Uncharted 2

[spaceboy]

Ok, this is a PS3 only game, but any of you PC guys might be interested as well at this video - we talk alot about what to expect from gaming and this video really shows some interesting stuff regarding capturing and sharing gameplay, editing with a green screen, and even voicing the character with your headset.  Hands down I'm getting this game now.

The vid is the second image after the little blurb.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/01/naughty-dog-shows-off-uncharted-2s-machinima-tools/

[DKM2]

Is that the dead pixel head helmet? Is that it???

Oh, I can see walking around house with that,

(evil electronic voice)   "Woman, you will be mine!"
.
.
.
your no fun.. *sulks* back to the basement...

[Art Blade]

I wish we had that recording ability for FC2.

[Fiach]

Uncharted is one of the few games that would make me buy a PS3, currently saving for one as there is a price drop coming, so maybe in the new year sales.

[spaceboy]

Fiach, based on your love for RPGs a game coming soon called Demon's Souls might interest you in a PS3 as well - check out the info below on the messaging system to other players.  It's supposed to be freakin' impossible but you get help by the poor soul's (real players) who've passed through that area before you.  see below.  It might be too hard core for me, but it does sound interesting.

http://www.1up.com/do/gameOverview?cId=3169297

http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/rpg/demonssoul/index.html

Here's from 1up.
First off, there's the death penalty. You're forced to perform a corpse run after death; that's pretty normal. In fact, the only thing you lose is "souls" (the currency for the game) -- you still maintain your stats and items. That sounds peachy. But here's where it gets a bit different: everything respawns for your second run-through. Essentially, the dungeon and its inhabitants is completely reset to the way it was when you started, so not only do you have to make your way back to where you died, but you have to fight everyone all over again. Another wrinkle: your health is reduced to half. This doesn't mean you just start off with half health and need to heal up; until you retrieve your corpse, your health cannot be higher than half its previous maximum. And on top of that, if you die during your corpse run (while you won't have your health halved again) you do miss out on all the souls that were lost from the first death. You're going to hate yourself if you die in the middle of a one-hit-kill area, and you accidentally fall victim to the same thing that killed you the first time on your way to your corpse.

But not quite everything is equally sadistic. Some parts of Demon's Souls are just plain zany, like its messaging system. Anywhere you go, you can compose a message using a menu of pre-selected phrases, and drop said message at your feet. You often run into clusters of messages -- some with helpful advice like, "Beware of attack," or "You will get an item after this!" to puzzling ones like, "Cute enemy!" to the ones asking for a handout with, "This is harsh, please evaluate me." Yes, you can "rate" messages, and adding a positive point to the message not only increases its rating when read (so you can see if a lot of people consider something helpful by virtue of how many ratings it has), but it also instantly heals the person who left the message. There's been quite a few times where I think I'm going to die, and then I get a notification that someone liked a message I left, and boom, I'm healed and back in the fight.

I'm a bit sad that you can't "negatively" rate a message (at least, so far in my experience) -- you can only add points. Some messages aren't particularly illuminating and not worth rating, but those will carry the same "zero rating" as a message that says, "Attack! You're safe here!" but then results in a trap killing you. Similar to messages are bloodstains, which project a ghost version of the bloodstain owner's last few seconds of gameplay before dying -- these serve as odd, but decent, ways to see what might be coming up next.

As goofy as the messaging system is, it doesn't quite compare to how different the multiplayer aspects can get. You can party up with three other players to take on monsters -- that's normal. But you can't actually talk or communicate with each other; you have emotes and that's it. It's not an ideal decision, but it's one that you can w@&k around; instead of babbling about how awesome your day was, you and your fellow warriors can just focus on killing things.

That's the expected cooperative aspect, but the competitive aspect is just devious by comparison. Remember how you have to do a corpse run upon death? That's the normal way to recover your health and loot. The devious way is to crash into someone else's game and kill them. Yes, by making the hunting and killing of other players a method of healing yourself, the developers have created institutionalized griefing. I'm still not sure whether I should be annoyed or applauding.

There's a fair bit of Demon's Souls left for me to discover, like what "world tendency" means, and more of the epic Monster Hunter-style boss battles (I've only finished the first boss fight, and watched an Atlus employee finish the second one). But despite the harsh death penalty (where I've lost thousands upon thousands of Souls multiple times), and its bizarre take on multiplayer, I do find myself grinding monsters and repeating dungeons over and over again. It's just so different, and it appeals to my simple "kill, loot, improve, and kill" mentality.

While it's still relatively easy to import, I recommend waiting for Atlus' "official" State-side release. Besides the cleaned-up localization, Atlus is also bundling a nifty slip-cover, and a much-needed strategy guide. I normally don't care about strategy guides, but having a hefty 150-page one for this baffling game is easily worth the additional ten bucks that Atlus is asking.

[Fiach]

Thanks for all that (phew! :))Yes, I'm familiar with that game spaceboy, I read an article a couple of months ago, the game left me pretty cold tbh, seemed very japanese (not in a good way), but not like japanese rpg games, just kinda off the wall stuff.

I hated corpse runs in Diablo and everquest, they just added a pile of utter suck to otherwise pretty good games :)

One of the best RPG's I played called Planescape Torment, had a very novel way of dealing with death, you see, the premise of the game was such that you were a reincarnation, so everytime you died, it triggered a past experience, that illuminated the plot somewhat for you, of course, games like that are few and far between, but corpse runs are just stupid in this day and age.

On saying that, PS3 isnt really noted for RPG's, but so many games are being delayed until Q1 2010, that I should be able to spirit a few bob away and get some PS3 exclusive releases.

Uncharted 1+2
Heavenly Sword
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Killzone 2
Resistance 1+2
White Knight (not released yet)
Heavy Rain (not released yet, looks interesting tough)
Final Fantasy 13 (PS3 version may have some non 360 content)
God of War 3 (not released yet).

Thanks again mate :)

[spaceboy]

no prob.  yeah it sounds pretty intense.  I hadn't heard of corpse runs as never really played a RPG.  I'd love try Demon's souls but I'm thinking my $60 will be spent elsewhere.  Like Uncharted 2!

Good list there though I've only played K2 and MGS4.  Btw, there will be a release this fall of God of War 1 & 2 on one disc for PS3 with refined graphics for 720p in anticipation of GOW3 in 2010.  Since I never played the first 2 I may need to get up to speed - supposed to be $40.

As for Uncharted 2 I did play some online MP in the beta this summer - It was pretty fun, but this is an SP game at core that I'm really interested in.

[spaceboy]

FYI the demo for multiplayer and co-op is supposed to be avail on the PSN today.  :)  I am really interested in the co-op on this one (and single player of course).  Up to 3 people playing against enemy AI in "campaign" like levels.    ;D ;D ;D

[spaceboy]

Been playing Uncharted 2 both single player and multiplayer.  Both are excellent fun.  Single player is linear but great fun with action, stealth, puzzles, and platforming.  Much like the first game only better.  The graphics are stunning.  Multiplayer is a lot of fun and I like both the standard MP and co-op modes.

Check out these links to some screenshots I took of two different multiplayer games.  It automatically records all MP games and then you can watch the replays, pause, move the camera around, watch from above or watch other players.  Great fun.

http://mygamepages.com/index.php?action=articles;sa=view;article=22

http://mygamepages.com/index.php?topic=377.0

[Fiach]

Glad you are enjoying it mate :)

[spaceboy]

I know this has been mentioned in reviews but I just went through the train/tunnel level and the action cut scenes blend so well with the gameplay it really does make you feel like your directing a character through a movie scene.  It was a compelling sequence that was fun to play - although actually quite easy on Normal.  I can't wait to play it through on Hard.

minor spoiler alert*** and shout out to Far Cry 2

I want to give one shout out though to one of my favorite games - Far Cry 2.  There is a scene where you finally take out a chopper and it comes crashing down at you when you head into a tunnel - it made me think of FC2.  The reason is that the copper scene, while beautiful, exciting, and thrilling is obviously scripted - not a problem as again it feels like your playing in a great action movie.  My thought about Far Cry 2 was that there were so many times in the heat of a skirmish with some Assault Truck patrols that through a grenade or IED explosion a truck or car woud come spinning/crashing towards you.  Sometimes you get smashed, sometimes you jump/run out of harms way -and sometimes the truck goes flying nowhere near you.  The fact was though it wasn't scripted - so while the excitement of the chopper scene in U2 was fun - next time I'll know what to expect.

Don't get me wrong, U2 is hella fun and I will play it again for sure - just thought I'd make that comparison.

[Fiach]

Sounds great :) I was very impressed with the graphics on the train level and the way it made you climb around the train making it feel more 3D. I havent played any more as I got a JRPG the same day (Magna Carta 2), which is taking quite awhile to get through (30 hours so far, maybe 10 to go  :-\).

Looking forward to more updates :)

There is a game worth checking out, if you like that "guiding your character" through movie like moments, its called Alone in the Dark (the most recent one), there are things like climbing down electric cable avoiding falling debris, climbing through a bus as it teeters over an abyss in an earthquake type of environment, driving a car through a city as all the buildings are collapsing and the road is being torn up behind you as you haul a$$.

It has an odd control scheme (its more adventure game than action game), but its quite good. :)

[spaceboy]

Thanks for the tip on Alone in the Dark.

I didn't realize you picked up Uncharted 2 as well Fiach.  :-X  We should try to do some co-op together (time zones could be a problem of course).

The part with the train you are talking about at the beginning, I'm sure you realize is a flash forward.  You wind up playing what got you there and what happens after.  I'm just past that point and one thing to mention about the graphics is the snowy, windy mountain top you are on there is beautiful.  The way the wind kicks up the snow - made me get the chills myself.  The effect is similar to a level in Killzone 2 that had windswept sand blowing around, but even better.

I don't want to spoil anything but when you get to the little village (you'll know what I mean) make sure to interact with the locals - especially the kids) it gives even a bit more depth to Drake's character - Nolan North's voice acting is outstanding.  These little touches by the devs are appreciated.

[Fiach]

OK thanks for the heads up, will do that :)
I only played as far as wher Drake gets banged up and the guy from the last game bails him out, I'm finding the camera annoying, I always seem to be fine tuning it, probably just need to get used to it.

Got kinda sucked into Borderlands, my wife bought me Forza 3 today and I looked at it and figured I just cba to start accumulating another 400 cars and all the art w@&k (by players) again, I have some beautiful cars in Forza 2 and the game isnt radically different, just better gfx and a few new tracks. So I swapped it for Borderlands, will do a review of it after the weekend as nobody else here will be picking it up I'm guessing. :)

[Art Blade]

cool, looking forward to reading about Borderlands  :-X

[deadman1]

So do I, I´ve been thinkng about buying it. Unfortunately the PC release has been delayed  until october 30.

[PZ]

Anyone playing Uncharted 2?  I just saw it at a local retailer, and it looked interesting - I particularly like old rundown town appearance in some of the videos I've seen.  Is it more linear or is it open world style?  The fighting moves remind me of Assassin's Creed 2.

[Fiach]

Have you played Uncharted 1 PZ?

I would suggest you play that first as alot of the characters return.

Uncharted 2 is a 9/10 game, the production values really raise the bar in videogames.

[PZ]

No, I'm as unfamiliar with the Uncharted duo as I was with the Assassin's Creed pair. How are the graphics and the game play in Uncharted 1?  I'm sure I would appreciate the first game if it is anything like the second (at least in appearance).  I tend to be drawn to old dilapidation.  ;D

[Art Blade]

dilapidation... :) Try STALKER if you ever find time for that (I only know Clear Skies, a lot of dilapidation there)

[Fiach]

Well its like a more cinematic action version of Tomb Raider, but the jumping is much simpler the narrative for both is quite strong, the graphics and story are pretty awesome in U2.

Basically you explore jungles and temples, which are populated by enemies, that you need to shoot .... alot, then you have a little basic platforming to get to the next level. There are some very simple puzzles along the way, that wouldnt particularly trouble a 10 year old kid.

They are much better than that, but those are the bare essentials of what the mechanics are for both of the games. The characters are well voiced, the storylines are very good too.

They are basically high adventure romps, if they were books, Clive Cussler would probably have written them. :)

[spaceboy]

PZ, I've played both and am still engaged in the UC2 multiplayer and co-op online.  They are no doubt linear games, but very very good ones (the second being better).  I would also recommend playing the first.  If you care about such things such as character development in an action video game you'll find these characters are immediately likable and you can root for Drake the way you would Indiana Jones. 

Fiach is right about the similarities to Tomb Raider but with more realistic characters and better writing/dialogue/voice acting.  There are times when you'll just laugh out loud, or smile quietly in a knowing way.  Definitely more Indiana Jones than Lara Croft in my opinion.

They have great action/shooting sequences, climbing to various locales, with outstanding graphics (UC2 better of course).  UC2 especially is like your directing the main character in a big budget action movie.

[Art Blade]

Made me want to watch something again. Here a 5+ minute HD vid. Nice... maybe one day, on a PC... :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ljq6MXgPiSU

one more, his talking to himself is funny:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSsqgzb53r0

eek, space! you posted! lol, didn't see that when editing... see post after yours, going to post instead of edit here.

[spaceboy]

thanks for the link Art! Yeah, makes me want to go play some more...The video shows quite well how the game plays.  If you like the little quips and comments by Drake - that's what I'm talking about  - a real good dry humor and voiced exceptionally by the one and only Nolan North (the quintessential video game voice actor - who PZ you may recognize as the voice of Desmond in AC2)

Here's another little vid of one of my favorite levels.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe-zBdCxd_o

[Art Blade]

you got me again editing lol

going to check your link. Here's a review

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isj1QOclGG8