Steven Strom of SideQuesting writes:
"Back after over a year in space, contemplating the meaning of existence and doing battle with extra-dimensional horrors, the duo is back and ready to pontificate! Specifically, the two talk about what they’d like to see in a probably-not-theoretical sequel to The Last of Us, the smash-hit from Naughty Dog that has people wondering 'What’s next?'"
The game's huge marketing budget has worked out for it, bringing in $2 billion revenue in its first 10 months of release.
I think it's about time for government agencies to step into mobile gaming and look around, this is shit.
Do not worry 82yr old joe biden is on it he will have 88-100 year old friends in the government to fire up there talky box's.
"The Game Music Foundation are today very proud and pleased to announce an additional concert, circling back to the roots of Game Muisic Festival in Poland. On April 28th, 2024, the National Forum of Music in Wroclaw will once again become a place to celebrate the art of video game music, featuring scores from The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II." - The Game Music Foundation.
A new The Last of Us 2 documentary reveals that Naughty Dog almost made a different version of the PS4 and PS5 game similar to Bloodborne.
Kind of a misleading comparison. They were simply talking about the game being melee oriented and more of an open world. I wouldn't compare a game to a soulslike based on that.
Open world in a very specific sense though. The sense of exploration and discovering shortcuts within a large, challenging area would feel great in a survival game like TLOU. But I'm sceptical it would be nearly as satisfying without the bonfire/lantern respawn system.
A more melee oriented Last of Us 2 would've been so much better imo. The combat mechanics barely got any use from me cause everyone just shoots at you, and then the Scars with their bows are even more annoying. Level design was also more Bloodborne, and I love the level design in Souls game, there's a real sense of scale and exploration due to the branching paths. We really gotta move away from open world in the style of GTA and BoTW and do it more like Souls.
Completely agree with your final comment. Semi-linear open worlds like those in soulslikes are by far the most satisfying. Even Elden Ring (which is of course amazing) loses some of its heart due to it's open world.
@SnarkyDoggy
Of course, my comment was my opinion, and may be different to yours.
I completely agree that Elden Ring's world is incredible. The design of every inch of its map is fantastic, with so much care that has been put into its layout and design to tell a story in the classic ambiguous way that FromSoft always manage. I would argue with anybody, any day of the week, that there is no finer example of open world design anywhere in gaming across all platforms and genres.
However, the 'heart' that I speak of is perhaps more aligned with gameplay. The more linear form of the previous games provides a distinct level of focus and determination that Elden Ring lacks due to the nature of it's open world. In Dark Souls, Bloodborne, etc. you often have between one and three bosses available to you at any time, requiring dedication and a certain level of grit. You have to learn each boss, master the techniques required and vanquish them before moving on. Between 60% and 90% of the bosses in each game generally result in this experience.
I had no such experience in Elden Ring, except for the fight against Malenia, because the nature of the open world meant that there was always something else to do and explore. The open world encouraged this, meaning that I spent most of the game over-levelled for the bosses I was facing. And I didn't even go out of my way to over-level.
To conclude, the heart of Soulsbourne games isn't inherently the difficult; it's the grit and determination required to beat them. There are other things that factor into the soulslike genre, but that gameplay loop is the real soul of the series. And Elden Ring, mostly due to it's open world, lacked that particular aspect.
As I have said, you are welcome to disagree with me! But I hope that further explains my original statement.
I don't think we need to move away from a gta open world style. There's room for all. I enjoy open and linear along with in between. If you have an issue I imagine it's on the devs.
An in-between then should be considered more often. I'm just not a fan of the long stretches of land of nothing. Idk whatchu mean by the last thing tho, I like ND.
Def did good with their own thing I'm so over the whole copy souls combat sheesh I can dee if in certain games it would be bosses that looked like a souls boss but straight out copying the combat and feel takes away from a game that supposed to be its own lol
I think it would be cool if there was a TLoU 2 that it would continue straight from where we left off as I don't really want to see Ellie as an adult yet.
After all, the story revolves around Ellie being a child and going through all this, and being who she is.
It is probably too cliche, but I would like to see that maybe some Fireflies get together again and they recruit hunters to go and find Ellie, perhaps Bill could find Tommy's and tell them, because maybe the hunters raided his town and he had to leave.
Perhaps Joel would take Ellie away from Tommy's as he wouldn't want anything to happen to Tommy's new family and then when they're camping (Ellie and Joel) the hunters raid them and are able to take Ellie.
From there you could play as Joel trying to find Ellie and/or Ellie trying to escape from the hunters. And then maybe at the end Joel and Ellie find each other and Ellie gets shot like Sarah did, of course not in the head, and then Joel has to get her back to Tommy's and then there would be 3 types of endings available.
1) We see that Ellie survives
2) We see that Ellie dies
3) It cuts to the credits and we never know, or there being a prequel.
I dunno, i'm sure there will be better suggestions xD