In one horrific night, Joel’s life is changed forever. As the player’s introduction to the world of The Last of Us, the evening spent with Joel, Sarah, and Tommy as the cordyceps outbreak changes everything cements the tone, style, and stakes of the franchise’s world. Whether you experienced that opening nearly a decade ago, or just recently via The Last of Us Part I on the PlayStation 5 console or The Last of Us on HBO, Joel’s harrowing night is an effective and necessary introduction to fully understanding Joel and Ellie’s journey throughout the rest of the game. 

To help us understand how that sequence came to be, and how its legacy lives on today, members of the Naughty Dog team and HBO show spoke about the work undertaken originally to create such an evocative opening, and how The Last of Us Part I brings these moments to fresh life. 

Spoilers ahead if you haven’t played or watched The Last of Us!

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The End Is the Beginning

While the introduction is also The Last of Us’ first chance to leave an impression on the player, the Naughty Dog team obviously iterated and adjusted this sequence throughout development. One of the most significant among those? Players would have, originally, had control of Joel much earlier. 

“The beginning of the game was one of the last things we got finalized when we were making The Last of Us,” Naughty Dog President and The Last of Us Co-Director Neil Druckmann said. “For a long time, the plan was to play as Joel, not to play as Sarah, and you as Joel would hear commotion over at your neighbor’s house, you would walk over there, you’d see they’re infected. Then you’d head back and grab your daughter…and then everything else [in the final game] was how it was planned.” 

But starting the adventure and experiencing all that through Joel’s perspective felt… familiar to the team. In wanting to differentiate the story from others in its genre, the idea of playing as Sarah came up during a design brainstorm.  With that, “everything kind of fell into place” according to Druckmann. 

“That felt like a really unique take on [this story]. The fact that you

It’s a new year and we are that much closer to the PC release of Returnal – we’re thrilled to reveal that PC players can join Selene on Atropos on February 15, 2023!

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So far, not many details have been released on any specific features that will add to the experience and immersion on PC, so let’s get to the good stuff.

NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR have been added, allowing you to dial up your framerate without compromising on resolution. NVIDIA NIS has also been added for those players who also want to see an increase in performance, but don’t have the hardware to support DLSS or FSR.*

Returnal also supports ray-traced shadows as before, but now our friends at Climax Studios have added the support for RT reflections as well. This will make the contrast of a dark setting and neon bullets pop out even more than before.* All of this can be now seen in two new wide resolution formats, Ultrawide at 21:9 and Super Ultrawide 32:9.** Think of all of that screen real estate that you will be able to take in when you’re not in the middle of a giant boss fight.

Returnal PC SPECS

	MINIMUM	MEDIUM	RECOMMENDED	EPIC	RAY TRACING
AVG Performance	720P @ 60FPS	1080P @ 60FPS	1080P @ 60FPS	4K @ 60FPS	4K @ 60FPS*
Graphics Settings	Low	Medium	High	Epic	Epic
GPU	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB) AMD Radeon RX 580 (8 GB)	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (8 GB) AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (6 GB)	NVIDIA RTX 2070 Super (8 GB) AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (12 GB)	NVIDIA RTX 3080 (10 GB) AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT (16 GB)	NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti (12 GB) AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT (16 GB)
CPU	Intel Core i5-6400 (4 core 2.7GHz) AMD Ryzen 5 1500X (4 core 3.5GHz)	Intel Core i5-8400 (6 core 2.8GHz) AMD Ryzen 5 2600 (6 core 3.4GHZ)	Intel i7-8700 (6 core 3.7 GHz) AMD Ryzen 7 2700X (8 core 3.7 GHz)	Intel i7-9700K (8 core 3.7 GHz) AMD Ryzen 7 3700X (8 core 3.6 GHz)	Intel i9-11900K (8 core 3.5 GHz) AMD Ryzen 9 5900X (12 core 3.7 GHz)
RAM	16 GB DDR4	16 GB Read more Tchia will release Spring 2023 on PS4 & PS5: fresh gameplay details shared Game Ace Pro / Wednesday, January 18, 2023 0 0 Article rating: No rating Hey everyone, happy 2023! I’m Phil Crifo, Tchia’s Game Director and Awaceb Co-founder. Last year was a very busy and exciting one for us, and I would like to give you an update on the development of Tchia and offer a sneak peek into the game. As you’ll see, it has come a long way, and we’re happy to announce the game is coming to PS4 & PS5 this Spring (stay tuned!). A trip to our homeland As you may know, Tchia is inspired by our homeland, New Caledonia, and it was super important for us that folks who worked on the game got to experience those landscapes, wildlife, cultures, languages and customs firsthand. If you’re interested in finding out more, we have already released a 3-part series on the topic. Play Video Everything in Tchia is infused with the local culture of New Caledonia. This includes all the various landscapes that we recreated in the open-world archipelago, and that you can freely explore, swim or navigate around, and even climb on if you’d like! This is also the case with our cast of characters that you will meet throughout your journey. We have worked with local talent to voice everyone you will encounter in either Drehu (one of the most ancient local New Caledonian languages) and French. As you can freely explore the archipelago in Tchia, we encourage you to try out various side quests to acquaint yourself with some of the island’s inhabitants and learn more about their culture and individual personalities. Music, finally, is a major component of your adventure. All sounds and sonorities are inspired by traditional New Caledonian culture and folklore. You’ll try these out for yourself using your trustworthy Ukulele! Read more Games Under 20 promotion comes to PlayStation Store Game Ace Pro / Tuesday, January 17, 2023 0 0 Article rating: No rating PlayStation Store welcomes the Games Under 20 promotion on Wednesday, January 18. For a limited time*  enjoy great games at compelling prices. That includes the like of Call of Duty: Black Ops III – Zombies Chronicles Edition, with 72% off the PS4 version,  67% off of the PS4 and PS5 versions of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege Deluxe Edition and 50% off God of War III Remastered on PS4.