Old News: Lots of New Uncharted 2 Details
Nov. 1st, 2009 09:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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drakesfortuneNaughty Dog hops online to answer fan questions, and we've got the details.
June 30, 2009 - Over at the official PlayStation blog today, a couple folks from Naughty Dog stepped into a live chat to answer fans' questions about Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Evan Wells, co-president, and Amy Hennig, creative director, were on hand to field the Q&A and gave us a handful of new details on what we'll be playing this fall.
In terms of the game's length, Evan chimed in to say that "the single player campaign is definitely going to be longer than Uncharted: Drake's Fortune." He pointed out that the online co-op and competitive multiplayer modes will add to the value, and the more than 90 minutes of cutscenes will offer up a more robust story than the first time around.
The beta was apparently a big success. The team has already implemented a ton of features based on feedback from people in the beta. For example, there's now a skill rating that's used to match appropriately-skilled players against one another.
As far as multiplayer Trophies go, Evan mentioned that while they're still finalizing the list, they may include a couple of online-centric Trophies, but they don't want to force players to grind just to gain them.
In terms of the release date, the official word is still sometime in the the fall, but Evan continued by saying "I assure you that an official date will be announced very soon", so we'll know soon enough.
Split-screen support is a no-go. Naughty Dog only wanted to support online multiplayer as the studio would have had to compromise the visuals in order to get split-screen working.
With regards to the movie, Amy said, "We're really excited about the development of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune as a movie -- we've been working with Arad Productions for the last year-and-a-half or so, and couldn't be happier about their enthusiasm for the project. We're looking forward to sharing more info with you all as soon as we can."
Another multiplayer "demo" is planned to hit the airwaves before the game is released. While Evan didn't so much as say that it's going to be an entirely open demo, he said that "it should be available to an even wider group this time, so if you missed the last one I don't think you'll have any problem getting in this one."
As far as newcomers go, Evan says that the team was very conscious about making Uncharted 2 a standalone experience. He said that folks who have played through the first game will of course recognize plenty of characters and those sorts of things, but new players should be able to easily figure out what's going on, who the characters are, how they relate to each other and so forth.
With regards to the number of puzzles, Amy says that there will be roughly the same amount that we saw in the first game, but that you will have to figure out how to navigate the environment and make better use of it in combat. There's also a journal in the game, except that instead of Francis Drake's diary (like in the original title), it's Nate's own journal this time, and when players use it for reference to figure out puzzles, they'll have to thumb through it and find clues themselves rather than having it always show the correct page like in the previous game.
When asked about the variety of the locales in the game, we were told that Nate's journey takes him around the globe, including stops in Turkey, Borneo, Nepal and into Tibet and the Himalayas.
A fan asked about how the team implemented snow in the game, as it looks to play a big part in certain segments of the adventure. Evan hit on the technology behind it and said, "Drake and the enemies will leave footprints in the snow with 3D clumps that build up around their feet, and it even has gameplay implications when the weather really whips up and visibility becomes an issue."
One thing's for sure - this live chat didn't make our wait for the game any easier.
SOURCE
June 30, 2009 - Over at the official PlayStation blog today, a couple folks from Naughty Dog stepped into a live chat to answer fans' questions about Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Evan Wells, co-president, and Amy Hennig, creative director, were on hand to field the Q&A and gave us a handful of new details on what we'll be playing this fall.
In terms of the game's length, Evan chimed in to say that "the single player campaign is definitely going to be longer than Uncharted: Drake's Fortune." He pointed out that the online co-op and competitive multiplayer modes will add to the value, and the more than 90 minutes of cutscenes will offer up a more robust story than the first time around.
The beta was apparently a big success. The team has already implemented a ton of features based on feedback from people in the beta. For example, there's now a skill rating that's used to match appropriately-skilled players against one another.
As far as multiplayer Trophies go, Evan mentioned that while they're still finalizing the list, they may include a couple of online-centric Trophies, but they don't want to force players to grind just to gain them.
In terms of the release date, the official word is still sometime in the the fall, but Evan continued by saying "I assure you that an official date will be announced very soon", so we'll know soon enough.
Split-screen support is a no-go. Naughty Dog only wanted to support online multiplayer as the studio would have had to compromise the visuals in order to get split-screen working.
With regards to the movie, Amy said, "We're really excited about the development of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune as a movie -- we've been working with Arad Productions for the last year-and-a-half or so, and couldn't be happier about their enthusiasm for the project. We're looking forward to sharing more info with you all as soon as we can."
Another multiplayer "demo" is planned to hit the airwaves before the game is released. While Evan didn't so much as say that it's going to be an entirely open demo, he said that "it should be available to an even wider group this time, so if you missed the last one I don't think you'll have any problem getting in this one."
As far as newcomers go, Evan says that the team was very conscious about making Uncharted 2 a standalone experience. He said that folks who have played through the first game will of course recognize plenty of characters and those sorts of things, but new players should be able to easily figure out what's going on, who the characters are, how they relate to each other and so forth.
With regards to the number of puzzles, Amy says that there will be roughly the same amount that we saw in the first game, but that you will have to figure out how to navigate the environment and make better use of it in combat. There's also a journal in the game, except that instead of Francis Drake's diary (like in the original title), it's Nate's own journal this time, and when players use it for reference to figure out puzzles, they'll have to thumb through it and find clues themselves rather than having it always show the correct page like in the previous game.
When asked about the variety of the locales in the game, we were told that Nate's journey takes him around the globe, including stops in Turkey, Borneo, Nepal and into Tibet and the Himalayas.
A fan asked about how the team implemented snow in the game, as it looks to play a big part in certain segments of the adventure. Evan hit on the technology behind it and said, "Drake and the enemies will leave footprints in the snow with 3D clumps that build up around their feet, and it even has gameplay implications when the weather really whips up and visibility becomes an issue."
One thing's for sure - this live chat didn't make our wait for the game any easier.
SOURCE
