Sony releases official screenshots of The Last of Us Remastered
Hands on: The Last of Us Remastered
With The Last of Us Remastered’s PS4 release just weeks away (July 29th), I dove into a pre-release version of the game to see exactly how Naughty Dog is leveraging PS4’s hardware to upgrade last year’s biggest Game of the Year winner.
First, there’s the immediately noticeable bump in native screen resolution. The jump from 720p (PS3) to native 1080p (PS4) gives the visuals a major shot in the arm. The crisp new presentation banishes those nasty jaggies to the margins, while higher resolution environment textures adorn the lovingly crafted post-apocalyptic environments.
But the kicker is the new framerate. I’ll admit to being at least a bit skeptical on hearing that Naughty Dog would target a smoother, more fluid 60 frames per second for The Last of Us Remastered. I wondered whether it would add a distracting layer of artificiality, that it might somehow interfere with the game’s cinematic look and feel. Luckily, based on my hands-on experiences at a recent media event in New York City, those concerns feel entirely unwarranted. Played at the higher framerate, The Last of Us Remastered has a silky smooth feel that makes aiming and camera control feel more responsive and natural.
Conveniently, the PS4 version was shown side-by-side with the original PS3 game. Curious, I picked up the DualShock 3 and panned the camera around for a few seconds, before hastily switching right back to Remastered. It’s nice to see that Naughty Dog is giving players the choice to lock TLOUR to 30 frames per second — which PlayStation.Blog’s own Ryan Clements currently favors — but for me it’s 60 FPS or bust, no contest. I suspect this one will boil down to personal preference.
Then there are a slew of subtler visual details. Lighting quality has received a boost, with improved shadow detail. Joel and Ellie’s in-game character models also look more detailed, sporting higher resolution textures that allowed me to see the fabric weave in Joel’s filthy flannel shirt. The 1080p presentation also helped me spot subtle visual details I’d never noticed in the original PS3 version, like the way tiny streams of blood trickle down Joel’s arm when he’s injured, or how rats weave erratically through garbage-strewn ruins.
The gameplay remains unchanged, though the higher framerate does lend a feeling of increased responsiveness. The most notable difference is that the L2 and R2 triggers now control aiming and firing — and yep, you can switch back to the classic L1 and R1 controls if that floats your boat.
Though I didn’t get a chance to try out the multiplayer mode (a personal favorite), the campaign is looking mighty promising. The Last of Us Remastered will come complete with all previously released DLC, including the excellent story chapter Left Behind. And at a reduced price of $50, it’s a good bet for new PS4 owners who missed out on one of the best games of the generation, or seasoned TLOU veterans eager for another dose of Joel and Ellie.
We made a slew of cool additions to The Last of Us Remastered to create the definitive The Last of Us game, but one of the features we’re most excited about is Photo Mode. After all, what’s a beautiful post pandemic landscape if you can’t share some good pictures of it?
Photo Mode is activated through the pause screen. You can activate it by simply tapping L3 to freeze the action in-game as long you aren’t in a cutscene. For a clear description of how it works, check out a tutorial from Jeff Negus, our in-house editor and videographer:
Camera control, field of view, and depth of field adjustments will help you frame the perfect shot. Aesthetically, you can add one of ten different color filters and adjust its intensity. You can choose to give your photo a vignette or even select from a selection of eleven different frames. If you like the look of film grain, you can add that as well. There are a ton of options for you to explore.
Photo Mode arrives in Patch 1.01 for The Last of Us Remastered. It will only be available in this PS4 edition of the game. Patch 1.01 will be rolled out globally by the time you get your hands on the game July 29th. Let’s see your best photos! Use #TheLastofUs so we can find them and we’ll re-tweet some of our favorites from the official Naughty Dog Twitter.
Free maps! And about those pesky matchmaking times...
It's time for a quick status update regarding matchmaking in The Last of Us Remastered. We've been working hard to alleviate the long waits in Factions matchmaking some of our multiplayer community have been experiencing. We are working on resolving this issue for those in our community who are still affected.
We know this can be frustrating and the team here at Naughty Dog wants everyone in our community to know that working on this issue continues to be our number one priority.
Over the last couple of weeks, we have deployed LiveUpdates and Patch 1.02, which have resulted in some significant improvements, but there is still more to be done to reduce the matchmaking wait times.
Over the last two weeks, we've discovered that the most significant improvements may come from working with other teams at PlayStation to make updates to some of the existing matchmaking libraries. Since we are working with multiple groups inside and outside of the studio, we don’t yet have an exact date on when these updates will roll out. Our current estimate is on the short side of weeks, rather than months. We'll be sure to keep you updated the moment we can provide more specific timing, or an actual date.
Believe me, the entire team at Naughty Dog completely understands how frustrating this has been for many of you in our community. We've got some good news. At the end of July, we teased some new multiplayer add-on content which included a glimpse at new maps for Factions. We're glad to say that we've decided to release these two maps for free on both the PS3 and PS4 in appreciation for all of your continued patience as we work to resolve the matchmaking issues.
We will keep you updated as we continue to work on improving the matchmaking wait times and when we can expect the bigger update the roll out. In the meantime, if you find yourself waiting to get into a match, the best thing you can do is exit matchmaking and select "Find Match" again.
Thank you to everyone in our community for your understanding and continued support.