Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

[Shojin]

http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/12/09/un...-3-first-look/

http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/i...me-art_290.jpg

If Indiana Jones or Robert Langdon is your definition of treasure-hunting action-adventure, then either you watch too many movies or read too many books — or you haven’t met Nathan Drake, the hero at the center the blockbuster videogame franchise Uncharted, exclusive to the PlayStation 3 platform. Last year, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves garnered widespread critical acclaim, bagged bunches of major videogame industry awards, and sold over 3.8 million copies worldwide. Hollywood’s a fan: A feature film from Columbia Pictures — adapted by helmer David O. Russell (Three Kings), produced by former Marvel Studios honcho Avi Arad and rumored to be starring Mark Wahlberg, the headliner of Russell’s forthcoming Oscar-baiting drama flick The Fighter – should be shooting just as the next game in the series, entitled Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, hits stores late next year. EW recently visited the Santa Monica, California offices of Uncharted’s developer, Naughty Dog, for a sneak peek at the sequel, and we returned wishing “late next year” was right damn now. Here’s what we can tell you: First off, obviously the title is not “Uncharted 3: World of Deceit,” as has been rumored here and there on the Internet. Still: Good guessing with the “deceit” thing. According to Naughty Dog’s creative director Amy Hennig, the theme of deception plays out in multiple ways throughout the threequel, from Drake doing the deceiving to Drake being deceived to some mysterious deception about Drake’s very identity. The story focuses on the hero’s relationship with his mentor and father figure, fan fave Victor “Sully” Sullivan, and has him searching for a legendary lost city that will ultimately take him to the Arabian Peninsula and the vast wasteland of the Rub’ al Khali Desert, also known as the Empty Quarter. (Said legendary lost city has been known by various names, including “Iram of the Pillars” and the “Atlantis of the Sands”; click the link for more backstory.)


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Uncharted likes to keep one foot (or at least a toe) grounded in history (Nathan’s ancestor is the British pirate, explorer and Navy officer Sir Francis Drake) and the plot of Uncharted 3 draws more from Drake’s exploits as well as from the life of T.E. Lawrence — not from his militant days as the fabled “Lawrence of Arabia,” but rather the Brit’s early years as an archaeologist. The inspiration for the story, says Hennig, came from Naughty Dog’s desire to take on the challenge of conceiving and building out gameplay scenarios within a desert locale — “challenge,” because organic elements like water, fire and sand are technically difficult to credibly render with animation. Says Hennig: “When we first came up with the idea of sand, you see everyone’s eyes light up here and go, ‘Yeah, that’s going to be really hard — let’s do it!’” Adds Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells: “We’re a bunch of nerds. We just look forsomething that will be a technical, artistic challenge, and allowed us to push into an area of the world and history we’ve never tapped into before.”
Uncharted 3 — which aspires to be an “interactive cinematic experience,” says Hennig, marked with character-driven storytelling — will also make more expansive use of motion-capture filmmaking techniques (think: the way James Cameron shot Avatar) that will enhance the quality of character performance. (In fact, Naughty Dog’s new Santa Monica digs includes its own mo-cap studio.) The execs at Naughty Dog walked us through one of the game’s levels, and while we can’t tell you anything about the locale (it actually wasn’t the desert), we can tell you that it was quintessential Uncharted, marked by dynamic camera work and gameplay that requires you to jump and climb through treacherous spaces that are in an almost constant state of change — or in this case, catastrophic collapse. Innovations? Several, including enhanced backward climbing and the ability to fight multiple baddies at once. Finally, Wells stressed that much time and effort is being lavished upon expanding Uncharted’s online multiplayer and co-op capabilities, too; expect more details to come in the coming months. Doing so gives the consumer more value for their entertainment dollar — especially in a weak economy, and esepcially among videogame consumers more prone to buying just a few games a year. It also creates a market for additional downloadable content for purchase (Uncharted zombie maps, anyone?), and cultivates an avid community of what Wells calls “evangelists” that can help create buzz future products. “We want to take on the big boys of the multi-player genre,” says Wells, no doubt alluding to multiplayer giants Call of Duty and Halo. “It has become something here at Naughty Dog that will become an important part to all our games.”


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Naughty Dog is remaining cagey about the release date for Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, but expect it to drop around the same time that the first Nathan Drake novel, Uncharted: The Fourth Labyrinth, hits next fall. (According to Wells, 2011 marks the beginning of Naughty Dog’s push to make Uncharted a “transmedia” entertainment brand, with high quality, mythology-managed storytelling extensions of the Uncharted universe created for various entertainment media, i.e. Star Wars.) That said, Uncharted 3′s release date could be announced in the first trailer for the game, scheduled to air during the Spike Videogame Awards on Dec. 11. But lest we leave you dangling like Uncharted so often does with its hero, here’s a teasy little glimpse of Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. Take a look, then sound off in the message boards below.

Due out late next year, set in the desert and will focus on the relationship between Drake and Sully (FUCK YEAH SULLY). Can't wait.

[Kyo]

End of next year already shaping up to be amazing. Last Guardian, Uncharted 3, Diablo 3, Gears 3 and Rage, jesus christ.

[Callisto]

I wonder what mythical treasure the Nazis will have beaten me to by 70 years this time?

[Shojin]

your mothers vagina

[Hyan]

The setting sounds awesome.

Multiplayer talk = meh.

Still, it'll be fucking awesome.

[Niiro]

I'll probably play 3 much like I played 2, both dreading and looking forward to the "OGOD-OSHIT-OGOD" terrifying monster enemy showup 70% of the way through the game.

The obvious would be mummies given the setting but after the curve balls thrown to us in both 1 and 2 I'd be disappointed if it was something so predictable.

Also hope there's more monster enemy involvement in general. The 3 way combat dynamic was really fun and chaotic while also making the gameplay in general feel more believable. The sequences in 2 that involved the rebels(early) and the monsters(late) felt more genuine than the usual 1 man army stuff, it's not you VS them but rather a conflict you're making your way through.

[Callisto]

your mothers vagina

OH MY THIS BAN BUTTON IS OH SO SLIPPERY

but really, idk why they didn't just make a treasure hunter type game like this with Hitler as the main character, since he was apparently the best at it. There's a cave that hasn't been opened in 400 years, it requires 2 keys, one of which you were born with and the other you just plucked from the middle of a mystical tornado on top of a mountain guarded by magical fireball-shooting chimeras. You open the cave to find...dead Nazis who already opened the cave decades ago, because they're too awesome to need your stupid heirloom key.

[Xno Kappa]

My memory may be shotty but what the hell did 2 have to do with Nazi's? You don't like the story from the first one, okay, we got it.

[Callisto]

Didn't say I didn't like it lol, I played the shit out of both games and thoroughly enjoyed them. 2 only had the surprise Uboat-in-the-waterfall bit.

[Insanecyclone]

I had a thread but it was a false title

[Niiro]

OH MY THIS BAN BUTTON IS OH SO SLIPPERY

but really, idk why they didn't just make a treasure hunter type game like this with Hitler as the main character, since he was apparently the best at it. There's a cave that hasn't been opened in 400 years, it requires 2 keys, one of which you were born with and the other you just plucked from the middle of a mystical tornado on top of a mountain guarded by magical fireball-shooting chimeras. You open the cave to find...dead Nazis who already opened the cave decades ago, because they're too awesome to need your stupid heirloom key.

This time it's in the middle east, so expect Templars to have been there first.

Spoiler: show

Nazi Templars.

Didn't say I didn't like it lol, I played the shit out of both games and thoroughly enjoyed them. 2 only had the surprise Uboat-in-the-waterfall bit.

Got them mixed up, U-boat/sub base was 1. Iirc the the Nazis in 2 just hired/escorted that old explorer guy you meet.

[Katlan]

Looking forward to hearing more about the game. is it Fall of 2011 yet?

[Insanecyclone]

Demo is going to be shown on Fallon next monday night.

[Pharaun]

This time it's in the middle east, so expect Templars to have been there first.

Spoiler: show

Nazi Templars.

Spoiler: show

Incoming Uncharted/Assassins Creed crossover. Nathan Drake is Desmond Miles' uncle or some crazy shit.

On topic, this looks amazing, next year is looking stacked in the must buy games department.

[Tidane]

Very large image.

http://i.imgur.com/U1zTi.jpg

I was also told that the game will be demo'd on Fallon on Monday.

[Katlan]

why do they consider sand / desert backdrop to be amongst the technically harder things to do? I obviously know nothing about coding... but I always figured those areas were easier because it allows for less populated zones and desert's are usually just that. Long, [mostly] empty expanses of land.

[Callisto]

I'd suppose it depends how detailed they want to go with how the sand reacts to the player's footsteps, wind/sandstorm effects, etc. Also since Uncharted is pretty heavy on the cover-based fighting mechanics, trying to sensibly fit in things to hide behind that would naturally occur in a wide-open relatively flat area could also present some challenges I'd think.

[Niiro]

My guess would be making the sand actually behave like real real sand in the same way they put in the effort to make water effects in the other games look so realistic.

Like, if you were running up a sand dune, making the footprints angled and the sand rustle and tumble in a way that seems appropriate to the slope could require a lot of precision. A grenade goes off in a sand environment resulting in sand flying everywhere and landing on the character and surrounding environment, then falling off realistically.

I haven't played 2 in a long time but the snow effects in it were so good I can recall being impressed by them, accumulating appropriately depending on what parts of your body came in contact with it and melting over time, if you ran up to a cliff you would push some off the edge, etc.

There aren't many smaller things for a game to render than grains of sand, and with the crazy amount of detail they put into the game environments I wouldn't put it past them to try.

[Correction]

Very large image.

Has Nathan Drake ever ridden on something that didn't crash and burst into flames?

Spoiler: show

besides the girls in the games?

[Insanecyclone]

Up on Amazon now with a placeholder date
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