Always keeps us coming back for more

Replayability is a word that gets thrown around a lot, both as a criticism of games and as part of their? development. It's an important factor to consider �your game has ?to be fun enough to play and creative enough as it goes on that players will always want to have another go, regardless of how many hours they've put into it.

This idea of playing a game over and? over is not only a testament to how well it's designed, but can also help prolong the life, and revenue, of any particular title.

Take Twitch streaming f?or example -- a lot of the content is from players who are ?going back through their favorite games, which exposes viewers to that game again. That could drive players to return to a game they had put down and all but forgotten about, or even encourage them to purchase it for the first time. It's also a symptom of a devout fandom. When you really love a game, oftentimes you're willing to replay it because you want to experience that w??orld again, and DLC just means more of it.

So this word comes up all the time when we're talking about a base game, but often DLC falls out of that conversation entirely. With all these new expansions dropping like Life is Strange: True Colors' Wavelengths, Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye, and of course the announcement of the final Smash Ultimate fighter Sora, it got me thinking about what DLC out there is worth the replay. They deserve som??e love, too!

DLC itself can vary a lot in terms of what it offers the player �sometimes it's just a cool outfit you can equip in-game, sometimes it'?s a new game mode or map, and other times it's a story expansion that bolsters the whole experience. So for the s??ake of our argument, I think anything that has you coming back for more is fair game.

For me, most of the time that means the story content. My number?? one DLC is easily The Last of Us: Left Behind. Sometime??s I can find backstories a bit predictable, but I thou??ght Left Behind built on Ellie's character in a substantial way, while also giving us some o??f the most challenging and compelling gameplay of the series. Maybe I'm a bit biased as a Last of Us Part I fangirl, but this is one of the a??ll-time greats for me??.

BioShock Infinite's Burial at Sea is another one of my personal favorites �it draws on the main series in a fun way, the visuals are to die for, and there are some really show-stopping set?? pieces. It's a fun change of pace to play as Elizabeth, especially when you get to stealth more than you usually would in a BioShock game. I honestly think Burial at Sea is a stronger story than Infinite, too, but that's a debate for another day.

Those are just the few that I've played and really loved, but there are so many other DLCs out there that I ?know are worth the price of ?purchase alone. I hear Minerva's Den from BioShock 2 is one of the best pieces of video game storytelling ever (that se?ries r?eally knows what it's doing with DLC). There's also Red Dead Redemption's Undead Nightmare, which brought the game new life with a horror-themed zombie mode. You can never go wrong with zombies, and having them set in the wild west? Sign me up. I've been meaning to pick up the Breath of the Wild Champions' Ballad, because I hear it adds a lot of challenge to the gameplay.

So we wanna know, which of your favorite DLCs get you coming?? back time and time again? What is it about it that you like? Which games don't have DLC that would ma??ke you give it another try if they did?

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Good news for 1080p users

Naughty Dog has expanded its PlayStation 4 Pro support for The Last of Us Remastered and Left Behind, providing more display options to better fit your preferences and your? specific setup. There are also a pair of multiplayer fixes -- one for an aiming issue, and another for a smoke?-bomb exploit.

"Starting today, PS4 Pro players will be able to select from new menu options and presets that provide additional configurations for resolution, framerate, and shadow quality. These new display settings options offer greater flexibility to PS4 Pro players connected to a 4K display, as well as traditional HD displays through supersampling." As a 1080p TV owner, that last word is the one I was h?oping to see pop up again. Supersampling (and display options, in general) are real nice.

This is all good to know for the next time I play, which will probably be right before the sequel drops, whenever that might be. I missed out on the prior PS4 Pro patch -- the one that introduced some pesky new issues for certain ??setups -- so with this latest update, it should be smooth sailing.

The Last of Us Remastered - Patch 1.09 ?& The Last of Us Remastered: Left Behind Patch 1.03 [PlayStation]

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'I guess Nolan North was kind of right'

Naughty Dog has clarified rumours regarding a sequel to 2013's highly acclaimed The Last of Us.

Talking to Official PlayStation Magazine (via GamesRadar), Neil Druckmann explained that while a sequel may have been discussed, nothing?'s underway... yet. 

“When Bruce [Straley, game director] and I moved over to Uncharted 4, we were brainstorming ideas for The Last Of Us 2 with new characters; ideas for The Last Of Us 2 with Joel and Ellie; ideas for a sci-fi game; ideas for a fantasy game, and building prototypes for each one of those ideas," said Druckmann. "And just as we were getting close to settling or narrowing that list down, we were asked to work on Uncharted 4.”

Fuel was added to the speculative fire when voice actor Nolan North commented that he k??new the team was working ??on a sequel, and Naughty Dog writer Josh Scherr referred to the game as "the first" The Last of Us.

“You know, there’s a part of me that’s really looking forward to going back to those things, but I have no cy?cles left in my mind even to be thinking about that right now!” Druckmann added.

“So, I guess [North] was kind of right in that we were working on stuff, but we don’t know what we’re doing next and we won’t know until probably a few months after we finish Uncharted 4.”

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$9.99

Naughty Dog has sliced apart The Last of Us. If you're curious to try Left Behind, the prequel story starring Ellie and her best bud Riley, you can now do t??hat without committing to the larger story (or Factions multiplayer). It's available on PS3 and PS4 as a standalone download? for $9.99.

From there, if you do want to upgrade, it's $19.99 for the full single-player campaign and $9.99 for the multiplayer. I fully intend to play Left Behind eventually, but it's har??d to commit when Kyle and Darren keep pulling me back into Factions. Such a captivating, time-melting mode.

The Last of Us: Left Behind Out Today as ??a Standalone Download [PlayStation Blog]

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An interview spanning high and low brow material

Last night Destructoid attended the videogame BAFTAs in order to do some hard-hitting journalism. Speaking to Ashley Johnson following her BAFTA win for Best Performance for voicing Ellie in The Last of Us and its story DLC Left Behind, we asked all the big questions.

While a possible sequel to The Last of Us with an older Ellie and her feelings on winning a BAFTA for be??st performance were both discussed, let's start off with the question on everyone's minds. ??Whose is Ashley Johnson's favorite butt in video games?

My favorite butt? It's tough, I'm thinking about it. I'm going to go with Fetch from First Light. She's also my friend, it's Laura Bailey, she has a really good butt. It's just perfec?tly round and beautiful and I usually just give it a grab if I can.

With that out the way, we got to obviously far less important questions touching on Ashley's career, award wins and upco??ming pro?jects. You know, silly stuff to lighten the mood following our hard-hitting butts questions.

_{[Small spoilers below for The Last of Us.]}

When asked if she would be interested in reprising the role of Ellie in a future The Last of Us sequel, she replied simply with an energetic "Oh fuck yeah!" before apologizing to ??the amassed journalists for her use of language.

When pushed on the issue and as?ked how she would go about portraying an older Ellie, she cautiously told us:

It just ??depends if they want to revisit the story again. Ellie could go either way, [Joel] lied to her so you don't know how she would take t??hat -- would she be mad at him, would she be okay with, there's many places you could go.

Interestingly, we also learned that while Ashley Johnson has done on screen roles in huge projects like The Avengers, she is still recognized more often for her work ?voicing Ellie.

I probably get recognized for The Last of Us more than anything, which is crazy because it isn't physically my face. Last of Us has changed my life in so many ways and we shot ?it for over three years so, and including the DLC I guess four, so being part of something for that long and the experiences you have, the relationships you form, I wouldn't change ?it for anything, it's one of my favorite things I've worked on.

Considering Johnson was?? up against some pretty tough co??mpetition for this years Best Performance award including Kevin Spacey and Troy Baker, we asked her how she felt about her win and if there were any nominees she expected would win the award instead of her.

I feel good, I mean I'm kind of a little overwhelmed I guess, shocked and um, yeah. Struggling to find my words. Everybody up for the award was awesome obviously, that's why they were all picked out. For me Troy Baker, and I'm not just saying that because I know him, but his character in Far Cry 4 was so ridiculous and amazing. Melissa Hut??chison, ??I'm such a fan of those games, she's just incredible. Obviously Kevin Spacey, he's a pretty good actor. Those first two in particular though they both really stood out to me.

Ev?en though Ashley Johnson had just won a BAFTA for her performance as Ellie, we asked her if there were any aspects of he??r performance that she looks back on and cringes.

There are definitely times playing through Left Behind where I wanted ?myself to get out of the way. Ellie would just get right in the way and I'd be like "just fucking move." She'd start whistling randomly and Clickers are r??ight there and it's like "Okay they're right there can you please just shut up because now they're definitely going to hear us."

Just as our time talking with Ashley was coming to a close, we decided to ask her a couple of ending questions about Left Behind being a coming out story for her character. Firstly, we wanted to know ??how she felt watching players learn that her chara?cter is gay.

Usually when I try to tackle any role I know early on in the process what the sexual preference of that character is because that can be a huge part of who they are. With Ellie it was something that wasn't ??ever really discussed. I think with Ellie growing up in this world it wasn't somethi??ng that was every really necessarily brought up.

When we finally got to the DLC and Neil Druckmann told me what he wanted to do, I was like yeah of course, that completely makes sense for who Ellie is and why her rela??tionship with Riley was so important to her.

I was surprised by the way people reacted. We didn't know how people were going to respond and I think I was more prepared for t??he negative comments. What I wasn't as prepared for was the positive ones. I've had so many men and women come up to me and told me things sometimes they haven't even told their parents. It has profoundly changed my life.

We finished up the interview by touching on the critical reception that Left Behind had. I wanted to know if Ashley Johnson thought Left Behind would have won?? the BAFTA for Best Story if Ellie had been in a heterosexual relationship rather than a homosexual one. 

I don't know, I think for me it's ??just hard to answer because now that's who Ellie is and that is what it is. I know that Ne?il didn't want to make that decision based on trying to make a crazy statement of get any kind of controversy. It was just a character based decision and I think that relationship did have a big impact on people. I don't know, but I'm really going to think about it.

I think they definitely took some risks with the story. I think if you told most people Left Behind was j??ust the story of two teenage girls hanging out and figuring out their place in the world, I think a lot of people wouldn't be interested in playing that. I think after the full game came out and players had a chance to connect with Ellie, I think they wanted to know more about who she was.

I sat down with Neil and he told me what the story? would be and h?e just sort of said to me "I think Ellie is gay, this is her story. I think Riley was her first love and that's the story that I want to tell" and right then I was like "Yeah, I'm on board, let's do it."

I think in general the stor?y is focused on their love and that relationship and the importance of that which excited me a lot.

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This is it, the apocalypse

While the idea of a possible sequel has done an admirable job of quelling the flames of desire for more, Sony has yet to announce an actual, honest-to-goodness follow up to Naughty Dog's 2013 blockbuster The Last of Us. But wait! The idiomatic light at the end of the tunnel has come barrelin??g down the tracks like a Doomtrain with news of a possible port coming to ??;PS4.

According to IGN, NeoGAF user Quirah (via user chadskin) broke the scoop, tipping off that PlayStation's Eurasian Software Market Manager Sercan Sulun was seen on Turkish CNN squashing rumors that a sequel would be coming anytime soon. In addition, he added that the “first game will be released this summer for PS4 as a physical and digital copy, with enhanced graphics.” As if that weren't a big enough bomb to drop, he also noted that the first piece of single-player DLC content, Left Behind, would be included in the package. 

Meanwhile, Sony's not one to engage in the fun and games. When speaking to Eurogamer on the matter, a Sony Computer Entertainment Europe flat-out denied Sulun's revelation: "At no time have we announced that The Last of Us is coming to PS4 and therefore, ?have nothing to say on the s??ubject."

Given the fact that Sulun has been employed at Sony since 2012 and The Last of Us itself has sold over six million copies, the chances of him being 100% on the money are pretty good. It may not be news of a sequel, but it's a chance to expand upon the PS4's first-party library and a great reason to revisit the game. And if Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind taught us anything, it was certainly that sometimes, starting all over again can be beautiful. Also, pretty graphics.

The Last of Us is Coming to PlayStation 4 [IGN]
The Last of Us headed to PS4 this summer, Sony employee s??ays [Eurogamer]

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Let's go to the mall!

You don't have to ask me twice to get back into the world of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us, given that the game swept pretty much every award you could earn in 2013. I'm happy to accept the invitation into its super freaky post-apocalyptic world, especially when that return comes with a healthy dose of backstory. F??or me, it's the storytelling that makes Naught??y Dog's games so enjoyable.

The Last of Us: Left Behind (PlayStation 3)
Developer: Naughty Dog
Publisher: Sony
Released: Feb 14, 2014 
MSRP: $14.99 (Part of the $19.99 Season Pass)

We'll skirt as much of the story as we can to prevent from spoiling it as Left Behind is pretty much just that -- story. That's not to say that there's a lack of gameplay, but what really keeps you going?? in this two- to three-hour journey is the interaction between Ellie and her? friend, Riley. The prologue backstory you get on Ellie's life before she meets Joel is worth the price of entry alone.

All you need to know is that Ellie was once at least somewhat innocent, and that you'll get to see a lot of that in Left Behind.? Following two young girls as they run around playing feels so far away from the main game's tense string of battles, but this journey adds so much to Ellie's character that you might prefer it to the other side of the game, which flashes forward to a darker time. Again, we're intentionally keeping details vague to prevent from spoiling the f??un.

And it is a lot of fun. You wouldn't expect to be laughing out loud at additional content for such a dark and terrifying game, but I lost count of how many times I busted out with laughter. There are cute and genuinely sweet moments Ellie and Riley, which, again, will come as a surprise to those that were taken through the wringer with The Last of Us.

If you liked the exploration bits of The Last of Us, this trip to a huge Boston mall will delight you. Even with the combat-free stretches that the dialogue takes place in, it still feels like you're out exploring and learning new things about the world. And you really are exploring a new world. Unlike other downloadable story expansions, Left Behind is packed full of new things to see and do. We won't spoil it, but th?ere are times that you're literally playing with your friend, goofing off with no goals ??or checkpoints to reach. This is stuff that will make you smile.

As you'??d imagine, playing as Ellie feels quite different than playing as Joel. It's very easy to walk around a corner and find yourself completely over your head with attackers. Even a one-on-one battle is a strugg?le, though. Ellie has a blade that works nicely for a face-stab finish, but it's not nearly enough as a defensive weapon. Outside of having enough ammunition at the ready, Ellie has to keep completely out of the way of the Infected to survive. She's simply not strong enough to take them on.

Of course, the diversion and sneaking skills learned in The Last of Us are applicable in Left Behind, as is the crafting skill. ??Gathering resources and keeping out of harm's way is that much more i?mportant here.

Though there really aren't that many instances of combat, I found myself overwhelmed in most of them. I became frustrated in instances that just seemed downright unfair, where attackers of every type seemed to surround me. And b?eing wave-based, you do have to kind of c??lean up the room before being able to continue on. It took a bit for me to realize that staying out of the way really was key, and that these waves of encounters were really more like room-based puzzles. After I got the hang of, say, training Infected onto nearby humans, that frustration went away.

Again, the storytelling is so good here that it's almost like you have to work through a combat segment to be rewarded with an Ellie/Riley interaction. It's not that the combat isn't good or enjoyable, but that the talks between the two girls are just that much more enjoyable. Left Behind plays out like a rollercoaster ride of heavy m??emori??es, tense combat, and story bits. It all goes really fast, too.

The presentation is top notch, as you'd expect from a Naughty Dog release. Even now, Last Behind's visuals are stunning, holding up nicely to a lot of the PS4 and Xbox On??e releases we're seeing. Expect some new eye candy to marvel over. The voice performances are a real treat: Ashley Johnson brings potty mouth to a new level as Ellie, and newcomer Yaani King is outstan??ding as Riley.

The Last of Us: Left Behind is a short but sweet. $15 is a tall ticket for three hours of content, but this content is just as beautifully crafted as the original game was. More importantly, it gives fans of The Last of Us another chance to revisit its world and further explore the life of Ellie.?? For the first time they'll see her in her element, with her guard down, letting you connect to her fully. 

The post Review: The Last of Us: Left Behind appeared first on Destructoid.

We're ready for this, Naughty Dog

Our last glimpse of the forthcoming Left Behind story DLC for The Last of Us had Ellie and her companion Riley stumbling upon a seemingly functional carousel. IGN has a short new cinematic clip in which Riley pretends to be an infected while Ellie is sleeping. Yeah, scare the girl with the blade under her pillow -- tha?t ??seems like a good prank.

The outlet confirmed the DLC's $14.99 price tag and also got to speak with Yaani King, the voice of Riley. She says "...there are moments in the DLC where you get to really learn the personalities and the heart of?? who these two girls are to each other through the adventures that they have. And there are some really fun, new, fresh dynamics and content that [is] in thi??s that you don't necessarily see in the original game which I think add to who they are and who Riley is."

According to the trailer, t??he DLC is? "coming soon." Whenever they say that, it's not soon enough.

Your First Look at The Last of Us’ Singl??e Player DLC [IGN]

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