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Naughty Dog 40th Anniversary Retrospective

Germuso said:
The dev that beat Nintendo in kart Racing games and platformers.
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Bait Baiting GIF by Raena AI
 
Uncharted 2
Uncharted 4
The Last of US (the first game)

A good game every 13 years. Not bad.
By the time Intergalactic comes out it will have been almost 13 years since I enjoyed one of their games.
 
I really liked their Crash Bandicoot era and - while I've never played them - I do want to finally play the Jak games someday. At least the first one. They did fun games back in the day.

I have mostly hated their output from Uncharted onwards. TLOU1 was decent and I generally enjoyed playing through it once. But across the board, all they do now is clumsy, laggy shooters with shoddy mechanics and an extreme overreliance on flashy setpieces. They're not the same studio they once were.
 
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Never played much of their earlier stuff, to be honest, it wasn't until the PSX really. I'd say the most notable thing about the studio is that it's survived as long as it has. 40 years in this industry is heck of an achievement - there aren't many left from that long ago, so you gotta respect their survivability. As for their games, I could take them or leave them, to be honest. Crash Bandicoot was fine, but it was made famous by them deliberately courting comparisons with Mario, which was funny because it couldn't hold a candle to the big ticket 3D platformers on the Nintendo 64. Now Croc, Spyro - they delivered the goods for the PSX on that front. Jak and Daxter were pretty good on the PS2, but they got a little long in the tooth. Uncharted delivered when Sony were absolutely desperate for anything good on PS3, and it was decent enough, but it peaked with the second entry and it's been downhill since. The Last of Us was pretty mid, frankly, propped up by people who apparently never watched a movie before. Never played the second one, but by all accounts about half the people who played it didn't think much of it. All their eggs are in the Intergalactic basket now, which unfortunately had a lukewarm reveal - fingers crossed the gameplay is better received. Here's hoping they continue to survive for another 40 years.
 
Started playing their games with Uncharted on PS3 and they have never disappointed me. Top tier studio, imo. Sucks that they have become so divisive though.
 
The original Crash was cool when it released, though I don't remember playing it much.

Never got into Jak but tried it here and there.

Uncharted had its moment but I don't think I'd have much interest in a new one.

The rest I didn't play or didn't like.
 
All I evoke from watching this is "meh". The behaviour they exhibited throughout the recent decade combined with their recent releases have taken the wind out of my enthusiasm sails for them.

Germuso said:
The devs* that beat Nintendo in kart Racing games and platformers.
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FTFY

With an asterisk. Most of the devs who were involved in CTR aren't there anymore. You're fawning over a pretty logo.

Danny Dudekisser said:
I really liked their Crash Bandicoot era and - while I've never played them - I do want to finally play the Jak games someday. At least the first one. They did fun games back in the day.

I have mostly hated their output from Uncharted onwards. TLOU1 was decent and I generally enjoyed playing through it once. But across the board, all they do now is clumsy, laggy shooters with shoddy mechanics and an extreme overreliance on flashy setpieces. They're not the same studio they once were.
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Crash 1-3 had a really great character gallery. Big kudos to charles Zembillas and Joe Pearson for their work in that regard.
 
Let's hope they get rid of wokism and go back to focus on making great characters and stories instead of on checking DEI checklists soon. And bring back Nathan Drake as main character in an Uncharted 5, plus later a Joel focused TLOU game.
 
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Topher said:
Started playing their games with Uncharted on PS3 and they have never disappointed me. Top tier studio, imo. Sucks that they have become so divisive though.
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Sucks that they became so intentionally divisive, I'd say. Setting aside anyone's space in the related culture war for a moment, Naughty Dog from the inception of their serious, dramatic stories, have always been friendly to left leaning causes.

My example is always Ellie and Bill in The Last of Us. It's there. It's involved in the main story. It ISN'T the main trait of the character. It ISN'T used as plot armor and it DOESN'T shy away from showing shitty, RELATABLE actions and ideas from those characters alongside good ones. No one was beaten over the head with the ideas, and the way it naturally integrated with the character strengthened the writing.

I really don't know what shifted or what caused that shift in the first place, but The Last of Us, Part II's entire promotional and release tour just seemed aggressive, and not in a way that the audience was in on the joke, you know? Naughty Dog became a very vitriolic, righteous studio in their public facing cone. With Druckman, specifically and later Halley Gross or whatever her name was, each interview had a very "We are artists, and everything we do has layers of deep complex meaning, and it's a shame the unwashed mentally deficient won't have the capacity to enjoy our compelling, raw narrative about a subject that's absolutely totally never been covered before," vibes.

Game or story or writing or workplace complaints or praises aside, it's just bad business pre-101 for me: you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.
 
Topher said:
Started playing their games with Uncharted on PS3 and they have never disappointed me. Top tier studio, imo. Sucks that they have become so divisive though.
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Uncharted 1234 are my top games of all time, such an incredible saga, great characters.

I am still fully confident the studio is the pinnacle of the industry, just not a fan of the direction when Druckmann took the helm.
 
TheInfamousKira said:
Sucks that they became so intentionally divisive, I'd say. Setting aside anyone's space in the related culture war for a moment, Naughty Dog from the inception of their serious, dramatic stories, have always been friendly to left leaning causes.

My example is always Ellie and Bill in The Last of Us. It's there. It's involved in the main story. It ISN'T the main trait of the character. It ISN'T used as plot armor and it DOESN'T shy away from showing shitty, RELATABLE actions and ideas from those characters alongside good ones. No one was beaten over the head with the ideas, and the way it naturally integrated with the character strengthened the writing.

I really don't know what shifted or what caused that shift in the first place, but The Last of Us, Part II's entire promotional and release tour just seemed aggressive, and not in a way that the audience was in on the joke, you know? Naughty Dog became a very vitriolic, righteous studio in their public facing cone. With Druckman, specifically and later Halley Gross or whatever her name was, each interview had a very "We are artists, and everything we do has layers of deep complex meaning, and it's a shame the unwashed mentally deficient won't have the capacity to enjoy our compelling, raw narrative about a subject that's absolutely totally never been covered before," vibes.

Game or story or writing or workplace complaints or praises aside, it's just bad business pre-101 for me: you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.
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Eh....we are not going to agree on this very much but this subject is so tired and worn out that I'm not going to rehash it again. I'll just say lots of folks agree with you and that's what I mean when I say it sucks that they have become divisive, intentional or not. It is what it is.
 
Topher said:
Eh....we are not going to agree on this very much but this subject is so tired and worn out that I'm not going to rehash it again. I'll just say lots of folks agree with you and that's what I mean when I say it sucks that they have become divisive, intentional or not. It is what it is.
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Oh, I wasn't trying to restart the age old argument. I'm basically saying in a tl:dr; way - weird example of both sides being human and reacting in the weirdest way they can think of - in this case the devs AND fans.

I like Uncharted, whole series, and I like TLOU. I like most of TLOU2, despite finding some of the uh...orientation and gender...product placement, I'd almost say, and some clunky implementation of ideas and pacing issues a little bad, but it looks and plays like a dream, has a great cast, etc.

I come in peace, lmao.
 
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LectureMaster said:
Uncharted 1234 are my top games of all time, such an incredible saga, great characters.

I am still fully confident the studio is the pinnacle of the industry, just not a fan of the direction when Druckmann took the helm.
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Druckmann's direction is the crux of the divide, unfortunately. I'm not going to pretend Naughty Dog with Amy Hennig isn't dramatically different than ND with Druckmann. I just know that I found TLOU 2 to be one of the best games I've ever played and that is where I and you and many other divert into very different camps. There is an impasse there, I've found. So much so that I'd rather just acknowledge the differences because there is very little common ground to be found.

TheInfamousKira said:
Oh, I wasn't trying to restart the age old argument. I'm basically saying in a tl:dr; way - weird example of both sides being human and reacting in the weirdest way they can think of - in this case the devs AND fans.

I like Uncharted, whole series, and I like TLOU. I like most of TLOU2, despite finding some of the uh...orientation and gender...product placement, I'd almost say, and some clunky implementation of ideas and pacing issues, but it looks and plays like a dream, has a great cast, etc.

I come in peace, lmao.
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I get you. All good, brother.
 
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Haven't really enjoyed anything of Naughty Dogs since Uncharted 2 myself, Uncharted 3 was kinda cool for 3D back when I enjoyed that stuff, but it's not like I got a vandetta against those that enjoy stuff since Uncharted 2 🤷‍♂️
 
Topher said:
Druckmann's direction is the crux of the divide, unfortunately. I'm not going to pretend Naughty Dog with Amy Hennig isn't dramatically different than ND with Druckmann. I just know that I found TLOU 2 to be one of the best games I've ever played and that is where I and you and many other divert into very different camps. There is an impasse there, I've found. So much so that I'd rather just acknowledge the differences because there is very little common ground to be found.
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Yeah, my theory is that Druckmann as an ambitious director who wants to create legacies that will be deemed as art, he took (controversial) paths.

It's great my old gent loves TLOU 2, kudos to you. It's just not for me (not a fan of the whole TLOU series, weirdly) but ain't no way I am randomly pointing fingers at folks enjoying the game. I am responsible for my wallet to support what I like. They make a faithful UC sequel? I am buying the $300 version.
 
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