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The Last Of Us 2 Wants To Solve The Problem Of Companions Being Ignored By Enemies
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Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II is looking to solve one of the original’s biggest problems: immersion-breaking AI-controlled companions. If you’ve played the first game, then you should be familiar with how its enemy AI often ignored Ellie, even when she was right in front of them. While this was ultimately implemented for our convenience, it allowed for plenty of immersion-breaking moments.
We got the chance to ask about this issue in a recent interview with The Last of Us Part II co-director Anthony Newman. In our brief discussion, he acknowledged the problems with the original’s companion-AI is something that the team is fully aware of and are hoping to address with the sequel.
“[Companion AI is] actually one of the few really significant technical achievements we’ve been able to make on the game,” said Newman. “[In the original] there is a mode the AI can be in–which is their default mode when you’re in stealth–where they will just never be seen. They’re almost better than the player can be at being stealthy.
“There’s a tricky balance there because [Ellie] could then just hang way, way back and just never be seen, but then you don’t feel like you have an ally with you, [so] you feel lonely. So there’s a really interesting line we’ve been walking but I can definitely say that that aspect of the game has been dramatically improved, I would say.”
Developing companion-AI is a difficult process, but Naughty Dog hopes the changes it’s making will better The Last of Us Part II as a whole. However, it’s not the only way that Newman and his team are iterating upon companion AI. They’re also improving how their actions impact moment-to-moment combat. “One other thing that’s also interesting is that in the past, [in] almost all of our games, the allies have done fake damage where you’ll see them shoot enemies and it’s a little bit theatrical where their bullets are clearly doing way less damage than yours,” said Newman.
“What I’m really excited about is that with a lot of effort and some clever AI tricks, every time you see your ally shoot an enemy, their bullets do exactly as much damage as yours do. Which is just another way that players are able to make predictions and think two or three steps ahead. When they see Dina take a couple of shots and then they realize, ‘I only need one more shot to finish off that enemy because I saw that happen.’ I think it’s great that players can now count on that and make those types of plans interacting with their allies.”
If all this talk about The Last of Us Part II has you excited, then you won’t have to wait too long: The Last of Us Part 2 releases on February 21, 2020 for PS4. You can read our preview of The Last of Us Part II to see what we thought of the game after a hands-on with it.
The Bradwell Conspiracy Is A Bizarre Thriller That Encourages You To Be Social
Coming from Bossa Studios and developer A Brave Plan, The Bradwell Conspiracy takes a surprisingly social approach to the familiar narrative-driven adventure. Placing you in a facility built by people with far too much money and free time on their hands, you’ll gradually learn more about the isolated locale and its creators, revealing inconvenient truths about its key players and their impact on the world over. We recently got to play the opening hour of the game and learned just what was in store for this alluring jaunt into the weird.
Set in 2026, you play as an unnamed protagonist visiting the Stonehenge Museum owned by the philanthropic mega-corporation Bradwell Electronics. Following a catastrophic attack on the facility that leaves them mute and isolated from the outside world, you’ll discover a massive laboratory underneath Stonehenge housing some bizarre experiments. Eventually, you’ll meet with another survivor named Amber, and an American scientist looking for a way out as well. After acquiring a talking set of smart glasses, along with a portable 3D printing device, you start to uncover shocking details about the mega-corporation.
The game’s world-building can often hit close to home, detailing the growing threat of inequality and encroaching natural disasters. However, The Bradwell Conspiracy often strikes a light-hearted tone. In a similar vein to first-person narrative-driven games like Everybody’s Gone To Rapture or Firewatch, you’re given the run of the place in order to piece together the larger story at your own pace. There was something quite alluring about exploring the hidden facility underneath Stonehenge in the opening act. With your Bradwell smart glasses, you’ll be able to scan objects and snap photos of everything in the environment. These photos not only allow you to send clues to Amber, who can remotely open doors or help with puzzles; they also serve as the primary way to instigate communications with her. While this kind of back and forth is similar to the approach Firewatch took, it’s far more frequent here, which means more chances to learn neat facts or to have tender moments when you least expect it.
What makes The Bradwell Conspiracy’s approach to narrative especially interesting is that while you’re unraveling the larger mystery of the game’s story, you’re also actively forming a bond with another character based on your actions. Though this is a somewhat one-sided pairing, given that your character has lost their speech, it still gives way to some surprisingly compassionate moments in your excursion. Depending on your level of willingness to share details about the environment, you’ll hear more from Amber, who will start sharing information on the company and even cracking the occasional joke to lighten the mood.
During our talk with game director Georg Backer, he spoke about how bonding with Amber is an essential part of the adventure and will offer up some of the game’s more nuanced details.
“We wanted to make sure that the player feels like they’re in this together with Amber throughout the game,” said Backer. “Given your choices in how you interact with her, people will experience the character in different ways. You can uncover these little side-stories with the character and the environment by engaging with her at certain points as well. However, if you want to forgo a lot of those moments in favor of sticking with the game’s main plot, then be our guest. But from a narrative design angle, if you want to discover more about the world, together, it’s worth examining further what’s around you. […] There’s well over 4,000 lines of dialog, so you’ll get to experience a lot from the game’s main plot.”
The game encourages a constant sense of curiosity throughout, and even examining simple items like table stationery can offer up some fun anecdotes from Amber. Unlike games like Bioshock, which intertwines passive-storytelling with gory action and body horror, the crux of The Bradwell Conspiracy is about uncovering strange details about the company with your fellow survivor. Considering how isolating the game can feel when exploring the ruins of the Bradwell lab, it can be easy to forget that you’re not alone in your journey. In some ways, this social element is one of The Bradwell Conspiracy’s most intriguing elements.
Set for release later this year on PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch, The Bradwell Conspiracy certainly has a lot of compelling ideas at play. Given its approach to being more socially active with your only ally, it made the strange journey feel a bit less lonely. Given its oddball humor and penchant for a sudden joke from your partner, it’ll be interesting to see how unusual this adventure into uncovering a corporation’s shady dealings can get.
10 Games, Movies, And Books Like Zelda: Link’s Awakening
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The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening is one of the more unique games in Nintendo’s beloved series. It’s one of the few entries without Princess Zelda, without Hyrule, and without the Triforce. Link’s travels on the mysterious Koholint Island, meeting new people and experiencing unique things make for an adventure that’s as wholesome and comforting as it is strange and unexpected.
There aren’t many games that are quite like Link’s Awakening, even in the Zelda series itself, so we took it upon ourselves to recommend some of our favourite games, books, and movies that fit in with some of its themes and vibes. Whether it’s a story of someone moving to a new town, a Zelda-like adventure you may not have been aware of, or a cute show about animals living in society, we’ve compiled them in this list.
Please take note that the following entries may contain spoilers for Link’s Awakening.
We’ll come back to update this article if we discover any more experiences that we’d recommend to Link’s Awakening fans. For now, we hope you enjoy our suggestions–feel free to drop your own recommendations in the comments below!
Quick look:
Games like Link’s Awakening
Minecraft’s Nether Update Adds New Biomes, Piglin Beasts and Mobs
Minecraft’s next major game update is called the Nether Update and will add “new biomes, mobs, structures, blocks and visual effects to the Nether to enhance its unique and scary atmosphere.”
Revealed during MINECON Live, the Nether Update will add the new Target block that acts as a projectile hit-detector and the Soulsand Valley and Netherwart Forest biomes.
Also introduced were the Piglin Beasts and Piglin mobs that bring a brand new civilization to the Minecraft universe. The name Piglin may be a temporary one, however, as fans can now vote on a new name.
In addition to the Nether Update, it was also revealed that Bees, Beehives, and the Honey Block will arrive in both Bedrock and Java versions of Minecraft before the holidays.
Netflix’s The Politician: Season 1 Review
This is a mostly spoiler-free review for all eight episodes of The Politician, which premieres Friday, September 27 on Netflix.
As with most hotly-contested races for power, all eyes are on Ryan Murphy’s The Politician, a new series starring Ben Platt (Dear Evan Hansen, Pitch Perfect) in a marvelous turn as a well-meaning sociopath with lofty ambitions of becoming president someday. To do this, Platt’s wealthy Santa Barbarian character, Payton Hobart, simply must – MUST – become student body president of his high school and then go on to Harvard. He has a plan, a loyal team, and a drive to make things better for everyone around him. Payton, as he readily admits himself, isn’t a good person. But he wants to do good things.
ICYMI: 115 New Star Wars Toys Announced for Force Friday
Minecraft Earth Early Access Launching in October
Minecraft Earth, the free-to-play augmented reality mobile game that is more-or-less Minecraft + Pokemon GO, is set to launch in Early Access this October, with a plan to be worldwide by the end of the year.
Revealed during MINECON Live, Minecraft Earth has been in closed beta in five cities over the summer, and the Early Access version will add such features as mob variants, crafting and smelting, and social multiplayer experiences called Adventures.
Adventures are smaller versions of Minecraft worlds that can be played in real life through AR technology. “For example, your sidewalk becomes a mine and there could be diamonds under your feet, or your local park may have Minecraft trees where skeletons lurk and you can fight them, dig down into the ground and discover an abandoned mine with treasures.”
You Can Now Play Cuphead on Your Tesla Car
You can now play Cuphead in your Tesla vehicle. To be more specific, you can play Cuphead on Tesla Arcade, which lets you play games on the screen just to the right of a Tesla’s steering wheel.
The inclusion of the cartoony, insanely difficult platformer/shoot-em-up comes as part of Tesla’s 10.0 software update, which includes a bunch of other features like a Google Maps-style search function, Spotify, Karaoke, and the ability to summon your car from afar because it’s a darn robot. You can check out Tesla’s trailer for the software update here.
Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel Appear to Have Ended Their Fast and Furious Feud
Since 2016, the Fast & the Furious co-stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Vin Diesel have been bouncing back and forth in what was infamously dubbed the “Candy-Ass Feud,” reportedly stemming from “differing philosophies” on the production of the action movie franchise. Well, it seems like things have finally chilled out for the two muscle bound stars. The Candy-Ass Feud appears to have been patched up, according to a recent Instagram post from the Rock.
In an Instagram video posted Friday, Johnson took a break from working out to voice his appreciation for the success of Hobbs & Shaw, the Furious spin-off movie starring Johnson’s Luke Hobbs and Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw. After some pleasantries, Johnson turned the subject to Diesel.