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The Last Of Us: Late 2012/Early 2013, 3rd Person, [Update 2: More Info In OP]

Patapwn

Member
Going by uncharted, ND knows how to tie excellent narrative with great gameplay. The dockyard in U3 was one of the best, if not the best, gameplay sections in a TPS ever. I challenge all the uncharted 3 = no gameplay to find an equivalent to that chapter. It might be difficult though considering you've never played the game.

I applaud ND for pushing forward in the narrative section of gaming. I think it's even a genuine way to expand the market. One of the few times my GF showed interest in gaming was when I had Uncharted running.
 
Except you can skip all of them. Uncharted 3 has an entire chapter devoted to "experience" that is considered gameplay which you can't skip. I see that getting tons of praise, but all I could think the whole time is that "This is going to be a pain the next time around." "Experience" is not a word that conjures up positive thoughts, not the way it's been used this generation.
Yup, so it seems the fact that Bayonetta's cutscenes not even being worth watching is now a plus? Which leaves Bayonetta as a bland arena fighter, which I personally don't enjoy at all. But you don't see me going into Platinum threads talking about their lack of variety and many, many other faults.

Hey, guess what? You can skip chapters on replaying Uncharted! I guess we can just shrug off your point too.
 

REV 09

Member
The Road was an awful film. I understand that the book is supposed to be good and I like the concept, but for a story of survival, why is the kid so damn whiney? Why not teach your son how to survive instead of spoiling him like a whiny brat? Ellie is already more capable than him just from the trailer.
 

Loudninja

Member
Its interesting how these guys were thinking of a concept since 2008.

Looks like they put alot of though to this really cant wait to see the ideas they put behind the monsters.
 
The good thing is the U2 game director is behind this one. I found UC2 to be MUCH more successful from a gameplay point of view, combining fun characters and engaging narrative, but always keeping the pace through the whole 10-12 hour game.

UC3 was like, "Hey, everybody liked that village scene in UC2, lets do ten times as many slow walking sections in this one"
 

Emwitus

Member
If The Last of US ends up to be anything like the road, then, ill be happy. Their really isn't any way naughty dog could make the game emotionally captivating if it isn't linear. No need to set ourselves up for disappointment. Its funny people still haven't realized that at one point we hit a plateau, where players don't really find these games fun and we are now headed to more linear games cue modern warfare/gears/uncharted popularity.

@viewtful
Oh by the way, The dockyard has better GAMEPLAY than anything in UNCHARTED 2! That's why im not that freaked out about the last of us.
 
I'll quit posting in this thread because it's probably stupid to speculate based on buzzwords with no actual gameplay and so I don't shit up the thread and get banned, but platformers like DKC Returns can have pretty great setpieces as well while having a bit more involving gameplay and a significant lower focus on writing I think is bad.

I really loved Crash and Jak and I just think Uncharted has been a stepback for ND and I wish they would be less "cinematic" moving forward.
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
Since this is Naughty Dog, this game is without a doubt going to be a quality product. However, I can't help myself to just roll my eyes right now when I read stuff like this:

USA Today said:
Expected for PS3 in late 2012 or early 2013, The Last of Us is a rare new intellectual property in an era when publishers rely heavily on trusted franchises. "The team at Naughty Dog is known for incredible storytelling, and what excites me most about The Last of Us is the potential of a grittier and more mature story," says Geoff Keighley of Spike's GameTrailers TV. "If Uncharted is the video-game version of Indiana Jones, The Last of Us has the potential to be a video-game version of Cormac McCarthy's The Road."

And comparing it to Cormac McCarthy is just....

Maybe I am just too jaded on the usage of buzzwords in the gaming industry right now.
 

Zzoram

Member
I really, really hope this game doesn't have QTEs and that it isn't just reskinned Uncharted. There needs to be more to do than get ammo and shoot endless bad guys while taking cover, and climbing around buildings in between.

They need to build survival into the game play, day to day survival, not all combat and traversal.
 

Pimpbaa

Member
The good thing is the U2 game director is behind this one. I found UC2 to be MUCH more successful from a gameplay point of view, combining fun characters and engaging narrative, but always keeping the pace through the whole 10-12 hour game.

UC3 was like, "Hey, everybody liked that village scene in UC2, lets do ten times as many slow walking sections in this one"

Well, that is more reassuring for The Last Of Us, but not so much for UC3 which I haven't played yet lol
 
in an effort to steer this thread from negativity, let's look at this comment from Evan Wells,

[Meanwhile, Naughty Dog co-presidents Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra had been considering splitting the one-project-at-a-time studio into two teams. "We felt if we didn't expand the roles for people, we could potentially lose them, because they really wanted to be challenged," Wells says. "We didn't want to lose that talent."]

isn't that nice, so what's the chances of Uncharted 3 team continue on making a new IP after U3. after all, some of those talent in U3 team have been working on Uncharted for almost a decade.
 

Loudninja

Member
Another interesting tidbit
So after Uncharted 2 shipped, some studio members moved to the Last of Us project, while others worked on Uncharted 3.

So both UC3 and The Last of Us was been work on at the same time after UC2.
 
I'll quit posting in this thread because it's probably stupid to speculate based on buzzwords with no actual gameplay and so I don't shit up the thread and get banned, but platformers like DKC Returns can have pretty great setpieces as well while having a bit more involving gameplay and a significant lower focus on writing I think is bad.

I really loved Crash and Jak and I just think Uncharted has been a setback for ND and I wish they would be less "cinematic" moving forward.

Don't worry, the other team is working on Jak 4 for PS4 right now. Bigger worlds, lots of beautiful vistas, challenging platforming, the works. You'll see.

:(
 
Yup, so it seems the fact that Bayonetta's cutscenes not even being worth watching is now a plus? Which leaves Bayonetta as a bland arena fighter, which I personally don't enjoy at all. But you don't see me going into Platinum threads talking about their lack of variety and many, many other faults.

Hey, guess what? You can skip chapters on replaying Uncharted! I guess we can just shrug off your point too.

I put 100 hours into Bayonetta and never bothered with the story after the initial 15. The GAME part of the word "videogame" is what keeps people coming back, not the cutscene/gameplay hybrid "experience" stuff this gen has held on to so dearly. When I see a dev stepping to MY turf, and threatening to take FOOD OFF MAH TABLE, I AIN'T HAVIN THAT.

And yes, skipping cutscenes by pressing Back and Right Trigger is totally the same as skipping entire chapters.

Anyway, I'm done. I take issue with the word "experience" that's all. i'm not calling in to question ND's skills, or the quality of a game we've seen nothing of. Just the way they decided to speak about it.
 
The good thing is the U2 game director is behind this one. I found UC2 to be MUCH more successful from a gameplay point of view, combining fun characters and engaging narrative, but always keeping the pace through the whole 10-12 hour game.

UC3 was like, "Hey, everybody liked that village scene in UC2, lets do ten times as many slow walking sections in this one"

Frankly I found the pacing much smarter, it de-emphasised combat in the first half making puzzles much more important then ramped it up throughout the rest of the game. Made Drake feel like much less of a killing machine.
 

Riddick

Member
Yup, so it seems the fact that Bayonetta's cutscenes not even being worth watching is now a plus? Which leaves Bayonetta as a bland arena fighter, which I personally don't enjoy at all. But you don't see me going into Platinum threads talking about their lack of variety and many, many other faults.

Hey, guess what? You can skip chapters on replaying Uncharted! I guess we can just shrug off your point too.


I hope you went to the Bayonetta thread and spammed it with posts whining about how you don't like arena fighters because apparently that's how it works on neogaf nowadays.

Btw I love cinematic games so apparently I have to troll every game that isn't one.
 

Replicant

Member
I don't care what those 2 million idiots and their "game" think. Right now I'm hoping that ND doesn't make a shitty non game like HR. They are better than that. I have liked most of ND's games, so that is why have concern over this game.

Right, because there's only one way to make a game and that is your way. If things had gone according to you, we're all stick stuck in the Atari 2600 stage where it's pure gameplay and minimal story. Many people do like to experience the story and characters.

Pimpbaa said:
Well, that is more reassuring for The Last Of Us, but not so much for UC3 which I haven't played yet lol

It shows how much you know, talking about games you haven't even played!

I put 100 hours into Bayonetta and never bothered with the story after the initial 15. The GAME part of the word "videogame" is what keeps people coming back, not the cutscene/gameplay hybrid "experience" stuff this gen has held on to so dearly.

Too bad for you many of the top selling games this generation are the ones that have the combination of story and gameplay.
 

Mush

6.0
ND are the masters of their craft when it comes to linear experiences, there's no doubt about that, but can I ask for a little open-ended gameplay?

Random encounters with other survivors, like for example, you hear gunfire/fighting coming from nearby. If you get to them and help them out, they may share supplies/give you directions/tag along for a while. However, they may die/get infected/whatever before you get to them or possibly even betray you and try to go for your stuff.

Not "random" in the sense that the game just spawns a no name dude, but like you could have like 1 or 2 of these people in an area that you might come across and could potentially interact with, with their own background etc etc.
 

Allonym

There should be more tampons in gaming
I was doing some research on Cordyceps earlier today (I was bored) and I found out that the fungus is actually regularly used for medicinal purposes, specifically in ciclosporin—a drug helpful in human organ transplants, since it suppresses the immune system. It's also used a lot in Asia, specifically in Tibet and China, in folk remedies, usually in the form of the Cordyceps mushroom.

If I had to guess as to the driving force behind the spread of this new fungus in the game, I would assume it had to do with the medicinal version of the fungus mutating and starting to infect humans. Of course, this is a little ridiculous in scientific terms since apparently the fungus' ability to modify its host's behavior evolved around 48 million years ago, so I would assume that if it didn't evolve to affect humans in all this time there is no reason for it to start affecting humans now. But then again it's a fictional story, so whatever's clever.

What I find more interesting is that apparently the fungus thrives in humid temperate and tropical forests, and the trailer definitely shows a city with an overgrowing flora. This leads me to believe that there might be areas of the United States in the game which are fungus-free, and Joel and Ellie's entire goal is to reach one of these cities. Maybe somewhere in the north, like Boston? Or maybe south to a desert region, like Texas? I dunno, just throwing out some ideas there.

At the very least I hope the origin and inner workings of this fungus are explored in the story.
Ahh great detective work, that actually sounds plausible, referring to the journey to an area free of plant overgrowth where the infected would likely be few and far between
 

inky

Member
Since this is Naughty Dog, this game is without a doubt going to be a quality product. However, I can't help myself to just roll my eyes right now when I read stuff like this:

And comparing it to Cormac McCarthy is just....

Maybe I am just too jaded on the usage of buzzwords in the gaming industry right now.

You are not alone, trust me. The industry is pushing this stuff too hard, to the point it becomes tiring.
 

Derrick01

Banned
Those Uncharted 3 fist fights were practically QTEs. Just saying.

They were also amazing. Also you had control other than the mashing O at certain times. I'm pretty sure on higher difficulties the triangle for reversals goes away so you actually have to pay attention. I could be wrong but I remember seeing someone say that.
 

Riddick

Member
Those Uncharted 3 fist fights were practically QTEs. Just saying.

No they weren't. The game was hand-holding gamers by telling you when you push the triangle button but you could do it anyway without it. Using your logic block in fighting games is a QTE.
 

inky

Member
Then go and play Tiny Tower for pure gameplay.

I'm not talking about that at all. I'm talking about their desperate need for recognition and the constant comparison to other media in an attempt to legitimize it. Games will get there (maybe) but not like this.
 

darkwing

Member
They were also amazing. Also you had control other than the mashing O at certain times. I'm pretty sure on higher difficulties the triangle for reversals goes away so you actually have to pay attention. I could be wrong but I remember seeing someone say that.

there is no prompt in Crushing, you can chose not to follow the prompt too
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
Do we have confirmation whether this is a SP/MP-focused?

Hopefully SP since I am not a MP guy. MP elements are fine but hopefully the SP elements are strong enough to carry the game for people wishing to play it on SP only.
 

Replicant

Member
Counter buttons are QTEs now?

Batman: Arkham City is full of it then. LOL

I'm not talking about that at all. I'm talking about their desperate need for recognition and the constant comparison to other media in an attempt to legitimize it. Games will get there (maybe) but not like this.

WTF?! No, they're selling it as such because believe it or not, there are many people who like games as a merge of gameplay and storyline. Why do you think general public like my friends, who normally don't blink when I play other games, sat down and watched Heavy Rain and sometimes even wanted to control the character? Many people like narrative structures and many likes being a character in a narrative structure.

It may not be your cup of tea but not every game has to cater to your taste. There are different type of games and genres out there. You're not into narrative structure? There are fighting games, beat-them-up games, open world games, etc for you to enjoy.
 

KingK

Member
Shit guys. 3 of my favorite games that I played this year were Uncharted 3, Skyrim, and Donkey Kong Country Returns. I can't possibly like linear, story driven tps, open world RPGs, and 2d platformers with no story to speak of...can I? Is there something wrong with me?

More on topic, it's interesting to hear that Joel and Ellie meet up at the beginning of the game. I wonder which one we play as at that point? Also, I'm guessing this means we have to wait until later next month for some gameplay details :(
 
Too bad for you many of the top selling games this generation are the ones that have the combination of story and gameplay.

All I see dominating the charts are Wii games, Mario games, sports games, and online multiplayer shooters. All gameplay. Not saying everything has to be the same, but calling their project "no longer a videogame, but an experience" is the type of stuff I, personally, don't want to hear. GAME in videogame reigns supreme.
 
We're trying to move the medium of video games into an area elevated in the same manner of respect of film

Everything wrong with the industry right here. They don't care about the player; they care about "respect." How are you any more respected as a game developer if you only get that respect by moving away from gaming as a medium?
 

Zzoram

Member
yup, scavenging for meager supplies in between encounters would be great addition to the atmosphere

Maybe not have your health regenerate until you find food or water? It would make encounters more dangerous and make you feel more like you're barely surviving.
 

Pimpbaa

Member
Right, because there's only one way to make a game and that is your way. If things had gone according to you, we're all stick stuck in the Atari 2600 stage where it's pure gameplay and minimal story. Many people do like to experience the story and characters.

Yes, because that's exactly what I meant. From one extreme to the other. My concern is not about having a good story and characters. But games that rely purely on that and have no good gameplay to back it up.

It shows how much you know, talking about games you haven't even played!

You've played the last of us? Please tell us more. You are just grasping at straws and purposely taking things out of context to start a flame war for some reason. I don't have UC3 because someone is giving it to me for xmas. If it wasn't for that, I would have already had it because I like ND's games.
 
Those Uncharted 3 fist fights were practically QTEs. Just saying.

it's a simplified system from Batman, you have control at all times, you choose who you want to punch, or if you want to grab and push enemies instead. the button prompt for counter is essentially the same thing as warning sign on top of enemies head in Batman.

It is not QTE
 
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