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'The Last of Us: Part II' may jump between two points in time
Naughty Dog's E3 trailer for The Last of Us: Part II gave us a good idea what combat as lead character Ellie would be like, but the story is still largely a mystery. But during a panel earlier this week, game director Neil Druckmann dropped a tantalizing hint about how the game might be structured. It sounds like it won't be the totally linear affair found in the first game. Instead, the narrative may move between two different times, much the way that Left Behind (a three-hour, Ellie-focused add-on to The Last of Us) jumped between two points in time.
How Troy Baker's Naughty Dog work influenced 'Shadow of War'
Troy Baker has lent his voice and performances to some of the biggest games of the past decade. From six roles across Darksiders 2 to playing Booker DeWitt in BioShock Infinite or stepping into The Joker's shoes in Batman: Arkham Origins, you might not realize it's actually him delivering the lines until you see the credits. That's because he approaches each performance incredibly differently. With Middle-earth: Shadow of War his job was particularly complex: In addition to reprising his role as Talion, a Ranger of Gondor who's more or less possessed by an undead prince, Baker served as the director for all of the game's performance-capture story sequences. For that task, Baker relied on his experience with director Neil Druckmann from Naughty Dog and his roles in the studio's The Last of Us (TLoU) and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. Naughty Dog is widely regarded as having some of the best performances and shot composition in video game story sequences -- there are definitely worse places to look to for inspiration.
'The Last of Us' and 'Uncharted' movies could be in trouble
The Last of Us and the Uncharted series are known for their cinematic feel and spectacular set pieces, so it's not surprising that Hollywood wants to adapt them for the big screen. If you're sold on the idea of a live-action search for El Dorado, or a painstaking journey across a Clicker-infested America, we've got some bad news however. In an interview with IGN, Neil Druckmann, creative director at Naughty Dog, hinted that both projects are in trouble. Regarding a movie version of The Last of Us, he said:
Sony's turning The Last of Us into a movie with help from the game's creators
The Last of Us made its debut last year to critical (and commercial) acclaim from the gaming community, and it appears that the film industry's just as smitten with the story it tells. Deadline Hollywood reports that Sony Pictures' Screen Gems production company has decided to develop a "live-action adaptation" of the PS3 version of the game, and Neil Druckmann, who was The Last of Us' creative director, will be writing the screenplay. Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra, the co-presidents of Naughty Dog, the studio that created the game, and the game's director, Bruce Straley will also lend their talents to the project as "creative architects," whatever that means. Naturally, since the deal has just been done, we don't know when to expect The Last of Us to make its way to the silver screen, but at least we know it's coming... at some point.
Necessary violence: The creators of The Last of Us defend its reliance on combat
PlayStation 3 exclusive The Last of Us was the most successful game of 2013. That's not just sales (it sold extremely well, to the tune of 3.4 million in its first three weeks), but also critical reception (an average Metacritic score of 95/100 and it swept game of the year awards across the game industry in 2013). Last week, The Last of Us earned development studio Naughty Dog a whopping 10 wins at the annual DICE awards show in Las Vegas -- considered the Oscars of gaming. With Naughty Dog's past creating hit franchises like Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter and Uncharted, The Last of Us leads Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley aren't strangers to success (these guys led development of Uncharted 2, another extremely successful game). Their latest work is a tremendous departure.
