[The Last of Us] Holy Graphics Batman!

[RavenSEAL]

The Last Of Us
by Bryan Vore on February 02, 2012 at 04:00 PM
125,602 Views

As promised earlier today in our cover announcement story, we present three screenshots from The Last of Us.

The images below are only a taste of the over 20 great shots that appear in the March issue. Be sure to click on the screens to get a better look.


Combat includes both gunplay and melee attacks. Weapons will break after repeated use, so you'll have to scavenge around for new items frequently.


Most post-apocalyptic worlds are bleak and gray. Naughty Dog utilizes natural growth to spice up the color palette and add a sense of the abnormal. Notice the yellow bridge in the background? Yep, this is Pittsburgh.


The developers stress that The Last of Us is not one long escort mission. Although you won't control Ellie in the game, her AI is one of the team's primary areas of focus. In our demo she always managed to keep up, yet stay out of the way. She didn't seem to need any babysitting at all.

I have a feeling this game is going to be flipping fantastic! and in the name of Tebow...holy PS3 power! D:

 

[TheVrolok]

God I hope this game delivers.

 

[gorcorps]

The truck in the first screen shot looks like garbage. It really stands out with how detailed the characters are.

 

[Ichigo]

Too bad Ellen Page isn't playable. Co-op would be cool, even if the two characters had vastly different playstyles. Would add to the atmosphere.

 

[Doppel]

The truck in the first screen shot looks like garbage. It really stands out with how detailed the characters are.

Haha, I hadn't noticed because the characters were so good, but you're correct, it looks like decade old graphics (though the tail light is better than the rest of it).

Video at the link within another link does look good.

 

[astrosfan315]

The trailer is pretty cool. It's on my watch list.

 

[I4AT]

Hmm, so they must have been working on this, Uncharted 3, and Golden Abyss at the same time... Isn't Naughty Dog a relatively small studio? I'm actually kind of upset by this lol, because Uncharted is my favorite series and I can't help but feel like it could've been that much better if they were focusing on one project at a time. I dunno, maybe I'm just weird.

 

[coldmeat]

The graphics really don't look that great. I'm sure it looks better in motion and while actually playing than in still images though.

 

[KentState]

The truck in the first screen shot looks like garbage. It really stands out with how detailed the characters are.

Noticed that too. Lookd like something you would find in HL2.

 

[RavenSEAL]

The graphics really don't look that great. I'm sure it looks better in motion and while actually playing than in still images though.

Well, when you have a chance to stare at 1 frame for a long period time, you will start noticing things. Happens in pretty much every game.

 

[purbeast0]

coulda just posted this in here.

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2212127

 

[gorcorps]

Haha, I hadn't noticed because the characters were so good, but you're correct, it looks like decade old graphics (though the tail light is better than the rest of it).

Video at the link within another link does look good.

Noticed that too. Lookd like something you would find in HL2.

In the 3rd screen shot the signs in the top left look pretty bad too. Pretty typical of games this gen though, you don't have the power to run sharp textures everywhere so if you make some things look too good you have to cut corners in places to make up for it.

On the upside, these screenshots look like actual screenshots that are possible... not the false promises we've seen in other game releases. The downside is I don't expect it to break much new ground in visuals that weren't broken with Uncharted already. If we can see such terrible textures in the main featured screenshots, I wonder how prevalent they are. :hmm:

BUT it all comes down to gameplay. It'll look good enough to be a top tier game visually, but I'm hoping it plays well too. Despite them claiming the AI on the girl is a focus and not an issue, I really dislike having to deal with AI for co-op if it's the majority of the game. It's why I couldn't play RE5.

 

[badb0y]

Their hands are bound by tech from 2006, I can't really blame them.

 

[Sulaco]

Well, when you have a chance to stare at 1 frame for a long period time, you will start noticing things. Happens in pretty much every game.

"Stare at 1 frame for a long period of time" ? Please. That jumps out after looking at it for a second or two.

 

[-Slacker-]

Or they could be prerendered cut scenes...

 

[gorcorps]

Or they could be prerendered cut scenes...

They're not good enough to be that. I saw the trailer that was obviously a pre-rendered scene, but the screenshots look legit.

 

[rageofthepeon]

I kinda wish there was a way to replace Ellie with a dog or something. Maybe as a reward for beating the game? Nothing like a man and his dog in post apocalyptic type games.

R.I.P. Dogmeat and Barkspawn.

 

[Sulaco]

I kinda wish there was a way to replace Ellie with a dog or something. Maybe as a reward for beating the game? Nothing like a man and his dog in post apocalyptic type games.

R.I.P. Dogmeat and Barkspawn.

It's already looking a little too much like I Am Legend as it is...

 

[rageofthepeon]

It's already looking a little too much like I Am Legend as it is...

I've been craving an 'I Am Legend' game since I saw the movie. Then I went and read the original book by Richard Matheson (1954) and that craving grew. I'm not complaining .

 

[Krynj]

The truck in the first screen shot looks like garbage. It really stands out with how detailed the characters are.

You want highly detailed main characters, or highly detailed set pieces in the background?

Can't have high resolution textures and high polygon count on every model. Gotta skimp where you can. Naughty Dog's PS3 titles have some of the best graphics any PS3 game has to offer. I'll let some low res stuff slide if it means an overall impressive experience.

 

[Anubis]

you can have both, its called Crysis a game that need 5 years of hardware upgrades to be playable

 

[ibex333]

Noticed that too. Lookd like something you would find in HL2.

Actually, HL2 had very good, detailed graphics which IMO, in some ways, rival many of todays games. Maybe you had an old video card back then?

 

[BD2003]

Looks like a current gen game.

 

[-Slacker-]

They're not good enough to be that. I saw the trailer that was obviously a pre-rendered scene, but the screenshots look legit.

Dunno, they look like cut scenes to me, and if they're cut scenes, there's a good chance that they are prerendered...

 

[Krynj]

Those don't look good enough to be prerendered cut scenes. They look good, but with a prerendered cut scene, you can achieve an extremely high level of quality. They might be taken from cut scenes rendered within the game engine, but I highly doubt those are prerendered.

If anybody has forgotten how good Naughty Dog's graphics can be, I'd ask you to play through Uncharted 2 again. Those guys really have a handle on realistic lighting, DoF, and rendering.

Anyway, definitely looking forward to this title. The whole zombie holocaust/virus epidemic thing has been played out and beaten to death, but this looks like a damn good execution. Are they classifying this as survival horror, action adventure, or what? Seems like it will be awesome to play in the dark with the surround sound cranked.