3liteDragon
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He's already the most awarded game director of all time, so he may want to quit on top.I find Neil to be the single biggest closet movie director within the gaming industry. I wish him great success with this one, to the point he finally fulfills his dream and make this his long-term career.
Well he has already mastered Oscar bait writing style within the gaming realm, so I feel like his style is going to be a perfect fit (while probably even easier) with TV productions and movies.He's already the most awarded game director of all time, so he may want to quit on top.
Haaaaaave you met Kojima?I find Neil to be the single biggest closet movie director within the gaming industry. I wish him great success with this one, to the point he finally fulfills his dream and make this his long-term career.
Yes, and David Cage too!Haaaaaave you met Kojima?
Can't believe there was a time that I actually really really liked this game. Back for the ps3 version and then eventually got the ps4 version of 1. Then I got my hands on the second one and well...yeah.
You know Neil actually said that for TLOU2 he was doing the stuff that Bruce had done on the first game, which left him with far less time to work on the story. He wrote the entire story of the first game by himself because Bruce Straley was co-directing the game. But he explained that because he had to direct the second game alone, Haley Gross wrote most of the script of Part 2. He said he wished he had a co-director like Bruce for Part 2, so he would have had more time to work on the story.Yes, and David Cage too!
But it's kinda unfortunate how unaware most people are with Neil's role when it comes to 'directing' games.
Hideo Kojima is a full blown wannabe movie director when it comes to story/cinematics , BUT he also happens to direct his own games, you know, the GAMEPLAY portion of the game. Neil, on the other hand, has never directed a single game he has been involved in. He's simply responsible for the narrative/characters/cinematics/pacing/etc but the GAMEPLAY side of his games are done by other people (Bruce Straley for TLOU/U4, Anthony Newman & Kurt Margenau for TLOU2).
In regards to David Cage, well his games have little to no gameplay whatsoever, BUT at least he does use this medium's unique capacity for interactivity to his storytelling advantage. Basically, the level of choice and control a player has over the direction of David Cage's games/story are something that simply cannot be replicated with the tv/movie industry, which is a big contrast with Kojima and Neil's writings.
I truly believe that most people would leave the unarmed doctors alive during the last section of the first TLOU, but interactivity be damned! You're simply experiencing a story in TLOU exactly in the same way a story is written and told via a movie or TV show. And the fact that Neil Druckmann doesn't even direct the 'game' part of his products really makes it an easy choice for being the biggest closet movie director within the gaming industry... Oh and and his excessive enthusiasm for being an executive producer, a writer, AND A DIRECTOR on a TV show really is all the proof you need regarding this argument.
"You know, Ellie, we really are the last of us."
I truly believe that most people would leave the unarmed doctors alive during the last section of the first TLOU, but interactivity be damned!
What a weird argument.I truly believe that most people would leave the unarmed doctors alive during the last section of the first TLOU, but interactivity be damned! You're simply experiencing a story in TLOU exactly in the same way a story is written and told via a movie or TV show. And the fact that Neil Druckmann doesn't even direct the 'game' part of his products really makes it an easy choice for being the biggest closet movie director within the gaming industry... Oh and and his excessive enthusiasm for being an executive producer, a writer, AND A DIRECTOR on a TV show really is all the proof you need regarding this argument.
I am not sure what bringing Halley Gross as a co-writer has anything to do with my initial point exactly... But it's interesting that you omitted the fact Neil Druckmann brought in TWO other people to serve as TLOUII's game directors (while he remains as a creative director, just like for the first TLOU).You know Neil actually said that for TLOU2 he was doing the stuff that Bruce had done on the first game, which left him with far less time to work on the story. He wrote the entire story of the first game by himself because Bruce Straley was co-directing the game. But he explained that because he had to direct the second game alone, Haley Gross wrote most of the script of Part 2. He said he wished he had a co-director like Bruce for Part 2, so he would have had more time to work on the story.
Your idea that Neil Druckmann wasn't involved in the game design of TLOU2 is incorrect. And its not like Kojima designs his own games by himself, despite what he'd want you to think lol. Both Druckmann and Kojima served as the overall project directors and creative leads on TLOU2 and Death Stranding and were therefore involved in every aspect of the game. Same with Cory Barlog on God of War. Each directed the game themselves, all of the game.
It's impossible to tell, but I was making a point regarding TLOU's story being non-interactive in the same way a movie is (and unlike David Cage's). However, I remember reading about this and there were quite a lot of people torn regarding Joel's killing spree during that section, but here are some interesting comments from the creators themselves taken from this Kotaku article.Would really love to see the data on this, because I could not disagree more -- at most it would be split, but more likely IMO everyone in the room dies a healthy majority of the time.
In comments sections and forums and even among my colleagues, one thing everyone seems to talk about is the scene in the operating room. Joel walks in and three doctors are preparing to operate on Ellie, which would kill her in the process. Joel slowly walks toward the operating table, and the nearest surgeon holds up a scalpel, ready to fight him off. Joel kills him, takes Ellie, and leaves.
Or, that's how it played for me. Other people did it differently; killed all three doctors, or tried to do it clean. Given how little "choice" there is in The Last of Us, it's fascinating that people have approached this one "optional" part in such different ways. But as it turns out, that scene could have been a non-interactive cutscene.
Druckmann: "The ending, when Joel walks into the operating room, it used to be one giant cutscene. It was quite a bit different."
"The ending," Druckman said, "when Joel walks into the operating room, it used to be one giant cutscene. It was quite a bit different. And there was a designer, Peter Field, who advocated for it to be playable. And he argued for it, and we'd kind of wrack our brain for how to do it, and eventually he was right. We scrapped the whole cinematic and made it playable. And it helped even moreso than we had initially, the beginning really mirrors the end."
I asked if Druckmann could estimate how playtesters fared when called upon to shoot the doctors. "I don't know the numbers," he said, "it's interesting. Sometimes people don't realize they can shoot all the doctors, and sometimes they don't realize that they don't have to shoot the doctors. And sometimes like, "Hey, I don't care, I just went in there guns blazing, how dare they do what they're doing!" And some people were disgusted that they have to shoot the first doctor."
"We have exit interviews after our playtests in-house," Straley said, "and we ask questions about difficulty and weapons and all sorts of different ramping things, and at some point, we walked through the game linearly. And once they get to the doctor's office, you'll always have, because we'll have like two or three people in the room at a time, and inevitably, there will be an outbreak of an argument between somebody and the other people in the room about like, 'Did you kill them all?' 'I murdered 'em all.' 'No, I let them all go, I wish I didn't have to kill that one,' 'I took out my flamethrower and burned them to a crisp.'
See above please... I wasn't judging the storytelling aspect negatively at all, I was simply trying to say that David Cage, despite also being a closet movie director, at least uses this medium's potential for interactive storytelling to his advantage so that his outputs are somewhat unique if compared directly to a movie or TV show, but I understand most other games are not like that (mostly for good reasons) and I have personally zero problem with that approach, in fact, I somewhat prefer that good ol' traditional approach.What a weird argument.
You experience the story as is in most games: God of War, Spider-Man, Witcher 3, Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Auto, Zelda, Halo, Hellblade, etc.
I wanted John Marston to run away with Abigail and Jack, but I couldn't, so interactivity be damned. You couldn't just throw away Faye's ashes on the side and bang Freya instead in GoW? Interactivity be damned! I wanted to kill Trevor and continue living my family life as Michael in GTA 5 but I couldn't ... interactivity be damned!
There are sandbox-type games out there, but TLOU is not one of those games. Why do you want to judge it on the basis of what it specifically isn't?
He was not "creative director" of The Last of Us Part II. He was the "Director" (of the entire game.)I am not sure what bringing Halley Gross as a co-writer has anything to do with my initial point exactly... But it's interesting that you omitted the fact Neil Druckmann brought in TWO other people to serve as TLOUII's game directors (while he remains as a creative director, just like for the first TLOU).
We just disagree. Any director of an entire game, whether Druckmann, Barlog, Kojima, etc... they are involved in the entire project and that includes the game's design. Of course it varies person by person game by game but how much is impossible to know.Yes indeed, during the transitional period of Bruce leaving and ND being busy with Lost Legacy, Neil had to do more to get the project off the ground, but we're talking about the earlier phases of development, not to mention the extra managerial tasks he had to undertake with all the hiring and whatnot compared to U4/TLOU. But none of that really contradicts with what I said, and on top of that, your assessment of comparing the involvement level of the game design aspect of Cory Barlog, Hideo Kojima, and Neil Druckmann for GoW/DS/TLOU2 (respectively) is simply not accurate, and you can check the main credits for yourself to see, for example, how much more involved Kojima was for Death Stranding's gameplay design compared to the others.