Following the Sony E3 2007 press conference, attendees were given an opportunity to play dozens of PLAYSTATION 3 and PSP games. The first I gravitated toward was Naughty Dog's Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. The third person action adventure featuring Nathan Drake and his lovely assistant searching what was assumed to be an uninhabited island smacks of Indiana Jones, Tomb Raider and cliffhanger-driven serials. It also borrows heavily (read: wisely) from games like Gears of War, Resistance: Fall of Man and unsurprisingly Tomb Raider Legend, looking to action genre champs for much of its finely tuned gameplay.

In addition to allusions to Gears' brand of "pop and stop" shooting, Uncharted features plenty of platforming. Rock climbing, jumping, rope swinging—much of it controls very well. Occasionally, some ledge traversing feels off or unpolished, but its more likely a product of the game's more organic level design. You won't see block by block levels a la Tomb Raider.

In fact, some levels are so realistic in their design, you might find yourself looking for your next destination with the game's look button (R2). I found myself missing some of the game's hints, such as gates or more heavily lit portions of the map and relying on the helpful look button.

The game has virtually no HUD, relying on other cues, some context sensitive, to replace a traditional HUD. When you take damage, you'll see the screen become desaturated. Despite the protagonist's real world nature, he can magically recover from bullet wounds simply by resting and recharging his imaginary, invisible shields, a la Halo. The only on-screen clutter you'll normally see is your ammunition supply. It's very clean and lends itself to a more cinematic approach.

The action controls well, along with some unique uses of the SIXAXIS. As you may have seen, traversing things like fallen logs will require some balance, aided by the PS3 controller. Throwing grenades, for instance, requires one to aim the weapons throwing arc by tilting the SIXAXIS forward or backward. Some camera issues aside, it works rather well.

At this point, the game feels like a solid blend of action, platforming and puzzle solving. Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is very easy on the eyes and may wind up being a graphical showcase for the system. A few minor quibbles about camera control aside, it looks like the game is shaping up to be very solid when it's released for the PS3 this November.