Uncharted review

Review: Uncharted Drake’s Fortune.

Here it is, Naughty Dog’s latest: Uncharted- Drake’s Fortune, a gorgeous cinematic game. It puts you in control of Nathan Drake, a reckless treasure hunter and descendant of sir Francis Drake, Nathan finds sir Drake’s lost diary at the bottom of the ocean, it contains clues on how to find the hidden treasure of El Dorado. Along with tomboyish TV Reporter Elena and fellow grave robber Sullivan our hero embarks on an action packed journey.
This could be the story premise of any Hollywood blockbuster action flick and that’s exactly what Uncharted feels like. With incredible graphics, the lighting effects and animations are the star here, filmic camera use and a sweeping orchestral score it’s like the best Indiana Jones game that was never made. The story isn’t very highbrow, it doesn’t try to be and it doesn’t need to be. Great facial animations really bring the characters to life and help you to empathise with them. This is tale full of twists, cheesy one-liners and action filled cut-scenes.

Uncharted consists of three main gameplay components: shooting, platforming and, occasionally, puzzle solving. The shootouts are cover-based; you get behind an object, pop out and shoot. There is a huge chance that this would get stale but the great enemy AI keeps you on your toes. They will flank you, use all the weapons you use and get behind cover to make life really hard for you. The cover system works well, occasionally you stick to the wrong wall or pillar but it’s extremely easy to use.
Then there’s the platforming…pure bliss. Nathan leaps from pillar to wall to ledge with one beautifully lifelike animation; it looks so graceful and feels so good that those rare moments of camera problems are easy to forgive.
All this shooting and jumping can get a bit tiresome. And that’s were the puzzles come in. They’re often very easy, a quick peek in Drake’s diary often solves the problem, but they work well as moment of relaxation.

High praise here but the game is definitely not flawless; towards the end the gameplay relies a bit too much on gunplay, this breaks the near perfect balance between the serenity and calm of the platforming and puzzle sections and the frantic action in the shoot-outs that the early levels managed to maintain so well. Even though this makes it feel like the game is building up to a big conclusion it still breaks the game and must be said. Other minor quibbles I have with the game are the existence of a few weird animations, some texture pop-in and a hell of a lot of recycled character-models, every bad guy looks like the one standing next to him. There’s also some occasional slowdown, nothing that ruins the fun though.

All these minor problems really don’t matter when a game can look as good, sound as good and be as much fun to play as Uncharted.

David Henry 13/05/2008

Metal Gear Online Beta

Yesterday evening I finally managed to get the Metal Gear Online (MGO) Beta up and running. Well sort of... There are so many technical issues that it almost stops being fun. Which is a real pity. The controls are still a bit clunky, but way better than in previous Metal Gear games. The gameplay is a lot more tactical than most online shooters, you need to stick together. And when it works it's great fun. But that's the problem, imagine this: You and five of your men are sneaking around when suddenly, gunfire from behind! Each of you run for cover and take aim, you're doing great! Two, three headshots! Awesome! And then, just as you move in for your final kill, a black screen with white letters pops up: Connection error, you have been disconnected from the host.

Nooooooooo!

GTA 4 Launch....

So, on Monday at midnight me and Caspar are heading over to Replay Videogames for the midnight GTA 4 launch event. There will probably be nothing but a few nerdy guys in video game T-shirts, but whatever. It'll be fun! Maybe I'll film it, maybe I won't. There will definitely be a written report. So look forward to that!
Also: I'm playing through Uncharted and hope to have the review up within two weeks.

Dave

Freerice.com

Wow, I got turned on to this great site, freerice.com, by GFW magazine's podcast. Basically, it's a vocabulary game. It shows you a word and four answers, one of these is a synonym for the word. The game adjusts to your vocabulary level, so it feels fair. But the cool thing is that for each word you get right, the advertiser donates 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program.
So you're playing a fun game and helping people get food in third world countries. We need more of these initiatives. I recommend everyone check it out. It's great.
Dave

Kooks

I really love the Kooks, their music is so honest, it isn't as overproduced as a lot of the other bands nowadays. I managed to get hold of some of their B-sides and demos, some great songs there! Anyway, I can't wait for Konk, the new album.
Dave

Spring cometh, not so much...

Never mind my previous post, that just got shot down! I just saw on the news it's going to be raining all day tomorrow! Well, let's hope the official day of the coming of spring, also known as coming Thursday, actually means spring! Please God...













Please..

Spring cometh!

Yes! Finally springtime is upon us, well officially on Thursday but whatever. Over here in humble Eindhoven the wind has finally stopped torturing me on my runs and the temperature went up! I'm overjoyed at this change in the weather, the black clouds and gusts of wind were getting a bit depressing!
That's all for now.
Dave