Uncharted 4 teaser trailer looks incredible

Naughty Dog has the trailer for Uncharted 4: A Thief's End for PlayStation 4 online, ready to stream in breathtaking 1080p and at a full 60 FPS for your viewing pleasure. It's incredible.

Take a look at the best version of the teaser trailer here. Otherwise, here's a YouTube clip of the action.

From beginning to end, this is a perfect teaser trailer that shows Nathan Drake rising up from a watery sleep as there's dialogue between both Drake and Sully in the background. Obviously, it looks like the two sequences don't happen at the same time.

There's a clear dark tone that's in this game, and that's where some traditional Uncharted fans may groan. It's less Indiana Jones with the lighthearted dialogue and comedy and it looks plenty more serious.

Don't worry, I'm not expecting something like The Last of Us: Uncharted. It's not going to turn into a zombie fest or feature everybody in the cast dying except Drake. The point of a teaser trailer is to show something that grabs your attention, and this certainly does that instead of your standard bruhaha from the first four games.

I highly doubt this will be the whole tone for the game.

Here's what makes the game even more incredible. From the Naughty Dog trailer post:

All footage you see in the trailer was captured completely in engine. That’s Nathan Drake rendered in 1080p full glory using the power of our PS4 engine. All footage you see in the trailer was captured completely in engine. We’re targeting 60fps for Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and as you can see the visual fidelity for our character models will reach new heights. In fact, thanks to the power of the PS4, right now Drake’s Uncharted 4 model is over double the polygons of Joel from The Last of Us PS3.

What is awesome is how great this game looks. Having a game look like this in engine is incredible, and 1080p is becoming the gold standard in gaming. But I'm surprised they're pushing it all the way to the potential of having 60 FPS.

I'm not too picky in frame rates, but an adventure game like Uncharted seems to be more suitable in the 30 FPS range. Remember, frames not rendered leave your mind to complete the rendering, adding to the storytelling of a game when you don't even realize it. At the very least, hopefully the rate is capped so we don't see slowdown issues completely taking people out of the experience.

What are your thoughts on the game's tone and push to 60 FPS?

Final 'The Last of Us' DLC, Grounded Bundle, coming out in early May

The final multiplayer DLC that will be released for The Last of Us, the Grounded Bundle, has an official release window.

Naughty Dog announced on Twitter later on Thursday night that the Grounded Bundle will likely be available in the United States on Tuesday, May 6th.

Our #TheLastofUs Grounded Bundle DLC is coming the week of May 5 globally. Watch our @Twitch stream for info: http://t.co/Fe0ULzlKxv
— Naughty Dog (@Naughty_Dog) April 25, 2014

Polygon has the full details of what's included in the bundle, including price points and when Sony will stop selling the Season Pass for TLOU.

The Grounded Bundle is the last piece of DLC for the Last of Us season pass, which costs $19.99. The package includes the new single-player difficulty level, Grounded Mode ($4.99 by itself); the Reclaimed Territories Map Pack ($9.99 by itself); the Survivalist Weapon Bundle ($5.99 by itself); and two Survival Skills bundles ($3.99 each by themselves). Sony will stop selling the season pass after the week of May 13.

If you do the quick math, picking up the bundle will save you about $9 instead of picking everything up separately. For those that haven't gotten a Season Pass but are interested in picking up the Grounded Bundle, you might as well just pick up the whole enchilada as it's the same price.

Waiting for the remastered PlayStation 4 edition? It's unknown whether this DLC will be included in it or not, but it's highly likely.

'The Last of Us' art director Nate Wells leaves Naughty Dog

Naughty Dog artist Nate Wells, who was one of the leaders during the production of The Last of Us, has left the studio and moved on to a different project.


Late on Sunday, Wells confirmed the news via Twitter that he has joined Giant Sparrow way back on April 3rd.

Hmmm....seem to be some threads here. Yes, I joined the wild, wacky, and ultimately brilliant folks at #GiantSparrow on April 3rd.
— Nate Wells (@PrettyLarceny) April 21, 2014

Giant Sparrow is still under the Sony developer umbrella, meaning that Wells is still designing games exclusively for PlayStation.

Computer and Video Games reports that the developer "signed a three-game contract" with Sony, meaning that Wells' work will still be exclusively on PlayStation projects. IGN reports that the second game on Giant Sparrow's list is "reportedly called Edith Finch." It may or may not be a sequel to their first game, The Unfinished Swan.

While turnover in the game industry is very common, it's unknown why three talented, high-profile people at Naughty Dog have jumped the ship. The other two Amy Hennig and Justin Richmond, worked at Naughty Dog for at least six years -- Hennig since Jak & Daxter on the PS2.

But Wells' departure could just be a contract ending. Wells joined Naughty Dog in 2012 after spending 13 years at Irrational Games, the former developer famously known for the BioShock series. He was likely just at ND to work on TLOU before finding another project to work on.

Rumor: The Last of Us is coming to PlayStation 4 this year

A Sony vice president has confirmed a PlayStation 4 port of The Last of Us, and it's headed to the new console sometime this year.


VG247 reports (via NeoGAF) that Sercan Sulun, vice president of PlayStation Turkey, said on television that an updated version of TLOU would be coming this summer.

“I can say that first game will be released this summer for PS4 as a physical and digital copy, with enhanced graphics,” he reportedly added.
The port is expected in northern summer, again according to unofficial translations.

A couple of warnings about this rumor: The staff at VG247 doesn't speak Turkish, and neither do I. I can only share what the information is, and it's very skeptical.

We know that Naughty Dog has been keeping something big under wraps, but something as big as an updated version of the company's blockbuster hit of 2013 would have been known by now. There will certainly be preorders, pictures, comparison videos, and full coverage of the game to try and get people to drop another $60 on the game.

Yes, plenty of people will be happy to spend the money for a copy of this game on PS4, and no doubt there will be a re-release or a updated version of this game on Sony's new console. But this summer? Already?

Do you believe this rumor of an updated "TLOU: Definitive Edition" coming out this summer for PS4? Let us know in the comment section below.

The Last of Us creator is '50/50' on a sequel

The Last of Us has a 50 percent chance of getting a sequel, according to creative director Neil Druckmann.

From Kotaku:

Neil Druckmann, the creative director, left the door open for another game in The Last of Us's continuity as far back as June. And, of course, the game just released the DLC Left BehindLeft Behind. Yesterday, a redditor asked "how good are the chances of us entering the world of The Last of Us again?" to which Druckmann replied, "If you're asking about a sequel ... right now I'd say it's 50/50."

Plenty of fans of the game have voiced their opinion on wanting a sequel to the game. Many are in favor of keeping how the story ends and not touching it again. However, they also want a way to continue playing a game like this.

Kotaku goes on in their article and posts Druckmann's "ideas" for a sequel.

"There are clickers as big as buildings. Also you have lots of new gadgets and weapons (more lasers!). Oh and Ellie can now control the infected with her new powers. We'd also probably dive into the government conspiracy of creating a secret weapon that broke loose and that's how the outbreak started. There's probably a shadowy secret agency in all this that you find out Joel has been a member of this whole time (that's why he came home late in the prologue!)"

Yeah, that would make just about every TLOU fan grab their copy of the game and snap the disc in half. Those that just have a digital download would take their PlayStation 3 and throw it off the balcony or roof of their home.

TLOU is not my kind of game or genre, but I'm totally for an experience that uses the same narrative ideas that this game had. It doesn't get much better as far as presentation goes, and hopefully Naughty Dog will use some of that in the (expected) upcoming Uncharted game.

Image credit: Flickr

Could 'The Last of Us' see a release on the PlayStation 4?

One of PlayStation 3's most successful and critically-acclaimed games, The Last of Us, may see a re-release on the PlayStation 4.


Over at the PlayStation Blog, Naughty Dog Community Strategist Eric Monacelli responded to some comments on an article posted back on December 26th. Somebody asked if "there was any hope to see TLoU and its DLC moved over to the new console." Here was Monacelli's response:

We’re just getting our Naughty Dog engine up and running on PS4 as we work on the next UNCHARTED project. We will see what the future brings! :)

While the response was made on the 29th, the comment was just given the public spotlight today and set the internet ablaze.

It sucks that backward compatibility isn't available on PS4. However, the future of playing previous PS3 games on PS4 will become a reality with GAIKAI. Hopefully there will be a way that gamers who have been dedicated to Sony will get a discount or even a free version of the game to stream on their PS4 if they have the original copy.

That idea seems a bit far-fetched, but if that doesn't come into fruition, a re-release with all the DLC would be a nice replacement.

Image credit: Flickr

'The Last of Us' Reaches 3.4 Million Sales in First Three Weeks

Naughty Dog's newest hit was one of the best-received games in the history of PlayStation 3, and now it's the fastest-selling game.

Sony released the news that The Last of Us exceeded expectations in its first three weeks available to the public, selling a total of 3.4 million copies in all formats. The game has received the best score overall on GameRankings for any PS3 game at 95.05 percent, besting previous leader Jouney by around 2.5 percent.

"These sales figures are a testament to the blockbuster quality of The Last of Us," said Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony's Worldwide Studios, in a quote from IGN.

"The teams at Naughty Dog are true visionaries and their storytelling capabilities are second to none, this title is an undisputed demonstration of that. SCE continues to be committed to delivering unique gameplay experiences that redefine the interactive entertainment industry and The Last of Us is a perfect example."

IGN also points out that this was around the same total that Tomb Raider sold for in first month, yet publisher Square Enix considered the game a failure. Yes, it was a available on more platforms than just PS3, but it still shows how enormously high SE has their expectations at.

Especially for the Tomb Raider franchise, which wasn't touched since 2008.

Anyway, Naughty Dog and TLOU deserves all the high praise, sales, and overall success of the game. Even if the genre isn't to someone's liking (it's certainly not my favorite), the production is top-notch, the story is engrossing, and the gameplay matches the pressures of surviving from one scene to the next.

[Source: IGN]

[Image credit: Flickr/naughty_dog]

Critics Praise Latest PS3 Exclusive, The Last of Us

Universal praise of the game developed by the same company that created the Uncharted series has another hit on their hands and perhaps another reason to pull the trigger for late PlayStation adopters.

The Last of Us, developed by Naughty Dog, has received very high critical acclaim from all over the internet, receiving perfect scores from a variety of trusted gaming websites like IGN, Destructoid, Joystiq, Games Radar, and a recommendation from Kotaku.

Metacritic currently has a 96 rating for the game; all 57 reviews factored into the score are positive. The lowest scores for the game are a couple of 80s from GameSpot and Toronto Sun, and 75 is the lowest over at Polygon.

Bottom line from all the reviews: the quality is top notch. It's arguably the best survival horror game ever made, and is right there in best game of the year conversation. Those expecting an Uncharted-like adventure will be in for a surprise.

Considering TLOU's genre, it won't reach the same number of sales that the later Uncharted games reached, and it won't even touch the Xbox exclusives, but it's a game that every PlayStation owner should pick up soon unless survival horror just doesn't fit their style.

All of the collector's editions have been scooped up and already being resold for nearly double their value on eBay, but since it's a new IP not many were available to begin with unlike the Uncharted 3 collector's editions (which still can be found for about $50 brand new -- I should just open mine up and enjoy it by now).

I purchased a $48 preorder on Newegg last year and cancelled it a few months ago with all the backlog that's added up on both the PS3 and Vita (and Wii...yeah, right, I'll get around to those...). Now, while slightly disappointed in the decision after reading fews, I expect to find a deal around $40 or less especially around Black Friday.

[Source: Metacritic]
[Photo credit: Flickr/naughty_dog]