minutes throwing a ball for a dog does not make you a sympathetic character, especially if you show it after you have seen a character do their worst acts first.

Gamers are cringe 😬 can't wait until this game is nominated for goty and those people start burning inside.

@ATaco Not at all but most of the hatred that was geared towards was to do with the inclusion of certain characters. The usual it is "Too woke" comments rather than directed at the plot or gameplay itself.

DEI is destroying games in general, it's blatant now, and the western games are becoming worse, so it's a good thing that people point these things out, otherwise nothing will get any better, if you don't say anything then you'll just keep getting games like concord (unless you're happy with that) but if they don't accept our comments as a positive way to make things better, then it just shows that they don't care what most gamers want, i honesty don't have a problem with diverse characters in games or movies, but when they do it as the characters identity and you know it's just pandering, that's really what sucks the fun out of games, people all have a right to their opinions and that's why it's good to have comments switched on, we all want decent games, 100% pure gaming fun just like astro bot, i think we can all agree on that right?

I make electronic listening music

What if I used Rave sounds because I were pandering for a community of Rave people?

Or adding Breakbeats, for the Breakbeat heads.

How about the community of people who like Whawah Bass?

If I made music based on this, I wouldn't be making music from the heart, and that's what we're getting from the movie and games industry, movies, and games based on trying to pander to audiences that don't even care

Whining about the choice of protagonist is dumb , sure. But the hate in some comments here, especially from people who think they stand on higher moral ground is appalling.

Personally i dont see any sort of agenda in the trailer and even if there was it wouldnt affect my decision on playing the game, as i am more interested in story, gameplay and world building.

Incels. Incels everywhere.

For the record, not liking the visuals, the character design, the art style or whatever is totally fine. Its ok to have critiques on a game’s design (even if its only a small snippet) because everyone has different tastes.

However, saying its woke trash because it has an “angry GI Jane looking lesbian” in it is homophobic.

There is a difference, try saying that ish to someone in real life and see if its not offensive. Saying a game needs to flop because it has a woman or a male protagonist, or a gay person is bigoted. Why? Because its not a game related critique. A game isnt trash or needs to flop because of a characters gender, that is a prejudice stance.

People are saying this is DEI, based on what? Because she is a person of colour? So now every game that features a non white automatically gets labeled DEI? And whats wrong with diversity and inclusion in the first place? What exactly are people against? The inclusion of non white people in games?

Look, i understand that there have been cases where the inclusion of people has been the focus, and they forgot to make a compelling story or game around it. I agree, that is not the way to do it, we shouldnt force diversity at the expense of making a great game.

But saying something is trash solely because it has a diverse cast of non white people is xenophobic. Sure, its an opinion. But its still very exclusionary and shows a lot of harmful prejudice.

Saying you dont like the visuals or the character design is not bigoted.

Apparently some people just dont understand the difference. This is not a ‘holier than thou’ take, its just common decency.

Gamers can be so silly sometimes, although I doubt a lot of the people complaining about this are really that into gaming. Being anti-woke or whatever seems to be a full time hobby for these types of people I doubt they really play that many games.

All this nonsense makes me somewhat ashamed to admit I'm a gamer sometimes. All that should ever matter is how good a game is and how much enjoyment comes from it. I'm sick of people's hideous views coming to the fore. If you don't like it, bugger off and play something else

She is simply not relatable to the vast majority of gamers.

@Dragon83 why do you assume their reason for casting characters was because of DEI… So if they chose a white shaved male there would be no issue right? Then it must be because story or other reason was at play. Any choice (other than white male), and it’s because of DEI? Give me a break dude. No issue you not liking their recent output but citing “DEI or whatever” was their reason for character choices is lame.

@Stino69 It’s totally fine if you dont relate to the character. Everyone has different tastes, and if you’re really not interested, you always have the option not to play the game. The issue comes when a small vocal minority is calling it trash and insists it should flop because they cant relate to it. Why should games only be catered so that white straight males can relate to it?

People who arent white or male have been playing and enjoying games with white male protagonists for years now. You can enjoy media with ither characters that arent like you. Imagine people calling a game trash because it had a white straight male in the teaser. Would seem mildly inapporpriate dont you think? That is how these DEI comments come across to me, like a double standard.

To be fair, most people arent saying that, this is only directed to that small vocal minority that this article is reffering to. The ones living on twitter and youtube comments.

Also, there are probably more characters to be introduced. And maybe they’re also playable. So if people really dislike playing as a bald female, they might have different choices. This is a directors vision, and i can understand that some might not be interested in it and if its a total dealbreaker for some, there are many other games out there to enjoy.

Personally, i would find it pretty extreme to dismiss a whole game based on that teaser trailer, but to each their own.

Love how push square completely ignored the mass DMCA copyright strikes that happened back in 2020. No it's just the story that angered people.

Lol my comment was removed for being inappropriate apparently even though I wasn't being rude. Not being allowed to have an opinion doesn't help anyone.

@Plankton-Warrior you have that backwards. ND is making this game the way they want. You guys are trying to change their art to fit your views. Making your whole spiel hypocritical. Also I was in a band 10 years ago, we made our music, NOT what others thought we should be making to appeal to more people, that takes the heart and passion out of art.

@Thelegend159 not only that but the actor looks similar to what she really looks like in real life. Some gamers are just cringe af today

@Stino69 the vast majority of gamers don't care what a character looks like.... Even though she resembles the actual actor in this case but some gamers are just cringe.

@Elitepatriot disagreement is one thing but overreacting or insulting is another.

Game is probably going to be even more divisive than The Last Of Us Part 2.

The character herself seems interesting enough in a cliche hollywood way. I'm more worried about them doing the hollywood big studio thing and shuffling the same actor into every project (reminds me of the period where every major film starred "Tom Hanks as: Tom Hanks Playing a Character") and the general vibe of "cyberpunk space vibe missing the trend by years, leading into planetary gameplay that looks like recycled old gameplay."

In a way it feels like Sony's entering their "WiiU moment" (I don't mean a failure in console sales), where Nintendo didn't catch onto HD development and made all the wrong moves, and it feels like Sony didn't catch onto "modern development" and all their games come out chasing a trend that they've missed by years because the game took so long to make.

But, while some people hold ND in high regard, I've never held them in high regard beyond their gfx engines, so none of that really surprises me. Still, Uncharted is fun popcorn entertainment and this might be too. I like the retro cyberpunk theme, but I'm not convinced from the trailer it'll pull it off well.

@themightyant 🤦🏽‍♂️ that's not how things work. Yes the technique is use for lineups, it is not used for the whole head 😂 if a person wanted to get any closer than what using clippers in a normal way would allow they would use a razor blade, not "edge" their whole head. Come on man you're just arguing for the sake of it, and failing.

@PCPS4XB Most people care how a character looks, some more than others. Even those that don't really care still notice if a character has good design or is appealing.

@bighal Similarly, you can't say for certain it wasn't influenced by DEI 🤷🏽‍♂️

@Vega37 The amount of strong men we see in entertainment is far greater than those of reality. That's the point of fiction. I dunno if you're arguing we need to do a survey of the strong men to strong women ratio and ensure fiction accurately reflects that ratio. Otherwise, you're just basing the inaccuracy of such a ratio in fiction on vibes. And, I mean, if you just want the fiction ratio to reflect that, generally, women aren't as strong as men, it already does. There are more strong men than strong women in fiction, and the strongest tend to be men. So then what is it you actually want?

And you really need to specify your definition of a 'confident/arrogant woman.' Many women are confident in things that don't encroach mandom. Like beauty, motherhood, or sewing. I'm assuming you mean 'confident in their physical strength and ability.' But then, like I believe we agreed on, there are strong women that should be confident in their ability (just watch the Olympics).

And lastly, I don't know who you spend time around, but I don't know anyone that sees an arrogant man as less offensive than an arrogant woman. I don't see what gender has to do with that. I guess if we were to assert toxic masculinity is healthy, maybe.

@PCPS4XB I disagree.The discussion on this page suggests otherwise. I'm sure the game will do just fine. I certainly hope so it is Naughty dog after all.

"But this nastiness that’s unfurling around a title that otherwise looks extremely exciting is tiresome and unnecessary to say the least."

If you can't stand the heat etc etc

@PCPS4XB will that be the "Woke game awards" then?

@Vega37 the ones that care (which are not many) care about clothing/equipment design. But needing the character to be attractive (subjective) in a game in order to enjoy it is just weird...

@J_e_f_f__D so a character in a game that looks exactly like the real life actor is now woke? Maybe you're just reaching a bit and possibly need a new hobby....

Jack in Mass effect is my favorite character. So I am absolutely okay with this character.

@Plankton-Warrior can you please specifically explain how this one is DEI? Also explain how must a character look like to avoid being labeled as dei?

@PCPS4XB Well said. But let us be honest they are running from criticism.

@Elitepatriot ehh don't know man... doesn't seem like it to me. More like running from toxicity imo

@Stino69 i said this before a few times , once more details come out , and they show more of the game with some game play , people are going to forget about most of this and its going to do really well. lets face it negative comments stick out more even if its the few that do it vs the positive comments. with naughty dogs track record , i have more then enough faith in them to produce a great game.

I've Just read your profile. You're busy aren't you!! Bot like behaviour🤔

@Stino69 no bot here , beep boop beep boop beep

Actually it's more like trolling

@Plankton-Warrior completely agree👌

We need another tomb raider game please!

@themightyant Its not... it's a you thing and that's fine. But don't act like most people who shave their head do it in this manner 😂

@PCPS4XB You cannot speak for everyone not sure why you are trying. You can't just say everyone who cares about how a character looks cares only about their clothing or equipment, I mean you can but you're wrong. I played Concord and commonly used one of the most hideous characters I've ever seen designed. I hated the way they looked, how they talked, everything about them except the way they played. It was an extreme turnoff. Nothing about a game should be such a turnoff, especially relating to style. You're taking the word attractive to weird lengths, it doesn't inherently mean a character is "hot". Cool, dope, rad, badass... all can explain an attractive design. It's not so much about being hot or sexy, it's about not being lame. Elden Ring would have a much different feel if your character or the bosses you fight look like pokemon instead intricately detailed gothic themed characters. Ugly isn't cool, attractive is, it's that simple. If Lara Croft was some overweight square faced troglodyte, or even a 6 with a shaved head, the games wouldn't have been as popular. There's a reason people like Brad Pitt and Sydney Sweeney are the leads in movies, and people like you and me are not. People want to see attractive people in entertainment, that's literally part of what is entertaining about it. No one cares about or wants to see a story starring a standard Walmart shopper.

You don't have to give an essay, you already proved your point before I replied. The character looks identical to the real life actor. If you can't enjoy the game because you subjectively find her not attractive, that's an issue for you which is not a common thing...But that's ok, that's a you issue and also quite easy for you... You just avoid a purchase. But if a game has phenomenal gameplay, awesome acting, state of the art visuals/sound, music etc etc, the last thing I will do is not purchase it because the actor is not attractive.

@ZeroSum
Nothing’s wrong with you. I’m the same way. If we’re not the future of the planet, it’ll end sooner than you can say “basement dwellers”.

The thing with your character in a game (particularly a first person one) to me is a bit like my own face in real life … I very rarely see it , so it makes fk all difference to me tbh , if it’s a good game made for the sake of being a good game I’ll give it a go,

Almost starting to feel like the gaming companies have a team dedicated to rage baiting players. It doesn't matter how you feel about the character, there is almost zero chance they didn't, or shouldn't, expect this. Is this just a new marketing technique or are you going to tell me they really don't understand the average gamer? Maybe go outside of a big city to shop character designs?

Let's be honest about this, they have turned the comments off because people are saying things they don't like. The fact that some of them qualify as 'toxic' is a convenient excuse for Naughty Dog to censor genuine criticism and debate about some of the ideology in the game.

Games like this are bound to have "toxic detractors", as I've seen Push Square describe them in another article, but they have toxic supporters too - and that's what happens when you stuff your game with divisive politics and polarising ideologies.

I have no sympathy for the developers of this game.

@themightyant Why would expand my mind to the wrong way of doing things?

@Caveman49 Digital Foundry put Dragon Age in their top 10 for graphics this year due to the hair tech so it can be done.

Though I'm still on your side and have no issue with the lack of hair here