PlayStation Vita launches PS Plus service on November 19th, free for existing PS3 subscribers



Wrapped up in the Sony handheld's version 2.0 update, the PlayStation Vita is finally getting PS Plus. Detailing the offering for European users, the subscription-based service will add four free games per month, with the launch line-up including Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Gravity Rush and Chronovolt. Like its big console brother, you can expect to see discounted titles, free demos and other content arrive alongside full titles.

Your Vita will also be able to tap into cloud storage for game saves, with an additional 1GB of space added for the portable console. If you're already paying for PlayStation Plus on your PS3 ( three months at $18 or a one-year plan for $50), you'll pick up the service for free on your Vita starting November 19th (and the 20th in Europe), provided they're linked to the same PSN account. There's a quick video outline (and the European press release) right after the break.


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The Next Uncharted Game is Not Really an Uncharted Game



I told you not to get too excited. The next Uncharted game will be a "casino/card game", according to its Brazilian ratings clasification.

Called Uncharted: Fight for Fortune, it's for the PlayStation Vita, and given it's lack of marketing to the point where it's being revealed by ratings boards, you can bet it'll be a fairly simple and cheap affair.

PPg. 31. Seção 1. Diário Oficial da União (DOU) de 26/09/2012 [JusBrasil, via videtonator @ NeoGAF] [XXX]


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The Vita Diaries - 'Uncharted: Golden Abyss' Is A Lovely, Awkward Game



Uncharted: Golden Abyss is an impressive looking game, showing off the graphical prowess of Sony’s PS Vita in all the lovely colors of the South American jungle.

Developed by SCEA’s Sony Bend with oversight from Naughty Dog, the game acts as a prequel to the Uncharted games. And while it’s a handheld game, its 34 chapters promise plenty of game time.

Uncharted 3 was a decent game, but too linear and too interested in quick time events (QTEs) for my taste. Golden Abyss falls into both those traps, but makes use of the Vita’s touchscreen in the process.


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Uncharted: Golden Abyss Wins Best Handheld Game Gong



Uncharted: Golden Abyss was the best handheld game of 2012, according to the Golden Joystick Awards. The swish event – which took place in London this afternoon – honoured Sony Bend’s excellent PlayStation Vita adventure ahead of Super Mario 3D Land and Kid Icarus: Uprising. We reckon the Nintendo Life guys might have a thing or two to say about that result.

It wasn’t all good news for PlayStation exclusives, however. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception missed out on an award in the Best Action Adventure category. That accolade went to Batman: Arkham City, instead. Meanwhile, Journey lost to MineCraft in the Best Downloadable Game group. Battlefield 3 took home the Best Shooter gong, while The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was the biggest winner of the afternoon – netting awards for Best RPG, Most Memorable Moment, and the coveted Ultimate Game of the Year award.


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February NPD: Strong Vita Launch Can't Halt Sales Slide



It'll take more than a new portable to bring sales back up. The NPD Group has revealed the industry numbers for February, and sales were down across the board. Overall US retail sales for the month came in at $1.06 billion, which is down 20% year-over-year. Software fell even further, down 24% to $485.7 million, and even hardware - despite the availability of two new systems in the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita - were down 18% to $381.4 million. The only silver lining is that hardware was up in comparison to the previous month. As for the Vita, Uncharted: Golden Abyss did manage to crack the top 20 on the software charts, and $10 million worth of Vita accessories were sold, too.


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Uncharted: Golden Abyss gets launch trailer



Sony’s released the launch trailer for Uncharted: Golden Abyss ahead of its release next week. The trailer’s story-focused and contains a fair bit of gameplay footage. It’s vintage Uncharted stuff with lots of puzzles, climbing and shooting involved. Sony’s lifted the embargo on the reviews of the game, along with the rest of the PS Vita’s launch line-up, as you can see here. Watch the trailer after the break. [SOURCE]

Uncharted: Golden Abyss to Feature Black Market for Bounty Collecting Help



The developers of Uncharted: Golden Abyss, have started talking about some other features that the game will have, which are unique to the PS Vita because of its portability.

With over 300 collectibles in the game they’ve attempted to make some replayability for those who are crazy about picking up virtual stuff in between shooting down wave after wave of enemies.The items also tell more back story as you collect items you’ll get locations you photograph, and other puzzles you solve.These items are called Bounties.


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Report: Uncharted Golden Abyss Multiplayer Mode Planned



While the Japanese version of PS Vita launch effort Uncharted: Golden Abyss is strictly a solo experience, a developer reportedly told Destructoid at a recent Sony event that an announcement regarding multiplayer will be made soon for the title.

No further details were spared, only that it’ll be “something different,” presumably to complement the portable format. There’s no word if we’ll see it on launch day, either, though we suppose it could always be added in via a patch later. Who knows, if Sony is adding in multiplayer for the US release, perhaps we’ll see other improvements as well. [SOURCE]

Look Behind the Scenes of Uncharted: Golden Abyss With New Motion Capture Videos



Sony has put up a rare insight into the motion capture process for PlayStation Vita title Uncharted: Golden Abyss by showing Nolan North (Drake), Richard McGonagle (Sully), Christine Lakin (Marisa), and Jason Spisak (Dante) acting out scenes from the game. John Garvin, Creative Director at Sony Bend, first shared some of his thoughts about the process of bringing Golden Abyss‘ plot to life:

I’m no stranger to writing, having written all the Syphon Filter games, but this title taught me some new tricks. By the time we started shooting in February 2011, I had gone through over 40 revisions, changing everything from setting, characters, names, dialogue and action. If we count all the in-game VO dialogue, we ended up with over 400 pages of script for Uncharted: Golden Abyss.


Of course, writing and performance capture was just beginning. What followed was an intense year of motion capture clean-up, animation, camera work, set building, lip-synching, prop building, editing, sound and music, by a team of over 50 artists working across five different studios. Warning: The second video contains spoilers.

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The Golden Abyss and The PS Vita

QUESTION TIME: Given what's been released so far, do you think Uncharted: Golden Abyss is worth buying Sony's PS Vita for?



[Poll #1811876]

Uncharted: Golden Abyss News



We preview the Japanese retail version of Uncharted: Golden Abyss, one of the most anticipated PlayStation Vita launch titles arriving on February 22. By the end of next month, PlayStation fans in North America will be able to carry Uncharted around in their pockets. Those pockets will need to be rather large and awkward, since the PlayStation Vita is a bit larger than your average smartphone, but don’t be a jerk about it. You know what I’m saying. The Vita is turning Uncharted into a portable adventure with Uncharted: Golden Abyss.

I picked up my imported Vita earlier this week and have been tooling around with the Japanese version of Golden Abyss which, it should be noted, comes fully equipped with English-language dialogue. There’s some Japanese text on the game case (which looks like an adorably micro-sized Blu-ray case), but it’s safe to say that the Japan version of Golden Abyss is identical to what you’ll all be playing come February 22. So with that in mind, how do things shape up? [READ MORE]

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Details Behind "Uncharted Golden Abyss" PS Vita Trophy List



Uncharted has been one of the most successful original franchises to ever come out of Sony, and the fanbase has always been eager to learn of the secrets of each of the games in the series. With that said, new details have quickly emerged from the latest release, this time on the Sony PS Vita.

Uncharted Golden Abyss was a launch game on the Sony PS Vita when it released last week in Japan, and the hype surrounding the release of both the handheld as well as the game was astronomical. Once it was in the hands of gamers, the race was on to try and find each and every Trophy in the game, but without the information on them, it was difficult to really get rolling.

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[Playstation Vita] Uncharted: Golden Abyss “Features Trailer”



Uncharted: Golden Abyss is sure to become the best selling Vita title at launch which means it has a lot to live up to. I’ve already given my thoughts about the game on multiple occasions but in short I think it will be great, but not phenomenal like the last two games were. Sony have released a brand new trailer for the game which can be found below. Both Golden Abyss and the Playstation Vita will be released on February 22nd. [SOURCE]

Japanese "Uncharted: Golden Abyss" Trailer Looks Golden



A brand new trailer for the upcoming Uncharted: Golden Abyss has hit in anticipation of the PlayStation Vita's Japanese release on December 17. It's pretty excited for Uncharted fans, and it really makes the Vita look like a powerhouse. Despite our inability to speak or understand Japanese, it's pretty easy to discern what's going on in this trailer. Nate meets some new friends, he holds up an artifact, there are maps and dusty papers spread around on a table, someone betrays him, he almost dies, climbs a tower and defeats some supernatural forces. We don't want to call these games formulaic, because we like them, but we guess that doesn't have to be a bad thing.

Still, the trailer highlights a few things, like the fact that new character Marissa Chase is no Chloe Frazer (she doesn't have scary, piercing alien eyes, for one thing). It also shows the new climbing, combat and sniping mechanics, which utilize the Vita's touch screen. All in all it looks functional—and you can't spell functional without fun! Ahem. [SOURCE]

Uncharted: Golden Abyss – 15 mins of gameplay action



Sony’s shown off about 15 minutes worth of Uncharted: Golden Abyss, showing off some of the touch screen and touchpad capabilities for solving puzzles and climbing that I got to try with the game back at gamescom, as well as using traditional controls. Golden Abyss, made at Sony Bend, will be a launch title for the handheld when it releases in Japan on Saturday and in Europe and the US on February 22. [SOURCE]

Uncharted: Golden Abyss Japanese version supports English


As soon as Sony announced that their upcoming handheld console PS VITA will be launched first in Japan/Asia, many US and European gamers were wondering if they should just import it. Considering that fact that PS VITA is region FREE with Uncharted Golden Abyss coming out at launch, this just made sense.

However this PS VITA import plan of many western gamers was met with another roadblock as they were unsure whether they would get the Japanese version of Uncharted Golden Abyss or would it support both languages. Yesterday Sony Asia released a press release, and in that they had something very interesting information about Uncharted Golden Abyss. According to the details in the press release, Uncharted Golden Abyss is "Chi / Eng Version", meaning Asian version of Uncharted Golden Abyss game will support "English" as well. [SOURCE]

Uncharted: Golden Abyss Main Villain Now Revealed

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Courtesy of Famitsu.com, the Japanese gaming website has shared some new screenshots for Uncharted: Golden Abyss. We now know what the main villain looks like. Nobody knows the name of this burly looking dude but he resembles one of the Presidents of Colombia, Fidel Castro. Expect Sony to reveal the actual identity of the main villain very soon.

Uncharted: Golden Abyss is a PlayStation Vita exclusive available as a launch title for the system It will be available December 17th in Japan and February 22nd everywhere else. [SOURCE]


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Uncharted Golden Abyss Japanese Box Art is a awesome kind of Final

Uncharted: Golden Abyss gets the finalized version of its box art.



Famitsu has published the finalized cover art for the PS Vita-only title, Uncharted: Golden Abyss. The game takes Nathan Drake on a detour through an all new location in this game, which surprisingly enough, wasn't developed by Naughty Dog.

Created by SCE Bend Studio with the consent of Naughty Dog and their writing assistance, Uncharted: Golden Abyss takes Nathan Drake on a journey to the jungles of South America. It takes place before the events of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune—or the first game in the series—making it somewhat of a prequel. Uncharted: Golden Abyss is set for a February 22, 2012 release date exclusive to the PlayStation Vita. It comes out this December in Japan. [SOURCE]