Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Motion Comics (Episodes #1 and #2)

[weber_dubois22]

Episode One: Nate and Elena find the coffin of Francis Drake, only to find it empty. All that's left is a diary, Drake's diary. The ship is attacked by pirates and Sully comes to rescue them. In the diary, Nate finds the map to El Dorado. They leave Elena and set off to find the lost city of gold... Or not.

( Episode II )

Uncharted: Eye of Indra - Episode 01 (No Sponsor's Commercials)

[weber_dubois22]

The first part in the prequel to Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Uncharted: Eye of Indra.

( Episode One )

The Making of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Part 1/2

[weber_dubois22]

Part 1 covers the game's inspiration, look, story, and gameplay. In Part 2 we learn about the characters, motion capture process, and music behind the game.

( Part 2 )

US PlayStation Store Update: October 29, 2009

[weber_dubois22]

This week's PlayStation Store has gone live. In the downloadable games section, both Inferno Pool and Hasbro Family Game Night are available; new demos include Fat Princess, PES 2010 and the second Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack In Time demo; as for add-ons, some new Guitar Hero, Rock Band and DJ Hero content can be downloaded.

Read on for the complete update.

( Read more )

Among Thieves and Drake's Fortune #1 and #2 in PS3 Sales

[weber_dubois22]

Gamasutra's weekly column, "Saling The World", covers the top five sellers for every available platform in the United States, Japan, and Europe, providing an important update of sales patterns worldwide. This week's charts, with data taken from October 29th, 2009, find Borderlands outperforming Forza Motorsport 3 in the United States, as Hikari no 4 Senshi: Final Fantasy Gaiden leads DS sales in Japan.

Data for "Saling The World" comes courtesy of the public sales information on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and Amazon.co.jp, with sales split out for each platform and territory, and pre-orders disregarded. This results in a true sense of what games are selling worldwide on the real-time updated service, as follows:

( Read more )

What Insomniac thinks of Uncharted 2

[weber_dubois22]

'Stunning, mind-blowing, incredible'.

We know Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is incredible, and no doubt you do too. But what do Naughty Dog's peers think? Fellow PS3-exclusive developer Insomniac Games, the US studio behind the Resistance and Ratchet & Clank series, has spoken to VideoGamer.com at length on the game, revealing what it really thinks about Naughty Dog's effort.

( Read more )

Among Thieves: Using Trophies to Deliver Big Game

[weber_dubois22]

Going through the list of the trophies and medals in Uncharted 2, one spots a yak-petting exercise called "Beast Mode." Jacob Minkoff, of the studio

Naughty Dog, explained its origin with a laugh. "There was a tester we had who came in and was constantly describing Drake as going into ‘beast mode,'" said Minkoff, a designer on Uncharted 2. "Like, ‘Man, I went into beast mode and merced those fools!'

And I said, ‘We need a beast mode medal.' It had to happen."But what you do to get the "Beast Mode" medal is the larger part of why Minkoff talked with me earlier this week about designing for trophy support on the PS3. Beast Mode isn't a difficult challenge, you just pet every yak you encounter in the Tibetan Village level, and the instructions for getting it are there in the game. But at this stage of the game, Naughty Dog wanted to encourage players to interact more with those they encounter, outside of doing so to advance the story.

( Read more )

Uncharted 2 patch and Halloween details

[weber_dubois22]

Sony has announced details of a patch released for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and some bonuses for play over the Halloween weekend. Next time you fire up Uncharted 2 you'll be prompted to download a title update. The patch fixes a variety of issues with the single and multiplayer modes.

Here's the fix list:

#1. Addressed respawn points when the artifact goes out of bounds in the Plunder gametype
#2. Dynamically adjust the win condition for fewer players during the course of a match
#3. Added features to deter players from voluntarily leaving during a match
#4. Added rate limit to “When a Chapter is Completed” Twitter event
#5. Fixed a display issue during letterboxing

( Read more )

Naughty Dog Vows Uncharted 2 Isn't the End of Drake's Story

[weber_dubois22]

Naughty Dog's Amy Hennig told Playstation.Blog that Nathan Drake is "going to have a lot of adventures" past Uncharted 2. What is said here - very successful IP will continue - isn't news. Yet again, what's unsaid is.

Said Hennig:

[Uncharted 2] doesn't conclude the story at all. The expectation with Uncharted 2 is that it can be an ongoing franchise as long as people want more of it. All these stories are self-contained. You don't have to play the last one to play this one. Obviously, you're going to get a little bit more out of it if you have. But [Nathan Drake]'s going to have a lot of adventures, thank God.

I read between the lines of Hennig's quote and find she's not talking about the form factor in which Uncharted will be sequelized. So I consider it another big tease for episodic DLC for the game. The only word on DLC before was lead designer Neil Druckmann's coy "We are working on that," in a video interview back in May.

Uncharted 2 Interview with Naughty Dog Plus Behind-the-Scenes on X-Play Tonight [PlayStation.blog via Play.tm]

SOURCE

Is Uncharted PSP Bound?

[weber_dubois22]

We've already heard that the Uncharted 2 isn't the end of hero Nathan Drake, that he is "going to have a lot of adventures". Some of those adventures might even be on the PSP.

Nothing's official by any means, but Naughty Dog's Evan Wells says in an interview with website Examiner, "We'd love to see Uncharted grow beyond the PS3. It would be interesting to see what sort of changes to the design one would make for a portable system. But right now Naughty Dog is purely focused on PS3 development so we can't promise anything from us in the near future."

What Naughty Dog does promise is another Uncharted on this generation of home console PS3 hardware.

Naughty Dog talks Uncharted 2, Uncharted PSP, and Jak and Daxter PS3 in exclusive interview [Examiner Thanks, Lorand!]

SOURCE

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Awarded by BAFTAS

[weber_dubois22]

Steven van Hemert: Gaming has traditionally struggled for acceptance in the mainstream media, but the medium has been gaining credibility of late. With the Baftas now awarding statuettes for Game of the Year, it would appear as if gaming is finally coming into its own. And top of critics' list to walk away with the next glittering Goty statuette is the second instalment of Naughty Dog's acclaimed Uncharted series.

It's fitting that Uncharted 2: Among Thieves should be tipped for mainstream awards from associations more concerned with film and television. Uncharted 2 is without doubt the most cinematic video game ever produced. In fact, the opening stages play more like an interactive film than a traditional video game, a gentle, if nerve-racking introduction to Uncharted's unique game-play and absorbing storytelling.

( Read more )