I've been a big fan of ND for a long time. I even liked TLOU2, which seems to be a controversial take. I'm expecting to like this game as well and I'm having a hard time believing this will flop. Then again, the mighty have fallen pretty regularly as of late, so who knows, maybe ND has finally jumped the shark like so many others.

Once again, Twitter is not real. No sense in posting anything from there at all.

It’s impressive... I view this as a testament and proof that PlayStation is the most innovative, risk-taking, and progressive publisher on the market.

Maybe not in terms of shoehorning "gimmicks" into games, but certainly when it comes to delivering representation and a wide variety of stories, settings, characters, and so on.

I mean, they could just take a simple premise—like "kill the evil king" (who probably has red hair or reptilian/pig-like features) and "help the princess/damsel in distress"—and keep repeating that exact scenario with the same villain... playing it completely safe and being utterly repetitive.

But not Sony... They genuinely embrace the risks of innovation—with both new and existing IPs—creating bold worlds that challenge the "accepted standard."

I hate what they’re going to do with physical media, but I can only praise them for their progressive stance and courage in defying so much hate.

I also want to say that I trust Naughty Dog, one of the most award-winning publishers of the last 10 years. They are incredible.

As much shit as the actual corporation part.of the company is right now, their devs are actually some of the best out there, that's without a doubt.

I hate what Sony itself has become, but I wholeheartdly believe in Naughty Dog talent. (And Santa Monica, and Guerrila Games, etc.)

I feel like in terms of gameplay they are pretty basic and very rarely do anything particularly innovative. In terms of storytelling this gen they have been pretty bland focusing mainly on very iterative sequels. I feel like a lot of there recent games have started to blend together tonally and visually. The last 6 years I think they have declined a lot. The writing has gotten very poor. Especially starting with last of us part 2, a game that had lots of ideas but needed a few more drafts to make them work properly within the narrative. Something that has become common for a lot of there games is too many story ideas crammed into a game to a point where nothing ends up feeling as good as it should.

Me: I want a space action adventure RPG hybrid. Also me: The main character is... adequate. Still me: I'm preloading it for the lore anyway.

While I've never seen Cowboy Bepop, I've enjoyed everything Naughty Dog has released since Uncharted 1, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to have a blast with this game as well.  My only complaint with Naughty Dog is how long it's taking to release a new game this generation.  Thank you very much Sony execs for wasting their time on the multiplayer game.

I believe their cancelled GaaS project really took a heavy toll on their production pace; at the very least, it set Intergalactic back by about three years.

As for the gameplay and writing, I disagree. I think the story in The Last of Us Part II is excellent—innovative and bold. Yes, it’s divisive, but it’s a powerful story with moments that pack a real punch. The gameplay doesn't try to reinvent the wheel, because it doesn't need to... they simply refined the experience and created something that fits the game's themes. I like it, though I admit it isn't absolutely mind-blowing.

And regarding the reliance on sequels... The Last of Us only has two main games and the DLC covering Ellie's childhood. It’s not like they’re churning out [Insert Name Here] 9 or The Grand Odyssey or The Adventures of Joel, for +30 years and counting. (lol)

They worked on Crash, moved on to Jak and Daxter, Uncharted, and The Last of Us, and now Intergalactic—a new title with a completely different theme! Respectfully, I don't think your claim holds water.

All being considered...I believe that, despite the delays caused by the cancelled project, Naughty Dog still holds a top-tier spot among the world's best studios.

The Last of Us, Uncharted 4, The Last of Us Part II—that’s an enviable track record.

In my book, they’ve earned enough goodwill to go over six years without releasing a new game; their situation is understandable, and it doesn't negatively impact their reputation.

Very well said.

I'm not sure why you are only mentioning Naughty Dog, when your original comment was about playstation as a whole. Sony has relied a lot more heavily on pretty bland sequels this gen. Gow Ragnarok, spider man 2, horizon forbidden west, ghost of yotei. These are all mostly ok games, but it does feel a lot more iterative and safe than what they were doing ps3/ps4 games.

I could write a thesis on the issues with the last of us part 2. Which is unfortunate the game had a lot of potential and a lot of the ideas could have worked. But unfortunately the game ended up feeling overstuffed and many aspects felt under developed or rushed. Also the story has such a painful over reliance on contrived writing and coincidence to keep the plot going, to a level that just becomes comical at time. Like when Ellie drops a map with the hideouts location circled on the ground in the aquarium, a moment that made me facepalm with how clunky it was, like something from a cheap B movie. The game is littered we these kinds of issues. I guess it comes down to how easily a person can ignore this type of writing.

The story at it's core isn't really anything special, just a basic cycle of revenge story that shows things from the perspective of the other character. If you've read many books, watched much TV, or seen some of the great films this really isn't anything particularly mind blowing. I'm glad you enjoy the game. But for me it unfortunately missed the mark on so many occasions.

Yeah, The Last of Us 2's story was terrible in my opinion.  It read like bad fan fiction.  A shame too, since I hold the first game in very high regards in that area.

As far as Sony being the maestro when it comes to these daring, unconventional things with stories and gameplay, I've seen the exact opposite criticism when it comes to Wolverine, being way too by-the-numbers especially where the gameplay is concerned.  Ragnarok and Spider-Man 2 are also good examples of this.  Not that that's necessarily a bad thing; the Uncharted games are quite iterative of each other and I love that.  Plenty of Nintendo's games also follow a similar pattern. Sometimes, if it's not broke, don't fix it is the proper mantra but the point being that nobody is exempt from complacency, not even Sony.

Regarding Intergalactic, we just haven't seen anything yet to judge whether or not the game itself will be good, but based on the little we have seen it's just not interesting to me at all.  It's a bit disheartening that the first new ND game we get after so long would be something I'm not looking forward to.