Naughty Dog’s latest trailer for The Last of Us Part 2, which the studio debuted tonight during Sony’s E3 2018 press briefing, takes a somewhat different tack than the hard-to-watch trailer from Paris Games Week 2017. This, the third trailer for the upcoming action game, features the same brutal and violent combat we’ve come to expect from the franchise — but bookended by cutscenes of Ellie at a dance. Sony held its Last of Us Part 2 presentation in a makeshift church it had constructed in a tent, and kicked off the show with a musical performance on banjo by Gustavo Santaolalla, the composer for both games. Then the segment shifted to footage from the game, which began with a cutscene of Ellie and a male friend named Jesse being wallflowers at a dance. It sounds like Joel is around at this point: Jesse refers to Ellie’s “dad,” saying that he laid into Jesse. Then another friend — or perhaps more — named Dina comes by and pulls Ellie onto the floor for a slow dance. Dina takes Ellie in her arms and kisses her ... and then the camera cuts to Ellie stabbing a man in the throat in a rainy forest. From there, Ellie tries to make her way past some enemies while remaining in stealth. She comes across the bad guys literally disemboweling a man who is already hanging from a noose. Ellie later eliminates some enemies using her bow and arrow, but eventually she gets spotted, and that’s when she has to take down a couple of people with some melee combat. It looks like enemies drop weapons when they die, like knives, and it appears that Ellie can’t use them forever. That was the case in the previous game, but a new element is the ability for Ellie to hide underneath a car. From down there, she shoots a woman in the face and then has to run into a beauty shop, and a number of enemies follow her. Ellie quickly crafts an explosive arrow on the spot, and eventually, when she gets to the last guy, she uses a machete she has picked up and takes a big swing at his neck. Sony announced The Last of Us Part 2 in December 2016 at PlayStation Experience. The original Last of Us was released in June 2013 on PlayStation 3. The company did not give a release window today. Correction (June 12): Ellie’s romantic interest is named Dina, not Nina. We’ve edited the article to reflect this. Dina is voiced by Shannon Woodward, who is best known for playing Elsie on Westworld.<doc-sep>Naughty Dog Sony's E3 conference began strangely, taking place in what seemed like a church. Turns out it was a segue from the real world to the digital world. The trailer for The Last Of Us Part II took place in a space almost exactly like the location for the conference. Very neat. The game itself felt absolutely savage. After showing Ellie at a dance, the game quickly cut to gameplay familiar to anyone who's played the original game. Naughty Dog Everything is ramped up. The stealth, the combat, the impact of the combat, the animations, all of it. Now playing: Watch this: E3 2018: The Last of Us Part 2 gameplay revealed The Last Of Us Part II looks absolutely fantastic. Naughty Dog is continuing to set a high bar here. E3 2018: Everything you need to know E3 2018 coverage at CNET: All of our E3 2018 coverage in one place. Now playing: Watch this: E3 2018 preview E3 2018 coverage at GameSpot: Wall-to-wall coverage of the show from our sister site, GameSpot. E3 2018 coverage at Giant Bomb: Still more commentary and news from E3, from our colleagues at Giant Bomb.<doc-sep>Although video game graphics continue to improve every year, depicting intimacy in a human and convincing way is still tricky. More often than not, when things get hot and heavy in games, it tends to look stilted and wooden. But in its new trailer for The Last of Us Part II, Naughty Dog delivered a master class in intimate animation, and the most striking thing was how much attention the studio put into the smallest details. Just look at Ellie’s expressions in the early moments of the footage. Notice the way she raises her eyebrows, bites her lips, how small tendrils of her hair sway naturally. It’s even more compelling for the ways it isn’t perfect: her face is lightly sweaty and her hair is slightly matted, just like it would be in a room full of people dancing and letting loose. See the way characters look at each other, the way their eyes shine when their gaze falls on a certain person; it’s almost as if there’s a real human being there, not just pixels. Then, when Ellie and the other woman kiss, look at the way Ellie’s lips pucker hesitantly and then lock with the other woman, how their necks crane and shift as the kiss unfolds. Fans keep raving about this moment online because it is remarkable in how well it captures something so unremarkable. These subtle details are easy to miss precisely because they are so natural; they look the way people are supposed to look in our most awkward and intimate moments — something we aren’t accustomed to seeing in games, but one that creates an instant connection to the character. The next day, Director and writer, Neil Druckmann, co-Game Directors Anthony Newman and Kurt Margenau, as well as performers Ashley Johnson and Shannon Woodward got together to discuss the creation of the now-viral scene. Apparently, Woodward had to learn choreography to do the first part of the trailer, though they ended up using only seconds of the dance. Turns out, making a scene this good required a ton of work. Druckmann explained that the studio could only shoot eight people at a time, so the scene had to be shot in batches over a couple of days. To capture Ellie’s expressions, Druckmann said that Naughty Dog developed more advanced facial capture, and created more complicated facial rigs. While these advances made for better motion capture, the rigs made it difficult for the actresses to get close to one another. Everyone agreed that getting the kiss was really awkward, even if the final product looks fantastic. With such a complicated rig, the two couldn’t actually get too close. Instead, the pair had to go cheek to cheek and pretend to kiss the air. And yes, the two really did make the sounds you hear in the trailer, at least when their cables and hands weren’t getting stuck on the rig. All of this for a small portion of a scene — but judging by the reaction online, it was worth it. Update 5:47PM: Added information about how the kissing scene was created.<doc-sep>
Sony has revealed more details about the much-anticipated PlayStation 4 game The Last of Us: Part II. In a blog post, director Neil Druckmann discussed Ellie and her motivations, while he also confirmed the role of another celebrity who is working on the game. We knew Ellie was older in The Last of Us: Part II, but now Druckmann confirmed that she is 19 years old. After the horrific events of the first game, Ellie has found "a semblance of peace and normality." She is on a path towards finding peace in her world--but it doesn't last. "When that peace is disrupted by a violent act, Ellie is thrust into a brutal journey of retribution, fueled by a need to bring those that have wronged her to justice, pushing her to her very limits," Druckmann said. While Joel was the playable character in the first game, Ellie is the lead playable character for the sequel. As we saw in the gameplay reveal trailer during Sony's E3 2018 briefing, Ellie is a more than capable fighter. "You're going to feel her physical, emotional, and mental state expressed through every facet of gameplay," Druckmann said. "We've completely overhauled our engine, developed new combat mechanics, created a new analog stealth system, and revamped our animation system to fully express Ellie's desperation, resourcefulness, and unique agility." Regarding the game's advancements overall, Druckmann said the environments are "broader, more complex, and more detailed." This brings "unprecedented realism, verticality, and player choice," the game director teased. The enemy AI is now more sophisticated as well. In other news, we knew that Westworld actress Shannon Woodward would appear in The Last of Us: Part II, and now her role has been revealed. Woodward plays Dina, the woman who shared a kiss with Ellie in the new trailer. Woodward and Ashley Johnson, who voices Ellie, recreated the scene in real life at the Sony E3 2018 briefing. Had a pretty great Monday. pic.twitter.com/XBnQ5Cdc9R — Halley Gross (@Grosstastic) June 12, 2018 The Last of Us: Part II is on the way for PlayStation 4, but no release date has been announced. For more, check out GameSpot's breakdown of the four big things we learned from the new trailer.