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Sony showed off a gameplay demo of The Last of Us today, demonstrating the stopping power of bullets and desk corners alike. This demo closed out Sony's E3 press conference today, and it did so with -- wait for it -- quite a bang.

Like, a head bang. Against a desk. Get it?

Did you catch the PlayStation press conference livestream? Notice when it went all black? We wanted to set a proper mood, tone, and stage for our debut of The Last of Us gameplay. The venue, as well as the hard work of the press conference production crew, afforded us a fantastic setup. It was an amazing opportunity to showcase our blood, sweat, and pixels on the massive video screen in the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena this Monday night. We’re amped by the response we’ve received so far and looking forward to a very busy, very fun E3.

If you didn’t catch the livestream or would like to see unadulterated, pure images of the gameplay watch this video. At this point in the story Joel and Ellie are attempting to get to the bridge and out of the city. They are tourists in an area that’s controlled by hunters. They are hunted and yet they too are hunters. Everyone is willing to do whatever it takes to survive. What you’ll see is something that we’re calling Balance of Power AI. Enemies will react realistically to whatever situation your combat style forces them into. Playing as Joel, Ellie’s help and whatever weapons you can scavenge are your best shot at progressing in this brutal, violent world. Check it out:

The Last of Us is a game like no other. We’ve just begun to show you what’s in store for Joel and Ellie as they travel across the post-pandemic United States. The drive to preserve humanity against the infection creates tension that pushes the limits of what constitutes being human. The story will explore the bond that forms between Joel and Ellie, and themes of loyalty, love, and redemption in ways never before experienced in entertainment. It’s an emotional rollercoaster that plunges and twists into the depths of what it means to be human and what it takes to survive. So buckle up and brace yourself. Our ride is just getting started.

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With Jeff and Rey in L.A. for pre-E3 activities, and Nick still wandering the primordial plains of Africa, I preside over today’s somewhat more intimate show. Luckily, I roped in PSN Sr. Community Manager Matthew Harper to share his eye-opening Origin Story, which provides some helpful tips for those of you who have wondered how to break into game development.

We kick off with a late-breaking interview featuring Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley from Naughty Dog, the creative director and game director of upcoming PS3 survival epic The Last of Us. If you’ve wondered how the game will play compared to UNCHARTED, or how Naughty Dog is handling the game’s decidedly mature themes, today’s shows will provide the answers you need.

Then we shift gears for a detailed discussion with Oddworld creator Lorne Lanning and Just Add Water CEO Stewart Gilray. The pair provide insight into the upcoming PS Vita version of Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath HD, discuss how PSN’s indie-minded model has reinvigorated the seminal series, and lay out their plans for world domination.

And as always, we reveal next week’s PSN game lineup, share a selection of new user questions and tips, and provide a head-scratching new Mystery Theme.

Stuff We Talked About

• The Last of Us – new in-game cutscene
• Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD

The Cast Sid Shuman – PlayStation Sr. Social Media Specialist Jeff Rubenstein – PlayStation Sr. Social Media Manager Matthew Harper – Sr. Community Manager, PSN Rey Gutierrez – PlayStation Sr. Social Media Specialist

[Editor’s note: PSN game release dates are subject to change without notice. Game
details are gathered from press releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating
descriptions.]

• Thanks to Cory Schmitz for our beautiful logo and Dormilón for our rad theme song and show music. Special thanks to Astro Gaming headsets for providing audio gear.

#thelastofus Just as people change, so do game characters. Over the course of development, their appearance is tweaked and altered. Just look how vastly different The Last of Us heroine Ellie looks in the latest trailer. More »

Despite being a huge bummer for everyone involved, the end of the world can at least be counted on as a magnanimous source of drama and spectacle. Naughty Dog's latest game, The Last of Us, aims to leverage the studio's sophisticated technology and credible presentation to forge a more intense connection between players and their on-screen avatars. If it succeeds, your actions will stem from the same paranoia, hesitation and fierce bravery coming from Joel and Ellie, two survivors of modern civilization's mysterious closure.

#thelastofus I just watched two people from Naughty Dog play The Last of Us in Santa Monica. It was the best demo for a game I've seen since Assassin's Creed III a few months ago. More »

It’s been nearly six months since we announced The Last of Us and development has been a bustling beehive of activity. If you picked up the March 2012 issue of Game Informer or saw any of the online coverage, you might have read about Joel and Ellie’s visit to an abandoned city. Today, we are excited to share a very fresh, very provocative video that should answer some of your questions about what went down inside those city walls. You’ll get an idea of what it takes to be a survivor in Joel and Ellie’s heartless new world.

Joel and Ellie won’t have an easy road ahead of them. Their path across the US will intersect with other survivors, some of whom won’t be friendly. In this scene set to the somber chords of Hank Williams, Sr., Joel and Ellie continue their journey west in a battered pickup truck. As they drive towards the next destination on their route, and hopefully a place to find critical resources, the pair encounters a group of hunters. What happens next is something you have to witness to understand. Check it out in the video above.

What you watched here is only a peek into how alone and forsaken this world has become. Be ready for things to get much worse.

If you missed any of Game Informer’s coverage of The Last of Us, be sure to dive in — we have so much more to show you and you won’t want to miss any of the backstory. Most recently, Game Director Bruce Straley and Creative Director Neil Druckmann spoke with IGN and answered some questions about the game. Be sure to read it! We can’t wait to share this genre-defining game with you.

The hounds have started to bay. Get prepared for E3 in early June and the growing news storm in the months to come!

Even in the post-apocalyptic setting of The Last of Us, safety comes first when driving. Buckle that seat belt, Ellie!

#thelastofus Having been quiet for a little while, Naughty Dog's upcoming The Last of Us returns to the public spotlight in this new clip. More »

#thelastofus Naughty Dog's The Last of Us is taking the old zombie stereotype in a different direction, substituting hordes of ravenous flesh-eaters for...a global population that's been infected by some kind of fungus and now looks really gross. More »

With Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception behind it (with the exception, perhaps, of some DLC), Sony-owned developer Naughty Dog is currently hard at work on its newest title, the PlayStation 3-exclusive post-apocalyptic title The Last of Us...

Beyond Jack and Ellie, there are clearly some other folks in Naughty Dog's upcoming post-pandemic project The Last of Us. Folks, it would seem from the images below, who are either about to get smashed with bricks or are about to hit someone else with a beam.

#thelastofus Joel's gun clicks pathetically as his finger desperately squeezes the trigger. Another survivor — the one with the still-loaded gun — grins, takes aim, and gets his head bashed in with a brick wielded by a 14-year-old girl. More »

February has been a month flush with new information about The Last of Us trickling out from a variety of websites, magazines and more that have visited the Naughty Dog studio over the past three months. One of the more in-depth looks at The Last of Us came from the US publication Game Informer, who put together a cover story hub for all the OTHER information they managed to squeeze out of us from a very, very short visit.

The most important part of their visit, to me, was that we were able to show a well-polished, nearly fifteen minute game demo of The Last of Us. The gameplay demo starts with Joel and Ellie driving down a highway congested with abandoned vehicles, eventually encountering another survivor who looks hurt and is limping towards their pickup truck. Surprisingly, Joel hits the accelerator and just before he barrels into the survivor, he pulls out a gun and shoots at Joel – missing Joel and only breaking the windshield. With this immediate threat behind them, Joel doesn’t have time to react as another survivor in the group rolls a bus downhill towards Joel and Ellie, broad siding them and sending the truck careening into a long-abandoned convenience store.

This is where the gameplay begins – a very tense, deliberate overview of the unique AI for The Last of Us, how the balance of power between weapons creates an atmosphere of extreme tension in combat, exploring the environment and scavenging, and the relationship between Joel and Ellie – both in-combat and out of combat.

Joel and Ellie are immediately besieged by the group of survivors, leading to a brutal melee sequence with Joel before other survivors reveal that they have a gun and start shooting at Joel. This tips the balance of power until Joel can draw his own gun and then both sides are taking cover and moving around to try to get a good shot off. When Joel’s pistol clicks, revealing he has no ammunition, the remaining survivor thinks he’s got the upper hand and moves much more aggressively since he still has a gun with ammo. Just when he thinks he’s got Joel, Ellie whips a brick at him, stunning him long enough for Joel to take him out via melee attacks.

But this was only the first wave of this group of survivors after Joel and Ellie. A new pack arrive in the convenience store, carrying a variety of weapons and Joel and Ellie duck out a broken window to reassess the situation and figure out how they can get out of here alive. What ensues are several minutes of cat and mouse and Joel and Ellie diligently work to take out each of the survivors one-by-one until none remain.

With the combat behind them, Joel and Ellie banter back and forth while they thoroughly explore the environment for anything that they can scavenge that may be useful to them. The exploration takes them through an abandoned building where the survivors apparently were camped out (and killing innocent people) to another roadway choked with abandoned vehicles – strangely beautiful as nature has really overgrown everything – as they head towards the bridge that is their only way out of this city, and any other survivors with less than noble intentions.

ALL of the screenshots were taken directly from our gameplay demo – yes, actual gameplay. I think they do a great job of representing a decent slice of the beauty and destruction present in the environments, and of the exploration and brutal nature of conflict in the world of The Last of Us.

The team has been cranking away at building more to the game and story of The Last of Us since we last hosted visitors – we can’t wait to pull back the curtain just a little more when the time comes.

Naughty Dog is looking to make The Last of Us the most realistic fungal-zombie-apocalypse game ever created. Game director Bruce Straley and creative director Neil Druckmann let slip a few details about combat mechanics in a video interview with Game Informer: Health will not automatically regenerate; Ellie, your AI companion, will be intelligent enough to throw bricks and other materials at your enemies, and she won't break your "stealth" mode; and it may include Uncharted-esque playable cinematics, but in more intimate environments.

Straley and Druckmann discuss combat moments as part strategy, part shooter, and say they're infusing the title with realistic reactions from NPCs and the protagonist alike. Watch the entire interview here.

Over the last couple of weeks, the sheet over The Last of Us has been slowly pulled off, revealing a post-apocalyptic adventure with incredible promise. Last week, we reported to you the very first storyline details for The Last of Us, which illustrated a very dark, very bleak and very violent world...

Naughty Dog creative director Neil Druckmann and game director Bruce Straley spent some time discussing The Last of Us' two main characters, its world and the changes that world has undergone in a video interview with Game Informer. The game is set 20 years after an apocalyptic fungal outbreak has decimated human society; what little humanity still exists has been relegated to military-controlled quarantine zones that operate under a brutal martial law.

Joel, our grizzled protagonist, is a black-market jack-of-all-trades in his late 40s, emotionally broken by the catastrophe and living his daily life at the edges of his waning moral boundaries. He is contracted by an unknown third party to smuggle 14-year-old Ellie outside of the quarantine zone she was born in, and as events unfold the pair find themselves trapped in the wilds of the dystopian, fungal zombie-filled wastelands, unable to return to the (relative) safety of the military zones.

Despite how jaded he has become, Joel cannot abandon Ellie to the ruins of the world, prompting an all-or-nothing expedition to a secret safe haven beyond the military's grasp. Sounds kind of like Resident Evil 4 meets The Dark Crystal meets the Will Smith version of I Am Legend. Consider our interest thoroughly piqued.

Ever since The Last of Us was revealed this past December, gamers have been flooded with questions. As a PlayStation 3-exclusive title from the Sony-owned studio Naughty Dog, expectations are exceptionally high. And like Naughty Dog's famous Uncharted series, The Last of Us seems to be character and plot-driven...

Before deciding on the post-apocalyptic survival adventure The Last of Us, Naughty Dog considered putting its team to work on a game starring a more familiar duo: Jak & Daxter. According to a Game Informer interview (quoted by VG247), Naughty Dog looked into a new Jak & Daxter game on PS3. "I don't know if this is going to make [fans] happy or sad," but we did explore the idea fairly extensively," company co-president Evan Wells said. "Something that we talked about early on was, 'Lets go back and apply what we've learned with the Uncharted games to Jak & Daxter.'"

Wells and the team realized, however, that an experimental Jak game wouldn't satisfy the fans, and working on a game like its predecessors wouldn't satisfy Naughty Dog. "We would end up limiting the direction that the company had this passion for while simultaneously not creating the game that fans wanted," he said. "We just realised we were going to just do everybody a disservice. So at that point, the conversations started to move in a new direction."

Wells suggested the possibility that the Uncharted team could work on the series. "I guess there's a possibility the Uncharted team could move on to Jak & Daxter. "It's still up in the air, but I wouldn't think that's going to happen because I think we'd run into all of the same problems with that team that we did with this team."Naughty Dog considered new Jak & Daxter game, but decided on The Last of Us

How can you tell Naughty Dog is serious about the infectious danger in The Last of Us? Because while Uncharted's Nathan Drake made the half-tuck famous, Last of Us' Joel has apparently gone full untuck in these screenshots over on Game Informer. Not. Kidding. Around.

Elsewhere in the screenshots, we can see that part of the game takes place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, so steel yourself for that (sorry). Weapons will break after being used in combat, so part of the challenge in wandering around the lush world is just staying armed. And that girl in the image above is Ellie, a teenager who will be following Joel around for part of his journey. Naughty Dog is working hard on her AI, and says she won't require a lot of micro-management while being escorted.

Game Informer promises 20 images of the game in its upcoming issue, but you can head to the website right now to see the other two shots on display. Full untuck, guys!

The first screenshots from The Last of Us have been revealed...

#thelastofus Game Informer Magazine has posted three screens from their upcoming cover feature looking at The Last of Us, the upcoming PS3-exclusive zombie-adventure game from Naughty Dog, the studio behind the Uncharted series. More »

It was only a few weeks ago that a small crew of Game Informer editors and myself left the frigid winter of Minnesota for the sunny shores of Santa Monica to visit one of the best developers in the world. It’s been a tough wait, but we’re excited to finally announce Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us as our March cover.

At the studio, we were ushered past numerous awards for blockbuster series like Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter, and UNCHARTED, but it was inside Naughty Dog’s impressive movie theater-style presentation room that we got to see and discuss what we came there for. On day one, Director Bruce Straley and Creative Director Neil Druckmann talked about their vision for the game while co-presidents Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra discussed their decision to double the staff and create an entirely separate team from the UNCHARTED crew.

Before long they fired up an amazing live gameplay demo showcasing the combat, stealth, and presentation style and offering a glimpse at the evolving character relationship between protagonists Joel and Ellie. The team offered frank and open responses to all of our questions and only really held back on heavy spoilers and elements that weren’t 100 percent nailed down yet. They were also gracious enough to play through the whole fascinating demo again (and we didn’t even have to beg that much).

On day two, we conducted several on-camera interviews and rounded up loads of online content that will roll out throughout the entire month of February. So be sure to head over to gameinformer.com to see our full front and back panoramic cover image and keep coming back for more The Last of Us throughout the days ahead. In fact, you don’t have to wait long. At 4:00PM Central Time today, we’re exclusively debuting the first three in-game screenshots of The Last of Us. We’ll see you there!

#thelastofus Sony has posted an interesting glimpse behind the scenes of Naughty Dog's upcoming The Last of Us, showing the human actors who bring the game's characters to life. More »

One of the better surprises of this year's Spike VGAs was not random tea-bagging -- for most, it was the unveiling of Naughty Dog's new IP, The Last of Us. All of that buzz is attributable to the dramatic trailer used to announce the title.

Today, Naughty Dog released a behind-the-scenes making-of trailer for the announcement trailer. Within you'll see some of Naughty Dog's famous mo-cap work at play and probably suffer a bit of disappointment when you see Ashley Johnson in a mo-cap suit. Yes, we know you were expecting Ellen Page, but we're pretty sure Juno is totally dead in this post-apocalyptic future anyway.

Before 2012 rushes upon us we wanted to take a moment to say Happy Holidays from everyone here at the Naughty Dog kennel!

As you can see from our holiday card we’ve welcomed Joel and Ellie from The Last of Us into our cast of characters to play among with Drake, Sully, Elena, Chloe, and our UNCHARTED personalities. The year has brought about tremendous change as Naughty Dog has grown into a two team studio for the first time in our 25 year history. This shift is terrifically exciting as it signals an expanded talent pool in which we can share ideas, know-how, and techniques. As future projects evolve, we will continue to strive to maintain our high Naughty Dog standards and always endeavor to do whatever it takes to raise the bar for gaming.

2011 was a grand adventure as we shipped Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception in November to widespread critical acclaim. We are grateful of all the recognition we’ve received for the title, ramping up at E3, continuing throughout development and into post-launch with some pretty awesome accolades from numerous media sources. Currently we’re working on some fresh DLC for UNCHARTED 3 and we will be sharing complete details about what you’ll be getting and what’s in store for all members of the Fortune Hunters’ Club in the New Year. Be sure to check back on the PlayStation blog for details within the first few months of 2012.

The studio also has been teaming with high fives and buzzing with energy via the hype caused by the announcement of The Last of Us at the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards. If you haven’t seen the trailer yet, be sure to check it out as every frame hints at the kind of gameplay features and atmosphere you can expect to see in the full game:

Apart from all the activities around our big new game reveal, some of the Dogs have been on well-deserved breaks for the past couple of weeks, either taking some personal time off or spending time with the friends and families who we didn’t see much of during the development of UNCHARTED 3.

Co-President Christophe Balestra is currently taking his first vacation in 10 years (!) while Co-President Evan Wells is heading up to Portland to spend time with family. Amy Hennig, Creative Director on UNCHARTED 3, is spending time with family as well. Bruce Straley, Game Director of The Last of Us, intends to catch up on Shadow of the Colossus, Skyrim, and Rage over the holiday break. Neil Druckmann, Creative Director on The Last of Us, has similar intentions as he’s looking forward to playing Skyrim and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Justin Richmond, Game Director on UNCHARTED 3, plans to play Skyrim, hang out with family and make a special trip to an awesome Pirate-themed restaurant. So if pirates crop up in the brand new UNCHARTED 3 DLC that’s coming out down the road, maybe we can all point at Justin’s pirate-themed restaurant visit as the wellspring for that content…or maybe not.

Over the holidays Arne Meyer will be trying to make a dent his gaming backlog. Me? I’ll be hanging with family, making homemade pasta, and will be consumed with trying to sneak away to watch recently released movies like Hugo, Sherlock Holmes 2, and Moneyball.

So what are your plans for the holidays?

All told the most important and critical part of our year is seeing, learning, and hearing how you are experiencing our games. Your responses and reactions are what keep us going and we can’t express how much your support helps to make our year fun and our work enjoyable. Thank you. We hope you feel our games do the same for you and your year.

Happy Holidays!

#fineart Naughty Dog's The Last Of Us, an upcoming PlayStation 3 exclusive, only made its public debut over the weekend, and already we've got a look at its first concept art. More »

New art for The Last of Us has surfaced, showing off some new shots of Joel and Ellie. Two of these shots in particular even show you precisely where at least part of the game takes place. These images come courtesy of The Official UK PlayStation Magazine...

We don't know much about The Last of Us just yet, but the first several concept shots offer a sneak peek into what we can expect to learn in the coming months. Protagonist duo Joel and Ellie sneak their way past a mean-looking couple of gentlemen in a wrecked 7-11, hang out with deer on their way out of what looks to be San Francisco, and stop to rest by a fire while cracking jokes, all the while escaping from whatever those humanoid ... things were in the trailer.

The latest line from Naughty Dog on The Last of Us puts the duo in a world where the US population was "decimated by a modern plague," leaving only the most hardened survivors behind while nature reclaims man's crumbling structures. The relationship between Joel and Ellie is unclear, though Joel is only referred to as a "ruthless survivor" while Ellie is depicted as "a brave young teenage girl who is wise beyond her years." The gameplay repercussions of those characterizations seem to put Joel in the aggressor role while Ellie handles strategy and puzzles -- we're still not sure how that will play out in terms of player control, unfortunately. Single-player with an NPC partner? Switching off between the two? Co-op? We'll have to wait and see.

And though we're not sure why the two are doing so, they'll be trekking "across what remains of the United States" throughout The Last of Us. Here's hoping they find a good shower somewhere in the process! Head over to OPM for all the (rather gorgeous) concept shots.