The Last of Us

[king3pj]

And now it's popped up on PSN. Yeah, I'd say this is a definite..

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...ed-for-PS4-Listing-Leaks-on-PlayStation-Store

Yeah, I just went to the webstore a few minutes ago to pick up this week's free PS+ games and initiate a couple downloads to my Vita. The very first thing you see on the store homepage is the pre-order listing for The Last of Us Remastered. I'm not sure it's even a leak at this point. If it was a mistake they wouldn't have left it up as long as they have with several game sites reporting on it.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Super Confirmed. Coming this summer.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2014/04/09/the-last-of-us-remastered-coming-to-ps4-summer-2014/

Not thrilled that they're pushing all the pre-order stuff like these gems:

• 100 Supply Points (XP) for use in Factions mode
• Two special bonus skins for Joel and Ellie which will be unlocked after your complete the single player campaign
• Increased Crafting Speed for use in the Single Player Campaign
• Increased Healing Speed for use in the Single Player Campaign
• 9mm Reload Speed Increase Upgrade for use in the Single Player Campaign
• Rifle Clip Capacity Increase Upgrade for use in the Single Player Campaign

I don't think that pre-ordering should give you access to an easier gaming experience. As much as I disliked the story and characters of this game, I will always respect the tough but fair difficulty. Watering it down I don't think will enhance the experience.

As I said, I don't see this being a big seller. Nearly everyone who wanted to play TLoU already has, as the biggest customer base of PS4 owners is PS3 owners, and expecting people to pay $60 for something that you can get for at most half the price (or around 75% if you get the season pass) with just a HD coating is not a trend I want to see continuing. Rather ironic since Sony pretty much started the whole HD Re-Release market when they did the God of War Collection for the PS3..

 

[KE4EST]

I would like to see it though just to see really how much better it looks.

 

[yourbeliefs]

A reveal trailer has been released. Of course it's short on actual footage, and what IS there is rather perplexing. Maybe it's a bad feed or something, but the game looks more, cartoony. I figured they'd make it look more realistic, but here it looks more vivid and colorful.

 

[KE4EST]

Damn that is short!

 

[king3pj]

There wasn't enough there for me to tell how much of an improvement this will be. I can't remember if that specific scene was a cutscene or gameplay but the cutscenes were prerendered and already looked outstanding. I don't think we will see much improvement in that department. I think there is some room for improvement to gameplay visuals though.

Honestly, I'm expecting this to be similar to the God of War collection on PS3. There was a slight visual improvement to the the God of War games but in the end they still looked more like PS2 games than PS3 games. I don't think The Last of Us will look anywhere near as pretty as inFamous or other games that were designed for the PS4. It would just take too much work to redesign everything from the ground up for the PS4. At that point they would be better served by just putting that time into a sequel or new IP. I think this will mostly be a bump up to 1080p and 60 FPS giving a slight improvement over the PS3 version but not much more than that.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Sony "Looking into" offering a discount for Last of Us PS3 owners..
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...nto-Discount-for-Last-of-Us-PS3-Owners-on-PS4

I really don't see how this would work on any large scale manner. I suppose for digital copies it would be easy to track, but I don't know about boxed users. Maybe do some sort of trade in at certain retailers, but I don't see them being able to pull that off on a multi store level. If someone spent $60 on the original, you'd need to make a compelling argument to pick this up over just getting a Season Pass for the PS3 version.

I picture 2 pricing models if they somehow figure out how to track it
$60 regular, $40 PS3 Upgrade
$40 regular, $30 PS3 Upgrade

 

[king3pj]

Sony "Looking into" offering a discount for Last of Us PS3 owners..
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...nto-Discount-for-Last-of-Us-PS3-Owners-on-PS4

I really don't see how this would work on any large scale manner. I suppose for digital copies it would be easy to track, but I don't know about boxed users. Maybe do some sort of trade in at certain retailers, but I don't see them being able to pull that off on a multi store level. If someone spent $60 on the original, you'd need to make a compelling argument to pick this up over just getting a Season Pass for the PS3 version.

I picture 2 pricing models if they somehow figure out how to track it
$60 regular, $40 PS3 Upgrade
$40 regular, $30 PS3 Upgrade

Games like Assassin's Creed 4 and Battlefield 4 had a digital upgrade option so they could just follow that model. If you bought the PS3 version digitally, all you had to do was pay the $10 upgrade fee and download the PS4 version. If you bought the retail version of the game on PS3 you had to put the PS3 disk in your PS4 to download the digital upgrade. They made you put the PS3 disk in each time you want to play it on PS4 to make sure you don't sell it back or give it away to a friend even though the game isn't actually running off the disk.

Of course, both of those options only work for people willing to download the PS4 version. If you insist on having a retail copy of The Last of Us on PS4 you would be out of luck.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[yourbeliefs]

I'd f-ing hope so..

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...racter-Models-On-Par-with-PS3-Cutscene-Models

 

[king3pj]

I'd f-ing hope so..

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...racter-Models-On-Par-with-PS3-Cutscene-Models

The cutscenes were actually pretty damn good looking on the PS3. They were all obviously pre-rendered and looked much better than the actual gameplay did. If they make the entire PS4 version of the game look as good as the PS3 version's cutscenes did it will be a pretty significant visual upgrade. I still won't buy it unless I can get it for $10-$20 on sale sometime down the line. I probably will rent it at some point to play the Left Behind DLC and maybe another playthrough though.

It wouldn't certainly be a bigger leap than any of the PS3 HD re-releases. Most of them still looked pretty much identical to the PS2 versions. They just framed them for 16x9 instead of 4x3.

 

[KE4EST]

Yep gonna be awesome if the whole game is like that.

 

[yourbeliefs]

The cutscenes were actually pretty damn good looking on the PS3. They were all obviously pre-rendered and looked much better than the actual gameplay did. If they make the entire PS4 version of the game look as good as the PS3 version's cutscenes did it will be a pretty significant visual upgrade. I still won't buy it unless I can get it for $10-$20 on sale sometime down the line. I probably will rent it at some point to play the Left Behind DLC and maybe another playthrough though.

It wouldn't certainly be a bigger leap than any of the PS3 HD re-releases. Most of them still looked pretty much identical to the PS2 versions. They just framed them for 16x9 instead of 4x3.

All the PS2 to PS3 "remakes" are simply bumps up in texture quality for the most part. Hell the God of War Collection took only 15 weeks to complete, and they had time to spare. This on the other hand likely is recreating all the assets and art. Something tells me that this may have been a side project as well when the original was finishing up, since it's become painfully obvious that these companies have been encouraged to produce these "remakes" in order to pump out as many games as possible and not have the gaming drought that the PS3 had early on, and what the Wii U currently has.

 

[king3pj]

All the PS2 to PS3 "remakes" are simply bumps up in texture quality for the most part. Hell the God of War Collection took only 15 weeks to complete, and they had time to spare. This on the other hand likely is recreating all the assets and art. Something tells me that this may have been a side project as well when the original was finishing up, since it's become painfully obvious that these companies have been encouraged to produce these "remakes" in order to pump out as many games as possible and not have the gaming drought that the PS3 had early on, and what the Wii U currently has.

And I actually think that's cool. If you are going to sell a remake at least give us tangible improvements over the original. I don't feel that a lot of the PS2 remakes on PS3 really did that. I played most of the games I wanted to during the PS3/360 generation but if someone only had a 360 having the option to play The Last of Us on their new PS4 is pretty awesome. That doesn't mean they will sell me the same thing twice, at least not for several years down the line if I happen to be feeling nostalgic and the price is right.

Them making money of people who are willing to buy these remakes, whether it be for the first time or the second time doesn't really effect me in a negative way. If anything, it can be a cheap source of money to help fund their next huge project in a time when many studios are laying off employees or just going out of business. I'm not against the video game industry making money unless I feel like they are trying to rip me off. With these re-releases we have the option to just pass and spend our hard earned money on new games exclusively. The thing is, Naughty Dog knows they aren't going to sell 6 million copies of a remake the way they did with The Last of Us on PS3. They know if they want those huge blockbusters they have to create new products and they definitely will.

Like you said, remakes can help fill a drought quickly. Even if I probably won't be buying 99% of them I'm not against someone who just wants to play TLoU on their new console having that option. I have other platforms and other options to fill my gaming time so they are unnecessary for me. If the PS4 was my only gaming platform I would rather have the option of picking up re-releases in between big AAA games than nothing at all.

The problem with the Wii U being someone's only platform is that Nintendo often goes several months without releasing a single first party game. Sony and Microsoft do the same thing but the difference is that they have many more big third party games to fill in the gaps. Between new first party games, third party games, and re-releases there are just more options to fill an individual gamer's needs on PS4/Xbone. You may not want everything that comes out but you have a lot more games to choose from.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Reportedly the difference between PS3 and PS4 version is "Difference between DVD and Blu Ray."

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...3-vs-PS4-Like-DVD-vs-Blu-ray-Says-Naughty-Dog

That's pretty vague though. I mean, are they talking about 480i vs 1080p, or upscaled DVD to Blu Ray? Either way, it'll probably sell a bit just so PS4 players have some eye candy, but I do hope they don't pull a complete "F U" and price this at $60.

 

[KE4EST]

Well it looks like it is gonna be $60 and later this month.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/na...f-us-ps4-we-have-a-release-date/1100-6420086/

 

[yourbeliefs]

June 20th is just a prediction by game retailers. That's less than 2 weeks away. I doubt that they'd have such a short span between announcement and release date. And technically June 20th isn't the summer, and its a Friday. Most games are released on a Tuesday. Finally, this same retailer got the date wrong last week. I have no doubt that it'll be this summer, but I'd be shocked if it were this early and with such little lead up. I'd have to think that a release like this would have a larger build up. Less than 2 weeks simply doesn't make good business sense.

 

[yourbeliefs]

God I'm tired of being right.. July 29th.

And I must say, I haven't heard "Something in the Way" in YEARS. Makes me want to go back and listen to the Nirvana original..

 

[yourbeliefs]

So apparently Sony learned that most people didn't want to pay $60 again to buy a game that looked slightly prettier than the one that was released barely a year ago, so Sony cut the price to $49.99. Then Sony almost got into a sh*t storm by first declaring that those that pre-ordered it on PSN would NOT be eligible for a refund/price deduction. Not long after that apparently they saw the err of their ways (or perhaps realized that in some states they were likely guilty of violating some laws) and said that pre-orders would in fact get the lower price.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...-Us-HDs-Price-Refuses-to-Offer-Refunds-Update

 

[yourbeliefs]

Sam Raimi is making The Last of Us into a movie, and word is they want Arya Stark to play Ellie..

http://uproxx.com/gammasquad/2014/07/sam-raimi-the-last-of-us-movie-maisie-williams/

 

[yourbeliefs]

Remastered reviews are coming in. Pretty much as expected, it's better on the PS4 than PS3, better visuals and 60fps with free DLC. For those who haven't played the PS3 version, the PS4 version seems to be a no brainer. If you HAVE played it already then I suppose it depends on how much you liked the original and how much you want to experience it again.

http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/the-last-of-us-remastered