Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception Discussion Thread

The live demo of Uncharted 3 catches Drake and Sully just as the action begins to ramp up. They're deep inside the bowels of the wooden medieval ruins. The place has been overrun by ivy and moss. Shafts of light shoot through gaps in the roof and a four-post canopy bed is crowded by creeping foliage. The setting, as one would expect, is lovely ââ?¬â?? perfectly expressing the Uncharted series' strengths in recreating vivid ruins and out-of-control nature.

The pair have little time to breathe as they're quickly ambushed by villains. Amy Hennig notes that Drake's enemy this go-around wouldn't be just an evil warlord or a greedy dealer in antiquities, but members of an ancient order that uses fear as a weapon. She alludes to some of the players in the days of the Drake's ancestor Sir Francis Drake, particularly John Dee, the Hermetic adviser to Queen Elisabeth I. In addition to Dee's interests in mathematics and astronomy, the man also dabbled in magic and the occult.

How Drake's pursuers are connected to Dee remains a mystery for now. But it's clear that these men don't want Drake and Sully to live to find another treasure. Drake spies a pair of the gun-wielding thugs on a floor below them ââ?¬â?? they're pouring cans of gasoline, soaking the building's splintered timbers with fuel. Soon the place is ablaze and the chase is on. Drake leads the way, leaping across gaping chasms, scaling the decaying walls of the ruin in hopes of opening new routes that his less agile partner can use. Soon the action reveals subtle new tweaks to the way that Nathan Drake plays.

While climbing the walls of the French Chateau, Drake cosies up to an arched ceiling. In earlier Uncharted games this would be the end of the hero's ascent, but in Uncharted 3 Drake can propel himself upwards and backwards, making a daring leap that allows him to grab hold of an opening in the ceiling. Game director Justin Richman confides that this new ability would break half the climbing puzzles in the game's earlier instalments, but in Uncharted 3 the new, acrobatic moves give the player more ways to get in and out of trouble.

Richman also touts Drake's ability to traverse physics objects, meaning the hero will be able to climb, crawl and walk on things that are bouncing about willy-nilly in the game's world. This new ability comes to light when Drake makes a daring leap across a mutli-storey chasm onto a giant chandelier. The massive, dusty ornament swings with the momentum of his landing. Drake pulls himself to his feet while his precarious platform sways back and forth. His motion-captured movements, each reel or attempt to gain balance, feel real and organic.

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Perhaps the most welcome tweak to Uncharted gameplay comes in hand-to-hand combat. Drake's fisticuffs will take on the feel of a brawl. Justin Richman notes that Uncharted games have never delivered a bar fight ââ?¬â?? a staple in action-packed movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark. He promises that Uncharted 3 will be able to recreate a wild, cinematic fight scene leveraging the environment to add flavour to the encounter. If Drake finds himself pinned against a bar, he'll be able to pick up a bottle and use it to brain his opponent.

During the live demo we see a moment where Drake is set upon by two assailants. One grapples him from behind and the other pulls his gun. Drake leans back and kicks his legs forward, sending the armed man spilling backwards. In another tight spot he fools a gunman into shooting his ally.

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The demo ends on a cliffhanger. Drake and Sully, after surviving the near collapse of the Chateau ââ?¬â?? by now a smouldering inferno ââ?¬â?? make one final leap of faith onto a ladder. They see sunlight ââ?¬â?? a possible way out of the deathtrap. But the entire wall they're on shakes and crumbles. The demo cuts to black, leaving us with a taste of the fast-paced action set-pieces we'll experience late next year when Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception ships for the PlayStation 3 ââ?¬â?? and leaving us in no doubt we'll want to be there again for the ride.

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At one point, Nate was shuffling along a wall and needed to leap off of it, turn in midair and grab a handhold on the other side of the room. No sweat, right? You've seen him do it a million times before. However, when he got to the other end, the ledge he grabbed broke away and he tumbled to a lower point only barely getting his grip. Later, Drake grabbed on to a chandelier, and the hanging fixture bobbed and swayed with his weight -- objects like this that formerly would've been static now have weight and gravity.

Still, it was the little moments that got me. Teamwork in Uncharted 2 was really just a quick scene of someone jumping and grabbing on to someone else's arm (except for the stuff with Jeff the cameraman, God, rest his soul), but even in this short demo, it was interesting to see Naughty Dog toying with that concept.

At one point, Nate and Sully are separated by a chasm and the old man starts tight-rope walking over a beam like Nate has done a thousand times before. Bad guys burst in from behind Sully, and the player has to fend them off as Victor crosses -- and Nate quips \"Is it an inner ear thing? Let's go!\" Later, in the section (which you can watch above), Drake's foot goes through some rickety steps and as Sully tries to free him, Nate has to defend the duo from advancing bad guys. Moments where you actually feel like a team are really cool, and I'm interested to see how Naughty Dog expands on them through the game.

I hate to be that guy, but it's actually a shame the video above cuts off where it does. Right after that, the whole staircase gives out, Sully's dangling from the fire below, and Nate's got to shimmy to him and boost him up. The whole thing breaks in another direction and duo has to climb for everything their worth. Of course, the music's thunderous during all of this and really driving home the tension and how nuts the situation is.

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The story focuses on the heroââ?¬â?¢s relationship with his mentor and father figure, fan fave Victor ââ?¬Å?Sullyââ?¬Â 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 Rubââ?¬â?¢ al Khali Desert, also known as the Empty Quarter. (Said legendary lost city has been known by various names, including ââ?¬Å?Iram of the Pillarsââ?¬Â and the ââ?¬Å?Atlantis of the Sandsââ?¬Â; click the link for more backstory.)

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. The inspiration for the story, says Hennig, came from Naughty Dogââ?¬â?¢s desire to take on the challenge of conceiving and building out gameplay scenarios within a desert locale ââ?¬â? ââ?¬Å?challenge,ââ?¬Â because organic elements like water, fire and sand are technically difficult to credibly render with animation. Says Hennig: ââ?¬Å?When we first came up with the idea of sand, you see everyoneââ?¬â?¢s eyes light up here and go, ââ?¬Ë?Yeah, thatââ?¬â?¢s going to be really hard ââ?¬â? letââ?¬â?¢s do it!ââ?¬â?¢Ã¢â?¬Â Adds Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells: ââ?¬Å?Weââ?¬â?¢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 weââ?¬â?¢ve never tapped into before.ââ?¬Â

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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

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This game is so HD made , and i will get it for sure when it come to store in my city (if it isn't already there)

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My friend won this from an online Giveaway, he was lucky

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\"Reksii\" said:

My friend won this from an online Giveaway, he was lucky

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Really? but this game isn't released yet so how come he won it in an online competition lol can you please give us the link of that site which was giving this free game which is not even released yet?

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