Uncharted : Drake's Fortune*

[Shifty Geezer]

"For instance, if you shoot someone in the hip, he could hold his side while running for cover, or limp away if shot in the leg. The enemies react a little more realistically now as well, taking cover and getting out of fire if you blanket the area with bullets."

The shooting has been unrealistic. In the videos a pirate could be plugged with half a dozen shots from an automatic, during which time he runs through a 'ouch, my stomach' animation, and then he's back to chasing after you as if nothing's wrong! Occasionally they'd respond convincingly, but also they'd look plain weird, holding their head when shot in the foot (not sure if that example actually happened, but it's the sort of inconsistency I've noticed).

"Enemies also take fewer hits now to kill than they have in the past.

Again much needed improvement. It looked like a hit only counted when the enemy wasn't in an 'I've been hit' animation sequence. It looked like when that animation starts, no other bullets registered either hits or damage. If they want the realism, the baddies ought to go down a bit easier than that!

 

[patsu]

Actually, Elena here (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/26089.html?type=mov) gives me a wee bit of that feeling, but I'm still very impressed. They look marvellously natural and I begin to like her because of that one scene (stay put huh ?). I thought she'd be helpless in the game and Nathan has to drag her around like the princess in ICO

The in-game animation is varied but can be abrupt because the developers need to strike a balance between control responsiveness and realism (e.g., What will Nathan do if you swing the analog stick widly ?). Personally, I lean towards playability (responsiveness). The new system introduces nuances, blending for 3000 basic animations to make the character less stiff. Otherwise I think they will stick out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the game, especially the cut scenes.

If we want to compare the animation with 2-year-old games, we might want to replay them to get a renewed perspective first. We will most likely find improvements in many areas, and then some regressions because details are time consuming to pin down. But overall, it should be a step up.

In comparison, Heavenly Sword's cut scenes are even more refined (because of the mo-capped facial expressions and skin shading I think), but in some areas it can be more distracting (flickering shadow and Nariko's hair when they refuse to stay put ).



EDIT: Yes ! I think their play testing and forum feedback are paying off. I remember there is still one last mini playtest left before they wrap up the game.

 

[ultragpu]

i find the wet or sweaty effect on Elena's vet most impressive, very admirable details here.

 

[groper]

If we want to compare the animation with 2-year-old games, we might want to replay them to get a renewed perspective first. We will most likely find improvements in many areas, and then some regressions because details are time consuming to pin down. But overall, it should be a step up.

I didn't compare them, i used some of them as a reference for real-life animations.
It seems to me that ND developers are aiming , not for life-like animations, but for many cool animations for their in-game models.

 

[deepbrown]

erm...no. It's quite the opposite.
The quantity of animations in Uncharted is impressive but their realism is nowhere close to the point of reaching the UV effect.
I 'd say that you can find 2 years old games with more realistic in game animations (ie Condemned and some of their fight animations)

Actually it's quite the opposite. Uncharted has less animations for it's main character than Assassins Creed, perhaps even Heavenly Sword. It is THE movements that are realistic. Uncannily realistic. It's in the stopping and starting of inputs that makes Drake jerk about a bit, but otherwise if you watch the video I posted, his movements are so scarily smooth and realistic that you can get an uncanny valley effect.

NOW as I said Drake only has 3000 animations (I'm using only, only in comparison), but it's their layering technique that brings this up to an almost infinite combination, making movements even more realistic, smooth and varied. I won't be pushed on saying that Uncharted has some of the best looking animation in game, and certainly the best transitions.

 

[groper]

Actually it's quite the opposite. Uncharted has less animations for it's main character than Assassins Creed, perhaps even Heavenly Sword. It is THE movements that are realistic. Uncannily realistic. It's in the stopping and starting of inputs that makes Drake jerk about a bit, but otherwise if you watch the video I posted, his movements are so scarily smooth and realistic that you can get an uncanny valley effect.

I have seen a lot of gameplay footage including the HiDef version of the latest IGN videos. There are some ok animations and some very cool, smooth movements, But i haven't seen a single animation who could be mistaken for a life-like movement for me. The same goes for other action adventure games like Assasin's Creed and Splinter Cell:Conviction.

 

[patsu]

I didn't compare them, i used some of them as a reference for real-life animations.
It seems to me that ND developers are aiming , not for life-like animations, but for many cool animations for their in-game models.

Well... in real life, I wouldn't jump from platform to platform, or scale a wall like that , so yeah... the animations are as believable as it needs to be without being too sloppy compared to the realistic eyes/eyelid movement, muscle simulation, wrinkles, sweat, mo-capped cut scenes, etc.

 

[deepbrown]

I have seen a lot of gameplay footage including the HiDef version of the latest IGN videos. There are some ok animations and some very cool, smooth movements, But i haven't seen a single animation who could be mistaken for a life-like movement for me. The same goes for other action adventure games like Assasin's Creed and Splinter Cell:Conviction.

Well who's movements are you looking at?

 

[Butta]

Just like it's distracting in real life when people shadow themselves :/

ANyway do you mean like this?

instead of this?

Yep... I have always found that Uncharted had made really good decisions not to use a next gen feature if it didn't look good in a scene. Nothing seems excessive or forced for the sake of having a next-gen effect. In this latest trailer I couldn't help but obsess over the pixelated self-shadowing and wonder why not exclude it from this scene? I have noticed this ugliness in other games (even MGS4) but was happy that ND had made the right decisions to keep the quality at a certain level without adding next-gen effects that diminish the overall look... guess I was wrong

 

[Jaeyden]

When I watch it, it seems to me like it their eye's that are a little unsettling.

 

[Butta]

Yep... I have always found that Uncharted had made really good decisions not to use a next gen feature if it didn't look good in a scene. Nothing seems excessive or forced for the sake of having a next-gen effect. In this latest trailer I couldn't help but obsess over the pixelated self-shadowing and wonder why not exclude it from this scene? I have noticed this ugliness in other games (even MGS4) but was happy that ND had made the right decisions to keep the quality at a certain level without adding next-gen effects that diminish the overall look... guess I was wrong

Odd... it seems that Gamevideo's and Gametrailers have completely different lighting in the same trailer. The one from Gamevideo has the problematic self shadowing.

 

[deepbrown]

Yep... I have always found that Uncharted had made really good decisions not to use a next gen feature if it didn't look good in a scene. Nothing seems excessive or forced for the sake of having a next-gen effect. In this latest trailer I couldn't help but obsess over the pixelated self-shadowing and wonder why not exclude it from this scene? I have noticed this ugliness in other games (even MGS4) but was happy that ND had made the right decisions to keep the quality at a certain level without adding next-gen effects that diminish the overall look... guess I was wrong

Well there are two videos...the Gametrailers one has the setting without self-shadowing, and the gamespot one has it with Who knows why.

 

[deepbrown]

Gamespy say this "It also appears that just before the game went into beta testing a few weeks ago, the team decided to scrap the dynamic difficulty that it had been plotting out from the beginning."

Is this true?

http://uk.ps3.gamespy.com/playstation-3/naughty-dog-ps3-project/825772p2.html

 

[patsu]

I have no idea but Evan Wells has a few more things to say in the comments section of the official PS3 blog:

Let me answer a few of these questions quickly:

RE: Multiplayer – Uncharted does not feature a multiplayer mode. We really wanted to focus the entire teams efforts on creating the most engaging single player experience.

RE: Screensots – Our screenshots are all captured directly from the game. There is post processing and depth of field, but that’s all being calculated real-time, and how it really looks in the game.

RE: Languages – We do have spoken Dutch, but you can set it to spoken English with Dutch subtitles if that’s how you’d prefer to play it. In fact you can pick any combination of spoken language and text that you like.

RE: Demo – Yes we will have a demo before the game hit’s the shelves, but we don’t have an exact date set yet.

RE: International Release Dates – I hope I didn’t put my foot in my mouth too badly. We are gold mastering all the languages at once, but due to the distribution differences between the various territories around the world there may be a few weeks difference between street dates from country to country.

RE: Advertising – We are working closely with our advertising agency working on a wide range of marketing executions. The TV spot is being worked on and coming along nicely. All of this will start hitting soon. We want to wait until closer to release to for the big push. After all, it doesn’t do you much good to see something on TV that you can’t run out and buy!

So I see a lot of questions about the length of the game. It’s always a tricky question to answer since people’s skill levels vary so much. But I think it’s safe to say that it would be hard to finish it the first time in less than 10 hours. And I think a much more average play time is probably closer to 12. We have 3 selectable difficulty levels from the start of the game (Easy, Normal, and Hard) and one that is unlockable (Crushing!), so you can decide how much of a challenge you want. We’ve also made it possible to change your difficulty setting mid-game, so if you feel you made a mistake a couple of hours in, you can switch without having to start over.

And as for replayablity, we have a bunch of hidden treasure to search for throughout the environments and Medal Points you can earn by showing off your skills as you play the game. These can all be used to unlock some pretty cool secrets (concept art, behind the scenes movies, skins, cheats, etc.)
Hope that answers your questions!

The screen tearing in the behind the scenes video is largely gone. The footage in those videos is soooo old (it makes me cringe!). Believe it or not the game looks even better now! Our game is locked to 30 FPS, so if the game is running faster than that, no tearing. Occasionally, when the framerate drops, we will swap the frame buffers mid-render creating a tear. We do this, so that the framerate doesn’t drop instantly to 20 FPS which is what we’d have to do to prevent the tearing. Instead we wait until the tear is going to happen near the top of the screen or the very bottom so you aren’t as likely to notice. In any event, the framerate is now stable so it’s not something that we have to do too often.

And as for configurable controls, we obviously let you adjust your aiming axis preferences (and sensitivity) but we didn’t expose any button remapping. We spent a lot of time mapping the huge number of actions that Drake can perform to the fewest possible buttons. Opening that up for remapping would have been a can of worms and something that we didn’t think it necessary to tackle.

The issue with the gun not consistently lining up with the reticule has been addressed. The biggest issue there was with our tracers. Because we have a breathing animation layered on Drake, the barrel of the gun has a subtle motion on it. For gameplay purposes we always need the projectile to strike within the center of the reticule. But if you have the tracer draw a line from the tip of the barrel to the center of the reticule, you will see some inconsistencies. Now they aren’t really noticeable when you’re in the heat of battle, but for the perfectionists in all of us, we’ve decided to fix the problem.

 

[Phil]

And another one bites the dust.

Of all the developers, I would have thought ND to be one of the few that would remain faithful to 60 fps. Oh well, guess we still have Insomniac and R&C getting their priorities right.

 

[wco81]

Well lets hope if they leverage this engine for sequels or future games, they can create some online features.

 

[patsu]

Yes, a PSN download featuring online treasure hunt please !

 

[deepbrown]

And another one bites the dust.

Of all the developers, I would have thought ND to be one of the few that would remain faithful to 60 fps. Oh well, guess we still have Insomniac and R&C getting their priorities right.

Uh have you seen the game? I have no problems with 30fps.

 

[Phil]

Uh have you seen the game? I have no problems with 30fps.

Yes I have. 60 fps would have been great and anyone that has played the Jak games and other 3rd person 30 fps games for comparison sake would have appreciated it.

Naughty Dog has been quite vocal about their design choices and framerate that greatly influenced the Jak series. Anything less than 30 fps is a major step back.

 

[patsu]

Can you elaborate ? I have not played the Jak series at all.

Is the comparison still valid if Uncharted is a slower paced game ?