When the developers first showed off Uncharted: Drake's Fortune I wasn't impressed. Naughty Dog was going for that realistic look in their characters and they were suffering from some major uncanny valley. Worse still, the play had that generic shooter look to it, like some amalgam of every third-person shooter I've played in the past five years. There was duck-and-cover, there were lush jungle environments, there were melee attacks. I was sure I wasn't going to like it.

I was wrong.

Of all of the games at the show, it was the one I ended up spending the most time on, That's not to say it was the best, but it certainly had me jonesing for more. The game still has its issues with the uncanny valley, but Naughty Dog did a really good job of balancing fast-paced shooter action with a variety of light puzzles and a bit of stealth. The aiming took a little bit of getting used to, but in general it was response and the AI was pretty tight.

Some things I hope the devs fix include the in ability to shoot someone in the head and put them down, that's a HUGE pet peeve of mine. In one section I knocked three guys to the ground with snap headshots and turned to deal with their pals only to be ambushed by what should have been debrained corpses. Some of the animation also has to be smoothed out a bit, though his strange gimpy jump (like he was running up a couple of invisible steps) was more humorous then disconcerting.

Hit the jump for the fact sheet and two play videos. Brian Crecente

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

FACT SHEET

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc.

Developer: Naughty Dog, Inc.

Platform: PLAYSTATION

3 computer entertainment system

Genre: Action-Adventure

Rating: "RP" rating pending

OVERVIEW

Developed by the studio that brought blockbuster hit franchises Crash Bandicoot

and Jak & Daxter

to PlayStation fans, Naughty Dog Inc.'s, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is the first game in a new fast-paced action-adventure franchise developed exclusively for the PLAYSTATION

3 (PS3

) computer entertainment system.

Taking full advantage of the power of PS3, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is developed using proprietary technology that promises to impress players with incredibly realistic characters and lifelike environments. Building on its legacy of extraordinary storytelling, Naughty Dog has created an elaborate plot that will have players guessing at every turn.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, brings players into a world ripe with realism and unexpected juxtapositions. A fallible hero akin to those depicted in pulp-adventure genre films, Nathan Drake brings a humanity and believability never seen before in video gaming, enabled entirely through PS3 technology advancements.

STORYLINE

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

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

GAME FEATURES

Using maps and ancient artifacts, uncover clues and unravel mysteries to find a forgotten island and a treasure that was thought to have never existed

Explore exotic locations. Traverse through living jungles and spectacular 400-year-old ruins.

Drake's companions and allies play an important role in the adventure through cooperative mechanics, gun play and exploration.

Experience fast-paced gunplay: use a variety of environmental elements for cover, shoot enemies off of moving vehicles in high speed chases and more.

Use an array of hand-to-hand fighting moves to put your enemy off balance. Anything from wild haymaker punches to running drop-kicks.

Naughty Dog's advanced animation techniques allow Nathan to switch seamlessly between movements and achieve a whole new level of believability in gameplay. Nathan can reload his weapon while dodging bullets and find cover behind a wall, all in one smooth natural motion.

Characters express lifelike emotion using gesture and facial expression through the use of Naughty Dog's proprietary Wrinkle Mapping Facial Animation system.

High-definition range lighting delivers full floating point color calculations yielding an unequaled level of realism and detail.

Hyper realistic water through physics based Wave Simulation paired with cutting edge Refraction/Reflection rendering techniques.

Utilizing next generation rendering techniques such as Bump Mapping, Parallax Mapping, Blend Shaders, Global Illumination, Runtime Shadows and Real Time Shadows, Naughty Dog has created a vibrant living environment.

BAM, here it is:
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