"Looking back, however, it’s not difficult to see the faults in Naughty Dog’s storytelling. It is derivative of a lot of post-apocalyptic/zombie fiction, but worse than that, it gives in to some of the worst habits of this genre.
But I still can’t deny the game’s strength. I’m going to break down a few of the issues I found, and then explain why I think Naughty Dog manages to overcome them." - JTM Games
"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.
Speaking on what’s coming next for Naughty Dog, which could be either their new IP or The Last Of Us Part III, Druckmann gave what he seems to feel are realities of the project he’s talking about. That it’ll both be “really ambitious” but also “really hard.”
Neil Druckmann talks about Naughty Dog's Next Game which is really ambitious and parts of it are hard to make! pic.twitter.com/IqY2KEI1Gb
— DomTheBomb (@DomTheBombYT) March 1, 2024
"I’ve really surrendered to knowing it’s going to be really hard, knowing it’s going to stress members of the team out"
As if crunch wasn't stressing them enough
That it’ll both be “really ambitious” but also “really hard.”
Not 'is' but 'will be', kinda suggests that they haven't started yet, hope not.
Come on ND, a game PLEAAAAASSSSEEEE. Desperate this gen.
Also, just off-topic slightly but..
Does anyone think that layoffs now may well be making space for AI integration of game development, and 'crunch-time', 'unsustainable', 'big budget' are all terms been used to butter us up to receiving the news that AI integration will help and maintain the level of AAA games that were accustomed to? Perhaps the layoffs were the devs that didn't join a union quick enough and if only they had the smarts of SAG members and strike while the time is right, before its too late?! Imagine DEV's on strike at a time like this, there's already a game drought.
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.
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.
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
It's built on a strong foundation of solid gameplay. It has characters you actually care about and a story that holds you all the way to the end. It does literally everything right.
The reason The Last of Us drew me in is because of the realistic dialogue and the deep and shockley dark gameplay.
Characters are extremely realistic. We as the player can relate to the characters. That's pretty hard thing to do.
Understatement
The character development, dialogue and story are Oscar worthy. The gameplay is also the best I've ever experienced.