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The Last Of Us Game Informer Details [Audio Design Interview]

StuBurns

Banned
I seriously can't understand how anyone can give two damns about swearing or nudity in gaming among all the blood and gore that surrounds it. I'll never understand American morality.
I don't like sex in video games, it's literally never done even remotely well.

EDIT: Actually Gay Tony did it well, but for the most part, it's crap.
 

anddo0

Member
Sounds great. The AI seems to be a cut above, at least on paper... That preview reads almost like fully realized version of I Am Alive.
 

BeeDog

Member
Sound extremely awesome on paper, let's just hope they're up to translating it into a working game. A bit disappointed by the texture quality displayed in the screenshots though, but Naughty Dog has a great habit of applying a level of polish at the end of the development time, so not too worried right now.
 

Dennis

Banned
Sound extremely awesome on paper, let's just hope they're up to translating it into a working game. A bit disappointed by the texture quality displayed in the screenshots though, but Naughty Dog has a great habit of applying a level of polish at the end of the development time, so not too worried right now.

If I could get one wish fulfilled for this game it would be delaying it and putting it on the next-gen machines instead.
 

Apdiddy

Member
I'm actually excited for this -- great to see game developers mine Coen Brothers movies for ideas, atmosphere, look, feel, etc. No Country For Old Men is one of my favorite movies so I think it'll be awesome.

I'm suspecting that Naughty Dog will do more with the possible Jak & Daxter game depending on how the HD collection does. If they do a Jak & Daxter game using some of the techniques they've learned from Uncharted series and The Last of Us.....it could be really good. Just don't make it 'dark and gritty' again -- make Jak a silent protagonist again. I'm not sure where they could go with the game though.
 

Sn4ke_911

If I ever post something in Japanese which I don't understand, please BAN me.
Just saw the scans. Holy shit, that looks so good.
 

kyubajin

Member
I don't like sex in video games, it's literally never done even remotely well.

EDIT: Actually Gay Tony did it well, but for the most part, it's crap.

I'm talking about swearing and nipples (yes, ONLY the nipples) being terribly offensive and M-rating worthy for most of you while extreme violence and gore isn't?
 

Derrick01

Banned
I only read a little bit because I'll be getting the magazine next week, but naturally the first thing I see is multiplayer.

God damn it :mad:

edit: Also I had to laugh at the mini outcry of the girl cursing. It's like some of you never went to high school.
 

Pachimari

Member
Naughty Dog don't even know what the online component is going to be, they just know it'll be awesome - puzzling.

Saw the scans as well, this game sure is going to be M-rated, as we already knew. And Ellie does look scared, some great dialogue as well.

I like how Ellie says, that beside all the dead bodies, that place actually looks pretty beautiful. That were a striking line to me, as she have never seen the world before apocalypse. Wonderful.

She looks real scared in one of the pictures by the way.
 

haikira

Member
Expect to hear "motherfuckers", "fuck", "fuck face", and other such terms as often as you do in Battlefield 3, or perhaps even more.

Now we can narrow down exactly which Ellen Page they're using.

19312021.jpg
 
Yup. I'd say:

There's a scene mid-game where the dude offers Ellie a gun, just in case. She of course refuses it at first, as if anything like that could happen to him but he explains that she'll have to shoot him before he does something... terrible. Then he puts the gun in the girl's hand and closes his fist over her's. "Just take it."

She already has a bad-ass one-hit-kill sniper rifle.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Looks great, sounds great, overall probably going to be great...but...damn...some part of me wishes that attempting a mature exploration of a character driven relationship is going to be damaged by the already apparent ubiquitous violence that they need to have "gameplay"
 

Drencrom

Member
Health packs and scarcity of ammo sounds great.
This interview also addressed my fears about Ellie being a escort aspect of the game.
 
Looks great, sounds great, overall probably going to be great...but...damn...some part of me wishes that attempting a mature exploration of a character driven relationship is going to be damaged by the already apparent ubiquitous violence that they need to have "gameplay"
Sparse amounts of violence, nonetheless. I hope they focus on making each encounter unique and well-developed, so that either the scavengers or cordy-zeds will at least have something to contribute to the plot and action.
 

Amir0x

Banned
Yeah I hope theres a point to that...

It actually makes perfect sense. Considering Ellie has grown up in this world where it's every man for himself basically, survival of the fittest, you would expect her to be in a society where law and also common decency has collapsed almost entirely. People probably swear all the time, in front of kids, women and men. It's very unlikely anyone is holding back in a post apocalyptic scenario like this.

Since Ellie grew up around this, this type of language is probably what she knows
 

Neiteio

Member
It actually makes perfect sense. Considering Ellie has grown up in this world where it's every man for himself basically, survival of the fittest, you would expect her to be in a society where law and also common decency has collapsed almost entirely. People probably swear all the time, in front of kids, women and men. It's very unlikely anyone is holding back in a post apocalyptic scenario like this.

Since Ellie grew up around this, this type of language is probably what she knows
It makes sense from a story standpoint, and indeed games should have the same rights as movies, comics and books to let loose with the language however the author sees fit, but it's just unfortunate they went this route, in a sense, when the game could've helped to push the medium forward from a social acceptance standpoint, but instead will now turn off many people (family members, ect) at the first excessive swear, when otherwise they might've stuck around long enough to see the game balances all that with plenty of humanizing moments and creative takes on the "future."

But really, it all boils down to context, so we'll see how they handle it. No judging until the final product... I trust they're not throwing in swears to attract the CoD/Battlefield "kill kill kill" crowd. (As an aside, I have no problem with swearing in itself, Bulletstorm being my GOTY last year, but it has to fit the game. We'll see.)
 

Amir0x

Banned
It makes sense from a story standpoint, and indeed games should have the same rights as movies, comics and books to let loose with the language however the author sees fit, but it's just unfortunate they went this route, in a sense, when the game could've helped to push the medium forward from a social acceptance standpoint but instead will now turn off many people (family members, ect) at the first excessive swear, when otherwise they might've stuck around long enough to see the game balances all that with plenty of humanizing moments and creative takes on the "future." But really, it all boils down to context, so we'll see how they handle it. No judging until the final product... I trust they're not throwing in swears to attract the CoD/Battlefield "kill kill kill" crowd.

(As an aside, I have no problem with swearing in itself, Bulletstorm being my GOTY last year, but it has to fit the game. We'll see.)

"the game could've helped to push the medium forward from a social acceptance standpoint "

Seriously? Is this like all those tragic weeaboos and Nintards who went around all day long sharing their comically forced stories about how their family finally played videogames for the first time on Wii and their friends weren't mocking them sinisterly for playing Wii Sports? It was like "yay, finally, there is something in this medium for which their sharp critiques of my lifestyle do not apply! Thank you based God!"

Fuck social acceptance. I've got nothing to prove, neither do Naughty Dog. People who don't like it can suck a dick. The important thing is to create your vision as honestly and as purely as possible. If Ellie cursing makes more sense than not, than you go with Ellie saying fuck every other word.

Think about what you're saying anyway for a moment. The Last of Us conceptually could never have been a family friendly game. It's a game about a torturer, drug smuggler... a world which has been destroyed, people who hunt other men regularly to survive. It's a game with copious gore and abject violence all the time. The only appropriate thing is to go balls-to-the-wall with the concept, not pussy out and self-censor for the easily offended set.
 
I'm loving that ND isn't holding back, seems like they are using the M rating to its fullest. It will make for a more authentic experience imo. When I first watched the reveal I figured it might be sugar coated in some way or pulpy just based on their past work. Nice to know that's probably not the case.
 
Not sure why anyone would care about swearing. People swear a shitton in real life for no reason, when in dangerous/fast paced/competitive/threatening/etc... situations people do it even more often.

Anyway, everything is sounding really good, hope it's executed well. Also Amirox is right, the game shouldn't have to concede something just to be some sort of socially accepted game, who cares.
 

Ricky_R

Member
It's a bit weird that Sony gave ND the green light on a project like this, considering the genre, M rating and realism they're going for. ND has complete creative and decision making control it seems and I find that somewhat surprising.

Sony could've demanded a mainstream new IP or even Uncharted 4 as their next game considering how successful they've been this generation and how necessary I think it is for Sony to rely on ND to attract more people to the Playstation systems again.

Yet, they are open about it. Maybe it's a reward for making Uncharted a success for the PS3 or maybe it's because they are also working on the next Uncharted for the PS4. Maybe it's both.

What do you guys think?
 

Sky_Blue

Neo Member
I only have a problem with swearing in games if it's done just for 'shock' value or if the developers seem to think that swearing = maturity. As long as it's not over-used and in every other word (GTA San Andreas became unbearable because of this) then I don't really mind.

From what we've heard so far about The Last of Us the swearing seems to be in context - when faced with a horde of cordyceps infected zombie things in a world that no longer cares you're probably not going to be all prim and proper and say something like "My word, how awful this is! This just won't do!".
 

Massa

Member
Disappointing that they are already talking about this as a "franchise". This kind of narrative is not something that usually asks for sequels, unlike Indiana Jones/Uncharted.
 
Im pretty excited for this, I really cant wait to see what they have planned. All the info sounds pretty good and Im betting it finds a good variety of thugs/military/infected/friendlies to stay interesting.
 

Neiteio

Member
I only have a problem with swearing in games if it's done just for 'shock' value or if the developers seem to think that swearing = maturity. As long as it's not over-used and in every other word (GTA San Andreas became unbearable because of this) then I don't really mind.
This is more or less what I'm saying. The swearing is fine, as long as it fits and isn't there just to be "mature." A lot of games attempt this in a juvenile fashion, and so gaming continues to be a niche thing. And niche isn't necessarily bad, mind you, but growing beyond that status would mean more games, more ideas in gaming, more talented people working on gaming, etc. So yeah, as long as it's handled intelligently, the swearing could work. As I said in the original post, it's all about context whether it fits, and context is more than just the game's premise, also including factors like pacing, tone, etc.
 
Disappointing that they are already talking about this as a "franchise". This kind of narrative is not something that usually asks for sequels, unlike Indiana Jones/Uncharted.

They tried to play down any potential "franchise" potential with this game. Bruce specifically mentions that this game doesn't end with a cliffhanger. The story will be able to stand on its own.
 

Sky_Blue

Neo Member
They have to talk about sequels or it being a franchise because it's the standard game journalist question: "Is there going to be a sequel" is something that they always ask, just like "Will it have multiplayer?" - catch-all, no-thought questions that you can ask to any developer about any game.
 

Neiteio

Member
They have to talk about sequels or it being a franchise because it's the standard game journalist question: "Is there going to be a sequel" is something that they always ask, just like "Will it have multiplayer?" - catch-all, no-thought questions that you can ask to any developer about any game.
They are legitimate questions. One tells us whether this game is planned to be part of a larger overarching story, while the other question tells us whether there will be a multiplayer component, which is, y'know, kind of a big deal!
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
They tried to play down any potential "franchise" potential with this game. Bruce specifically mentions that this game doesn't end with a cliffhanger. The story will be able to stand on its own.

Well, I wouldn't say that entirely.

"Now is not the time. Never say never. It could happen. Naughty Dog's got a long history and I think it's got a long future, so to say well never go back is kind of crazy. But right now we've got this new IP that we're definitely going to be supporting. I guess there's a possibility that the Uncharted Team could move on to Jak and Daxter. It's still up in the air, but I wouldn't think that's going to happen because I think we'd run into all of the same problems with that team that we did with this team."
Generally one game isn't a new IP that needs long term support and keeps the team busy for the near to mid term future.
 

tzare

Member
It's a bit weird that Sony gave ND the green light on a project like this, considering the genre, M rating and realism they're going for. ND has complete creative and decision making control it seems and I find that somewhat surprising.

Sony could've demanded a mainstream new IP or even Uncharted 4 as their next game considering how successful they've been this generation and how necessary I think it is for Sony to rely on ND to attract more people to the Playstation systems again.

Yet, they are open about it. Maybe it's a reward for making Uncharted a success for the PS3 or maybe it's because they are also working on the next Uncharted for the PS4. Maybe it's both.

What do you guys think?

Well, this generation's sony seems to focus on variety and quality for their first party output so i guess this project just fits. Plus new ips are also welcome and open more possibilities in the future. I,m glad they greenlighted this game, and hope new ips come from other first party studios. They will find their AAA game sooner or later.
 

StuBurns

Banned
Games are perfected in iteration, and sequels can grow in scope and quality because of assets and technologies being put in place already. The whole media industry relies heavily on franchises. It would be a poor business decision to green light the game with no chance of a sequel.
 
something about ND making a M rated game seems awesome.

If they use it well and dont go all blood fountains and gibs it could make for some dark moments and some really brutal melee combat
 
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