Tag: tlou

The Last of Us Season 2 Casts Kaitlyn Dever as Abby

The Last of Us season 2 has found its Abby in Kaitlyn Dever, confirming previous reports. In a tweet, HBO confirmed that the Booksmart star will be playing the second protagonist — some prefer seeing her as a villain — in the post-apocalyptic series, posing a new challenge to Ellie Williams (Bella Ramsey). Interestingly, Dever had a prior connection to the show when fans lobbied the studio to cast her as the 13-year-old Ellie, due to her facial resemblance to the in-game character and her involvement in the Uncharted 4 game — also from developer Naughty Dog. However, co-creator Neil Druckmann and the team opted for a younger actor in Ramsey, who in my opinion, nailed the role.

“Our casting process for season two has been identical to season one: we look for world-class actors who embody the souls of the characters in the source material,” Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin said in a prepared statement (via Variety). “Nothing matters more than talent, and we’re thrilled to have an acclaimed performer like Kaitlyn join Pedro, Bella and the rest of our family.” Abby Anderson is a very divisive character in the Last of Us universe, drawing hatred from a section of fans due to her actions in The Last of Us Part II and her muscular build, which sparked a spate of body-shaming comments. The outrage went so far that Laura Bailey, the voice actor who helmed Abby, received death threats for her role. With the backlash to the game and the character in mind, one can only hope that Dever doesn’t have to deal with similar hateful comments if and when the Abby discourse is brought up again.

The Last of Us Season 1 Review

Dever previously received praise for her performances in the Emmy-nominated Dopesick and the Hulu alien invasion movie No One Will Save You, in which she played a silent protagonist for the most part. In The Last of Us season 2, which adapts the events from the gory and polarising sequel The Last of Us Part 2, she’ll have a pivotal scene with Pedro Pascal’s Joel that leaves a lasting impact on the story. Pacal, meanwhile, has got Ridley Scott’s Gladiator sequel on top of his priority list; every other production will have to work around that schedule. This could also be attributed to the likely lesser screen time for the actor in the second season, where the focus is on the revenge arc between Ellie and Abby — the game intercut between the two characters to offer differing perspectives as they often trod the same paths.

Filming on The Last of Us season 2 was delayed due to the Hollywood actors’ and writers’ strike last year. The new season was greenlit merely two episodes into the debut chapter, and given the length and the ambitious scope of the video game sequel, the studio has enough material to adapt for multiple seasons. That’s what Mazin and Druckmann plan on doing with the story, having mapped out the entire affair with a slew of planned new characters in the mix. Last week, The Last of Us season 1 bagged eight awards at the Creative Arts Emmys, including an Outstanding Guest Actress award for Storm Reid and Outstanding Best Actor for Nick Offerman, who appeared in episode 3.

The Last of Us season 2 is set to begin filming in the American Spring and premieres sometime in 2025 on HBO.

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The Last of Us Multiplayer Game Has Been Cancelled, Naughty Dog Confirms

The Last of Us multiplayer game has been cancelled. In a blog post, developer Naughty Dog confirmed that the development on the promised online experience within the post-apocalyptic universe, which it was calling ‘The Last of Us Online,’ has been stopped. The astonishing news comes just a month after game director Vinit Agarwal assured fans that the project was still happening despite the numerous reported setbacks, including the laying off of 25 employees. One can’t simply release a live-service game into the wild and expect it to thrive. It desperately needs post-launch content for years to come, indirectly impacting a studio which is otherwise known for creating memorable single-player narratives.

“The multiplayer team has been in pre-production with this game since we were working on The Last of Us Part II — crafting an experience we felt was unique and had tremendous potential,” the post reads. “As the multiplayer team iterated on their concept for The Last of Us Online during this time, their vision crystalized, the gameplay got more refined and satisfying, and we were enthusiastic about the direction in which we were headed.” Naughty Dog then had to pick between two choices: become a live-service studio and feed into Sony PlayStation’s long-term monopoly-making plan (crafted by Jim Ryan) or focus on what the team is good at and create well-received story games. Clearly, the developer chose the latter path and has claimed that it’s got multiple titles in the works — one of which is presumed to be The Last of Us Part III.

This change in gears goes in line with a report from May, where Naughty Dog scaled back development on The Last of Us Online, to reassess its quality and long-term viability as the massive task at hand became clearer. You see, Sony got Destiny maker Bungie to evaluate its live-service slate and it brought up some concerns regarding TLOU multiplayer’s ability to keep players engaged for a long period. No gameplay footage was ever released to the public eye and all we got was an announcement during the Summer Game Fest 2022 and some concept art for the disease-ridden world, which is reminiscent of San Franciso — an area cut off from the main storyline to introduce a host of new NPCs. It started life as an additional game mode for The Last of Us Part 2 but was then separated to flourish as its own thing with high ambitions.

Last month, Sony halved the number of live-service games it planned to launch by March 2026 — going down from 12 to six titles — though it’s unclear whether that count included The Last of Us Online. Meanwhile, The Last of Us Part II is getting a remaster on January 19, featuring enhancements for the PS5 and a roguelite mode pitting you into randomised encounters against desperate survivors and the infected, as you play as familiar characters from the franchise, including Joel, Ellie, and Abby.

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The Last of Us Season 2 Will Reportedly Begin Filming in January 2024

The Last of Us season 2 will reportedly begin filming in early 2024. As per the FTIA production list, the second chapter is slated to shoot from January 7, 2024, onwards. The shooting schedule was delayed due to the Hollywood actors’ and writers’ strikes — both of which have ended now. Considering the show was not mentioned in HBO’s 2024 slate, we can assume it will be out sometime in 2025 at the soonest. This is a bit off course from what lead Bella Ramsey — who played Ellie in season 1 — suggested, at a time when there were murmurs of a potential strike. It goes without saying that the series will adapt the events from the gory and polarising sequel, The Last of Us Part II, with plans for the arc from the video game to play out for longer than a season.

It didn’t take long for HBO to greenlight The Last of Us season 2, with the announcement dropping merely 2 episodes into the debut chapter. There’s clearly a large fanbase for it and given the length and the ambitious scope of the sequel game, the studio has enough material to adapt for multiple seasons. Lead writer Craig Mazin confirmed in an interview that the team had mapped out ‘all of season 2,’ in addition to sending in the episode 1 script to HBO just before the writers’ strike began. He helmed the show with Neil Druckmann, creator of the original 2013 game, who claimed that he had no plans of recasting Ramsey since he found her portrayal of Ellie to be the ideal one. The Last of Us Part II is a longer story that explores cyclical violence, futility of revenge, and forgiveness even when consumed by relentless rage.

Think of the Kansas City arc from The Last of Us season 1 but on a broader scale with no time to breathe. “There are going to be things that are going to be different, and there are things that are going to be identical. There are things that are going to be added and enriched,” Mazin said in an interview, further hinting that we might get to see more action-oriented scenes with fungus-crazed zombies in the upcoming sequel.

A report from earlier this month suggested that leading man Pedro Pascal — who played Joel — has got Ridley Scott’s Gladiator 2 as his top priority project, indicating that all other productions will have to work around that schedule. Any delays to that film could subsequently cause issues with filming The Last of Us season 2 — it’s not like The Mandalorian, where he can simply send in voiceovers while the physical performance can be taken over by someone else.

The Last of Us Part II also introduced a buff new character named Abby Anderson, who served as the antagonist for the game. Understandably, Mazin, Druckmann, and HBO have been hunting for an actress to portray the same, with an undisclosed pick made sometime in August. An InSneider report now claims that HBO is in talks with Kaitlyn Dever, best known for Booksmart and No One Will Save You, for the role. Earlier this week, The Last of Us season 1 was nominated for Best Adaptation in The Game Awards 2023, in addition to 24 Emmy nods, earlier this year.

Currently, there’s no release window for The Last of Us season 2.

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Naughty Dog Has Reportedly Laid Off 25 Employees, The Last of Us Multiplayer Game Is ‘On Ice’

The Last of Us maker Naughty Dog is reportedly among the latest game studios to be hit with layoffs. As per Kotaku, the first-party PlayStation studio is cutting off at least 25 developers, with the most affected members being quality assurance (QA) testers, whose contracts have been shortened. Affected workers are expected to continue working until the end of October, and they allegedly won’t be receiving any severance payments. Turns out, the full-time staff — last recorded headcount being 400+ in July — are not being laid off, with employees in general being ‘pressured’ to keep the news internal.

While 2023 has been an incredible year for games, the people making them have been suffering for some time now. Massive layoffs, high-ranking executives leaving, and studio shutdowns like we saw with Volition, thanks to the poorly received Saints Row reboot It seems like all it takes for investors to pull the plug now is one bad-selling game, though it’s bizarre to see uber-successful studios like Naughty Dog suffering the same fate. The team kicked off the year on a great note with HBO’s live-action adaptation of The Last of Us, which has now earned 24 nominations at the upcomingEmmy Awards. It’s also weird when you think about Naughty Dog’s prestigious position in Sony’s eyes, with co-President Neil Druckmann claiming that the team has the luxury of creating what it’s passionate about, rather than chasing trends.

Kotaku also touched upon the long-gestating The Last of Us multiplayer spin-off title, noting that the game is ‘ basically on ice’ at the moment. A report from May revealed that development on the game had been scaled back and required more time to cook, as a means to ‘reassess its quality and long-term viability.’ As part of the process, several developers were reallocated to other projects and Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) invited Halo and Destiny creator Bungie to evaluate the zombie-killing multiplayer experience. At the end of the testing, Bungie was unimpressed, raising concerns about the project’s ability to maintain an online player base for long periods, thereby leading to the internal shake-up. For now, though, the San Francisco-set spin-off isn’t cancelled.

It is worth mentioning that the TLOU multiplayer experience would also be the first to not include Druckmann as a lead writer or director. By the end of 2023, he might also be the only one left to lead Naughty Dog, given co-President Evan Wells has chosen to retire after a 25-year stint at the company. Its latest release was in March — the PC port of The Last of Us Part I, which was received poorly due to performance issues. Then there’s also an untitled ‘brand-new single-player’ game that the studio has got cooking, which many are hoping is The Last of Us Part III. An Uncharted sequel is unlikely since Druckmann already confirmed that the team is moving on from that franchise.

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The Last of Us Part I Is Now Steam Deck Verified, With v1.1.0 Update

The Last of Us Part I is now Steam Deck verified, thanks to a new update that fixes several graphics and performance issues on the handheld gaming device. While the game was certainly playable on the Deck before, it was nowhere near the optimal experience, resulting in frequent crashes and some visual glitches that turned lead character Ellie Williams’ hair into spaghetti. The verification comes packed with update v1.1.0 — a welcome addition, given developer Naughty Dog initially claimed that it wasn’t a priority. The claim made sense at the time because the studio was facing criticism and addressing hotfixes for its terrible PC port.

The remaining chunk of the patch is aimed at fixing the Windows PC version, starting with optimisations to improve the CPU and GPU performance. In my technical review of The Last of Us Part I PC, I mentioned how the game would completely hog your processors’ cores, even while simply waiting in the main menu as the shaders complete building. That process was extremely time-consuming as well, an Naughty Dog claims to have reduced this with the latest update. Numerous crashes related to graphics settings have been fixed, in addition to one that occurred when trying to save Photo Mode pictures in 4K resolution. User reports also mentioned a delay when exiting the pause menu and trying to shoot immediately after — that’s been fixed as well.

Normally, enabling VSync should get rid of any screen tearing when panning the camera, but some of it persisted in The Last of Us Part I PC, which the developer has now addressed in patch v1.1.0. Being a full-blown remake of the original 2013 game, Naughty Dog added a bunch of fun modes to the new version, including a Speedrun mode, which throws a timer onto your screen for accurate splits. The studio has now rectified a glitch where the timer would roll back following a crash or when quitting to the desktop.

VRAM management was a big issue in this PlayStation–PC port, with the game originally requiring massive doses of memory to run at anything beyond the Low preset. The update has now added a Very Low graphics preset that would allow those with low-end graphics cards to be able to play the game, even if the visual fidelity looks poor.

“We at Naughty Dog and our partners at Iron Galaxy are closely watching player reports to support future improvements and patches,” the blog post reads. “We are actively optimising, working on game stability, and implementing additional fixes which will all be included in regularly released future updates.”

Last month, Naughty Dog revealed that it has begun work on a brand-new single-player experience based on the franchise, details of which will be revealed in time. Additionally, the studio scaled down the team working on The Last of Us multiplayer game as a means to ‘reassess its quality and long-term viability.’ As it turns out, the company summoned Destiny makers Bungie to evaluate the game, who then raised concerns about the project’s ability to keep players engaged for long periods. The game was expected to feature a new post-apocalyptic region and a cast of NPCs, marking the first project in the franchise where Neil Druckmann wasn’t involved as lead writer or director.

The Last of Us Part I is now available on PC and PS5.

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The Last of Us Part I PC Port’s New 25 GB Patch Brings Optimisation, Fixes Crashing, Improves Textures

The Last of Us Part I on PC has received a massive 25GB patch, aimed at improving the horrid condition it was launched at. Dubbed v1.0.4.0, the version marks the seventh update since the port was launched on March 28, proving that developer Naughty Dog hasn’t given up on it yet. The patch is mainly focused on optimising CPU and GPU performance in-game while adding improved graphical fidelity on Low and Medium settings. The low-res textures were a key point of criticism upon launch, with many fans posting screenshots of a caveman Joel and poking fun at the state of the port.

The patch notes detail 22 fixes for The Last of Us Part I on PC, with a good chunk focused on crashes that occur upon death, when quitting out to the main menu, and during the ‘Shader Building’ process. In our review, we noted how time-consuming the process was — even on decent CPUs such as the AMD Ryzen 7 5800x, putting 100 percent load on all its eight cores. “Fixed an issue where the shader load warning did not appear while relaunching the game,” the post reads. Following that, players had to endure an unusually long loading time, despite the game being installed on SSDs. Naughty Dog has now addressed that issue while adding new features so players can better gauge performance. The HUD menu in settings will now let you enable performance stats, and there are better descriptors for how graphics options will affect your system.

The Last of Us Part I PC Review

“We at Naughty Dog and our partners at Iron Galaxy are closely watching player reports to support future improvements and patches,” the post reads. “We are actively optimising, working on game stability, and implementing additional fixes which will all be included in regularly released future updates.” The partner Iron Galaxy was also responsible for porting Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection to PC, whose technical issues carried over to The Last of Us Part 1 as well. For instance, using the mouse to navigate the camera creates micro stutters, which only get worsened with your character’s movement. The issue doesn’t seem to affect controller inputs, however.

Naughty Dog has also fixed an issue where skipping cutscenes would cause the game to freeze. Translations for foreign languages in the menu options have been corrected, too. By default, The Last of Us Part 1 enables AMD’s FSR2.0 upscaling option to ensure better performance at a reduced loss in visual fidelity. Turns out, the Steam Deck version was having trouble defaulting to it, which has also been fixed. While the condition of the port is way better than it was during launch week, it isn’t perfect yet. You can read the detailed patch notes for v1.0.4.0 on the official website.

The Last of Us Part I is available on PC and PS5.

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The Last of Us Part I PC System Requirements and Features Revealed Ahead of Release

The Last of Us Part I is finally headed to PC on March 28, and ahead of that, Sony has unveiled the system requirements and new features for the same. Created by Naughty Dog themselves — who are responsible for the original PlayStation versions — the PlayStation-PC port comes with a range of adjustable graphics options, support for ultra-wide displays, and compatibility with AMD FSR 2.2 and Nvidia DLSS Super Resolution. The news comes after a short delay, wherein The Last of Us Part I PC was shifted from its original March 3 release date, in order to ensure a polished, big-free experience at launch.

The Last of Us Part I PC system requirements

As with many recent PC releases, system requirements for The Last of Us Part I are on the higher end. In order to run the game at ultra settings, at 4K 60fps, developer Naughty Dog is demanding at least an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 or an AMD Radeon RX 7900XT graphics card paired with an Intel Core i5-12600K or an AMD Ryzen 9 5900X. Understandably, this raises the requirements for lower-end specs, and there is no confirmation for ray-tracing either. Regardless of the visual fidelity, players will need to dedicate 100GB of storage to run The Last of Us Part I on PC. Minimum requirements start with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, paired with 16GB of RAM.

While a spec sheet for Medium settings isn’t explicitly mentioned, the leap to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super card for High-quality presets suggests that rigs packing something around a GTX 1060 should run The Last of Us Part I at medium quality. The PC specs list comes directly from the developer, with a Windows 10 64-bit operating system and 100GB of available storage space on an SSD being a common requirement.

The Last of Us Part I ‘minimum’ PC requirements

  • Processor (CPU): Intel Core i7-4770K or AMD Ryzen 5 1500X
  • Graphics (GPU): Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (4GB) or AMD Radeon RX 470 (4GB)
  • RAM: 16GB
  • Resolution: 1,280×720 pixels at 30fps, at Low preset settings

The Last of Us Part I ‘recommended’ PC requirements

  • Processor (CPU): Intel Core i7-8700 or AMD Ryzen 5 3600X
  • Graphics (GPU): Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super (8GB) or AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT (8GB)
  • RAM: 16GB
  • Resolution: 1,920×1,080 pixels at 60fps, at High preset settings

The Last of Us Part I ‘performance’ PC requirements

  • Processor (CPU): Intel Core i7-9700K or AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
  • Graphics (GPU): Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT
  • RAM: 32GB
  • Resolution: 1,440p at 60fps, at High preset settings

The Last of Us Part I ‘ultra’ PC requirements

  • Processor (CPU): Intel Core i5-12600K or AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
  • Graphics (GPU): Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 or AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT (FSR Quality)
  • RAM: 32GB
  • Resolution: 4K at 60fps, at Ultra preset settings

The Last of Us Part I PC new features

Similar to past PlayStation–PC ports, The Last of Us Part I boasts numerous enhancements and customisable settings. For starters, Nvidia and AMD’s upscaling methods should help players amp up their framerate without sacrificing too much in the visual fidelity department. That said, it’s worth noting that PlayStation has not mentioned support for ray-tracing in their new trailer or the blog post, and merely details all the settings one could tinker with. The Last of Us Part I on PC will let you cap framerates and adjust texture quality, shadows, reflections, and more.

Customisable keybindings for keyboard + mouse purists are inbound, in addition to support for haptic feedback and vibrations through PS5’s DualSense controller, as long as there’s a wired connection. Naughty Dog has also promised support for the last-gen PS4 DualShock 4 as well, a “wide range of other gamepads,” and the ability to combine keyboard and controller inputs. Judging by the blog post, it seems owners of the PS4 controller won’t have to use the third-party DS4Windows software to get it working.

The Last of Us Part I on PC also offers support for both 21:9 ultrawide and 32:9 super ultrawide displays. Immersive 3D Audio is included as well, helping you “better hear the rustle of leaves, the crack of glass, or the footfalls of enemies trying to ambush you.” Of course, this would require the player to own stereo headphones or compatible speakers.

PlayStation has reiterated that content-wise, The Last of Us Part I will include the same core gameplay experience as the PS5 version, released last year. This includes generally enhanced visuals in the vein of The Last of Us Part II, the campaign mode, the Left Behind DLC chapter, a photo mode with a wealth of editing options, a speedrun mode, and a permadeath mode for the masochists out there. The Speedrun mode will be available at launch to those who buy the Deluxe Edition. Owners of the Standard Edition will need to unlock it via game progression.

The Last of Us Part I PC pre-order, price, and bonuses

Pre-orders for The Last of Us Part I PC are now live, granting bonus supplements and weapon parts — essentially giving you a head start. The Standard Edition costs Rs. 3,999 on Steam and Epic Games Store, whereas the Digital Deluxe Edition is priced at Rs. 4,799. The latter includes the Speedrun mode, alongside a bunch of bonus items. They are as follows:

  • Increased Crafting Speed Skill
  • Increased Healing Speed Skill
  • 9mm Reload Speed Increase Upgrade
  • Rifle Clip Capacity Increase Upgrade
  • Explosive Arrows Gameplay Modifier
  • Dither Punk Filter
  • Speedrun Mode
  • Six Weapon Skins: Black Gold 9mm Pistol, Silver Filigree 9mm Pistol, Rubber Tactical Shotgun, Sculpted Oak Shotgun, Arctic White Bow, Carbon Black Bow

Alternatively, there’s a Firefly Edition for The Last of Us Part I on PC, which is available at select locations (India not included), which comes with a Steelbook case and Dark Horse’s The Last of Us: American Dreams comic books — issue #1 to #4. This is the most expensive edition of them all, costing $99.99 (about Rs. 8,207) and comes with a digital voucher code for downloading the game.

The Last of Us Part I releases March 28 on PC.

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The Last of Us Episode 8 Trailer: Troy Baker’s Cannibalistic Gang Is on the Hunt for Ellie and Joel

The Last of Us episode 8 trailer is out. Keeping with the trend, HBO has dropped a preview for the upcoming episode of the post-apocalyptic drama based on the beloved PlayStation video game, teasing a group of cannibalistic survivors who come to Ellie and Joel’s aid, but with ulterior motives. Titled ‘When We Are in Need,’ this new episode stars Troy Baker — the original voice actor for Joel — as James, a senior member of the said group of settlers. Episode 8 reportedly clocks in at 51 minutes and is directed by Ali Abbasi (Holy Spider). The Last of Us episode 8 premieres March 6 at 8:30am IST/ March 5 at 9pm ET on Disney+ Hotstar and HBO Max, respectively.

The trailer for The Last of Us episode 8 brings us back to the present, where Joel (Pedro Pascal) struggles to recover from his near-fatal injury. “You won’t survive for long out there,” David (Scott Shepherd), the settler’s leader tells Ellie (Bella Ramsey), having tracked his way into their safe house. “There’s room for you in our group, if you want.” Being a cannibal, David’s group has a deceiving front — one that is god-fearing and willing to help anyone at a moment’s notice. Of course, our protagonists aren’t aware of that, and Ellie being an untrusting person kept refusing his advances either way. “I don’t mean to question your sense of mercy, David. She’s just another mouth to feed,” James (Baker) tells David, who is adamant about forcing her into their group. Episode 6 saw our pair of heroes scouring through the university for any signs of the Fireflies, which ended with an encounter with a weird group of survivors — one of whom injured Joel. As it turns out, they were part of David’s gang.

Now David understands the promise Ellie and Joel have, and sees them as a worthy addition to their group. “The others want to kill you. Let me protect you,” he tells Ellie in confidence, who was presumably captured and taken to their base — if we’re going by the video game’s series of events. The Last of Us episode 8 trailer also shows the scene where Ellie, now adept at hunting, shoots down a deer, which she offers in exchange with one of the survivors for a syringe and a bottle of penicillin. The events depicted in the trailer also raise the question of whether The Last of Us episode 8 will also feature Ashley Johnson as Anna, Ellie’s biological mother. For the uninitiated, she voiced and provided motion capture for Ellie in the original video game.

Reports from earlier this month suggested that HBO content, including The Last of Us, Game of Thrones, Euphoria, and more, is set to leave the Disney+ Hotstar platform in India, owing to some ‘restructuring plans’ laid out by the returning Disney CEO Bob Iger. Currently, there is no word on the platform the HBO content would move to, once the plans are put into motion, though Amazon Prime Video is being seen as the frontrunner to gain the streaming rights.

HBO also announced in January that The Last of Us series has been renewed for a second season and that it will follow the events of the polarising gory sequel, The Last of Us Part II video game. Showrunner Craig Mazin also suggested that season 2 could be a split into two parts, given how much bigger and more complicated the story was.

New episodes of The Last of Us stream every Monday on Disney+ Hotstar, at 8:30am in India, and Sunday at 9pm ET on HBO Max wherever available. Season 1 is stated to have nine episodes, of which seven have released thus far.

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The Last of Us Part I PC Port Delayed by Three Weeks, Will Now Arrive on March 28

The Last of Us Part I’s PC port has been delayed by three weeks. In a tweet, developer Naughty Dog confirmed that the much-awaited emotional, zombie-killing survivor game, which was originally set to drop on March 3, will now release on March 28. The studio claims that the additional time will be used to ensure a polished experience at launch that is devoid of bugs or optimisation issues. The delay was partly prompted by the success surrounding HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us, with Naughty Dog not wanting to tarnish its reputation by pushing out a port that’s a little rough around the edges.

“We at the studio have been completely blown away by the outpouring of love and support for The Last of Us these last few weeks. Hearing your love for the HBO adaptation, seeing your beautiful Photo Mode shots, and learning about how the world and characters our studio created nearly a decade ago continue to reach new and old fans alike floors us every day,” the open letter from Naughty Dog reads. “And so we want to make sure that The Last of Us Part 1 PC debut is in the best shape possible. These additional few weeks will allow us to ensure this version of The Last of Us lives up to your, and our, standards.” The developer has yet to reveal the system requirements and new PC-specific features that would normally one-up the PS5 version — launched in September, last year — which improved upon the graphics and loading times.

The Last of Us Part 1 PS5 Review: Absolutely Gorgeous, but Overpriced

But if past PlayStation–PC ports are anything to go by — which have been consistent — players can expect unlocked framerates, support for ultra-wide monitors, and other technical perks tailored to graphics cards. The story, however, remains the same as the original 2013 version, wherein you track the journey of a hardened survivor Joel, who is tasked with smuggling a teenager Ellie across a post-pandemic US, swarming with infected mutants. By grappling with their grief and overcoming eccentric survivors, the pair eventually assume a father-daughter relationship, rekindling a light of hope in Joel’s unhappy mind.

Throughout its marketing drive for the PS5 launch, Sony seemed quite aggressive in making people understand that The Last of Us Part I was a full-blown remake built from the ground up. Even then, the Rs. 4,999/ $70 price tag seemed overpriced to fans — especially those who played the previous versions. There are three variants now — the original 2013 Last of Us, the PS4 remaster, and now a remake. A game so good, Naughty Dog couldn’t resist giving it some touch-ups and releasing it all over again. The Last of Us Part I not only improved upon its visuals but added AI (enemy) upgrades, so they behaved similarly to the ones featured in the critically-acclaimed gory sequel, The Last of Us Part II. A permadeath mode was also included for the gaming masochists out there, alongside over 60 accessibility features, aimed at those suffering from visual, auditory, or motor challenges.

In celebration of the HBO series’ debut last month, The Last of Us Part I was made available as a two-hour free trial to PS Plus Deluxe/ Premium members. Those who are on the fence about getting this game can take it for a test drive and make a well-informed decision if the upgrades are worth the full price. A PS Plus Deluxe subscription costs Rs. 849 per month. Meanwhile, HBO renewed The Last of Us series for a second season, which will chart the events of The Last of Us Part II game.

The Last of Us Part I will release March 28 on PC. Pre-orders are live across Steam and Epic Games Store at Rs. 3,999.

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