Hmm... I actually like them better in U3. In U2, they are almost invincible when you try to melee them. And they can kill you in 1-2 shots.
In U3, I simply ambush them, or run towards them and melee them fair and square. The same for the shield guys. It's easier to take them out with melee or gunshot. I think U3 encourages more proactive combat.
I heard the difficulty ramps up later. Will see if it causes problems later.
EDIT: So far I think U3 gives more emphasis to gameplay, whereas U2 feels more like a cinematic experience.
I'm not digging Naughty Dog's love for the heavily armored assholes with shotguns. Hated them in U2 already, but in U3 they really piss me off because there are just soo many of them.
got to mix up the enemies a bit somehow, its a problem when your game set in a more realistic world. At least this time you can fight them off with melee and counter attack them.
now thats the most encouraging post uptill now. Thats how I want it to be ! I think I'll recieve my copy tomorrow and have a go once, though I might not have much time to play tomorrow.
The aiming is absolutely retarded, there's a delay (I think) but the worst offender is the deadzone and how you cannot do diagonal movements without making a right angle. Why is something like this even in the game in the first place? it makes no sense !
now thats the most encouraging post uptill now. Thats how I want it to be ! I think I'll recieve my copy tomorrow and have a go once, though I might not have much time to play tomorrow.
Yeah but I think graphics folks will be let down because of some artifacts in the first few chapters (May be later chapters too ?). It's not as consistent as U2.
That said, when U3 flexes its muscles, I believe you'll be stunned too. U2 Chapter 20 was my visual high point. IMHO, U3 already triumphed it less than half way in.
Been playing the game for a couple of hours now.
Graphics are simply amazing again! I'm not sure if they've improved that much from UC2, as that game was already gorgeous, but there's already been so many jaw dropping moments.
I haven't noticed the artifacts patsu's talking, if it's not the one time there was some clipping when I stood near a wall, or one occasion of some white patch on the bottom of a canyon where there shoud've been water when looked from a certain angle.
I started play with 3D on, but I think I'll play it with 2D as the impact on resolution just isn't worth it and that really takes away a lot from the beautiful graphics.
Gameplay feels also much the same as UC2. but as said, there seems to be less cinematics this time. Haven't tried the online games apart from the beta, and don't think I'll spend much time online as I've never really been a multiplayer type of gamer.
The story is drawing me in better than UC2 or 1 did.
In my opinion the Uncharted games are the best games this gen, and I'm in love again with Uncharted 3.
The aiming is absolutely retarded, there's a delay (I think) but the worst offender is the deadzone and how you cannot do diagonal movements without making a right angle. Why is something like this even in the game in the first place? it makes no sense !
It seems fine on my PS3. I did notice aiming is a little slower but no big deal so far. I wonder if it's a bug. Odd that object motion blur disappeared completely and no one detected it too.
Maybe I haven't been watching much TV lately, but I haven't seen a single Uncharted 3 ad here in Canada.
Is it the same everywhere and Sony failed yet again with marketing, or am I just missing the commercials?
Also, they either allocated few copies to Canada, or this game is selling like hotcakes here. This is the first time I've pre-ordered a game from a large big box store (Futureshop) and they're currently sold out and haven't even shipped my copy yet. Looking at amazon.ca and they don't have stock either.
Even though I got this at the midnight launch, I started my game over so I could play the beginning when I'm not half a sleep. I've always enjoyed the characters in the series, IMO it's one of the franchise's biggest strengths, but somehow ND have improved on this aspect and now each of the characters is even more likable than before. There seems to be a more human touch in not only the way they look but also the way they act and it makes it much easier to get into the story. Speaking of the story, I'm loving it so far, more so than UC1 or UC2.
The game is the same ol' Uncharted gameplay-wise but with some refinements and additions to the contextual animation. I love how items in the environment (or the environment itself) come into play with the melee system. You can definitely feel a difference in the gunplay but it hasn't really been a bother so far. I still think ND can improve in designing their encounters at some spots, but it's been great so far. Throughout the game, I have seen the handholding/scripting that was mentioned in the Eurogamer review. At least twice Nathan has jumped off of thin air when I pushed the jump button late and once even slightly curved mid-air when I judged an angle wrong to grab a ledge. The game is very forgiving in this sense. Really not a fan of sacrificing freedom for the "cinematic" approach, but I'm hoping it opens up a bit later on since UC2 was never this stifling.
Regarding the graphics, there does seem to be some improvement to the lighting and shadows. How each play with each other is impressive at times. I have noticed some artifacts with the lighting and jaggies with the shadows, but these moments are few and minor. It also looks like they've improved their AO, now it looks more natural and not so aggressive as it was in UC2. On top of this, you can see cascading shadows load in on pieces of the environment as you walk closer to them. They really went above and beyond with adding new animation, which is saying something for an Uncharted title. Now Nathan contextually interacts with walls, railings, etc. and the way his body reacts to the player's input is very nice thanks to some cool touches. The modeling for the characters, along with their shading, have been improved. You can also see ND's artists went to town with this game, making each area so far look distinct and believable. Haven't seen any tearing so far and the frame rate has been mostly consistent throughout, very impressed.
That said, there are some notable changes you can see. It's clear that they have implemented new streaming techniques, specifically for their textures as there have been a small number of times where the high res textures haven't loaded, leading to pop in where the high res assets take time to load, similar to many UE3 titles. I've also ran into a few spots with blurry textures, more so than I remember seeing in UC2. Unfortunately, so far, I don't think this game is quite as clean as UC2 was. They are definitely using a new AA technique (MLAA perhaps) and while it works fine on most edges, I saw a small amount of shimmering. Along with this, the technique looks to make mince-meat on thin lines in the distances, especially in high contrast areas. This can easily be seen in the area where
you're following Sully as a kid by looking in the distance in the town right before you walk up the stairs before taking Sully's wallet.
Again it's nothing major but is noticeable. The last thing I noticed is the missing motion blur. I've read people claiming it's still in the game, but I haven't seen it yet and it's a shame since I like how it was implemented in UC2 (not too heavy, but noticeable enough to make a visual impact). Hopefully this is just a bug that ND can patch up soon. Still with this said, I think the game looks great, especially due to the art. Curious to see if I'm off on any of this in the DF analysis.
Warning: There might be spoilers ahead. Actually, there will almost definitely be spoilers ahead.
I just got Uncharted 3, and I've played for a couple of hours. I've noticed some improvements but most of what I've noticed was downsides. I'll list them and I hope to hear everyone's opinions.
First, the anti-aliasing. This one's jittery edges are obviously distracting, even in action. I heard they were moving to a post-process based AA routine, but this one doesn't seem to be as good as FXAA.
Second, tonemapping. It's messed up at points. There's this one cutscene where Drake lays a map on a table and the map is almost completely saturated white/yellow. How did this pass QA? It's a cutscene, the camera is static. No idea.
Third, texture resolution. It seems to have dramatically increased on characters' faces / normal maps but the environment textures are so blurry the contrast is staggering at times. The cutscene where Drake and Sully decide to go to France exhibits that. Compare the texture resolution of the table with the carpet underneath it. I found it to be visually distracting while playing, not while paused and using a critical eye to look at the scene.
Fourth, the new combat. The button indicators are tiny (on my 32" TV) and the lack of visual cues for parry (triangle) are a sign of ill-design. I had no problem using the golden fleece in the heat of combat to parry in God of War because attacks have a string visual indication. UC 2 also had a whole-screen visual parry indication: time would slow down.
Fifth, the aiming curve seems to have changed from UC2. It feels sluggish, and fine movements are really hard to get right. In UC2 neither me nor my roommate (who didn't play any game in the past 4 years except UC2) found any trouble aiming. Actually my roommate commented on how easy the aiming was. Is it the sensitivity curve or lack of target attachment / etc? I honestly can't put my finger on it.
I agree in a large part with your impressions. There is so much stuff on screen at times, and then with very detailed shadowing on top of that, it gets downright overwhelming. The MLAA is more uneven, just like you say, insanely perfect at some times, and a flickering mess at (rare) others, and I have to admit that between this and Uncharted 2, I think I preferred Uncharted 2's MSAA just because it didn't call attention onto itself at all. And the motion blur when turning the camera could have helped lessen that too.
Also, I somewhat regret the spoilers I've already seen for this game. Way more than I realized, though fortunately I haven't played that far into the game yet and I know there's still a lot to come, so it's not so bad - still, I wish I hadn't seen anything at all right now. Also, moving through the environment is at times really predictable, but fortunately the puzzles seem good so far.
I also had to get used to the aiming. It seems overly sensitive for small movements and that really takes getting used to (though I did get used to it) as it makes head-shots harder. Also, I've seen a couple of headshots that weren't fatal, which I hate.
Still a fantastic game though, and a real page-turner. I agree that the story is very good so far. Also, no pop-ins for me so far at all.
Just finished it. What a ride. The second half of the game and especially the last couple of chapters elevated the third game above the second one for me, mostly because I thought U2 started to drag a little near its conclusion (that monastery level was just way too long). And no lame bullet sponge boss fight either.
That said, there are some notable changes you can see. It's clear that they have implemented new streaming techniques, specifically for their textures as there have been a small number of times where the high res textures haven't loaded, leading to pop in where the high res assets take time to load, similar to many UE3 titles. I've also ran into a few spots with blurry textures, more so than I remember seeing in UC2.
I've noticed the same thing on a launch 60GB with the original hard drive. I wonder if my PS3 just isn't loading the high detail texture due to the streaming issues mentioned in the 1up article, or if the texture is just low-res. Some of the textures are for objects that seem like they should be high detail, like paintings for example. Maybe someone with the game and an SSD can chime in with their impressions of the textures.
