The PS4 has been doing pretty good for exclusives so far, but this is the one many of the Sony faithful have been waiting for. Naughty Dog has said this could be Nate’s final adventure, so there’s a lot to live up to, to make sure he goes out on top.
We pick things up a few years after the last game and find Drake working an honest living in salvage. He’s settled down with Elena and is playing it straight. There’s clearly still an interest in exploring lost lands in the hope of finding an epic haul of treasure and the introduction of his thought-to-be-dead older brother is the perfect spark to rekindle his passion for adventure. Continue reading Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Review – One last time →
The departure of Amy Hennig from Naughty Dog in early 2014 was one of the saddest surprises in Uncharted 4’s development history. Hennig had been creative director at the company and had written and directed large parts of the trilogy. Essentially, without Hennig, the world of Nate, Drake and Sully would be very different indeed.
Naturally, concerns for the health of Uncharted 4 arose when Hennigs’ departure was announced and we’ve just heard via Nathan Drake’s voice actor, Nolan North, speaking at
Metrocon [thanks
Gearnuke] that eight months of story scenes they’d shot we’re thrown out. But does that mean that Uncharted 4 could be a very different game with someone else writing the story and directing the actors? It could, as the new leads will want to leave their mark, but on the other hand, it might not be the huge shift in tone that we initially feared.
Months after the release of The Last of Us, Naughty Dog have been providing us with interesting dev diaries, keeping awareness of the game high and indeed maintaining sales. The Last of Us is slipping down the charts now, but it’s become one of the biggest sellers of the year so far along the way.
These final dev diaries could well tempt a purchase from any of you yet to pick up the game and may encourage current owners to play through it again. The first video talks about the characters of Joel and Ellie, giving them a bit of background. The second is a fascinating montage of concept art images detailing numerous changes for characters, environments and the infected. Both are spoiler free and well worth a watch. Hmm, can I squeeze in another playthrough before GTA V lands? Continue reading Watch the Final The Last of Us Dev Diaries →
Despite its CERO Z rating, which is higher than an M rating in Japan, The Last of Us has manged to exceed its sales expectations. In fact, 88% of the initial shipment has flown off the shelves, with 117,465 copies sold in its first week. Outstanding work for a new IP, even more so given the traditionally off-putting age rating. Continue reading The Last of Us is Big in Japan →
Patch Includes Multiplayer Fixes
Well, the Naughty Dog studio have been caught with their pants down here. One of the phone numbers posted on an in-game bulletin board in The Last of Us for a pest exterminator is actually a real phone number, for a sex line. Not the Easter egg gamers were after upon spotting the phone number.
Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann explained how this happened, “What happened was, they put some phone numbers in the game and then they thought they could just change the area code to 555, then it’s invalid because it’s what they do in movies. But I guess that doesn’t work when you have a 1-800 in front of it.” Continue reading The Last of Us Patch Removes Sexy Phone Numbers →
Months after God of War: Ascension released, the promised demo for The Last of Us ‘included’ with the game is finally available for download.
Simply load up Ascension (then wait for wait for over 600MB of updates if you’ve not played it for a while) and choose the demo from the main menu. This takes you to the PSN store to download the 132MB demo. Quit out and select the demo from your XMB then roll your eyes and go and make a brew while the rest of the demo downloads its remaining 2GB. Continue reading The Last of Us Demo Available Now – If You Own God of War: Ascension →
Eager to see some more The Last of Us footage? Of course you are. Here’s a repeat of the livestream event held by PlayStation Access where we get to see a live demo, interviews with developers Naughty Dog, followed by Q&A with them and the actress playing Ellie, Ashley Johnson. It’s an hour and twenty minutes long, so why not sit back and play it on your TV if you can, it’s better than watching a Hollyoaks omnibus or whatever shite’s stinking up the TV on a Sunday afternoon. Continue reading Watch Lengthy The Last of Us Gameplay and Q&A Session →
Game are giving you the chance to play The Last of Us up to a month before release at one of their after hours lock in events. This time they’re hosting the game at 75 stores, many more than previous events. There’s a strong chance one of your local stores is running one of them, so when not give them a call, tweet or drop in to reserve a spot free of charge. Attendees must be over 18, so take some ID if you’re likely to get carded.
The demo you’ll get to play is going to be brand new and will be different from the one that will unlock with God of War: Ascension on May 31st. Pizza and soft drinks will be available and any pre-orders will be rewarded with a double-sided poster for the game. Check out the list of stores and dates after the break. Continue reading Play The Last of Us at Game’s In-Store Lock Ins →
May 7th. That’s the date to officially drop everything for Naughty Dog’s next adventure. The date will technically be for the US release, but we’d expect the game to be out the following Friday in the UK, possibly beforehand as we’ve seen multiple mid-week releases over the last few months for bigger titles like Black Ops II and Resident Evil 6.
We have the new trailer from this year’s Spike VGAs for you after the break. There’s a mix of action and dialogue to digest with the introduction of a few supporting characters too. They seem to be friendlies compared to the usual bandits keen to rob and murder you.
Joel seems to be arguing with everyone and there seems to be tension building even with Ellie. You’ll also see glimpses of in-game footage of Joel taking on infected humans for the first time. We still want to see more, but it seems that a close-range shotgun blast to the face is a good place to start when taking them out.
Continue reading The Last of Us Trailer Confirms Release Date →
The PS2 was spoilt for choice with platforming adventure titles, Ratchet & Clank, Sly Cooper and of course Jak & Daxter. So an excuse to dive in again in shiny HD with widescreen support was a no-brainer.
Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy is admittedly one of my favourite games, but have I been remembering the game through rose-tinted glasses, was it really that good? Hell yes it was. Originally released in 2001, this was ridiculously impressive both technically and in terms of gameplay. All the levels are linked together, and you can run from one end of the game to the other without a single loading screen.
Continue reading Jak & Daxter Trilogy (Review) →
Any chance to take a look behind the scenes of the Uncharted series is always going to be eagerly snapped up, even more so when Nolan North, the man behind Nathan Drake is the guide.
Gaming’s most respected voice actor has written this book to share his experiences on the set of Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. Unlike many games, the Uncharted series’ creators Naughty Dog, have their voice actors physically act out their roles together over months of work. Compared to the industry standard of sitting in a recording booth for a few days and then picking up a pay check, Uncharted is a huge gig and warrants a deeper look.
Continue reading Uncharted: Drake’s Journal by Nolan North (Book Review) →
Nathan Drake returns for another top-rate adventure. After hearing his very distant relative, Francis Drake, must have taken a detour on the way back from one of his famous voyages we’re off to search for clues to see if he discovered the lost Arabian city of Ubar.
The story takes time to delve into Nate’s past, allowing us to explore how he met Sully, who now plays a larger role than the previous games. It never feels like padding and fans will enjoy the insight into the friendship. Don’t worry, Elena and Chloe are still around too.
Continue reading Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (Review) →
This was new a sample of some new multiplayer playgrounds, unfamiliar even to players of the recent beta, with some local matches over a LAN connection bringing Manchester PlayStation Access attendees together before encouraging them to pull each other off ledges.
Uncharted 2 surprised everyone by making a fine first effort with the multiplayer and U3 looks set to surpass it easily with its dosage of cinematic sequences and power plays where a team is given a temporary stat boost. Today we played around on a few maps new maps with team deathmatches being the game of choice. One map was set in a desert village, similar to that seen in the recent single-player footage. There were lots of close alleys with corners and walls to hide behind, making for a fast-paced match where itchy trigger fingers and sharp melee skills proved most lethal. The climbing was brilliant here too as it can be used to perform grab kills to pull opponents over a ledge. It’s uber-slick and will probably cost us many lives in the pursuit of enjoyment over a decent kill/death ratio, as it does leave you vulnerable to being swatting off the wall in a hail of gunfire.
Continue reading Uncharted 3: Multiplayer’s New Maps (Hands-on Preview) →
The team at Naughty Dog and Nathan Drake may just have saved the day for the PS3. The console has had plenty of great games, but many doubters still thought it was missing its ‘killer app’, a true system seller. No longer.
No other game tries so hard to entertain and excite you. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is a constant barrage of ‘Wow!’ moments, one after another, just wiping out previous favourites with each spectacle. In just under ten hours the likes of Uncharted 1, Gears of War, Tomb Raider, Arkham Asylum, and God of War become just a footnote in gaming’s distant past. Continue reading Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Review) →
Gaming reviews, previews and features by Brendan Griffiths
The No Sleep Gamer 