All Articles: The Last of Us

The Last of Us, GTA5 lead 2014 BAFTA nominees

baftagameThe nominees for the 2014 BAFTA Awards have been announced and… drumroll please… The Last of Us and Grand Theft Auto V both racked up a ton of nominations.

Both games will be competing for the coveted “Best Game” award against Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Tearaway, Super Mario 3D World, and Papers Please. Due to its British origins, GTA5 is also competing in the “British Game” category against Tearaway, The Room Two, Lego Marvel Super Heroes, Gunpoint, and DMC: Devil May Cry.

In addition to “Best Game,” The Last of Us was nominated for nine awards including “Artistic Achievement,” “Audio Achievement,” “Game Design,” “Original Music,” “Story,” “Action and Adventure,” and “Multiplayer.” Two “Performer” nominations (one each for Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson) round out the game’s honors. As for GTA5, it received seven additional nominations including “Audio Achievement,” “Game Design,” “Game Innovation,” “Story,” “Action and Adventure,” “Multiplayer,” and “Performer” (for Steven Ogg as Trevor Phillips).

The 2014 BAFTA Awards will be awarded on Wednesday, March 12. The complete list of nominees can be found after the break. (more…)

Posted in 3DS, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Tagged , , , , ,

Naughty Dog considering The Last of Us 2 or a new IP

TheLastofUsThere’s always something going on at Naughty Dog. Neil Druckmann, the writer and creative director of The Last of Us, told Eurogamer that the Dogs are considering a sequel to that game or creating a new property as their next project.

“We just wrapped up Left Behind, and Bruce Straley, the game director, and I have been doing this for over four years now. So it’s just time for a break, and to recharge the batteries… We have started brainstorming some stuff. To be honest, some of them are sequel ideas, and some of them are brand new IP – we’ve spent the last few weeks brainstorming new IP. So we have to get some good steps and see… It’s kind of like how we approached Left Behind. Can we tell people a story that’s really worth telling, and that’s not repeating itself? And if we can’t, where can we get inspired – what is something that’s really going to challenge us, and push storytelling in this medium forward?”

The Last of Us: Left Behind, which comes out next week, is the game’s first – and the only – single-player DLC. This prequel will give us more insight into Ellie’s past, focusing on a friendship she had before she met Joel.

I can’t imagine a sequel to The Last of Us, but there have been plenty of times I couldn’t imagine a sequel and I was blown away (Dead Space 2, anyone?). I’m looking forward to seeing what the Dogs have planned for us.

Posted in News, PS3 | Tagged ,

Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us wins ten statues at 2014 DICE Awards

dicesummit-header

When Santa Claus asks if you’ve been naughty or nice, if you’re a game developer, you might want to answer “naughty.” During last night’s DICE Awards in Las Vegas, Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us took home the top prize in ten categories (out of 13 possible nominations). The only other game to win multiple awards was BioShock Infinite, which took home two (Action Game of the Year and Oustanding Achievement in Original Music Composition).

With such a big haul, The Last of Us naturally took home Game of the Year honors. The game also won Adventure Game of the Year, Oustanding Achievement in Game Direction, Oustanding Achievement in Story, Oustanding Achievement in Animation, Oustanding Achievement in Art Direction, Oustanding Achievement in Visual Engineering, Oustanding Achievement in Sound Design, Outstanding Innovation in Gaming, and Outstanding Character Performance (for Ashley Johnson’s portrayal of Ellie).

A few other games did manage to wrestle a few awards away from Naughty Dog, but that’s mostly because The Last of Us didn’t qualify for every category. For example, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons won Downloadable Game of the Year, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds won Handheld Game of the Year, and Plants vs Zombies 2 won Casual Game of the Year.

The complete list of winners can be found after the break. (more…)

Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Last of Us wins 2014 Writer’s Guild Award for Videogame Writing

thelastofus

Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us won the 2014 Writer’s Guild Award for Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing. The tale of Joel and Ellie was lauded all year as one of the best games, so this is unsurprising.

The Last of Us was up against some pretty stiff competition: Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Batman: Arkham Origins, God of War: Ascension, and Lost Planet 3. Personally, I’m shocked that BioShock Infinite wasn’t nominated.

It’s great to see video games up for major writer’s awards, but I think things will get much more interesting once indie games start getting nominated, or get their own category. Papers, Please and The Stanley Parable would have been hard pressed in a fight against each other for best writing.

You can find the rest of the 2014 Writers Guild Awards film and televeision winners at their website.

Posted in News, PS3 | Tagged

The Last of Us: Left Behind will be the game’s only single-player expansion

thelastofus-header

Were you hoping for more single-player DLC for The Last of Us after the upcoming “Left Behind” expansion? You might want to sit down, I’ve got some bad news.

Eric Monacelli, Naughty Dog’s Marketing Manager, has responded to fans on PlayStation Blog Europe and confirmed that “Left Behind” is the only single-player expansion planned for The Last of Us. That is definitely disappointing.

The Last of Us: Left Behind will be available to download from the PlayStation Store on February 14. But if you’re at all interested in the expansion, you should definitely watch the recently released opening cinematic.

Posted in News, PS3 | Tagged ,

Here’s the opening cinematic from The Last of Us: Left Behind

… and it’s wonderful.

In this prequel, we get to see Ellie as she was before she met Joel. The trailer shows Ellie and her friend Riley reunited in an unusual way, with Ellie obviously struggling with some feelings of betrayal. This is the first single-player DLC for The Last of Us… and by that I mean hopefully the first of many. For an in-depth look at Ashley Johnson, the voice of Ellie, check out the PlayStation Blog interview with her, or this video interview with Johnson and Yaani King, the voice of Riley.

The Last of Us: Left Behind will be available on Friday, February 14 on PlayStation 3. I hope you’re ready to spend your Valentine’s Day with Ellie.

Posted in News, PS3 | Tagged ,

The Last of Us leads 2014 DICE Awards with 13 nominations

dicesummit-header

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences has announced the nominees for this year’s DICE Awards. This year, The Last of Us leads all games with 13 nominations, including “Game of the Year.” It will compete against four other games for the honor: Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, BioShock Infinite, Grand Theft Auto V, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds.

Each of this year’s “Game of the Year” nominees has a chance to collect multiple awards as Grand Theft Auto V (seven), BioShock Infinite (six), and Assassin’s Creed IV (five), and A Link Between Worlds (three) were all nominated in multiple categories. With five nominations, Tearaway is also up a huge number of awards. All told, 61 games received nominations in 24 categories this year.

The 2014 DICE Awards ceremony will take place on Thursday, February 6 during the close of this year’s DICE Summit. A complete list of nominees can be found after the break. (more…)

Posted in 3DS, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Tagged , , , ,

2014 Writers Guild Awards nominees announced

wgaThe Writers Guild of America has announced the nominees for this year’s Writers Guild Award. The award, which honors “Outstanding Achievement in Writing for Videogames,” will be given out on Saturday, February 1 during the 2014 Writers Guild Awards ceremony.

This year, the writers behind Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Batman: Arkham Origins, God of War: Ascension, The Last of Us, and Lost Planet 3 will all battle it out for the award. A full list of every nominated writer can be found right here:

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (Ubisoft)
Story by Darby McDevitt, Mustapha Mahrach, Jean Guesdon
Lead Scriptwriter: Darby McDevitt
Scriptwriter: Jill Murray
AI Scriptwriter: Nicholas Grimwood
Scriptwriter Singapore: Mark Llabres Hill

Batman: Arkham Origins (Warner Bros. Interactive)
Narrative Director: Dooma Wendschuh; Writer & Senior Narrative Designer: Ryan Galletta
Writer: Corey May

God of War: Ascension (Sony Computer Entertainment)
Written by Marianne Krawczyk
Additional Writing: Ariel Lawrence

The Last of Us (Sony Computer Entertainment)
Written by Neil Druckmann

Lost Planet 3 (Capcom)
Head Writer: Richard Gaubert
Writers: Orion Walker, Matt Sophos

Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Tagged , , , ,