Last Of Us - 2022 Remake (careful with spoilers Plz)

[Benny]

55 minutes ago, Majora said:

 

I'm not arguing the animation is better on a technical level in the original. The new version is clearly more fluid and more overtly expressive.

 

But I think the emotion conveyed in the original is more interesting, more complex. As you say, Tess looks exhausted in the remake but I don't get much more from her face behind exhaustion and sadness. Was that the intent? Why did they remove that almost-smirk at the start of the clip? Because I watch the original and despite the fact her face barely moves in comparison, I see her go through a range of emotions in her eyes that is greater than just sad and exhausted. There is a steel and defiance to some of Tess's expressions in the original that is practically absent in the remake where she looks like she's just given up.

 

You have to take into account though that for a large part of this interpretation it will be down to the fact that because it is more "stylised" animation, your brain will be filling in a lot of gaps in order to suspend disbelief and can be reading more into a character with less range of expressive movement.

 

This can be both a limitation and also a great strength in more simple animation, as sometimes less can be more, and people can get a lot more out of simple expressions in say, Disney animation or even very barely animated faces in Japanese anime. You can potentially read a lot into a very small change depending on how you look at it or the skill of the animator.

 

The counterpoint is that if you are intending your character to look as "real" as possible, then you are only going to get across a specific emotion if you intend something explicit if you can manage to make them look photoreal or exactly like a real person.

 

There are advantages to both approaches, and I think for many people they may prefer the old look if they have a specific idea of what they felt the character conveyed in their head from how it looked at the time, as it becomes that player's source of narrative truth.

 

By going more for photo realism over recreating the specific animation that was used before, ND are essentially saying they don't want to leave room for ambiguity and want it as close to their specific intention as possible.

[Benny]

37 minutes ago, Mystacon said:

Just out of interest, where do you think they should’ve gone with the art direction in this new remake?

 

Can we at least agree that it still needs to feel like The Last of Us? 

 

Colour grading for one thing. At least going by the comparison streams it now looks like a much more dark and "movie like" kind of colour grading, which I'm not a fan of.

 

One of the lovely things about the original was how vibrant the world was: it made it feel a lot more immersive because it felt as varied and colourful as the real world actually is, rather than playing through an interactive movie. So I would be disappointed if they messed that feeling up if they really feel like they wish they were making movies rather than games.

 

But that's just going by the stream shots.

[Clipper]

1 hour ago, petrolgirls said:

I’m not sure they have, but they have made some people look middle aged, a tricky thing to pull off ten years ago. Making people look 50+ is relatively easy, you employ wrinkles and grey hair - but people from, say 30-50 generally don’t have pronounced wrinkles and rarely much visible grey hair, particularly woman. The signs of aging are more subtle and far harder to accurately depict. This is why in the original most characters look either 25 or less or 50+.

From the same tech generation - MArcus Fenix in Gears (original trilogy) John MArston in Red Dead, Michael De Santa in GTA5 - all aged 30-50 and all looked fine. It isn't beyond the wit of man to do 30-50 yr old characters. However the almost throwaway line in your post of "particularly woman" is probably the crux of it but not for the reason you state. It isn't a technical reason it is a societal/media/movie one - as with Hollywood the vast majority of female characters in games are under 30 or over 50 - this has been a complaint of many hollywood actresses that there are no parts for the 30-50 age range. MAle protagonists in the 30-50 range often have female companions who are 10-20 years their junior.

 

Just look at the reaction in some quarters to this change - she looks OLD etc comments. Never mind that it perfectly fits her being with the protagonist (or one of them) she looks OLD.

 

So this remake is redressing that balance it seems, a progressive move and a welcome one.

[Mystacon]

10 minutes ago, Benny said:

 

Colour grading for one thing. At least going by the comparison streams it now looks like a much more dark and "movie like" kind of colour grading, which I'm not a fan of.

 

One of the lovely things about the original was how vibrant the world was: it made it feel a lot more immersive because it felt as varied and colourful as the real world actually is, rather than playing through an interactive movie. So I would be disappointed if they messed that feeling up if they really feel like they wish they were making movies rather than games.

 

But that's just going by the stream shots.

Fair enough. I imagine they’ll be looking to keep it closely aligned with Part 2 or if not then have some solid story reasoning behind a tonal shift. Definitely feels as if the main reason for this existing is to create a more cohesive package.

[K]

Marcus Fenix looks like a testicle caught fire, and someone tried to put it out with a rolling pin. I wouldn’t necessarily put his character model forward as an example of realistic rendering of a middle aged man. I would be hard pushed to say he looked fine, rather than as if someone tripped up in a human growth hormone factory and accidentally injected a lifetime’s supply directly into his neck. 

[Clipper]

Ok then Nathan Drake (mid 30s in UC3), hell even Joel is 50 isnt he?

 

My point was that it has nothing to do with tech reasons in my opinion. The reason that there are fewer  women characters between 30 and 50 with larger roles is similar to the reasons for the same disparity in Hollywood movies. the number of mismatched age companions in videogames is in line with Hollywood and it is good to see this remake at least start to address that.

 

[SozzlyJoe]

Shades of the perennial argument that the polygon figures in FF7 were so much more expressive, except with incremental leaps in technology getting more subtle it's getting to be like angels dancing on the head of a pin.

 

[K]

Which one is the remake again?

[Mystacon]

And let’s not forget West of Loathing. Some Oscar-worthy performance capture in that.

[Petrousgyre]

1 hour ago, Clipper said:

From the same tech generation - MArcus Fenix in Gears (original trilogy) John MArston in Red Dead, Michael De Santa in GTA5 - all aged 30-50 and all looked fine. It isn't beyond the wit of man to do 30-50 yr old characters. However the almost throwaway line in your post of "particularly woman" is probably the crux of it but not for the reason you state.

I mean, it is - at least in the case of CG and video games. For sure there’s an issue with older woman being under-represented in film and tv, but the issue there isn’t, as you claim, specifically women from 30-50 - it’s that it gets progressively harder to find good roles as you get older. The idea that once you’re over 50 actresses are suddenly in demand again is obvious nonsense. 

 

Your examples of men who look ‘fine’ is somewhat hamstrung by the fact they the patently don’t. Fenix and De Santa look like cartoons and use, as I mentioned, grey hair and crows feet to crudely approximate middle age. Marston at least looks somewhat photorealistic but highlights the issue I’ve mentioned in as much as he looks like a 25 year old with some scars and blemishes. 
 

It absolutely is a tech issue in this instance, doing photorealistic middle age well in CG is hard for a number of reasons that I can bore you with at length if you want. 

[Clipper]

Your opinion is noted, no further boredom is required.

 

Edit -that example image you give is pretty funny though.

[makkuwata]

Oof. Looks like Sarah’s been getting high on her own supply of hardcore drugs.

 

Spoiler

 

I want to be convinced this is worth it, but some of the character models are so off it’s distracting.

[Popo]

Man, that scene gets me in the feels every time. 
 

I can’t wait to play this again. 

[teddymeow]

39 minutes ago, Popo said:

Man, that scene gets me in the feels every time. 
 

I can’t wait to play this again. 

 

 

First sentence - yup, me too. Absolute gut-punch!!

 

Second sentence - I can't either, but, sentence one makes me hesitant

[Flanders]

So leaked footage of this indicates it really is just a graphics glow-up and that they’ve not upgraded the gameplay to Last of Us 2 levels. Really disappointing and kills my interest dead - and utterly baffling that it’s being put out as a full priced release instead of a shiny PS Plus title to drive interest in the subscription service.
 

Am fully getting aboard the Jimbo Ryan hate train now - Sony still has a wonderful collection of studios that make the kind of games I like but it’s clear that the company leadership is now just dumb business decision after dumb business decision. 

[Hitcher]

5 hours ago, Flanders said:

So leaked footage of this indicates it really is just a graphics glow-up and that they’ve not upgraded the gameplay to Last of Us 2 levels.

I'm definitely not bothering then. Already bought an updated graphics version once before and there's no upgrade path to this so Sony can do one.

[Stanley]

Yeah if there are no game play enhancements such as being able to go prone, jump, climb etc, which I thought was to be the case, then I’m out. Those additions are transformative in Part II and would have been worth it imo.

 

Has it been confirmed though? 

[SuperFamiTom]

I’m afraid that minimum effort maximum profit is all that we should realistically expect these days from Sony. Anything else is being pretty naive. 

[yakumo]

On 16/06/2022 at 11:51, Mystacon said:

Just out of interest, where do you think they should’ve gone with the art direction in this new remake?

 

 

 

Big head mode like in the 90s.

[Down by Law]

There's a leak of the controls screen and there's no prone, jump or anything that wasn't in the original version. The leaked gameplay footage has the exact same animations for the characters, so what it boils down to is this is literally the 2014 remastered version of the game with a 2022 coat of paint on top, like Halo Anniversary was on the 360. 

[SuperFamiTom]

A £70 coat of paint. 

[Down by Law]

14 minutes ago, SuperFamiTom said:

A £70 coat of paint. 

 

and they took the entire multiplayer out. and you won't even get the novelty of mashing the swap graphics button every 10 minutes 

[Haribokart]

On top of all that.. you literally get the (still impressive) TLOU Remastered free with the PS+ collection anyway.

 

This re-rerelease is such a waste of time. Typical modern Sony bullshit.

[Stanley]

People keep saying that this is what we should expect from Sony, but tbh so far this gen they’ve been pretty good - until this, this is something else. 

[Mr Do 71]

Thread title 2022 Remake needs to change to 2022 Paint Job.

[Haribokart]

48 minutes ago, Stanley said:

People keep saying that this is what we should expect from Sony, but tbh so far this gen they’ve been pretty good - until this, this is something else. 

 

I think the PS5 is an amazing console (internally at least) and the games since release have generally been surprisingly great and in a higher quantity than it feels but it's their business decisions that get my and I assume others backs up. They just seem so fucking greedy at the moment.

[Calashnikov]

Fucking shocking state of affairs that this £70 tarted-up PS3 game (of which there is already a perfectly fine, frequently free, tarted-up version) doesn’t fold in TLOU2 mechanics to make it barely arguably worth the investment.

 

No joke, let’s all of us, cunts of RLLMUK, boycott the shite out of this game. Jim Ryan is a clart, we’re all agreed. Let’s let them know with our wallets. Don’t none of you cunts dare buckle when this shite comes out  ✊🏻 

[Popo]

Oh dear, that’s really bad news. Ahm oot. 

[Stanley]

18 minutes ago, Haribokart said:

 

I think the PS5 is an amazing console (internally at least) and the games since release have generally been surprisingly great and in a higher quantity than it feels but it's their business decisions that get my and I assume others backs up. They just seem so fucking greedy at the moment.

The £70 price tag is hard to swallow yeah, but at least with, say, Demon’s Souls, you can see where the moneys been spent, and obviously the likes of Returnal or Ratchet are brand new games. 
 

But this is ridiculous - even Uncharted and Ghost of Tsushima had upgrade fees which whilst not as good as Microsoft offered some consolation for people who already own the PS4 versions. 
 

This isn’t good though and to me definitely their most cynical move yet. 
 

Perhaps when proper game play footage is revealed with new details it will make more sense, let’s hope so. 

[Flanders]

1 hour ago, Haribokart said:

 

I think the PS5 is an amazing console (internally at least) and the games since release have generally been surprisingly great and in a higher quantity than it feels but it's their business decisions that get my and I assume others backs up. They just seem so fucking greedy at the moment.

The games are great because they’ve built up an army of excellent developers. But the leadership seems to view Nintendo as the model to chase when it comes to gouging customers and as good as the Sony first party is I still don’t think they’ve got the same level of fan devotion to get away with that. 
 

Aside from the greed their overall marketing and presentation has gone to shit as well. So many major announcements done via anodyne blog posts, and also a weird defensive secrecy even when it’s totally unnecessary. I remember around the PS5 launch they virtually refused to confirm that PS4 games were back compatible - when the PS5-PS4 compatibility is actually really good! 

Or everything to do with the revamped PS Plus, which is actually a very decent service with a great library, but which has one tier too many and which they completely failed to communicate was never going to be a repository for ever PS1 and PS2 game ever made.