The Last of Us (PS3 & PS4)

[Badnik Mechanic]

The CG trailer doesn't give too much away, but there are a few interesting points.

* There are other survivors, and they're not all friendly.

* We've seen two potential playable characters, whilst I don't wanna say co-op, if does offer a potential break from traditional survival horror games, parent/guardian type game play.

* There appears to be a greater emphasis on actually surviving, not just shoot everything and get to the end of the stage.

[Conando]

Yeeeeeeeeeeuuuuuuuuuuuppppp, still no reason for me to be hyped.

[Badnik Mechanic]

The official site has also been launched... For some reason, I'm really interested with this, I want to know more about it, I really like the idea of there being a bigger focus on survival other than all out fighting monsters.

Edited December 11, 2011 by Hogfather

[Carbo]

Looks like Dead Island and Lost In Blue meets Enslaved's setting.

Not interested I'm afraid. All the buzz leading up to it feels rather unfounded. How many times have we heard the promises of "genre-busting" zombie survivals and such?

[Scar]

Well its NaughtyDog, so I doubt it will be bad, just looks.....OK at the moment...hopefully it will have a decent story and good characterisation...

[Random Rhyme]

Not enough info to say an actual opinion.

So far Im not impressed but since its Naughty Dog Im not fully out of hope.

[PSI Wind]

That's okay. I wasn't planning on sleeping tonight anyways.

Game has been in development for two years:

http://www.shacknews.com/article/71519/the-last-of-us-in-development-for-two-years-no#

The Last of Us in development for two years, no online planned

by Andrew Yoon, Dec 12, 2011 7:00am PST

Related Topics – The Last of Us, PlayStation 3, Naughty Dog

The Last of Us was perhaps the most surprising revelation at the Spike TV Video Game Awards over the weekend. Sure, another post-apocalyptic game starring sort-of-zombies may not be the most original concept, but the game's developer roused up quite a lot of buzz: Naughty Dog. The developer is best known for their work on the Uncharted series, and only recently shipped Uncharted 3 to critical acclaim. So, where did Last of Us come from?

Apparently, a "secret team" formed within Naughty Dog after shipping Uncharted 2. Creative Director Neil Druckmann, who previously served as a writer on Uncharted 2, admitted to working on the game "for the last two years."

Druckmann also revealed the identities of the two protagonists of the game. Joel, described by Sony as "a brutal survivor," is played by Troy Baker--who stars as Booker Dewitt in the upcoming BioShock Infinite. Ellie, a "young teenage girl who's braver and wiser beyond her years," is played by Ashley Johnson--not Ellen Paige as some had guessed. And, as with the Uncharted series, the actors will not only be providing their voices, but will also be performing the motion capture as well.

While the debut trailer suggested as much, it appears the game is aiming for a Mature rating, evidenced by the official site's age gate, and the 18 PEGI provisional rating on PlayStation's European site (via Eurogamer). This would be Naughty Dog's first foray into M-rated territory; their previous games have all been E and T.

The European game page also reveals yet another interesting factoid: The Last of Us promises no online play. Given Uncharted 2 and 3's focus on online multiplayer, Naughty Dog's return to a single player-only adventure should be a refreshing change of pace for some.

Edited December 12, 2011 by PSI Freeze

[Chooch]

Visually? The game looks absolutely fantastic.

Conceptually? The most horrifically dull thing.

Why the media was up in arms about this game remains to be seen.

[Dobkeratops]

Really, really hoping they take a survival horror approach with emphasis on the survival, meaning scarce resources that require careful management. With an episodic structure, they could treat each chapter individually, with a puzzle-like approach to make every bullet/breakable melee weapon count.

That was one of the things I loved most about the first Resident Evil games, except you always ended with the chests loaded up with herbs and weapons and shit that would never get used at all because the final boss is next and you can only carry six items. Two of them being key spaceholders so that you can pick up the mandatory rocket launcher.

But hoarding is fun.

[Yong]

Oh wow, this is priceless. The official website is up now, and when you go there, it immediately tries to start playing the official trailer. The problem is the OFFICIAL trailer is on Youtube, and the OFFICIAL trailer has been removed due to copyright by Viacom. So people visiting the website are immediately greeted with a "removed due to copyright" message. As of this moment the video is still removed, but clicking the link below the video queues up the Gametrailers version instead. http://www.lastofus.com/

[Detective Shadzter]

Oh wow, this is priceless. The official website is up now, and when you go there, it immediately tries to start playing the official trailer. The problem is the OFFICIAL trailer is on Youtube, and the OFFICIAL trailer has been removed due to copyright by Viacom. So people visiting the website are immediately greeted with a "removed due to copyright" message. As of this moment the video is still removed, but clicking the link below the video queues up the Gametrailers version instead. http://www.lastofus.com/

Oh wow... XD Someone needs to tell Viacom that the VGA's are over and Sony can do what the fuck they want with THEIR content.

[turbojet]

What the fuck is that? It looks like a STD is forming on his head. Jesus. Can't sleep. Can't sleep.

Edited December 14, 2011 by turbojet

[Badnik Mechanic]

Oh wow... XD Someone needs to tell Viacom that the VGA's are over and Sony can do what the fuck they want with THEIR content.

lol I seem to remember AAUK saying that Viacom used to do that with videos that were posted on the official Sega youtubes and various other official sega channels.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Theres currently a small promotion running on Facebook about this game. Not sure how you actually access it but I'm just going to give you the prize.

If you log into the PSN using a North American account and enter this code. G2LJ-GTNE-NKHM

You get a free dynamic theme for this game. Then simply log in using your main account, go to theme settings and there you will find the theme for use. Got it on my system now, it's an ok theme, nothing amazing, but then again for a dynamic theme this is usually a good thing, the movement is very subtle.

Oh and theres no annoying sound effects either.

Also one more thing, that code is universal, it won't expire if someone else uses it, it'll only expire once they pull the content from the store.

Edited December 20, 2011 by Hogfather

[SuperStingray]

Unless Naughty Dog can get their act together after the crock of shit Uncharted 3 was, I'll be sticking with I Am Alive.

And even then, the zombie genre is so oversaturated already that even using them ironically has gone mainstream.

[Dobkeratops]

Unless Naughty Dog can get their act together after the crock of shit Uncharted 3 was, I'll be sticking with I Am Alive.

And even then, the zombie genre is so oversaturated already that even using them ironically has gone mainstream.

I'm not even gonna touch the hyperbolic U3 comment since everyone's entitled to having opinions, but good luck putting your faith in an Ubisoft title whose development has been DNF'd for a while.

Edited December 20, 2011 by Dobkeratops

[SuperStingray]

I'm not even gonna touch the hyperbolic U3 comment since everyone's entitled to having opinions, but good luck putting your faith in an Ubisoft title whose development has been DNF'd for a while.

It was announced for release this winter in September, a new trailer just came out and a played demonstration was given in October. Even if there are still delays, it hardly seems that far off.

And if you liked Uncharted 3 I don't intend to convince you otherwise, but I was just bored to death by the gameplay and couldn't stomach the writing.

[Dobkeratops]

Not talking about the delays. It's more of a poor management, restarted several times, focus shifted (from retail to downloadable), changed development hands mess kind of thing, coupled with the usual Ubi mistakes.

[Dobkeratops]

- Single player

- Focus on characters, not on blasting zombies with a shotgun

- Scarcity of resources

- Exploration factor

They weren't sure of including the infected in the trailer because they were perfectly aware of the "oh, another zombie game" groans, but decided to get them out of the way, otherwise people would focus too much on what they were running from.

So far so good.

[Badnik Mechanic]

Behind the scenes look at the announcement trailer for anyone thats interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rcif26v4QCs

Incidentally, that footage was shot over a year ago according to the playstation blog article on the subject.

[Detective Shadzter]

Game Informer March cover

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/02/02/march-cover-revealed-the-last-of-us.aspx

First in-game screenshots

Magazine contains 20 screenshots total.

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/02/02/exclusive-first-in-game-screenshots-of-the-last-of-us.aspx

[Scar]

Wow!

The game looks absolutely stunning. Damn, NaughtyDog sure know how to optimise visual effects on 6 year old hardware.

I love how the colours aren't sepia'd and are actually properly realistic. The saturated green really pops. Hope the gameplay matches with those visuals.

Edited February 2, 2012 by Scar

[Detective Shadzter]

Picked up the latest issue of GamesMaster. Here's their preview of The Last of Us:

If anyone wants to archive the scan, it's GamesMaster Issue 248 March 2012.

[Winston]

Not sure if anyone has seen this yet, but apparently Naughty Dog was working on Jak and Daxter 4, and then The Last of Us came along...

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/121/1218058p1.html

[Scar]

They said the more they conceptuallised the less it sounded like J&D, so props to them for making an altogether new game as opposed to making a J&D for the sake of it.