The Last of Us (PS3 & PS4)

[Badnik Mechanic]

So The Last of US is quite a detailed game... So detailed in fact that you can find phone numbers for various services in the game...

 

Including Sex Chat lines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Which still work.

 

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/06/27/naughty-dog-working-to-strip-sex-hotlines-from-the-last-of-us/

[The Kid]

So I finished the game today...

 

Spoilers ahoy!

 

I honestly don't know what to think. It was certainly interesting the way the game played out, the various seasons gave the illusion that it was bigger than it actually was, which was nice; the disappointing part came from how the enemy encounters played out. Once you get to a certain point in the game each enemy encounter is strictly infected or survivor, never a mix. The other thing is that most of the actual fights just devolved into shootouts with very little strategy required. Practically after every gunfight there is some sort of storage locker where you can replenish whatever ammunition you use (albeit very little ammunition). The majority of the game felt like a slower-paced Uncharted game with an above average story.

 

Where the game really excels is its scenery. There are countless sections (mostly at the beginning of each season) where you're given the option to explore and the way some of these areas were presented left me speechless. It really does look like an apocalyptic world, where nature has reclaimed its rightful place from humanity's clutches.

 

The story gave me mixed feelings. There were parts of it that were cliche beyond belief, but others that threw me a curve ball. All in all it was pretty good, but nothing groundbreaking in terms of storytelling.

[Silencer226]

I never got a storage locker with extra ammo D:<, THIS GAME FUCKED ME OVER GODDAMMIT!

[The Kid]

I never got a storage locker with extra ammo D:<, THIS GAME FUCKED ME OVER GODDAMMIT!

 

After practically every encounter there is either a room or a table or something to replenish ammo. I never ran out of anything.

[Silencer226]

After practically every encounter there is either a room or a table or something to replenish ammo. I never ran out of anything.

The game rarely ever gave me shit D:<

[Tori Himemiya]

I think he's talking about the shiv doors Noel.

You know the ones where you use a shiv and hope you get some good shit?

Nvm. Random drops occur at different times and difficulties.

Edited June 28, 2013 by Crow the BOOLET

[Silencer226]

Oh... those had extra weapons and stuff? Well... fuck I never bothered with them. I went into fights with 3 shotgun shells and prayed like hell lol. To think my playthrough of hardmode could have been so much easier... goddammit.

Edited June 28, 2013 by Noel

[The Kid]

It isn't just the shiv doors. All those supplies you get to make health packs and grenades, etc. were handed out so easily unless you play on higher difficulties. I constantly wasted supplies just so that I could pick more up.

[Silencer226]

It isn't just the shiv doors. All those supplies you get to make health packs and grenades, etc. were handed out so easily unless you play on higher difficulties. I constantly wasted supplies just so that I could pick more up.

I played on hard mode, they barely gave me shit.

[Lamor]

It isn't just the shiv doors. All those supplies you get to make health packs and grenades, etc. were handed out so easily unless you play on higher difficulties. I constantly wasted supplies just so that I could pick more up.

 

Play the game on survivor. Finding scissors is like finding gold. They are so rare and you need them for shivs to open doors to get some ammo.

 

I think ND should have made survivor difficulty available from the start.

[The Kid]

A survival horror game shouldn't require you to set the difficulty to the max difficulty to actually experience any sort of resource management. 

[TheOcelot]

A survival horror game shouldn't require you to set the difficulty to the max difficulty to actually experience any sort of resource management. 

 

It doesn't. Resource management is right there from the get go on your first playthrough in Easy mode. It's surprising just how much ammo and health items you can end up wasting. Once you start New Game Plus Mode (where you keep all your weapon upgrades and skill upgrades) resource management becomes much easier, especially in the higher difficulty modes.

Edited June 28, 2013 by Metal Gear -Bender-

[Lamor]

A survival horror game shouldn't require you to set the difficulty to the max difficulty to actually experience any sort of resource management. 

 

From the very beginning ND said that they are NOT creating a survival horror. This is supposed to be an action-adventure game with few survival aspects thus the 'survival action' thing they were talking about in the interviews.

Edited June 28, 2013 by Lamor

[The Kid]

Survival action versus survival horror doesn't really matter, the point is that I wish they would have pushed resource management a little further. The only time I felt there was any sort of real challenge was during the Winter section.

[Silencer226]

Survival action versus survival horror doesn't really matter, the point is that I wish they would have pushed resource management a little further. The only time I felt there was any sort of real challenge was during the Winter section.

Just play survival mode then.

[TheOcelot]

So The Last of US is quite a detailed game... So detailed in fact that you can find phone numbers for various services in the game...

 

Including Sex Chat lines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Which still work.

 

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/06/27/naughty-dog-working-to-strip-sex-hotlines-from-the-last-of-us/

 

Playing TLOU right now. Update version 1.02 has gone live, which has removed the sex chat telephone numbers. Apparenty there are no other fixes to single player mode, just multiplayer: 

 

 

Single player

-Texture of a phone number on a bulletin board changed

 

Multiplayer

-Host migration has been improved. Losing connection to the host during a migration should occur less often

-General crash when leaving multiplayer fixed

-Intro camera fix for some introductory cut-scenes

-Connectivity issues while playing have been tuned

-If you disconnect or lose connection to the host, you will no longer advance a clan day. You will only advance a day if you are kicked from the match, or exit through the menu

 

Gameplay

-Explosion Expert level 2 should be selectable now

-The voting time for match selection has been reduced to 15 seconds

-“No party” playlist options have been added to both Supply Raid and Survivors, players can only join this playlist solo

-Melee against a downed character now uses the same range as normal melee

 

http://www.psu.com/a020009/The-Last-of-Us-update-102-released

 

 

 

 

I haven't encountered many bugs. Just the odd occasion when I pushed a garbage can (against a wall) which went straight through Ellie, who ended up standing in the middle of it. There has been the rare occasion where a ladder briefly appeared to go through a wall..

Edited June 29, 2013 by Metal Gear -Bender-

[Badnik Mechanic]

Okay... so... this is interesting.

 

I got the Last of Us official artbook today, one section I wanted to read was the page that had the various newspapers you see in the game. I love reading that kind of stuff.

 

Anyway, the selection is small but it does have them, and you can make out the text.

 

What does it say? Well.... in the game it has text which is appropriate to the story... what did the original paper say, which is printed clearly in the book?

 

"THE

LAST

OF US"

 

The text is as follows.

 

"The US is not and will never be at war with Islam. Bin Laden was not a Muslim Leader... in fact he slaughtered many Muslims"

 

Ohhhh wow....

 

I swear, in the game the text is to do with the military protecting the last of us in quarenteen zones... however in the artbook the image shows the same paper only the text is from a speech made by Obama a few years ago on the subjecty of Bin Laden and the US' relationship with Islamic countries.

 

Like... Naughty Dog... could you not have found a lighter story to borrow for your alpha content!?

[SuperStingray]

So wow, I just finished the single player campaign.

 

This is the kind of game that I knew exactly what it was going to be.  Another cynical post-apocalyptic odyssey where half of humanity has devolved into Lord of the Flies and the other into angry blobs of vomit and biomass.  I've grown pretty jaded towards the idea of the zombie apocalypse, but they don't seem to be going anywhere either and seeing as this game is, according to the reviews, the fucking second coming of superchrist, I decided to pick it up on a whim.

 

I should say first and foremost that this is probably the most polished game I've ever seen.  I'm a sucker for detail and man, is this game ever detailed.  Joel's movement is astoundingly robust; there's an animation for every position and condition he can be in and they all make biological and physical sense.  None of the level design was copy-pasted and the diverse art direction helps makes every room feel fresh.  I also the tradeoff Naughty Dog did by making one BIG loading screen at the beginning instead of a bunch of smaller ones that break up the action was definitely worth it in a game as well paced as this.

 

As for the gameplay... I'm a bit torn.  I was both pleasantly surprised but still left wanting.  I was kind of expecting it to be another cover-shooter like Uncharted, but that really wasn't the case.  In fact, shooting is pretty downplayed in this game; ammo is scarce and the general design really encourages the stealth approach.  While zombies are usually the go-to enemy for letting the player guiltlessly kill a ton of squishy, meaty enemies, it was actually kind of refreshing to see a game where each individual zombie is just as powerful as you.  When the stealth got tense, it was PRETTY fucking tense.  The clickers are very unnerving both visually and mechanically and really make you clench up as you creep by them.  Plus, the combination of human and zombie enemies and the different behavior each has makes it so you really have to switch up your approach.  But as a survival action game, the game does a good job at building the aesthetic of being a disempowered survivor, with features like resource management, ad hoc weapons and real-time weapon switching, but I never really felt like I was in the kind of jeopardy that should come with that disposition.  I would have preferred something more akin to I Am Alive, with much more scare resources and a hunger/stamina mechanic.  Plus, the frequency of checkpoints made the game a bit too forgiving.  I didn't have much of an incentive to be cautious when I know I wouldn't lose more than a minute if I failed.  The puzzles were also pretty cool, although by the fourth or fifth pallet scene, I was wishing Joel would just teach Ellie how to swim.

 

And then there's the story.  Like I said, when you hear the word "zombies," you know what kind of story you're in for.  The most original thing about it is that the infection is fungal rather than bacterial or viral.  But even though it's filled with classic tropes, the characters alone are enough to carry the story.  The introduction to this game is fantastic; it sets up the story in a way that gets you to empathize with Joel almost immediately and understand his decisions (including some very illogical ones).  And Ellie was a great deuteragonist as well; they had a great dynamic; a person born before the outbreak and a person born after.  It gave them a lot to discuss and chances for growth.  I can't say I had the same emotional investment as I had with Lee Everett and Clementine.  To be honest, I felt more emotive towards two other survivors you meet briefly in the middle of the game.  But they are certainly one of the most memorable duos I've seen in ages and I really want to see more of them.  Still, the game is a bit of a victim of ludonarrative dissonance.  It's not as bad as Uncharted where you have enough energy to have a fucking firefight after days of wandering the desert without a drop of water.  But a game that tries this hard to be realistic and succeeds most of the time makes the points where it fails all the more obvious.

 

After putting aside my skepticism and deciding to play this game, I found something worthy of applause.  It's not the "Citizen Kane" of gaming and I don't think it deserves the amount of absolute perfect scores its gotten, but it is art and good art at that.  There is an inordinate amount of effort put into every single facet of the game and it comes together as one of the best narratives I've seen in gaming.  I just wish it could have done a few more new things.

Edited June 29, 2013 by Stingray 64

[Lamor]

 Still, the game is a bit of a victim of ludonarrative dissonance.  It's not as bad as Uncharted where you have enough energy to have a fucking firefight after days of wandering the desert without a drop of water.  But a game that tries this hard to be realistic and succeeds most of the time makes the points where it fails all the more obvious.

 

Are you referring to Joel killing a LOT of enemies through the game? 'Cause it was pretty logical as Joel is murderous sociopath. It's even adressed in the game's story a few times:

 

David says that Joel slaughtered many of his man.

Recently when I was playing the game I got to the section in Pittsburgh where Ellie covers you with a rifle. One of the hunters told his buddies the exact number of hunters you killed to this point (For me it was 76) and they are like 'You've got to be kidding me'. At this moment I realised that Joel is a freaking sociopathic Rambo.

Edited June 29, 2013 by Lamor

[Crash]

I started my second playthrough the other day and I'm actually enjoying it, I don't usually enjoy NGP but I think I've found an exception.

 

There was an update today that added No Party Mode to the Multiplayer games, unfortunately, I think people are abusing it because the teamwork seemed rather like the Parties mode to me...

[TheOcelot]

Something I find strange, is that once you finish your first playthrough you can play new game plus mode on the same difficulty setting or lower, but you can't play new game plus on a higher difficulty. So if you completed the game on Easy mode you can't play new game plus on a higher difficulty. In other words, in order to allow you play all the other difficulty modes continuously using new game plus, you will need to complete the game on Survivor mode first.

 

This does seem a little unfair. Survivor mode (I hear) isn't exactly a cake walk. Wouldn't it have been more fair (for example) to allow you the choice of playing Survivor mode on new game plus mode having completed Easy mode for the first time. That way you would have your weapons upgrades and skill upgrades when taking on Survivor mode.

 

Something else I noticed is that:

 

In Easy mode you can automatically attack a Clicker with a Shiv at point blank range from the first time you encounter one. So in Easy mode you don't need to unlock the upgrade which allows you to use this attack, like you have to in Normal difficulty or higher.

Edited June 30, 2013 by Metal Gear -Bender-

[Silencer226]

I don't view that as a flaw, if I'm gonna do Survival Mode (which I plan to in a few weeks, gotta give the game some rest), I'm going to do it legitimately with no upgrades.

[Badnik Mechanic]

I'm in the middle of my survival run, just upto the sniper point with Sam and his brother.

 

Survival mode is great, but it does have it's problems. It becomes clear very quickly that the game was designed for 'normal/hard' difficulty and not survival.

 

Survival mode removes the 'hearing' element, which yeah makes the game harder... but also removes a huge reason why Joel is who he is and why he's 'respected/notorious' with people, he's a survivor and you remove a really useful move. It just seems odd that he doesn't have it or even at the most a nerfed version of it that you can't upgrade.

 

There are points where the game clearly wasn't designed for survival mode and nobody thought to tweek it in anyway.

 

A great example is that sewer section when you get seperated in that room full of infected. You have no choice but to fight them... with guns... you cannot get through this with stealth or by taking them out silently... they're running all over the place and I discovered that the infected will not attack you until you pass a specific point... even if you retreat, the infected will not follow you, the exceptions are the clickers... both of which can be taken out quickly at the start with a molotov.

 

You can tell that Naughty Dog knows this are has it's problems because almost every infected enemy drops a generous supply of ammo.

 

The next segment when you have to fight off the mob... just throw a molotov and sit back.

 

However, there is a rather marvelous trick you can do which almost totally breaks survival mode, especially when it comes to ammo conservation.

 

Any infected except for the clickers and bloaters... even when charging at you... will always stop if they are hit by a round from either the 9mm or the revolver will stop dead in it's tracks... and be completely open to you punching it... Or to put it another way, you have just head shotted an enemy.

 

That whole area... I just did that with every single one of the infected.

 

Same can happen with most human enemies too.

 

Theres also a few other tricks you can do too... I have played through most of the game with my health virtually gone... why? Because there is no point in healing. No really... if you are melle hit by a runner... it will take half your default health bar away. Clickers will kill you, bloaters will kill you... as for humans... really!? Most of the time you can stealth kill them, or you lure them very easilly into an area to melle kill or punch them to death.

 

In fact most of the enemies, I just end up punching them, Ai partners are amazing at shooting enemies when they get close or when they're on mass. You can deal with tons of them without ever have to worry about healing.

 

Theres also points in the game where you can get fully healed for doing bugger all. One exampe is at the end of the chapter where you get your car... you will always get all your health back and for the majority of this chapter, Bill will take out everything with that shotgun of his. Yes even the bloater. Whilst Bill will never kill the bloater, he will get it down to 1hp. You have to get the final shot. At the start of this fight I had 2 molotovs, full shotgun clip and several rounds of ammo... just punching and letteing Bill do most of the work, you can come to this fight more than prepared even on survivor.

 

Also another trick. Stock up on the pills and only when you desperately need health, use it to upgrade your health, you'll get a full health bar back. You can do this twice if you like/need to.

 

Another problem, or rather annoyance... There are no items... Wait... let me explain... Part of the fun about the normal diffuclty was the ability to search and scavenge for stuff... but theres nothing, open draws, theres nothing, look in cuboards... nothing. Exceptions are part drops which don't change from playthrough to playthrough and the pills... it just seems to remove one of the more fun things about the game, that you have to search and scavenge to survive.

 

Theres other tricks I've discovered as well which help out too... theres some objects that clickers can't climb over, this was very noticable in the subway section early on... so I just stood at one side, the clicker would be at the other... and tess took it out with her handgun.

 

So I do recommend that you give survival mode a go because it really is how the game should be played... but it feels like parts were designed for lower difficulties/a set way of playing as apposed to the usual which lets you experiment with all your tools.

 

P.S.

 

There is a glitch which means you can do survial mode with an easy mode+ Inventory.

[Lamor]

I'm in the middle of my survival run, just upto the sniper point with Sam and his brother.

 

Survival mode is great, but it does have it's problems. It becomes clear very quickly that the game was designed for 'normal/hard' difficulty and not survival.

 

Survival mode removes the 'hearing' element, which yeah makes the game harder... but also removes a huge reason why Joel is who he is and why he's 'respected/notorious' with people, he's a survivor and you remove a really useful move. It just seems odd that he doesn't have it or even at the most a nerfed version of it that you can't upgrade.

 

There are points where the game clearly wasn't designed for survival mode and nobody thought to tweek it in anyway.

 

A great example is that sewer section when you get seperated in that room full of infected. You have no choice but to fight them... with guns... you cannot get through this with stealth or by taking them out silently... they're running all over the place and I discovered that the infected will not attack you until you pass a specific point... even if you retreat, the infected will not follow you, the exceptions are the clickers... both of which can be taken out quickly at the start with a molotov.

 

You can tell that Naughty Dog knows this are has it's problems because almost every infected enemy drops a generous supply of ammo.

 

The next segment when you have to fight off the mob... just throw a molotov and sit back.

 

However, there is a rather marvelous trick you can do which almost totally breaks survival mode, especially when it comes to ammo conservation.

 

Any infected except for the clickers and bloaters... even when charging at you... will always stop if they are hit by a round from either the 9mm or the revolver will stop dead in it's tracks... and be completely open to you punching it... Or to put it another way, you have just head shotted an enemy.

 

That whole area... I just did that with every single one of the infected.

 

Same can happen with most human enemies too.

 

Theres also a few other tricks you can do too... I have played through most of the game with my health virtually gone... why? Because there is no point in healing. No really... if you are melle hit by a runner... it will take half your default health bar away. Clickers will kill you, bloaters will kill you... as for humans... really!? Most of the time you can stealth kill them, or you lure them very easilly into an area to melle kill or punch them to death.

 

In fact most of the enemies, I just end up punching them, Ai partners are amazing at shooting enemies when they get close or when they're on mass. You can deal with tons of them without ever have to worry about healing.

 

Theres also points in the game where you can get fully healed for doing bugger all. One exampe is at the end of the chapter where you get your car... you will always get all your health back and for the majority of this chapter, Bill will take out everything with that shotgun of his. Yes even the bloater. Whilst Bill will never kill the bloater, he will get it down to 1hp. You have to get the final shot. At the start of this fight I had 2 molotovs, full shotgun clip and several rounds of ammo... just punching and letteing Bill do most of the work, you can come to this fight more than prepared even on survivor.

 

Also another trick. Stock up on the pills and only when you desperately need health, use it to upgrade your health, you'll get a full health bar back. You can do this twice if you like/need to.

 

Another problem, or rather annoyance... There are no items... Wait... let me explain... Part of the fun about the normal diffuclty was the ability to search and scavenge for stuff... but theres nothing, open draws, theres nothing, look in cuboards... nothing. Exceptions are part drops which don't change from playthrough to playthrough and the pills... it just seems to remove one of the more fun things about the game, that you have to search and scavenge to survive.

 

Theres other tricks I've discovered as well which help out too... theres some objects that clickers can't climb over, this was very noticable in the subway section early on... so I just stood at one side, the clicker would be at the other... and tess took it out with her handgun.

 

So I do recommend that you give survival mode a go because it really is how the game should be played... but it feels like parts were designed for lower difficulties/a set way of playing as apposed to the usual which lets you experiment with all your tools.

 

P.S.

 

There is a glitch which means you can do survial mode with an easy mode+ Inventory.

 

Listen mode was a thing they added to the game to make it easier. Sure they did add an logical explanation to it but it's still here just to make the game easier. He's respected not for his hearing but overall abilities and the fact that he can kill almost everyone. Another thing is that everybody seems to respect Tess and he is with her all the time.

Sorry if this was a bit fanboyish but I hate listen mode as a whole

 

Also you can get through the section where you're with

Sam

stealthy. Without listen mode it would require huge amount of skill but it's still possible.

 

No items thing is AWESOME. There is little to no items and that makes the scavenging really fun (at least for me) 'cause when I find a pair of scissors I'm like 'OH MY GOD SCISSORS!!!! YEEES! NOW I CAN MAKE SHIV! WOHOOOO'. I love that. I do see your point though

Edited June 30, 2013 by Lamor

[The Kid]

If the game didn't have listen mode it'd be largely unfair rather than challenging. There are numerous sections with infected either around corners or wandering erratically; if you didn't have listen mode it'd be less of a "skill" issue and more of a "run and see if you can get lucky" issue. The combat situations are practically designed around using listen mode constantly.