Uncharted: Drake's Fortune - OUT NOW - Trophy Patch Released!

A 400-year-old clue in the coffin of Sir Francis Drake sets a modern-day fortune hunter on a exploration for the fabled treasure of El Dorado, leading to the discovery of a forgotten island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

The search turns deadly when Nathan Drake becomes stranded on the island and hunted by mercenaries. Outnumbered and outgunned, Drake and his companions must fight to survive as they begin to unravel the terrible secrets hidden on the Island.

GAME FEATURES

• Using maps and ancient artifacts, uncover clues and unravel mysteries to find a forgotten island and a treasure that was thought to have never existed.
• Explore exotic locations. Traverse through living jungles and spectacular 400-year-old ruins.
• Drake’s companions and allies play an important role in the adventure through cooperative mechanics, gun play and exploration.
• Experience fast-paced gunplay: use a variety of environmental elements for cover, shoot enemies off of moving vehicles in high speed chases and more.
• Use an array of hand-to-hand fighting moves to put your enemy off balance. Anything from wild haymaker punches to running drop-kicks.

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From GI:
-Release is "winter 2007"
-single player only it seems
-They want an emotional story, and so far there's fifty minutes of cinematics.
-They have an awesome animation scheme that allows for over 1,200 different unique ways of doings things like taking cover. There's nine screens of Drake taking cover behind a pillar...all of them completely different stances. Freaking awesome. (the final game will have 3,000)
-Sixaxis allows for some tilting moments, like crossing a narrow log and balancing, Kratos-style.
-More on the unique animations: if Drake is running across an open field, he will visibly become more and more out of breath, his entire body shaking if he runs enough. His face will show all these emotions as well.
-Soundtrack is also dynamic
-Graphics are really, really good looking. I can't imagine how this thing is gonna look in real time...crazy.
-Everything in the jungle shifts and sways, with dynamic shadowing, and high-dynamic range lighting.

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While much of the article explains how great the story will be while not actually getting into details, the opening paragraph gives us a nice clue:

"Sir Francis Drake had a wealth of titles to his name by the time he died at sea in the winter of 1596. To his English Countrymen, he was a hero...an explorer who circumnavigated the globe, a sea captain who sunk dozens of ships in the Spanish Armada, and a knight by Queen Elizabeth's own hand. To his enemies, he was the worst sort of villain...a marauder that heartlessly destroyed their ports and colonies, a pirate that ceaselessly stole their chests of gold, spices and jewels. Whatever people called him, his infamous adventuring career came to an end when his body was tipped over the side of his ship off the coast of Panama some 400 years ago. But what if that lead coffin held no body? What if there was instead a mysterious book that hinted at his last great adventure? What if you found that book?"

The Audio Director speaks: "If I could have a metric for how well the game is doing sound-wise, it would be how far I can get through this game with my eyes closed."

While vehicles aren't a main focus in the game, they'll be there. One concept screen shows a jeep with you in the turret seat, another level has you piloting a jetski navigating submerged buildings and looking for clues. Still another has white-water rapids in another chase scene.

Naughty Dog (paraphrasing here): "With PS1, we had to go very simplistic...cartoonish. With PS2, we could take it up a notch with Jak but not quite human yet. With the PS3, we can finally do full-on human gaming while taking all of our great gameplay from past games we've done into this."

All cinematics are motion-captured with a director on the set...it's like a real movie (a la Heavenly Sword).

You won't be alone, as the girl in the mag cover shows (like Half-Life 2 in a way).

GI sums up the game: It's Die Hard meets Indiana Jones, with gameplay that goes back to Prince of Persia and Tomb Raider and gun segments like Gears of War. Ultimately however, it's a new genre that's unclassifiable at this point.

Oh, and graphics are Blue Steel, but will be Magnum in videos and when it comes out much later in the year for sure.

Here's the part where GI gets some hands on time with the game:

"Control of the action was in our hands in the level that followed. Nathan finds himself in a stunning moss-covered forest, with a streaming waterfall nearby. Climbing the rocks, we ascended up out of the basin. A wide gap between the cliffs above required a wild leap to the opposing ledge. Barely grasping the far edge, Nathan banged hard against the hard rock wall, knocking his breath away before we pulled up and over onto the far side.

A downed tree in the next area served to illustrate one of the game's uses of the Sixaxis controller. As we walked Nathan across the narrow beam, we controlled his balance by twisting the controller from side to side, which unsurprisingly resulted in him tumbling belly first onto the log before we managed to inch him across.

Once there, we heard the shouted arrival of enemy pirates, soon to be followed by whizzing bullets. As Nathan instinctively ducked, we ran him for cover behind a nearby boulder. Leaning out amid heavy returning fire, a few wild shots from Nathan's pistol dropped his foes, and we ran forward to a hanging vine to continue our climb.

Next, we saw the first signs of the strange, misplaced Spanish ruins of the island as more scruffy pirates arrived to attack us. Diving from rock to tree amid a hail of gunfire, we occasionally scurried aside at the sound of a grenade dropping by our feet.

Standing still for very long is almost never an option, as enemies are constantly flanking for a better position. With another wave of pirates defeated, we platformed from one ruined Spanish wall to another to reach an ancient metal grate. A button press event sent it spinning off its rusted hinges, and beyond, another troop of pirates poured over an old wall as the music swelled into high gear."

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Thanks for writing that up, can't wait for it to get here so I can read too.

But did you really have to compair Elena to a horse? Sounds like she might be like female character in R:FoM who kind of guides the story.

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