Last of Us [PS4]

[Nesh]

I never really understood the praise it received for its characters.

How could it not be? How many games at the time had better examples of real time facial detail and expressions for so many characters and with such a continuous emphasis on acting?
Not even some high profile games with emphasis on story telling and acting came close. This includes MGS4 and Heavenly Sword.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Again - Uncharted 2 was out by that time and it was way better. It's less than 2 years old.

Heavenly Sword might had less facial animation but the quality of the main characters was far better. And HS is a 2007 game! With a focus on fight scenes and not character animation, so it's even more sad that HR didn't live up to the hype.

The reality is that they probably haven't had the budget for their ambitions and so they had to rely on not so sophisticated methods in both the character creation and the facial animation. Photo textures, outsourcing, straight 3D marker based mocap were what I've seen. But straight bone transformations obtained from mocap data never work, even if the subject's facial structure is replicated in the 3D model. Human skin does a lot more than that and it has to be recreated.
(Most movies use image analysis and a complex data processing method to drive their CG faces, and a lot of animator work is spent on polishing the results).

Uncharted and HS had hand painted textures, full of craftsmanship and artistry, and they used manually keyframed animation. It costs more but the results can be far, far better.

If anything, the hype was probably justified by the concept and the ambition, but the game failed to live up to that part. I don't know about the gameplay side, sales indicate that people liked it.

 

[KKRT]

Again - Uncharted 2 was out by that time and it was way better. It's less than 2 years old.
.

http://i.imgur.com/P5DCP.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Gfalb.jpg

 

[Shifty Geezer]

This isn't the thread for that discussion.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Ignored because those images aren't from the cinematic scenes.

Still images also can't represent the quality of the facial animation - in fact most transitional poses look downright silly when freeze framed...

 

[Nesh]

Again - Uncharted 2 was out by that time and it was way better. It's less than 2 years old.

Heavenly Sword might had less facial animation but the quality of the main characters was far better. And HS is a 2007 game! With a focus on fight scenes and not character animation, so it's even more sad that HR didn't live up to the hype.

The reality is that they probably haven't had the budget for their ambitions and so they had to rely on not so sophisticated methods in both the character creation and the facial animation. Photo textures, outsourcing, straight 3D marker based mocap were what I've seen. But straight bone transformations obtained from mocap data never work, even if the subject's facial structure is replicated in the 3D model. Human skin does a lot more than that and it has to be recreated.
(Most movies use image analysis and a complex data processing method to drive their CG faces, and a lot of animator work is spent on polishing the results).

Uncharted and HS had hand painted textures, full of craftsmanship and artistry, and they used manually keyframed animation. It costs more but the results can be far, far better.

If anything, the hype was probably justified by the concept and the ambition, but the game failed to live up to that part. I don't know about the gameplay side, sales indicate that people liked it.

in-game engine vs real time interactive scenes?
cut scenes lasting a few hours vs facial detail exposition during almost the whole game?

Regardless I also believe that The Last of Us has better facial detail, but it remains to be seen if that detail is consistent during actual real time scenes

 

[Laa-Yosh]

I'm fed up with this debate. I gave you guys my opinion and listed a bunch of arguments, but I don't give a damn what you do with it.

 

[Billy Idol]

hm, I am not sure what to think about this...ok, graphics look insane...but zombie type game?!?!
hm...me not like this at all. i just hope ND develops a "smart" zombie game...if this is even possible?!
Smart in what sense?...heck, I don't even know myself to be honest...probably a zombie game, without killing tons of zombies?

 

[Npl]

hm, I am not sure what to think about this...ok, graphics look insane...but zombie type game?!?!
hm...me not like this at all. i just hope ND develops a "smart" zombie game...if this is even possible?!
Smart in what sense?...heck, I don't even know myself to be honest...probably a zombie game, without killing tons of zombies?

well, fightin for food and other resources with survivors would be an option. want to drag along some survivors that are mostly useless and deplete your resources or leave them doomed? do you leave a group of people alone in their sanctuary, do you try to gain their trust or are you gonna plunder their reserves?
Well, watch "28 days later" to get an idea where things could get going.

There are alot of options, but I somehow doubt ND is going the moral ambiguity route. I wish they would - but to this day, their games have been linear and about about phlegmatic dogooders.
Im not too keen about Zombies either, no idea why they are that popular. But that doesnt mean the game has to suffer, if you break it down, enemies in most games are ego-less drones trying to kill you anyway.

 

[rabidrabbit]

Those infected creatures don't look to be slow, dumb type like zombies. They seemed to move quite fast in the trailer. Also not all enemies were those "creatures", in the beginning of the trailer the one he's beating up looks like regular human baddie.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Actually they don't really show much of the monsters, as if the design isn't completely finished.
However, an interview states that they've had 80 people working on it for 2 years by now, so this suggests that they just don't want to spoil the looks yet.

 

[Arwin]

Did anyone see the youtube video where TTP puts Christophe and Evan on the spot regarding Move support? I loved it.

 

[Cyan]

hm, I am not sure what to think about this...ok, graphics look insane...but zombie type game?!?!
hm...me not like this at all. i just hope ND develops a "smart" zombie game...if this is even possible?!
Smart in what sense?...heck, I don't even know myself to be honest...probably a zombie game, without killing tons of zombies?

Piggy-backing on this, zombies are really boring, I never understood the appeal. For the little I could grasp about the title, it seems to have an actual storyline, I mean in the sense of being good... I didn't know who Ellen Page was until reading this thread, by the way.

Recently, I gravitate more towards relatable storylines... or RPG like decision-making and events, but this game seems to have a very good story, backed with great graphics. The characters are very expressive -way better than Heavy Rain, imo-. I "played" Heavy Rain on Youtube -at 1080p with antialiasing- so to say, but I know what I mean.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Seems to have a very good story? There is a man and a girl, and they are on the run from monsters. Everybody is dead. The story could turn out to be very good, but I'm going to refrain from handing out the Pullitzer before we've seen some more.

 

[patsu]

hm, I am not sure what to think about this...ok, graphics look insane...but zombie type game?!?!
hm...me not like this at all. i just hope ND develops a "smart" zombie game...if this is even possible?!
Smart in what sense?...heck, I don't even know myself to be honest...probably a zombie game, without killing tons of zombies?

Piggy-backing on this, zombies are really boring, I never understood the appeal. For the little I could grasp about the title, it seems to have an actual storyline, I mean in the sense of being good... I didn't know who Ellen Page was until reading this thread, by the way.

Recently, I gravitate more towards relatable storylines... or RPG like decision-making and events, but this game seems to have a very good story, backed with great graphics. The characters are very expressive -way better than Heavy Rain, imo-. I "played" Heavy Rain on Youtube -at 1080p with antialiasing- so to say, but I know what I mean.

Then they may be on the same path...

The Last Of Us: “Monsters Aren’t The Focus”
Relationships the key.
http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2011/12/13/the-last-of-us-monsters-arent-the-focus/

...

“There’s going to be horrific things happening in this game, but that’s not the focus of it.”

“The monsters aren’t the focus of it,” he concluded, “it’s the relationship between Joel and Ellie.”

...

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-12-13-the-last-of-us-preview

So if not a horror game, what is it? "This is going to sound corny and it might not appeal to gamers, but I would say it's a love story," he says. "It's not a romantic love story, it's a love story about a father-daughter-like relationship."

This was in part influenced by the memorable sequence between Nathan Drake and Tenzin, his Tibetan guide, in Uncharted 2. "We kept joking, wouldn't it be intriguing to develop a whole game where you're building this relationship, not just a level," he says.

I hope for Heavy Rain's gloomy realism and tough choices + Ico's play in character/enemy relationships + Resident Evil monsters + Uncharted visuals

EDIT:
Btw, you can't really experience the real Heavy Rain on YouTube. The effect will be different since you don't get to be Ethan himself. Someone else assumed his role in the gameplay video. I will always remember the scene where

Spoiler

I cut off my own pinky to try to learn where my son was

.

 

[Cornsnake]

Did anyone see the youtube video where TTP puts Christophe and Evan on the spot regarding Move support? I loved it.

This one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTkifX_GX4A&feature=youtu.be&hd=1

 

[patsu]

I'm fed up with this debate. I gave you guys my opinion and listed a bunch of arguments, but I don't give a damn what you do with it.

Awww... don't forsaken us.

I'm willing to learn if you explain it in layman terms. Or point us to some articles.

 

[patsu]

This one.

It's like interrogating politicians (or Tiger Woods) after their women troubles. ;-)

 

[tuna]

The lead designer from Enslaved is working on this, makes me a bit less excited, to say the least.....hopefully this game will actually have gameplay....

 

[Cornsnake]

The lead designer from Enslaved is working on this, makes me a bit less excited, to say the least.....hopefully this game will actually have gameplay....

The Last of Us does seem a lot like Enslaved with zombies instead of robots. Both Uncharted 3 and Enslaved could be devoid of gameplay at times. I was hoping we'd get to see some gameplay to take those worries away. All we have now is an incredibly generic looking trailer, and the devs boasting about how industry leading it all will be.