GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE

(click the blog entry title to link to this random italian website that hopefully still has the video)



OMG.
The quality is crap, there's hardly any sound, there's ads popping up, and some parts are completely impossible to see.
I AM STILL SO IMPRESSED.

So this is basically the same footage that all of the reporters have seen, and it was shown at the Game Developer's Conference this week. And totally ganked via cellphone I guess. Regardless, I'm going to write about it in case the video gets pulled (some of the copies have already gotten yanked. But I've seen it already and there's nothing they can do about that HA).

The movement looks super smooth, although I'm not entirely sure which parts are cut-scene-ish and what parts are fully player-controlled...but either way it flows really well. Drake does these cool baseball slides to get to cover if he's running towards them which makes SO MUCH more sense than randomly rolling all the time. After he gets like blown up at some point he limps for a few seconds. When he is hanging on lampposts they pull out of the wall with his weight, and he swings back and forth with momentum, he lands kind of awkwardly, and really can climb on like everything ("when in doubt...")

The hand-to-hand combat looks like they've simplified it, it might just be hitting square once and then triangle? But I've already stated my position on that whole thing (namely that it's not that hard, so suck it up you babies.)

Now there's clearly a lot more brown than there was in the last game, but I'm willing to forgive that for two reasons. One: there are pops of color in nice little places-- the flags across the street, for instance, and the bus and the street signs. It's kind of sad that the sky is brown, because I loved the gorgeous cloud and sunlight graphics from the first game, but I suppose here it makes sense that the sky is icky, given the tone of the situation. The other reason is that we know that there is a wide variety
of settings to look forward to-- snowy mountains, temples, a swamp I think-- so we won't be in Brownsylvania the whole time. This is acceptable, I suppose, although a legitimate concern I think, given many recent games' tendencies for "realism."
But we know that Naughty Dog has a sense of humor about that (remember the "Next-Gen filter" option?) so I think we're okay

And of course Nathan is as human as ever. He stumbles, his footing slips, he makes snarky comments about getting blown up by a bus. I think we're good here.

So that's pretty much it for now. It's a short clip, but there's a lot there, and it's looking promising.
I'm pumped. :-D

Gameplay Screencaps?

(click blog entry title to link to these sneaky screenshots!)

Now I don't know who got these and where and how, but this particular link to the screenshots includes some that I haven't seen ANYWHERE, and they look like they include a sequence of some of the new traversal combat-- there's a whole bunch that are basically Drake pulling some guy over the edge of a building.

These haven't shown up in any of the other releases that I know of, but I'm not complaining, especially since we get a nice look at the new half-tuck!!!

Something to Sink Our Teeth Into

(click blog entry title to link to interview)

This interview with co-lead designer Richard Lemarchand gives a lot of nitty-gritty details about how they're using the old engine and improving on it to make the new traversal system, ice graphics, intuitive level design, etc. He talks about the new context-animation, obviously mentioning the stealth thing but he also brought up the "collapsing tower" we keep hearing about. With the number of times it's been referenced, I'm betting there's probably a level/chapter that deals with it, maybe Ocarina of Time style?

He also teases us with alleged features that increase replayability? Surely not...co-op?


Also, PS, the Game Developers Conference is next week. From what I can gather, Naughty Dog is presenting a bunch of lecture/panel type things. I'd like to cross my fingers and hope that there will also be a nice long trailer released too, to coincide and pump up interest again. But I obviously won't be there, so we'll have to wait patiently and see.

Icy Mountain Screenshots!

(click the blog entry title to link to the screenshots)

WOW they look gorgey. I see that Mr. Drake found some cold weather gear aka a nice little ski parka that still shows off his FABULOUS JEANS. No gloves though. And his guns still have velcro and attach directly to his back :-P

But that's a gorgeous temple looking thing in the background there. And the tanks and ice and so on- I want to start climbing things, slide down icicles and such.

Don't know who that random Inuit trapper is or whatever's going on back there. He's in like half the shots, and he's definitely NOT Chloe. I wonder...new fun characters to mess around with, perhaps? Our replacement Eddy Raja?

Hopeful PS3 Price Drop

(click the blog entry title to link)

They've been talking about dropping the price of the PS3 for ages now. There was supposed to be a drop in April but apparently that got shot down. Here's some more speculation for ya.

Personally, I'd kill to see it go down, even without the Uncharted 2 bundle. Today I was wondering what I'm going to do when I finally get my own place, and whether my brother and I will have to have a smackdown over the PS3, which technically belongs to both of us but would not have been purchased had I not been the one to push for it.

A drop of even $50 would make me WAY more likely to buy my own, as I suspect would be the case for many parents who are on the fence about getting one for their kids for the holidays. After the Wii craze of the last holiday season and the speculation about '09 finally being The Year for the PS3, a price drop would be an excellent marketing move. Bundle it up with probably the best game coming out in Q4 this year, and hell, Sony could be pulling in all those disgruntled gamers that have forsaken the Wii and are desperately trying to postpone an XBox-360 purchase.

About the Release Date

I was in GameStop yesterday and a friend of mine from high school was working there, so I asked him about the release date confusion. According to him, the game is released on the West Coast on October 1st and is also shipped that day, so the East Coast gets it on October 2nd. So basically both dates are right I guess? At least according to him anyway.

I pre-ordered mine from Amazon though so presumably I'll be getting it delivered on the first. I HOPE.

Things That Can Improve

(click the blog entry title to link to the list)

There's some stuff here I totally agree with- the treasures were maddeningly difficult to find without a guide (...I admit it, I used one), and the same enemies over and over did get repetitive, especially after learning that fat guy = shotguns and australians = rocket launchers.

But I seem to be the only person on the planet who actually got the hang of melee combat...and liked it. I mean, it was either a "fast and furious combo" aka hitting square repeatedly, or the "brutal combo," which I'll admit took some practice to master but once I did I used it ALL THE TIME. I mean there was no reason to even use the FaF Combo because it didn't even give you more ammo, plus there were more buttons. So we're talking about learning the timing on ONE COMBO MOVE. ONE. And you're telling me that people who play Super Smash Brothers like it was going out of style are having trouble with ONE THREE-BUTTON COMBO!? GROW UP, BOYS.
Anyway, the point here is that I liked the melee the way it was and I can't see it possibly getting any easier.

Also I seriously doubt the probability of seeing online stuff happen. But that's just from where I'm standing. Time will tell.

...OR IS IT!?

(click on blog entry title to link to a very confusing article!)

Apparently GameStop really has the release date as October 2nd? According to this picture anyway.

It's the difference between a Thursday or Friday release date, so it's kind of up in the air. I'm a bit confused, really. I guess we'll have to wait for the word from the big-shots.

Ladies and Gentlemen, We Have a Release Date!

(click the blog entry title to link to the news blurb)

WHAT THOSE GUYS IN SWEDEN WERE RIGHT!?!?

Yes, according to GameStop there is a tentative October 1st, 2009 release date for U2:AT and this is a BIG DEAL FOR ME. Primarily because it means that I will have many opportunities to play it, either at school or while home over October Break. But also because it means that we're still looking at a 2009 release instead of all that "fiscal year" bullcrap.

It's possible that this date is just a "placeholder," as the article puts it, but still, this is better than no date at all!