Neil Druckman is stepping down from The Last of Us - HBO Show
- Thread starter Draugoth
- Start date
Hollywood Hitman
Gold Member
Lol the most overrated drivel ever, good. The first game was decent, the rest of it all is trash and the same goes for the TV series. Just overrated slop
Dr.Morris79
Gold Member
Terrible news. Terrible.
nial
Member
Weird angle, the whole cinematic expertise has been deeply integrated within ND's culture for two decades at this point, even before Druckkman got any important role in game development. If anything, TLOU2 is easily their best work as far as gameplay goes.
And here I was hoping he'd do more TV and less games and ND could go back to making games that actually focus on the gameplay.
VulcanRaven
Member
Or he and Halley Gross left at the same time to make Part 3.
I Love Rock 'n' Roll
Member
It was cool.
Now give us TLOU Part III, the game!
Now give us TLOU Part III, the game!
YeulEmeralda
Linux User
I guess het got cucked.
falconhoof
Neo Member
Negotiator101
Member
It won't make it to season 4.
MSduderino
Member
"Making the choice to leave my creative role in The Last of Us on HBO wasn't easy. Having completed Season 2 and with Season 3 still in the early stages, now seemed like the perfect moment to shift my focus entirely to Naughty Dog and our upcoming projects. This includes taking on the roles of writer and director for our next exciting game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, while also fulfilling my duties as Studio Head and Head of Creative."
- Neil Druckmann
Tajaz2426
Psychology PhD from Wikipedia University
Look, I love autistic kids and they are great little plushy playthings. However, that retarded mask wearing looking kid made me look the other way and didn't check it out .
All I can see is that Mask movie with Cher. It hurts me in my cockles.
I cannot fucking unsee that and I enjoy eating during the day.
All I can see is that Mask movie with Cher. It hurts me in my cockles.
I cannot fucking unsee that and I enjoy eating during the day.
tmlDan
Member
you're pathetic, grow up
MSduderino
Member
How are we sure of that? S2 quality dropped off from S1, but Neil was less involved with S2 than S1.
powder
Member
Same. It sounds like even Neil lost control of creative input at some point, which I bet is why he's getting away. They probably hit all kinds of forced content revisions (bad writing choices) either by the showrunner or HBO at large. Season 2 just seemed like a big pile of creative compromise when it could have stuck to the source and been a more dangerous/controversial story instead of pandering to the crowd that only talked about the third episode of season 1.
yurinka
Member
I think the should think about the reasons of why Lost Legay sold way worse, the TLOU2 controversy, bad Intergalactic reception, TLOU tv show tanking in season 2.
And to really fix the source, which is the same of why they aren't making an Uncharted 5 with Nathan Drake as protagonist, something that should be there to safely make money while they experiment with other stuff.
And to really fix the source, which is the same of why they aren't making an Uncharted 5 with Nathan Drake as protagonist, something that should be there to safely make money while they experiment with other stuff.
seething left
Member
take some copium and realx, friend.
yurinka
Member
I think The Last of Us 3 is coming. Halley Gross' Instagram
Seems like a good moment to fire her and don't work with her in ND again.
powder
Member
Season two probably ate shit because they tried to course correct some of the blowback from the game. Obviously didn't work, but I can see why it was probably a gamble.
Last Hearth
Member
You've never heard of face saving announcements before?
mileslongthe3rd
Neo Member
There are rumors that you used to be able to kill Abby at the end of part 2, and pretty much everybody who tried to do it did it, which made Druckmann furious because he was so sure people would be sympathetic towards Abby and forgive her, so they took it out. Maybe that was brought up in the show again because people don't like Abby, and she is not even the version from the game.
Fbh
Member
Can't agree.
Druckmann IMO is at the forefront of the new style of Sony cinematic games where they have fun combat that gets constantly interrupted for the sake of story.
The combat in TLOU2 and Uncharted 4 is great, better than in the previous games. But that's only half the game, the other half is constant walking and talking, boring 40 minutes long flashbacks where you don't really do anything, braindead "platforming" or "look for the safe password" sequences, etc.
Games like Uncharted 2 felt like they came up with fun gameplay scenarios first and then just wrote the story to make them happen (I think they even said as much in some interview)
With Druckman it feels like the story always takes priority: Here comes another boring as fuck 25 minutes long flashback in the aquarium (that could have been a 2 minutes cutscene) with none of the cool combat, not because it's fun to play but because the story needs it.
thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
Kinda crazy, considering Neil wrote the best episodes for Season 2.
Season 3 about to be a disaster if Mazin gets to go unchallenged. Actually, I'd rather they just cancel the show if that's how it goes. If ND are serious about doing a TLOU3, best not to have the show sully the IP any further, especially if the next season doesn't have his involvement.
And Hailey Gross is also out? Yeah, just end the show and do a film adaptation in the future closer to TLOU3's release timeframe. Mazin can't carry HBO TLOU on his own, clearly.
Season 3 about to be a disaster if Mazin gets to go unchallenged. Actually, I'd rather they just cancel the show if that's how it goes. If ND are serious about doing a TLOU3, best not to have the show sully the IP any further, especially if the next season doesn't have his involvement.
And Hailey Gross is also out? Yeah, just end the show and do a film adaptation in the future closer to TLOU3's release timeframe. Mazin can't carry HBO TLOU on his own, clearly.
MSduderino
Member
He did very little in S2 compared to Craig Mazin. He was more involved with S1, so he was already dialing back his involvement before S2. HBO likely wouldn't be so reactive to fire him for S2's dip in quality after he helped make S1 quite popular and wasn't really responsible for the worse quality of S2.
existensmaximum
Member
S01 was absolutely amazing
S02 was a disappointing piece of trash
PS, I love both games to bits.
S02 was a disappointing piece of trash
PS, I love both games to bits.
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Hari Seldon
Member
S1 was pretty good so I skipped the 2nd game thinking that I'd rather experience the story in the HBO show. Then I heard S2 sucked so I skipped that too lol. Maybe I'll finally have to pick up one of the 398234 remasters of the 2nd game.
powder
Member
Nice. The second game is definitely worth playing for the atmosphere.
Hugare
Member
Thought the same
Neil wasnt as present in S2 as he was in S1 and the quality drop was palpable. He wouldn't be able to be present for S3 in order to save it from Mazin so he said fuck it and bailed.
I have respect for Neil. I loved both TLOU games.
But I have to say, him leaving the show deserving an announcement is just ridiculous lol
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CosmicComet
Member
LOL.
Twice now that TLOU2's story got rejected by the audiences.
And Druckmann couldn't blame gamers this time.
Reading between the lines Craig Mazin dropped him and they are taking the story in a different direction.
Twice now that TLOU2's story got rejected by the audiences.
And Druckmann couldn't blame gamers this time.
Reading between the lines Craig Mazin dropped him and they are taking the story in a different direction.
{insert code here}
Member
Never gonna happen unfortunately. These people are firmly entrenched throughout the industry and nothing short of a complete collapse will ever get rid of them.
nial
Member
I don't know if I really agree. I remember Uncharted 3 already being poor cinematic set piece with little player agency, followed by yet another poor cinematic set piece with little player agency, followed by some braindead puzzles, followed by plot exposition, followed by a boring climbing section, followed by even more plot exposition, and uninteresting at that. And I don't think Uncharted 2 was any different.
It's the fact that ND keeps talking about Intergalactic having way more player agency what keeps me interested, especially as they finally nailed their gunplay/combat on the PS4 era.
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VulcanRaven
Member
That part sounds made up.
The Last of Us Part 2's Original Ending Almost Killed Abby
The Last of Us Part 2 almost ended with Ellie killing Abby. The Last of Us is one of the most revered and successful video games of all-time. Not only was it a critical hit, it was a massive commercial success and seemingly changed the way PlayStation approaches games going forward. On top of...
comicbook.com
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Hawk The Slayer
Member
Hope the show version of Abby kills Ellie and have Dina as her lesbian girlfriend and change the story up. Joel returns due to some fungus genetic reason and is the final boss of season 3 where Dina and Abby teams up to kill him for good.
RoadHazard
Gold Member
Actually, that I am disgusted with, lol. Well, the Swedish price specifically, the MKW bundle is the equivalent of $785-ish here. The American price I would have been fine with.
RoadHazard
Gold Member
And yet he's the guy who made the fantastic Chernobyl.
viveks86
Member
Neil must have been like "Where is the GAF thread dedicated to me for this week"...
But Hailey Gross has put out a statement too, which makes me think this is ND's official goodbye to the TV show. I'm honestly unsure if this is going to make the show better or worse.
Hugare
Member
S2 sucked compared to S1 cause Neil wasnt as active. And his episode was the season's best.
So I really doubt its going to improve without them
Lunarorbit
Member
They completely fucked this show on the 2nd season. Id say they didn't understand the source material but Neil was right there. The 2 games are all timers but Bella Ramsey can't carry this show, like at all. Its embarrassing how bad the show became.
Fbh
Member
The stuff outside of combat has always been a weak point of modern ND, but I think it's way worse now than before because there's way more of it and it has even less player agency.
Look up the first 2-3 hours of Uncharted 2 vs Uncharted 4. By the 2,5 hours mark in Uncharted 2 you've not only gone through the entire intro (train crash + museum) but also the action heavy Borneo level and are in the middle of the action heavy Nepal level after the cool chopper chase.
In Uncharted 4 the first 2,5 hours are a flashback to young Drake, a flashback to Drake in jail, a "Drake working a normal job and chilling at home" sequence, all of them with almost no player agency. Then it's a short flashback to Sam escaping from prison where you finally get to shoot a gun, then it's back to infiltrating the party level with no player agency.
It isn't until chapter 8 in Scotland that you get anything resembling the structure and pacing of previous games, and even then the game has way fewer combat encounters than 1-3, which is a shame because the actual gunplay is the best it has been in the franchise.
For me personally it's why I think The Lost Legacy is way better than 4.
I hope Intergalatic actually has more player agency, but I'm not holding my breath. I expect the structure to be something like 20 minutes of solid and fun combat, 30 minutes of walking and talking with meh platforming and exploration and then 30-40 minutes of some flashback where we slowly learn what went wrong between the bald chick and Lalo Salamanca. Rinse and repeat.
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