Why can't the industry give us more games like TLoU?

There are diminishing returns in relation to how much a developer puts into a game. I'm going to guess that the extra time and budget going into Last of Us won't translate into a proportionate amount of extra sales.
 
what are you talking about? the industry gives us tons of games like TLoU.

the difference is TLoU can execute on those concepts where countless others fail.

Pretty much. We have plenty of linear cinematic AAA games already. TLoU just had a better focus on all the "cinematic" stuff than most other games like it.

Gameplay in TLoU is hardly amazing if you look at it objectively.
 
Not every developer is as talented.

Pretty simple.

Honestly, the next game from Neil Druckmann ( and his ND team) is easily my most anticipated game. One of the best in the business.
 
true. though I would argue what RE4 accomplished using gameplay was far more significant than anything TLoU does, namely the control scheme + camera. it basically set the template for every third person game with a gun that followed it. a bit like Gears and cover. it may not have been first (and others may have been in development concurrently), but it certainly set the trend for cover based shooters. those games "added" (or at least set the standard) new ingredients to the formula, while TLoU is more like... a perfection of the dish, so to speak.

we'll see how much influence TLoU has on the industry going forward; I guess I'm just skeptical of what can be taken away from it that hasn't already been done before. (this is hardly a bad thing, being innovative is not an inherently good thing in itself if you can't execute on that potential)

Everyone will look at the story and acting as potential influence, but my hope is that TLoU will show developers that they can still use persistent health. It's something that really is a game changer as each encounter has to be tuned by the developers instead of them just throwing enemy waves at the player because they have regenerating health. Of course persistent health isn't anything new in the industry, but it's super rare at this point. Which is a real shame.
 
This hyperbole is getting out of hand now. We don't need more games like last of us. Shoot uncharted 2 is just as comparable as last of us. I hope they keep up that quality. Uncharted 3 was a misstep.
 
TLOU is a damn masterpiece. You've got to have at least one genius (probably many) working on a game to deliver something that good. It's better than 90% of movies from a narrative standpoint.

lucille.gif
 
Talent. Most devs dont have the talent that ND possesses.

Posses? Possesses? ahh fuck it. I HATE ALL THESE S's!
 
You forgot the most obvious answer of all: lack of comparable talent.
that's my theory. Not all developers are created equal. Or some are really talented at certain types of games and not others.

But yeah it's a talent thing. If they could and get away with it I think they would make these types of games.
 
The Last of Us is fantastic but I don't think it's really innovative or unique in the market.

There's a ton of other genres and games out there that we should be asking this question for.
It doesn't have to be, TLoU took a tired setting, the bare bones of uncharted's gameplay, and crafted a fantastic universe that has great characters, environments, and situations, all told through a sublime plot. No, they didn't really do anything new, but they made the new pinnacle of the old.
While new and interesting things are nice, it's not required for a good game
 
The gameplay is good but nothing special. I guess ND are just one of the few developers that bother to give us interesting and believable characters.
 
There's one other aspect of this that I don't see get mentioned a lot; games are simply growing up. As video games start to, well, matter more, devs are seemingly far more willing to take on heavier subjects because games simply haven't really been known to do that yet. It's still largely uncharted territory for the medium.

Ten years ago during the height of 3D mascot platformers, we could not have gotten something along the lines of The Last of Us, The Walking Dead or Bioshock Infinite. Sure, some adventure titles and horror games dealt with some pretty horrible things, but hardly to the same effect. I fully believe that in the years to come, more developers - be they AAA or independent - will be much more interested in taking on larger themes and subjects for their games.
 
TLOU is a damn masterpiece. You've got to have at least one genius (probably many) working on a game to deliver something that good. It's better than 90% of movies from a narrative standpoint.

heh I missed this earlier but... watch better movies.
 
I will be as straight up clear here with you man.

Look the game doesn't have enough tits and ass and not enough explosions, gore and blood and awesome gunplay and stuff like that so the publishers realize this and know that this kind of games sure will get some sales but not the kind of sales they would "really" want(talking in the millions here) add to that the sole fact that I don't quite like this kinda of game honestly.

And I am the main target audience of this greedy publishers, see, Iim casual and mainstream as all fuck.

More clear I can't be man.

Hope that helps.
 
heh I missed this earlier but... watch better movies.

he's probably right. 90% of movies are complete trash. Think of everything on netflix. most of that is unwatchable. it's really only the top 5% or so per year that are worth anything.
 
The Last of Us is the kinda game that could only happen at the end of an over long generation, after several games trying to create and refine the "cinematic action game", creating/refining/retooling a single engine, years of hard work and sleepless nights creating a world/vision/game design, LOTS of money and people willing to foot the bill on a new IP, and just having a lot of very talented game creators across the board. And good ol' fashioned luck.

Not a combo that comes around very often.
 
I don't usually post threads but I want to pose this question to GAF - why can't we get more games like TLoU?

I just finished the The Last Of Us and what an amazing experience. In my 17 years of gaming only few games ever evoked such a strong emotional response - MGS, MGS3, HL2, FFVII, Bioshock, Bioshock Infinite, Journey, SoTC and Uncharted 2. And now TLoU.

These games, to me offered the complete package. They had excellent gameplay, story and for their time - technical achievements and innovation. To me there were more than just games. It was a complete experience.

I think The Walking Dead game from TellTale is another example of this. Shit, i never even liked a telltale game before that... but something clicked and now I can't wait to see what they do next.

TLOU is a damn masterpiece. You've got to have at least one genius (probably many) working on a game to deliver something that good. It's better than 90% of movies from a narrative standpoint.

(Etc.)

Hmm... I see what's going on here.

Cinematic games are great, and they do well to compliment the rest of the industry, but I don't think they represent the epitome of the medium, nor do I think we aren't getting enough. (In fact, I'd argue the question shouldn't be, "Why can't the industry give us more games like TLoU?" and more like, "Why can't other cinematic games be as good as TLoU?")
 
Devs like ND are in a extremely fortunate position. Sony apparently gives them a lot of free room, and ND is run impeccably. They talk about their development process all the time and it's really impressive. 'Nothing is precious' is practically their mantra and that says a lot about their collaborative and creative method.

ND also just seem like crazy talented guys. I heard that there were staff who were basically overqualified to be in their position and that ND split up into two teams in order to give them proper room to grow within the studio.

Games usually lean too far on one side or the other. Awesome gameplay with sacrifices on everything else, and vice versa. ND delivered on practically every front, for me.

And I personally think that if TLOU was barebones from a visual standpoint people would still heap praises on it.
 
Not every movie you watch has to be an Oscar winner drama.

Sometimes you need your Ace Venturas or Zoolanders to go with your schindler's list or The Departed.
 
Its kind of funny because I thought Neil said that he wanted to do TLoU first back in the start of the gen but Sony needed something that could go up against gears instead. I'm wondering would the game be as good if it wasn't for the practice with the uncharted series?

Can't get the link since I'm on mobile
 
I don't usually post threads but I want to pose this question to GAF - why can't we get more games like TLoU?

I just finished the The Last Of Us and what an amazing experience. In my 17 years of gaming only few games ever evoked such a strong emotional response - MGS, MGS3, HL2, FFVII, Bioshock, Bioshock Infinite, Journey, SoTC and Uncharted 2. And now TLoU.

These games, to me offered the complete package. They had excellent gameplay, story and for their time - technical achievements and innovation. To me there were more than just games. It was a complete experience.

Does not compute
 
How about we just get good games, of all types, as they come, as they can be done, and as they're intended to be?

The same reason we don't need 500 FPS's is the same reason we don't redundant, uninspired derivatives of even the best games.

It's got to be a situation where people see something and say "oOo that's cool... i want to make something like that... and i could do this, and that and do all kinds of cool ideas that my mind is coming up with right now" and not "stop the press! this am successful. this are money. people want moar. we must make."
 
Its kind of funny because I thought Neil said that he wanted to do TLoU first back in the start of the gen but Sony needed something that could go up against gears instead. I'm wondering would the game be as good if it wasn't for the practice with the uncharted series?

Can't get the link since I'm on mobile

Yeah...I would like see that link. That would mean that The road (movie), No country for old men, movies that inspired Last of us came out in 2006!
 
It takes Naughty Dog, one of the best devs in the world, $$$ and working together with the hardware manufacturer and learning the hardware for 6 years. The end result is The Last of Us.
 
Pretty much. We have plenty of linear cinematic AAA games already. TLoU just had a better focus on all the "cinematic" stuff than most other games like it.

Gameplay in TLoU is hardly amazing if you look at it objectively.

Depends on how you look at it. Its a slow paced third person shooter with stealth elements in a action/adventure game. It has tried some unique things and may not be the first but it has definitely managed to bring the best of whatever it had to use and kept things simple without making things too overwhelming for newcomers to the genre of stealth or TPS. The crafting mechanism and scarce ammo teaches players to not waste ammo, and resources and make every shot count. Its not the first time its been brought up, but the gameplay is definitely unique enough and innovative enough for a stealth/survival TPS to bring it to the top of my list from a gameplay perspective.

This is coming from someone who was very spectical of this game from a gameplay perspective before launch. I invested 10 hours into Multiplayer so far and finally got the hang of things. When I checked out the singelplayer (which at first the narrative didn't really hit me, along with the lack of weapons and special items to use steered me away to play more of MP) when the story finally became interesting, I became hypnotized with it and wanted more. The gameplay (which I preferred in MP since it didn't stop you from having anything from the beginning) really began to hit off for me once I unlocked more equipment and got the hang of new weapons and made legit use of how I spent my resources or saved them.

The way I see it. about 48 hours ago, I thought the story was decent. Didn't really care about Ellie, Joel seemed cool enough. I loved the mix of gameplay by becoming a jack of all trades (and actually mastering quite a few) from the multiplayer and was waiting for the singleplayer to not limit me to limited choices. At this moment, I'm near the end of the game and I've come a long way and my view on the game has definitely changed. Gameplay is probably very solid for me, the narrative is beyond amazing. Much better than the bland beginning which didn't draw me in until actual hurdles came and I cut across them.
 
If all games were the same quality as the ones listed in the OP, you would think of them as average.



What is this? How is Sony more important than Naughty Dog in this equation?

ND had to pitch TLoU's idea to Sony and they approved it without a hitch. Sony not only lets ND do whatever they want (they earned it of course), but they are also quite open and risky when it comes to publishing. If you've followed Sony for the last couple of years you'll see that they publish games that most big publishers wouldn't even think of.
 
The game didnt really innovate as far as gameplay so I am assuming the OP means production value and story.

Its very expensive and hard to tell a great story in a game. The Last of us is a culmination of an entire generation of progress for ND. There is a talent at the studio that was given the resources to express it. Few game developers should or even want to aspire to something like TLOU because its not their foray or an experience they want to make and there is nothing wrong with that.

So basically, money, time, and vision all vary dramatically across the industry.
 
The industry has been giving us games like TLOU this whole generation, and TLOU is simply the culmination of all that work. I don't feel it pushes forward games as a medium any more than Gears of War did. It's a third person action game with a really well told story, and a slight spin on the same old cover based mechanics we've seen time and time again over the past few years. It's really well made, but I don't think it brings much new to the table other than something to aspire to in terms of production quality and writing (even then, the story is kind of predictable).
 
Lets get real here, nizerifin may be right. The top 250 on imdb, plus the following 250 movies, and your favorite 100 films are probably still less than 5% of all movies.
 
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