toblix

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

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If I recall the videos correctly (which I probably haven't judging by earlier in this thread) they are pushing 1.7 million polys per frame in game, so they certainly could achieve some still very nice looking real time screenswiping if they so chose, with judicious object choices and camera angles.

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Man, when the hell is stuff loaded then? Do you get a small pause or something if you skip a cutscene almost immediately?

Well, that's the beauty of streaming technology. You walk into one part of the level, an old bit gets unloaded, a new bit gets loaded. Seamless transitions. Though, I noticed that there are definite cut-off points, where you drop down a ledge making you unable to return to the area you came from. I could imagine them doing that for loading up a big upcoming area...

All speculation, of course. Who knows if that would ever be necessary for the technology they built. I wouldn't presume to know.

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Holy shit. *phew*

I just finished the game again on Crushing Mode. What a wild ride.

I guess the only thing left to do is collect all the treasures and play some multiplayer. Although at this point... I'm probably going to take a break from this game for a while and play some Demon's Souls and Torchlight.

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Has anyone tried playing this game with the Donut Drake skin. Suddenly it makes sense why buildings and bridges collapse the second Drake gets on top of them.

Well, that's the beauty of streaming technology. You walk into one part of the level, an old bit gets unloaded, a new bit gets loaded. Seamless transitions. Though, I noticed that there are definite cut-off points, where you drop down a ledge making you unable to return to the area you came from.

Not to mention the two dozen doors that slam behind you for no reason.

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Chapter 5 is when the game really picks up. The beginning is fun, but from Chapter 5 on out, the game gets great. In my opinion, anyway.

Totally! I just got through 6 before work this morning. I didn't mind the stealth mission in the beginning maybe because I knew to go to the right around the fountain after someone posted here that you should do what your partner tells you to do. He does say it pretty quietly if you are not close to him though.

But up through Borneo I realised I was agreeing with Nick "fucked it all up" Breckon. Was this really my kind of game nowadays? But as soon as I hit Urban warfare things started to click and the gameplay became fun. I am even enjoying the story.

I had trouble with grenades for a while because I mixed up which way the guiding line was going. Durrrr. I like using the gas tanks a lot. Also the game has made me laugh quite a few times, the banter really works. The platforming parts are super easy, a bit like Prince of Persia (the latest shit one) but if they had been harder it would probably be really frustrating.

I am so amazed by the graphics, I have never seen a game look so good. chapters 5 and 6 reminded me first of the good bit of MGS4 and then HL2. The companion, the way the battles play out and then being chased by the helicopter, especially when its shooting you as you run through the building.

Oops I've gone on like a 10 year old talking about Spyro or something.

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I heard some people complaining about the stealth section in the beginning, but in my opinion it was simply GENIUS to put that as an intro to the game for several reasons:

-it teaches you how to read the environment and how to traverse it

-more importantly, it teaches you how to execute stealth kills

And with that seared in the player's brain, it becomes second nature to do stealth kills through the rest of the game, which is challenging and fun.

I'm now in my second playthrough in the Hard setting... and hopefully some day I'll do it in crushing.

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I just finished this and want to affirm that it is without a doubt my game of the year. Holy shit, how epic? Makes Uncharted 1 looks positively trivial in comparison.

If Uncharted 3 is as inevitable as I'd imagine it is, how the fuck are they going to top this?

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God, I should play this. It really is the game you buy if you're just getting a ps3, apparently. But I had wanted LittleBigPlanet for so long, that ended up being my first ps3 game.

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Oops I've gone on like a 10 year old talking about Spyro or something.

That's the best kind of ten-year-old :eyebrow:

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So, I'm playing the original Uncharted and while I remember a lot of people complaining that it took too many hits to kill enemies (which it does), I didn't seem to notice people talk about the lack of sufficient signaling at the end of combat sequences. The whole "shoot a guy five times in the head to kill him" thing wouldn't be so bad if I didn't think a battle was over about five minutes before it was really done and get stormed from behind.

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Weirdly I can't actually remember the original's music at all, but the sequel does a very good job of signalling that kind of thing thanks to its (awesome) dynamic music. Try listening out more for that as the same kind of thing may be done in a more subtle manner. Or maybe it doesn't use music like that at all which would explain why I can't remember it. :tmeh:

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Hmm, yeah, I'll give that a try. I was actually admiring the soundtrack as soon as I popped it in, though I couldn't really hum a verse of it yet.

It's just that coming off its contemporaries like Gears of War that so obviously signal a transition, Uncharted feels a little archaic, which is so strange due to the fact that it's a completely beautiful game.

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Having come out of Uncharted 2, I'd agree that the original is pretty rudimentary in many respects when it comes to gameplay — particularly with regards to variety. It's a bit like Assassin's Creed in that they had all these elements most of the way there, but they hadn't quite pushed it all together in a way that kicks absolute ass.

Fortunately both Uncharted 2 and Assassin's Creed 2 rectify this. And both share a surprising number of action mechanics. And both of their main characters are voiced by the same guy. Holy shit!!

However Uncharted 1 is still an awesome game, and if you like it the sequel should blow your mind. :tup:

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Hmm, yeah, I'll give that a try. I was actually admiring the soundtrack as soon as I popped it in, though I couldn't really hum a verse of it yet.

At this point I think that is the Uncharted series's greatest weakness. These games need a catchy theme.

So much of these games are like Indiana Jones, why can't it have a theme like him?

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At this point I think that is the Uncharted series's greatest weakness. These games need a catchy theme.

So much of these games are like Indiana Jones, why can't it have a theme like him?

Because Indiana Jones's soundtrack was composed by John Williams. :yep:

If John Williams did a video game soundtrack for a game that's not in the Star Wars, Indie, or Harry Potter universes, I'd shit my pants in glee. :tup:

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In Uncharted 2, I'm pretty sure Drake says something at the end of each combat sequence. Something like "All right," and then the music changes pace.

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The music yeah, but I thought the "all right" and other such things were just randomly after any kill, not specifically at the end of a sequence. I kind of want to replay this game already. There's so much else to play! Stop me...

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Haha, yeah I've been well fancying replaying UC2 too. I like the idea of playing through the whole thing with the tranquiliser gun, which I can do now I've finished it.

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I have hard time finishing this game. I'm in the monastery (near the end of "The Monastery" chapter, to be precise.. I assume) and I'm not enjoying it too much. The multi-wave battles that I disliked so much in the first game are back at full force and it is way too easy to get oneself killed.

I don't mind the increase in difficulty but it seems that the game actually "breaks" way too easily during these bigger battles. For instance, during one of these larger gun fights there was *spoiler*a turret guy*spoiler* that was hard to kill (and if I managed to kill him from the distance a new turret guy would pop up replacing the dead turret guy) and I was forced to kill all the other enemies before I could finalize him. I somehow ended up on a ledge that was still quite far from the turret but slightly above it so it was pretty for me to toss a grenade in there and kill the turret guy. I had apparently passed some invisible checkpoint too, because a new turret guy didn't appear. My victory was short lived, though, as six guys with fucking bulletproof mattresses tied to them appeared right behind me and butchered me with ease. I was obviously supposed to be near the turret, ready to take control of it as soon as I saw them coming. I was not, however, and the game decided to teach me (another) lesson.

I might as well say what I think of the game as a whole here since I'm not sure if I will ever finish it (should I?) because of the aforementioned annoyances.

The gameplay is pretty solid. I was pleased to find out that they seemed to have reduced the number of large gun fights at the beginning of the game. The sneaking worked decently as well and I didn't have any problems with the museum part (except with one guy that was standing next to a fountain). The visuals are absolutely stunning which is hardly worth mentioning, I guess. Kathmandu (did they specify it was Kathmandu, by the way?) looked absolutely gorgeous and must be one of the most mind-blowing things I have ever witnessed in a video game. The Tibetan village was beautiful as well.

Which brings me to one of the things I dislike the most in Uncharted 2: how game-ish the game sometimes is. You can spot a big gun fight from afar even if there is no enemy in sight because the ground is littered with weapons and places for cover. The best example of this I can think of is the village I mentioned earlier:

When I walked out the door and saw how peaceful and pretty the place was, I immediately felt sad and even angry, not at myself, but at the game, since I knew there was going to be a big battle here. I didn't feel like I had brought trouble with me to this beautiful village, nothing of the sort. I felt this way because of all the curious walls in all the curious places.

It's mostly good, though. There is enough variation in gameplay, some of the scenes are very clever and the banter between the characters feels surprisingly organic for the most parts. Plus, there are no loading screens between the chapters or scenes which is pretty impressive.

The Tibetan man who accompanied you at one point was called Tenzing. :(

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I'd definitely fight on if I were you. The game's continuous ramping up of environmental awesomeness doesn't culminate at the snowy mountain sections, and off the top of my head I don't think there's really that much in the way of the Uncharted 1-esque battles you dislike (ie: some twat with a turret surrounded by billions of minions) after there.

I have to say though, not sure I agree with your criticisms of stuff like the monestary section. I didn't find a single battle in the whole game anywhere nearly as annoying as some of the ones in the original, mostly due to there being more ways than 'gun through these guys' to approach them.

For example, at the monestary section you're at I used stealth to get past most of those guys without raising an alert (which roughly quadruples the number of guys). By the time some dick did spot me I was pretty much at the turret guy, and then I used the wagon as cover and pushed it towards him until I was close enough to do him.

Also, thanks to plenty of push-overable tables, melee moves, grenades, etc gunfights rarely end up like Uncharted 1's where you end up just exchanging shots from afar hoping they'll eventually fall. That only really happens if you try to play it like Uncharted 1.

I wouldn't say something as snooty as "you're doing it wrong", but if you properly get into the stealth and melee stuff the game becomes way better IMO (I even evaded detection for most of the train section). This is why I'm so looking forward to playing it with the transquiliser gun, as then I can probably avoid the few times where I wasn't able to maintain stealth. :tup:

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I found the game surprisingly easy actually, so clearly you're doing it wrong.

[/fanboy comment to validate your criticism and polarize your opinion even further]

...but if you're not enjoying it I wouldn't bother. It's not going to make you cry (like Heavy Rain), it's the Video game equivalent of a popcorn movie - and although there are some great setpieces to come the gameplay itself is going to remain more or less the same. You could always come back to it later (you might have to force yourself to put it in the PS3) and see how a hiatus affects your perspective on the game.

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I found the game surprisingly easy actually, so clearly you're doing it wrong.

[/fanboy comment to validate your criticism and polarize your opinion even further]

...but if you're not enjoying it I wouldn't bother. It's not going to make you cry (like Heavy Rain), it's the Video game equivalent of a popcorn movie - and although there are some great setpieces to come the gameplay itself is going to remain more or less the same. You could always come back to it later (you might have to force yourself to put it in the PS3) and see how a hiatus affects your perspective on the game.

From the very small amount of Uncharted 2 and several hours of Uncharted 1 that I've played, I'd say it's a little more than a popcorn movie (that figure of speech being most aptly analogous to Modern Warfare 2). Maybe Steven Spielburg on a good day, or something (where he's directing, not producing).

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Just to be clear, I am not complaining that the battles are particularly difficult, which they obviously aren't*. Nor am I saying that they are nearly as frustrating and stupid as in Drake's Fortune. Like I said, this has been a major improvement compared to the original game and at least this time they are trying to justify the amount of bad people trying to make you stop living. (Namely, by saying that the main villain has a sort of private army at his control. Spoiler, obviously.) The arena style combats are still easily my least favourite part of the gameplay and so I'm not looking forward to the rest of the game too much.

Improved melee combat and grenade toss have indeed helped a lot. However, I might still be playing it too much like I would Uncharted 1, as Thrik suggested, as I often end up hiding behind a single cover trying to take the enemies out one by one when (for some reason) I should actually run towards one of them, take him out in hand to hand combat and proceed to use his cover. I guess that is one of the things I dislike the most about the combat gameplay: that it is sometimes so counterintuitive. If you have plenty of ammo and good spot, it would seem wise to stay put and kill the fuckers one by one. That, as far as I can tell, is usually not the case in Uncharted 2. I'm not sure if there really are "invisible gates" in this game but it sometimes feels that, given infinite ammo, I could be taking out guys near a turret till 2012. Again, this doesn't make the game hard (I only have to move a little closer to be able to "capture" it, or whatever), but it is kind of annoying that one of the tactics doesn't (always) work when, like it has been said, so many of them do.

The turret sequence I described earlier was the one Thrik mentioned as well, by the way. I was on the raised thingy on the turret side of the bridge right of the turret when the stay puft guys appeared. I only brought it up to point out that the game sometimes clearly expects you to be somewhere and turns sour if you are not where expected.

As usual, I've been rambling about a non-issue for far too long, and I'm about to stop. I just want to make it clear that this is far from ruining the game for me in any way and I do think the sequel has been a huge improvement on the original and a brilliant game overall. Furthermore, I only consider "giving up" on the game because I'm not sure if the ending is going to offer me all that much anymore. The plot is definitely above average for video games but I'm still not itching to know how exactly will everything be all right at the end. I might still finish it sometime, if only for the scenery and for having actually completed a game this year.

The main reason for considering to stop playing this, however, is Assassin's Creed II, New Super Mario Bros., and a ton of good books I got for Christmas.

To end on a positive note, I really liked the throat singing I thought I heard in the Himalayan part.

*Although, I couldn't imagine someone being able to complete a larger section of the game with just "one life" as there is simply so much going on during combat.

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Just finished this on easy, and the credits are rolling (currently Korea). What a fine game. Although I think these games, together with the Tomb Raiders, have pretty much done everything there is to do with jungles, temples and tombs, there were still lots of impressive stuff here. I guess just the sheer amount of graphics power in the new consoles allow for even more impressive underground chambers that still manage to blow me away somewhat. Still, I was hoping for more involved puzzles, but I guess that's really Tomb Raider's forte. To me, the most impressive levels were the urban ones. Climbing around on buildings and signposts feels fresher to me than crumbling ledges and collapsed statues. There were no ultra-frustrating combat sequences like there were in Uncharted 1 (although I can't remember what difficulty I played that one on), and the game was just hard enough for me on easy not to get frustrated with. I guess that means I'm just a big pussy, and that I've lost my edge, but it also means that my new "rule" of always choosing an easy setting (in action games) works, and that it lets me enjoy games more.

I agree with James that the post-boss sequence was the real boss (as in the real finale), since the boss fight wasn't anything special. I'm just glad it wasn't stupid and impossible.

Already looking forward to the next game (which I guess is inevitable), or whatever thing Naughty Dog decides to do next. Clearly they've started to figure out the PS3.

And I will miss that arse.

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