Hey there everybody! Wanted to let you know that we hit Beta on Sunday, September 16th! That’s a huge milestone and it means we’re one step closer to finishing Uncharted. The team really pulled together to help achieve this deadline and we couldn’t be more excited about the progress we’ve made. Finally, most everything is in the game and we are just chasing down the last bugs and making a few minor balancing tweaks here and there.
We’ve had our last major focus test week last week too, and we received the data we need to make sure that the gameplay is finely tuned for our final release. This is a process that we take very seriously here at Naughty Dog and something we’ve been doing since the Crash Bandicoot days. We test the game over the course of a week and track a huge number of statistics from the types of weapons used, the amount of time spent in each area, and the number of times the players died. We then use this data to smooth out the difficulty and fix any puzzles or layouts that are too tricky to figure out. This will be the fourth time we do a full focus test like this and we are actually going to squeeze a final mini test in right before we Gold Master to make sure a bug didn’t creep in to mess up our tuning.
It’s also at this stage that a bunch of people in the office who have been so busy making the game, finally get a chance to sit down and play it. A lot of people have been so heads down that they are discovering areas in the game they’d never seen before. And because the cinematics are usually some of the last elements that go in, most people haven’t really seen the story unfold in its entirety. Our own Naughty Dogs make great gameplay testers too!
So we have a little less than 4 weeks to go now, but our bug count is actually shrinking instead of growing. There are going to be a lot of late nights ahead of us, but we’re finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. And as a sign that we’re almost launching, the official game website has gone up – Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.
Also, we partnered with GameSpot to give you a sneak peak behind the scenes of our game. Check it out here and here.
evan what about 1080p support? also is this game still running at 30fps?
@ Evan Wells – you are the man DUDE! I’ve watched all your behind the scenes looks at Drakes Fortune and I’m playing Crash Warped right now and I am loving every second of it (Haven’t picked up the game in over 6 years and I’m trying to beat it 100%). If Uncharted is what Crash was back in the day then this game is going to be a sure blockbuster. Another thing that I find funny is in some of the forestry levels in Crash you did what you could with the technology to make it looks as real as possible… looking at Uncharted you guys sure have come a LOOOOOONG way. btw in the picture it looks like Drake is about to head his head sniped off, “Duck Drake, Duck!” Release day purchase for me all the way broseph.
Lh
It will play in 1080p but it’s software scaled to help out those with 1080i sets, so if you have a 1080p TV you’ll still want to play it in 720p (which it will default to).
And yes, our game runs at 30FPS.
Is it locked 30fps? Not that I really care, but it might to some… Framerate never has bothered me in any game I’ve ever played. Some people say I want 60fps, I look at Madden on ps3 and xbox 360 and see no difference at all. Maybe it’s just me being too lazy to dicern the difference… but before someone else ask, I thought I’d ask. Is it locked in at 30fps?
Wow! thanks so much for the 1080 support! I’ll definitely be buying this game now…
For anyone who wants to understand the 1080i issue better, check out- http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=ps3&message.id=1543758#M1543758
For those of you with 1080i sets, make your voices heard- some devs do listen.
Wow, I can’t say I’ve ever, ever, EVER seen a developer respond to user comments like this. Ever. That’s really something else.
Beta? congrats. Here come the Known Shippables.
Here’s a worry I have: The PS3 has a resolution priority that places 1080i over 720p. This means that people with 1080p sets playing games with scaled 1080i end up having to switch to 720p to get the game looking its’ best.
Deviation, I own a 1080P Bravia and I set my native ps3 settings to 720 P anyways. I do this cause very few games take advantage of 1080P and even fewer take advantage of 1080I … 720P is a good signal, I can see where the dev’s are spending most of their time with it. I simply switch over to 1080P when the game warrents it. Lair “for instance”
Hey Evan thanks for the post I cant wait to run around with Drake in the coming weeks. This game looks great.
OT
I just read that IGN gave Folklore a 9.0/10.0. Looks like I have to pick this one up also.
@Deviation
You don’t have to worry… if your PS3 is set to support 720p, Uncharted will select that mode over 1080i (we thought of that issue). If you really want to play it in 1080 instead of 720p (not recommended if you set supports 720p), you can switch off 720p in the XMB.
Sweet. That is very, very cool. Thanks for the response!
@gamesblow: I also use my PS3 as a Blu-ray Disc player, so I like to leave it on 1080p.
Fantastic feedback Evan! With all of the recent delays in two of my other most anticipated games of the Fall season, Half Life 2: The Orange Box and Unreal Tournament 3, there is no doubt that I will be pre-ordering and picking up Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune on day one.
This looks like an excellent game from an extremely creative and talent group of developers. Kudos Naughty Dog! Keep up the great work!
This is great! Thanks for listening to us 1080i-only-TV owners. We appreciate that you take out coments and concerns into consideration. Uncharted is now defenitely on my “must-buy-on-day-one” list.
thanks for the reply. can’t wait for the demo.
The game is looking great! This really shows that you are listening to the consumers and that’s just pretty cool.
I’m buying this game as soon as possible.
Keep up the good work!
Wow, thanks so much. My friends have TV’s and monitors that support 720p, but I only have an old CRT HDTV that supports 1080i. Thanks for accommodating that as well.
I can’t wait until this game…one of the 4 big ones that I’m waiting for. Good luck you guys :)
I’ve been anticipating this game for a while and i have to say my biggest concern is finishing it in a day. I love the cinematic feel of Heavenly Sword but the biggest complaint people have about it is that it’s over so quickly. I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that U:DF can look this good AND have a decent amount of gametime.
I’m thinking that barring some horrible development, I think this is going to sell through the roof. I’m curious if U:DF would be conducive to downloadable content… assuming that it garners sufficient interest.
Any comments on that or is it “wait and see?”
Oh Evan, that little show of support to us non 720p 1080i set owners is fantastic news. Thanks so much, that’s the first thing I look at when I get a hold of a game at the store before buying. I usually get a big frown when I see no 1080i support. Major props for including us in the HD glory. I’m really looking forward to the game.
Yeah, you all love him now but… but…
Oh alright, I love him too.
Hey Evan. As much as I’m thankful that you guys are releasing a demo, I don’t really need one. Naughty Dog are (and have always been) one of the BEST developers in the business and I’d buy the game anyway. In fact I’d buy anything with the Naughty Dog logo on it. Thanks to ND for you hard work. Can’t wait to play the game!
Thing about demo’s… They’re good and bad. Back when we didn’t have them “for like ps1 and ps2” I’d buy a game on whims and either love, like or loath them… It was a gamble, but the cool thing was… even for a few seconds every game “good or bad” was new and at that moment, surprised me. Now, with all these demo’s… Anticipation is out the window. The internet and all that has killed the anticipation level for these games… So have PSN and Xboxlive. I’d have bought Skate in a second, had I not played the demo. I still like the game too.. I just don’t want it now I’ve played it. Strange, I know.
To further that last comment… I’ve waited 2 years for Uncharted and even longer for the next R&C game, I believe. When I pre-orderd R&C I got the demo at Gamestop… I haven’t touched it. I don’t want to. Uncharted… I’ll want to play it, I know I will… but I’m going to hold off on message boards and reviews of the game until I get my copy… It’ll be tough, but I got to. I did this with U2’s last album. Everyone had downloaded it, but me… I refused to listen to any tracks. I’m just that way.
Have fun with the crunch time ND! oh how i miss crunch time… staying late at night trying to put in last min stuff and fixing bug. The feeling of the room is like your home that it feels you cant go outside. But atleast free dinner food from the company.
[…] den Kommentaren zu einem Beitrag von Evan Wells, Co-President von Naughty Dog zum Thema Uncharted: Darkes Schicksal, wurde angekündigt, dass eine Demo zum Action-Adventure geplant ist, deren Releasedatum aber […]
As i was reading the blogs and the support for 1080i and 720p it got me confused. I thought that 1080i would be a better resolution than 720p. I have a 1080p TV that supports all HD formats, so my question is that it would be better to take out 1080i support on a 1080p TV set?
[…] gira? qui si supporta…..software scaled! 30fps? bha! PlayStation.Blog ? Uncharted: Drake?s Fortune (Update) Fan Service: Uncharted Nearly Done, Now Supports 1080i – Kotaku 1080p […]
[…] implement 1080i support, where previously they’d only been gunning for 720p. Swell gesture! Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (Update) […]
Oh Evan… you dont know how much it HURTS waiting for this game.
Being a huge Naughty Dog fan, I will NEED this game.
Can you say if the game will be compatable with the… you knoa… “trophy system”?.
[…] Uncharted Drake’s Fortune Update […]
I can’t wait for this game.
I’ve been watching all trailers and gameplay videos, and i love this game…..the only thing that i can’t accept is that for kill someone you must shoot like 10 bullets (same thing for Nathan), inacceptable thing that ruins an extremely realistic game :( ……Just hoping that on harder difficulty level both Nathan & pirates will die whit 1-2 shoots like all humans would do :P…..Keep doing like this!!!! If this game will be 10-15+ hours long whit cool unlockables, it’s going to be a 9++++++-9.5/10 game, sure!!!
# Question
I read the article on Uncharted:DF in PSM, is the woman playable other than on the JetSki?
Kudos on this game. It looks incredible.
#128 i understand your confusion. noticed best buy now plays on its tvs displayed the different models. for me the question to ask ….does my tv have hdmi….what does my tv handle….standard….720…l080l…l080p…if it only goes up to 720 thats its max…it it goes to 720 and l080; then thats its max…..and finally if it goes to 720 and l080l and l08lp then that is its max. with a little help from hdmi you will, get crystal clear picture the higher you go. now about games thats another story
all this good news is just too sweet! Uncharted is going to be the game of the year for me. Still I would like to know how many hours is the game so far in the test runs you have been doing?
THANK YOU!!!
Evan, I just want to express my appreciation. It really earns consumer loyalty, from me at least, and I’m sure from others.
My sense is this issue is not widely known in the developer community, but that awareness is growing. I imagine that you may have contacts in other development companies. So my request is that if you do have contacts to make them aware of this issue and that supporting 1080 scaling for 720p games is very appreciated by the us gamers and earns them our loyalty.
Again,
Many Thanks!!
[…] through official channels though, but Wells commented on a post on the official Playstation blog stating that they’ll create a demo for the […]
@ Evan Wells
Wow.. implementing 1080i for those earlier HDTV adopters is fantastic. Count me in as a fan now.. I have a 720p HDTV but I really dig and respect you guys hearing what the community says.. and more importantly.. acting on it. KUDOS.
Sweet,can’t wait to buy this game.
Sounds like you guys are finally getting to enjoy the fruits of your hard labor- great work Naughty Dog- you are a valuable asset to the gaming community. Thank you for your games!
I’m probably more excited for this game than any of the holiday releases coming up. Nice work Naughty Dog!
Hey, I have one question about the game. First off, I’m really glad that you are reaching out to the community like this. It’s a huge step forward for public relations, and you’re making tens of thousands of gamers very pleased by your commitment to the community.
The question I wanted to ask was regarding gunplay. I know it’s a little bit beyond the scope of this blog post, but that’s really my only concern with the game as it seems you’ve done a fantastic job. How much effort are you putting into tweaking the gunplay controls? Most previews i’ve read discuss that as the only feature that seems to need improvement.
Again, thanks for all the hard work, I look forward to playing this game. I’ve enjoyed your developer interviews greatly, and best of luck in november.
Evan thanks for supporting 1080i. It’s a major thing that not every developer is doing and seeing you are doing it and have realized that it’s needed to call your game “HD” makes me more interested in the game than ever before.
@Evan For us Insomniac/ND fans, will we have any ratchet easter eggs??? :)
This game and R&C have been day one purchases for me since they were announced, and November can’t come soon enough
Wow Evan you are the best :D
I prefer 720p over 1080i. It displays more lines at a time than 1080i does, since 1080i only displays 540 at a time. I wouldn’t have bought my TV if all it did was 1080i. And even though 1080i has less lines it still requires more compression to fit into the same space(like for TV), and its more difficult to compress as well.
And because of the interlacing it can cause noticeable jagged edges and flickering, so a lot of times 480p does look better because of that, the fact that there really is only 60 fewer lines per frame, and 480p runs at a full 60fps, where as 1080i runs at 30(540 lines ever 1/60th of a second = 1080 lines every 1/30th),
So everybody should go out and buy a new TV, and we can never need to use 1080i again :).
I just finished watching this video and I cannot freaking wait for this game
http://www.gamersyde.com/stream_4772_en.html
But I did notice some screen tearing from time to time, but I am sure it will be all worked out.
Keep us posted on when we can expect the demo.
I’m really looking forward to this game, and the demo… BUT please, please give the UK’s PSN the demo at the same time, pleeease!