DISCLAIMER; any opinion espressed here is subject to change. Hourly.

Yesterday I was nice enough to explain why I believe The Last of Us does not necessarily signify that we have seen the last of Nathan Drake. Now that we know that, we are now free to get properly pumped and excited for The Last of Us. So far we have not seen much of the game, but clues are there. Again I will embed the trailer for your viewing ease, but more snippets of video can be found at the game’s main website; LastofUs.com

So what do we have? The Last of Us looks like it will be a post-apocalyptic game centred around two characters named Joel and Ellie. Joel looks to be something of a hard-arse; when we first see him he is bashing in the brains of another man with a plank of wood. I’m sure he had his reasons, but it certainly looks like Joel is not a man to piss off. The fact that we see him do this in the very first trailer tells me that this is something that he does fairly often; I highly doubt significant moments would be spoiled this way so early. In fact the narration of the trailer (by Ellie) tells us that this is their routine “day and night”. The way in which she casually runs through a pool of human blood highlights that this is the norm, and that one doesn’t worry about these sorts of things anymore. Once the man has been bludgeoned to the floor, Ellie searches the body for supplies, and is delighted when she comes across a small handful of bullets, some of which already look spent.

At a guess, Joel is in his late 30s or possibly early 40s (and bears more than a passing similarity to one Nathan Drake, although that is probably unintentional.) His face gives him the look of someone whom has witnessed a great deal of pain and suffering, and yet he has managed to come out the other side fighting. His companion, Ellie, is probably less than half his age. She looks about 13, but seems to act older than this; presumably the world in which she lives has forced this upon her. What her relationship to Joel is is as yet undisclosed, but as her narration tell us that “this is our routine” I think we can safely infer that the two stick together.

Ellie also tells us that “he tells me how these streets were crowded with people…” so again a fair inference is that whatever has befallen our world has done so some time ago. This is reiterated as Joel and Ellie burst out of the building and into the street, which is empty save for some burnt out or rusty vehicles and some trees growing where they had not been planted. The world is almost a beautiful one, were it not a tragic look at where we may end up. The idea that the Earth reclaims what humans have taken is a fascinating one for me. But why has the world of The Last of Us become this way? Well, maybe this image will explain;

While we don’t know what caused the figure in the foreground to have a head shaped like a walnut, we have had some clues. IGN posted a video in which they had discovered a supposed Easter Egg in Uncharted 3. In the pub in the very first scene there lies atop the bar a newspaper named The Overseer (which is obviously based on the real life UK newspaper The Guardian) which carries the headline “Scientists are still struggling to understand deadly fungus.” I’m nice; here is a screenshot;

The picture with the article looks uncannily like Josh Scherr, who is Naughty Dog’s cinematic top guy. What he has to do with the fungus I don’t know. It is unconfirmed (as far as I can tell) whether or not this is Josh, but I find it amusing nonetheless. Personally I was skeptical about this being a Last of Us reference, but now it seems that I was wrong. One of the other teaser trailers shows an ant crawling around on a leaf, which has been linked to the footage of a particular type of parasitic fungus (cordyceps) that uses a living organism as a host. So, it looks as though at least the human population has been taken over by a type of fungus, which makes the host run around like crazy and attack other humans, presumably in the hunt for more host bodies to take over.

This parastic fungus image is an interesting one to put against the decaying human world which I have previously described, and that I find quite beautiful. The human species has evolved over millions of years and has come to be the dominant sentient lifeform on Earth. Very few sections of our planet remain untouched by our spread, and yet in Naughty Dog’s vision of the world, it is a non-sentient life form that brings us to the brink of extinction and in turn allows the planet to reclaim what we took. I am not trying to suggest that the human race have been parasitic, but it would be hard to easily argue against the fact that as a species we have done quite well out of this planet. What I am trying to say is that I really enjoy this cyclical nature of life as envisioned by Naughty Dog.

What the trailer doesn’t do is tell us anything at all about gameplay, but that will come. At the risk of sounding like a fool and not for the first time this week, I will state here that I believe this is Ellie’s story and not Joel’s and that she will be the playable character. I have to say that I hope this is the case; I feel it would be nice to have a young female lead. To me at least, she looks to be the one with the most to tell. She either hasn’t been around since the start of the decline of the world, or something has caused her to forget it, so the revelations that she will go through as part of the narrative will be interesting for the audience to experience as well.

This image suggests, though that Joel is the action man, although the trailer shows both Ellie and Joel taking down the mutant that they are waiting for. If Ellie is the protagonist and main playable character as I both suspect and hope, it will be fun to find out how Joel will work, from a gameplay point of view. Some people have suggested that this will be a ‘protect the AI’ game in a simialr vein to Enslaved, but I am not convinced of that myself. We only have to look at Elena Fisher and Chloe Fraser from Uncharted to see that Naughty Dog give their women more credit than merely a ‘damsel in distress’ role. Granted Trip from Enslaved was a well written and rounded character, but her role was not similar to that of Elena, for example. As an aside, I first mentioned the similarity to Enslaved prior to knowing that it shares design personnel with The Last of Us. I liked Enslaved, but felt it came up short. Maybe this will be the game Enslaved should have been.

I have heard mumblings that this may be a first person game, but I don’t believe this will be the case; it looks to me as if the two characters we have so far seen have enough about them to not require us to ‘be’ them. Uncharted would not work as as first person game, because the story is Nathan’s and not ours. And I think the same could be said for The Last of Us; the story is not ours. One of the other rumours is that this will be an open world game well, maybe it will, but it is a little early to tell for sure. If it is open world I will be interested to see how it fits with the narrative; Uncharted is not at all open world, and his story is told in depth. Will Naughty Dog be able to tell such a detailed story if they give the player choice about where to go and what to do? Colour me very interested. Maybe The Last of Us doesn’t use narrative in the same way as Uncharted, but I think the trailer sets us up for a very strong story with interesting characters, much as Uncharted is.

Whatever happens, I will be keeping a close eye. If you have any thoughts or ideas about The Last of Us, plase let me know, and I will try to address them.

As we all know, UNCHARTED 3; Drake’s Deception is upon us, so the countdown the big UNCHARTED 4; Nathan’s Nemesis reveal has begun in earnest. A spanner was thrown into the works last night, though, with the announcement that the game some of you may have heard about; The Last of Us, is Naughty Dog’s next release. The Spike Video Game Awards was the stage for the premiere of the trailer, which I have handily emedded in case you have yet to see it.

As, technically, this is an UNCHARTED dedicated site, I feel the need to address what this may mean for Nathan Drake’s future. We are of course delighted that Naughty Dog are branching out; moving on; whatever you want to call it; but I personally am not ready to have to try to get over Nathan Drake. With that in mind I am happy to tell you that it seems the beginning of the era that brings The Last of Us does not necessarily signify the end of that which brought Nathan Drake into our lives. For a long time Neil Druckmann has had his Twitter biography inform us that he is Creative Director at Naughty Dog. We all know that Amy Hennig is Naughty Dog’s Creative Director, and therefore I was confused. I should have joined the dots. All the signs were there, but as someone who had recently had trouble with a Spot the Difference puzzle (in my defence I had given birth the day before) I failed to put two and two together.

Not only does Naughty Dog have two Creative Directors, one of whom was not listed as such in the credits of UNCHARTED 3, but also their careers page on their website has been full for some time now. I know this because I’d been keeping a keen eye out in case they needed to hire someone with my skills. They didn’t, but the point is that I should have noticed just how many people they have been hiring. It was confirmed last night that Naughty Dog now have two full teams, one of which has been apparently working on The Last of Us for some time, leaving the other which is presumably still headed by Amy Hennig to continue as they were. Of course this does not mean that that team will carry on Nathan’s story, but it certainly seems that they can.

I will write a second article looking at the trailer itself and will aim to post that tomorrow. Until then feel free to let us know how happy or otherwise you are about this news.

This article is riddled with spoilers for the main singleplayer campaign for all three UNCHARTED games. You have been warned.

Naughty Dog’s third full instalment in the life of Nathan Drake has finally arrived to mostly very positive reviews and a slightly mixed fan reaction, so now I wish to wade in, dissect it and give my 2ps worth. My focus will be upon the story, characters and themes, and where Nathan and his chums are left when the dust has settled on their most recent adventure.

The subtitle of the game (‘Drake’s Deception’) caused a stir pre-release and its ambiguity was cause for some discussion. Which Drake? Is Drake deceived, or does he do the deceiving? We knew that the events of the story were to focus more heavily on Victor Sullivan and his relationship with the protagonist, and this led some, including myself, to suspect that the core deception would somehow involve these two; would we find out that Sully isn’t on Nathan’s side? Was he merely using Nathan’s exceptional skills ultimately for his own personal gain? Amy Hennig, Naughty Dog’s Creative Director told us that the theme of deception pops up time and time again; in fact even Nathan’s identity would be called into question.

Is it real or fake?

Hennig was not winding us up. Deception runs through the the narrative like a streaker at a cricket match. Firstly, arguably the ‘core’ deception is perpetuated by Sir Francis Drake, our hero’s ‘ancestor’. The story goes that he spent six months on a part of his voyage that would normally take a sailor of his calibre a month. Of course Nate wants to know why; in the Uncharted world if it looks like there is a conspiracy or cover up; chances are there is one. However, in *this* case… yeah, ok, it is no different. The clues that were obscure enough (and covered up well enough) for anyone but Nate to solve led to Yemen and the Rub’ al Khali Desert, and ultimately to Iram of the Pillars; a city of immeasurable wealth.

“You headbutted me!”

However, the deceptions go deeper than this; even to the point of having us, the audience deceived. For example UNCHARTED 3; Drake’s Deception introduces to us new character; one Mr Charlie Cutter (played by Graham McTavish who bought Zoran Lazarevic to life.) Cutter is a tough bald headed Englishman who we first see beating the living daylights out of Drake.

"Typical bloody yank..."

I think a lot of us thought (and a cleverly edited trailer and a Multiplayer beta side switch helped) that Cutter would be a typical bloody Brit. Which in American films, games… etc means ‘a Bad Guy.’ Think Sean Bean in National Treasure, Sir Ian McKellen in X-Men, Gabriel Roman in Drake’s Fortune… hell even Alan Rickman was (a superb) English Sheriff of Nottingham to Kevin Costners’s American Robin Hood. As it transpires, Cutter is (in my humble opinion) the most loveable addition to the cast of Uncharted Good Guys since the first game in the series.

However, Cutter does not exist merely to subvert a tired old stereotype. His looks and muscle are used by Drake and Co. to help ‘flush out’ Marlowe and her crew (who happen to be English…. baby steps, baby steps…(although in all fairness the plot almost requires them to be English)). His tough guy exterior is put to good effect here as it shows us that Nathan Drake and his allies are not adverse to using similar tactics as their enemies to get what they want. It is fine for Cutter to double cross Marlowe, but not for Harry Flynn to double cross Drake? Well, no it isn’t, but it made you think, didn’t it?

As with all the characters of Uncharted, Cutter’s presence also serves to bring out a different side to Nathan Drake that we have not yet seen, and that is that Nate. Doesn’t. Know. EVERYTHING. (“Who the hell is MacDuff???”) So far we have seen Nathan stumble through the world relying on his wits as much as fists and firearms, and his depth of knowledge always seemed somehow superhuman, except when the plot requires him to not know straight away. Think Borneo; Drake finds some more of Marco Polo’s writings in the excavation tent. He reads them, but doesn’t comprehend their meaning or relevance to the trail until the next scene, when the penny drops and he fills Sully (and by extension the audience) in. So although it isn’t going to affect the outcome of the game if Nathan doesn’t know who MacDuff is, but it does prove that Nate is actually human. Someone of his interlect should really know, and the fact that he doesn’t, highlights that Nate is very selective in his reading and learning. If I were to put it nicely I would call him ‘goal-oriented.’

Chloe and Cutter’s apparently abrupt departure approximately a third of the way the way through the narrative is, superficially, a shame (because Cutter is awesome) but realistically it was necessary. Cutter and Chloe gallivanted off to Syria ahead of Nate and Sully (who were busy navigating a burning Chateau) to find a piece of the puzzle. Had we lost Chloe (who serves not only as the “best driver in the business” but as a companion to Cutter) we would see Nate, Sully and Cutter go first to France and then to Syria, which would seriously alter the dynamic. As previously mentioned; this was a story about Nate and Sully. Much as I loved Cutter; he served his purpose, as did Chloe.

What we also get out of the inclusion of Cutter’s character and his limited screen time was a similar, yet more subtle and powerful effect than that of the untimely death of Jeff the Cameraman (yes that is his real surname) in UNCHARTED 2; Among Thieves. You’ve all played the game (and if you haven’t you are probably wondering what I am talking about) so I won’t go over the details, but before Cutter jumps, a tarot card is planted on him for Nate, Chloe and Sully to find. The card is The Tower; a basic interpretation of this would be the imminent collapse of a falseness that which was previously thought to be true. The organisation of which Marlowe and crew are a part uses deception, lies and fear to manipulate those that stand in their way. By planting the card they are not only suggesting that they had premeditated Cutter’s current predicament, but also that they are more than capable, and willing to do whatever they have in their power (in this case blurring the boundary between truth and lie) to get what they want. It also signifies a ‘rude awakening’ of sorts, when the truth is revealed.

"Hey guys, look at this..."

Two more tarot cards play a prominent role in this section; The Magician, and The High Priestess. Cutter has the three cards in his notebook (it isn’t only Nathan that thinks to write stuff down, you know). The High Priestess is labeled as being Katherine Marlowe, and the Magician as being her right hand man; Talbot.

“I swear to God if there is a zombie around the next corner…”

This mysticism that is created by the secret society to which Marlowe and her cronies belong is all a part of the deception theme that underpins the game. We see Talbot apparently escape death following a bullet to the chest; we see him (or not) disappear from view and command agents with heads apparently aflame. However, all these elements can be explained without having to look to the supernatural. What Naughty Dog have done here is to break from their genre; mythical creatures, fictional beings and the down right weird are a staple of the types of plot that take you to a long forgotten part of Earth. This is a way of giving the audience some escapism but also something to aspire to.

During the final few scenes of the game Nathan fights flame headed Agents. Or at least he thinks he does. What he in fact fights are normal headed Agents but Nathan is actually tripping balls, and *thinks* their heads are on fire. Aficionados of the series might remember that Nathan has previously cited clowns as his number one fear. Should those Agents have clown heads? Afterall, the water that Nate drank to get into this state is meant to show ones fears. I’d argue not, as the ‘clowns’ comment was a throw away line that allowed Nate to, yet again, reveal nothing about himself, and yet still raise a laugh. Now, I am not doubting that Nate may have a real phobia of clowns, but the timing and the manner in which it was said made it a funny line, and not a serious one. Introducing clowns at the end of Drake’s Deception would totally ruin the seriousness of the current situation.

“History can be wrong, you know.”

Nathan Drake isn’t one to reveal a great deal about himself. Amy Hennig tells us in the extras gallery that she sees him as having ‘abandonment issues’, and it seems that one of the ways that he deals with these is through his witticisms. The ‘clowns’ statement being a good example of this. However, there is one thing that he is quick to tell everyone; in fact he told Victor Sullivan before even telling him his name; and that is that he is descended from Sir Francis Drake. It has always been touted that Nate at least believes himself to be a descendent of Drake’s, and up until now whether or not it is actually the case has never really been called into question. While the claim itself is a little farfetched it seemed that Nate had reasonable reason to believe it himself.

However, a spanner is thrown into the works, and it seems that one of the few things we knew for definite about Nathan (his belief, not the fact) is not true. At one stage in the game Katherine Marlowe has our hero in her clutches, and she spells out his past in a brutal, and ever so slightly heartbreaking manner. In a few sentences she strips Nathan of his entire identity. All Nathan can do is listen.

"...Mr Drake. Of course, that isn't your real name, is it?"

Drake is not Nathan’s surname; he was given to a boys’ home by his father aged five following his mother’s suicide. Interestingly the boys’ home is named St Francis. This is either a coincidence written into the narrative, or it tells us how Nathan came up with his assumed identity. Personally I find this slightly unlikely, although it is entirely possible. There is a theory that the name of the boys’ home inspired a young and impressionable Nathan to research into Sir Francis Drake, and he ended up using the name and making up the family connection. However this doesn’t quite work for me; St Francis, I can only assume, is St Francis of Assisi, and certainly isn’t Sir Francis Drake. Anyway, this isn’t entirely relevant, but in this short scene we learn more about Nathan than possibly ever before. While there is still a tiny chance that Nathan is who he says he is (albeit with a different (now lost) surname) or that he himself at least always believed it, it now seems likely that his entire identity was made up in order for him to escape the horrors of his own pitiful childhood.

The identity that Nathan created enabled him to aspire to what Sir Francis had been capable of; that which is instilled in his motto Sic Parvis Magna. Greatness from small beginnings. It isn’t a bad ideal to try to live up to, by any means. It is this, mixed with a little of what occurred during his first meeting with Marlowe that has apparently driven Nate to become the man he has become. Dismissed by Marlowe, aged 14, in Colombia as a “filthy, cast-off little beggar” he seeks to make something better out of himself. Twenty years have gone by, and it seems that he still isn’t quite over it. Marlowe points out that underneath the cocky exterior is the same runaway that she met two decades previously, and to be fair to her, she is probably right in her sentiment, if not her words. He *is* the same man; a name won’t change that. Some people may have tried years of therapy, but not Nathan. Elena hits this nail squarely on the head when she pleads with Nate to not go on with his quest, stating that he has successfully beaten Marlowe, as she doesn’t know where Iram is, but he does. This would not be great enough for Nathan.

“I did manage to save one small thing. I thought you might miss this…”

Nathan’s identity as a Drake is symbolised by the ring that he wears around his neck, and that we saw him steal from the Maritime Museum in Columbia. This game isn’t the first time that it has been used to symbolise Nate’s link to his (assumed) past. In UNCHARTED; Drake’s Fortune we see Nate leave it with the body of Sir Francis, believing that he “wasted his life for nothing”. It is Elena who retrieves it (although I still haven’t managed to work out how exactly) for him.

"I swapped it for something better."

However it is used for even more poignant effect in Drake’s Deception. We learn just what happened to Nathan and Elena following their beautiful sunset mountaintop reconciliation at the end of Among Thieves. It seems the two lovebirds got themselves hitched! Who’d'a thought? Nathan? Settle down? Well… no he didn’t, by all accounts. Anyway, not only did they tie the knot, but they also went their separate ways. Elena Fisher and Nathan Drake have always worked as a duo, for me at least, because they *got* each other. Much as I love Elena there perhaps isn’t quite as much to get with her as there is with the ever complicated Nathan. But she seemed to understand his insatiable desire to adventure, whether or not she knew his real roots isn’t even relevant. Fact is that although she has always been the first to point out his quirks and flaws (“So let me get this straight; you are competing with a psychopathic war-criminal for a mythological gemstone?”)  she has never tried to stop him doing what he does. Until now. We are not told explicitly which straw was the one that broke the back of the camel of their relationship but Nate being Nate seems to be the crux of the problem.

I can understand a need to settle, and to be normal, but I did not see Elena expecting this of Nathan. Emily Rose (Elena Fisher’s voice and mocap actor) comments that their relationship works when there is a lot of drama, but it is the mundane that really troubles them. I highly doubt that Nathan is blameless, probably quite the opposite, but I had hoped that they might be able to find something more of a compromise. Anyway, the point about the ring that I was going to make some paragraphs ago was that Nate loses it in Yemen (rather it is taken from him while he is drugged) and it is eventually lost for good when Katherine Marlowe meets her inevitable demise in the sink hole that is what becomes of Iram of the Pillars. Marlowe pleads with Nate to pull her out, she appeals to his heroic side, and offers up Drake’s ring as a reward for saving her life. Nate claims he now has nothing to prove; it seems he has finally become the man he has always wanted to be, and I can’t help feeling that Marlowe inadvertanty helped to facilitate this. By belittling him and writing him off as a child she was partly responsible for driving him to prove himself so hard. Having now beaten her to Iram, and followed in the footsteps of Drake himself he has more than proved what he can do. He does not need to hide behind the Drake persona anymore. But he is not a bad man, so in a vain attempt to pull Marlowe free the ring is lost.

One identity is symbolically sucked away, leaving a gap for another. This time it is his wedding ring that he puts back on. He is essentially rejecting the life of the adventurer in favour of the life of a happily married man. However, I do not see it lasting, if I am honest. Nathan is not a settler. Not even for Elena, in my opinion. Like Achilleus I cannot see him dying a normal death. This is why, although I am happy with the end of this chapter in his life, I would be disappointed with him if this is how his rambling life ends. I never want to see his death, but however the Uncharted series finishes I do hope it is left open for him to adventure for ever more. Of course, this does not bode well for Elena…

"On a scale of one to ten; how scared were you that I was going to die?"

Not that I am advocating that Elena should die, because… well… I love her, but if anyone were to pop their clogs it would make sense for it to be her. It would give Nathan the… scope… to adventure more. But I will leave that stuff for Naughty Dog to decide. I am sure they can come up with a better solution than conveniently killing a problem character off.

“I see great things in our future, kid. Great things.”

Clearly Nathan’s relationship with Elena has changed; for better or for worse, I am undecided; but his other significant other is Sully, and their relationship surely deserves a mention here. After all that is the basis for this game. I have variously heard their relationship described as a ‘bromance’ or as one that is like father and son. The latter sits better with me, and not just because Sully is twenty five years Nathan’s senior. A bromance, in my eyes, is what Joey and Chandler have, and touching and deep though that maybe, I don’t feel that the dynamic is the same. Sully, it would seem, took Nathan under his wing when they met back in Columbia, and although they have not always worked together, they always work *well* together.

UNCHARTED 3; Drake’s Deception is full of what could look like simple, witty throwaway lines put in for comedic effect. Case in point here is something Sully says while following Nate through the woods to the Chateau in France. In one of their reminiscing conversations Nathan says that he should have known he’d be in prison within a year of knowing Sully. Sully counters with “I got you out though. I always got you out.” This doesn’t indicate a particularly healthy relationship, but it does indicate an unfailing bond. The fact that losing Sully is Nathan’s greatest fear shows just what he means to Nate. From Marlowe’s summing up of Nate’s early life we can see that Sully is probably the first person to take much interest in him, or listen to what he has to say. For all his cocky wise-arse one liners Nathan is still a human being with feelings. Again I am reminded of Creative Director Amy Hennig’s use of the words ‘abandonment issues.’ Honestly it isn’t surprising.

As I said, Nate and Sully haven’t always worked together; for example Sully doesn’t really seem to know Chloe Frazer that well at the start of Among Thieves; Nathan clearly knew her biblically well. (Chloe represents the shadier side of Nathan, so I am not entirely surprised that Nate may have kept that part of his life separate from Sully.) Also Sully was quite happy to let Nate and Chloe gallivant off to Nepal while he went somewhere hot during the events of said game.

In the very first game we see Sully shot and survive, thanks to a luckily placed shirt pocket with Sir Francis Drake’s journal concealed within. Later Elena provides video proof of his seemingly miraculous survival, and she questions Nate on Sully’s trustworthiness. Although not 100% sure why Sully is helping out the baddies he claims that “Sully is a lot of things, but he isn’t a backstabber.” I think it is interesting that Nate doesn’t immediately recognise that Sully is merely helping them out (in fact he was leading them in the wrong direction) in order to keep himself alive, and for nothing else more suspicious. Nathan may know Sully very well, but he obviously doesn’t know everything about him. Judging by the depth of their relationship I highly doubt that Sully has ever given Nate a legitimate reason to suspect anything dubious, even if they aren’t completely inseparable.

"I taught you better than that."

Nathan may not have had reason to question Victor Sullivan, but this did not stop me from doubting him. Knowing that there were to be many examples of deception throughout the game I could not help but think that maybe Sully had not plucked Nate from the streets with good intentions after all. Katherine Marlowe makes this exact same point, but it was clear to me when Sully was prepared to shoot Cutter to stop him from killing Nathan that Sully was, and always would be, on Nathan’s side. All this considered, it is hardly surprising how much he means to Nate; for all his cocky exterior. I will go as far to point out that, to date, Sully is the only person to whom Nate has verbally expressed love. It was implied at the end of Among Thieves, of course, in relation to Elena, but the words were not used. They were used at the end of Drake’s Deception, though; to Sully. It was also this scene in which we see Sullivan openly all but claim Nathan as his own son. The paternal/filial nature of their relationship has often been pointed out, but here it is spelled out. What initially drove Sully to help Nate out is open for debate; maybe he initially *did* see something he could exploit, maybe he just saw a boy who could really use a friend, and that was the only way he knew to show him friendship.

All this aside; they have never shared a work ethos. Sure, Nate is interested in the money, but ever since his jaunt to the museum in Cartegena his motivation has been, very loosely, historical knowledge. He did not steal the ring to sell it, he stole it as it symbolised his ‘past’. Sullivan, on the other hand is all about the money. He is forever trying to hurry Nate up; telling him to get to the point, etc… This isn’t to say he is wholly uninterested, but clearly the “immeasurable wealth” is what keeps him *really* interested. There is a nice moment in Drake’s Deception in which Nathan is explaining in his usual excited and oblivious manner the intricacies of their current case to Sully, Chloe and Cutter, and is slightly blind-sided when Sully pre-empts him by recognising the Sabaean alphabet. Sully and Chloe share a fist bump which goes wholly unnoticed by Nathan who is in his element. They may be two very different people, but they certainly make a great complementary team.

“What’s the matter? Doesn’t the kitty like getting wet?”

I alluded to the fact that this game has been met with mixed reactions from the audience. I will agree that there are some technical issues that sadly hold it back from perfection; occasionally Nate’s leg will go through a wall, for example. I can assign these to the fact that the PS3 isn’t quite good enough to allow the game to be all it can be. Were it a PS4 title, I am sure none of these issues would be even remotely evident.

What I have found, though, is that the story and narrative have come in for some criticism. Playing the game through for the first time had me hooked. I took a very short break to post to twitter to say that I found the story dark and compelling and was flabbergasted to find other people may have thought otherwise. I wondered if the games we had played were the same. However the audience is so massive that there are those that want to shoot, and that is fine, but there are also those that want to be told a story and to explore the characters and themes. Catering for everybody is no easy task. The narrative of UNCHARTED 3; Drake’s Deception does not always instantly offer up answers but they are there, if one looks hard enough. We may not know, for example, exactly how Talbot got away from Nate, Sully, Cutter and Chloe, but there are several plausible theories. And revealing just how it was done would defeat the object of the secret society’s mysteriousness.

UNCHARTED 3; Drake’s Deception is different from many games, in that it not only tells you a story, but also lets you experience that story. Many games allow you to assume a character; this game doesn’t. You ‘play’ as Drake. He has his own personality so there is no need to imprint your own onto him. So how, then, does one create a game with him which allows the player any amount of input? Simple; show them how Nathan feels, what he thinks, what makes him tick and what he gets out of bed for. Scenes that are not action-oriented are vital to a game such as this. The player may simply have to push their stick forward to see Nate stumble through a desert, but they are rewarded with a depth of feeling and emotion that I rarely get from television or film. In fact, it is *because* you hold the controller that you feel so involved and drawn in. People (the uninitiated) sometimes ask me what it is that I see in Nathan, and express surprise at the thought that a videogame character (gasp) can inspire so much. Sometimes if I am feeling flippant I will answer with this image;

Yes, I went there.

…but most of the time I tell them it is because I can really get to know him, without really knowing him at all. He is a fascinating man, who operates not quite in our world, yet close enough to it that we can be drawn in to his.

Superficially, Drake’s Deception is a story about a search for a lost city. What it actually is, among other things, is a study on what makes Nathan Drake who he is. And that certainly isn’t his name. He has come a long way in the timespan of this game. Yet again, though, he is not a penny richer, yet he is richer in spirit. He is free to continue doing what he does (domestic arrangements permitting) as himself. After all a name alone does not make a man. Sullivan was right; greatness is what you do with the hand you have been dealt. Nathan has more than proved himself to be more than the man he ever set out to be.

With the dust settled, guns holstered and enough buildings destroyed to make even a Michael Bay movie look amateur, it can only mean that the UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception beta has come to an end. Well, what did we think?

Stuck at home for the summer, with nothing to do, I really couldn’t have received much better news than UNCHARTED 3′s multiplayer beta soon to go live. I can’t say I was too happy at the prospect of waiting an extra week to access it but joining PlayStation Plus or purchasing Infamous 2 for earlier access seemed a step too far, even for a hardcore Uncharted fan like myself. Then came the hack and the resulting PSN downtime, a nuisance to many, expensive for Sony and a godsend to fans who didn’t want to have to wait that extra week to see the beautiful, and now customisable, Nathan Drake back on their screens.

With my diary cleared for the week, I uncharacteristically got up at 9am on the morning of the 28th and went straight to my PlayStation. It wasn’t there. Not the PlayStation, that would’ve been a tragedy, the beta. Of course it wasn’t there, I live in the UK.

Over twelve hours later and it finally went live in Britain, after all this waiting it would have to be something really special. And it was. After four hours of installation that is.

It took nothing more than the first note of Greg Edmonson’s brilliant and familiar soundtrack and I was straight back in the world of Uncharted, the world that Naughty Dog so kindly created.

After customising the colour of Drake’s shirt and pants, something I later discovered could be done whilst waiting for a game, the first thing I noticed was how much quicker and easier it was to get a game going. Naughty Dog’s first stray into multiplayer with Drake, 2009′s Among Thieves, constantly tested by loyalty by keeping me waiting twenty minutes just to start a match. In the short amount of time it took for me to be thrown into my first match I did, however, manage to miss the ‘all matchtypes’ search option from Among Thieves.

Customisation

One of the first things you notice in UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception, if you’re like me that is, is that you can change the way that your character looks. You are encouraged to create a team emblem which, if you are the highest scoring player in the game, will be featured across the buildings on the maps. The beta only allows you to play as a handful of characters, something I’m sure will change once the actual game arrives, but you can customise what they are wearing and the colours of their clothes.

For example, I had Drake’s half tucked shirt blue with his pants black. The beta didn’t provide all of the colours available but it was nice to be able to have your Drake looking slightly different from the other four Drake’s on your team. Different items of clothing could be unlocked throughout the game by either levelling up of finding complete treasure sets.

Not only does Drake’s Deception allow you to customise the look of your character but the weapon which they will use. The M4 was by far my favourite gun in the game but it required levelling up pretty high or killing someone else and stealing it off of them. Until I was able to get hold of the gun I wanted though I was happy to just add extra features to my available weapons such as bigger clips and scopes.

Maps

The first week of the beta provided us with two maps, the aforementioned, airstrip and the chateau; both which we’re sure will feature heavily in the single player  campaign. Each map boasted many-a-place for Drake, or your chosen character, to hide and even some gun turrets to play with.

The chateau, which seemed to be the most popular with the beta players, had the rustic, grungy Uncharted feel to it. Overgrown grass surrounded crumbling ruins in which the player could hide behind providing some pretty decent vantage points throughout the map. The chateau building itself, previously seen in a single player gameplay trailer, was just as unkempt with the building falling down it was the perfect place for Drake and co to take on some renegade villains.

Starting a team match on the chateau map generally meant you would each start at opposite ends of the map with the main building standing between you. After a while, as players became more familiar with the scene, you knew that if you went around a certain corner you were bound to find the rest of your team locked in a gun battle with the other team. This is true for most maps on most multiplayer games though and isn’t necessarily something I can criticise UNCHARTED 3’s multiplayer mode for.

It was the zip line that I liked the most about the chateau though. In a  panic to escape the bullets of four opponents I would sprint, they’ve added a sprint feature, to the hole in the side of the building and grab a hold of the zip line that would either lead me to safety or my death. Either way it was fun to watch and interact with.

The other map that Naughty Dog introduced in the first week of the beta was the airstrip. The airstrip was an interesting map to say the least. In certain gameplay modes, such as Team Deathmatch, the game would begin on an actual airstrip with the heroes (Nate and pals) defending an, about to take off, airplane from the villains who were chasing it eagerly in 4x4s. Reminiscent of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves’ Convoy level as a villain it is your job to jump between the vehicles and take out the heroes in order to make your way onto the plane before it takes off.

After take off both teams, regardless of who was on the plane before take off, arrive at the main map. In the centre of the airstrip map is a bunker kind of building which boasts one of the beta’s most impressive, little things; a button which your character can interact to open and close the shutter doors, always useful if you’re being attacked from all sides.

What with Drake’s inspiring climbing abilities it is of course no problem for you to make your way onto the top of the bunker where you can either hide, in a collapsible shelter, or get a good look at the map from above. Like the chateau the airstrip provides two gun turrets to play with and adds more realism when two planes fly over head shooting at the scene below and destroying certain aspects of the map.

Yemen was added as an available map to the beta towards the end and was much smaller than the previous two but with plenty more hiding places and vantage points. Where the chateau and the airstrip were played with teams attacking from opposite ends of buildings Yemen was centred more around the three different levels of the building.

Game Modes

The beta began with just a selection of game modes; Team Deathmatch, Three Team Deathmatch, Free for All, Team Objective and Co-Op Adventure. As expected they were all your standard third person shooter multiplayer modes with a bit of an Uncharted spin put on things. Free for All, a new addition to the Uncharted franchise, somehow ended up being my favourite; perhaps it had something to do with me not having to depend on anyone and being able to shoot at everything that moved. Three Team Deathmatch was an interesting addition as well with three teams of two facing off against each other.

For week two of the beta Naughty Dog added in Plunder, High Stakes and Co-Op Hunter modes. Plunder, the Uncharted franchises capture the flag, was welcomed eagerly but it was the two new additions that were the most interesting.

High Stakes gave the player the chance to gamble the money and experience that they had so far gained from gameplay by betting on the outcome of the match. If you were pretty confident that you were going to win then it definitely provided a great way to up your experience level and get your hands on new weapons, mods and boosters.

Hunter mode, on the other hand, offered a much different Co-Op experience to previous modes offered in Uncharted. Co-op Hunter entails a team of two heroes going up against a team of two villains. The heroes’ objective in Hunter mode is to collect and return as many different treasures as they can whilst the villains have to stop them. Sounds simple enough, right? Not quite. Naughty Dog have gone all out this time around when trying to incorporate as much of the single player aspect into the multiplayer as they can without straying too far from multiplayer norms. The team of villains in the Hunter mode are assisted by a group of AI villains, much like the ones Drake faces in single player mode.

Power Plays and Buddy System

Aside from the maps and modes the Drake’s Deception beta also gave fans the first look at power plays and the buddy system. Power Plays are a new addition that aim to give losing teams a bit of a chance which is always nice when you’re being pummelled 40 – 0 but not so nice if you’ve been hammering the other team only to have them come back thanks to a power play.

Power Plays can come in different forms and are only available for a select amount of time so as not to give the losers a total advantage, just a bit of a nudge. The ones we saw in the beta ranged from VIP, where a certain member of the winning team is selected as a marked man and extra points are given to the losing team if they kill him whilst the winning team need to try and protect him. Another Power Play used in the beta is one that makes the losing teams ammo more effective, killing the winning team in fewer hits.

The Buddy System that has been incorporated into UNCHARTED 3 pairs you up, in every team match, with another player; your ‘buddy’. The only thing I really noticed the buddy system did was allow you to spawn next to your buddy after dying, allowing you to get back into the action except if your buddy was being attacked you couldn’t spawn near them.

Final Thoughts

UNCHARTED 3 is beautiful, even without taking into account the fact that I was playing as Nate. Once again Naughty Dog have outdone themselves with the attention to detail but its no surprise really.

The multiplayer will never live up to the single player mode but it a pretty decent feature that definitely adds to the replay value. It would seem that after 2009’s Among Thieves which caved the way for an Uncharted multiplayer Naughty Dog have really taken note of what the fans like, dislike and want to see.

Will I be playing the multiplayer in November when the game hits shelves? No, not until I’m done with the single player but I’ll definitely make my way across to it eventually and I’m sure I won’t be the only one. In an age where gamers insist on their favourite games having a multiplayer option Uncharted has done more than what was required to keep its fans happy and no doubt will continue to do so.

After 3 weeks it was sad to see the beta go but its done its job and now I’m even more excited for what November will bring.

What’d you think of the beta? Let us know in the comments!

After being confirmed as one of the headline sponsors for the UK’s first ever GAMEfest, PlayStation wasted no time in announcing that the highly anticipated UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception will be playable at the event.

Set to be held between 16th and 18th September, GAMEfest, hosted by Europe’s leading games retailer GAME, comes to the UK as an alternative to London’s EuroGamer Expo, held a week later. The event will be the first opportunity for UK fans to get their hands on the latest from the Uncharted franchise which is set for the later release date of 4th November in Britain. Taking place at the Birmingham NEC the event, which has already taken off in Spain, looks to become a regular appearance in the diaries of British gamers.

“We are delighted to support GAMEfest 2011, and thrilled to offer UK consumers the opportunity to be able to get hands-on with our latest line up including the much anticipated Resistance 3 and the sequel to last year’s game of the year – Uncharted 3.”

Tickets to the event are now on sale at £10 for an adult, per day, and £5 for children under the age of 12 and are exclusively  available to GAME reward card holders.

Book your tickets now.

BREAKING: Fresh off the latest gameplay demo of UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception, Naughty Dog stunned the audience with revelations that both Elena Fisher (UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune and UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves) and Chloe Frazer (UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves) return to the series.

Before tonight, fans had been left to wonder if the characters would return to the franchise after there was no mention of them in any of the previous gameplay demos or the teaser trailer; even our interview with Emily Rose came up inconclusive.

Emily Rose replied to the revelation as being “so glad to be a part of [UNCHARTED 3],” and fans jumped at the news with excitement and support.

Stay tuned as we look out for the E3 2011 trailer for UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception.

Update: Trailer embedded below!

Click here to view the embedded video.

How do you feel about the return of UNCHARTED’s Elena and Chloe? Let us know in the comments below!

Emily Rose, known to UNCHARTED fans as Elena Fisher in the first and second game, is also across television, having been in HBO’s John From Cincinnati, ABC’s Brothers & Sisters, CBS’ Jericho, NBC’s ER, and now Syfy’s Haven. Emily took the time during her hiatus between filming Haven’s first and second season to chat with us about the show and UNCHARTED.

At the time of the interview, UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception was just announced and explored, yet there is still no mention of Elena Fisher’s 3rd outing. Did Emily Rose give any hints? What she said comes in this two-page exclusive interview!

This interview was originally done during the 2010 holiday season. After an incredibly-rough few months later, including a brief stint in self-employment, and back to a very demanding work schedule, here we are! Sorry for the delay. -Chris

Chris Fullman: You’ve been working throughout television during your involvement with the first two UNCHARTED games. What’s filming like compared to your work with UNCHARTED?

Emily Rose: It’s different, you know, going from a supporting character on a television series to a leading character on something like UNCHARTED, which is in production for about a year.

With television, you tend to concentrate your work over a period of five months or so and 16-hour days. So it’s absolutely crazy in terms of the workload, and UNCHARTED is a bit more calm. With a TV show, you have writers and the producers and the networks working with you during the shoot and rewrites are coming in all the time. With UNCHARTED, we working together on the dialogue we get from the writer and are allowed to collaborate on the dialogue as we go along while the developers are making the magic you see on screen.

Emily Rose can be seen in Syfy's original series Haven, returning with new episodes Friday, July 15, 2011.

Syfy’s Haven’s second season starts shooting in the spring?

Yes, we’ll start shooting about the same time we started for the first season in April [2011]. I’ll take the long journey to Nova Scotia, and I’ll live there for about five months. Kinda crazy, you’d never think that by moving yourself to LA just to get a career in Hollywood to audition for a show, you’re sent far from it for a long time. [Laughs]

You recently got married; congratulations by the way! Does your husband get to travel with you when you go to these locations?

Thank you! My husband actually got to come with me for the first season, because he was gearing up to get a graduate degree in marriage and family counseling, but that wouldn’t start until September, so he joined me.

It was great to get married then get right to moving up there [to Nova Scotia] together and then come back in September. Sadly this year it’ll be a little more back and forth.

Was he on the set with you (behind the cameras) goofing off or just in the city for support?

He comes on set and enjoys the people and sense of family there, but Nova Scotia is just such a beautiful place that he takes our doggie out to explore. When entertainment isn’t your profession it’s exciting to see and be a part of, but when it’s your career it’s just a regular part of the business. In this location in particular, our sets are freezing so it’s not really something you’d want to go hang out with if you don’t have to be there. [Laughs]

Will we see him in a walk-on role this next season?

It was something the producers would joke around with last season but it didn’t work out… I’m not so sure about the next season, but you never know!

Emily joined the cast of CBS' Jericho as Trish Merrick in the second season.

With your work on CBS’ Jericho, there weren’t too many CGI effects that you had to shoot with, but with UNCHARTED, you were introduced to motion capture and trying to visualize where things needed to be to react to them the right way. Did your work with UNCHARTED make it easier to deal with special effects shots on Haven?

Now see, I’d like to think that I’m hopefully pulling off the suspension of disbelief for a science fiction show since I’m used to these types of effects shoots. That hasn’t stopped armchair actors, if you will, who tell me I need to work better on imagining what I’m supposed to be seeing while acting. [Laughs.]

I’m certainly not a pro, but I’m getting used to it, and of course there are actors that are just amazing at figuring all that out, like Tom Cruise in most of his recent films¨ or Robert Downey Jr., in films like Iron Man. As actors, you have to live in the imaginary, to work in science fiction, but it’s also hard on those putting together the final shots to make everything mesh.

UNCHARTED certainly made for a great “boot camp” when it comes to this type of acting with green screens and looking at a tennis ball on a stick and acting as if it’s literally about to kill you. [Laughs.]

So it sounds like working on UNCHARTED effectively makes actors “green screen-ready.”

[Laughs] Yeah, I’d say that. Sometimes people who don’t quite realize how this latest generation’s games are made still assume that everyone just records their voice in a sound room, and I’m quick to explain “no, this is the new wave of games, and it’s a whole group of actors in a room that act the scene, and our movements are filmed along with the audio, so it’s not just voice on someone else’s animations.”

It’s quite a different way of filming, in that you have dozens to hundreds of red lights on cameras around you. Sometimes I dream of red cat eyes all around me [laughs] since I see those red-lighted-cameras all day long wherever I look.

Other than your work on Haven, and I know you can’t even acknowledge any participation on UNCHARTED 3 since they’re keeping things so close to the chest, is there any other projects you have coming up?

Oh man, I wish I could. I’ve been doing a bunch of auditions and I’d love to get some film work on my career, but at the same time I really like the downtime and rest especially since I know what’s coming up on the second season of Haven in terms of demand and any other projects that come along. When I’m in Nova Scotia, I’m very far away from my friends and family, and after the season is done shooting, I’m on an international tour promoting the show, so I’ll take any downtime I can between projects. [Laughs]

Any other shows that you’d like to tip your hat in for outside of Haven?

Wow, well I know it’s already wrapped and done at this point, but I would have loved to have been in Friday Night Lights! I’d also love to be on Mad Men, I think that’d be fantastic. But you know, I’ve been doing so much work with drama and fantasy, I’d really like to do work in comedy, and even though Haven has it’s quirky elements, it’d be really fun to be on a comedy.

Hmm, so how about The Big Bang Theory, given it’s focus on pop culture and fantasy?

Exactly! [Laughs] Actually, I auditioned for that when it was in it’s preproduction stages. The things we audition for, Chris, the things!

Did you audition for Kaley Cuoco’s (Penny’s) part?

I believe I did! I was going through my old auditions looking for things to send to friends and it’s just awesome seeing all these random parts you try for.

Now that Syfy’s growing in online series, like their hit Riese, any chances you might be picked up in one of those?

You know, I’ve been asked about it, but I’m giving all I can to Haven, and I’m loving my work so far and can’t wait for this next season.

With the second season of Haven, is there anything you want to specifically accomplish as Audrey Parker or wrapping up a specific story from the first season, or adding a new element?

Well, last season we left Audrey with a huge question in the finale regarding her identity, so right now I know my character will have a huge identity crisis (you think?? [laughs]). I think that’ll all fit in with the second season with who I am and why I’m there and how that all fits in with ‘The Troubles’ element of the series. It’s exciting to try to prepare for the next season during hiatus especially when I don’t really know where they’re taking my character, you get all these possibilities your head.

This wraps up part one of our two-part interview with UNCHARTED’s Emily Rose. Visit the second page where Emily talks about her work on UNCHARTED, and if we might see her character in UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception. Continue »

All eyes are on Naughty Dog and what they are planning to dazzle us with at this weekend’s E3, but I thought I would take a brief moment to bring you up to speed on the other UNCHARTED title in preparation. Remember the NGP? Well, rumour has it that it is to be called the Vita (although that is far from final) but more importantly for us UNCHARTED fans (we really need a collective name, don’t we?) the game in production at Sony’s Bend studio might end up being called Golden Abyss. What this means, at this stage, is anyone’s guess, but it’s a nice place to start.

Even more importantly, and tantalisingly, are the screenshots that have recently been posted over at NeoGaf; they look gorgeous. They also seem to confirm the early feeling I had that the game would look more similar to Drake’s Fortune than Among Thieves, or Drake’s Deception, for that matter.

This gives me hope that we may be getting what I most desire out of the UNCHARTED world; and that is a story from earlier in Nate’s life; maybe even a prequel to Drake’s Fortune. The original screenshot that we posted way back when the NGP was first announced made Nate look particularly young and fresh faced; while he still looks youthful, these make him look more like his early 30s self. Perhaps this is therefore closer chronologically to Drake’s Fortune, rather than much earlier. Maybe I am just guessing. Time will tell.

What is interesting is that so far these images do not show any of the other of the staple UNCHARTED characters; no Sully, Elena, Chloe, Harry, Eddy or Rika. Of course, this does not mean that Nate will be on his own, just that Sony are either saving that information for later, or that Nate will be joined by buddies as yet unknown. I can’t imagine Nathan will be on his lonesome for the entire game; that is not his style. Besides, who will tell Nate how lucky he is, or who will be on hand to get Nate out of jail when he inevitably lands up there? Who will Nate try his best to save in that charmingly chivalrous, but ultimately misguided manner that he has?

There are more screenshots over at the NeoGaf Forums so I suggest you head on over there to take a peek (but do come back!) My appetite has been whetted once more for more Nathan Drake goodies, and I hope I have whetted yours too. We will also be on hand to report on what Naughty Dog reveal at E3 over the weekend; personally I am hoping for the big co-op reveal, but what about you? Let us know what you think of these screenshots, or what you are hoping for from E3 in the comments’ section below.

News is breaking across the trades that director David O. Russell, controversial for his decisions with the story and desired casting for the upcoming UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune movie adaptation, has dropped out of the project.

Fans had grown upset that a film, widely reported to be “fast-tracked” by the studio, has been so visibly slow in development. Over six months after the release of Russell’s last critically-acclaimed film, The Fighter, saw no progress beyond the story phase. Russell left the project over “creative differences” amid fan frustration and likely studio pressure.

With UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception launching later this year, we’re left wondering if we’ll see an UNCHARTED film before summer 2012, or if we’ll have to wait later.

Source: Variety, Kotaku

What are your thoughts about this latest development? Let us know in the comments!

Uncharted Weather for iPhone features weather-specific backgrounds, indicator animations and interactive easter eggs to let you customize the display to your liking.

Some people make wallpapers, or change their instant messenger status message, or tweet or set aside a calendar to count down to the launch of UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception. Some people take it to the next level; some people make iPhone applications for that exact purpose. But a countdown itself isn’t very useful, unless you give it another purpose.

Friendly developer and UNCHARTED fan Marko Radakovic, representing the UNCHARTED fans in Canada, took it upon himself to make a weather application, throw it into an Uncharted environment and add the countdown to it. The result: Uncharted Weather for iPhone. This $0.99 app (hey, he spent some time on this!) features Retina Display graphics, animations and Uncharted-themed backgrounds with accurate weather information and a customizable layout.

Update: Yes, this also works on the iPod Touch w/ WiFi!

Uncharted Weather dazzles with its clean layout and lush Retina Display visuals. Miles away from a typical clinical look, it has style and spirit that are tribute to Uncharted game series, displays the countdown to the Uncharted 3 release, and uses modified visuals from the game to present weather conditions.

Marko is the latest fan to contribute back to the UNCHARTED community, this time with an interactive countdown. Now all we need is a fan to make time go faster, or to move the launch date up.

App Giveaway

Marko was nice enough to give us five (5) promo codes for Uncharted Weather. Do you want one? Simply comment on this article for a chance to grab one! We’ll pick the winners at random on Sunday, May 22, 2001 at 5pm Eastern. The winners have been picked and notified! Thanks Marko!

Have you found a creative way others are counting down the launch of UNCHARTED 3, one of the most anticipated launches of 2011? Show us in the comments below!