For all of you hardcore fans out there - or just those who enjoy torturing yourself - you may have seen you can now play both Grounded difficulty and a permadeath mode in a brand new update to The Last of Us Part 2. However, you'll need to be extra careful on permadeath mode because if you aren't and you're not paying attention, you'll end up like this guy right here and you don't want that. What we do want though, is some gorgeous fan art and thankfully, that's what we have right here today courtesy of Twitter user, @IconicNephilim.

David, who is a designer, artistic wizard and a huge The Last of Us fan, has created an incredible piece of fan art illustrating the evolution of Ellie throughout The Last of Us Part 2. As we can see from the image, and going from left to right, David starts off with the young Ellie we all know and love from the original The Last of Us and moves onto the slightly older Ellie we got a glimpse off in Part 2 when she and Joel go on a surprise trip for Ellie's birthday. Further on is another scene from Part 2 where Ellie and Joel are out looking for guitar strings and stumble on more than they bargained for at a hotel. Right in the middle of the artwork is where we see 19-year-old Ellie and then next to it, hardened and revengeful Ellie, poised with her bow. Without spoiling it too much for those who haven't played it yet, the next image is of Ellie who is riddled in grief, pain, and obsession which then ends with Ellie walking off the side of the piece and leaving her guitar.

What I love most about this fan art is that it tells a story. You could easily sit down with someone who hasn't played The Last of Us Part 2 and almost tell the entire story of Ellie's journey in Part 2; who she was, how she came to be and how she ended up. David has done an incredible job here and I hope he plans on selling this as a poster of some kind, I'd love to have it. This isn't David's first rodeo when it comes to creating The Last of Us Part 2 art pieces. Previously we reported on David's The Last of Us Part 2 poster that is packed full of all the characters you will meet throughout the game and it's pretty flipping epic!

Make sure to check out David over on Twitter and follow him as he adventures into more of his design work and most likely a lot more wonderful The Last of Us Part 2 fan art pieces.

Halley Gross, the narrative lead for The Last of Us Part 2, said in an interview with Game Informer that the ending to the game was initially meant to be much darker and instead of Abby surviving and heading off in the boat with Lev, Ellie was going to kill her. Gross explained that during the game’s production “we changed that and had Ellie let go at the last second,” in order to highlight that “some part of the old Ellie, the Ellie with humanity, the Ellie that is impacted by Joel, still exists within this character who has been so overtaken by her quest for revenge.”

If you are a Dina fan, you’ll be pleased to hear that her voice actor Shannon Woodward has taken to Twitch to stream some games. Shannon has posted a schedule of the times that you can catch her on the gaming platform over on her Twitter page so why not head over to her Twitch channel now and give her a follow? You can follow Shannon over on her Twitter and Instagram where she will talk more about her up and coming games so stay tuned! You can also see what Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus has been up to in his playthrough of the game as he picks up Ellie’s guitar to bash the chords to his 1997 song ‘Dammit’.

What fan wouldn't be excited about the upcoming The Last of Us HBO series? Recently, we learned that it will include a "Jaw Drop" moment that was originally cut from the game. Chernobyl creator and HBO's The Last of Us writer Craig Mazin said that ”We’re creating new [things] and re-imagining what is already there to present it for a different format,” Mazin told the BBC’s Must Watch. “Our goal is not to keep you in love with The Last of Us, but to make you fall in love with it again in a different way. It’s a passive way of taking it in, instead of playing it, but you’ll be experiencing more, with more characters in more ways.” Mazin says of his reaction to hearing about a moment that Druckmann had initially left out of The Last of Us “Jaw drop – that’s going in. For sure, we have to do that. You couldn’t stop me doing that. You will have to shoot me [to stop me] from doing that."

The Last of Us Part 2 is available now exclusively on PS4 (and soon to be PS5). The game was one of DualShockers’ favorites of 2020; make sure to check out the official DualShockers (generally spoiler-free) review. Also, feel free to grab the game physically on Amazon to help support the site.