Just over a year ago, Sony and developer Naughty Dog unleashed the emotionally wrenching The Last of Us on the PlayStation 3. And while the post-apocalyptic tale was heralded at the time for its affecting narrative, the game's technical prowess didn't go unnoticed either, with many critics impressed by how well the game looked and sounded on the seven year-old PS3. Tomorrow marks the release of The Last of Us: Remastered on the PlayStation 4, which, as the title implies, is last year's game with a fresh coat of paint afforded by the PS4's more powerful hardware. How much of a leap is it, though? The tech-minded crew at Digital Foundry has put Naughty Dog's latest under their microscope and notes that while there are some aspects of the game that best even PS4-native releases, there are still a handful of bits that betray those advancements:
"There are elements that remain far ahead of the majority of next-gen titles, but it is clear that it is a game of its technological era."
In particular, Digital Foundry calls out the game's anti-aliasing (smoothing out jagged edges on certain bits of a scene, like power lines or the edge of a door) and certain aspects of its lighting as being relics of TLoU:R's original platform. Perhaps the games' most notable improvement is its doubled framerate, which aims for a Call-of-Duty-esque 60 frames per-second and a boost in resolution to 1080p, natively. Those improvements aren't without caveats (degraded shadow quality that's being addressed with a day-one patch), however, as NeoGAF was quick to point out and start a now 50-page thread about.
In my experience playing the game, though, these perceived setbacks are minor once you actually pick up a DualShock 4. Sure, when you're comparing screenshots -- or compressed GIFs -- that's one thing, but if you're running through the game and not actively looking for any technical shortcomings they're harder to notice.
