As we get closer and closer to the European launch of the PS VITA and Uncharted: Golden Abyss, myself and all the guys at Bend Studio are getting pretty amped. For us it’s been a long time in the making, from early brainstorming sessions on the PS VITA itself beginning in 2008, through production, which wrapped up at the end of 2011. When given the opportunity to create a launch title for Sony’s new next-gen handheld, we jumped at the chance. When asked what game we’d like to make, we said Uncharted! Here’s why.

From the beginning, our goal was to create a great Uncharted game, to give players, including ourselves, more of what they love, but with the PS VITA’s unique spin. The cinematic experience, the gunplay and weapons, the compelling story and characters, the mystery and treasure hunting based on real history, the puzzles, the platforming, and of course, the colourful and detailed imagery… it’s all there. But it’s on a gorgeous five inch screen that you can take with you.

If you’ve been following all the pre-release news, then you know that Uncharted: Golden Abyss also has a ton of collectibles, over 300 in fact. We wanted to not only give the game some replayability with some additional exploration, but also to tell more back story, which we do through the items you collect, locations you photograph, and other puzzles you solve. All of these are tied to Trophies that can be earned. We didn’t forget the gamer who prefers gunplay to exploration: one of the collectible types in Uncharted: Golden Abyss are the Bounties. These drop randomly from fallen enemies throughout the game and represent things that might have been found in the area you’re fighting in: old Spanish playing cards, gold and silver coins, etc. To make it more challenging, we made some the items scarce and made some them really rare. You’re not going to collect all these on a single play through.

But we’re not cruel. To make it a little easier to collect all the Bounties, we created The Black Market. This is a NEAR application that allows you select a Bounty type from your collection and send a request out to the Black Market. If any other VITA players out there (in the area where you made the request) have a Bounty that you’re missing, the Black Market will send you a copy of their Bounty, even the rarest collectibles. We even created a sixth Bounty type that you can obtain only through NEAR: if you send a request to the Black Market and no one has what you need, the Black Market will send you a carved Fetish for you troubles. Again, all of these are tied to Trophies. If you want that platinum, it’s going to take you awhile, and you have to take your PS VITA with you!

We can’t wait!

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By now you’re hopefully well versed in the long gun nuances, co-op narrative and all the hanging-by-your-fingers-on-edge-of-a-cliff action found in Uncharted 3 multiplayer. Today we’re firing a heavy salvo of Uncharted 3 DLC information your way. Downloading this fresh content will blow out the co-op storyline and expand the UNCHARTED series in ways that have never been done before.

Coming today, February 8th, to Uncharted 3 is the Fort Co-Op adventure DLC. Did some of you guess that from our screenshot hint? Fort Co-Op Adventure will mark the first time in the series you’ll be able to play co-op as the UNCHARTED villains with Zoran Lazarević, Eddy Raja, Harry Flynn joining forces in a tale that further explores the mystery behind the Janus head statue from the on-disc co-op adventure. Check out a preview of that adventure here:

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Learning how to bring characters to life with all the nuances of personality, habits, quirks and mannerisms was really Sony Bend’s first and most important job when we started to work on UNCHARTED: Golden Abyss. We have an awesome example in the UNCHARTED series, and we wanted to give the characters a level of depth that transcends the screen. These videos shows just a glimpse of our process and how we worked with our eclectic cast of characters.

I’m no stranger to writing, having written all the Syphon Filter games, but this title taught me some new tricks. By the time we started shooting in February 2011, I had gone through over 40 revisions, changing everything from setting, characters, names, dialogue and action. If we count all the in-game VO dialogue, we ended up with over 400 pages of script for UNCHARTED: Golden Abyss.

Of course, writing and performance capture was just beginning. What followed was an intense year of motion capture clean-up, animation, camera work, set building, lip-synching, prop building, editing, sound and music, by a team of over 50 artists working across five different studios.

Yes, UNCHARTED’s stunning visuals require next-gen hardware, but in the end, Uncharted’s charm comes from its characters, their friendships and chemistry. The great thing about story is that it’s hardware independent. Players can tell a good story from a bad one, great production values from not-so-great. We knew that the end result – all of that effort by all those people – would pay off in an UNCHARTED experience that would lose nothing simply because it was on a portable console. It’s the main reason I was so excited to learn the UNCHARTED approach to cinematic storytelling. On February 22nd, you’ll be able to see for yourself.

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Happy 2012! We’re starting the year off with a fresh batch of UNCHARTED 3 DLC content and more in the pipeline that prophecies forbid us from fully portending quite yet. Hope you’ve all gotten 2012 off to a rocking start even with all the 2012 phenomenon chatter. If not, we’re about to make your end of days talk and your UNCHARTED gaming life much more awesome.

First off, today we’ll be releasing four maps we teased a couple of weeks after the UNCHARTED 3 launch.

You’ll be getting the Cave, Fort, Lost City, and Sanctuary maps in this download pack. Dynamic lighting effects, new particle effects and a slew of technical changes have been made to these maps. The lighting was reworked from scratch. New textures and weather effects are apparent and freshly decorate all maps. We poured hours of development time into these maps to make them be really fun in the UNCHARTED 3 multiplayer ecosystem. This map pack is a taste of how far we can go to remix some of your favourite maps into a completely new UNCHARTED 3 gameplay experience.

If you’re a member of the Fortune Hunters’ Club these maps will be available free to you. If not, you can gain access today by purchasing the FHC from the PS Store. It’s a fantastic deal at €24.99 / £19.99

Initially, the Fortune Hunters’ Club offered savings off the seven multiplayer packs (three character skin packs, four map packs) that will be released for Uncharted 3. We’ve kicked this deal up a few notches and are now offering 14 total packs, 7 new packs that we will be revealing as the year progresses! As a FHC member the savings for these 14 packs will be over 60%! Current membership and any new membership purchased will include all currently available and any upcoming DLC packs for Uncharted 3 as well as an exclusive Fortune Hunters’ Club theme that will let you know when new Uncharted 3 DLC hits right from the XMB of your PS3.

Besides the fun new maps you’ll be playing on today, we wanted to tell you about some future hits of DLC. We have three new character skins packs coming at you next. The Rogues Pack 1 and Rogues Pack 2 will let you play as some of the major thugs and minor characters from Uncharted 3. Donut Pack 1 will giant-size some of your favorite Uncharted 3 heroes and villains.

Details on how and when the three new skin packs will be available, and what DLC is coming after that, will follow in our next blog update. We have a lot more DLC coming at you. To whet your appetite, here’s a hint to as what it may be:

Any guesses to why Lazarević is holding half a Janus head?

As you see we are currently hard at work on completely new DLC for your UNCHARTED 3 online adventure. As soon as all the content is fully baked, tested through QA and we have locked release dates you’ll be the first to know. For now, let’s explore some new maps together. See you online!

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Hey everyone, this is John Garvin, writer and director of Uncharted: Golden Abyss. Today I’m here to run you through some of the highlights of the two levels we’re showcasing this week at the Tokyo Game Show.

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