Uncharted : Drake's Fortune*

[archangelmorph]

given the budget, the hype around this game, the review scores, the marketing and the developer its coming from, there is absolutely something wrong with uncharted sales, this should be a killer app, a reason to buy the PS3, or atleast thats what all of you guys kept telling me 1-2 months before this games release.

I don't know whether it's an ingrained bias that causes it or just some subconcious affinity for jumping on every bit of "doom & gloom" esque notion that floats around here but don't you guys think it's all a bit.. well.. premature??

Seriously!!

The game's hardly been out a fortnight & your all writing it off as though it's some kind of collossal failure??

At *least* give it six months before adaquately declaring such notions, especially when, as Laa-Yosh put it in another thread:

UK weekly charts show Uncharted climbing 10 places up and overtaking Call of Duty. It may only be a matter of priorities and the game may pick up some steam in the US in december, too.

I mean.. Just because a PS3 game doesn't grosse 2+ million in the first day doesn't mean its instantly doomed does it?
Resistance proved that (especially considering the hype built up around it at launch, the review scores, the marketing, the pedegree of the developer, the genre of the game being much more appealing to the mainstream & the launch timing..)

 

[RobertR1]

I mean.. Just because a PS3 game doesn't grosse 2+ million in the first day doesn't mean its instantly doomed does it?
Resistance proved that (especially considering the hype built up around it at launch, the review scores, the marketing, the pedegree of the developer, the genre of the game being much more appealing to the mainstream & the launch timing..)

Resistance sales being steady has a lot of do with shit for selection on the PS3. You get a PS3. Chances are, you WILL buy a game or 2 for it! For the longest time, Resistance was your best option for a good game on the PS3 thus people bought it and sales remained steady.

If the PS3 had one hit after another, you would not see Resistance have such long legs.

 

[RobertR1]

given the budget, the hype around this game, the review scores, the marketing and the developer its coming from, there is absolutely something wrong with uncharted sales, this should be a killer app, a reason to buy the PS3, or atleast thats what all of you guys kept telling me 1-2 months before this games release.

This is how it goes with every PS3 game. The diehards spam about it's greatness endlessly all over the net. It's the savior and when it doesn't do well, the excuses come fast and furious. I was on Gaf yesterday and noticed how the CoD4, by far the hottest selling game of the year aside from Halo3, had a thread with about 5,000 posts whereas the thread for Uncharted was upto 12,000+ What this shows us that net fanboyism and constant spamming of how amazing something is in threads isn't indicative of mass consumer wants and sales. Just taking a look at some of the exclusives here:

Heavenly Sword: OMG! OWNZ EVERY OTHER HACK N' SLASH GAME! MUST BUY! Game comes out with lackluster sales. Everyone has a different excuse "people just want mindless shooters!"

Lair: people tried hard to defend this in face of all the ridicule it received.

R&C: All of a suddent the best plaformer ever. When it didn't sell, you got "not the right time/wrong demographic" etc..etc..

Motorstorm: Look at it's amazing sales!!! (look at it being bundled!)

Uncharted: This was suppose to be the Gears of War for the PS3. Except that Gears has co-op, and a very popular MP. While that was ignored by the die hards, it wasn't by the public.

Uncharted to me is Farcry. Great looking game with a great first 3/4 that falls apart in the last 1/4 of the game. Low replay value. Still it's good game but I can't see how it'd move systems.

 

[patsu]

I don't think the gamers are excited only over sales and forecast. They talk about a game mostly because they like what they see and hear about the game. So it's natural for them to discuss games, released and unreleased (e.g., I assume the 12,000 Uncharted posts are from pre and post launch). It just shows that many PS3 owners appreciate the details developers put into the games, and they are waiting eager for the title.

A game that sells well may not reflect its quality and vice versa. Other factors come into play. I have to give credits to Sony taking risks in all sorts of gaming theme (e.g., Small developers - big budgets, off-beat themes like Afrika). So as long as the PS3 gamers are happy with their selection, the chatter will likely continue.

Across a period of 2-3 years, I think the PS3 game library will be rich and varied. I hope Sony continues to evolve its selection this way (e.g, the PSN selection is wonderful). Naturally, Sony will have to balance this with their bottomline. I hear Uncharted sale is still growing, so let's see how things go.

I remember 360 also have quite a few multi-game bundles in its first 2 years (by retailers or MS)... especially after the channel stuffing last year. So I don't see Resistance/MotorStorm bundling as anything special. In fact, I think Sony should do more bundling to promote the platform. After that, they can also talk about high software sale.

 

[phat]

Uncharted is great technology, but only a good (not very good or excellent) game. I think all the criticisms of its weak story and characters are valid. Playing Mass Effect especially drove this home for me. The pablum art direction is also a turn off. In trying to pay homage to pulp, the game has sadly fallen into the banality of pulp.

 

[manux]

Come back after you pass 80%, the game is about to get crazy!

Through now, the end was better for sure. But still, for me this was 8+ game.

 

[patsu]

There are certainly room for improvement in the gameplay department. However, one cannot deny the potential of the franchise after seeing the first one. The game opened my eyes in some areas. This is only their first PS3 game... I reckoned there were more than a fair share of distractions and sidetracks during development.

 

[manux]

^_^ If you pay attention to the island at all

Ah, so that's the thing. Didn't really notice. Wonder what else I missed then...

I think they are out of time. But now that they have nailed the engine, I hope they can devote more energy to gameplay breakthrough/innovation in Uncharted 2. Like you, I can see a lot of possibilities and potential for this franchise.

True, the sequel should be amazing if they can do that. The animations, graphics etc. were already breathtakingly amazing and dropped my jaws at several occasions.

Complete the game and you'll see some of your feedback addressed.

I liked the end part best starting around chapter 19? from the roman numerals puzzle to the end of the game.

But Uncharted is not as monotonous as you think. Complete the game. I think the second part opens up more but your mileage may vary.

I think I need to replay again and see if I can find more enjoyment out of the gunfights. Could be that they feel better the second time through. I guess I was in too much of a hurry and rushed the game a bit.(hence, too many waves of enemies etc.)

 

[deepbrown]

Ah, so that's the thing. Didn't really notice. Wonder what else I missed then...



True, the sequel should be amazing if they can do that. The animations, graphics etc. were already breathtakingly amazing and dropped my jaws at several occasions.



I liked the end part best starting around chapter 19? from the roman numerals puzzle to the end of the game.




I think I need to replay again and see if I can find more enjoyment out of the gunfights. Could be that they feel better the second time through. I guess I was in too much of a hurry and rushed the game a bit.(hence, too many waves of enemies etc.)

The reason I've replayed the game 3 times is because of the gunfights...not because I wanted to see the cool graphics and animation - though I'm sure I'll do that when I want to show it off to people. But yeah...the gunfights are pretty incredible. Love them - and really like experimenting on how I'm going to win. Extremely hard on Crushing though.

 

[Duke]

The gunfights and the general combat mechanics combined with the level design have three times the variety compared to Gears combat.

Just try different things, mix your stuff. Gears doesnt let you mix it because run&gun is non-existent, Marcus is slow as hell, you cant hang from ledges, the close combat is clumsy and the levels dont have almost any vertical differences or different angles to choose where some enemies can see you and others dont like you can in Uncharted. All you can really do is sit behind a wall and drop the slow as hell enemies with some bursts to their heads. In Uncharted you can get so much more satisfaction from the combat by quickly headshotting the enemies and using the agility and the moves of Drake properly. And play it on crushing. I'm not trolling Gears (maybe over-simplifying it slightly to make my point), I just think some people arent giving enough credit to Uncharted's combat.

 

[wco81]

Across a period of 2-3 years, I think the PS3 game library will be rich and varied. I hope Sony continues to evolve its selection this way (e.g, the PSN selection is wonderful). Naturally, Sony will have to balance this with their bottomline. I hear Uncharted sale is still growing, so let's see how things go.

I prefer the variety of genres in the PS3. If I liked shooters, then I might appreciate the X360 library but it just looks like one shooter after another.

Looking forward to games like God of War and whatever the next Team Ico game will be.

It will probably not be a huge seller and all the haters will be crowing about how poorly PS3 games sell. But don't care.

Uncharted has way more appeal to me than COD4 or yet another FPS.

And from reviews, the fact that COD4 or AC outsold Uncharted seems to have little to do with merit. The other two games got a lot of hype and advertising.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

The gunfights and the general combat mechanics combined with the level design have three times the variety compared to Gears combat.

Just try different things, mix your stuff. Gears doesnt let you mix it because run&gun is non-existent, Marcus is slow as hell, you cant hang from ledges, the close combat is clumsy and the levels dont have almost any vertical differences or different angles to choose where some enemies can see you and others dont like you can in Uncharted. All you can really do is sit behind a wall and drop the slow as hell enemies with some bursts to their heads. In Uncharted you can get so much more satisfaction from the combat by quickly headshotting the enemies and using the agility and the moves of Drake properly. And play it on crushing. I'm not trolling Gears (maybe over-simplifying it slightly to make my point), I just think some people arent giving enough credit to Uncharted's combat.

You make good points and the combat in Uncharted definately is more varied than in Gears, but imo the cover system still lacks the final polishing touches that made gears so playable and enjoyable. Just today I was showing Uncharted to a friend of mine and at one particular nasty encounter towards the end of the game, Drake just wouldn't go to cover even though I was pressing the circle button many times, after like five tries he finally pushed against the wall, that sort of things happened to me quite often during my playthrough. Too often I wasn't really sure whether Drake is on cover mode or not and his movement in cover was sometimes illogical. In essence the combat was varied and fun, but I do hope they polish the cover system a bit for the sequel.

The fact is however that Uncharted offered more than just battling out of cover, so minor flaws there are not so critical. Also atleast on medium difficulty being on cover is not often necessary as you can take out few enemies quite efficiently even out of cover. Gears of War insists the use of cover much more.

 

[Daozang]

This game is GOTY for me!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have almost finished the game. What a ride!
Seriously, this is for me the game of the year! The gameplay rocks! The best use of the analogue stick for aimming in any PS game to date (the champion is Halo for all consoles, although the autoaim is much more evident there).
The story (as a setup for encounter to encounter) is great, the graphics, are simply stunning, and easily the best of any console to date IMO.
Congrats to Naughty Dog! This game is a gem! The sense of accomplisment that you get when you make it out alive from a shootout with many of your kills being headshots is something that I had to see since the original Halo from the Xbox!
Excellent!!!

 

[D3B]

You make good points and the combat in Uncharted definately is more varied than in Gears, but imo the cover system still lacks the final polishing touches that made gears so playable and enjoyable. Just today I was showing Uncharted to a friend of mine and at one particular nasty encounter towards the end of the game, Drake just wouldn't go to cover even though I was pressing the circle button many times, after like five tries he finally pushed against the wall, that sort of things happened to me quite often during my playthrough. Too often I wasn't really sure whether Drake is on cover mode or not and his movement in cover was sometimes illogical. In essence the combat was varied and fun, but I do hope they polish the cover system a bit for the sequel.

The fact is however that Uncharted offered more than just battling out of cover, so minor flaws there are not so critical. Also atleast on medium difficulty being on cover is not often necessary as you can take out few enemies quite efficiently even out of cover. Gears of War insists the use of cover much more.

I dont like Gears cover, you press the button and you slid-stick from like 8 feet away.

 

[inefficient]

Just today I was showing Uncharted to a friend of mine and at one particular nasty encounter towards the end of the game, Drake just wouldn't go to cover even though I was pressing the circle button many times, after like five tries he finally pushed against the wall, that sort of things happened to me quite often during my playthrough.

Sounds like your controller is just broken.

I know I already broke the right analog of my brand new DS3 controler playing ratchet. It was the only game I played with that controler.

I thought it was the game just being wonky because it worked 90% of the time but 10% of the time it didn't work smoothly. Swapped the controler and magically everything worked perfectly.

 

[Arwin]

There are a couple of spots where it is tricky to have the game catch the right cover though. But that said, you also get better and better at using it ... Getting out of cover using circle button for instance is a lot more smooth than walking out of it, which is what I've been doing the first few hours.

 

[saf1]

So...after reading this thread yesterday and looking at some of the video coverage, I picked it up. Not too bad really. Water looks pretty damn cool and some of the land mass within the game.

But I have to say I don't like the brightness or almost metal tone. It was in the video and vigured maybe it was just how it was captured, but when I brought it home and fired it up, its, I dunno - it bugs me.

I also had this issue with Assassin's Creed. Heavenly Sword was not as bad. Which comes to mind...Drake's Fortune and Heavenly Sword are really a good gaming play feature. Movie mixed in with a game = win.

May not sound like it but I do enjoy both of these games, just don't like the sort of metal or bright textures. I'm on a 1080p toshiba and set it to a different mode to make it a bit better - which is probably subjective I guess...

Anyway - thanks for the thread - I picked it up due to it and was a good 60 bucks spent so far.

 

[szymku]

It's obvious question, but I have to ask...
Did you turn on the RGB Full range option in your PS3 setup?

 

[patsu]

So...after reading this thread yesterday and looking at some of the video coverage, I picked it up. Not too bad really. Water looks pretty damn cool and some of the land mass within the game.

But I have to say I don't like the brightness or almost metal tone. It was in the video and vigured maybe it was just how it was captured, but when I brought it home and fired it up, its, I dunno - it bugs me.

I also had this issue with Assassin's Creed. Heavenly Sword was not as bad. Which comes to mind...Drake's Fortune and Heavenly Sword are really a good gaming play feature. Movie mixed in with a game = win.

May not sound like it but I do enjoy both of these games, just don't like the sort of metal or bright textures. I'm on a 1080p toshiba and set it to a different mode to make it a bit better - which is probably subjective I guess...

Anyway - thanks for the thread - I picked it up due to it and was a good 60 bucks spent so far.

Awesome. Hopefully with enough support, we get more variety of games and more experiments.

 

[saf1]

It's obvious question, but I have to ask...
Did you turn on the RGB Full range option in your PS3 setup?

No - not obvious to me anyway.

I can check when I get home, I'm not honestly sure. Will update in a couple hours.

EDIT: After reading my reply it sounds like I was being a snot - to me anyway. Hope anyone didn't think I was sounding hostile, I just meant that I did not know about this option and need to check.