Uncharted 3 : Drakes Deception

[Fiach]

The game is due out next week, seen a couple of reviews (10/10's), but this is the most informative, that I have seen so far, game looks like a contender for GOTY I'm thinking :

http://www.destructoid.com/review-uncharted-3-drake-s-deception-214385.phtml

[PZ]

Very impressive!  Really looking forward to this one because I quite enjoyed the prior version.  :-X

[spaceboy]

nice read, it certainly has me pumped more for it.  I really loved Uncharted 2 but I've been hesitant to get too excited for UC3 as I didn't want my expectations too high.  With so many other games out now or soon that I'm excited about, of course you can only have so much excitement.

I've seen the 9s and 10s coming but this is the first review I've really read.  I'll be getting it day 1 and have already pre-ordered the 2 disc soundtrack so needless to say I'm a fan.  It sounds like I won't be let down by it; so now with less than a week away I can let myself start getting psyched!

[PZ]

... of course you can only have so much excitement...

The hallmark of gettin' old, space!  :-()

I now see the age progression: spacekid --> spaceboy --> spaceman --> spacegeezer

[Art Blade]

 

DONE

he really earned and deserved his new title  :-()

[spaceboy]

lol I am getting up there, but not quite a geezer!  dang :)    I sure hope when I am a geezer, I'll be online gaming with my grown spacekid, and maybe a spacegrandchild.  But that's quite a ways off.  My eldest is just turning 11 for cryin' out loud!!!

[Art Blade]

it's not how old you feel but what you feel like to the touch.  :-()

[Art Blade]

which reminds me.

Says the elderly lady, "please tell me something nice."
To which the elderly gentleman replies, "you have skin like a peach and -- you look like.. an 18-year-old.. peach."

[Fiach]

A man is as old as the woman he feels :)

yes spaceboy, I get a bit hesitant when I see alot of 10's and sequels usually suffer from the law of diminishing returns, but I liked that review as it seemed to have more substance to it than alot of the 10/10 reviews I have read for other games.

[PZ]

it's not how old you feel but what you feel like to the touch.  :-()

leather?  ????

Spoiler

:-()

[Art Blade]

  :-X

[JRD]

Speaking of retired geezer... has anyone heard about retiredgord lately? The nursing asylum seems too quiet lately! 

[PZ]

I saw him online not too long ago, but now that I think of it, he did not post anything.

erm... why is it that we all think of Gord when we mention the words "retired geezer" - doesn't sound too flatulen... flattering  ????

[Art Blade]

lovely innuendo  :-D Nothing he'd be too gaseou.. err, ostentatious about  :-D

[PZ]

 

[PZ]

Anyone get the game yet?  Supposed to have been released today  ????

[Fiach]

Not out here til tomorrow, getting it 10am :)

[PZ]

Hope you enjoy it, fiach ... and can't wait for your impressions  ;)

[spaceboy]

I picked it up along with War in the North.  Due to the fact I'm currently reading Two Towers I feel compelled to jump into Middle Earth and slaughter some Orcs though so UC3 will have to wait a bit.  Plus since UC3 is SP and WITN is co-op it's nice to jump in online with others just getting the game.  Can't wait though to read Fiach's thoughts on UC3!

[Art Blade]

Although I can wait, I'd still like to read them.  :-D

[Fiach]

I only played an hour, its a very good looking game, seems more story oriented than its predecessors, you play a mission as kid Nathan, where he meets Sully for the first time, it does add depth to the cast members, Chloe is back, thats a BIG plus :)

Melee is a bit of a button masher, no big deal with that, but they have put in a context sensitive button prompt (Triangle) for "counters", it appears on the bottom right of the screen so kinda out of your line of sight, if you dont press it fast enough, you get hit, it can be annoying when fighting more than one guy, so I tend to just keep mashing Square, as I said its no biggie, but its not as graceful/fluid as Batmans counters. Also if there is a weapon/ammo on the ground the triangle appears, so that adds to the confusion with counters too, but Square works either way :)

Some of the combat is very cinematic, if you ever played the Jason Bourne game, you will remember that sometimes you can use the environment to injure enemies, like slamming their heads into a bar counter, its so cinematic (in what I played), sometimes you dont know who is doing the cool stuff, you or a pre-rendered CGI animation, the transition is so flawless.

The game has a weird thing going on when controlling Drake, as you move forward, he's always looking around (at nothing in particular), so thinking its a hint I keep panning the camera in the direction he looks, also he is always touching things, kinda like he has a "feel" fetish, like he touches plant leaves in vases and when he passes pillars, he sort of ...erm...fondles them  :-[... etc. It just looks weird, but for example, I would have expected him to touch bannisters as he navigates a stairs, but he doesnt, so the touching kinda feels like he has some kind of...erm...disorder :)

Platforming is the same as before, shooting also, so if its not broke dont fix it :).

In the end, its a better looking game with (what seems to be so far) a better story than before.

There is a MP aspect to the game, but as I dont MP, I cant comment on it, but, I did get 3 flyers free with the game, for DLC, unfortunately it doesnt say what they do (well one says a skin and a gun and extra gold or something), buggered if I know what the others are for.

I would have to redeem them to find out what they are for, which is annoying, because I could give them to someone else if they were for things that I wouldnt use.

The version I got is called Special Edition, it comes in a cardboard diary/notebook type of box, inside are a few thick cardboard pages with small pictures of different aspects of the game, plus the aforementioned DLC codes. I dont think it was any extra (53€) compared to the std version, but I never checked the other versions price. Its nice enough but not very robust, If it was extra I dont think I would have bothered, due to its bendability, there is a plastic sleeve around it offering some degree of protection, but that just makes accessing the game a bit fiddley.

Just a few random thoughts after an hours play, so take it with a (large) grain of salt :).

[spaceboy]

lol at the "feel" fetish.  I think they are showing their new hand animations or something.  I remember from the trailers seeing him shake his hand after punching someone.  Also, reaching out to balance himself when stumbling etc.  Hopefully the story and gameplay bring it like we are told it does. 

So, you mention this touching obsession, you also mentioned Chloe...what does Drake do when he passes her?  :o

[Art Blade]

Haha, same: I immensely enjoyed the "feel fetish" bit  :-X Nicely written first impressions, Fiach  :-X

[Fiach]

lol at the "feel" fetish.  I think they are showing their new hand animations or something.  I remember from the trailers seeing him shake his hand after punching someone.  Also, reaching out to balance himself when stumbling etc.  Hopefully the story and gameplay bring it like we are told it does. 

So, you mention this touching obsession, you also mentioned Chloe...what does Drake do when he passes her?  :o

Nothing I noticed, but she only appeared for a couple of minutes and then she was left behind to do something :)

The touching isnt like a balance animation, regaining balance would be a natural kind of movement, this is just weird, eg. he walks past a vase of flowers, he will reach out and rub them. The game has an early piece in a museum and he is forever looking around and touching things, its like trying to control a drunk :)

Its not that bad, but I think they were trying to make him look natural and realistic with these impromptu movements, but the end result (for me) is the opposite, its like he has smoked some pot and as he walks past a pretty flower and stops to touch it, to see if its real 

[Art Blade]

^ That is almost exactly as if taken from a film called Death at a Funeral. One of the guys doesn't feel so well and his fiancée decides to grab a pill box with "Valium" written across it and makes him swallow one of those. Turns out that it wasn't Valium but an extremely potent mixture of all kinds of things like LSD, mezcal, peyote and whatnot.. He starts to behave "funny" and among other things fumbles with a leaf he picked up in the garden and goes, "oh, that leaf is so greeeeeen.. my gosh, it is SO GREEEEN" and that kind of thing..  :-()