The Last Of Us’ Jimmy Fallon/E3 comparison. How much was scripted?

Naughty Dog’s The Last Of Us demoed on Jimmy Fallon’s TV show last night with creative director Neil Druckmann and game director Bruce stanley on stage to show off a largely identical playthrough to E3. There are a few variations, suggesting it wasn’t all scripted but much of it seems… familiar.

[Darth Stewie]

They probably practiced the demo alot. I was hoping to see the scene in which Joel and Ellie encounter the dead bodies in the bath tub but instead we got the same E3 demo. Also I notice Sony and Naughty Dog are keeping a tight grip on this game. Sony kept this game a surprise for so long and every time this game was shown wether it be to the public at E3 or to the gaming media behind closed the doors both Joel and Ellie are still in Pittsburgh.

[NewMonday]

Sony shouldn't show to much of the game , it will kill excitement, E3 was enough , they should do a media blackout till releas time .

[jon1234]

why do people keep saying sony? thats naughty dog

[mushroomwig]

@jon1234

Because Sony own the rights to the game, it's up to them to decide what they want people to see.

[NewMonday]

Sony are the pulishers, they are responsible for publicity, they may have the best developers , but they are one of the worst publishers.

Their movie division on the other hand has one of the best publicity machines, should get help from them on how to publicize their games.

[bligmerk]

Please tell me I didn't read the above in N4G comments.

Sony *OWNS* Naughty Dog. Naughty Dog is one of 12 first party Sony Computer Entertainment Studios. Sony owns these first party IP's in their entirety.

[NewMonday]

Yes Sony own ND like EA own DICE, development is by teams at DICE and ND, but publishing and publicity is done by the parent companies, the developers themselves don't decide on thes things. They just follow programs set for them

[crxss]

it is stupid that ND plays through that part the exactly same way every single time (at least that i've seen). mix it up! just makes me believe less in the freedom in this game and that it's all scripted.

[DigitalAnalog]

Or you can simply read the "extension" demo articles. It's not like they're making up stuff anyways. ND clearly is feeding off doubt from people like you (and there was a lot in E3) and everyone who doubted saw the extended demo changed their minds immediately. I'd rather wait and experience it myself first-hand.

[CommonSense]

watch the way the first guy that dies as a result of being shot falls and then gets knocked back when he's shot the 2nd time in both videos.

then be honest with yourself and not an apologist.

then tell me that you don't see something out of place. if it wasn't scripted, do you realize the odds of that happening twice in a game that is using a physics engine? and it's not similar...it's identical.

the guy is obviously controlling the protagonist...but something isn't right with this demo. and it could just be that the demo is heavily controlled for the sake of being a demo. it's too early to judge the final product, but lets not kid ourselves. this demo very heavily scripted. especially the ai behavior.

[CommonSense]

watch the way the first guy that dies as a result of being shot falls and then ragdolls back when he's shot the 2nd time in both videos.

then be honest with yourself and not an apologist.

then tell me that you don't see something out of place. if it wasn't scripted, do you realize the odds of that happening twice?

the guy is obviously controlling the protagonist...but something isn't right with this demo.

[CommonSense]

wow, a triple post...really sorry about that. i guess that's what happens when your hotel internet is slower than dial-up.

[Lovable]

"They probably practiced the demo alot"

LOL. Are you for real? That scene was scripted. You can't do anything, but follow what they intend you to do. Uncharted was like that and so The last of us

[NewMonday]

A number of the press where shown different playthrus of the same part of the game

[Hicken]

LOL. Are you for real? That scene was not scripted. You can do almost anything to get through that scene, as evidenced by E3 showings. Uncharted was not like this.

Please, pay attention to things before you start spouting nonsense.

[Lovable]

So much denial that it could fill the whole world.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

***"You can't do anything, but follow what they intend you to do."***

Do you have a brain LOL? Do you seriously believe that you have to REPLICATE EVERY SINGLE THING (meaning step for step, gunshot for gunshot) they did in that video or else the game will malfunction?

It's obvious has hell that they practiced the demo to near PERFECTION. The Jimmy Fallon video is almost STEP FOR STEP with the E3 video lol. That doesn't prove that the game is scripted at all.

[Lovable]

Really? LOL You would practice a demo? Lmao. Keep telling that to yourself. I know there are doubts in your mind too. :)

[Nimblest-Assassin]

So much ignorance... it could fill the whole world

http://www.gamepodunk.com/p...

http://ca.ign.com/articles/...

Some people call me a fanboy of Sony, Im not (spydigity).... I just love games, and when people question and accuse developers and other people in the media its a very sad day

The only time it ever proved true was Mass effect 3.... and that was one of the saddest days in gaming history

http://www.gamepodunk.com/p...

You have all these people telling you the game is not scripted... most of which are respected in the industry

Why does everyone feel the need to doubt them

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

***"Really? LOL You would practice a demo? Lmao. Keep telling that to yourself. I know there are doubts in your mind too. :)"***

LMAO! That's all you have to say? It's obvious that you realize how stupid you are for saying "You can't do anything, but follow what they intend you to do" after seeing that I've pointed out that everything done in this demo is the same as the E3 showing. Now you are the one in denial.

They've obviously practiced it over and over again in order for both demonstrations to be nearly IDENTICAL.

It's NOT just how the enemies act. The path ND takes with Joel is nearly step for step. The gunshots fired are almost 1 to 1 with the E3 demo. The movement of camera as he scouts the room is nearly freaking the same.

You can keep loling and denying it all you want. This video is not enough to "prove" that the game is scripted when everything in this video is done exactly the same down to the detail as in the E3 showing.

Fools will be fools. What do think will happen if you never enter the room where Ellie picks up brick? I don't think you'll be able to answer that since you lack common sense.

[MysticStrummer]

There are no doubts, Lovable, only fanboys who refuse to see the greatness. There were multiple articles written about extended demos behind closed doors at E3. They talked about the variations in enemy behavior caused by different player actions. It's not scripted.

I'd say the purpose of the TV demo was to let people who didn't see the E3 footage, which is most likely the majority of Fallon's audience, see the same scene that was shown at E3. They don't want to show too much to the public yet so Fallon was coached to play it in a similar way. It's not that crazy an idea, just disappointing to those who wanted to see new gameplay.

[CernaML]

Let Lovable post these dumb comments, everyone. There will be a nice big serving of crow for him when the game releases. :)

Also, I don't recall seeing Jimmy Fallon touching the controller at all.

[xAlmostPro]

It's scripted because simply at E3 it was a gameplay video and on this show it was basically a video of some of that gameplay, i'm not convinced the guy was playing it on this show.

The reason for this is the exact same bullet shots, no game can control you to shoot the same places the same amount of times at the same time lol.

However, multiple thought articles suggest there is infact different ways to play through each section. The developers state this also so to disagree with that would be dumb.

Nobody is claiming the game is open world, it does have 'levels' and you can get from A to B in different ways if you wish. Just because the same footage was possibly used twice doesn't mean it's scripted.

Also @Lovable your use of the term 'Scripted' is way off, every game runs on a script however you're suggesting it's different in these two games?.. I think you're trying to suggest in these two games everything is done for you or something which is wrong?.. if you mean in terms of action sequences, well yes that's also common in multiple games uncharted included. The last of us though, allows you to bypass(non heavy story driven) parts or approach them in a different way, that's fact.

[solidjun5]

"So much denial that it could fill the whole world."

yea and that's just from you.

[J86blum]

I believe it to be semi-scripted, while perhaps you can do this situation diffrently I believe either this is the fastest-safest way, or Jimmy was coached, and the only thing that makes me feel that its scripted is after the main character goes through the doorway and is jumped, because there are no button presses to actually fight the enemy.

[DigitalAnalog]

You do realize that if the health bar is at 1%, that "scripted" event would ALWAYS kill Joel if he could not retaliate in any way shape or form.

[SilentNegotiator]

"but instead we got the same E3 demo"

What were you expecting? That's Jimmy "the unfunny" Fallon's video game corner (or whatever it's called) almost every time....some old demo being shown that the audience probably hasn't seen because they don't watch E3 or gamescon footage or whatever.

[Thatguy-310]

another article about this !!!! Scripted or not scripted it wont stop it from being an amazing game. People just nitpick and fall back to that excuse of being "scripted" in order to make it look bad. Some parts of the games are going to be scripted but like many developer s confirm from the behind closed doors demo that you are offered different paths. Dont see why people are still questioning it. At the end of the day doubters will get a slap in the face when they experience it themselves. The watch dog demo looked more scripted and ppl went nuts over it why do they question this? ohhh i forgot its because its an exclusive for the ps3-_- you got to love this gen /s

[Walker]

Read it
http://www.computerandvideo...

[DigitalRaptor]

Thank the heavens there are people like you who have the drive to research things for themselves and promote FACTS instead of fanboyism or general ignorance.

Everybody read this. It explains everything. The kill animations are scripted once you have triggered them contextually through the AI system, of course, but you are still in control of the action that takes place.

And the talk about Bruce Straley having practiced the demo a lot... of course that's true. He's the damn creative director, it's his job to know how the AI works and manipulate it on a playthrough to give off the best impression of the game. He's clearly practiced the playthrough in the same way on many an occasion to get it perfect for demonstration purposes.

Not to mention, many press publications have given their impressions on how the game changes based on your actions, so there's no need to spread false information about the game anymore. At this stage it's just cute.

[xAlmostPro]

Indeed also if you watch the E3 gameplay followed by this demo at the molotov point you'll notice in the E3 demo it goes to the left of the guy then he drags it over, in the demo on Jimmys show it goes straight over to the enemy. Subtle differences

[MariaHelFutura]

ND just needs to show the demo again, doing it differently and put an end to all this madness. People said the same things about U2, about how its was all cutscenes and not playable and look how that turned out.

[yewles1]

ND shows a lot gameplay, they're spoiling the game. ND shows too little gameplay, it's not convincing enough. Like I always say: Sony devs NEVER get a break... JUST BECAUSE of who they work for.

[rdgneoz3]

When a dev releases games that get a huge number of awards across the boards, they're gonna be held to a higher standard. As a result, people tend to be skeptical about their future work and try to pick it apart until they get their hands on it.

[yewles1]

There's a HUGE difference between higher standard, and increased scrutiny...

[goldwyncq]

Of all the demos shown, why this? The Watch dogs demo looked more scripted imo

[cstyle]

It may be a bit scripted or linear but it still will be one of the best games next year. ND is one of the best out there.

[Kran]

Its like people don't think games can be played differently.

Do I have to remind people of Deus Ex?

If Square/Edios can do it, im pretty sure ND can.

[black911]

Their the developers they know the ends and outs of the game.

[firelogic]

None of it is scripted. I mean, if you're going to run a gaming website, you should at least have some basic knowledge of the games you're writing about.

So you mean to tell me that if Joel had bullets left, the enemy would have still said, "I know that sound!" and come running out? You're telling me that if he still had bullets, Ellie would have still thrown the brick? You're telling me that if Joel wasn't spotted, they'd still scream, "I heard shooting!" and come looking for him?

[baodeus]

Tlou seems to be built around the concept of creating tension and violence. If u can just sneak by avoiding conflict, well the tension would b lost right? So I'm thinking nd just gonna force u into these situation either way; given there are variety of ways to deal with them.

the in game animated action sequences would b activated if certain criteria r met. Let says if u have a gun, these possible scenarios would happen vs if u don't then something else would happen. Now the Important question is that how much variation are there, we don't know.

[stephmhishot]

Jesus H, ND said it wasn't scripted, we had written articles about the behind closed doors demo that showed alternate routes, and a guy who has no horse in the race, Kojima, said that it wasn't scripted.

Put it away.

[tarbis]

Wish they showed the alternate route instead. =/

[sjaakiejj]

It seemed familiar because games are fundamentally deterministic. If you repeat the playthrough in the exact same way as you did before, it will play out in the exact same way.

Something's only "scripted" (in the sense that is used by consumers) if the game forces you into that particular position, which this game clearly doesn't. What you're seeing is behavioural patterns by the AI. They check some conditions of the field, e.g. how many bullets does he have, have we spotted him yet, and where do we believe he is, and make a choice based on that. This choice is _always_ going to be the same if all of the conditions that are checked are the same.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

***"Something's only "scripted" (in the sense that is used by consumers) if the game forces you into that particular position, which this game clearly doesn't."***

***"This choice is _always_ going to be the same if all of the conditions that are checked are the same."***

Someone who freaking gets it!

[Ashunderfire86]

Just like I said before:

#4.2

http://n4g.com/news/1018318...

How comes 343 was not too secret with their Halo 4 to Jimmy? They even let him play it!!!

[Ace_Pheonix]

Did you watch Jimmy play Uncharted 3? That's why. Because they wanted the viewers to get an accurate feel for the game, not some buffoon getting shot repeatedly as the camera flails around frantically.

[Ashunderfire86]

What about a accurate feel for Halo 4? Or at least put it on God Mode for Jimmy like the Halo 4 presentation. The presentation for The Last of Us was much shorter too, than the E3 one. Jimmy would at least play it differently, despite getting shot too many times.

[JKelloggs]

Maybe, the E3 footage wasn't scripted like they said, and the Jimmy Fallon footage was scripted, like they have not yet commented on. Stop jumping to conclusions, as always.

[Bathyj]

God, why is "scripted" the latest buzz word to try and bring down a Sony exclusive? Its always some ridiculous people try to cling to.

ND arent willing to show anything different to the public yet so they played it in exactly the same manner. They obviously wanted to show off the choking out, the hostage taking and the brick to a wider audience than just people who watch E3,so they showed it all again.

This doesnt make it scripted. Scripted means they were all SET PIECES. It was a set piece that the guy came out when Joel was empty, it was reactionary AI. If he'd shot him earlier the brick part would have never have happened.

Why is this so hard to understand?

[bligmerk]

No surprise, these xbox fanboys have been doing this for *YEARS* now. Good luck for them with ALL-Kinect games LOL. Oh yeah, and exclusive Usher videos.

They were ripping on Uncharted for being a "tomb raider clone" to Uncharted 2 copied cover system from Gears, and Uncharted 3 as not very graphically improved from Uncharted 2. Whenever early scenes were released, there were ripped the same "scripting" whine, and how animations weren't that smooth. ND has done this with every game, early build scenes could be criticized, then when the release happens, everybody is blown away by the polish of the final.

Good thing those xbox fanboys have their Dance Central and Kinect Star Wars for the "hardcore" gaming ROFLMAO!

[lategamer]

Fanboys are gonna be fanboys. By acting like one yourself it doesn't help anyone out. There's Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo, and PC fanboys.

People say things like Xbox has no exclusives, when XBLA has had tons of quality games this year, Horizons and Halo 4 are out this year, Dance Central 3 and Steel Battalion as well.

People say Nintendo is dead. Yea sure, that's why Nintendo made a profit on every Wii sold and its the best selling console WW this generation right?

On PC people say, "oh so expensive" yea bullshit, they also forget to mention games are cheaper on PC, especially if you wait for Steam Sales.

And then, theirs arguments about Sony, which are basically very similar to Microsoft and Nintendo (milking, losing money, scripted, etc.).

[Bloodraid]

Every comment I see from you irritates me to no end. You're always trying to play the victim card and pretend that the whole big bad world is out to hurt your precious Sony. This site is seriously nothing but a Sony fanboy circle jerk... it's ridiculous.

Calling it 'Reactionary AI' doesn't change the fact that their actions are scripted. The odds of the AI being the result of some procedural generation at runtime are very slim. If that were the case, the AI would show slight variations in their actions (which there weren't) to compensate for slight variations in the player's actions (which there were).

Why is that so hard to understand?

[Bathyj]

Well of course its "scripted" in the sense that its a program that runs scripts which are a predetermined range of options that NPC might take. The same way all programs run scripts.

Its NOT thinking for itself, its not Skynet.

Thats why they call it ARTIFICIAL intelligence, not intelligence.

But thats not the point. This "scripted" tag everyones trying to stick to it is their way of making out that all the events that unfold are set pieces, which they are not. They are determined by the players actions.

What if Joel never got seen by the first guy. What if he didnt run out of bullets? It would have played out completely different. He never would have got ambushed by the guy with the pipe. Ellie wouldnt have had to use the brick.

If you play through it exactly the same way, you will get exactly the same result. Everyones acting like the extra 17 minutes demo at E3 never happened. We all know very well the outcome will change if you alter your play style.

And PS, I'm no victim, my console of choice still caters to gamers like me so I'm very content. Youre the one who sounds like a victim, whinging about N4G.

I am glad I irritate you though. You sound like the kind of person whose skin I would like to get under.

Keep on reading, I'll send you my Twitter if you like.

[DialgaMarine]

Any none ignorant moron can see that the game is NOT scripted, if they actually look at it and use some deductive reasoning. What happened here on Fallon was either ND got lazy, or Sony simply didn't want anymore of the game to be unveiled, so they simply played the E3 recording on screen and pretended to actually play. Most likely the latter is the truth, so this just wasn't the right time for us to see more on the game. That's all.

As for you morons calling it scripted, do you even know what the hell scripted means? To actually be scripted, a game practically has to be on rails, or constantly in a cutscene, giving you command prompts at every turn. Scripted is Asura's Wrath or Heavy Rain. THIS is NOT scripted. Plus, there have several releases from different press that have said they got to take completely different routes in the same demo, and some who got to explore parts of the city that weren't even seen from the stage demo.

It baffles me as to why people want so bad to hate on this game? Is it because it's something that could be innovative as well as fantastic, something that Xbox has never done? I rest my case.

[Bloodraid]

So you're watching a side-by-side comparison of the E3 and Jimmy Fallon demo (which shows differences), then claim that the Jimmy Fallon demo was just the E3 demo... and still manage to get more Agrees than Disagrees?

This just further proves that on N4G; as long as you bend over for Sony, you can say pretty much anything and people will still agree with you, regardless of how ridiculously wrong it is.

And no; something doesn't have to be on-rails to be scripted. If the AI is setup to react in a specific manner as the result of a certain event, it is scripted.

[Morpheuzpr]

This universal hate towards everything sony has done alot more damage to them than people may think. One only has to go to a gamestop for example and just listen to the amount of fud and miss information that comes out of people's mouth, from psn hack to games running better on 360 to multiplats that they think are exclusive to xbox anything and everything.

It's a shame cause imho sony is the only company right now actually doing all kinds of things to make this industry better and keep a plate of food on videogame media assholes.

OT: I don't think the game is scripted, i think they decided to make a script for showing the game. They could easily have taken a different approach in say for example the 2 guys killed with the molotov and kill them in a different way or just shoot every single one or melee, just my take on it.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

Game looks great and I do have faith in Naughty Dog....but man that feels pretty scripted to the point of thinking its just all pre-recorded gameplay and not actually being done live. I am sure it wasn't as Naughty Dog said as much but jeez that looked way too similar, practiced or not...use a different path now and then or weapon or something to make it feel live. Hell, give Jimmy the controller like he did in Halo 4 and let him be all goofy and mess up even if its on God Mode.

[KonaBro]

you do realize the gameplay demo wasn't intended for the hardcore gamer right? It was intended for the casual person who might be interested. Like someone said earlier, why let Jimmy have the controller and ruin what could be a good first impression on the general public? The man showed he could barely play Uncharted 3 and that's straight-forward as hell.

[Ethereal]

The demo is more than likely somewhat scripted. I expect the game to be much different in regards to combat approaches.

[smashcrashbash]

If you would just use your eyes you could stop the stupid scripted talk. How in the hell can the game be scripted if you have a back pack full of things you can use? What would have happened if Joel didn't have the Molotov to throw he would have had to find some other way to get the two guys? At the beginning of the level it was so obvious that they could have gone through the windows in front of you rather then gone through the door that was in front of you meaning the game could have played out differently.

When Joel used the bullet to keep the guy behind the couch he didn't HAVE to do that. He could have rushed the couch, taken out the guy by hand and saved the bullet for the guy coming in who wouldn't have approached Joel because he had no ammo left and Ellie would not have had to throw the brick to save Joel. Result different situation. So stop being idiots please.

[Ninjamonkey82]

Turth be told i think that was just a rerun of the E3 demo recorded and played back, no one played at all on Fallons show. Would be a complete mind f**k for all those idiots trying to compare it, haha joke :D.

Obivously it isn't lol just have to check the first shot being fired the guy aimed at a different spot. But it would have been funny lol :).

On a plus side i can see improvments already to the lighting ^^ and having read everything there is to know about the game so far. I know im in for an amazing ride with this one. Naughty Dog is Boss.

[Heavenly King]

The only thing scripted is the initial patrol of the "evil dudes". The game director just wanted to show the same stuff as with the E3 demo, that is why the play style is so damn similar. You can see how he is actually waiting to get shot so that people see how Joel reacts to gun-fire. No other game has that kind of reaction to gunfire, because the protagonists are some kind of a bullet sponge.

At the beginning, the evil guy was in the same position as it was on the E3 demo, because that is his "normal patrol"; and that section was played exactly as the E3 demo, so the scene is the same.

You can tell that the game will be very different if you want to, because it is just plain stupid to pick up things while everyone can spot you. The best course of action would have been to sneak behind the furniture, and try to kill everyone stealthy.

If you stand in a location when the AI detects a useful item, Ellie will pick it up. It just happen that the guy went to the same room, so she grabbed the brick. THEY WANTED TO SHOW THAT.

The AI is actually trying to flaking you, as you can see at the first fist fight. Remember where Joel was at first, then everyone saw he entered the room.....what would have been the best course of action of the evil dudes?? The AI is trying to close the 2 possible ways of exiting the room. So when Joel wanted to exit the room through the other end, there was a guy ready to kick his a$$.

ND want people to see what they intended to show with the demo, that is why they are playing it in the same way; with minor modifications because he is not a cyborg which can repeat every movement exactly the same as before.

I really don't see what is the problem in that.

[ninjahunter]

the smell of sony scripting. Smells like ps3.

[EffectO]

Who cares,wow a game with scripted elements,amazing.

Why are people hyping this game anyway?
Another Fuck Fuck Fuck,guns,kill game,oh wait it has some teenage girl...meh