Interview With Director Bruce Straley (Part 2)

(click the blog entry title to read the interview)

The first time I posted this on my Livejournal, the second half of the interview had somehow slipped past my Highly Advanced Method of searching for Uncharted 2 updates by entering "uncharted 2" into google search and hitting the "news" button.

But here it is, as promised.
The TL:DR of this half is that no, there won't be multiplayer, and no, they're not porting it to any other platforms (b/c Naughty Dog is owned by sony. Doi.)

But for anyone who may happen to want my (very important, and fangirlish certainly professional) commentary on the interview, here it is!

So he talks about the AI some more, yes yes very nice we've heard this already (to be fair the interview was conducted before this information was released). I do like the fact that there will be story bits revealed in overheard conversations. I appreciate the fact that there is still attention to the story (which is usually the first thing to go due to Money-Grubbing Sequelitis) and also that the story telling will not be as cumbersomely time consuming as things like MGS4 (which is frequently more like watching a movie with gamey bits thrown in rather than playing a movie that also happens to be a game).

There is still vehicle sections. Hopefully they will be the GOOD kind of vehicle sections with grenades and trucks and fun, and not bullshit upriver jetski sections with cow controls and rocket-launcher death.

Downloadable content got a "maybe." Trophies are probably going to happen. I'm not holding my breath waiting for anything more than that.

No news on a demo. This is actually significant, since the demo for U:DF was generally considered to be lackluster at best. I would like to see a demo, of course, but it's possible that they're going to keep the curtains closed on the game until release just to build up anticipation. If they do release one, I'm betting it'll be super short and during the summer to drum up some more hype as launch date gets closer. We'll see what happens.

Also, Nathan Drake may not be a bigger star than Lara Croft (if only because he doesn't stir up the same kind of controversy she did [lacking nude mods and all that fun stuff {mmm...Nathan Drake nude mods....FOCUS, SARA, FOCUS}]) but he's definitely a more interesting star. and I'm certainly very biased, but I do agree with Straley in that he's something fresh in the industry.


oh, and two more little things:
1) Amazon is taking pre-orders already. Check the links section.
2) One website was all "hey, Naughty Dog released high def screen caps of U2:AT today" and I'm like are you for real? Even i've seen all these screencaps already. all I had to do was enter "uncharted 2" into google search and hit the "images" button.

(This is not actually true. I just tried it and didn't get any of those screencaps at all, surprisingly. But I still saw them in like all the news I've posted, plus I think they were in GameInformer's coverage of it last month. So yeah.)

Interview With Director Bruce Straley (Part 1)

(click the blog entry title to read the interview)

I'm really impressed with Straley's ability to both answer questions and not answer questions at the same time. He actually gave information that is useful (like reassuring people that just because there's a stealth element doesn't mean it's a stealth game), and he still held back a lot of details about the game itself, especially STORY. Popular opinion around the internet is that people want U2:AT to be kept close under wraps until its release, to make it more exciting. I mostly agree, and I appreciate the lack of specifics in this interview while still giving a pretty good info session.

What I really really want to know, and isn't even mentioned here and I hope is addressed in the next half of the interview, is the answer to the question on everyone's minds: WHERE ARE SULLY AND ELENA!?

This is very important. I got really attached to these characters. A lot of people want to see Eddy Raja too, and I totally agree. It was the characters that made the game so particularly special, even if- according to the more video game knowledgeable- it was basically cut-n-paste as far as gameplay mechanics goes (I personally enjoyed it and didn't see any problems with it, having never played Gears of War or Tomb Raider [which i ended up doing recently and hated]).

But having gone through at least the opening of two first person shooters that supposedly had "great stories" and being entirely unable to relate to any of the characters I encountered, INCLUDING THE CHARACTER I WAS PLAYING AS, I have realized that maybe THE biggest draw of U:DF was the fact that these were characters I liked and enjoyed spending time with. And the thought that they may not be in Among Thieves makes me worried.

What I am crossing my fingers for is that U2:AT is actually a prequel. This would assuage a lot of things I am worried about with the game, particularly my concern that Sully and/or Elena die at some point. Naughty Dog has been suspiciously mum about their presence or non-presence in the game, which to me means one of two things- they're in the game but they die (or something similar like dying between the two games), or else we're supposed to play the game thinking that they won't be in it and then they show up at some point as a surprise. If it's a sequel then i'm pulling for the second one, but if it's a prequel then I don't have to worry about it at all.

Related to this is my worry that Elena has become a Bond girl, being in the one game and never showing up again, with no reference explaining what happened to her with Nate, or where she went. I don't like the idea that after the adventure they just split up and go separate ways. If it's a prequel, though, then there is a very good reason Elena's not there, since he hasn't met her yet.

And this also would make a lot of sense because, as a prequel that shows Drake's shadier, criminal side, we'd get to see one of the encounters that don't pay off in the end (like he and Sully refer to in U:DF). This is the impression that I get from the whole situation anyway.

Although I notice that he isn't wearing Drake's ring as a necklace in any of the promo material that's been released so far. He got the ring back at the end of U:DF, which makes me wonder- did he choose to not wear it anymore? did it get stolen or lost? or is this before he finds it? That would make more sense to me, because he could find it in this game, which would prompt the search for Sir Francis Drake's coffin, now that he's got the coordinates.

Those are my thoughts for now. More next week with the second half of the article.

Smarter Artificial Intelligence

(click the blog entry title to read the article)

This looks pretty sweet. I like the idea, anyway. I'm sure once I finally sit down with it I will curse it to the moon and back, but on a theoretical level it sounds like a lot of fun, and a good improvement on the old AI system where dudes would see me through walls and around corners for no reason at all and be like "THAT'S TOTALLY HIM, AND SPECIFICALLY NOT A ZOMBIE SO LET'S CHASE HIM."

First Look

(click the blog entry title to read the article)

I've been kind of a nerd about following Uncharted 2 news, because I have a lot of faith in Naughty Dog. This article really made me excited, because it looks like Naughty Dog is doing that thing they do with their game series, where they clean up what was crap in the first game, and take what was good and make it better. They did that with the Crash Bandicoot series- the gameplay in 2 and 3 is SO much more efficient and user-friendly and fun than it was in 1, but the exciting bits from 1 are still there. from what I hear, Jak and Daxter was the same way. And now it looks like they're really stepping it up with Uncharted 2.

The ideas of integrating the platforming, cover system, and fighting is something i'm really excited to see. Both items in U:DF were fun and interesting (even if the platforming could have been more challenging), but they seemed very separate. Putting them both together is a big step to making the game more cinematic, and incorporating the optional stealth mechanic is going to be a lot of fun on my end, for sure.

Someone pointed out to me that the genre shift towards the end of U:DF wasn't supposed to screw with you, it was supposed to introduce a different style of gameplay- namely, removing the cover system and requiring you to just blast your way through the zombies. This became a very interesting twist in the next level when you're fighting both mercenaries AND zombies, and you had to switch between the two combat styles. While I wish they had introduced this concept earlier, when I played through the game again knowing this, I was able to appreciate the idea a lot more than I had before, and I found the zombie levels almost fun.

The point here is that it looks like U2:AT is going to be A LOT of this, but streamlined and integrated into the gameplay in a much more effective way. And I'm REALLY EXCITED for this. Having actually intelligent AI and unique use of environments and setpieces spells a good, solid game in my book. I like it when games combine realistic action mechanics and story seamlessly. that was something I loved about U:DF- the fact that the story unfolded in snippets between cutscenes, characterization came through during dialogue in playable sections, and it didn't take its tropes too seriously and lampshaded a lot of them. And apparently U2:AT is going to use these things while they polish the rough corners in the gunfighting and platforming.