[PS3 Exclusive] The Last of Us

[Scutch]

There's been a ton of speculation in the video gaming community over the past week about a couple of videos that were released and also housed on the LastofUs.com website. We're very excited to confirm that The Last of Us is developed by Naughty Dog Inc, the creators behind the UNCHARTED, Jak and Daxter, and Crash Bandicoot series.

Neil Druckmann, Creative Director, and Bruce Straley, Game Director, gave us all a very, very brief snippet on what to expect in The Last of Us:
The Last of Us is a genre-defining experience that blends survival and action elements to tell a character driven tale about a modern plague decimating mankind. Nature encroaches upon civilization, forcing remaining survivors to kill for food, weapons and whatever they can find. Joel, a ruthless survivor, and Ellie, a brave young teenage girl who is wise beyond her years, must work together to survive their journey across what remains of the United States.

Press release

Sony Computer Entertainment America ANNOUNCES THE LAST OF US, A NEW PLAYSTATION®3 EXCLUSIVE DEVELOPED BY NAUGHTY DOG
LOS ANGELES, December 10, 2011 – Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC announced today The Last of Us, a new franchise created exclusively for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system. Developed by Naughty Dog, the creators of the highly acclaimed and best-selling UNCHARTED™ series, The Last of Us was unveiled in a world premiere trailer at the Spike TV 2011 Video Game Award Show.

The Last of Us is a genre-defining experience that blends survival and action elements to tell a character driven story about a population decimated by a modern plague. Abandoned cities are being reclaimed by nature and the remaining survivors are killing each other for food, weapons and whatever they can get their hands on. Joel, a ruthless survivor, and Ellie, a brave teenage girl who is wise beyond her years, must work together to survive their journey across what remains of the United States.

“We are excited to finally unveil The Last of Us, a project the team has been working hard on for some time,” said Evan Wells, Co-President of Naughty Dog. “Naughty Dog’s mission is to change the way people experience videogames. We are confident The Last of Us will take a leap forward in cinematic gaming and storytelling, providing gamers with an experience unlike anything else in the industry.”

Naughty Dog wants to "change the f***ing industry" with The Last of Us..

Naughty Dog has delivered a scathing verdict on the "poor" standard of storytelling in video games, revealing its aim to "change the f***ing industry" with upcoming PlayStation 3-exclusive The Last of Us.
Speaking at the studio's offices in Santa Monica on Monday, creative director and writer Neil Druckmann told Eurogamer his team wanted to "raise the bar" in order to make other game developers realise: "Okay, I really need to learn the craft of storytelling, I really need to involve my actors in this in order to get realistic performances and realistic actors. That's what we want to do."

He also argued that reviewers were too quick to praise average storytelling, which could hold back the medium's development.
"We try so hard at Naughty Dog to push things," he said. "And then games come out that are fun and exciting and get visceral things right, but to read in reviews that they have an amazing story is disheartening to us because we work so hard at it.
"As critics we need to raise the bar, otherwise no-one's going to change. We're going to keep pushing ourselves, and kill ourselves to make this story happen - but hope that by doing it, the rest of the industry is going to take notice and try to do the same thing."

Elaborating on where other games went wrong, Druckmann, previously lead designer and co-writer on Uncharted 2, told Eurogamer: "We mistake quantity for quality. We don't focus on characters, we focus on monsters or [the] gruesome."
So what is The Last of Us about? "This is going to sound corny, and it might not appeal to gamers, but I would say it's a love story," said Druckmann. "It's not a romantic love story, it's a love story about a father-daughter-like relationship.
"We approached this genre because we felt no-one is getting to the heart of it. It tells you something about the human condition - that's what you want to do as a storyteller.
"We're not saying every game needs a strong, compelling and dramatic story, but if you are going to make a narrative-based game then you better learn the craft."

Game director Bruce Straley, who held the same role on Uncharted 2, added: "It's not just a zombie game. It's going to be a completely amazing experience that no player has experienced for this genre, the characters, the development, everything."
Neither Sony nor Naughty Dog has yet committed to a release date for the game.

[Will.]

Looks quite good tbh. Looks like encharted mixed with resident evil.

[clancy]

looks like one to watch

[Scutch]

It looks superb, I have to say. The scene on the trailer where they burst through the doors, graphically, looks top notch.

[oska]

Does everyone ignore my threads?

[Plummer]

That looks, MINT!

[Geddes]

looks pretty good, a one to look out for. Looks like they took it form I am Legend?

[A_Cro]

Looks very good, will be keeping an eye out for this I think.

[16v_er]

looks ace, theyre right about story telling in games. I think online multiplayer has something to with the decline of story quality.

[Gman.]

Does look good tbh, i'll keep my eye out for this one.

[Scutch]

Does everyone ignore my threads?

Ahh sorry mate. A mod can merge if needbe. I actually looked past page 1 to see if it had been posted in the last few days. Doh.

[Roy Munson]

Looks good, but then it should do, it's a pre-rendered video. I wonder if they will take the shooting mechanics straight from 1985 again?

Reminds me of I am Legend BTW. Mixed with The Walking Dead.

[Scutch]

Looks good, but then it should do, it's a pre-rendered video. I wonder if they will take the shooting mechanics straight from 1985 again?

Reminds me of I am Legend BTW. Mixed with The Walking Dead.

TBF, the Uncharted trailers looked like pre-renders too. Turns out the game looked just as superb.

[Scutch]

[Roy Munson]

TBF no. Uncharted pre-renders are nothing like in-game. The character models are massively different. I'm not knocking it, the game looks good, but let's not get carried away with all this pre-rendered video/uses realtime graphics etc. That's like saying Forza looks like photo mode.

EDIT: nice artwork. I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops. I love the idea of it. Like playing I am Legend Although if it has shooting like Uncharted 3, I'm out.

[Scutch]

Yeah they really did f*ck about with the shooting mechanics. Uncharted 2 was fine, IMO.

As for the graphics and trailers. I was far more impressed seeing it in-game than I was with any of the trailers. So this should be ca cracker. Looks like humans in the last pic, too. So maybe not just zombie orientated.

[Roy Munson]

I actually stopped playing Uncharted 3 and didn't ever finish it. The shooting was so bad I just gave up bothering. Great platforming and puzzling, but ruined by knowing that as soon as you completed that current objective, a swarm of enemies would magically reappear again. Hugely overrated game IMO. Two was MUCH better.

[Scutch]

Yes, Uncharted 3 started getting a little bit repetitive towards the final chapters. I still don't quite understand the story, either. Meh.

Still a great game but Uncharted 2 was better.

[Cliotoby]

This looks sick. Whens the release date?

f**kin ps3 anyways.

[DeeKay86]

can't f*cking wait!