Phill: Hello one and all and welcome to this week’s News/Talk, where myself and another MediaKick staff writer discuss some of the biggest news stories of this week. Due to unforeseen personal issues last week, I was unable to get an article up, but we’re back this week! I’m joined today by staff writer Dave Irwin, say hello Dave!

Dave: Hello internet.

Phill: This week Dave and I are going to talk about the recent issues with retailer GAME, as well as the unveiling of the first official screenshots of the upcoming PS3 exclusive by Naughty Dog, The Last of Us.

Well, let’s get right to it. We’ll start off with the news that GAME, a large UK and European retailer, is having some serious financial troubles, which may lead to them not receiving new stock for games and only pre-orders. News is also circulating that they are also having difficulties with lenders.

What do you make of this Dave? Are you a fan of GAME?

Dave: I shop mostly at their sister-store GameStation, but that’s only because of the tendency to have the games in stock where I can pick them up without having to wait weeks for a delivery.

Recently I had difficulties getting Resident Evil: Revelations, which I found rather surprising considering I’d never had any difficulties in getting a triple-A title beforehand. Is this a direct effect of the crisis (which as far as I’m aware financially was fixed now), or a trend in the industry as a whole?

But as for the monopoly itself, not so much. Their pre-owned policy has always irked me in some way because they keep 100% of the profit from the sale of a pre-owned game, but given the financial difficulties I’m not surprised they have to go to those lengths.

Phill: Indeed. With the advent of online shopping becoming ever more present, as well as the surprisingly speedy increase of the number of people purchasing games at supermarkets, it’s no surprise that GAME are having financial difficulty. Personally for me, I much prefer shopping in a specialist retailer than shopping online, mostly because I’m in Ireland so getting prompt delivery is simply impossible, but also because I like the experience of shopping in GAME or GameStop, something that it seems people in the U.K. don’t enjoy. Would that be fair to say?

Dave: It is certainly fair to say that supermarkets selling games at budget prices is a bit of a hammer blow to those specialist retailers. There is a little risk/reward strategy going that personally makes me fill up with bile to a business that started selling food and possibly clothing. I wouldn’t say people wouldn’t want to go into GAME/GameStation/GameStop because of the lack of interest in popping into a specialist retailer, just that they want the cheapest prices. I suppose people in the UK are generally having to keep an eye on their wallets and supermarkets especially are taking advantage of that.

The worst thing is that if GAME is struggling, imagine what it must be like for the independent retailers!

Phill: Very true, very true. I can’t remember the last time I saw an independent retailer in Ireland, to be honest.

Dave: They are few and far between in the UK.

Phill: Indeed. Well, let’s move on to a lighter note and talk about the release of the first batch of official screens for The Last of Us. Released as part of Game Informer’s coverage of the PlayStation 3 exclusive, I must say they look very pretty indeed. Although, would you expect to see anything less from Naughty Dog? They are the masters of the PS3 hardware.

Dave: I’m a little surprised this is supposed to be Pittsburgh, though looking at the screenshots, an old industrial town taken over by botanic wildlife and mutated people is a nice bit of harrowing irony. We can’t deny the spectacular graphical capabilities of Naughty Dog, and I’m pretty sure that these screens are only a sign of things to come.

Phill: Definitely. I must say, it is the setting that interests me most of all. We’ve seen something similar in Enslaved, although this is more realistic, and if you didn’t know that one of the lead guys on Enslaved is working on The Last of Us, you’d know by look at the screens!

Dave: I wonder if this is supposed to be the re-imagining of the concept for the ancient Chinese book that it is based on?

One thing does worry me slightly though.

Phill: What’s that?

Dave: In the last screenshot, there is an accompanying comment describing the combat. Despite it being realistic, weapon breakage is a very hard concept to try to get working in a game, purely because other people have tried and failed.

Silent Hill: Origins? Awful combat. AMY: I found it really sluggish from what I played. Hopefully Naughty Dog will be the first to crack it, but it’s risky territory.

Phill: Indeed, that’s a fair point, although I do think Techland made a decent stab at it in Dead Island, so hopefully Naughty Dog will look at that and build on it for The Last of Us.

Dave: Dead Island nearly had it down. Close, but no cigar though.

I’m more surprised this is appearing on current generation consoles, Naughty Dog have traditionally been a “one franchise per generation” developer.

Phill: Yeah, but they were also previously one team. They now actually have two production teams in-house, so the prospect of having more quality new IPs from Naughty Dog is pretty damn exciting. If they had an Uncharted 4 for the launch of the PS4, while also working on a new IP for it after The Last of Us… that would be great.

Dave: Didn’t they say they were done with Uncharted? After all it is another developer creating Uncharted: Golden Abyss for the PS Vita.

Phill: No, no. As far as I’m aware, they haven’t said either way if they are finished with Uncharted or not. The reason Sony Bend did Golden Abyss for the Vita is because Naughty Dog were working on Uncharted 3, and presumably were in the pre-production stages of The Last of Us at the time.

Anyway, that’s all we have time for this week, so let us know in the comments below what you make of this week’s news. Many thanks to Dave for joining me, and I’ll be back next week with another staff member to talk about the biggest news of the week. Cheers Dave!

Dave: No problem!