US PS Store update, April 17 – Uncharted 3 DLC bundle, Ghost Recon beta, more

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This week’s US PlayStation Store update is a bit slim on new games, but there’s quite a lot of DLC out there.

Now that Naughty Dog has officially signed off from Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, all the DLC has been bundled together at a discount. PS Plus members get further savings on the package this week, too. Dead Rising 2: Off The Record and NHL 12 have joined the ranks of downloadable PlayStation 3 games, and a new Vita game, Stardrone Extreme, is also available, alongside PSN effort The House of the Dead 4.

Meanwhile, back on the DLC side, Ninja Gaiden 3, Dynasty Warriors Next, Ridge Racer, Motorstorm RC and Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk 2 are all offering free add-ons. Otherwise it’s pretty quiet – but check out the Ghost Recon: Future Soldier beta is you’re a Plus subscriber. See the full update below, thanks to the US PS Blog. [SOURCE]

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Uncharted 3 Game Of The Year Edition Outed By Retailer

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Nathan Drake may soon be returning to stores. South African retailer BT Games is now listing a Game of the Year edition for Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception.

The GOTY edition listing, spotted by The Gaming Liberty, doesn't provide any details as to the content of the bundle. However, it mentions a release date of May 11th. Thus, we should expect an announcement from Sony soon if this listing isn't a mistake.

Uncharted 2 received its own GOTY edition back in 2010. It came with the base game as well as a voucher for all downloadable content released to date. The UC3 re-release will likely be the same sort of offering.

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Uncharted designer Lemarchand leaves Naughty Dog for USC

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Veteran Naughty Dog lead Richard Lemarchand is moving on after some eight years with the studio, "excited and happy" to join the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California.

Specifically, Lemarchand -- most recently co-lead designer on Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception -- will be teaching at the school's Interactive Media Division, which trained Thatgamecompany's Kellee Santiago and Jenova Chen, among others. He'll also work on a series of experimental games, as part of a research project.

"In other words, I'll be surrounded by awesome people, talking craft and philosophy, and building strange new things!" he told Gamasutra. Lemarchand has been closely associated with the program for some years, having numerous friends involved, and praising the legacy of acclaim its games program has earned. As a frequent speaker and lecturer (and active Twitterer) himself, he has developed close ties to academic and design practice communities from California to New York and everywhere in between.

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Those damn spiders in Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception (spoilers)

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The spiders of Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception are never properly explained in the game. Naughty Dog, the developer of the highly acclaimed PlayStation 3 title, left it for the readers to figure out. But we caught up with Richard Lemarchand, lead game designer, for a proper explanation. [We never did run this piece, but in honor of Lemarchand's departure from Naughty Dog today, we'll share it now.]

Like everyone else, we were been wondering what the whole secret was all about. Spiders have become the creepy non-human enemy of choice in so many games, so we wanted to get inside the developer’s view as to why they were such a big and mysterious part of Sony’s blockbuster game. The spiders are creepy, memorable, and enigmatic. When I played the game, I thought I had missed something explaining them, but Lemarchand says they were left unexplained on purpose.

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Uncharted designer’s departure from Naughty Dog raises questions about series’ future

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One of the chief architects behind the Uncharted series leaves Naughty Dog to take up teaching, but his altruistic ambitions cast doubt on the future of Sony's popular series. After eight years with long time Sony partner Naughty Dog, Richard Lemarchand is leaving the studio to work with the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. His last game with the company was 2011’s divisive Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, which he worked on as co-lead designer.

Gamasutra reported on Lemarchand’s departure in a Monday report, discussing his new job with USC. The program Lemarchand will be teaching in is the exact same one that graduated Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago before those two went on to form Thatgamecompany, creating Flower and Journey. “I’ll be surrounded by awesome people, talking craft and philosophy, and building strange new things!” said Lemarchand.

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Uncharted 3 Update 1.11 Brings Back The Lab

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By the end of this month, Naughty Dog intends to release patch 1.11 for Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. This patch will resurrect the Lab, the popular feature introduced for Uncharted 2's multiplayer. As the name suggests, the Lab is a bit experimental. Naughty Dog's designers have concocted a number of slightly unusual game modes for online play. The first Lab mode, which will go live with the patch, will be a T-bolt and Pistole only match. Over time Naughty Dog will rotate in other game types.

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