News
35 CommentsThe Last of Us coming to PSN on launch day, playable after download is half done
By Samit Sarkar on May 17, 2013 05.17.13
The Last of Us will be available to purchase digitally from the PlayStation Store on launch day, June 14, reports Game Informer. In addition, said Naughty Dog creative director Neil Druckmann and The Last of Us director Bruce Straley to Game Informer, you won't have to wait for the large download to complete before you can install the title to your PS3 hard drive. Instead, The Last of Us will be playable after half of it is downloaded to your PS3. Gaikai CEO David Perry said at the PlayStation 4 unveiling in February that PS4 owners will be able to start playing games while they're still downloading, thanks to the cloud-based streaming service that Gaikai offers — but that service doesn't exist on PS3, and this is the first time a PS3 game will allow users to do this. For more on T...
News
14 CommentsThe Last of Us lets players set the pace of their survival experience
By Tracey Lien on May 17, 2013 05.17.13
Naughty Dog's survival action game, The Last of Us, lets players set the pace of their experience through dynamic stealth and action, according to game designer Ricky Cambier. Speaking to Polygon, Cambier said The Last of Us differs from many other survival action games because it doesn't bombard players with a constant stream of action. There are moments where players can reflect, make plans and assess the situation they're in, and when chaos breaks loose, "it's not going to be [about] stealth anymore," and they may need to fire a few bullets or run. Cambier said the studio struck a balance between the game's action and stealth by "creating one of the most emergent gameplay styles that we have at Naughty Dog," which is systemic and allows player agency to determine the pace of the...
News
65 CommentsThe Last of Us hands-on: Humanity is a plague on the Earth
By Michael McWhertor on May 17, 2013 05.17.13
The grotesque fungus-infected of The Last of Us may be the monsters of Naughty Dog's post-apocalyptic adventure, but it's the surviving humans, the scavenging hunters surviving at all costs, that players should fear. At a pre-E3 event hosted by Sony Computer Entertainment this week, we had our first encounter with the still-human survivors in The Last of Us. Unlike the infected, zombie-like creatures that we encountered in our first hands-on with the PlayStation 3 game, the game's hunters are cunning, overwhelming and challenging. And, as the game later showed us, they're capable of inhuman cruelty. Before we had our first run in with The Last of Us' hunters, we got to play with protagonists Joel and Ellie in a more peaceful environment. Our demo opened in the small town of Lincoln, a...
News
25 CommentsPS3 now manufactured in Brazil, localized versions GTA 5 and The Last of Us coming
By Michael McWhertor on May 07, 2013 05.07.13
Sony is now manufacturing the PlayStation 3 in Brazil, according to an announcement, as part of the company's "commitment to invest in the growth of the gaming industry" in the country. PS3s manufactured at Sony's Brazilian facility with a 250GB hard drive will retail for $1099 Reais (about $550 USD). "Sony Computer Entertainment continues to invest in the Brazil game market as part of our long-term commitment to the country and its gamers," said Andrew House, president and group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, at an event in Sao Paulo. "Locally manufacturing PlayStation 3 in Brazil will benefit gamers, retailers and developers. The local manufacture of PlayStation 3 is expected to infuse the Brazilian economy with approximately $300 million over the next 12 months." In addition...
Culture
1 CommentThe Last of Us Firefly pendant contest winners feature birdhouses, pencil holders and piano arrangements
By Alexa Ray Corriea on May 03, 2013 05.03.13
Twenty-four artistic fans will get to leave their mark on The Last of Us for creating videos, fan art and cosplay based on Naughty Dog's upcoming title, the developer announced today. The winners of Naughty Dog's Firefly Pendant contest will have their names engraved on the pendants worn by the in-game group the Fireflies, a prominent militia organization in The Last of Us a key component of the game's plot. Entries into the game's fan art competition include a pencil holder sculpted to look like one of the Infected, a birdhouse (pictured above) and a handful of artwork. Winners in the video section of the contest feature a recreation of one of The Last of Us trailers in LittleBigPlanet 2, a music video for a piano arrangement of the game's main theme, a short film and a very eerie...
Report
5 CommentsThe artistry of game making explored at Tribeca Film Festival
By Alexa Ray Corriea on Apr 29, 2013 04.29.13
For 35 minutes the audience sits transfixed, silent, through every clip of dialogue and every moment a button command prompt appears alongside the action. They are watching footage from developer Quantic Dream's video game, Beyond: Two Souls. Earlier in the week, Tribeca hosted a panel featuring a developer from studio Naughty Dog, where panelists discussed evolving technology and cinematic techniques and how it affects film and game development. Topics ranged from the benefits and drawbacks of implementing new gadgetry to the importance of sweeping, cinematic scenes. Developer Josh Scherr discussed Naughty Dog's upcoming The Last of Us, and how cinematic techniques influenced its development. The Tribeca Film Festival is an annual New York City event that aims to bring the film...
News
0 CommentsNaughty Dog designer appearing on The Last of Us panel at Vivid Sydney festival
By Samit Sarkar on Apr 29, 2013 04.29.13
Ricky Cambier, a game designer at Naughty Dog, will lead a panel on The Last of Us at Vivid Sydney, the upcoming cultural festival in Australia's biggest city, publisher Sony Computer Entertainment announced recently. The panel, "The Making of... A Blockbuster Video Game: The Last of Us," is one of a series of "The Making of..." sessions being held during Vivid Ideas, the creative and business arm of the three-week event. Cambier will discuss Naughty Dog's process on The Last of Us, including the development of its production process, mechanics and story, to explain what goes into building a major video game project and bringing it to a global market. He will be the first international member of the gaming community to appear at Vivid Sydney, and will be joined by experts from the...
News
3 CommentsThe Last of Us contest lets players put their name in the game
By Michael McWhertor on Apr 15, 2013 04.15.13
Naughty Dog is holding a series of contests that will give 24 dedicated fans the opportunity to see their name in The Last of Us, the developer's PlayStation 3-exclusive action-adventure game. Through a trio of contests — an art contest, a cosplay contest and a video contest — that run until April 24, players will compete to have their name virtually stamped into the pendants worn by characters known as Fireflies in The Last of Us. The Fireflies are a militia group in the post-apocalyptic world of The Last of Us, key to the game's storyline and the character Ellie. Each contest will have eight winners, judged and selected by Naughty Dog staffers (and, in the case of the cosplay contest, Ashley Johnson, the actress who plays Ellie). Details on each contest are available at Naughty...
News
58 CommentsNaughty Dog had to 'specifically request' female testers for The Last of Us
By Megan Farokhmanesh on Apr 08, 2013 04.08.13
The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog had to push for female gamers to be included in focus group testing, creative director Neil Druckmann told The Escapist during a recent interview. According to Druckmann, focus-testing is part of what influences how a game is promoted. Various players view game materials and are asked quantitative and qualitative questions about the subject. Druckmann said that the firm in charge of the focus group research had no intentions of including females in its research. "My big surprise during this process is that the research group wasn't planning on focus-testing female gamers — it's something we had to specifically request. I hope this is a relic of the past that will soon go away." Polygon reported previously on Naughty Dog's "flat-out" refusal to...
Culture
14 CommentsThe Last of Us: American Dreams comic is out today
By Jenna Pitcher on Apr 04, 2013 04.04.13
The first issue of The Last of Us: American Dreams, the comic series based on Naughty Dog's video game of the same name, is available in comic book stores today, two weeks ahead of its intended release date. Published by Dark Horse Comics, American Dreams is set prior to the events in the video game. The first issue follows 13-year old Ellie's conscription into a military boarding school and her tribulations therein. The four-issue series is a collaboration with The Last of Us art director and lead writer Neil Druckmann, and comic artist and writer Faith Erin Hicks (Demonology 101, Zombies Calling, Ice, Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong). Naughty Dog's The Last of Us is set for release on June 14 for PlayStation 3.
