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I’ve finally played a chapter from Naughty Dog’s eagerly awaited post-pandemic survival tale, and the first thing I want to say is this: The Last of Us is not a shooter. Well, not exactly. Though Joel packs a pistol, you’ll count yourself lucky to be holding more than 10 bullets at any one time. Most times you’ll want to avoid fights by sneaking and hiding. In other, more desperate times you’ll pull the trigger with a feeling of great reluctance — all the while praying that you don’t miss. The ultra-tight ammo supply imbues the game with a primal, high-stakes tension that brings uncertainty to every decision you make. One thing’s for sure: this is one mess you won’t be able to shoot your way out of.

“The Last of Us is not a shooter.”

As I guided Joel’s group around the dilapidated fringes of post-pandemic Boston, I saw constant reminders of Naughty Dog’s legendary attention to detail. Step under a trickle of water and Joel will raise his hand to keep his head dry; knock an enemy near a wall and Joel will pin him there to deliver a staggering punch. The environments also bristle with detail. Peer through a derelict car’s filthy window and you’ll see an interior modeled down to the steering wheel and gearshift knob. Shine a flashlight in a dark room and you’ll project your companions’ shadows softly and realistically against the wall and floor. Peek around a corner and you might spy a mouldering poster for “Fever Dream,” one of several fictional movie references dotted throughout the world.

With Tess and Ellie taking up the rear, I quietly entered a sagging skyscraper, my exploration accompanied by the ominous groans of tortured steel and a series of unsettling chirps. That’s when I spotted my first Clicker, a late-stage infected human with obscene fungal growths sprouting from its eye sockets. The Clicker is one of the deadliest enemies you’ll face, but it’s functionally blind, relying on a form of echolocation to navigate and hunt its prey. I hurled a glass bottle to distract the monster, then quietly guided Ellie and Tess further into the building, scooping up ammo and supplies along the way.

“Crafting is a necessity, not an optional sidequest.”

You’ll quickly learn that crafting is a necessity, not an optional sidequest. As you collect spare parts in order to craft gear and weapons, you’ll face tough choices on where to allocate scarce resources. Use a rag now to make a much-needed medkit, or save it for a molotov cocktail — just in case? You can also combine blades and bindings with improvised weapons (pipes, two-by-fours) to craft a powerful anti-crowd weapon. Or you can opt to make a short-range shiv that can instantly and silently dispatch one enemy. Whichever you choose, the game’s crafting interface provides a wealth of information in a lightweight and accessible UI. Despite the range of options I was able to find and craft anything I needed quickly and efficiently.

Based on the chapter I played, Naughty Dog doesn’t seem to be leaning on jump scares, fakeouts, or cheap tricks to gin up fear. Instead, The Last of Us develops a deeper, more oppressive dread by surrounding you with palpable decay and loneliness, turning off the lights and bombarding you with amygdalae-melting audio effects. Creeping through the filth-streaked corridors scrounging for scissors and tape didn’t make me feel like an all-powerful supersoldier, only a desperate survivor fighting to draw another breath. That bleakness permeates and propels the gameplay: No matter how bad it gets, you’re always worried that it’s about to get much, much worse.

Visually, the game is a knockout. The intensely detailed interior nooks and crannies contrast vividly with the massive scale of the outdoor scenes, such as the vine-choked skyscrapers of an abandoned Boston. The control scheme felt natural and intuitive, and Ellie and Tess felt less like advanced NPCs with great A.I. and more like companions on a dark, desolate journey.

And those were my experiences with The Last of Us! Have any questions? Let me know in the comments and I’ll answer any questions I can.

#preview Before diving into an extended hands-on session with Naughty Dog's The Last of Us, creative director Neil Bruckmann describes what he hopes I'll take away from the demo: "We want to demonstrate through gameplay, through action what people have had to deal with." By "people", he's referring to the survivors of a population-wiping plague that took hold 20 years prior when a plant-based parasite began burrowing into human brains. As far as what those struggling few "have had to deal with", well, Bruckmann's talking about the Infected. More »

A fungus has invaded, taking over the actions of its host before it destroys its hostage, and begins to spread spores throughout an entire colony of potential fodder. The cycle begins anew: a host invaded, its actions possessed, and a colony is left in ruins. It's a narrative you'd expect to see in a movie. It's also the basis for one of the most anticipated games in the PlayStation 3's 2013 release schedule.

In Naughty Dog's upcoming PS3-exclusive The Last of Us, the narrative inspiration for the parasitic plague wreaking havoc on civilization is ripped from a segment in the BBC-produced documentary series Planet Earth. The segment delves into the natural actions of a fungus known as "cordyceps." The fungus takes over an insect before it bursts from the host's body in an effort to spread its spores to other insects, wiping out colonies.

Though first assumed to be an undead army, the infected in The Last of Us are living humans. Each stage of the infection modifies their physical and mental capacity. People in the first stage of infection - referred to as Runners - know in their hearts and minds that their instinct to attack uninfected survivors is wrong, but they cannot control the impulse to harm life around them. Later stages of the infection offer encounters with more ghastly creatures. At stage three, the infection blinds hosts and turns them into 'Clickers,' agressors with faces bloomed in blood and gore. These enemies rely on echolocation to sniff out survivors, bellowing a haunting sound offered as a warning for all to remain completely still.

It's in the moments - between the hurried snarls a stage one infected cries out and the terrorizing clicking noise a stage three projects - that The Last of Us establishes its rules and its place as a terrifying new universe for gamers to explore.

#thelastofus Shaping up to look like a truly scary game, The Last of Us is populated with gruesomely infected enemies called Runners and Clickers. (More here.) More »

#thelastofus The folks behind upcoming PS3 exclusive The Last of Us give a rundown of some of the game's enemies and show off some new gameplay footage. More »

#thelastofus The Last of Us comes out on May 7th and there's still lots of mystery surrounding the post-apocalyptic world of Naughty Dog's upcoming PS3 game. A few glimpses of The Last of Us' ruined world have surfaced but you'll get a chance to get a deep look at the making of the game's ravaged world, along with design work for Joel and Ellie in The Art of The Last of Us. More »

The Blu-Ray of Total Recall came with a God of War: Ascension demo. Now the chain of demos continues: when you buy God of War Ascension, it will in turn come with a demo for The Last of Us.

The demo won't be on the disc when Ascension comes out May 7, but it will enable early access to the one-chapter sample of The Last of Us at a later date. "Just load the God of War: Ascension disc into your PS3 and find The Last of Us listing on the main menu," Eric Monacelli, Naughty Dog Community Strategist explained on the PlayStation Blog. "There, you'll find details on how you can obtain The Last of Us demo for free as soon as it becomes available."

Two special editions of The Last of Us have been revealed for North America, as well as two additional versions for release in Europe.

The Last of Us doesn't want its special editions to feel lonely, so it has two for the US: the Survival Edition, available at retail and online for $80, and the Post-Pandemic Edition, which is GameStop-exclusive and runs $150.

The Survival Edition, pictured above, includes a hardcover art book and issue one of The Last of Us: American Dreams, complete with an exclusive variant cover, both from Dark Horse. It comes with a steelbook case featuring Ellie and Joel, and includes the Sights and Sounds DLC pack. Sights and Sounds comes with the game's original soundtrack from Oscar-winning composer Gustavo Santaolalla, a dynamic theme for PS3, and the Winter Joel and Winter Ellie PSN avatars.

The Post-Pandemic Edition, shown below, is available only at GameStop, and it includes the steelbook case and American Dreams comic from the Survival Edition. The bulk of its price seems to come from a 12-inch statue of Joel and Ellie from Project Triforce, which has an estimated retail value of $200. Post-Pandemic comes with the Sights and Sounds DLC and the Survival multiplayer DLC pack (that's not confusing), which has bonus XP, a melee booster, in-game currency, customizable items, and bonus Ellie and Joel skins once the game is completed.

These both differ from the UK special editions of The Last of Us, also announced today.

The Last of Us gets the VIP treatment in the UK, where it has two, slightly different, retailer-exclusive special versions, the Ellie Edition and the Joel Edition. The Ellie Edition, pictured above, is available only at GAME, and includes a mini artbook, the first issue of Dark Horse's The Last of Us: American Dreams, the Survival multiplayer DLC pack, the Sights and Sounds DLC pack, a LittleBigPlanet Ellie skin, and the game package, collectable poster and Dualshock skin featuring Ellie's face.

The Joel Edition contains exactly the same things, but with Joel's face and skin (ew) instead of Ellie's; take a look at that version below. The Survival DLC pack includes bonus XP, a melee booster, in-game currency and customizable character items for multiplayer, and bonus Joel and Ellie skins after the single-player game is completed. The Sights and Sounds pack features the official soundtrack from Oscar-winning composer Gustavo Santaolalla, a dynamic theme for PS3 and the Winter Joel and Ellie PSN avatars.

All pre-orders, from any retailer in the UK or US, get the Sights and Sounds DLC pack. Pre-orders from US GameStops and snag the Survival DLC, too.

The Last of Us is coming May 7th, 2013, and we’re celebrating the impending arrival by announcing two very special editions of the game available in North America. First off, the Survival Edition will be hitting retail shelves packaged with some very cool extras.

When you get the Survival Edition, you’ll be able to explore over 170 pages of the incredible artwork and designs that went into making The Last of Us in The Art of The Last of Us, a full-sized hardcover art book by Dark Horse. Also packed in from Dark Horse, artist Faith Erin Hicks, and The Last of Us Creative Director Neil Druckmann is The Last of Us: American Dreams #1, the first issue in a series of comic books that dives deeper into Ellie’s backstory. The version you’ll get features a variant cover that can only be found in the Survival Edition.

In addition to the books, you’ll be getting the Steelbook edition of the game showcasing artwork of Ellie on one side and Joel on the other side of the cover. Ordering the Survival Edition also nets you the Sights & Sounds DLC pack:

Sights & Sounds DLC Pack
- Official Game Soundtrack by Academy Award winning musician Gustavo Santaolalla
- PS3 Dynamic Theme
- PSN Avatars: Winter Joel & Ellie

The Survival Edition retails for $79.99 and is available in-store and online at participating retailers.

Dark Horse will be releasing a standalone edition of Art of the Last of Us ($39.99; 978-1-61655-164-3), available at your local comics shop, amazon.com, bn.com, or your local bookstore.

The second offering is for the true collector: Witness the Post-Pandemic Edition.

In the Post-Pandemic Edition, you’ll receive the Steelbook edition of the game and The Last of Us: American Dreams issue 1 with the variant cover. Also included is a highly collectible 12” Premium Statue of Joel and Ellie by Project Triforce that’s worthy of any display case.

You’ll be getting two DLC packs as well. In addition to the Sights & Sounds DLC Pack, the Post-Pandemic Edition includes a plethora of digital content in the Survival DLC Pack:

Survival DLC Pack
- Multiplayer Bonuses:
· Bonus XP
· Melee booster
· In-game currency
· Customizable character items
- Bonus Joel and Ellie skins available once the single player game is completed

The Post-Pandemic Edition will only be available at GameStop for $149.99. It’s very exclusive, so pre-order your copy today! Both the Post-Pandemic Edition and the Survival Edition include custom chrome Naughty Dog stickers so you can stylishly tag your preferred items or walls with the developer logo of your favorite new game.

Hop online or head to your local retailer and pre-order today. Be prepared for The Last of Us before May 7th, 2013!

#cyberpunk Maciej Kuciara is one of the most talented concept artist on the planet. And you're about to see just why. More »

In this special edition of Out This Week, we take a look at the biggest titles that we can't wait to get our hands on in 2013.

As 2013 starts to dawn and we all know we survived the 2012 phenomenon we wanted to wish you a very happy holidays from Naughty Dog studio!

2012 was jam packed with breaking news about The Last of Us and fresh content reveals for Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. On the Uncharted 3 front, we recently announced our holiday items and we’ll have even more content inbound in the New Year. Additionally, we have some very exciting information about multiplayer around the start of next year. Get ready for all the big news by checking back to the PlayStation blog and Naughty Dog blog once 2013 hits.

Speaking of 2013, there’s a very special date you need have marked down if you haven’t already: May 7, 2013. We’re all working towards that date now as we announced that The Last of Us will be in stores globally May 7, 2013 during the 2012 Spike Video Game Awards. If you haven’t been able to watch the Story trailer we released at the show, check it out now:

Over the holidays, our The Last of Us team will be hard at work marching towards achieving the next project milestone and making the game awesome. The rest of us will be doing research for upcoming work and assisting The Last of Us team as needed. We will all be enjoying some downtime with friends and family and those games we never got a chance to play or those amazing films we didn’t yet get to see this year.

It’s been a breathtaking year and we can’t express how much your response and reactions to our games means to us. Your support, your feedback, and your enthusiasm keep us going and make our work enjoyable. You give our games their player – it would be just a collection of data without you. Thank you. We hope to see you online these holidays and we can’t wait to show you what we have brewing for 2013!

Have a safe, happy holiday season!

This video for Naughty Dog's The Last of Us introduces the Tess character, played by Annie Wersching (Renee Walker in 24). It also neatly shows off the effects of what's required to get from motion-capture to final animation, and those bauble-dotted mo-cap suits which are always fun.

It’s been an exciting December full of fresh The Last of Us news. If you haven’t watched our brand new The Last of Us Story Trailer, you’re missing out some huge reveals. One of these reveals is a new character seen here, Joel’s partner, Tess.

A hardened survivor living in one of the last remaining quarantine zones, Tess operates in the black market of a city under martial law. Partners with Joel, they have become known within the criminal underworld for their ruthlessness. Street smart and confident, Tess is a savvy strategist and negotiator. Her ability to generate intelligent plans to secure the contraband for their trade is second to none.

Tess and Joel subscribe to the same dog-eat-dog philosophy. They survive by being willing to do what others can’t or won’t. Her trust in and loyalty towards Joel runs deep. However, secretly, she questions whether Joel shares the same emotions that she feels for him.

Strong, smart, and street savvy, Tess is a pivotal character in the world of The Last of Us. Tess is voiced and played by Annie Wersching. You might recognize Annie’s voice from her work on the hit TV series, 24. For our in-game cinematics Annie’s performance of Tess involved many long, intense hours on our mocap stage. To see how Annie’s performance was captured and certain scenes from it were put it into our Story Trailer check out this process video:

Pretty cool stuff, right? We spoke about the making of a cinematic a few months ago and we’re very happy with how the game and all the cinematics within it are shaping up.

Don’t forget to pre-order The Last of Us to receive exclusive bonus content, including the Sights and Sounds Pack at participating retailers and the Survival Pack from GameStop.

Now that we are in the heart of winter here in the US we wanted to reveal one more new screenshot from the game. Here’s a look at one of the more familiar, strong survivors who inhabits the world of The Last of Us:

Is it May 7th, 2013 yet?

#thelastofus As you'd expect given the fact she's one of the two main characters in the game, teenage girl Ellie features prominently on the cover to Naughty Dog's The Last of Us. Indeed, she's got star billing. More »

Naughty Dog revealed the pre-order bonuses for The Last of Us this weekend, hot on the trail of the new trailer from the VGAs, which you can watch above. As for the pre-orders, they're split into the stuff all participating retailers are offering and the additional in-game content GameStop is bundling in.

All participating pre-orders include the game's official soundtrack, a PS3 dynamic theme based on the box art, and 'Winter Joel' and 'Winter Ellie' PSN avatars. That sounds perfect for a game confirmed to be releasing in the summer - May 7, 2013, to be specific.

Pre-order at GameStop and you'll also get some multiplayer goodies. They include bonus XP, a melee attack booster, customizable character items, bonus skins, and also a bit of extra in-game cash to help you on your way. Naughty Dog confirmed earlier this year that multiplayer would be coming to The Last of Us, but not in the form of campaign co-op.

The evil fungus of The Last of Us is among us on May 7, 2013. Check out the new trailer beyond the break!

Update: Sadly, this trailer's been pulled. We'll update this post (and the rest of our VGA 2012 posts with video) as soon as it's back up.

#thelastofus The fancy new Last of Us trailer that debuted at the Spike VGAs last week was, by virtue of its delivery method, censored. More »

It has been a big weekend for us here at Naughty Dog. We revealed a brand new trailer for The Last of Us at the Spike Video Game Awards on Friday along with the most important news for any fan – that The Last of Us will be released on May 7th, 2013!

This is our second trailer release and our first since announcing The Last of Us at least year’s VGA show. If you didn’t catch the show when it aired live or the Spike video stream, you can watch the full, uncensored trailer at the top of this post. We’ve tried to keep the trailer as spoiler-free as possible, while giving you some hints at the tense, emotional narrative the development team has crafted for The Last of Us.

That’s not all – we are also excited to announce details on the bonus content you can get for pre-ordering your copy of The Last of Us. Participating retailers will offer the Sights and Sounds Pack, which includes:

• The official soundtrack of the game
• A PS3 dynamic theme featuring the cover art
• Two avatars for your PSN profile – Winter Joel and Winter Ellie

We’ve also worked with GameStop to provide exclusive bonus content in addition to the Sights and Sounds Pack. Pre-ordering at GameStop also nets you the Survival Pack, which includes:

• Bonus experience points for multiplayer
• A multiplayer melee attack booster
• Some extra starting in-game cash
• Special customizable character items for multiplayer
• Two special bonus skins for Joel and Ellie which will be unlocked after your complete the single player campaign

Multiplayer, wha? We’re not quite ready to talk about it yet, but stay tuned as we’ll be revealing more details on multiplayer before The Last of Us is released on May 7th, 2013.

The team here is pumped to head into the home stretch to finish The Last of Us. We can’t wait to show you more in the coming months!

#thelastofus The Last of Us from Naughty Dog was a surprise reveal at last year's Video Game Awards. This year it gets another trailer (above), and a release date—May 7, 2013. More »

The 2012 Spike Video Game Awards will be underway in just about an hour and we can’t wait to unveil our brand new The Last of Us Story Trailer to the world! We’re peeling back the curtain on Joel and Ellie’s gripping, emotional journey across a post-pandemic United States. Be sure to tune into Spike TV at 9:00pm ET / 6:00pm PT, or watch online below.

Excited? We can’t wait to share more of the game as development of The Last of Us progresses! We’ll be talking more about the content you see here and many other aspects of what makes The Last of Us a truly remarkable game in the months to come.

Be sure to check back on the PlayStation.Blog Sunday for some big reveals and news about the game.

#thelastofus More »

On October 12, 2012 in New York City, at a panel during New York Comic Con, Dark Horse Comics and Naughty Dog announced The Last of Us: American Dreams. We are stoked to be working with Dark Horse and really excited to reveal the first details about the prequel to the public. To the right is the first promotional image for the comic book series (click for full-size).

The Last of Us: American Dreams is a four issue comic book series that peels back the layers on the early days of Ellie as it dives into her backstory. It will expose her personality and the motivations that drive her as it explores the first steps of the journey that leads to becoming the character we ultimately meet in the game.

The series will be made by collaboration between Naughty Dog Creative Director Neil Druckmann, artist and writer Faith Erin Hicks, and colorist Christina Strain. Neil and Faith will be co-writers on the project and Faith will be doing the drawing while Christina handles the coloring duties.

Naughty Dog Creative Director and Co-Writer on the series, Neil Druckmann, had this to say about the comic books:

“Because we haven’t finished the game yet, we’ve been able to weave some of those threads into the story of the game.”

“I wanted to see a story that can stand on its own, so if you’ve never played the game you’d still be able to read this comic and get an intriguing story with these characters but, at the same time, if you do read this comic book and you play the game, you should get greater depth, a greater understanding of these characters and the world and what’s going on with them. The other cool thing is that working on the comic book has helped me develop more of Ellie’s backstory. Because we haven’t finished the game yet, we’ve been able to weave some of those threads into the story of the game. So there are certain parts as you play the game, if you’ve read the comic book, you’ll understand what Ellie’s referring to, or have a deeper understanding of what made her make that decision.”

Additionally, Faith recently posted up early concept art she did for Ellie:

You can see more of Faith’s awesome concept sketches for The Last of Us: American Dreams version of Ellie along with her thoughts on what makes a good video game comic book over on her Tumblr page.

In addition to the comic book series, Dark Horse Comics will be publishing the The Last of Us art book that explores the characters, the infected humans, and the highly detailed, rich world of the game. We will have more information about the art book over coming months.

The Last of Us art book will be released in conjunction with the launch of the game in 2013. The Last of Us: American Dreams comic book series will be coming out in spring 2013. We’ll have additional updates including cover reveals for the comic book issues as they are ready. If you want a complete look into the world of The Last of Us the art book is a must-have. If you want additional insight into Ellie’s character (and a good story to boot) don’t miss this comic series. We can’t wait to share more information with you as it becomes available!

#thelastofus We saw, over the summer, that the post-apocalyptic future in The Last of Us is one where fourteen-year-old Ellie has never seen a movie, because movies have ceased to exist. But what about the rest of this young girl's life? What transpires, in a ruined world, that ends up pairing her off with Joel and leading to the events of the upcoming game? More »

#thelastofus One of the most eagerly awaited PS3 game, The Last of Us, gets a new trailer for the Tokyo Game Show, which shows Ellie and Joel's daily routine. The trailer is haunting, brutal, and wonderful. More »

#thelastofus Naughty Dog's presentation of The Last of Us at PAX over the weekend ran for over fifteen minutes, and contained plenty of new footage for the upcoming game about post-apocalyptic interpersonal relationships / surviving hordes of angry plant people. More »

During PAX, Naughty Dog publicly demonstrated the section of The Last of Us gameplay shown to press at E3, which was previously released in part here. Now you can see the fifteen-minute slice of (desperately clinging to) life for yourself, above.

Over fifteen minutes, you'll see some downtime movie talk, exploration of a run-down building, some stealth, and lots of fighting. You also see surprisingly little of the mutant monsters who have destroyed the world; however, their presence has required monstrous behavior from those not infected.

Pax Prime was a blast! We were amped to publicly show off our behind-closed-doors gameplay demo of The Last of Us that only a very select few media members saw at E3. If you weren’t able to make it out to Seattle we don’t want to leave you out (or leave you watching someone’s illicit shaky-cam YouTube video) so here it is:

This demo highlights narrative exploration through interactive prompts, environmental puzzles, the balance of power AI, and some of the dynamic stealth elements you’ll be able to use to plan Joel and Ellie’s survival. How many resources are at your disposal? Do you go offensive or defensive? You’ll have to keep calm, think, and rely on your partner, Ellie, as you survive and make your way westward.

We can’t thank you enough for the reception we’ve received so far for The Last of Us. At PAX Prime, we had some awesome conversations, saw some amazing things, and met some truly dedicated fans. You guys and gals make all our hard work that much more rewarding – thank you.