Uncharted : Drake's Fortune*

[patsu]

Meh, i allways play at max difficulty avaliable in shooters..

Yeah, I got that vibe even from here.

Okay, back to your regular Uncharted track.

 

[StefanS]

...


[Look into my pants]


...

Okay you win this round. I am not as good a gamer as I think I am.

Don't worry I suck at multiplayer

 

[Shifty Geezer]

And shifty is at wrong here, because this is not the standart for X360 shooters, in fact, i haven't played one game one the 360 that didn't fire with the Right trigger.

Okay. I knew the button you meant, but I was sure on XB360 I used the shoulder button. It's been a while since I played a 360 shooter though and probably am just used to PS3 controls (R1 is generally the default shoot for PS2 and PS3) that I'm getting confused! (check of web shows this to be true)

I suppose whatever you're used to feels the most natural. That's why all games should have customizable controls!

 

[Shifty Geezer]

*Moved controller discussion here*

 

[FirewalkR]

The latest issue of Game Developer has an Uncharted post-mortem, here's a few interesting quotes:

As we’d done for previous Naughty Dog projects, we used multiple rendering engines at once, which we wrote specially to handle different parts of the game world. Two of the major systems rendered our geometry and a third did water, while other renderers took care of particles, decals, and the HUD. All of these were very heavily optimized for the PlayStation 3 hardware, using the console’s SPUs in some cases to supercharge the RSX graphics processor.
Our water shader not only uses the same basic reflection and refraction techniques as other games, but uniquely models water flow effectively. Color is computed not from textures but by using optical and physical principles, some based on water depth, which helps give our water a very realistic look. We did all of our water effects—foam, water bubbles from churn, and silt—in the shader, which also helped our water “sell.”

...we set our goals too high, and had to bring ourselves down to earth in order to be able to move forward. For example, we had wanted to use a system of interchangeable body and clothing parts for our enemies in order to get a huge apparent variety of enemies and reinforce the reality of the world. We wanted the player to have the feeling that each enemy character was unique.
The problem was that this held up our whole enemy implementation process. We couldn’t start finalizing the enemies until we finally realized we didn’t have time to create our parts system, and simply got on with making the enemies that are in the shipped game.

We kept tweaking the enemy designs as we developed the game, and stylized them a bit with some success. In the end we felt that we could have pushed their visual design even more, as some players still had trouble distinguishing between some of the different classes, and we’ll continue to explore this issue on our next project.

 

[eoj]

More

http://xemu.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2008/2/20/3536343.html

Codename “Big”. 3 yr project. 10 people on 12 month prepro. 70 people by the end, +5 contractors. 6 design, 18 programmers, approx 50 artists.

*SNIP*

This is actually the presentation by Naughty Dog (GDC?) that was posted a long while ago.

 

[dantruon]

The latest issue of Game Developer has an Uncharted post-mortem, here's a few interesting quotes:

You forgot to highlight the most important part of that article.

As we’d done for previous Naughty Dog projects, we used multiple rendering engines at once, which we wrote specially to handle different parts of the game world. Two of the major systems rendered our geometry and a third did water, while other renderers took care of particles, decals, and the HUD. All of these were very heavily optimized for the PlayStation 3 hardware, using the console’s SPUs in some cases to supercharge the RSX graphics processor.
Our water shader not only uses the same basic reflection and refraction techniques as other games, but uniquely models water flow effectively. Color is computed not from textures but by using optical and physical principles, some based on water depth, which helps give our water a very realistic look. We did all of our water effects—foam, water bubbles from churn, and silt—in the shader, which also helped our water “sell.”

 

[deepbrown]

You forgot to highlight the most important part of that article.

supercharge

 

[Mobius1aic]

supercharge

Is it single or dual stage compression?

 

[Scott_Arm]

Just played the demo at my brother's place. Great graphics. Tight controls, minus the melee. Standard mediocre voice acting and story/cut scenes that I would skip, like 99% of games. Like Gears of War, I don't know if I would buy it full price. The sequels will probably be the real winners.

If only they could make another punisher game and use these cover and shooting mechanics, combined with the interrogations and quick kills of the original.

 

[patsu]

If you have the opportunity, you should check out the real game. There are more depth and breathtaking scenes in the game (e.g., river scene, jungle ride).

 

[deepbrown]

Just played the demo at my brother's place. Great graphics. Tight controls, minus the melee. Standard mediocre voice acting and story/cut scenes that I would skip, like 99% of games. Like Gears of War, I don't know if I would buy it full price. The sequels will probably be the real winners.

If only they could make another punisher game and use these cover and shooting mechanics, combined with the interrogations and quick kills of the original.

The demo is the least impressive looking stage IMO. Melee controls are ace when you know how to use them. The full game keeps surprising on and on - the demo is like a posh salad before a banquet.

 

[Scott_Arm]

I'm sure my brother will pick it up eventually. He thought it was an alright demo, I think. He's not really big on graphics, so he wouldn't buy it just to see the other levels. For him, I think he thought the combat was pretty good and that's about all he took away from it.

I'm not sure what it was about the combat, but I didn't really feel a lot of intensity from it. It's challenging, but I just never had that satisfaction of feeling like I scraped my way out of a really tight spot. I'm not sure if it's a presentation issue, or what. I just didn't get that feeling.

 

[betan]

I'm sure my brother will pick it up eventually. He thought it was an alright demo, I think. He's not really big on graphics, so he wouldn't buy it just to see the other levels. For him, I think he thought the combat was pretty good and that's about all he took away from it.

I'm not sure what it was about the combat, but I didn't really feel a lot of intensity from it. It's challenging, but I just never had that satisfaction of feeling like I scraped my way out of a really tight spot. I'm not sure if it's a presentation issue, or what. I just didn't get that feeling.

I like Uncharted's cover system a lot since it does not slow the game.
However I'd like to see in-cover targeting and AI missing time to time (especially while Drake is moving). That would make even better gunplay.

 

[patsu]

I'm sure my brother will pick it up eventually. He thought it was an alright demo, I think. He's not really big on graphics, so he wouldn't buy it just to see the other levels. For him, I think he thought the combat was pretty good and that's about all he took away from it.

What game(s) did he buy if I may ask ?

I'm not sure what it was about the combat, but I didn't really feel a lot of intensity from it. It's challenging, but I just never had that satisfaction of feeling like I scraped my way out of a really tight spot. I'm not sure if it's a presentation issue, or what. I just didn't get that feeling.

If you follow the story, then you will get more and more into the game. The gunfight in the demo is fine but it's a one-off affair. There are more interesting levels and tougher enemies later on (though it does get a little repetitive in the first 1/3 of the game).



betan, I thought the enemies miss their targets time to time ? e.g., The laser sighted mercenaries may if I run fast enough.

 

[Scott_Arm]

What game(s) did he buy if I may ask ?

He bought:
Assassin's Creed (barely played it so far)
Ratchet and Clank
Oblivion (He's spent a lot of time on this one)
Orange Box
FIFA 08

 

[betan]

betan, I thought the enemies miss their targets time to time ? e.g., The laser sighted mercenaries may if I run fast enough.

I was talking about the regular underdogs.
I don't recall laser guys missing though, but they do take their time to target.
The rocket luncher like gun carrying guys do miss time to time I guess.

 

[patsu]

He bought:
Assassin's Creed (barely played it so far)
Ratchet and Clank <-- Super !
Oblivion (He's spent a lot of time on this one)
Orange Box
FIFA 08

I see he's an action/RPG/adventure game guy ?
Devil May Cry is nice too, and yes, Uncharted, when he comes around to it.
But Uncharted leans towards a shooter game. It is a cover shooter + light puzzle in its heart.

I was talking about the regular underdogs.
I don't recall laser guys missing though, but they do take their time to target.
The rocket luncher like gun carrying guys do miss time to time I guess.

Uncharted is a wierd game for me because it got easier towards the end. I only died 3 times facing the mercenaries (

Spoiler

in a courtyard when I came out of the underground

). I died a gazillion times fighting the early pirates though. Then the difficulty curve picked up again in the last 1/4, and finally I nearly choked my controller in the last level. Other people I spoke to have different experience (They think the mercs are tougher).

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I dl'd the demo last night. I've seen the game from the beginning but not really the major action. First impressions are that its god and all, but a bit awkward. Jumping down from the cliff to the first part of the ruins, and then running along the track behind them, I completely missed a pirate. He was off to the right. So I peeked out cautiously watching the pirates coming into the area, and then started getting shot from the right! The camera obscured the pirate in a way that was inrealistic.

AI is the best I've seen a game of this sort (which isn't many). They do seem quite human at times. They are far too accurate though, hitting you often even when taking cover, and they don't seem to run out of ammo. I haven't really tried that, but in theory you ought to be able to wait their shooting out and then take them on. As it is, firing from cover you inevitably get his sometimes, and that makes the game unrealistic. By the end of a fight Drake would be alive and well, after taking a dozen bullets!

 

[Gradthrawn]

By the end of a fight Drake would be alive and well, after taking a dozen bullets!

Very true, and I like it that way. If you don't like it that way, the higher difficulty settings greatly increases damage from bullets. A couple of shots will quickly have you seeing things in grayscale. I can't remember if there were difficulty selection settings in the demo, though.