Tech

Last of Us 2 Ending Explained: When Seeking Revenge, Dig Two Graves – Collider.com

Published

4 years ago

June 19, 2020

[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for The Last of Us: Part II. For more of our coverage, be sure to check out our spoiler-free review, our beginner’s tips & tricks here, the list of trophies, and a full-on spoiler rundown here.]

Whether you’ve played The Last of Us: Part II or not, it’s hard to escape the pop culture pull of the title. What began back in 2013 with Naughty Dog’s acclaimed and award-winning game The Last of Us has now come full circle. We don’t know if “Part II” will be the final part of the franchise, but for now, we’re fully satisfied with the story that Neil Druckmann, Halley Gross, and the creative team have shared with us. So while we fully recommend playing all available games in the franchise for yourself to get the full experience, we also want to break down the ending of The Last of Us: Part II for interested folks out there. But first!

You don’t necessarily need to know the entire story from The Last of Us, but it helps. Essentially, the gruff survivalist and smuggler Joel escorted the young but tough Ellie across the post-apocalyptic American countryside in order to deliver her to a waiting group known as the Fireflies. Why? Because Ellie may be the lone human who is immune to the effects of a parasitic fungus that infects, mutates, and ultimately kills every other living person on Earth. But when Joel discovered that the Firefly doctors would have had to kill Ellie to develop a cure, he opted to kill the lot of them instead, saving Ellie’s life at the expense of the human race.

Image via Naughty Dog, Sony Interactive Entertainment

That’s the story so far. And it picks up right where we left off. To get the full force of the story, play it (obviously), or check out my spoiler rundown linked above to get a refresher. Essentially, The Last of Us: Part II is about Ellie finding a way to forgive Joel after learning that he’s been lying to her all these years and robbed her of her one chance, in her mind anyway, to be someone truly special. It’s also about Ellie finding a way to forgive herself after not patching things up with Joel before his untimely death at the hands of a vengeful foe. So while Ellie’s revenge against Abby, who violently murdered Joel, may feel like the crux of the story of The Last of Us: Part II, it is but an infinitesimally small part of the overall tale.

Why? Because Ellie’s story is only half of it. While her revenge may take up 95% of her adventure, the most important part is the other 5%. More on that in a minute. The other half of The Last of Us: Part II is actually played from the perspective of Abby herself, a character we, as gamers, are conditioned to absolutely hate from the earliest moments. She killed Joel, the character we spent hours with in the previous game, and her people are hunting Ellie and others. What redemptive quality could possibly be found in Abby? What’s the point of even looking for redemption when video games have trained us to expect the Good Guys taking out the Bad Guys by any means necessary?

This is where The Last of Us: Part II excels. It forces you to either put down the controller and stop playing entirely (Bad Ending) or live within the skin of a character you absolutely hate. Spending the exact same amount of time in Abby’s shoes as you do Ellie’s allows you to empathize with her, to see her side of the story, to learn her background and her daily life in order to better understand her. And if you can understand both Ellie and Abby, you can understand the ending of The Last of Us: Part II.

Image via Naughty Dog, Sony Interactive Entertainment

After playing as both Ellie and Abby against members of the W.L.F. the Seraphites, and the Infected, we get a time jump to a few months later. Ellie is living with Dina and baby J.J. in a bucolic farmhouse setting outside of Jackson. But Tommy comes calling with a lead on Abby and Lev, which Ellie takes as an opportunity to achieve her vengeance and finally get some peace and quiet. The problem is that Dina tells Ellie, in no uncertain terms, that if she goes through with this, they’re done; Dina “can’t go through that again,” a reference to Jesse, the father of her baby, being murdered at Abby’s hands. Ellie prioritizes vengeance over a down-home family life, partially to satisfy her own desires, partially to placate the PTSD that troubles her.

In those intervening months, Abby and Lev are imprisoned by the Santa Barbara gang known as the Rattlers. This group chains up Runners as watch-dogs and forces prisoners into slave labor to harvest their crops (and possibly become food themselves, continuing the theme of cannibalism from the first game, though that’s unconfirmed). Ellie, too, is apprehended by the Rattlers, but she’s able to escape, tracking the rest of the gang to their compound. After murdering yet more Bad Guys, Ellie frees the prisoners who take revenge against their captors. They point Ellie towards the beach where Abby and Lev are left for dead, tied up crucifixion-style on the “Pillars”, the old wooden posts of a long-gone pier.

Ellie, grievously wounded from her fight against the Rattlers, saves Abby and Lev, but demands that Abby fights her one last time. Ellie gets the upperhand this time, evening the score from their previous skirmish in which Abby was the victor, and almost drowns Abby … but she lets her live. And then, she lets her and Lev go. It’s Ellie’s moment to put vengeance aside, even when it’s right in her grasp. And it’s that moment that Ellie and Abby’s parallel stories come to a close … for now.

Image via Naughty Dog, Sony Interactive Entertainment

In the epilogue, we see Ellie, now down two fingers thanks to Abby’s powerful bite, returning to the abandoned farmhome she shared with Dina and J.J. Everything in the house is gone except for Ellie’s old things, like her journal and guitar. She plays “Future Days” on the guitar, rather poorly, owing to being two fingers shorter than she used to be. She thinks back to her last conversation with Joel. We learn that she has a heart-to-heart with him in which she tells him that she doesn’t forgive him yet, but that she wants to try to do so. In other words, Joel and Ellie parted on good terms and were just about to start making amends before he died. So while it’s tragic that Joel died the way he did, and that Ellie feels cheated for not getting to totally forgive him, at least she didn’t leave things between them forever unhealed. Things between her and Dina, however …

Ellie leaves the guitar behind as she packs up her meager possessions and heads back outside, walking towards the forest, for parts unknown…

Until The Last of Us: Part III?

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Tech

Ottawa orders TikTok’s Canadian arm to be dissolved

Published

3 days ago

November 6, 2024

Anne Joseph

The federal government is ordering the dissolution of TikTok’s Canadian business after a national security review of the Chinese company behind the social media platform, but stopped short of ordering people to stay off the app.

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced the government’s “wind up” demand Wednesday, saying it is meant to address “risks” related to ByteDance Ltd.’s establishment of TikTok Technology Canada Inc.

“The decision was based on the information and evidence collected over the course of the review and on the advice of Canada’s security and intelligence community and other government partners,” he said in a statement.

The announcement added that the government is not blocking Canadians’ access to the TikTok application or their ability to create content.

However, it urged people to “adopt good cybersecurity practices and assess the possible risks of using social media platforms and applications, including how their information is likely to be protected, managed, used and shared by foreign actors, as well as to be aware of which country’s laws apply.”

Champagne’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment seeking details about what evidence led to the government’s dissolution demand, how long ByteDance has to comply and why the app is not being banned.

A TikTok spokesperson said in a statement that the shutdown of its Canadian offices will mean the loss of hundreds of well-paying local jobs.

“We will challenge this order in court,” the spokesperson said.

“The TikTok platform will remain available for creators to find an audience, explore new interests and for businesses to thrive.”

The federal Liberals ordered a national security review of TikTok in September 2023, but it was not public knowledge until The Canadian Press reported in March that it was investigating the company.

At the time, it said the review was based on the expansion of a business, which it said constituted the establishment of a new Canadian entity. It declined to provide any further details about what expansion it was reviewing.

A government database showed a notification of new business from TikTok in June 2023. It said Network Sense Ventures Ltd. in Toronto and Vancouver would engage in “marketing, advertising, and content/creator development activities in relation to the use of the TikTok app in Canada.”

Even before the review, ByteDance and TikTok were lightning rod for privacy and safety concerns because Chinese national security laws compel organizations in the country to assist with intelligence gathering.

Such concerns led the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a bill in March designed to ban TikTok unless its China-based owner sells its stake in the business.

Champagne’s office has maintained Canada’s review was not related to the U.S. bill, which has yet to pass.

Canada’s review was carried out through the Investment Canada Act, which allows the government to investigate any foreign investment with potential to might harm national security.

While cabinet can make investors sell parts of the business or shares, Champagne has said the act doesn’t allow him to disclose details of the review.

Wednesday’s dissolution order was made in accordance with the act.

The federal government banned TikTok from its mobile devices in February 2023 following the launch of an investigation into the company by federal and provincial privacy commissioners.

— With files from Anja Karadeglija in Ottawa

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.

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Health

Here is how to prepare your online accounts for when you die

Published

2 weeks ago

October 24, 2024

Anne Joseph

LONDON (AP) — Most people have accumulated a pile of data — selfies, emails, videos and more — on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?

It’s wise to draft a will spelling out who inherits your physical assets after you’re gone, but don’t forget to take care of your digital estate too. Friends and family might treasure files and posts you’ve left behind, but they could get lost in digital purgatory after you pass away unless you take some simple steps.

Here’s how you can prepare your digital life for your survivors:

Apple

The iPhone maker lets you nominate a “ legacy contact ” who can access your Apple account’s data after you die. The company says it’s a secure way to give trusted people access to photos, files and messages. To set it up you’ll need an Apple device with a fairly recent operating system — iPhones and iPads need iOS or iPadOS 15.2 and MacBooks needs macOS Monterey 12.1.

For iPhones, go to settings, tap Sign-in & Security and then Legacy Contact. You can name one or more people, and they don’t need an Apple ID or device.

You’ll have to share an access key with your contact. It can be a digital version sent electronically, or you can print a copy or save it as a screenshot or PDF.

Take note that there are some types of files you won’t be able to pass on — including digital rights-protected music, movies and passwords stored in Apple’s password manager. Legacy contacts can only access a deceased user’s account for three years before Apple deletes the account.

Google

Google takes a different approach with its Inactive Account Manager, which allows you to share your data with someone if it notices that you’ve stopped using your account.

When setting it up, you need to decide how long Google should wait — from three to 18 months — before considering your account inactive. Once that time is up, Google can notify up to 10 people.

You can write a message informing them you’ve stopped using the account, and, optionally, include a link to download your data. You can choose what types of data they can access — including emails, photos, calendar entries and YouTube videos.

There’s also an option to automatically delete your account after three months of inactivity, so your contacts will have to download any data before that deadline.

Facebook and Instagram

Some social media platforms can preserve accounts for people who have died so that friends and family can honor their memories.

When users of Facebook or Instagram die, parent company Meta says it can memorialize the account if it gets a “valid request” from a friend or family member. Requests can be submitted through an online form.

The social media company strongly recommends Facebook users add a legacy contact to look after their memorial accounts. Legacy contacts can do things like respond to new friend requests and update pinned posts, but they can’t read private messages or remove or alter previous posts. You can only choose one person, who also has to have a Facebook account.

You can also ask Facebook or Instagram to delete a deceased user’s account if you’re a close family member or an executor. You’ll need to send in documents like a death certificate.

TikTok

The video-sharing platform says that if a user has died, people can submit a request to memorialize the account through the settings menu. Go to the Report a Problem section, then Account and profile, then Manage account, where you can report a deceased user.

Once an account has been memorialized, it will be labeled “Remembering.” No one will be able to log into the account, which prevents anyone from editing the profile or using the account to post new content or send messages.

It’s not possible to nominate a legacy contact on Elon Musk’s social media site. But family members or an authorized person can submit a request to deactivate a deceased user’s account.

Passwords

Besides the major online services, you’ll probably have dozens if not hundreds of other digital accounts that your survivors might need to access. You could just write all your login credentials down in a notebook and put it somewhere safe. But making a physical copy presents its own vulnerabilities. What if you lose track of it? What if someone finds it?

Instead, consider a password manager that has an emergency access feature. Password managers are digital vaults that you can use to store all your credentials. Some, like Keeper,Bitwarden and NordPass, allow users to nominate one or more trusted contacts who can access their keys in case of an emergency such as a death.

But there are a few catches: Those contacts also need to use the same password manager and you might have to pay for the service.

___

Is there a tech challenge you need help figuring out? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your questions.

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Tech

Google’s partnership with AI startup Anthropic faces a UK competition investigation

Published

2 weeks ago

October 24, 2024

Anne Joseph

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s competition watchdog said Thursday it’s opening a formal investigation into Google’s partnership with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic.

The Competition and Markets Authority said it has “sufficient information” to launch an initial probe after it sought input earlier this year on whether the deal would stifle competition.

The CMA has until Dec. 19 to decide whether to approve the deal or escalate its investigation.

“Google is committed to building the most open and innovative AI ecosystem in the world,” the company said. “Anthropic is free to use multiple cloud providers and does, and we don’t demand exclusive tech rights.”

San Francisco-based Anthropic was founded in 2021 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, who previously worked at ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The company has focused on increasing the safety and reliability of AI models. Google reportedly agreed last year to make a multibillion-dollar investment in Anthropic, which has a popular chatbot named Claude.

Anthropic said it’s cooperating with the regulator and will provide “the complete picture about Google’s investment and our commercial collaboration.”

“We are an independent company and none of our strategic partnerships or investor relationships diminish the independence of our corporate governance or our freedom to partner with others,” it said in a statement.

The U.K. regulator has been scrutinizing a raft of AI deals as investment money floods into the industry to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom. Last month it cleared Anthropic’s $4 billion deal with Amazon and it has also signed off on Microsoft’s deals with two other AI startups, Inflection and Mistral.

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