The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered | PS5 | 19/01/2024 | Features multiple enhancements and new modes | £10 upgrade fee

Tomous wrote:

jawa_ wrote:

Jenuall wrote:For a studio that used to be so reliable at producing interesting, varied, vibrant, exciting new experiences to be to be reduced to just reheating the same thing over and over for a decade is incredibly depressing.

Almost as depressing as how readily everyone seems to lap it up

Yeah, Naughty Dog have focused on two major franchises this past ten years:

2013 The Last of Us - PlayStation 3
2014 The Last of Us: Left Behind - PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4
2014 The Last of Us Remastered - PlayStation 4
2016 Uncharted 4: A Thief's End - PlayStation 4
2017 Uncharted: The Lost Legacy - PlayStation 4
2020 The Last of Us Part II - PlayStation 4
2022 Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection - PlayStation 5, Windows
2022 The Last of Us Part I - PlayStation 5
2024 The Last of Us Part II Remastered - PlayStation 5

That track record for two popular series is pretty solid output, though. Before this, their two main franchises were Crash Bandicoot and Jack & Daxter, each of which took up all of Naughty Dog's time for a few years.

This looks pretty decent output to me with modern development times. Obviously we're still waiting for them to turn up properly on PS5 though.

Decent output if you boil it down to "how many releases have they put out" for sure - but when you look at what each is, the number of DLCs/spin-offs, number of remasters and re-releases, and ultimately the fact that it's just a hell of a lot of the same sort of thing repeated, it starts to paint a bleaker picture - for me at least

Jenuall wrote:

Tomous wrote:

jawa_ wrote:

Jenuall wrote:For a studio that used to be so reliable at producing interesting, varied, vibrant, exciting new experiences to be to be reduced to just reheating the same thing over and over for a decade is incredibly depressing.

Almost as depressing as how readily everyone seems to lap it up

Yeah, Naughty Dog have focused on two major franchises this past ten years:

2013 The Last of Us - PlayStation 3
2014 The Last of Us: Left Behind - PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4
2014 The Last of Us Remastered - PlayStation 4
2016 Uncharted 4: A Thief's End - PlayStation 4
2017 Uncharted: The Lost Legacy - PlayStation 4
2020 The Last of Us Part II - PlayStation 4
2022 Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection - PlayStation 5, Windows
2022 The Last of Us Part I - PlayStation 5
2024 The Last of Us Part II Remastered - PlayStation 5

That track record for two popular series is pretty solid output, though. Before this, their two main franchises were Crash Bandicoot and Jack & Daxter, each of which took up all of Naughty Dog's time for a few years.

This looks pretty decent output to me with modern development times. Obviously we're still waiting for them to turn up properly on PS5 though.

Decent output if you boil it down to "how many releases have they put out" for sure - but when you look at what each is, the number of DLCs/spin-offs, number of remasters and re-releases, and ultimately the fact that it's just a hell of a lot of the same sort of thing repeated, it starts to paint a bleaker picture - for me at least

I think if you remove all that and reduce it to:

Last of Us
Uncharted 4
Lost Legacy
Last of Us Part 2

That is still decent enough output from 2013 to today.

For comparison, Santa Monica Studios managed 3 God of War games in that time. Guerilla Games released Killzone and 2 Horizon Zero Dawn games (plus DLC) in that time. So they're all pretty comparable. It's just the nature of triple AAA game development now.

None of them can compete with Insomaniac's output mind you, but I have no idea how they do it.

Tomous wrote:

Jenuall wrote:

Tomous wrote:

jawa_ wrote:

Jenuall wrote:For a studio that used to be so reliable at producing interesting, varied, vibrant, exciting new experiences to be to be reduced to just reheating the same thing over and over for a decade is incredibly depressing.

Almost as depressing as how readily everyone seems to lap it up

Yeah, Naughty Dog have focused on two major franchises this past ten years:

2013 The Last of Us - PlayStation 3
2014 The Last of Us: Left Behind - PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4
2014 The Last of Us Remastered - PlayStation 4
2016 Uncharted 4: A Thief's End - PlayStation 4
2017 Uncharted: The Lost Legacy - PlayStation 4
2020 The Last of Us Part II - PlayStation 4
2022 Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection - PlayStation 5, Windows
2022 The Last of Us Part I - PlayStation 5
2024 The Last of Us Part II Remastered - PlayStation 5

That track record for two popular series is pretty solid output, though. Before this, their two main franchises were Crash Bandicoot and Jack & Daxter, each of which took up all of Naughty Dog's time for a few years.

This looks pretty decent output to me with modern development times. Obviously we're still waiting for them to turn up properly on PS5 though.

Decent output if you boil it down to "how many releases have they put out" for sure - but when you look at what each is, the number of DLCs/spin-offs, number of remasters and re-releases, and ultimately the fact that it's just a hell of a lot of the same sort of thing repeated, it starts to paint a bleaker picture - for me at least

I think if you remove all that and reduce it to:

Last of Us
Uncharted 4
Lost Legacy
Last of Us Part 2

That is still decent enough output from 2013 to today.

For comparison, Santa Monica Studios managed 3 God of War games in that time. Guerilla Games released Killzone and 2 Horizon Zero Dawn games (plus DLC) in that time. So they're all pretty comparable. It's just the nature of triple AAA game development now.

None of them can compete with Insomaniac's output mind you, but I have no idea how they do it.

They don't sleep.

Ffs

Well played

Victor Mildew wrote:

Tomous wrote:

Jenuall wrote:

Tomous wrote:

jawa_ wrote:

Jenuall wrote:For a studio that used to be so reliable at producing interesting, varied, vibrant, exciting new experiences to be to be reduced to just reheating the same thing over and over for a decade is incredibly depressing.

Almost as depressing as how readily everyone seems to lap it up

Yeah, Naughty Dog have focused on two major franchises this past ten years:

2013 The Last of Us - PlayStation 3
2014 The Last of Us: Left Behind - PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4
2014 The Last of Us Remastered - PlayStation 4
2016 Uncharted 4: A Thief's End - PlayStation 4
2017 Uncharted: The Lost Legacy - PlayStation 4
2020 The Last of Us Part II - PlayStation 4
2022 Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection - PlayStation 5, Windows
2022 The Last of Us Part I - PlayStation 5
2024 The Last of Us Part II Remastered - PlayStation 5

That track record for two popular series is pretty solid output, though. Before this, their two main franchises were Crash Bandicoot and Jack & Daxter, each of which took up all of Naughty Dog's time for a few years.

This looks pretty decent output to me with modern development times. Obviously we're still waiting for them to turn up properly on PS5 though.

Decent output if you boil it down to "how many releases have they put out" for sure - but when you look at what each is, the number of DLCs/spin-offs, number of remasters and re-releases, and ultimately the fact that it's just a hell of a lot of the same sort of thing repeated, it starts to paint a bleaker picture - for me at least

I think if you remove all that and reduce it to:

Last of Us
Uncharted 4
Lost Legacy
Last of Us Part 2

That is still decent enough output from 2013 to today.

For comparison, Santa Monica Studios managed 3 God of War games in that time. Guerilla Games released Killzone and 2 Horizon Zero Dawn games (plus DLC) in that time. So they're all pretty comparable. It's just the nature of triple AAA game development now.

None of them can compete with Insomaniac's output mind you, but I have no idea how they do it.

They don't sleep.

My point was more the repetitive nature of what they're producing than necessarily the quantity or rate at which it's coming.

I know that billions of people suck at the naughty dog teat and find them to be the GOATs of triple A gaming and so are more than happy to lap up more of the same, but I'd be infinitely more interested if they did something different for the first time in over a decade

Jenuall wrote:

Victor Mildew wrote:

Tomous wrote:

Jenuall wrote:

Tomous wrote:

jawa_ wrote:

Jenuall wrote:For a studio that used to be so reliable at producing interesting, varied, vibrant, exciting new experiences to be to be reduced to just reheating the same thing over and over for a decade is incredibly depressing.

Almost as depressing as how readily everyone seems to lap it up

Yeah, Naughty Dog have focused on two major franchises this past ten years:

2013 The Last of Us - PlayStation 3
2014 The Last of Us: Left Behind - PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4
2014 The Last of Us Remastered - PlayStation 4
2016 Uncharted 4: A Thief's End - PlayStation 4
2017 Uncharted: The Lost Legacy - PlayStation 4
2020 The Last of Us Part II - PlayStation 4
2022 Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection - PlayStation 5, Windows
2022 The Last of Us Part I - PlayStation 5
2024 The Last of Us Part II Remastered - PlayStation 5

That track record for two popular series is pretty solid output, though. Before this, their two main franchises were Crash Bandicoot and Jack & Daxter, each of which took up all of Naughty Dog's time for a few years.

This looks pretty decent output to me with modern development times. Obviously we're still waiting for them to turn up properly on PS5 though.

Decent output if you boil it down to "how many releases have they put out" for sure - but when you look at what each is, the number of DLCs/spin-offs, number of remasters and re-releases, and ultimately the fact that it's just a hell of a lot of the same sort of thing repeated, it starts to paint a bleaker picture - for me at least

I think if you remove all that and reduce it to:

Last of Us
Uncharted 4
Lost Legacy
Last of Us Part 2

That is still decent enough output from 2013 to today.

For comparison, Santa Monica Studios managed 3 God of War games in that time. Guerilla Games released Killzone and 2 Horizon Zero Dawn games (plus DLC) in that time. So they're all pretty comparable. It's just the nature of triple AAA game development now.

None of them can compete with Insomaniac's output mind you, but I have no idea how they do it.

They don't sleep.

My point was more the repetitive nature of what they're producing than necessarily the quantity or rate at which it's coming.

I know that billions of people suck at the naughty dog teat and find them to be the GOATs of triple A gaming and so are more than happy to lap up more of the same, but I'd be infinitely more interested if they did something different for the first time in over a decade

I think that's a little unfair though. The Last of Us was a brand new IP in 2013 and they made a sequel that wasn't exactly conventional. They also took Uncharted in a new direction with Lost Legacy with good results.

Now is the time for something new though I agree and all rumours point towards a new IP (and they've even hinted at it in their games, something they've done previously). The remasters are Sony's way of keeping TLOU ticking while ND work on something else in my opinion. It's a lazy cash grab to an extent but with the TV show the franchise has never had more attention so you can see why they're doing it.

It does feel a little harsh to me, Jen. Just checking back to your original point:

Jenuall wrote:For a studio that used to be so reliable at producing interesting, varied, vibrant, exciting new experiences to be to be reduced to just reheating the same thing over and over for a decade is incredibly depressing.

Almost as depressing as how readily everyone seems to lap it up

Sure, for the past decade, Naughty Dog has focussed on two franchises; Uncharted and The Last of Us. But your suggestion of "varied, vibrant, exciting new experiences" prior to that seems a little generous in comparison as in the past they concentrated on two franchises for almost a decade as well - Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter. I totally get that you may personally prefer those original two franchises to the latter two, but it's probs just that, dude... personal taste.

I believe Naughty Dog have indicated that Uncharted is now on a break so maybe that will allow a new franchise to appear alongside the next entry in The Last of Us. Hopefully something that'll reignite your enthusiasm .

To be clear I was including the introduction of Uncharted (and possibly even TLOU!) as part of that legacy of variety - in just over 10 years they went from Crash to Nathan Drake, taking in a variety of game styles and themes along the way. But since the PS3 era we seem to have got stuck on one type of "Naughty Dog experience"

Also the Jak franchise lasted 4 years (under Naughty Dog) and produced 4 games which each expanded and evolved on the previous entry in quite significant ways and feel like surprisingly different experiences to play. Whereas picking up any Uncharted game right now (1-3 especially) and despite them clearly refining it over time they are all very similar experiences.

Compare it to Insomniac who were brought up earlier and it's night and day in terms of the variety of game type and tone they are producing - insomniac are putting out 3rd person open world super hero games, character action platformer games, side scrolling metroidvania games, virtual reality games ...

Like I say, it's just a bit sad that all we have had from ND has been the same stuff for over a decade now, and again I clearly qualified this by saying that loads of people love it so

Yeah I don't quite get the argument. ND made games for a single new IP on PS1, a single new IP on PS2, two new IPs on PS3, then those same two IPs on PS4. That's a maintained average of one IP per generation and by the sounds of it we're getting a new IP on PS5.

The variety within those games has admittedly reduced as Crash and Jak had their racing spinoffs, and the pace of releases has slowed, but I think that's a result of lengthening development periods rather than a choice to repeat the same kind of game.

Yeah okay fair dos you're all right, long may the ND reign continue, all hail the mighty Druckmann

That's better

The greater Druckmann.

I think Orange raises a good point, where are the Uncharted and Last of Us spin off kart racers?

Jenuall wrote:Compare it to Insomniac who were brought up earlier and it's night and day in terms of the variety of game type and tone they are producing - insomniac are putting out 3rd person open world super hero games, character action platformer games, side scrolling metroidvania games, virtual reality games ...

What game is this?! Insomniac have made a metroidvania and I haven't heard of it?!

Robbo-92 wrote:The greater Druckmann.

That's The Greater Dr. Uckmann to you!

Zilnad wrote:

Jenuall wrote:Compare it to Insomniac who were brought up earlier and it's night and day in terms of the variety of game type and tone they are producing - insomniac are putting out 3rd person open world super hero games, character action platformer games, side scrolling metroidvania games, virtual reality games ...

What game is this?! Insomniac have made a metroidvania and I haven't heard of it?!

Song of the Deep, it was 2016 before Sony went all in with them on Spider-Man and bought them shortly afterwards. Never played it but reviews are around 6-7 out of 10 mark.

Tomous wrote:I think Orange raises a good point, where are the Uncharted and Last of Us spin off kart racers?

They should make them and call them Unkarted and The Kart of Us.

PatSharpsMullet wrote:

Tomous wrote:I think Orange raises a good point, where are the Uncharted and Last of Us spin off kart racers?

They should make them and call them Unkarted and The Kart of Us.

Can't wait to play The Kart of Us: Rekarted on PS6

Tomous wrote:

PatSharpsMullet wrote:

Tomous wrote:I think Orange raises a good point, where are the Uncharted and Last of Us spin off kart racers?

They should make them and call them Unkarted and The Kart of Us.

Can't wait to play The Kart of Us: Rekarted on PS6

Kart 1 or Kart 2?

Instead of a blue shell, Ellie chases you to the ends of the Earth.