One of the great things about The Last of Us was seeing the interactions between the protagonist Joel and his companion, Ellie. A similar kind of relationship could also be seen in this year’s God of War with Kratos and his son Atreus, and it looks like The Last of Us- Part II will feature a companion character to give Atreus some competition.

In the demo we had seen at E3, Ellie was on her own as she went up against lots of enemies. However, in a recent interview with Buzzfeed, the game’s Creative Director Neil Druckmann confirmed that Ellie will have an NPC companion in the game. He stated, “Ellie used to be an NPC, but she’s the protagonist in [The Last of Us Part II], so the player is controlling Ellie. Umm, it’s safe to say with the game that we made in the past that there will be some NPC with you in this story, even though we’re not showing [the NPC] in this demo. Our general approach is to say, again, ‘How do we treat them like people? How do we get them to behave honestly as those people? How do we give them interesting characteristics so that they can navigate the world, make meaningful actions, and surprise you in the way people do?”

The interviewer also went on to point out the parallels with God of War and its companion character Atreus. It looks like Naughty Dog will be trying to make their own companion character even better than Atreus in the spirit of friendly  competition. Druckmann stated, “We’re friends with those guys [at SIE Santa Monica]. We’re neighbors. I guess they’re not in Santa Monica technically anymore, but, yeah, we share tech and creative processes. And we welcome the friendly competition to one-up them in every regard. And you can tell [God of War director Cory Barlog] that.”

We will just have to wait and see who turns out to be Ellie’s companion throughout the game. The Last of Us- Part II is set to release exclusively for the PS4.

A whole bunch of new details about The Last of Us Part II was recently shared by the developers. As part of the E3 Coliseum live coverage, Anthony Newman and Kurt Margenau from Naughty Dog shared some more details about the game.

You may have noticed how Ellie has a really different fighting style when compared to Joel. The developers explained that this is because she does not possess the bulk strength of Joel and this is what causes the difference in fighting style. We also learn that the stealth system in the game will be more nuanced when compared to past games. There will be a lot of strategies players can choose from in the game to approach any situation.

The developers stated that what they had shown in the demo could have gone down very differently. Players can also choose their playstyle and they can choose not to engage in combat if they wish, and just try to escape during a mission. The AI in the game is also a lot more improved than what we had seen in the first game, and they can be very threatening. The lines between combat spaces and non-combat spaces will be blurred, which creates a constant sense of tension in the game.

All of this sounds really exciting, and hopefully we’ll get to know more about the game soon! The Last of Us Part II is set to release exclusively for the PS4.

From what we’ve seen so far of The Last of Us Part II from the demo which was shown at E3, it looks fantastic. As part of the panel of the E3 Coliseum, Neil Druckmann and the development team provided a lot of new details about the game.

The gameplay in this game is all about “tension”, and the team has been hard at work to ensure that Ellie interacts and reacts to her environment in a natural way. This was evident in the gameplay we had seen in the demo as well. The AI enemies in the game will also have a lot of depth and their animation also feels more natural, as the animation system is used for them as with Ellie. These enemies will also communicate with each other and they will have a fair bit of complexity beyond just being the bad guys.

In the game, dodging is going to be a core part of melee combat and players can also make use of their environment creatively during combat. Crafting in the game will also have quite a lot of depth and gives the player a lot of choice in how to approach a situation. There will also be new traversal options that will allow Ellie to move around the environment in different ways. There will also be new infected classes and they will be threat to both Ellie as well as other human enemies.

As for the game’s release date, the developers stated that it will only be revealed when the game is “very close to release.”

The Last of Us Part II is set to release exclusively for the PS4.

Naughty Dog revealed significant new details about the story of The Last of Us 2 at yesterday’s PSX panel. Director Niel Druckmann, co-writer Halley Gross, Ashley Johnson (Ellie) and Troy Baker (Joel) sat down together during the panel to reveal a lot of new details.

It was revealed that the three characters we saw in the Paris Games Week trailer will be important additions to the cast, while the actors portraying them were also confirmed officially. Laura Bailey plays the woman who was about to be brutally hanged, while Ian Alexander and Victoria Grace will be playing siblings Lev and Yara, who are thirteen and sixteen years old in the game respectively. Incidentally, this is the first time that Alexander and Grace are doing motion capture performances. Another interesting piece of information- Laura Bailey performed all the stunts we saw her character doing in the trailer herself.

Druckmann also revealed some story details about the game. He confirmed that part of The Last of Us 2 would indeed be set in Seattle, before going on to say that while the game tells a gritty story about the “sense of pursuing justice” and the “messy grey area” between black and white, it will also have light-hearted moments of humour. He also cryptically said that no character in the game is guaranteed to be safe from being killed off, and that includes Ellie and Joel as well- it remains to be seen just how much truth there is in that statement.

Druckmann also said that the game will try to tell its story in a bold and innovative way, before stating that there might be some fans of the first game who wouldn’t like the second. Halley Gross then went on to talk about the process of writing herself, saying that similar to The Last of Us, characters in the sequel won’t be tropes, but will instead be written like real people with flaws. For instance, she mentioned that the character of Yara has a very complex backstory. “[The priority is] doing right by Joel and Ellie and all of the characters in the story,” Gross said, “and giving them an authentic arc and difficult conflicts to engage with, and see how they grow and change.”

Finally, Neil Druckmann also confirmed that plenty of levels of the game have finished development, stating that the development process is “50 to 60%” done. When asked about when fans will get to see more of the game, he confirmed that The Last of Us 2 will be present at E3 2018.

Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced which panels will be hosted at the PlayStation Experience which will be held on December 9th. The list of panels include The Last of us Part 2, Ghosts of Tsushima and Media Molecule’s Dreams. Additionally, there’ll be a panel for PlayStation VR where future prospects for the technology will be discussed.

Ghosts of Tsushima was announced only a month ago so it’ll be interesting to see what direction the game’s development is headed in. The cast of The Last of Us Part II will be present and they will discuss the cutscene teaser trailer that was revealed recently at Paris Games Week.

Dreams is also very much alive and the team behind  the game will discuss the development process of the game in an depth manner. As it is a project that is very unique in its vision, this is certainly one game you need to watch out for.

This year has seen a great number of high quality releases for the PS4. Critically acclaimed games such as Horizon: Zero Dawn, Nier: Automata have ensured that the PS4 remains a console with a great roster of exclusive titles.

During a Press Panel attended by Dualshockers at the Paris Games Week, Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida talked about the great year that it has been for games. He stated, “We have seen so many games presented today coming out in the next twelve months. It’s amazing! The last twelve months were amazing! Big games, great games, creative games, VR titles, and the next twelve months seem even bigger and better, more interesting!”

With upcoming games such as Death Stranding, The Last of Us Part II, Days Gone and more, Yoshida-san may not be exaggerating and the coming months may prove him right. Yoshida-san is also excited for people to try out Media Molecule’s Dreams which will invite the player to take part in the creative process.  There is also much to be excited for with regards to the PSVR and to see how its use evolves over the next year.

Hopefully, Yoshida-san is right and the next  12 months prove to be even better than the past 12 months.