Uncharted 3

[Arwin]

Awesome read about that link you posted. What really intrigued me was the comment about the launch era PS3s and the PS3s we have now....where in the old ones they would run in to bugs when streaming stuff and the newer ones no such problem...what all changed in the PS3? Surely not more RAM or higher clock speeds or bus speeds or faster hard drives?!

Like I mentioned before (and the article more or less too), it's all just because of the harddrives, nothing less. The PS3 launched with 20GB / 60GB harddiscs, and currently they are at 160Gb/250GB/320GB, and whatever anyone put in themselves (up to and including fast SSD drives). This has an impact. Once a certain speed threshold was not met, apparently this also caused a lot of virtual memory fragmentation - I don't know the details about that, but it is clear that they took the streaming from Uncharted 2 (which was still relatively straight-forward, and for textures only if I remember correctly from their GDC presentation), and took it a few steps further.

 

[suryad]

Like I mentioned before (and the article more or less too), it's all just because of the harddrives, nothing less. The PS3 launched with 20GB / 60GB harddiscs, and currently they are at 160Gb/250GB/320GB, and whatever anyone put in themselves (up to and including fast SSD drives). This has an impact. Once a certain speed threshold was not met, apparently this also caused a lot of virtual memory fragmentation - I don't know the details about that, but it is clear that they took the streaming from Uncharted 2 (which was still relatively straight-forward, and for textures only if I remember correctly from their GDC presentation), and took it a few steps further.

Cheers Arwin, I just realized that I hadn't refreshed the page earlier and thus had not seen your previous post

 

[Reiko]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=32315357&postcount=3459

Motion blur removed in the final build.

Weird. It was there (Object Based) in the Beta.

For people that don't know what I'm talking about... This effect was removed.

 

[nightshade]

Kinda disappointing cause Uncharted 2's object based motion blur was one of the best I've seen in any game.

 

[Antan]

Surely it was removed to free up horsepower for the larger scale of U3?

 

[Sigfried1977]

Is blur missing in the campaign as well? Quite frankly, I never noticed the effect in U2 (unlike in, let's say, God of War 3, Killzone 2 or LBP), so I don't really give a damn.

Amazing looking game save for a few slight blemishes. The post AA is sort of a double edged sword. Does a great job in certain situations, messes up the image some in others. I also thought the forest section before the French chateau was probably the visual weak point of the entire series so far. Garish lighting, blocky tree models and fuzzy shadows everywhere. Not very pleasing on the eyes and even more disappointing when pitted against the Borneo section of U2. In general I'd have preferred a slightly less saturated color scheme. My projector is professionally calibrated, and I still think that some sections of the game are damn near burning my eyes out. How does this game look on your average TV running in Walmart torch mode?

I also agree with reviewers who complained about having too little control. There are an awful lot of lengthy on-rails sequences in the game. U2 also had its fair share of setpieces, but most of them were merely spectacular without really affecting the gameplay all that much. The train sequence had an effect on aiming and there were a bunch of scripted highlights, but other than that it was just one really awesome looking level that played pretty much like any other.
U3 simply takes the whole love for set pieces a little too far for my tastes. It's also rather formulaic in structure so far: go to exotic place, find hidden entrance, solve puzzle, get chased by bad guys on the way out. Rinse and repeat. Platforming is as non exciting as it ever was because there's because literally no possible way to fail.

 

[Trejser]

We really don't know if OMB was removed, bunch of people claim that but same thing happened with Killzone 3, and effect was there.

 

[kagemaru]

Picked up my copy at the midnight launch last night and I'm loving it so far. Had to be at work early today so I couldn't stay up too late last night, can't wait to get home today and get back to it.

 

[Sigfried1977]

We really don't know if OMB was removed, bunch of people claim that but same thing happened with Killzone 3, and effect was there.

Well, at least according to Arne from ND the effect is supposed to be in the game still.

 

[Reiko]

Well, at least according to Arne from ND the effect is supposed to be in the game still.

He doesn't really understand why it's missing either. He even talked with other Naughty Dog devs about it. Maybe it could be patched back in?

 

[Arwin]

He doesn't really understand why it's missing either. He even talked with other Naughty Dog devs about it. Maybe it could be patched back in?

We'll see, but I actually expected some issues like this when I read patsu's link about that they did some very last minute patching to improve the streaming. Always risky, even if they have experience with this (they patched in 1080p/i support for the US release of Uncharted 1 at the last minute)

 

[suryad]

I personally don't think highly of motion blur. Somehow for me it takes away from the game. If it was up to me I would ask ND to keep it out of the game but then this is ND we are talking about...whatever they do I will thoroughly enjoy I am sure!

 

[RenegadeRocks]

Vendor has shipped my Special Edition ! Will reach me by day after, I guess ! Me n my niece did a little dance jig when we heard the news !!!! He he !

 

[Sigfried1977]

Hope you didn't buy the one with the Drake statue, because that thing looks bloody awful. Like a G.I.Joe figure which someone left in the sun for a day or so.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

Hope you didn't buy the one with the Drake statue, because that thing looks bloody awful. Like a G.I.Joe figure which someone left in the sun for a day or so.

Nopes! Thats the collector's Edition ! Is the figurine so bad?

 

[Sigfried1977]

Nopes! Thats the collector's Edition ! Is the figurine so bad?

Oh yes, it is.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

What ?!?!?!?!?! What kindof face is that ?!?!?!?!?!

 

[Gitaroo]

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6147/5955119424_d79ccdc83f_b.jpg

mine looks a little different than either figure.

 

[Arwin]

That's Charlie Sheen, clearly.

Anyway, just got the game and have been playing for a few hours non-stop. As mentioned, it starts slow, but I personally enjoy that a lot. It's nice to discover the story a little bit like that, as well as some of the new (and old) gameplay stuff. I like the way the hand-to-hand combat is done, although it is still pretty simplistic (but it looks good regardless).

The story does a pretty good job of drawing you in though. Also, there are so many environments you just pass through in these first chapters, its pretty amazing especially as the Uncharted game reuses almost nothing (almost). The lighting is also very good so far. The AA is, as mentioned, more uneven than in the previous game. Some of their stuff like glass, leather and other fabrics look great.

The way this game is going, and the bits that I've already seen spoilt combined suggest that this is a huge game. Really good stuff.

 

[Sigfried1977]

I'm gonna save the remaining 3 chapters for tomorrow, but holy shit does this game pick up steam as it keeps on rolling or what? What ND managed to squeeze out of the old PS3 is, quite frankly, astounding. Definitely a very noticeable step up over the second game. That capsizing ship, despite having seen it already (or rather snippets of it, because that chapter obviously goes on for a lot longer than the E3 demo), is really something else. You never have seen anything quite like it in a game.
Took me a little while to warm up to the game completely, but unless ND completely messes up the ending, U3 is gonna replace U2 as my favorite entry in the series.