By now you’ve probably read the full details of what you’ll get with UNCHARTED 3‘s upcoming multiplayer beta. Now, in our new video interview, Naughty Dog‘s top developers reveal just how deep this rabbit hole goes. At a glance, UNCHARTED 3′s most obvious multiplayer enhancement lies in its sweeping character customization options in the form of weapon loadouts, gun mods and a wide selection of ability-enhancing Boosters. You’ll be able to modify your character’s appearance in almost every way, whether you want to slap some aviators on Nathan Drake or cobble together a custom hero or villain from scratch. “There are hundreds and hundreds of parts and every part has a customizable color,” Game Director Justin Richmond tells us. “You can look the way you want to look. We want it to feel personal.”

“Personal” is a theme that permeates every yawning nook and cavernous cranny of UNCHARTED 3‘s redesigned multiplayer experience. Underneath the ultra-polished shooting mechanics and well-balanced arsenal of weapons lies a social media platform that is positively thrumming with potential. With UNCHARTED 3, community is finally a two-way street: You can tap into your Facebook friend list to recruit a Buddy, then fight by his side while earning rewards for coordinated kills — with a bonus for landing the obligatory post-kill high-five. Afterwards, you can upload your favorite video clips to Facebook and YouTube for sharing. Or, if you prefer, you can watch streaming community clips via UNCHARTED TV while you wait for the next match to begin.

You’ll get your hands on UNCHARTED 3‘s new multiplayer modes when the beta begins on June 28th for PlayStation Plus subscribers and owners of specially marked copies of inFAMOUS 2; full access follows on July 5th for all PSN users. Watch the video and read on for more excerpts from our interview with Game Director Justin Richmond and Game Designer Roger Cogburn. And chime in with any questions in the comments!

You’ve already contributed to UNCHARTED 3′s multiplayer mode by playing The Lab.

“We’ve been running The Lab sessions for UNCHARTED 2,” UNCHARTED 3 Game Director Justin Richmond explained, “and we used that feedback to help design UNCHARTED 3.” With The Lab, Naughty Dog‘s designers experimented with new modes using UNCHARTED 2′s sizeable multiplayer audience. “Plunder Pistols ended up being super popular,” Richmond said, “We knew it was fun internally, but being able to test it with the fans in The Lab verified that we thought was cool. We want to do even more of that with UNCHARTED 3. We have the ability to get feedback from the fans, and we want to maintain that dialog.”

UNCHARTED 3′s 3D technique paved the way for split-screen multiplayer support.

“There are a number of ways to implement 3D; some are more ‘fake’ than others,” Richmond explained. “We committed to using 3D early on, and we wanted to do it as real as possible because it allowed for splitscreen. 3D and splitscreen are kind of the same thing because the game is basically rendering each frame twice. As soon as we figured out how to do that with 3D, we knew we could handle splitscreen. Now, I am grossly oversimplifying that — the programmers would kill me for saying it was that easy! But basically, our 3D implementation allowed for splitscreen support.”

UNCHARTED 3′s splitscreen multiplayer enables dual PSN logins.
“You don’t have to be on some guest account,” Richmond said. “You and your friend can sit down in splitscreen and level up both of your characters. We support two different PSN ID logins.”

The dynamic multiplayer events were inspired by UNCHARTED 2.

“UNCHARTED 2‘s Trainwreck multiplayer level that had an event where a cargo train fell down and revealed an RPG,” Game Designer Robert Cogburn explained. “We were surprised by how that resonated with people, so with UNCHARTED 3 we decided to swing for the fences and go as epic as we can.” Every level includes some sort of dynamic event: Airstrip’s opening truck chase ends in a finale at the airport; Chateau’s spreading fire slowly consumes the central floor and reveals a new area and weapons.

You’ll collect random loot in order to unlock new gear.

Fallen foes will occasionally drop randomized Treasures, and you’ll want to collect every piece you find. “The Treasures add a bit of an RPG element,” Cogburn said. “Every Treasure piece has a varying level of scarcity, and they fit into sets. Once a set is fully completed, you’ll earn an item: a gun, a custom part, an emblem, and so on.” What’s more, if you’re battling with a buddy, he or she can run over and grab Treasure for you. “We can update the Treasures dynamically, too,” Cogburn teased, “so we can add more later if we want to.”

You’re no longer helpless while climbing.

Back in UNCHARTED 2′s multiplayer, climbing left you high and dry — especially if you encountered another enemy. “It came down to who could hit the ground first and get his gun out,” Richmond said. “It kind of sucked — you could only climb or drop down.” Not so with UNCHARTED 3. “Now it’s more like a chess match. Should I edge over and try to kick him? Should I drop? Should I climb? If I do, will the other guy pull me down? It adds an extra dimension to the combat.”

UNCHARTED TV support supports uploads and downloads for YouTube and Facebook.

Plenty of games enable you to capture multiplayer footage and show it to your friends, but UNCHARTED 3 is transforming its multiplayer component into a full-blown video publishing platform. “We can not only upload your video clips to YouTube and Facebook, we can stream videos into the engine,” Richmond said. That means you’ll be able to watch Clips of the Week and community clips while you wait for that next multiplayer level to start. “And we will constantly update that content,” Richmond promised.

UNCHARTED 3 will give high-level players much, much more do.

“With UNCHARTED 2, high-level players would hit a point where they didn’t have anything to spend money on,” Cogburn said. “UNCHARTED 3 is much deeper.” Boosters, which enhance player abilities, can now be leveled up with use. And if the competition gets really tough, you can even buy pricey-but-potent Paid Boosters to temporarily even the odds. “The ranking system plays into that because the higher your rank, the more Paid Boosters will appear. It’s a far more interesting ranking system than in UNCHARTED 2.”

If you have any feedback for the guys then please let me know.

While this may not come as a surprise for some of you – as part of Naughty Dog’s continuing support of our multiplayer community, we’re glad to say we’ve got some new UNCHARTED 2 DLC on the way real soon.

Like, next week soon.

On Wednesday, 18 August, the UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Sidekick Skins pack will be available for purchase from PlayStation Store. After the last two sets of multiplayer skins we released, we heard that you wanted more Sully, more Chloe and more Elena (among many, many other things) – and that’s exactly what we put into the pack. Not to neglect the villains team, we also threw in two enemy characters from UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune – Dillon and Mac – who complete the set we started with Blain and Dutch.

The UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Sidekick Skins Pack includes the following multiplayer characters:

• Heist Chloe
• Borneo Chloe
• Borneo Sullivan
• UDF Sullivan
• Winter Sullivan
• Wetsuit Elena
• Dillon
• Mac

On the same day, we’re also releasing an UNCHARTED 2 Dynamic Theme for your PS3. As you can see from the screenshots and the embedded video below, the Dynamic Theme features a scene from Chapter 15 – Train Wrecked, when a critically injured Nathan Drake is high up in the mountains, stumbling through the snow away from the train wreck he survived to recover the Phurba Dagger.

The UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Sidekick Skin Pack will be released on the PlayStation Store on 18 August for only €2.99 / £2.39 for the 8 skins. The UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Dynamic Theme will be released on the same day €1.99 / £1.59 as well.

UPDATE: New videos added.

The day is nearly here for our UNCHARTED fans and the multitudes who have been awaiting a new co-op game type — The UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Siege Expansion Pack will be on sale when the PlayStation Network Store updates on Thursday, April 22nd, and will set you back only $5.99.

Look for the PlayStation Store Update blog post on Thursday to know when The Siege Expansion Pack is available for purchase.

As we announced just two weeks ago, the Siege Expansion Pack is our biggest DLC release to date: two new maps, six new multiplayer skins, one new co-op game type and 11 new online-only Trophies.

Do yourself a favor and read the full rundown of what’s included in the pack, check out the screenshots, and watch the gameplay and map fly-through videos. You won’t be disappointed.

The most significant portion to the Siege Expansion Pack is the new Siege co-op game type. You can read impressions of Siege from these IGN and GameSpot reviews of the Siege Expansion Pack. Since we started testing Siege internally, up through last week’s sessions with reviewers, I’ve really enjoyed the complexities of Siege. It’s not as simple as defending pre-defined locations against waves of NPCs: Between the different vulnerabilities of each new location and the lack (or abundance) of weapon pickups, you’ll find yourself testing out interesting new strategies to maximize your points and cash.

Apart from the Siege co-op game type, I’m really excited for the two new maps. We’ve spent our time post-release wisely and learned a lot about how to build multiplayer maps that not only offer more verticality, but make it an essential part of the navigation and domination of a particular map. I love both maps, but it is the massive verticality and need to use your traversal skills that make The Highrise one of my favorite maps. Ever. Of course, the potentially lethal helicopter assault and very real danger of jumping off the buildings to your doom takes the awesome to new heights. See what I did there?

We also revealed the contents of Title Update 1.07 this morning, prior to the release of the update worldwide. Title Update 1.07 includes the following:

• Players can now choose between Hero skins for Co-op Arena matches only
• Additional spawn system changes to enhance spawn point update effectiveness
• Gameplay changes to prevent “airwalk” exploit
• Updates to map geometry collision detection to improve prevention of players attempting to leave normal multiplayer map boundaries

And now, I’ll leave you with this announcement:

To celebrate the release of the Siege Expansion Pack, this weekend marks the return of Double Cash Weekend!

Starts: Friday, April 23, 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?)
Ends: Monday, April 26, 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?)

Hope you all had a great Easter break and managed to pack in some quality gaming time.

Naughty Dog has updated me with some great news for the multiple award winning Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. I’m pleased to announce the guys have pulled out all the stops to deliver more downloadable content for all you fans out there!

The ‘Siege Expansion’ pack will be hitting PSN later this month (RRP €5.99 / £4.79) So what can you look forward to this time?

The pack includes 6 character skins, a new co-op game mode for 2-3 players, 2 new maps and 11 additional Trophies (10 Bronze and 1 Silver).

Trophies:
Bronze

• You Can’t Break Me – Complete All 3 Co-op Objective Maps on Crushing
• Under Siege – Finish Wave 10 in 1 Siege Game
• Speedy – Get 10 First! Medals
• I’ll Cover You – Get 50 Defender Medals
• Fallen Angel – Get 50 Afterlife Medals
• Not So Fast – Get 20 Shut’em Down Medals
• Jack Of All Trades – Get 15 Triple Threat Medals
• You Run, I’ll Shoot – Get 10 Protectorate Medals
• Back At Ya – Get 50 Retaliation Medals
• Kneel Before Z.. – Get 5 Put’em Down Medals

Silver

• Rock a Rhyme – Get 100 Tricky Medals

The 6 character skins are: Wetsuit Drake, Baseball Shirt Drake, Prakoso, Platzor, Glowzor and Dead Explorer.

The new co-operative “Siege” game mode is for 2-3 players, and can be enjoyed on 9 multiplayer maps, with 2 new ones included in this pack: The Museum and The Highrise.

And finally team up and fight your way through 10 rounds, battling the clock and waves of progressively tougher enemies as you locate and defend a series of Capture Points

Check out the screenshots below

I look forward to answering any questions you may have and stay tuned for further updates.

As you may have heard, I’m pleased to announce that we have another great piece of downloadable content coming to Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

This time you get the chance to revisit locations from Nathan Drake’s debut adventure and enjoy multiplayer battles in the Sub Facility and the Flooded Ruins. In addition to the two classic maps, the pack also includes six character skins from the first game. You can play as Drake, Elena, pirate leader Eddie, gun for hire Navarro, ruthless treasure hunter Roman or a Mercenary grunt! Check out the screenshots below.

For those who love collecting PS3 trophies you are in for a real treat, you will be rewarded for playing online with a multitude of trophies now up for grabs

So, just what are the new Trophies?

• Sneaky… – Get 50 Stealth Kills
• Brass Knuckles – Get 100 Melee Kills
• Tastes Like Chicken – Get 20 BBQ Medals
• Rapid Fire – Get 7 Tripled Medals in Deathmatch
• I Told You I Was Hardcore! – Complete All 3 Co-op Objective Maps on Hard Difficulty
• Made It – Finish Wave 10 in one Survival Game
• Gold Digger – Finish Wave 10 in one Gold Rush Game
• Wipe Them Out… – Win 50 Deathmatch Games
• Plays Well With Others – Win 50 Objective Games
• Still Alive – Win 50 Elimination Games
• Plundered! – Get 200 Captured Medals
• Cold Blooded – Get 2,500 Kills in Deathmatch or Elimination games

On top of that, the game’s getting 12 in-game multiplayer medals:

• Tip Off – Be the First Player to Grab the Treasure in Plunder
• Protectorate – Shoot and Kill 5 Enemies that were Damaging the Treasure Carrier
• No Cigar – Kill the Treasure Carrier while They are about to Score
• None Shall Pass – Get 5 Kills while in the Hill during a King of the Hill
• First! – Get the First Kill of the Game
• Finish Him! – Get the Last Kill of the Game
• Retaliation – Kill the Last Player that Killed You
• Defender – Kill a Player that is Actively Shooting One of Your Teammates
• That Was Embarrassing – Earn a Shutout in Plunder
• Put’em Down – Kill Someone in the Knockdown State with a Pistol Weapon
• Unlucky – Die 5 Times in a Row without Getting a Kill
• Tricky – Kill a Player with a Pistol Weapon while Hanging

The pack will be available to download from PSN when the store is updated on the 25th February and the RRP will be €4.99 / £3.99

I’m Richard Yap, European Product Manager at SCEE and I’m looking after the UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves DLC. I have some fantastic news to share with those of you who haven’t yet experienced the joys of this award winning and high-acclaimed PS3exclusive: you will be pleased to hear that a demo will be available on PSN store next week! This is your chance to revel in the much talked about action blockbuster. Make sure you download it, you won’t be disappointed.

For existing fans, well… we have a special treat in store for you as well. The guys at Naughty Dog have spoken to a few of their friends at Guerilla Games, Insomniac Games and Sucker Punch Productions, and have been able to a pull off something unique within the UNCHARTED 2 competitive multiplayer modes – their first DLC release is the UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves PlayStation Heroes Skin Pack!

The ‘PlayStation Heroes’ pack will give you the chance to run and gun through the UNCHARTED 2 online multiplayer maps with some Sony PlayStation favourites! The pack includes seven incredible character skins, where you can battle it out as good Cole, evil Cole or Zeke from inFamous; tear it up as Sgt Nathan Hale or a Chimera Hybrid soldier from the Resistance series; and defeat your enemies as a Helghast Trooper or Tomas “Sev” Sevchenko from Killzone 2.

Both will be available to download from PSN when the store is updated on the 28th January (the demo is, of course, free and the PlayStation Heroes pack will be €4.99). In the meantime check out the Heroes screenshots!

I look forward to answering any questions you may have.

Cheers

We’re holding another Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Double Cash weekend from Thursday, December 24, 2009, at 6:00 PM GMT (what time is it in my city) through Sunday, December 27, 2009, at 7:00 PM GMT (what time is it in my city?) you would earn double for all kills and medals. Yes, you read that right, you’ll be getting Double Cash for medals as well!

Oh, and our characters have gotten into the spirit of the season to celebrate the occasion!

Below is a list of what is different:

• Added Version number to game menu – should display 1.03 after this update
• Added Clan Tags – all players can now add a custom four letter Clan Tag in the Profile Menu (square) to display on-screen before their PSN ID
• Load times have been decreased significantly
• Added “Rematch” functionality
• Adjusted some Boosters for balance
• Addressed issue with Player’s Met screen in game menu and XMB displaying incorrectly
• Addressed issue with Double Cash not doubling medal cash rewards

We’ve also made a slew of other changes to improve player experience.

I spoke with our multiplayer lead designer, Justin, to give us the lowdown on what’s so great about a few of these updates. Justin quickly shot me back an e-mail with the following info:

Clan Tags is an addition we’ve been working for a while on. While it’s not full Clan support, we wanted to be sure that everybody can fly their Clan colors within UNCHARTED 2 multiplayer. Support for this is available to all players from the very beginning and can be edited within the player Profile menu – the same place where you choose your boosters.

We have significantly decreased load times . You will notice that the game loads into a map much faster after leaving the vote screen. This will help get players into games faster and keep people playing instead of waiting in the menu system.

We have also added Rematch functionality. At the end of a game, all players will be put back into matchmaking together, allowing you to play the same group of people over again. This decreases wait times, while still allowing people to leave after a match if they so desire. Again, this gets people into games faster and allows more time playing and less time in the menus – all of which is a very, very good thing!

We’re running the same poll here on the European blog so Europeans can also have their say. We are listing five options in the poll, and below is a short breakdown about each one.

Plunder Only
All Plunder, all the time. No variations, nothing but capping treasure and shooting enemies.

Crushing: All Game Types
The Crushing variation on all maps with all game types. Crushing is a more hardcore version of our rule set where players have less health and no Boosters are active.

Crushing: Deathmatch Only
The Crushing variation on all maps in standard Deathmatch only.

Skilled Objectives
All Objective game types, but now with a Skill Level. Skill Levels are tied to each playlist, so all players would start with a Skill Level of 1 in this playlist, regardless of the Skill Level already achieved in the Ranked playlist.

Deathmatch Variants Only
All the Deathmatch variants including Sniper/Pistole, Pistols/Grenades, RPG’s, and Crushing.

We can’t guarantee that we’ll be releasing the most popular playlist, but we really want to know what you’d like to see, so let us know what you want – vote and be heard!

Vote for your favourite playlist in the comments below. If you have other suggestions feel free to let us know.

Here’s the list of (most of) the changes we made. Some changes have been withheld to protect the innocent.

• Addressed respawn points when the artifact goes out of bounds in the Plunder gametype
• Dynamically adjust the win condition for fewer players during the course of a match
• Added features to deter players from voluntarily leaving during a match
• Added rate limit to “When a Chapter is Completed” Twitter event
• Fixed a display issue during letterboxing
• Fixed Danish Trophy description
• Fixed screenshot utility in standard definition resolutions
• Fixed the “Players Met” list not displaying recent players
• Addressed a variety of Multiplayer connectivity issues

BUT, that’s not all…

With Halloween on the horizon, we wanted to take this spooky occasion to announce that this weekend is also our first ever Double Cash Weekend in UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves. The Double Cash Weekend starts on Friday, October 30, 2009, at 6:00 PM GMT and continues until Monday, November 2, 2009, at 6:00 PM GMT.

In every match during Double Cash Weekend, you’ll be getting twice the Cash award you normally would for completing typical game actions – not medal-related currency awards – giving everyone a leg up in increasing their Rank for a limited time. That means this weekend is the perfect time to hop on to our Competitive and Co-op Multiplayer modes – whether you’re just a few levels away from the vaunted ‘X’ or this is just your first time online.

A bunch of Naughty Dogs will also be playing this weekend, so be on the lookout for the red Naughty Dog paw next to our PSN ID in the game and feel free to say hi, ask any questions or shoot at our characters. Stay sharp! There might be something spooky around the next corner…

Straight from the critically-acclaimed Blu-ray game, this stunning Nepalese village environment contains no less than three mini-games as well as an array of must have PlayStation Home Rewards, leaderboards and more. Check out the screenshots below:

Take part in the multiplayer Fortunate Thieves adventure where, as part of this strategic card-game, you can explore the perilous wilderness, discover lost treasures and defeat your opponents – check out the screenshots below:

Alternatively, you can try and re-assemble all of the pieces of the shattered mask for the mysterious Stone Face in Mask Mayhem or attempt to climb to the top of the leaderboard in the Torch Race.

However, the fun doesn’t stop there. We will also be launching two brand new personal spaces in PS Home tomorrow, the first of which is the Pirate Galleon apartment:

Your very own pirate ship to decorate as you wish, this awesome new personal space includes the relaxing Tiki Bar area and a brand new mini-game called “Man the Cannon” (if you can survive the onslaught of enemy pirate ships you may well win some exclusive furniture items for your pirate ship…). This will be available in Estates in the Shopping Centre.

Next up we have the second SCEE exclusive personal space, The Lost Dam Hideout:

Miles from civilization and hidden deep in a gorge, this long-lost Dam is the perfect hideout for every aspiring evil overlord – just make sure you watch out for the piranha pool…

Now last, but by no means least, we have five new Street Fighter IV costumes coming your way. Blanka, Vega, Dhalsim, Zangief and E. Honda outfits will be heading to Home Threads and also available via the commerce point in the S.I.N.’s Secret Laboratory space:

Plus, the swish City Penthouse apartment will be making a re-appearance in Estates.

Enjoy, and I’ll see you tomorrow for a game of Fortunate Thieves

iELL / Elliott

**Due to technical issues we have had to globally postpone the Home publishing process for 24 hours, all content changes will however be made on Friday**

My name is Phil Lynch, UK Software Product Manager for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

I’m sure you guys have read Thach’s blogpost on Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, if not pop over and have a look.

I’d just like to share with you guys some of the UK marketing and advertising for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves that you’ll be seeing on your screens over the coming weeks.

We’re sponsoring some great TV over the next 10 weeks, this will feature ‘Uncharted 2: Among Thieves’ branding and footage on all Sky One & Two Movies, including Mission Impossible 2, Hunt for Red October and Beverly Hills Cop. In addition the sponsorship will cover adventure programming on Discovery across four channels (Discovery, Discovery Shed, DMAX and Quest) including new episodes of Deadliest Catch, Whale Wars and Bear Grylls. The movie and adventure sponsorship angle obviously fits Uncharted 2 perfectly.

Along with this sponsorship, we’ll be running our TV ad, including great spots in both the England World Cup Qualifier against Belarus on the 14th and the UEFA Champions League match between Chelsea and Athletico Madrid the following week.

You’ll also be able to catch our ad in cinemas nationwide in movies like Saw VI, Jennifer’s Body, Triangle, 2012 and Zombieland among others

Along with this we have a big press campaign and a competition running on www.benathandrake.com, where you and a friend are in with a chance of winning a real Himalayan adventure and follow the footsteps of Marco Polo (and Nathan Drake of course) on a 19 day holiday in Nepal. UK residents only, sorry.

That’s it from me… let me know what you think of the campaign and if you have any other questions or comments.

Take Care, enjoy the game and I’ll see you guys online

Phil

I’m Thach Quach, European Software Product Manager for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

After having being awarded ‘Game of the Show’ at E3 and ‘Best Console Game’ at Gamescom, everyone at SCEE and Naughty Dog is absolutely delighted by the amazing reviews the game is getting so far, it’s been fan-tas-tic! I hope you’re all equally excited as the game launches this week across Europe and the PAL region: 16th October in the UK & Ireland, 15th October in Australia & New Zealand and 14th October across the rest of the PAL region (Update: The game will be on sale in Germany and Austria on the 16th of October). Only a few days to go!

And if you still haven’t heard or seen anything about Uncharted 2 then here is a trailer for you. If you’ve already seen it… well… no harm in watching it again

We have a Collector’s Edition available in selected retailers across the PAL region which includes some really great and exclusive content:

• Steelbook case with transparent slipcase
• Art cards
• A PSN voucher which allows you to download two character skins and some gold plated weapons to use during your multiplayer showdowns and a XMB theme.

Here is how it looks like, there’s still time to pre-order it guys

Last but not least, I’m also delighted to share the European TV Commercial with you. It will run across Europe and the PAL region from this week onwards. It follows the “The Game is Just The Start” campaign which was kicked off by the launch of the new PS3 model. We wanted to convey the adrenaline-fuelled and action-packed experience of the game but also allude to the Marco Polo mystery which is the backbone of the Uncharted 2 storyline. Hope you like it!

That’s it for now… any comments or questions let me know. I’ll be back next week for some more Uncharted 2 related news. Enjoy the game!

Thach

As some of you may know, the Uncharted 2 public beta has been running for the last couple of weeks, but only for those who pre-ordered the game from certain retailers.

But no longer! Because you can download it from PlayStation Store at 7pm UK, and play all the way up to October 12th!

The Public Beta contains:

• Four maps – The Ice Cave, The Temple, The Village and The Plaza
• Deathmatch, Elimination, Plunder, Chain Reaction, Co-op Gold Rush and an extract from one of our Co-op objective levels
• The Machinima mode, where you can run around the levels and tweak the camera so you can create movies which you can then watch in Cinema mode
• Cinema mode, where you can watch movies of your online matches, or your performances in Machinima mode, then upload them and send them to your friends (as long as they’ve got the Beta to watch it on of course)
• Twitter option – enter your twitter account details and you’ll automatically tweet status updates of your online progress
• Store items – we’ve included a selection of the Skins, Boosters, and Taunts as well as all the Co-op Weapon Upgrades for you to spend your hard earned ingame cash on

But don’t think that you’ve seen it all if you’ve played the Public Beta. Far from it! We’ve got a more online content in the final game:

• Three more maps (which I’m not going to spoil by naming right now)
• The full set of Co-op objective levels (which I have to say are my favourite online feature)
• Three more game modes – Turf War, King of the Hill and Co-op Survival
• More skins, boosters and taunts in the ingame Store

So once the Beta’s over do not despair, as the full game will be released on October 14th in Europe, October 15th in Australia and New Zealand, and October 16th in the UK and Ireland.

Enjoy!

Dan

Hopefully this interview, coupled with the gamescom Uncharted 2 trailer, has you even more psyched for this game. If that’s even possible. Thanks to everyone who submitted questions. We’re looking forward to doing more Q&As in the future.

A panel of developers and the game’s leading actors – Nolan North, Emily Rose and newcomer Claudia Black – discussed the making of one of the most anticipated titles of this year. And courtesy of Chris Morrell over at PlayStation.Blog.US, you can watch it here.

Entertaining stuff – I can’t remember seeing any motion-capture or voice actors who put so much enthusiasm into their characters and the games they work on.

Naughty Dog will be at GamesCOM and I’m going to be pressing them for new info on the one game I’m most looking forward to. What would you like to know?

Nathan Drake Heading to Hollywood

Posted by Evan Wells // Co-President, Naughty Dog

News in Hollywood travels fast! I am happy to confirm that it is indeed true, Sony Computer Entertainment has signed a deal with Columbia Pictures for a movie adaptation of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and it will be produced by Avi Arad, Charles Roven, Ari Arad and Alex Gartner. We have been working with Avi and the folks and Columbia for quite some time and look forward to sharing additional details on the film in the short future. Obviously we designed the game to be a cinematic experience and we too can’t wait to see it on the big screen.

So, who do you think should play Nathan Drake?

I loved Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, so can’t wait to see the game recreated on the big screen. But as for the question “Who should play Nathan Drake?”, wow, that’s a killer! Nolan North is the actor who plays and voices Nathan in the Uncharted games, so he could be great choice. What do you guys think?

Nolan North provides Nathan Drake’s voice, and is a videogame voiceover regular with Prince of Persia, Assassin’s Creed, God of War amongst the, well, loads of other games he’s contributed to throughout his career. ER’s Emily Rose returns to Uncharted 2: Among Thieves as journalist Elena Fisher and sci-fi fans will no doubt recognise Claudia Black of Farscape, Pitch Black and Stargate SG-1 fame, who plays the role of newcomer Chloe Frazier.

Over to Jeff:

Meet Nathan Drake: Uncharted 2’s Nolan North

It’s very unusual to meet someone you feel like you already know. I got that chance a couple of weeks ago, when I ran into Nolan North at the PlayStation Booth during the final hours of E3. If the name’s not familiar (or his face), perhaps his voice will – North is the talent behind the witty remarks of Uncharted‘s Nathan Drake.

Now North is a bit of a talker, but if you’ve got a few minutes, he’s got some interesting insights on the role of actual acting in video games, and how Naughty Dog gets such great results out of their voiceover stars for the Uncharted series.

Next up: An interview with the ladies of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

Meet the Women of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Near the end of yesterday’s Nolan North interview, a number of people dropped in to give Mr. Nathan Drake some good-natured ribbing. I had a chance to speak with Emily Rose and Claudia Black, aka Elena Fisher and Chloe Frazier, co-stars of the upcoming Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

Both will certainly *sound* familiar, but if you’re wondering where you’ve seen them before, both Claudia and Emily have pretty extensive TV resumés. That makes it all the more impressive when they talk about how much they’ve enjoyed their time making Uncharted 2.

Personally, I really couldn’t get over how everyone in the cast resembles their in-game counterparts. It made talking to them feel like I was talking to the characters. Hope you enjoyed.

E3 Game Trailers

(To see more video, check out our Viddler page)

EyePet

Fat Princess

Gran Turismo PSP (mmMMMmm… shiny…)

Heavy Rain

MotorStorm Arctic Edge

Ratchet & Clank – A Crack In Time

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

James’ E3 Pictures

(To see more pictures, check out our Flickr stream)

What came as a surprise is that Chloe Fraser, the female lead in the first game, is back along with Sully and Elena Fisher – a new addition to the series that we heard about some time ago.

The story begins with Drake finding a clue to the location of Marco Polo’s lost fleet. It leads him to the valley of Shangri-La and the possibility of an even greater treasure – the Cintamani Stone, regarded as the Holy Grail of Buddhist mythology that is said to give incredible powers to whoever discovers it. However, a Serbian war criminal called Lazarevic is also searching for it…

As the Jak and Daxter series, also created by Naughty Dog, pursued a darker direction with its sequels, I asked if Uncharted is following a similar path. “We’re exploring darker themes but we don’t want to lose that light-hearted feel,” replied Druckmann. “In the first Uncharted, Drake was kind of thrown into his hero role, but with the sequel we tried to think of what a modern day treasure hunter would be like, who he would associate with and what would motivate him.”

“It gives us the chance to explore different shades of the character,” added Lemarchand. “And the two female characters add to that in the ways that they mirror each other. Chloe has always been a morally upright character whereas Elena is wilder, with more of a thirst for adventure and self-preservation. She is from Drake’s world.”

To bring the characters to life, the actors performed both motion capture and voices, and they acted their scenes on a specialised set as opposed to a sound studio. “It really helps with that off the cuff humour that Uncharted is known for to have Nolan North, the actor behind Nathan Drake, improvising on the set and adding his personality and improvisations,” explained Druckmann.

“I don’t really know why more developers don’t work this way,” Lemarchand added, “but by doing so we feel we aren’t squandering the charisma and talent of our actors. They’re all passionate about the game and their input really helps.”

One of the often mentioned highlights of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune was its incredible water physics, so I asked the guys which little details we would all be talking about this time around. “We think we did lush jungle and realistic water really well last time,” said Lemarchand, “and while they’re still there, snow and wind effects have been a big emphasis this time.”

“It’s the little details that you don’t always notice that really immerse the player,” said Druckmann. “For example, in the helicopter gunfight that you saw at the SCEA press conference, the leaves on the trees are actually swaying and rocking in relation to where the chopper is and the rotation of the blades.”

So what did you guys think of that helicopter scene at today’s press conference? I was totally blown away.