The Last of Us Remake Reveals Joel’s Age Thanks to High-Def Texture

gamerant.com:

The Last of Us Part 1 is largely considered one of the most beloved games of the past decade. With its gripping narrative, compelling world that's fallen apart after a pandemic, some of the best written characters in video game history, and sublime voice acting performances to boot, it still stands out to this day. Much of that is down to the recent remake of course, but this latest iteration only serves to give more detail to the game's rich universe, and some of those details were unknown until now.

In a recent post on Reddit, the remake of The Last of Us has given a bit more insight into the game's male protagonist, Joel. Although a weathered and aged man, it's never really been revealed how old he is in the games. However, thanks to the new visuals, a user by the name of Chopperz19 has managed to find such information. In an image captured from the game, Joel's passport can be seen, and thanks to the high-definition texture, it's revealed that he was born in 1981. Given when the events of the original game took place, this makes him 52 years old.

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Some perhaps already knew when his actual birthday was but not the year he was born, so this is just a neat bit of detailing that may have been lost forever were it not for the new textures. A father figure to Ellie in The Last of Us, while also being a hardened survivor living in a cruel world, Joel is something of a complicated character, which is what makes him so interesting to play. The fact that it's now been established he's in his early 50s doesn't really change much about him, but it is a nice extra detail to throw into the lore.

Thanks to the remake, fans have been able to get to grips with this more modern take