GameSpasm

By Miguel Concepcion

Ok, for some reason I forgot about the zombies in "The Last of Us" until last week. Were there zombies at Sony's E3 press conference last year? I suppose the consumer in me, having thoroughly enjoyed Naughty Dog's Uncharted series, imposed an unconscious media blackout for the last year. Yet, Sony had other ideas as they recently sent over a preview code that featured two of the game's settings. Aside from this reintroduction of zombies, here 9 other things I learned from playing "The Last of Us".

10. Ellie really hasn't been out a lot
One area, titled 'Lincoln' started in a tiny wood and Ellie's never seen anything like it. Where has she been cooped up all these years? It's endearing to hear her greet a bunny, interact with fireflies for the first time, and even marvel at the sight of a garden gnome.

9. Replay incentives through dialogue
When marveling at a broken-down arcade machine, Ellie had something different to say with each of my two playthroughs. It's reminiscent of the multiple dialogue tracks in "Gears of War: Judgment", through I suspect this feature won't be as expansive in "The Last of Us".

8. Rewarding scavengers
If you're a game completionist by nature, you get to kill two birds. Weapon crafting plays a major role in "The Last of Us" which is enough of a motivator to search every accessible building. Even something as harmful as a shiv can serve purposes beyond stabbing someone, like opening door.

Watch: The Last of Us VGA 2012 Trailer

7. Naughty Dog grit
Every since I had Nathan Drake kick his first bottle in the trash-laded buildings of "Uncharted 2", I've had a profound appreciation for the extra work Naughty Dog puts into the dirt and garbage of their games. Much of the world of "The Last of Us" looks old, worn out and lived in, like the stacks of office boxes and half-filled open suitcases.

6. Puzzling ladders
If there is an element of puzzle solving, it's very much grounded in urban obstacles. The level in Lincoln featured some rooftop platforming, aided by moving ladders and long planks. Hardly brain-teasing stuff, though I wouldn't put it past "The Last of Us" to have slightly more complex puzzles.

5. Upside-down shootouts
If you played this year's "Tomb Raider", then you know this scripted event. Main character gets caught in a classic rope trap, is flipped and engages in an upside down shootout. "The Last of Us" takes it up a notch with more aggressive villains and Ellie to protect.

4. Who cares about Ellie's voice?
Some folks take minor issue with Ellie's low pitched voice. Are these the same people who find high pitched voices among Japanese women appealing? It's much easier to care how she kicks ass, despite her age, size and voice. If you thought she displayed backbone during the E3 2012 demo, wait until you hang out with her through a full chapter.

3. Enough character to care
The voice work and the fleshed-out script results in some of the best game dialogue I've ever heard, making this pair of survivors sound natural and realistic. Ellie's endearing with her spontaneous humming and Joel sounds convincingly over protective.

2. Uncharted comparisons are valid
Even if Naughty Dog and Sony discourages Uncharted comparisons, I find that comparisons can only complement "The Last of Us". Headshots feel more effective as opposed to the sponge-like bullet impacts in "Uncharted 3". You can also sense Nathan Drake's melee DNA in Joel's mechanics and animation. Joel swings his fists very deliberately and there's a weightiness to those movements of desperate survival.

1. Combat is a puzzling playground
What got my heart pumping were the moments I used the levels as combat playgrounds. Some of Uncharted's best moments came when I felt surrounded and escaped to another cover point to get a better offensive position. There's was a taste of that in this preview build, where you want to have the Jason Bourne-like sense of knowing where all the escape routes are while reacting and improvising based on how the enemies are attacking.

Look for "The Last of Us" June 14 on the PS3.

Related Post
Exclusive: 'Animal Crossing: New Leaf' Video: Everyday's A New Day

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Follow @MTVMultiplayer on Twitter and be sure to "like" us on Facebook for the best geek news about comics, toys, gaming and more!

Tags: List, naughty-dog, PREVIEW, Previews, PS3, Sony, the-last-of-us

By Miguel Concepcion

Ok, for some reason I forgot about the zombies in "The Last of Us" until last week. Were there zombies at Sony's E3 press conference last year? I suppose the consumer in me, having thoroughly enjoyed Naughty Dog's Uncharted series, imposed an unconscious media blackout for the last year. Yet, Sony had other ideas as they recently sent over a preview code that featured two of the game's settings. Aside from this reintroduction of zombies, here 9 other things I learned from playing "The Last of Us".

10. Ellie really hasn't been out a lot
One area, titled 'Lincoln' started in a tiny wood and Ellie's never seen anything like it. Where has she been cooped up all these years? It's endearing to hear her greet a bunny, interact with fireflies for the first time, and even marvel at the sight of a garden gnome.

9. Replay incentives through dialogue
When marveling at a broken-down arcade machine, Ellie had something different to say with each of my two playthroughs. It's reminiscent of the multiple dialogue tracks in "Gears of War: Judgment", through I suspect this feature won't be as expansive in "The Last of Us".

8. Rewarding scavengers
If you're a game completionist by nature, you get to kill two birds. Weapon crafting plays a major role in "The Last of Us" which is enough of a motivator to search every accessible building. Even something as harmful as a shiv can serve purposes beyond stabbing someone, like opening door.

Watch: The Last of Us VGA 2012 Trailer

7. Naughty Dog grit
Every since I had Nathan Drake kick his first bottle in the trash-laded buildings of "Uncharted 2", I've had a profound appreciation for the extra work Naughty Dog puts into the dirt and garbage of their games. Much of the world of "The Last of Us" looks old, worn out and lived in, like the stacks of office boxes and half-filled open suitcases.

6. Puzzling ladders
If there is an element of puzzle solving, it's very much grounded in urban obstacles. The level in Lincoln featured some rooftop platforming, aided by moving ladders and long planks. Hardly brain-teasing stuff, though I wouldn't put it past "The Last of Us" to have slightly more complex puzzles.

5. Upside-down shootouts
If you played this year's "Tomb Raider", then you know this scripted event. Main character gets caught in a classic rope trap, is flipped and engages in an upside down shootout. "The Last of Us" takes it up a notch with more aggressive villains and Ellie to protect.

4. Who cares about Ellie's voice?
Some folks take minor issue with Ellie's low pitched voice. Are these the same people who find high pitched voices among Japanese women appealing? It's much easier to care how she kicks ass, despite her age, size and voice. If you thought she displayed backbone during the E3 2012 demo, wait until you hang out with her through a full chapter.

3. Enough character to care
The voice work and the fleshed-out script results in some of the best game dialogue I've ever heard, making this pair of survivors sound natural and realistic. Ellie's endearing with her spontaneous humming and Joel sounds convincingly over protective.

2. Uncharted comparisons are valid
Even if Naughty Dog and Sony discourages Uncharted comparisons, I find that comparisons can only complement "The Last of Us". Headshots feel more effective as opposed to the sponge-like bullet impacts in "Uncharted 3". You can also sense Nathan Drake's melee DNA in Joel's mechanics and animation. Joel swings his fists very deliberately and there's a weightiness to those movements of desperate survival.

1. Combat is a puzzling playground
What got my heart pumping were the moments I used the levels as combat playgrounds. Some of Uncharted's best moments came when I felt surrounded and escaped to another cover point to get a better offensive position. There's was a taste of that in this preview build, where you want to have the Jason Bourne-like sense of knowing where all the escape routes are while reacting and improvising based on how the enemies are attacking.

Look for "The Last of Us" June 14 on the PS3.

Related Post
Exclusive: 'Animal Crossing: New Leaf' Video: Everyday's A New Day

--

Follow @MTVMultiplayer on Twitter and be sure to "like" us on Facebook for the best geek news about comics, toys, gaming and more!

Tags: 10 best things, List, naughty-dog, PREVIEW, Previews, PS3, Sony, the-last-of-us

Class of Heroes 2, MonkeyPaw's PSP game from 2009, is finally coming to North America on June 4. PSN users can snag the fully localized JRPG dungeon crawler - which is playable on both PSP and PS Vita - for $25 from the PSN store.

The effort to localize Class of Heroes 2 began in 2012 with a Kickstarter campaign seeking $500,000 in funding. Ultimately, only $96,951 was raised, though MonkeyPaw CEO John Greiner wasn't too down in a follow-up interview with Joystiq.

Greiner said that even though the Kickstarter campaign failed, "we were able to educate people about the game and its features. That will help immensely when we release the digital version."

Continue reading Class of Heroes 2 available on PSN June 4

Class of Heroes 2 available on PSN June 4 originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 24 May 2013 04:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: class-of-heroes-2, Gaijinworks, jrpg, MonkeyPaw-Games, Playstation, playstation-vita, psn, PSP, release-date, Sony, vita

Since announcing The Witness is on its way to Sony's PS4, Jonathan Blow and his development team have remained mostly mum about development. The game is still coming along, with Blow refining all of the details before the game launches, he explains on the PlayStation Blog in a video and a written post.

Video-Blow says The Witness is a true, financially independent game: His studio has the freedom to not make a profit, since it's not beholden to a publisher and doesn't "need" to. This shifts his team's goals from money to quality, he says.

"I would definitely like to make our money back on this game and I would like to make a profit on it, but it's not actually the No. 1 priority," Blow says. "The No. 1 priority is to make the best possible game that we can make, that brings the most beneficial experience to the players."

The Witness is an open-world, non-linear puzzle game that is as deep as the player wants it to be, as Blow describes it. It has no release date yet, but it's in development for PC and PS4, with the latter as a timed console exclusive.

The Witness shares some gameplay secrets in developer video, post originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 23 May 2013 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: jonathan-blow, PC, Playstation, ps4, Sony, the-witness

Since announcing The Witness is on its way to Sony's PS4, Jonathan Blow and his development team have remained mostly mum about development. The game is still coming along, with Blow refining all of the details before the game launches, he explains on the PlayStation Blog in a video and a written post.

Video-Blow says The Witness is a true, financially independent game: His studio has the freedom to not make a profit, since it's not beholden to a publisher and doesn't "need" to. This shifts his team's goals from money to quality, he says.

"I would definitely like to make our money back on this game and I would like to make a profit on it, but it's not actually the No. 1 priority," Blow says. "The No. 1 priority is to make the best possible game that we can make, that brings the most beneficial experience to the players."

The Witness is an open-world, non-linear puzzle game that is as deep as the player wants it to be, as Blow describes it. It has no release date yet, but it's in development for PC and PS4, with the latter as a timed console exclusive.

The Witness shares some gameplay secrets in developer video, post originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 23 May 2013 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: jonathan-blow, PC, Playstation, ps4, Sony, the-witness

Gamestop's financial data for the first quarter of its fiscal 2013 have arrived like a pizza with nearly 25 percent fewer toppings than the pizza you ordered during the same 13-week period last year. Also, cheesy bread sales are way up? This may not be the strongest analogy.

In non-allegorical terms, gross revenue (overall sales) and net income (post-tax profit) were both down year-over-year, at $1.865 billion and $54.6 million, respectively. As far as net income, that's a 24.69 percent decrease from the $72.5 million Gamestop reported at the end of Q1 2012.

Meanwhile, mobile device sales were up 290 percent, though this massive increase was largely due to the fact that Gamestop's mobile trade-in/sales program was just getting started during Q1 of 2012. Digital sales also increased, to the tune of 47.3 percent year-over-year, while new software sales, both physical and digital, fell 3.8 percent.

As was the case during Q1 2012, used hardware and software sales accounted for the majority of Gamestop's pre-tax profit, with new hardware and software sales making up just 29.5 percent of the quarter's overall gross.

Gamestop Q1 sales and profits down, mobile/digital sales up originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 23 May 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: 2013, 3ds, android, Ds, Financials, fiscal-2013, gamestop, microsoft, Mobile, Nintendo, PC, Playstation, playstation-vita, PS3, PSP, q1, Sony, vita, Wii, wii-u, Xbox

Sony executives are considering splitting the company's entertainment and electronics divisions, following billionaire Daniel Loeb's proposed initial public offering of its entertainment business. The entertainment arm includes all PlayStation properties, alongside Sony's film and music businesses.

Loeb, with Third Point LLC, owns a 6 percent stake in Sony worth $1.1 billion, and is Sony's biggest investor. Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai confirmed that the top brass is considering Loeb's offer, but didn't say when it would come to a decision, Bloomberg reports.

"It's only a start," Hirai said. "It's important that the board will discuss this and come to a decision that represents Sony's stance." Following Loeb's offer yesterday, Sony stock surged 9 percent.

Sony considers splitting the company after proposed IPO originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 23 May 2013 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: Entertainment", IPO, kazuo-hirai, Playstation, playstation-4, playstation-vita, PS3, ps4, PSP, Sony, vita

Square Enix America CEO Mike Fischer left the company this month and is now vice president of digital music and video for Amazon in Japan, Polygon reports. This follows news in April that Square Enix America eliminated "a number of positions" and Fischer was expected to leave in May. Those same reports said the head of marketing should be gone after E3, along with other employees in public relations.

In March, Square Enix President Yoichi Wada stepped down and the company announced widespread restructuring that it expected to cost $106 million. Square Enix posted a net loss of $134 million for fiscal year 2013, citing "weak" sales of major console games, including Sleeping Dogs, Hitman: Absolution and Tomb Raider, the last of which sold 3.4 million in its first month.

Report: Square Enix America CEO leaves, joins Amazon originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 23 May 2013 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: 3ds, lay offs, layoffs, microsoft, Mobile, Nintendo, PC, Playstation, playstation-vita, PS3, PSP, Sony, square-enix, vita, Wii, wii-u, Xbox

Square Enix America CEO Mike Fischer left the company this month and is now vice president of digital music and video for Amazon in Japan, Polygon reports. This follows news in April that Square Enix America eliminated "a number of positions" and Fischer was expected to leave in May. Those same reports said the head of marketing should be gone after E3, along with other employees in public relations.

In March, Square Enix President Yoichi Wada stepped down and the company announced widespread restructuring that it expected to cost $106 million. Square Enix posted a net loss of $134 million for fiscal year 2013, citing "weak" sales of major console games, including Sleeping Dogs, Hitman: Absolution and Tomb Raider, the last of which sold 3.4 million in its first month.

Report: Square Enix America CEO leaves, joins Amazon originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 23 May 2013 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: 3ds, lay offs, layoffs, microsoft, Mobile, Nintendo, PC, Playstation, playstation-vita, PS3, PSP, Sony, square-enix, vita, Wii, wii-u, Xbox

The PlayStation Store is testing out a new video streaming technology that they hope will make movie and video streams a bit faster and smoother on your PlayStation 3. The program is open beta right now, discounting a few movies while Sony gets user opinions on the update.

Usually when hear the word "beta" you'd picture a sign up page and some sort of email confirmation, but that's not the case here. In fact, the Sony Entertainment Network blog says all you have to do is log in to the PlayStation store on your PS3 and make way over to the movies section. There you'll find the beta program and the available movies front and center.

The program offers up a small selection of films in HD and SD formats, priced at $1.99 and $0.99 respectively. All Sony asks in return is that you fill out a survey emailed to you after your purchase, letting them know what you thought of the new streaming tech.

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Tags: beta, playstation store, PS3, Sony, Sony-Entertainment-Network, streaming