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Jan 16
Andrew Webster
There are two great reasons to upgrade to The Last of Us Part II Remastered
Yeah, I know, it seems way too early for a remaster of The Last of Us Part II. The game originally launched on the PS4 in 2020 and has already received an update for those playing on the PS5. It’s not like Ellie, Joel, and Abby need much of an update for modern audiences. But while the slightly enhanced graphics — which include native 4K support and improved frame rates — are nice, they’re not really the reason to play The Last of Us Part II Remastered. Instead, it’s all of the other stuff that turns this into an excellent special edition of the game.
Some of the additions are relatively small. There’s a guitar mode where you can, well, play guitar as much as you want. Using the PlayStation controller’s touchpad to swipe guitar strings was one of the highlights of the original release, and it’s nice to be able to mess around with it freely. I’m sure we’ll see some very cool videos of people rocking out soon. You can also unlock outfits to wear while playing the main game, which is silly but fun. I’m 10 hours deep into a New Game Plus run, and Ellie has been wearing a Death Stranding T-shirt the entire time (even though that game couldn’t exist in TLOU’s timeline).
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Jun 5
Andrew Webster
The Last of Us season 2 will be a little bit shorter
Image: HBO
The first season of HBO’s The Last of Us covered the first game in the series, but it looks like season 2 will need a little more time to explore the sequel. In an interview with Deadline, co-creator Craig Mazin explained that the story of The Last of Us Part II will take at least two, and possibly three, seasons to fully cover. And as a result, the show’s second season will be a few episodes shorter than the first.
“The story material that we got from Part II of the game is way more than the story material that was in the first game, so part of what we had to do from the start was figure out how to tell that story across seasons,” Mazin explained. “When you do that, you look for natural breakpoints, and as we laid it out, this season, the natural breakpoint felt like it came after seven episodes.” (Season 1 clocked in at nine episodes, for comparison.)
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May 24
Charles Pulliam-Moore
Mr. Wright goes to (the) Washington (Liberation Front).
Jeffrey Wright’s mo-cap performance brought Isaac Dixon to life in The Last of Us Part II, and now he’s set to reprise the role in season two of HBO’s adaptation.
May 15
Andrew Webster
A first look at The Last of Us season 2.
We may have to wait until next year to return to the post-apocalyptic show, but HBO has released these images to hold us over. They look like, well, Ellie and Joel. You’ll have to wait a bit longer to see the live-action version of Abby it seems.
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Image: HBO
Feb 5
Jon Porter
The Last of Us’ Neil Druckmann reckons “there’s probably one more chapter to this story.”
It’s far from confirmation of a Last of Us Part 3, but co-creator Druckmann has confirmed he’s got a concept in mind for a third entry in the series, should Naughty Dog ever choose to make it:
“I’ve been just thinking about it, ‘is there a concept there?’ And for, now, years I haven’t been able to find that concept. But recently, that’s changed, and I don’t have a story, but I do have that concept that to me is as exciting as [Part 1], as exciting as [Part 2], is its own thing, and yet has this throughline for all three. So it does feel like there’s probably one more chapter to this story.”
You can check out Druckmann’s comments in Naughty Dog’s recently released Last of Us Part 2 documentary (starting at around the 1:57 mark).
Feb 2
Andrew Webster
You haven’t seen the last of The Last of Us.
Because now it’s a documentary. While the remaster of The Last of Us Part II featured cut scenes that you could actually play, giving some fascinating insight into the game’s development, now Naughty Dog has released this meaty two-hour-long movie delving even further into how it was made.
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Feb 2
Andrew Webster
The Last of Us season 2 cast keeps growing.
The HBO series has already added its Dina, Abbie, and Jesse, and now comes word that Catherine O’Hara will be playing... somebody. Deadline reports that she’s joining the show in an “undisclosed role.” But whatever it is, more Catherine O’Hara is never a bad thing.
Jan 12
Jay Peters
You can be The Last of Us’ composer. Really.
By playing as the actual composer, Gustavo Santaolalla, in The Last of Us Part II Remastered’s guitar freeplay mode. The banjo is an option, too.
The game comes out on January 19th.
Jan 12
Jay Peters
Grounded II.
Naughty Dog is releasing a documentary for The Last of Us Part II, but hasn’t shared a specific release date. You’ll be able to watch the full thing (officially titled Grounded II: Making The Last of Us Part II) on YouTube and in The Last of Us Part II Remastered via a post-launch update.
While you wait, you can watch the documentary for the first game right now.
Jan 11
Jay Peters
HBO has cast its Dina for The Last of Us.
Isabela Merced will be playing the role, Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed, joining new cast members Kaitlyn Dever as Abby and Young Mazino as Jesse. The show’s second season is set to debut in 2025.
Jan 10
Andrew Webster
Another new addition to The Last of Us.
Just a day after learning that Kaitlyn Dever would be playing Abby in the second season of HBO’s The Last of Us, now comes word that Young Mazino will be taking on the role of Jesse, another character introduced in The Last of Us Part II. There are likely plenty of more announcements about the show on the way, as the new season isn’t expected until 2025.
Jan 9
Emma Roth
The Last of Us casts Kaitlyn Dever as Abby
Photo by Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
Kaitlyn Dever will officially take on the role of Abby in the highly anticipated second season of The Last of Us, HBO announced on Tuesday.
Rumors about Dever’s role as Abby in the video game adaptation began circulating late last year. Abby is one of the major characters in The Last of Us Part II, the PlayStation game from which the second season will draw its story, and is a rival to protagonist Ellie (played by Bella Ramsey).
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Dec 15, 2023
Jay Peters
Naughty Dog cancels its The Last of Us multiplayer game
Image: Sony
Naughty Dog announced Thursday that it’s canceled the multiplayer game it was building in The Last of Us universe.
The studio says it has been in pre-production on The Last of Us Online even while working on The Last of Us Part II. “We were enthusiastic about the direction in which we were headed,” according to a blog post about the news.
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Dec 6, 2023
Sheena Vasani
The second season of The Last of Us will debut in 2025
Image: HBO
The second season of HBO’sThe Last of Us will debut in 2025. A new teaser dropped by Max confirmed the date and also offered a glimpse into its 2024 lineup.
The news comes after showrunner Craig Mazin revealed production will start on February 12th, 2024, which is later than originally planned because of the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Despite the delay, work on the second season is still underway with an outline already prepared and the first episode’s script submitted before the strike.
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Dec 4, 2023
Jay Peters
The Last of Us Part II’s roguelike mode looks brutal.
In a trailer for the new “No Return” mode (which might get buried by... you know), you can see how you’ll be able to play as different TLOU characters and take on zombies while dealing with “unique gameplay modifiers” (like one that appears to make a zombie invisible).
The mode will be included with The Last of Us Part II Remastered, which is set to release on January 19th.
Dec 1, 2023
Jay Peters
Production on The Last of Us’ second season starts in February.
Showrunner Craig Mazin said in a Variety panel that production begins on February 12th. The date’s not a total surprise, as HBO and Max content chief CaseyBloys recently said that production would start in early 2024, but now we know exactly when it starts.
Now we just need to know who is going to play Abby. Hopefully we’ll find out soon, given that the role has apparently already been cast.
Nov 18, 2023
Jay Peters
Sony announces The Last of Us Part II remaster for PS5
Naughty Dog officially announced The Last of Us Part II Remastered for PS5 on Friday evening following a bunch of leaks about the game earlier in the day. The game will be released on January 19th, 2024 — just like the leaks said.
The biggest new addition seems to be a “roguelike survival mode” called No Return that’s “designed to let players prove their mettle in randomized encounters and experience The Last of Us Part II’s combat in a fresh experience,” Naughty Dog’s Jonathon Dornbush said in the announcement blog post. You’ll be able to play as some new characters and work through “various stealth and combat encounters that will pit you against a range of enemies, with unique twists that can add new, unexpected factors to any given encounter.”
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Nov 17, 2023
Jon Porter
Rumors of a remastered Last of Us Part II mount.
After a Naughty Dog staffer seemed to let slip news of the remaster, Insider Gaming reports on new rumors that it’s on the way. The PS4 game is only three years old and has already received a 60fps PS5 patch, but who can blame Naughty Dog for wanting to have a new release on shelves in time for the TV show’s second season?
Nov 2, 2023
Jay Peters
The second season of The Last of Us might be a long ways away
Image: HBO
We might be waiting a while for more of HBO’s The Last of Us. HBO announced in January that a second season of the excellent adaptation was in the works, and on Thursday, HBO and Max content chief Casey Bloys said that the season will enter production in early 2024, according to Variety.
Bloys said that production was delayed because of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes (the latter of which is still going on). The show also wasn’t on HBO’s slate for 2024, Variety says, meaning it might not come out until 2025 at the earliest.
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Jul 13, 2023
Sean Hollister
The Last of Us finally works on Steam Deck — with worse-than-PS3 level graphics
Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge
The Last of Us Part I arrived on PC this March as an embarrassing, broken PC port of a game, even on high-end machines. When I tried it on my Steam Deck handheld, the game was utterly unplayable — despite co-creator Neil Druckmann’s assurances that the game would “grace” the Steam Deck.
But after 11 patches, I can finally confirm The Last of Us is completely playable on Valve’s portable PC.
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May 26, 2023
Ash Parrish
Naughty Dog announces ‘brand-new single player experience’ alongside Last of Us multiplayer delay
Image: Sony
Naughty Dog’s got a new single-player game in the works.
The Uncharted developer was expected to show off its The Last Of Us multiplayer project at this week’s PlayStation Showcase. It didn’t, but on Friday, it did share some news about the game as well as a surprise announcement that it’s working on a totally new game.
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Apr 4, 2023
Mitchell Clark
More patches are rolling out for The Last Of Us’ infected PC port
Screenshot: Tom Warren / The Verge
Naughty Dog and Nvidia have released more hotfixes for The Last of Us Part I’s PC port in an attempt to fix various crashes and other bugs that have plagued the game since it launched a week ago. Nvidia says its hotfix driver Version 531.58 is meant to make the game more stable when running on RTX 30-series graphics cards, and in the patch notes for v1.0.1.7 of the game, Naughty Dog says it and co-developer Iron Galaxy are “closely watching player reports to support future improvements and patches.”
The changelog also mentions improvements beyond just fixing various crashes. Resetting the graphics options to default should now work, an issue where the game wouldn’t read Xbox controller stick inputs properly has been fixed, and there are new features to help make it easier for the developers to diagnose issues. If the game crashes due to a GPU issue, you’ll have the option of “additional GPU diagnostic tooling” for your next play session.
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Mar 30, 2023
Tom Warren
The Last of Us on PC gets patches to fix some performance issues
Image: Naughty Dog
The Last of Us Part I on PC hasn’t had a smooth launch. PC players have reported crashes, performance issues, and plenty of weird visual glitches. Now, Sony-owned developer Naughty Dog has started issuing bug fixes to try and fix some of the widespread problems and investigate other bugs that are affecting PC players.
A new patch arrived on Steam and the Epic Games Store last night, which includes fixes for “several performance & hitch related issues impacting some users.” It’s not clear exactly what has been fixed, and for some players, it was only a 36MB patch on Steam.
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Mar 29, 2023
Tom Warren
The Last of Us on PC is a rare disappointing PlayStation port at launch
Image: Naughty Dog
I was expecting to write about how The Last of Us Part I arriving on PC is the latest example of a great PC port of a Sony PlayStation title. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. The Last of Us Part I arrived on PC yesterday and players aren’t happy. Out of more than 9,000 reviews in the Steam store, 67 percent are negative.
PC players are reporting issues that range from random crashes and stuttering, all the way up to long shader compilation times and characters randomly becoming dripping wet in cut scenes. The game also appears to be poorly optimized, taking up large amounts of VRAM on systems and dropping frames. I’ve personally experienced crashes and random frame rate drops on my own test system, which is a top-end gaming PC equipped with an RTX 4090.
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Mar 13, 2023
Andrew WebsterandCharles Pulliam-Moore
Everything to read after HBO’s The Last of Us season 1 finale
Image: HBO
The first season of HBO’s The Last of Us is over — and there’s a lot to dig into. Between the show’s heavy themes, its long-controversial ending, the way it changed and adapted the game, as well as the games themselves, we’ve got plenty of different stories to read after the finale. They span the last 10 years, from the onset of the original PS3 game all the way up to the TV show’s season 1 finale. Here are reviews, interviews, deep dives, and more to explore while we wait to see Ellie and Joel hanging out in the post-apocalypse once again.
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