Grounded Difficulty: the real way to play 'The Last of Us Remastered' Max Parker (The Game Guy) “The Last of Us” is on its victory lap this month with “The Last of Us Remastered” for PS4. It’s entitled to do so after winning (according to the game’s cover) over 200 game-of-the-year awards. This updated version has shinier textures, a faster frame rate and all the DLC from the original release for the PS3. Now you can see the horror of clickers getting shivved in the neck and the beauty of a giraffe eating leaves in 1080p and at a nearly consistent 60 frames-per-second. How The Last of Us' comic influenced the game Ellie's backstory fleshed out. [Editor's note: This post contains spoilers for The Last of Us. Ones about the ending, specifically.]The Last of Us' director Neil Druckmann revealed that the game's four issue comic mini-series, The Last of Us: American Dreams, actually influenced the development of the game.In an interview with GameInformer at San Diego Comic-Con, Druckmann explained that the Dark Horse comic series goes into Ellie's backstory and the graphic novel's co-scribe, Faith Erin Hicks, created the character of Riley Abel, Ellie's friend who is mentioned at the game's conclusion, even though she's not actually present in the game.

Originally, Ellie was alone when she was bitten. "During the last speech Ellie gives during the game, she lists off all the people that have died on this journey, and the first name she lists is Riley," said Druckmann. "She was the first to die. They were both kind of bitten at the same time, but that little snippet in the comic influenced the development of the game, because originally we didn't have anyone with Ellie when she was bitten."The comic influenced a few other details too, such as the Mortal Kombat parody arcade game Ellie describes, as well as the contents of her bag during the game's Winter chapter. "During Winter, in the game, there are a few artifacts in Ellie's backpack and you can look at them, and you can see how Ellie got some of them in the comic," he continued. "That was something that came up fairly late in development and we had to make some changes, but I felt like it really helped tie those two stories together."Druckmann was so appreciative of Hicks' contribution to the lore that he gave her a spot in the game's credits.

The Last of Us: American Dreams will be available as a trade paperback this autumn. Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chattingNext-generation consoles aren't backward compatible, so gamers have had to keep their older systems plugged in order to play games like The Last of Us and Grand Theft Auto 5.The Last of Us Remastered for PS4 released this week to help alleviate this messy dilemma within our media cabinets. 30cc backpack blowerThere's one less reason to cling onto that old PS3 hardware.stm hood medium laptop backpackDeveloper Naughty Dog didn't just port the original game to the new system. kavu paxton backpackIt enhanced the critically acclaimed post-apocalyptic adventure of characters Joel and Ellie.This has inspired a new debate among early adopters of Sony's new gaming platform: Is The Last of Us Remastered for PS4 worth the upgrade?

We talked to Naughty Dog programmers Jason Gregory and Christian Gyrling to get a rundown of what has changed in a year's time.The Last of Us Remastered bumps up the horizontal lines from a competent 720p resolution to an even better 1080p. The game gets the full HD treatment it deserves on your television.Textures, shadows and draw distance benefit from this higher resolution. The all-important mood-setting lighting effects for a survival horror game like this have has also been tweaked.Changes have been made down to the tiniest details, as there are more freckles on Ellie's face. Just as important is what you don't see; fewer pop-ins of trees in the distance make the experience less jarring.Naughty Dog says that it targeted 1080p from the very beginning of this re-release while uprezzing everything without completely re-authoring the graphics.The Last of Us Remastered not only looks crisper with its higher resolution, it actually moves better thanks to a steady 60 frames per second.At first, there was an internal debate within Naughty Dog whether or not to stick with the lower 30 frames per second or reach for the silkier 60 frames per second.

However, the team's fears of running into the soap opera effect that's often associated with the higher frame count were assuaged when seeing the game in action.The Last of Us Remastered is just as cinematic at 60fps on PS4, but for purists Naughty Dog added a 30fps lock within the game's menu.They stressed that this decision to include the 30fps lock feature was made early on before the new engine was created and it was not the result of trouble keeping to 60fps.A side-by-side video comparison of the PS4 vs PS3 versions confirms just that. There are few noticeable dips in the frame rate.The higher resolution and frame count of The Last of Us Remastered combine to make the gameplay a little smoother this time around.It's not a dramatic difference, so the game and AI do remain true to the original. But now there are fewer distractions like pop-ins and better texture detail.This makes a big difference in multiplayer. Fast battles with AI and especially humans are now less blurry and benefit from better anti-aliasing and the 60 frames per second.

Things feel more responsive and there's slightly more detail. It may be the difference between seeing that guy hiding behind a corner wall and having to respawn.The Last of Us for PS4 took advantage of the new system's gamepad, which includes a touchpad and built-in speaker.Yes, the DualShock 4 not only feels better in the hand, it helps this game function better too.The touchpad is used to slip into Joel's backpack and open up the crafting menu, which feels more intuitive compared to reaching for the archaic select button.The speaker within the DualShock 4 also serves as a more natural way of listening to the recordings found in-game - an idea we first saw with Killzone Shadow Fall last year.To be even more consistent with PS4 games, the new controller switches the aiming and weapon firing from L1 and R1 to L2 and R2. This too can be reset in the menu.Finally, the light bar changes colors based on health, though we all know the real reason the DualShock 4 light bar is important to the future of PS4: Project Morpheus.