Naughty Dog creative director Neil Druckmann has said that porting their PS3 hit, The Last of Us, to PlayStation 4 was “Hell” due to to the differences in the console hardware.
“I wish we had a button that was like ‘Turn On PS4 Mode’, but no,” he said. “We expected it to be Hell, and it was Hell. Just getting an image onscreen, even an inferior one with the shadows broken, lighting broken and with it crashing every 30 seconds… that took a long time.”
“I can’t describe how difficult a task that is,” he added. “And once it’s running well, you’re running the [versions] side by side to make sure you didn’t screw something up in the process, like physics being slightly off, which throws the game off, or lighting being shifted and all of a sudden it’s a drastically different look. That’s not ‘improved’ any more; that’s different. We want to stay faithful while being better.”
Models previously used for cut scenes in the PS3 version are now used in-game along with improved lighting and cinematics that run at 1080p and 60fps. “It’s interesting that now [instead of a technical bottleneck], the bottleneck is ‘Can we fit all this on the disc?’” said Neil.
Although they were tempted to change the game, including the nasty difficulty spikes when Joel, Tess and Ellie first arrive downtown, the team decided against altering the game play.
“Star Wars comes to mind. I’m more of a fan of the original cut and Han Solo shooting first,” explained Neil. “The Metal Gear Solid remake on GameCube [is good, but] I loved the original. I have so much attachment to that one that any shifts in the dialogue, or even in the moment-to-moment gameplay, [mean] something about it feels so different that it becomes inferior in my mind.”
As well as upgrading The Last of Us, Druckmann said Naughty Dog are “working on two other brand-new experiences.” Presumably one of those is the announced Uncharted PS4 but the second game has yet to be revealed.
Source: Edge
cc_star
I suppose the issues in PS3 to PS4 porting is something that never cropped up for Tomb Raider Definition Edition which presumably derived from the PC version.
Fingers crossed for a PS4 GoW quadrilogy. I’d buy the shit out of that, alongside a GoW IV of course.
JustTaylorNow
I like this guy, any GoW fan is a friend of mine.
Avenger
Yeah much easier to port a PC version to PS4/X1. PS3’s architecture is radically different, and so porting a game that was pushing the PS3 to it’s limits on a proprietary engine is tough. In that respect, well done for Naughty Dog for getting it done in what seems a short amount of time (less than a year perhaps what with the DLC development as well).
Foxhound_Solid
Cannot wait for this. TLOU was the game if the generation. I could believe the Naughty Gods could create something as amazing as they have. They can do no wrong in my eyes.
I just hope Konami look at this and drop Legacy on the 4 :-)
Pitcher-T
I love the passion that seems to ooze out of Naughty Dog. They’re my favourite company by far.
Star Wars definitely comes to mind, they say “an artist never finishes a painting”. But sometimes you do have to step back before you change it so much it looses the charm that made it ‘perfect’ in the eyes of so many others.
MrYd
I was hoping they’d take advantage of the opportunity to put some decent gameplay in when they tarted it up for the PS4. The game already looked and sounded great, it was just lacking some bug fixes (I suffered from a couple of huge bugs that skipped a whole scene and confused the plot) and something more than barely adequate gameplay.
And the less said about the multiplayer mode, the better.
psychobudgie
Unannounced title you say? Crash, pleeeeeeease let it be Crash.
irish-sid
Still no word on mutli player. It is coming to ps4 yeah?
Starman
Probably didn’t help that there’s been several high profile departures too.
I’ve not played TLoU, it intrigues me that for all the praise it gets, there’s a fair amount that say the gameplay was poor.
colmshan1990
The gameplay of The Last of Us is anything but poor. It’s rather perfectly pitched.
Some people just find it fashionable to hate on something that’s popular and acclaimed, last seen with Titanfall.
Avenger
True, but then I can see how some people might like the gameplay. It is an acquired taste next to other games like Uncharted, or the tons of FPS’s out there. Same deal with the MP as well (an acquired taste). People jump online and try to play the game like Uncharted, when it isn’t.
colmshan1990
Could say that for every game though.
I’m not a fan of FPSs, so when I play one of the best of them it usually takes a while to get into it.
The Last of Us should have no such issues given just how jaw-droppingly good the beginning is.
MrYd
Ah, the old “everyone” loves it, except you, so you’re obviously just saying that to be all trendy and awkward argument. Often followed by claims involving numbers in the millions, as if that’s any proof of quality.
Is it not possible that some people actually _do_ think the gameplay is a bit lacking in TLoU? Which is a shame, because everything else about it is rather good, they just got it wrong on that one bit. (Which is quite an important bit, really)
If anything, it usually works the other way around. People say something’s great just to fit in with everyone else.
Of course, some people may actually think it’s great too. Which is fine.
JR.
I agree with Colmshan – gameplay is fine. I could say The Godfather is the worst film ever made. Does that mean The Godfather is the worst film ever made? No. It just means I think it is. Sometimes opinions are wrong no matter how entitled to them you think you are. Just to be clear, I actually like The Godfather – just using it as an example.
MrYd
No, opinions can’t be “wrong”. They can be different to your own opinion, and even different to most people’s opinions. But never wrong.
Unless you come up with something along the lines of “In my opinion, is wrong”. (And then you get into the tricky situation of there being very, very few actual “facts”)
But you can’t come up with any factual, quantitative measure of how good a game (or film, or whatever) is. And no, how much money it’s made doesn’t count.
And really, it doesn’t matter anyway. I’ve enjoyed many absolutely terrible films in my time. I know they’re shit. Still enjoy them. And I hate lots of things many people enjoy. And like lots of things many people hate.
Still think TLoU isn’t that great. Just my opinion though, but please don’t say I’m just saying that to be awkward or I’m wrong. I’m not. And neither is anyone else.
colmshan1990
Opinions can absolutely be wrong (discrimination is even illegal, never mind merely wrong), we’re not in primary school anymore.
Anyway, you don’t have to think The Last of Us is one of the greatest games ever made.
You don’t even have to like it. But to say the gameplay is poor is wrong. The gameplay fits the story, and crucially works well with little to no inconsistencies. Is there some specific problem which makes the gameplay ‘bad?’
Nobody was able to that question when I posed it of Bioshock Infinite either, only to say it was just a shooter (exactly what the Bioshock series is of course).
Sure, you might not like the gameplay in The Last of Us. That’s different to it being bad however.
Rather like I don’t like Liverpool FC, but I can acknowledge them as being good. Both The Last of Us and Liverpool are rather good at what they do (and you won’t catch me saying that bit about Liverpool again). One of those two isn’t what you enjoy, one of those two isn’t what I enjoy.
I hated Demon’s Souls, from the grammatically incorrect name to the awkward and unforgiving gameplay. Loved the idea of it though, and it’s plain to see that it and the sequels are quite good at what they do. The gameplay there isn’t bad, it fits. Same for Resident Evil, which fixed the long-running ‘issue’ of being unable to run and gun, apparently improving the gameplay. Only now it doesn’t fit the tension those games had before. Gameplay has to fit.
The Last of Us’ gameplay fits The Last of Us, just as Demon’s Souls wouldn’t be Demon’s Souls without it’s gameplay. Not liking something doesn’t make it bad. It just means that some people have different tastes to one another.
Bad gameplay is broken gameplay, or inconsistent gameplay.
MrYd
Not sure about the argument with “discrimination”. Yes, some things are illegal. You’re not allowed to do certain things based on various things (race, gender, sexual orientation, whatever). You absolutely should be allowed to hold an opinion about other people though, however stupid it is. And, in most situations, you should be allowed to express that opinion. Don’t be surprised if people disagree with you though.
The problem with TLoU is that the gameplay wasn’t very interesting and didn’t do anything new, really. It was just disappointing. As I’ve said, the game looks and sounds great. The actual story wasn’t all that great, but that’s not important. It was enough to put some great character work on, add some great (non-interactive) scenes and let the actors do their job. Gameplay is what let it all down though, just by being a bit uninteresting.
Opinions on a game aren’t like opinions on a football team. You can make quantitative judgements on a football team. If they score more goals and win more games than another team, they’re better. (Personally, if they could stop me falling asleep after 12 seconds, they’d be better than any team, ever. Perhaps if they all forgot their kit and had to play in their pants, then I might be interested ;)
Find me some similar system you can apply to games. Reviews are just opinions. Sales are just a demonstration of how many people share that opinion.
Actually, please don’t find such a system. It’d be the end of gaming as we know it. Some magic formula to apply would just lead to everyone churning out exactly the same game. We need those differing opinions to keep things interesting.
Sad Panda
Have to be honest, I tried the demo of the PS3 game and hated it. I didn’t like the controls in the demo, they just felt wrong. I actually felt it was trying too hard not to play like Uncharted.
I have friends who have agreed, they feel off, but told me it is well worth playing for the experience. For that reason I will try the PS4 version when it hits £20 or so.
Only my opinion.