The Last of Us Message Board older than one year ago

Teased a few months back, the first episode of What Remains, a series based on Naughty Dog's upcoming The Last Of Us, is now out. It's 18 minutes long. While it looks like an official tie-in, it's actually the work of Manifest Film, a team of gaming filmakers who, when this is done, are hoping to do a whole lot more video game homage work. If this is the quality we can expect from fans, let's hope they get that chance. You can check out more about the project at its official site. What Remains [Site] .

The Last of Us puts the fun in fungicidal funerals through the use of its weapon and supply crafting systems. This developer diary covers how the items that create offensive molotov cocktails can also be used to make med kits. There's also highfalutin words like "negative space."

We took a look at the Infected in our first video in The Last of Us Development series. We then explored the game world and nature’s reclamation of civilization as we know it in our second video, Wasteland Beautiful. Our third video, Death and Choices, investigates what it means to be a survivor in the world of The Last of Us and how Joel and Ellie cope with the harsh realities of post-pandemic society. Watch it now:

Survival is moment to moment in the world of The Last of Us. There are stark consequences to every decision that’s made and if Joel and Ellie want to survive they’ll need to scavenge the environment for every possible advantage. Learning to craft more potent weapons from makeshift materials or take defensive precautions using found objects will be critical to their continued survival.

Up next, our penultimate video in the series will spotlight the combat mechanics and the intimate nature of conflict in The Last of Us. The in-depth documentary we have been creating grew so large that we are currently seeking a unique way to distribute it. We’ll have details about how you can get the feature-length documentary of the making of The Last of Us in the coming months. The Last of Us will be available 14th June 2013.

The Last of Us launches on June 14, simultaneously on Blu-ray and as a download through PSN. Those who choose the latter route will find the game playable once the download has reached 50 percent, Naughty Dog creative director Neil Druckmann has told Game Informer.

It's our first taste of PS4 functionality - as you'll recall, one of the major features touted by Sony is the ability to play games as they're downloaded. This is accomplished on the PS4 through the use of the system's secondary chip, dedicated to background downloading and processing.

... was a year ago, but it was brief, just to prove that it was a real game so I could vote for it for a pre-release E3 game critic's award... The second time I played the game was last night. And, as you can see above and below, it really does look that damn good. If you don't know, this is the next game from Naughty Dog, creators of Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter and Uncharted. This game is survival-action, so to speak. Ellie, the girl above, and Joel, the guy throwing the brick here... Joel and Elli are a desperate odd couple. He seems a little shady but confident in his ability to survive. A little weary of all this and soft-spoken. It's been 20 years since things got bad. Ellie doesn't know a different world. She's used to this. She's not exactly plucky, but she seems mature beyond her years and a bit foul-mouthed. However they met, these two are trying their best to survive in a world where humans have been infected and turned into monsters of sorts. Cities have been all but abandoned and hope is fleeting. The game plays a little bit like a classic Resident Evil with ammo and resources perpetually scarce. I played two 10-minute chunks of the game and never had more than six bullets, except in this crazy sequence—the Last of Us's turning of a classic shooter turret sequence on its head... The thing is, this is no dark, spooky horror game. This is sadness and survival in the most bright and beautiful places, which I think helps make the violence all the uglier. In The Last of Us' case, that ugliness of violence is a virtue. In the parts of the game I played, in Lincoln and Pittsburgh, even the violence is scarce. I controlled Joel. Ellie is controlled by the computer. Most of the time, we were just walking, sneaking or trying to find supplies. When other humans or the infected show up, it's usually better to hide than to hit them with a quickly-splintering 2x4. You don't really want to fight the infected people or your fellow desperate humans. None of you can survive many encounters, so avoiding combat is the wiser move. It's better to crouch and listen for the bad guys. Better to stay away. But you just sometimes can't avoid it. It finds you. The camera is often really close to the action. The sounds of struggle, of pipes hitting bones, of bullets cracking, of punches to the gut, all resonate as discomfiting smashes and smacks and cracks. You can get better at fighting. You can craft a molotov cocktail or scavenge some gear to upgrade a gun. Or make a health pack. Probably best to do that... The thing I can't shake from my memory, though, is just how beautiful the scenery in the game is and just how interesting the two leads are. I champion the interactive elements of games. I don't value voice-acting that much, but the performances in the game are powerful. As I play—as you will play—Joel and Elli converse. Their relationship builds through small talk and through meaningful exchanges. I was reminded of the ongoing conversations between the Prince of Persia and Farah in the magnificent Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Except, this game isn't a romance. Far from it. It is, however, lovely. The Last of Us, which has made a better pre-release impression than most other games I've seen this generation, will be out for PlayStation 3 on June 14. By the way, it also has multiplayer. They're not saying what that's about. And, yes, the game is less than a month away. This preview included a hands-on session with the game. We played about 30 minutes' worth from two parts of the game. To contact the author of this post, write to stephentotilo@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @stephentotilo

When pre-production started in earnest on The Last of Us there was a folder of music files featuring work by some of the preeminent musicians in video games, television, and film. These tracks held a sampling of the ideal musical quality, direction, and tone we wanted to have for the project. The Academy Award winning work of Gustavo Santaolalla appeared multiple times. Being that he had never composed for video games before the thought of getting him to work on The Last of Us seemed a bit farfetched. He was approached by our music group at Sony and, well, this video will tell you the full story about the man himself and how he came to work on The Last of Us:

We are honored to have Gustavo’s music and talents in our game. The texture of Gustavo’s musical score serves the game’s narrative and the music is rife with poignant, descriptive and intimate sounds. His work is unlike anything heard in a video game before. It’s a beautiful, haunting, sonic landscape that makes the game’s themes more emotionally resonant and emphasizes thoughtfully how Joel, Ellie, and all the characters in the game perceive the world around them. It’s a masterful musical score.

Want a sampling of the sonic delight Gustavo crafted for The Last of Us? Visit the Sony Music Soundtracks SoundCloud set. If you pre-order the game, via the Sights & Sounds DLC pack, you’ll get full access to the official digital soundtrack. The soundtrack is also available for purchase as a CD via the Sony Masterworks label. The Last of Us arrives June 14th, 2013.

When "survival" is trotted out as a game genre, it usually comes with implicit caveats. Developers often seem scared of the player, fearful of the controller-crushing outrage that surely results when a game constricts resources, punishes careless actions and dares to craft a deliberately unpleasant experience.

The Last of Us is a crafty, tense experience in which my attempts to attack bandits and disfigured creatures head-on usually resulted in a gruesome death. Upon starting a two-level demonstration of the game, I only had two bullets in my pistol - missing a headshot felt like a catastrophe. Surprise and caution enable success, just as cynical protagonist Joel constantly tells Ellie, a young girl who hasn't yet been turned dour by the terrible state of the world.

To grasp what's most important in The Last of Us, and what it might deem valuable in comparison to other games that blend stealth, scavenging and shooting, I asked Naughty Dog designer Ricky Cambier for some general survival strategies.

I’m low on ammo, so I clumsily swing my two-by-four at the incoming Clicker — dumb move. The creature sinks its fetid teeth into my jugular, chirping with malevolent glee as it rips out a gobbet of flesh. Arterial blood spurts across my face, now contorted in shock and agony.

I’m dead. This time, I try a different approach. I combine one of my remaining rags and a precious bottle of alcohol to create a Molotov cocktail, then hurl it towards the abomination. Flames envelop the lumbering shape as it wails and collapses, dead at last. I’m alive – for a little while longer.

The Last of Us isn’t afraid to kill you, over and over if need be. And that’s a big part of its considerable charm. As you struggle to survive the game’s inhospitable world, limping from one nail-biting combat scenario to the next, you’ll feel strangely alive and alert. In an era of game development that — at least to this old-timer — tends to babysit players with tutorials and handholding to dial down any chance of frustration, this game’s unapologetically tough-as-nails approach feels both refreshing and quietly revolutionary. Remember when games used to kill you? Naughty Dog does.

Later, I’m ambushed in a bombed-out store by a mob of coldhearted killers — human in name only, and no less dangerous than the infected that prowl the streets. I assess my arsenal: just three shotgun shells and a handful of 9mm rounds. Using the dim lighting to my advantage, I duck behind a counter and drop a nearby gunman with a blast of buckshot as Ellie runs for safety. With the shooter out of the way, I lunge for a pair of nearby attackers and subdue them with a series of wild haymakers. Grabbing a nearby two-by-four, I rush the survivors and bludgeon them into submission. I rendezvous with a nervous Ellie and we move on — though to what, only Naughty Dog knows.

That’s The Last of Us. You do what you need to do and you keep moving. It’s out June 14th, and I think you’re gonna like it.

If you’ve tried to learn every little thing about the Last of Us, then chances are you’ve already seen Faith Erin Hicks’ artwork. She’s been drawing The Last of Us: American Dreams prequel miniseries published by Dark Horse Comics, which focuses on the character of Ellie before she meets up with playable protagonist Joel. But Ellie isn’t the only teenager Hicks has sketched out in recent months. She’s also collaborated with Prudence Shen on Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong, a new graphic novel from First Second. When a high school budget can only afford to give money to one group, a robotics club and the cheerleading squad go to war over who’ll get the funds for new equipment or outfits. Best friends Charlie and Nate find themselves on either side of the tension but a so-crazy-it-might-work scheme brings both factions together for a crazy road trip. NCPGW serves up familiar jock-vs-nerd conflict but adds a layer of emotion to the characters’ personal lives that will win you over. I talked to Hicks about drawing a post-apocalyptic world, revising high school and her dalliance with Resident Evil series’ hunkiest protagionist. No, it’s not Hunk. Kotaku: Both of your currently publishing series focus on young people in radically different situations. Ellie' s living in a broken world after a horrible plague and the characters of NCPGW are facing a crumbling social order, but one that's a lot more light-hearted. Did you get whiplash moving from one to another? Oh boy, did I ever. It was actually even worse than you describe; if I'd gone from Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong straight into drawing The Last of Us: American Dreams, it might've been a little easier, because at least NCPGW is a book for teens and has realistic backgrounds and stuff like that. But there was a third comic that I was drawing in 2012 (because apparently I have to draw ALL the comics, god help me), a kids' comic called Bigfoot Boy, which was written by J.Torres. So I went from drawing Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong (realistic teenagers, robots, set in a modern town) to drawing Bigfoot Boy (about a 10 year old boy who finds a totem in a forest that turns him into a Sasquatch; very cute, bouncy kids-comic-artwork) to drawing The Last of Us: American Dreams, which is grim and gritty and has lots of guns. It was a little bit nuts, trying to switch art styles and give each comic the look I wanted it to have. Kotaku: You and Prudence Shen are dealing with a lot of well-trod dynamics in NCPGW: jocks & cheerleaders vs. tech nerds, children of divorce and clueless administrators. What was the key for making this work feel like something readers hadn't seen a thousands times before? On its surface, Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong uses some familiar tropes, jocks vs. nerds, popular kids vs. those low on the social totem pole. But what really drew me to the story was how Prudence took those tropes and turned them on their ear. Nate, one of the two main characters, is a nerd, but he's also aggressive and goes out and gets what he wants. He doesn't care about being popular, he just wants what he thinks he deserves. In contrast, Charlie is a well-liked basketball playing jock, but he's also completely at Nate's mercy and unable to stand up for himself, despite the fact that he's "popular" and "normal" (whatever that word means) on the surface. Prudence and I are both pretty geeky, and I liked that we were able to take a hard look at geek culture and the tropes that revolve around geekdom and play around with them. Kotaku: Even though the game's not out yet, people are already praising the spare loneliness and quiet desperation of The Last of Us' art direction. How did you try to capture that in your own work for American Dreams, despite not having a photorealistic art style? Mostly it's silence, timing and character development. I get a lot of comments on the use of silence in my comics. I really like scenes where the emotions are played out through the acting of the characters I'm drawing, and I wanted to bring that to The Last of Us comic. I'd seen previews for The Last of Us game before I started drawing the comic prequel, and noticed it seemed a little different than a typical post-pandemic game; it focused on character and on the ruined world around the characters, which I thought was an unusual way to sell a Naughty Dog game. When I started working on The Last of Us comic with Neil Druckman, I really wanted to play around with timing and silence in the comic, have moments where Ellie was overwhelmed and almost quashed by the environment she's forced to liv e in. And then, she ... spoilers, can't say! Read the comic to find out. Kotaku: Was there any part of telling Ellie's story in American Dreams that you were excited to tackle? Argh, I don't know how much I can reveal! I was very excited to draw ... um, certain upcoming villains. Oh man, they were so fun. Can't say more than that! Kotaku: As far as you're able to speak to it, what are the big differences between animation production work for TV and for video games? So far in my comics career I've done a lot of work on my own comics, which has been incredibly amazing. With animation, I was always working on someone else's project, always contributing a tiny part of a larger work, rather than doing it all myself. There are things I miss about working in animation (the people, mostly), but I like creating my own stories, and I like being able to do everything myself, which I'm able to do in comics. From start to finish, I can make a comic all by my lonesome, but to do an animation ... that's much more complicated! Kotaku: Is there another video game character or series you'd love to get your hands on? Hicks: I'm a big fan of Resident Evil 4, I'd love to do some non-silly comics about that game. I did some RE4 fan comics previously, but they are incredibly silly and mostly about how Ashley has the hots for Leon. Maybe someday I will do serious Resident Evil 4 comics, just for fun! Any excuse to draw Leon Kennedy, really.

Editor's note: The mysterious figure known as Superannuation digs through the Internet to find secrets companies don't want to announce yet. All of what Superannuation finds is available to the public. Are these true gaming secrets? Or are they gaming red herrings planted to throw Superannuation off? Read on... On his CV, a staffer at Rockstar Games' headquarters in New York mentions Agent alongside Grand Theft Auto V as a title currently in development at Rockstar, possibly suggesting that the seemingly vaporware Cold War-set spy title announced at E3 2009 may in fact still be in the works despite years of silence from Rockstar on the project. Though with developer Rockstar North occupied with development of the latest Grand Theft Auto title, it is probable that Agent is presently on the backburner as Rockstar focuses on its flagship franchise. The last official word we heard about Agent was two years ago when Take-Two chairperson Strauss Zelnick mentioned during a quarterly earning call that the game was "still in development." And the last time Rockstar discussed Agent was in September 2009 — a few months after the game's announcement — when it hinted during a fan Q&A blog post that the title may see release in 2010, a prediction that obviously did not bear out. We have not actually seen anything of Agent aside from the logo shown at E3 2009. But in mid-2011, a gaming site discovered apparent environmental assets from the game in an ex-Rockstar North artist's portfolio. The assets did not really provide much insight into the game, and depicted a fairly nondescript apartment complex. Unlike Take-Two's 2011 E3 Sony press conference announcement of BioShock Vita, Agent is a title that has actually been in development twice. Agent was originally in development at Rockstar San Diego in 2003 as a prototype for PS2/Xbox. It would seem that version of the game was at least partially set in Cairo; one former Rockstar San Diego artist said he and three other people spent a week in the city taking "over 10,000 photographs" for reference materials. That version was ultimately put on hold, and the project was resurrected a number of years later as the Agent we vaguely know today. As a number of resumes attest, version two of Agent is/was also an actual project in development under the auspices of Rockstar North, with Rockstar San Diego helping out. If we see Agent again in the future, it is probably safe to assume one thing: it probably will not remain a Playstation 3 exclusive (as PlayStation 4 will be out by the end the year). Several weeks ago, Sony Computer Entertainment America put up a rather curious job opening for a summer speech recognition intern. The posting says the intern's work will focus on, among other things, "speech noise reduction, speech detection, recognition, noisy rejection, and grammar processing under various environments." The intern is to also perform research on keyword identification in potentially noisy environments. And Sony considers experience with "Emotional and kid’s speech processing" to be "a plus," suggesting something with a bit of broader user base than voice commands in a shooter. In the past several years, Microsoft has tailored the general Xbox 360 navigation to be compatible with speech-enabled navigation, but Sony has yet to really integrate voice recognition at the system level. For the PlayStation 4, Sony is overhauling their PlayStation Eye camera to be slightly more Kinect-esque with audio detection. Could changes be afoot for Sony's forthcoming console? Last month, Sony Computer Entertainment America filed a trademark registration for "The Order: 1866." A month prior, the domains theorder1886.com, theorder1886.net, theordergame.net, theorderps4.com, and theorderps4.net were privately registered through SCEA's domain registrar, indicating The Order is an American-developed title (SCEE uses a different registration firm for European games) for Sony's next-gen console. Perhaps the new game from God of War 3 director Stig Asmussen or Ready at Dawn's PS4 action-adventure new IP title? Interestingly, the privately registration handle is also associated with the domains lastofus.com, lastofus2.com, and lastofus3.com, which makes me wonder if Sony and/or Naughty Dog have the idea of The Last of Us as a franchise in the back of their mind despite the first title being narratively self-contained. The Order: 1886 is not the only recent project with the 1880s in its name: the project Vigil Games was working on prior to its closure, codenamed Crawler, was known internally as "1881." In a message board post, a former Vigil Games employee said Crawler—a.k.a. 1881, a name THQ intended to change because of similarity to Patrice Desilets' 1666—was "heavily inspired by Dark Souls." And the former Vigil staffer said the studio hoped for Crawler's "gameplay and difficulty" to be akin to the cult RPG. Former THQ president Jason Rubin commented that Crawler's "fantastic ... and truly unique" concept "dropped the most jaws" of any in-development game in THQ's portfolio during the company's final days. Earlier this month, Electronic Arts filed a trademark registration for "Need for Speed" encompassing, among other things, a "Series of fiction works, namely, novels and books." Need for Speed is not really known for being the most narratively substantial franchise, and turning it into a book seems like a stretch. But I imagine a book might be something like this: “Love is one of those things you shouldn’t let vroom away,” Jerry Sunroof lamented. “I was too focused on the axles and not focused enough on my heart.” “What is this nonsense you are talking about?” asked Larry the Lamborghini, a talking car. “Larry the Lamborghini, you’re a car—you’ll never understand human emotions!” Jerry yelled. “Don’t condescend to me—I have a price tag of $200,000,” said Larry. “Let’s go racing. That always cheers you up.” “Ok,” Jerry said nonchalantly. Or maybe we might get Need for Speed poetry: Tires turning Rubber burning Vroom vroom Doing donuts in the parking lot Hoping I never get caught Vroom vroom In actuality, this registration is probably related to a tie-in novel for the forthcoming Need for Speed film, and I am a terrible poet and fiction writer. superannuation is a self-described "internet extraordinaire" residing somewhere in the Pacific Time Zone. He tweets, and can be reached at heyheymayday AT gmail DOT com.

This video is the second TV spot Sony created for The Last of Us. The game is due out on June 14 for PS3

Sony has announced plans to build PlayStation 3 systems locally in Brazil. The consoles will be manufactured in Manaus by Sony Brasil Ltda., with the 250 GB version costing 1,099 Reals.

Major upcoming games The Last of Us and Grand Theft Auto 5 are getting localized releases in Brazilian Portuguese as well. A PlayStation 3 bundle featuring God of War: Ascension will hit stores in the region as part of the "Viva Em Estado Play" ("Living in a State of Play") marketing program in South America.

Sony says it's committed to investing in the local gaming development industry in Brazil, and Sony President Andrew House claims the manufacturing setup will "infuse the Brazilian economy with approximately $300 million over the next 12 months." As one more gesture of goodwill, the first ten consoles manufactured in Brazil will be given away to local gamers.

I’m ready for The Last of Us. This morally grey gem from the brilliant minds at Naughty Dog combines exploration, scavenging, and brutal hide-and-seek combat against hordes of deadly Infected that prowl the remains of a ravaged United States. June 14th can’t come soon enough!

Not long ago, we asked The Last of Us Creative Director Neil Druckmann and Game Director Bruce Straley to give us an intimate tour of the game’s sights and sounds. Among many other topics, our new interview details the disturbing origins of the game’s Infected, an idea which sprouted from nature documentaries. Our discussion also plunges deeper into the turbulent but vital relationship between Joel and Ellie, as unlikely a pair of game protagonists as you’re likely to find.

Please watch, and then leave your thoughts in the comments below!

Our Firefly Pendant contests have ended! The entries for all contests were incredible. Even having seen amazing past work from our fans these entries exceeded our lofty expectations. Here’s a list of our winners for the Fan Art and Video Creation contests. Just click their names to witness some truly remarkable work.

Fan Art Winners

David Michael Vigil
Ben Glueck
Philip Liu
Joseph Lenz
Michael Kiper
Melinda Davidson
Shiyao Jiang
Hui Wang

Video Creation Winners

Alex Raymond Vincent
Peter Mrozik
Kazden Risk
Joe Warren
Colby Reed
Robert Righetti
Lucas Rios
Josh Scheffler

A pencil holder! A birdhouse! An entire environment in a game engine! There’s so much talent and incredible work here, right? We want to thank everyone who took time to enter and congratulate all winners. If you’re wondering about the third contest, the eight winners of our Cosplay contest can be found over on IGN. Watch the video and pick out your favorite Joel, Ellie, Hunter or Infected.

To find all the newly appointed Fireflies and their respective pendants in the game it’ll take some serious scavenging. If you’re looking for a way to help you to find these pendants or just some helpful tips and tricks for your journey you’ll want to purchase one of the official The Last of Us strategy guides. You’ll be able to choose between the Signature Series guide and the sleek Limited Edition guide. If you didn’t happen to win or couldn’t enter one of our Firefly pendant contests every purchase of the Limited Edition guide comes with an exclusive Fireflies key chain pendant of your very own.

Both guides can now be pre-ordered at the Brady Games website. The Signature Series guide is available in the USA, Canada, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Australia while the Limited Edition guide is offered for sale in the USA, Canada, UK, and Australia. The guides will be coming out when The Last of Us launches June 14th, 2013. Congratulations once again to all our new Fireflies!

The PAL territories will have the option of two special editions for Naughty Dog's The Last of Us to pre-order.

The Joel and Ellie editions, both priced at €79.99, are mirror images of each other, focusing on either protagonist of the game. The sets include art book, wallpaper, comic, soundtrack and SackBoy/Girl for LittleBigPlanet.

The Joel video can be found above, with Ellie after the break.

Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann likens the look of The Last of Us to "nature reclaiming its domain once we are gone."

Naughty Dog hired a research firm to focus test The Last of Us, who then didn't bother to involve any women in the testing. "My big surprise during this process is that the research group wasn't planning on focus-testing female gamers," Naughty Dog creative director Neil Druckmann told The Escapist. "It's something we had to specifically request. I hope this is a relic of the past that will soon go away."

Though it's tempting to say that's problematic for this particular game, the issue here isn't just that they were commissioned to gather feedback for a game with both male and female leads. The firm was commissioned to gather feedback for a game, which automatically means that its audience is not exclusively male. And focus testing that starts with a warped, unrepresentative group doesn't seem like it would result in useful data.

In our first video in The Last of Us Development series we took a look at the Infected. We explored their unpredictable nature, what the Cordyceps fungus has done to these humans, and how we as developers worked some plausible science about infection into the game. Area 5 returned to the studio to discover how we created the game world. The second video in the series looks at what went into the concept and design of the world and its environments in The Last of Us. Check it out:

The key word for the development of every aspect in The Last of Us is contrast. There’s a counterpoint to nearly every detail in the game and we strive to show as much beauty as the ugly, brutal realities of the world allow. We think you’ll find our wasteland beautiful once you get into the game world in just a couple months.

Our next video in the series will explore the crafting and scavenging gameplay mechanics. An in-depth documentary on the game disc will contain an expanded look at all the content in these videos. The Last of Us will be available June 14th, 2013.

We’re proud to share the news that the first issue of The Last of Us: American Dreams – a comic book series published by Dark Horse Comics and jointly written by Naughty Dog Creative Director Neil Druckmann and the talented Faith Erin Hicks – is in stores now. The series art is also by Faith, with colors by Rachelle Rosenberg, lettering by Clem Robins, and the stunning covers by Julián Totino Tedesco.

Trust us when we say that American Dreams doesn’t spoil any of the story found in The Last of Us game, and instead gives you a great introduction to Ellie and her life as told through events inside the quarantine zone taking place prior to the game. I have to say, even though I’ve been able to watch the American Dreams series take shape over the past several months as we worked on it with Dark Horse Comics, it was still no less awesome to finally see it in front of me and read Issue #1 as an actual, real comic book.

Brendan Wright, Editor of The Last of Us: American Dreams, has a great blog post over on the Dark Horse website that introduces the series far better and with more eloquence than I ever can.

The digital version of The Last of Us: American Dreams Issue #1 will launch next Wednesday, April 10, on Dark Horse Digital – which is available on your iPhone, iPad, and Android devices, or on the web. You can get links to the apps or access Dark Horse Digital here.

While the physical comic book is only available in North America for the time being, the good news is that the English-only digital version will be available worldwide. Keep an eye on @PlayStation on Twitter as we will be giving away 50 codes for the digital edition.

Also on Twitter, be sure to join Neil and Faith for a Dark Horse Twitter chat on @DarkHorsecomics on the same day the digital version of American Dreams Issue #1 drops – Wednesday, April 10 at 11:30 AM PDT. [What time is this in my city?]

We’re planning a one-hour Twitter chat, so keep an eye on @DarkHorsecomics on Twitter and the #TheLastofUsAD hashtag. Dark Horse has let us know they’re looking to do some giveaways during the Twitter chat, so this is one you won’t want to miss.

We’re thrilled to see that the comic series has started already – hopefully making the wait until The Last of Us releases worldwide on June 14, 2013, just a little bit easier.

If you’ve already picked up the comic – tell us what you think in the comments!

See the first six pages of American Dreams Issue #1 at Dark Horse’s website. If you decide to pick it up – and I suggest you do! – you can find your local comic book store here.

Sony took the short The Last of Us TV ad that aired on The Walking Dead's season finale, infused new life into it, and resurrected it as a full-blown story trailer. The Naughty Dog game looks to mix the studio's narrative focus with, as this trailer shows in brief cuts, some brutal-looking gameplay.

The season finale of a zombie show seems like a good place to advertise The Last of Us, and Sony did just that during The Walking Dead.

We kicked off the television campaign for The Last of Us on Sunday, with our first official TV spot on the season finale of AMC’s The Walking Dead. We’d like to share with you the red band story trailer that TV spot called out. Take a look at some new gameplay from The Last of Us:

This gameplay represents a slice of the journey Joel and Ellie will be taking across the United States. They’ll travel westward, traversing different climates, environments, and seasons. The moral dilemmas and decisions they’re forced to make will test the limits of their conscience and humanity. Who is a friend and who is a foe? The Last of Us explores many questions that deal with themes of loyalty, love, and redemption. We’re excited to hear what you have to say about the game and its narrative.

The Last of Us will be available June 14th, 2013.

We are now just three months away from the release of Naughty Dog’s newest franchise, The Last of Us. The team is working extremely hard on putting the finishing touches to the game. It’s exciting to see all the different aspects of the game finally come together into the vision we’ve had in mind all along. Joel and Ellie’s journey is turning out to be something truly special that we can’t wait to share with our fans.

With the June 14th release of the game rapidly approaching, we’re excited to announce that the first official television spot for The Last of Us will air on the season finale of AMC’s The Walking Dead this Sunday, March 31st at 9:00pm Pacific Time and Eastern Time.

We’re eager to reveal more of Joel and Ellie’s story to you. Tune in to discover where you can find even more new content from The Last of Us.

Synergy! The demo for Naughty Dog's upcoming fungi-fueled survival game, The Last of Us, will be accessible on May 31, 2013, through copies of God of War: Ascension. The demo will be accessible through the front menu of God of War: Ascension, as Sony has previously revealed.

We've contacted Naughty Dog for further clarification as to whether this demo will ever be available to those without God of War: Ascension. The Last of Us was originally due on May 7, until it was pushed back to June 14 worldwide.

It's difficult to be truly original in the broad universe of zombie-esque creatures, but the team at Naughty Dog gave it their darnedest with The Last of Us. Take a look at how the visual and audio styles came to life - and to death. Mostly death.

A few weeks ago we revealed the Infected and let select media get some hands-on time against these unpredictable, fungus-infested humans. The responses were tension-filled and fantastic. We’re excited to share more information with you about The Last of Us and the Infected.

Starting with this video we’re kicking off a series that will pull back the curtain on our design, our technology, and our ideas that shape The Last of Us. We want to give you a straightforward look at our development process and the work we do here at Naughty Dog. We invited Area 5 to visit the studio and capture the development process. Along the way we’ll be unpacking the many different aspects of the game and its development with a documentarian’s approach.

This first video is just a taste of what’s upcoming. Extended cuts of these videos will be available via the game disc. We’ll have more behind-the-scenes access and content as we march toward June 14th and the launch of The Last of Us.

#uncharted The guys responsible for Nathan Drake's adventures have made some of the PlayStation 3's best games. But the excellence of Naughty Dog's Uncharted franchise came after a lot of hard lessons. Just as a probable reveal for the next PlayStation looms, a new interview on Eurogamer reveals that the development studio had a rough time moving from PS2 to PS3. More »

The Last of Us is an ambitious project. In many ways it may be Naughty Dog’s most ambitious project to date – brand new universe and cast of characters, brand new tech, brand new genre, not to mention it’s easily the longest campaign Naughty Dog has ever made.

As we entered the final phase of development for The Last of Us, we came to realize just how massive Joel and Ellie’s journey is. But instead of cutting corners or compromising our vision, we came to the tough decision that the game deserved a few extra weeks to ensure every detail of The Last of Us was up to Naughty Dog’s internal high standards.

As a team we pride ourselves on setting a very high quality bar for every aspect of our games – gameplay, story, art, design, technology and more. We want to make sure The Last of Us raises that bar even further – for ourselves, and most importantly, for you, our fans.

The extra wait will be very short and your patience will be rewarded. Update your calendars. You won’t even have to change seasons. The Last of Us will be available June 14th, 2013. Until then, know that we will be working extremely hard to deliver an experience that matches your high expectations.

The Last of Us is now scheduled to drop on June 14 around the world, delayed from its initial launch date of May 7. Developer Naughty Dog says it needs a few more weeks to polish the game, in a statement provided by Gamespot:

"As a team we pride ourselves on setting a very high quality bar for every aspect of our games - gameplay, story, art, design, technology and more. We want to make sure The Last of Us raises that bar even further - for ourselves, and most importantly, our fans.

"As we entered the final phase of development for The Last of Us, we came to realise just how massive Joel and Ellie's journey is. But instead of cutting corners or compromising our vision, we came to the tough decision that the game deserved a few extra weeks to ensure every detail of The Last of Us was up to Naughty Dog's internal high standards."

We found the demo for The Last of Us to be positively infectious.

#thelastofus It's not even out yet, but Naughty Dog's The Last of Us is inspiring enough love from fans that a very slick-looking web series is about to kick off. More »