I don't think I've seen a single current gen game that uses this many volumetric lights in a single scene. Sometimes there are like 6-7 of them at once (maybe more when you mix in the enemies with flashlights) all casting 3D light volumes and not just a 2D post process effect. To use this effect in a game like Uncharted which is already so tech heavy is an accomplishment in itself but to use it so generously is even more commendable.
Uncharted 3
- Thread starter corduroygt
- Start date
upnorthsox
Veteran
Finished it up last night, overall the best of the 3.
Storyline - Excellent. Drew me in right away and never lost me. Loved all the backstory, the interactions between characters, and the pacing. The villians could've been a little more fleshed out but then it wasn't really about them was it? The title could have just as easily been Uncharted 3: Drake's Obsession.
Gameplay - Good. Overall for me the gameplay was good but there were things that kept it from being great.
- Great. Pacing was dead on, puzzles were varied, AI was aggressive, and interaction with the environment was best this gen.
- Not so Great. Melee mechanics didn't rise to the significance it took.Too much hand holding on the platforming.
Graphics - OMG. It may be cliche but its how I feel. There's just too much to list (without having to spoiler it all) but one of the best aspects is also the great irony. For a game touted as an arid desert locale, there's more and better water in this than there is in UNC1 and 2 combined x10. If you aren't impressed with the gfx here then all I can say is.....it sucks to be you.
Performance - Ok. Framerate was solid but others things lacked polish. Controls were a bit laggy and the triangle button in melee didn't seem to work half the time. I had 2 hard stops that caused me to power down (at the beginning of chp 10, and I mean literally as in the chp title was still on screen and once on board the cruise ship) to get past. I also got stuck in geometry once (though is it really a video game if you don't get stuck/fall thru geometry at least once?). All in all, I'd say it could've used another month of polish.
General impressions/replies to others. - A great thrill ride that'll be hard to beat. I loved the more aggressive AI that led to a much different way of playing than the others. Case in point, in UNC2 I played cover to cover and camp almost exclusively. In UNC3, the AI wouldn't let you sit and so it was mostly run n gun and melee. And it wasn't just a bull rush attack as someone suggested but the reality that when it's 15 v 1 they shouldn't just sit back and let you pick them off one by one. The shotgun/bullet vested guys were too spongy though, I mean, bullet spongy is fine for guys wearing vests but you couldn't kill them with handgrenades and a full Hammer either.
One of the great things about ND is that they're willing to crank up the graphics if the setting allows it and boy do they crank it up. My personal favorite has to be the water in the French caverns but the set pieces are also awesome.
I enjoyed the addition of Charlie, the backstory of Nate and Sully, and I'm probably the only one who enjoyed playing as the kid, but so be it. I also didn't miss a sponge filled final boss battle but for UNC4 they should probably try for a happier medium.
I think I'll just cut it short and maybe reply to others.
Storyline - Excellent. Drew me in right away and never lost me. Loved all the backstory, the interactions between characters, and the pacing. The villians could've been a little more fleshed out but then it wasn't really about them was it? The title could have just as easily been Uncharted 3: Drake's Obsession.
Gameplay - Good. Overall for me the gameplay was good but there were things that kept it from being great.
- Great. Pacing was dead on, puzzles were varied, AI was aggressive, and interaction with the environment was best this gen.
- Not so Great. Melee mechanics didn't rise to the significance it took.Too much hand holding on the platforming.
Graphics - OMG. It may be cliche but its how I feel. There's just too much to list (without having to spoiler it all) but one of the best aspects is also the great irony. For a game touted as an arid desert locale, there's more and better water in this than there is in UNC1 and 2 combined x10. If you aren't impressed with the gfx here then all I can say is.....it sucks to be you.
Performance - Ok. Framerate was solid but others things lacked polish. Controls were a bit laggy and the triangle button in melee didn't seem to work half the time. I had 2 hard stops that caused me to power down (at the beginning of chp 10, and I mean literally as in the chp title was still on screen and once on board the cruise ship) to get past. I also got stuck in geometry once (though is it really a video game if you don't get stuck/fall thru geometry at least once?). All in all, I'd say it could've used another month of polish.
General impressions/replies to others. - A great thrill ride that'll be hard to beat. I loved the more aggressive AI that led to a much different way of playing than the others. Case in point, in UNC2 I played cover to cover and camp almost exclusively. In UNC3, the AI wouldn't let you sit and so it was mostly run n gun and melee. And it wasn't just a bull rush attack as someone suggested but the reality that when it's 15 v 1 they shouldn't just sit back and let you pick them off one by one. The shotgun/bullet vested guys were too spongy though, I mean, bullet spongy is fine for guys wearing vests but you couldn't kill them with handgrenades and a full Hammer either.
One of the great things about ND is that they're willing to crank up the graphics if the setting allows it and boy do they crank it up. My personal favorite has to be the water in the French caverns but the set pieces are also awesome.
I enjoyed the addition of Charlie, the backstory of Nate and Sully, and I'm probably the only one who enjoyed playing as the kid, but so be it. I also didn't miss a sponge filled final boss battle but for UNC4 they should probably try for a happier medium.
I think I'll just cut it short and maybe reply to others.
Harsh Corn, harsh.
They could've opened it up more with paths that "looked" possible in the game, removing some of the NPCs early on blocking your way, removing some invisible walls, etc. Won't radically change the game if they shift control back into the hands of the player. And brought back stealth gameplay.
RenegadeRocks
Legend
Yeah ! I am also getting the vibes now that the gunplay and melee fights have suffered, somehow they were smoother in UC2 and 1, almost all fights turn into melee fests, as if the devs want you to focus on melee in every fight.
but the puzzles are so much better this time around, the story feels so much more coherrent and engaging, platforming is so much better and the whole vibe is so much better. I think somehwere they did not get time to polish the individual gunfights and their melee system. I am still at Chapter 8,so it could improve.
BTW:
Sully: "One of these days, you'll have to start carrying your own set of matches, Son !"
Drake :" What do you mean?"
I hope its just to show their relationship and something like this doesn't happen. I won't be able to take it
!I think it's pretty fair. When there is gameplay it's anywhere between average and bad. How on earth didn't they notice that much controller lag. Or how poor the hand to hand combat is. This is their third Uncharted game and it's only gotten worse. There also hasn't been anything new added to the gameplay. The shooting, the platforming, the puzzles, they all don't get more basic then they are here. Is it too much to ask to expect better from Naughty Dog?
The story wasn't very good either, and most of it has been done for the third time now. It's very predictable, and second half has Drake merely stumbling on the next bit. There is little connection to it. The bad guys are only there as some contrived way to make Drake a hero.
I really hope Naughty Dog makes a new IP after this. Uncharted is way to limited a concept for more games.
The story wasn't very good either, and most of it has been done for the third time now. It's very predictable, and second half has Drake merely stumbling on the next bit. There is little connection to it. The bad guys are only there as some contrived way to make Drake a hero.
The whole "Drake pushing Sully to do dangerous things" also falls flat. In Uncharted it was Drake who wanted to leave the island, and everyone else pushing him to go after the treasure. Now we're supposed to except the opposite is true?
I really hope Naughty Dog makes a new IP after this. Uncharted is way to limited a concept for more games.
upnorthsox
Veteran
Yeah ! I am also getting the vibes now that the gunplay and melee fights have suffered, somehow they were smoother in UC2 and 1, almost all fights turn into melee fests, as if the devs want you to focus on melee in every fight.
but the puzzles are so much better this time around, the story feels so much more coherrent and engaging, platforming is so much better and the whole vibe is so much better. I think somehwere they did not get time to polish the individual gunfights and their melee system. I am still at Chapter 8,so it could improve.
BTW:
Sully: "One of these days, you'll have to start carrying your own set of matches, Son !"
Drake :" What do you mean?"
I hope its just to show their relationship and something like this doesn't happen. I won't be able to take it
Melee is not in tune with the aggressive AI, the AI swarms you so if you sit in a position you'll find yourself melee'ing with 4 or 5 guys before you know it. This would be ok if you had more varied attacks but you're pretty much confined to spamming the square and triangle buttons and like I said above, the triangle doesn't work half the time so it's mostly spamming the square. That said, one of the cool things is that if you melee too long one of the guys will just shoot you (kinda like real life
). This brings into play an interesting ploy where you have to lure the shotgun guys into cover if you want to melee with them or else you'll just get shot.L. Scofield
Veteran
upnorthsox
Veteran
Less replay value.
Not an RPG, simply a TPS with more choice. After all, each path would be filled with its own setpieces which I think represent the Uncharted series better than its linear design.
Fun is always dependent on the player. The difference between gaming and other mediums is interactivity, which is about granting the player the ability to make choices and influence the outcome of the game.
It's simple, there's no exploring.
*whoooosh*
You're going to the extremes there. No one is talking about turning Uncharted into a sandbox game
Of course, some gameplay-cutscene consistency would be appreciated too.
Started typing in a long response but realized I could sum it up as
*Whatever...*
upnorthsox
Veteran
I disagree, you are either being too harsh on the hand to hand or this isn't your type of game, but you should've known that from the first 2 already. Shooter basics are the same for all shooter games and woah onto those who deviate. If you want a different shooter game you'll need a different group of gamers.
As to story, action adventure stories haven't change since Homer's Illiad. What were you expecting, the good guys to lose? Or just give up and go home? How would that have made for a better story?
In general, I agree that the controls were a bit laggy and the hand to hand boardered on borked but neither hampered the game from shining as to exactly what it was trying to be. I expected nothing less from ND.
This is mostly my type of game. I really liked Uncharted. Uncharted 2 was also good but a bit too linear for my tastes. Out Uncharted 3 I expected it to be much like Uncharted 2. It is, but only a worse version of it. Neither the gameplay or story are as good as those of the previous 2 games.
Obviously you live in the knowledge that your skill set as a developer far exceeds the abilities of Naughty Dog...
As soon as you pick up a controller and make the character move you've already hit the interactivity button. And by your definition UC3 has hit all the buttons. So what's the problem?
The whole game is about exploring. You are exploring the world as you follow the characters through their story arc. You are following the story, like a book you've never read, the difference being that you control the action sequences. Would you presume to understand the authors mind better that you would write your own chapters of the book? In that case why buy the book at all. Write your own.
That's the beast that LOL'd. Since you put all your money on Crysis 2 being the game to end games this generation it will take some work to regain any credibility that your opinions are anything other just inflated attempts to polish your ego. Fail.
L. Scofield
Veteran
So, unless I'm a veteran in the game industry I can't comment on game design unless it's praise?
Well, that's like saying a movie is interactive because you can press play.
The characters in the narrative are exploring the world, the player is only moving forward (since you can't really backtrack) through a very linear path.
The cherry on a butt-hurt reply is always an ad-hoc attack
Link to a post of mine saying C2 is the best thing ever or STFU upnorthsox
Veteran
Ok, I'll agree to disagree with you on the story and I still think the overall presentation made up for the deficiencies I found in the gameplay but at least you played the game and were able to foment an opinion of more than three letters which I certainly respect.
A couple of other nits came to mind as I was rethinking though. Blind running, It's not so much that I dislike it(which I do hate admitedly) but who on god's green earth thought it would be good for running up a winding crumbling staircase? Or running thru a capsized ship with a portal hatch to go thru and a wall of water on your arse? There's a sadist working at ND and I want to know his/her name! Leaving out the cinema mode sucked, I don't think I even used it for 1 and 2 but as luck would have it, the kids started talking to me during the cutscene where it's being explained to Drake the secret behind the lost city and so I completely missed the explanation and had no way of replaying it other than replaying the entire chapter. No ingame medal display. I usually don't care about this during my first playthru but it's not even there after I'm done.
djskribbles
Legend
@Scofield, I don't get it... why do you go into specific threads of games that you have no intentions of playing and laugh at people's opinions. Do you see ANYONE else doing that?
At times, you post your opinion on tech related stuff, which is fine. But now you're mocking people's comments and opinions and giving your 0.02 on a game you've never played and have no intentions of playing. The last 3 pages is one big argument because of you.
To be quite honest, sometimes you should just keep it to yourself to avoid causing drama (unless you're intentionally trying to cause drama).
Hopefully this gets cleaned up. I've been warned for less than this...
At times, you post your opinion on tech related stuff, which is fine. But now you're mocking people's comments and opinions and giving your 0.02 on a game you've never played and have no intentions of playing. The last 3 pages is one big argument because of you.
To be quite honest, sometimes you should just keep it to yourself to avoid causing drama (unless you're intentionally trying to cause drama).
Hopefully this gets cleaned up. I've been warned for less than this...
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I think they are pretty close to their vision, but a few things still need some tweaking for them to come together. If they increase the melee damage so that fistfight don't go on for too long, combat would flow better. Aiming is fine for me since I wasn't sensitive to KZ2 original aiming too. I am mainly distracted by the lack of bullet interaction. Good for them to improve aiming nevertheless.
It would be helpful if they make the AI less aggressive/aware so that we can play stealth more, and have more time to size up the situation. In 2-3 of the difficult fights (open areas, or enemies everywhere) I had to run and dodge like a mad man. Drop grenades to throw them off, and shotgun folks.
In areas where there are enough obstacles, the combat actually play pretty well since I can isolate enemies to tackle them one by one or two at the same time.
EDIT: the Co-op Adventure enemies play more like UC2 grunts. No QTE in melee too.
Concerning the linearity debate, there are games like Mass Effect which offer a lot more choice and thus replayability with a similar core gameplay (basically a cover based third person shooter). I also don't think that Bioware would be a small nation of developers
ME combat is a lot less dynamic than Uncharted. The latter is more like a traditional shooter where enemies are extremely agile and dynamic. You can replay those combats with different approaches. Or you can also play MP for replayability. ME has more RPG elements to enhance combats, but feels more static.
Exactly. ^_^
If they plan it like a Hollywood movie, the player basically play through one crisis after another. The pace is very controlled to fudge with your senses. If they allow users to pick locations to visit, it's a lot more work, and I will probably take more breaks, and hence more relaxing to play.
Have you tried it in 3D yet ?
Too bad they can't wrap things up in time. Would love to replay the game after the patch.
Eh... Not in the same league me thinks. I'm sure they will try harder though.
Assuming AW's volumetric lighting is as advanced "which doesn't look like they do or in the same quantity" it's still running at 540p though. I bet tons of games can use that effect if they run at such a res.
