Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Uncharted movie director Shawn Levy has teased that the long-awaited Nathan Drake movie is almost ready for filming.

Yesterday, 19th November, marked the 10th anniversary of Uncharted - and with it the birth of PlayStation's biggest of big budget franchises.

Former Naughty Dog employee David Ballard has gone public with a claim of sexual harassment he faced while working at the Uncharted and The Last of Us developer.

Marvel's Spider-Man, aka Tom Holland, has been tapped up to play a young Nathan Drake in the upcoming Uncharted movie.

The Uncharted movie has found a new director with Shawn Levy, the man who helmed both Night At The Museum films, Date Night, and Real Steel.

Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection wonderfully remastered Naughty Dog's groundbreaking treasure-hunting adventure trilogy (back when it was still a trilogy), but it was rather costly if you were only interested in one or two of the collected titles. That won't be a problem come 16th November in Europe as Sony will start selling each remastered entry a la carte.

What we don't know is the price point. Chances are it will still be a lot cheaper to purchase the Nathan Drake Collection, especially as the anthology has come down in price since its release last October. Right now several sellers on Amazon UK are charging £30 or less for it.

Still, the individual titles might be worth it if you just want to play one of the games. But which one? Uncharted 2 is the fan-favourite, but our Oli Welsh seemed particularly fond of Uncharted 3 upon reassessing the series, while there are the rare holdouts who still favour the original adventure above all.

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The Uncharted movie now has a new screenwriter, so we know it's still in development - even if it's sounding unlikely that it will hit its previously reported June 2017 release.

I hate summer. Man's natural state, as far as I'm concerned, is not one spent constantly sticking to oneself, one's clothing, one's loved ones, passing vehicles, or anything else.

On paper Naughty Dog's Uncharted series is as generic as it gets. It's about a good looking white, heterosexual man going on exciting globe-trotting adventures, killing bad guys and wooing a spunky blonde reporter. On this level, it's functional at best and banal at worst. But dig deeper and it becomes clear that Naughty Dog's bombastic blockbuster series quietly had a profound effect on the medium's development over the past several years.

The Last of Us and Uncharted's film adaptations are both stuck in development hell.

Sony has added 22 games to its PlayStation Now subscription streaming service.

As a culmination of Naughty Dog's work over the course of the PlayStation 3 generation, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception delivers a level of visual quality few games on the platform could hope to match. First released in 2011, Uncharted 3 remains the most divisive of Naughty Dog's PlayStation 3 games. In the wake of the spectacular Among Thieves, the hype surrounding the release of Drake's Deception was immense and in the eyes of certain fans, the game didn't entirely live up to those expectations. Yet, given a second chance, there's an adeptly-crafted game here, something that becomes clear when revisiting the title in 2015. When separated from the hype, Uncharted 3 really shines - especially on PlayStation 4.

While the game itself may have fallen short of initial expectations in some quarters, its technological foundations certainly do not. Uncharted 3 stands as one of the most visually ambitious titles to have graced Sony's last-generation console. Pushing effects work, animation and scene complexity through the roof, it is, quite simply, a beautiful game. While it lacks the larger levels and impressive indirect lighting of The Last of Us, it offers a spectacle that still manages to eclipse many games released today, backed up by characterisation and story-telling Naughty Dog's rivals are still struggling to match.

With such an incredible foundation, just what could we expect from a remaster then? Looking back at the first two Uncharted games, Bluepoint remade a tremendous number of assets to enhance each title but with Uncharted 3, that's not really the case. Asset quality remains very similar to the original game throughout the experience. However, if you look closer, Bluepoint's attention to detail still manages to shine through in this excellent remaster.

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Last month, Aoife and I had the great pleasure of meeting veteran video game voice actor Nolan North. We filmed a lovely interview about the reality of video game voice acting, and I managed to rope him into taking part in one of the most incredible Dad-Jokes of all-time.

A smorgasbord of early concept art and animation detailing Naughty Dog's early vision for Uncharted has been revealed.

The Uncharted 4 beta will launch on 4th December and run through 13th December, Naughty Dog has announced.

To acquire this early multiplayer beta you'll have to purchase the Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, due 9th October, and have a PS Plus membership.

A single-player demo for the Nathan Drake collection will arrive on 29th September. Here's how it's shaping up:

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At what point does a remaster become a remake? Remastering involves improving video or audio quality, but fundamentally it is still derived from an existing source. The definition of a remaster in the gaming space is a little vague, but it rarely involves much in the way of new, creative work - it's about enhancing what's already there via higher resolutions and frame-rate boosts. But the release of the latest Uncharted: the Nathan Drake Collection story trailer demonstrates that developer Bluepoint Games is indeed improving and remaking swathes of Naughty Dog's existing assets, respectfully enhancing even incidental detail. The evidence suggests that this isn't just a simple port we're dealing with here - new art or geometry is commonplace in virtually every shot in this latest trailer. Bluepoint Games is well known for its accomplished work in converting classic games to new platforms but with this new collection, we could well be looking at its best work yet.

In order to better understand what has changed, we took the time to go back and re-create the entire trailer using the original PS3 software. It's important to remember here that the vast majority of footage in this trailer is comprised of scenes that were originally pre-rendered on PlayStation 3 - which begs the question: are they still pre-rendered on PS4? 1080p60 video eats up a lot of disc space - perhaps more than a standard Blu-ray disc can provide. Are we looking at a multi-disc collection here? Have these scenes instead been re-tooled to operate in real-time? It's not clear yet, but we're looking forward to finding out.

Regardless of whether they are pre-rendered or not, a lot of work has gone into to every one of these scenes. As noted above, many assets are improved, sometimes surprisingly so, resulting in richer, more cohesive storytelling across all three games. For instance, the original character models used in Drake's Fortune look rather dated next to those used in Uncharted 3. It makes sense to create a more coherent look across all three games by upgrading the models, and based on what we've seen in the trailer, that's exactly what has happened.

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Sony Pictures has pushed back the release date of its long-in-development Uncharted movie until 30th June 2017 thanks, (Variety).

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation director Christopher McQuarrie has cited Uncharted 3 as an inspiration for the upcoming movie's airplane sequence.

I think it's fair to say that Bungie has had an interesting time of late. First, there came the controversy over the Taken King Collector's Edition making certain content unavailable to existing players without purchasing the game a second time. Then came a cross-promotion with Red Bull, asking players to purchase special promotional cans of the energy drink to access an extra mission in The Taken King expansion.

Sony's long-in-development Uncharted film sounds like it is back in development hell, according to a new round of reports.

UPDATE 4/6/16 3.05pm Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection will launch in the UK on 9th October, Sony has now confirmed, and will grant you access to the multiplayer beta of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.

The Uncharted movie is now getting the A-list treatment with The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty scribe Mark Boal bringing his writing talents to the script.

YouTube now supports video playback at 60 frames per second (on the Chrome browser only for now) - and you can see how it looks below in our special slice of Uncharted 3 gameplay.

Uncharted and The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog is turning 30 this month, but I'd swear it doesn't look a day over 21.

The Uncharted film will be released on 10th June, 2016, the Hollywood Reporter has announced.

We still don't know who's going to play Nathan Drake, but King of Kong and Horrible Bosses director Seth Gordon is helming the project. Previously American Hustle and Three Kings director David O Russell was going to direct the film with Mark Wahlberg in the starring role, but that was cancelled when The Illusionist director Neil Burger stepped in. Of course, that too didn't stick.

Last we checked, Safe House and Stolen scribe David Guggenheim was set to pen the film.

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How much will it cost to rent a streamed PS3 game using upcoming service PlayStation Now? Possibly $4.99 for Uncharted 3, and $5.99 for Far Cry 3.

Naughty Dog's co-presidents have denied Uncharted creative director Amy Hennig was "forced out" of the company.

Sony is in talks with Horrible Bosses and The King of Kong director Seth Gordon to helm the live-action movie based on Naughty Dog's Uncharted series.

PlayStation 3 exclusive Uncharted 3 is two years old, and to celebrate Naughty Dog has released the game's final major patch and made all multiplayer maps free to download.

The Sony-owned studio will continue to support the game via Lab updates and community events, and it will look into patching the game if there's a "dire need" for a future one, community manager Eric Monacelli wrote on the EU PlayStation Blog.

Naughty Dog has made sweeping changes to Uncharted 3's multiplayer with the release of patch 1.18. "We combed over a multitude of comments and forum posts to see what you wanted changed in the multiplayer game," Monacelli said. "We took the most highly sought changes mentioned and made them happen." The update 1.18 patch notes are over at the PlayStation Blog.

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This is the End directors Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg claim to have been approached by Naughty dog for roughly four years about writing an Uncharted movie.

"Why is Nathan Drake a mass murderer?" Oh I don't know, but it's the question not the answer that's important. It symbolises a seismic shift in attitudes towards games that may mean, "possibly even for the very first time", that the next generation of consoles also becomes "the next generation of game design".

It's another good week to be a PlayStation Plus subscriber. Today you get God of War HD for free and the multiplayer portion of Uncharted 3 for free.

Uncharted 3's multiplayer modes used to require an online pass to access, but Sony and developer Naughty Dog have rethought its payment structure 15 months later and have made accessing the online mode not only free to those who own the game, but free-to-play for everyone as a standalone multiplayer product.

UPDATE: Uncharted: Fight for Fortune is a casino card game for PS Vita, the Brazilian ratings board has revealed.

Will the Uncharted movie ever come out? Further doubt was cast on its future last night after Sony tapped up a new team to rewrite the script.

The suped up Game of the Year Edition of Naughty Dog's Uncharted 3 is slated for release on 19th September, Sony has announced.

We've already covered the full list of goodies it contains, but a quick recap includes: several competitive map packs - some featuring locales from previous games in the series, co-op adventure and survival stages, and new multiplayer skins, including the Doughnut Pack that renders the cast fat.

Our Simon Parkin was quite fond of the game. "It is a majestic tribute to cinema, a movie game in the literal sense, and your enjoyment will be in precise step with your appreciation of that objective - and whether or not you believe it to be Drake's great deception, or Drake's great delight," he wrote before slapping an 8/10 at the end of his Uncharted 3 review.

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Has stereoscopic 3D video gaming died? For EA, one of the biggest and most influential game publishers in the world, it's not even worth considering.

Naughty Dog has announced Uncharted 3 patch 1.13, its biggest ever game update. It launches today.

The headline addition is the Tournament Mode, a points based competition that has three reward tiers which grant special in-game weapons or items based on how well you've played. An item unlocked is available for use until the next tournament period.

You can buy into a tournament using tickets, and you'll always carry a balance of 10 tickets per tournament period. You can buy more from the PS Store. A tournament leaderboard will be added to the game to support this. A video explaining the Tournament system is below.

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Naughty Dog has unveiled the "massive" Uncharted 3 patch 1.13, due out 14th August.

It includes a new system, fresh DLC and gameplay fixes, the studio's Eric Monacelli wrote on the Naughty Dog website.

The gameplay fixes include the addition of new trophies for each DLC pack.

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Veteran video game voice actor Nolan North has won a role in big screen blockbuster Star Trek 2 off the back of his work on the Uncharted series.

The patch notes for Uncharted 3 update 1.11 have been released and detailed by developer Naughty Dog.

The update will arrive at the end of May, according to the PlayStation Blog.

The headline new feature is Lab, a playlist with a series of unique gametypes thought up by Naughty Dog. The emphasis is on fun. An example given was of a T-bolt- and Pistole-only map.

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Uncharted designer Richard Lemarchand has quit Naughty Dog after eight years at the Sony-owned developer.

Sony has announced the Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception Game of the Year Edition. It includes the game and all 14 additional pieces of DLC. Sony is yet to announce when it will release.

The DLC list in full, in Sony's words:

Classic Skins Packs 1 - 3: A huge total of 25 skins for the Uncharted 3 multiplayer experience including fan favourites such as Nathan Drake as he appears in the original Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, or Winter Drake as he appears in Tibet during Uncharted 2: Among Thieves; even minor characters such as Cameraman Jeff make an appearance.

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Who needs Mark Wahlberg and Hollywood to make an Uncharted movie, when all you need is right there in the games themselves?

The Uncharted 3 Fortune Hunters' Club closes its doors next week with the release of new DLC.

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The PlayStation 4 is codenamed Orbis and features an anti-pre-owned system, according to a new report.

The Uncharted 3 co-op Shade Survival mode launches on the US PlayStation Store on Tuesday 13th March, Naughty Dog has announced.

Fingers crossed it launches in Europe a day later, on Wednesday, 14th March.

Shade Survival mode is a new multiplayer game type that lets you face off against some of the PlayStation 3's toughest enemies with your mates.

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PlayStation 4 won't be powered by complicated Cell processing technology as is the PlayStation 3, "gaming industry sources" have told Kotaku.

The PlayStation 4 will be powered by a new AMD chip, according to a report.

Uncharted creator Naughty Dog has clarified that it is "not working on anything for PS Vita".

Naughty Dog has announced a new game type for Uncharted 3 multiplayer: the co-op Shade Survival mode.

The Sony-owned developer teased the inbound mode with a screenshot, below. You'll be able to download it from the PlayStation Store in March.

Meanwhile, Naughty Dog confirmed that the Flashback Map Pack 2 launches today, Tuesday 21st February, on the US PlayStation Store for $9.99. It didn't say whether it'll launch on the European Store when it updates tomorrow (Wednesday, 22nd February). Fingers crossed.

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BAFTA has announced its shortlist for the 2012 British Academy Video Games Awards and Batman: Arkham City and L.A. Noire lead the pack with eight nominations each.

The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim was crowned Game of the Year at this year's video gaming Oscars, the AIAS Interactive Achievement Awards.

Ancient cartoon spin-off The Simpsons Arcade skateboards onto the EU PlayStation Store today. It comes competely free for PlayStation Plus subscribers, or costs £9.99 for regular folk.

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception gets a fresh batch of co-op content in the US today, developer Naughty Dog has announced.

The Naughty Dog team making The Last of Us very nearly made a new PS3 Jak & Daxter game, the developer has revealed.

Update: A new, online version of the Edge interview has just been published, which chops up and explains Druckmann's quote in a different light: that staff are merely disappointed when the praise lavished on the studio's output focuses on its cinematic flair.

Headlining the Euro PlayStation Store update today are PS1 JRPG Arc the Lad and new multiplayer maps for Uncharted 3.

Arc the Lad finally receives a belated English translation, after a mislabelled Japanese version was uploaded last year.

Arc the Lad costs £3.99. But if you're a PlayStation plus member, you can download it for free. This offer expires 15th February.

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A major DLC drop for PlayStation 3 adventure Uncharted 3 arrives tomorrow, developer Naughty Dog has announced.

The AIAS shortlist for the 15th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards - i.e. the game Oscars - has been revealed.

As talk grows of developers already working on PlayStation 4 titles, Naughty Dog has revealed its fears over the "difficult" transition to next-gen hardware.

2011 sales of the PlayStation 3 are slightly ahead of Sony's target, it has said.

Sony remains committed to its target of 15 million PS3 sales during the financial year to the end of March 2012, Sony Computer Entertainment boss Andrew House told journalists today (reported by Reuters).

As of 2nd November 2011, Sony had sold 56 million PlayStation 3 units since launch. Microsoft has sold 57.6 million Xbox 360 units since launch.

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P2P technology at work - but who hosts the game and decides kills?

Lag measured between four Uncharted 3 players around the world.

Naughty Dog's Uncharted series has sold in excess of 13 million copies worldwide, publisher Sony has revealed.

Sony marketing man Asad Quizilbash offered the figure during an interview with IndustryGamers.

He added that the latest in the series, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, sold twice as many copies in its first week as Uncharted 2 did, "far exceeding our expectations". However, he didn't offer precise sales figures, reiterating only that it shipped 3.8 million copies to retailers on day one.

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The Uncharted 3 1.02 patch is out now, and developer Naughty Dog has released the patch notes.

As promised, an "alternate aim" setting has been added to the Options menu for single-player only. This is in response to fan complaints that resulted in a few fans being invited into the US developer's studio to offer their thoughts.

"Thank you for playing and your patience while we built and released this patch," community manager Eric Monacelli wrote on the Naughty Dog blog.

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The Sony PlayStation 3 3D TV announced at E3 in June has been delayed in Europe.

An upcoming Uncharted 3 patch will offer a fix for those unhappy with the game's refined aiming controls.

According to GiantBomb, the update offers the option of toggling between the new controls and a set-up more in line with that found in Uncharted 2.

As reported earlier this month, developer Naughty Dog invited fans to the studio to talk through their concerns surrounding the controversial new aiming controls. The patch, which is currently without a release date, is a direct response to that meeting.

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Uncharted 3's first major DLC add-on will be a retro map pack.

The announcement over on the PlayStation Blog was light on details, other than that it's called the Flashback Map Pack #1.

It teased two screens, reproduced below, which appear to show a waterlogged take on Uncharted 2's The Fort map and a thawed out version of The Ice Cave.

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Uncharted 3 sold 3.8 million units globally day one, Sony has claimed.

We presume it means shipped to shops, as opposed to sold through to consumers. We've asked Sony for clarification.

By comparison, FIFA 12 sold 3.2 million copies in its first week of availability, making it the biggest release in the history of sports games, according to publisher EA.

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Naughty Dog reveals its cinematic secrets.

3DS sales were up over 200 per cent in Japan last week, following the launch of Super Mario 3D Land.

The new handheld's first Mario title, out here next week, sold a whopping 343,492 copies in its first four days on sale to take the software crown.

For context, Super Mario Galaxy sold 256,341 in Japan during its first week, while Super Mario Galaxy 2 managed 337,569.

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Naughty Dog talks us scene-by-scene. Warning: spoilers!

A patch to address some gamers' concern about Uncharted 3's aiming system could be impending after developer Naughty Dog invited a couple of fans to its HQ to discuss the problem.

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Battlefield 3 has clung to the top spot in the UK all format charts, denying PlayStation 3 exclusive Uncharted 3 a first place finish.

A new friend and fellow games writer paid me a great compliment recently: he said that he liked this column because Game of the Week marked the point at which we could stop talking about the reviews, and start talking about the actual games.

"We felt really good about that game as it came together. We felt that we had something really special on our hands but I don't think we were prepared for the scale of the rapturous reception we got. So how do you top something like that?"

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Naughty Dog's recreation of nature is phenomenal.

A look at the new hand-to-hand combat system.

Nottingham doesn't have the swagger of Los Angeles or the neon allure of Tokyo, but it can boast a games show that puts E3 and TGS to shame. GameCity is a festival in the truest sense of the word, a celebration of a community and a culture that's sadly all too often swamped by corporate concerns.

Three skin packs for Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception multiplayer have been released.

Uncharted 3 may be pushing PlayStation 3 harder than ever before, but the game's lead designer reckons it can still go further.

Naughty Dog lead game designer Richard Lemarchand has revealed why making the Uncharted video games is such hard work.

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The excellent Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception launches tomorrow, Wednesday, across the UK.

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception launches in the USA today: a game that somehow manages to eclipse the technical brilliance of its predecessor, offering up a range of graphical effects and physics work that is quite unlike anything else we've seen on the current generation platforms.

Naughty Dog's epic analysed.

Uncharted 3 developer Naughty Dog has its own version of the famous Google Fridays.

Who would win in a fight between Nathan Drake, James Bond and Sonic the Hedgehog? Wait seven days and the charts will tell us - all three heroes have new games out this week.

Naughty Dog lead game designer Richard Lemarchand has discussed Eurogamer's 8/10 Uncharted 3 review.

"The strict, linear design and tight camera management may contribute to a sense of being a semi-spectator on a fairground ride, but the benefit of this design approach is that it allows the team to focus every ohm of PlayStation processing power onto what is on screen at any one time," reviewer Simon Parkin wrote of Uncharted 3, out next week.

And in his concluding paragraph: "The execution exhibits a kind of workmanship and polish way beyond the ambition of most other developers, let alone their abilities or budgets. As an expression of all that a video game could be, however, Uncharted 3 is narrow, focused and ultimately shallow."

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Motion capture stars talk.

A Naughty Dog tester has managed to race through Uncharted 3 from beginning to end in just three hours and eight minutes, according to director Justin Richmond.

And Action. Nathan Drake, a blur of khaki and stubble, leaps from what must be the fiftieth rooftop high above the bustling streets of Yemen in pursuit of the be-suited villain. It's his sixth take ('life', in olde game parlance) in the most impressive chase yet seen in a video game, one directed with the kind of technical flair that wins Oscars. As he spills through a market stall, agitating chickens into a cloud of feathered squawks, the camera quick-pans to exaggerate the sense of kinetic drama.

Into the road and a stunt-car driver accelerates ten feet forward out of the wings, braking on the director's signal in just the right spot to allow Drake to tumble over the bonnet. Crash through a door and extras dressed as military police bark orders in machinegun-volley Arabic before retreating to the Green room for a sit down and a cup of tea.

No such respite for Drake, who leaps to grasp a window ledge with his fingertips then up and a dash to where a coat hanger turns a washing line into a 30-foot zip wire. Whoosh. And Cut.

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Indy gaming.

Sony has announced a DLC season pass for forthcoming sequel Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, via the PlayStation Blog.

Dubbed The Fortune Hunters' Club, the program entitles you to the first four multiplayer map packs and the first three multiplayer skin packs, with the first add-on arriving some time in November.

You'll also score a Fortune Hunters' Club theme and receive notification from your XMB linking you directly to new DLC on the PlayStation Store when it's ready for download.

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Live gameplay with Nolan North and Richard Lemarchand.

Uncharted 3 developer Naughty Dog has spoken up in defense of the game's online pass, insisting it's a fair price to pay for the game's multiplayer content.

Amazing video shows how it could look.

Uncharted 3 won't get any single player DLC - and Naughty Dog says it's because the studio would rather be working on its next game.

Fans of Uncharted 3 will be able to sample the game's single-player campaign for the first time in the UK this Saturday.

Uncharted 3 - which has gone gold - comes with a Starhawk multiplayer beta download code, Sony has announced.

All retail copies of the Naughty Dog game include a voucher code for early access to the Starhawk beta, due out early 2012.

Like Uncharted 3, Starhawk is a PlayStation 3 exclusive. It's a fast-paced third-person shooter follow-up to Warhawk, developed by LightBox Interactive, the studio set up by Dylan Jobe and other former members of Incognito Entertainment.

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What Yemen you aren't excited?

Eurogamer's finest Drake a look.

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PlayStation Plus subscribers can download charming Halloween-themed adventure Costume Quest for free until 19th October, Sony has announced.

PlayStation 1 role-player Arc the Lad, the first PSN Import title to arrive in Europe, also comes free up to 19th October.

Uncharted 3's multiplayer beta returns, exclusively, for Plus members until 19th October as well.

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Roster of heroes in Sony commercial.

Anyone picking up a used copy of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception will need to shell out for an online pass to access the game's multiplayer content.

An official statement from Sony handed to Destructoid today also suggested all future Sony-published titles will require the pass.

"Online Pass will be incorporated into Uncharted 3 and future Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios (SCE WWS) games with online functionality. We will provide further information in the future."

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The Uncharted 3 multiplayer unlocks for PlayStation Plus subscribers in Europe, South Africa, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand this week, Sony has announced.

Uncharted developer Naughty Dog has given the Uncharted movie its blessing, and said the appointment of Neil Burger as director is a "very good sign" that it will please fans of the blockbuster PlayStation 3 exclusive series.

At Eurogamer Expo 2011 Naughty Dog delivered a world exclusive gameplay demo of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, a game sure to be one of the PlayStation 3's biggest hits. Nathan Drake actor Nolan North and co-lead designer Richard Lemarchand wowed fans with the premiere, and offered insight into the development of the game.

A seemingly complete rundown of Uncharted 3's trophies has gone public.

Eurogamer is delighted to announce the 10 nominees for its Game of the Show, Eurogamer Expo 2011.

The voice of Drake speaks.

Sony has talked up its Personal 3D Viewer, saying it will "revolutionise games forever".

Uncharted 3 developer Naughty Dog, and the actor that portrays Nathan Drake, Nolan North, have given their opinions on the lauded facial animation system used by Team Bondi to create L.A. Noire.

PlayStation 3 tentpole Uncharted started out life as a fantasy adventure, according to a former Naughty Dog employee.

We've got all sorts of amazing stuff going on at this year's Eurogamer Expo, but we're particularly pleased to announce this latest pair of competitions courtesy of Sony.

Dune in.

New sections of Drake on a plane.

Eurogamer Expo will host the first public UK hands-on with PlayStation Vita.

Nolan North does the honours.

Eurogamer Expo will host three developer sessions with Uncharted 3's Naughty Dog, including one presented by Nathan Drake himself, Mr. Nolan North.

Sony has admitted it must improve PlayStation 3 sales in the UK, as the company's worldwide price drop takes effect.

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Eurogamer is proud to announce the 10 nominees for its Game of the Show, gamescom 2011!

Gamers want to see the "perfect human being in digital form" in their games, Sony has said.

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Drake takes off.

Lo and behold! The UK price of the Uncharted 3 Explorer's Edition is £104.97 at GameStop.

It seems Sony really did cut the amount of RAM inside PlayStation Vita.

PlayStation 3 blockbusters Uncharted 3 and Resistance 3 will both be playable at Eurogamer Expo 2011.

Glasses-free stereoscopic 3D has "inherent limitations", Sony has said.

Some game creators are producing poor quality 3D visuals, Sony has said.

New Uncharted movie director Neil Burger is going back to the PlayStation exclusive video game for inspiration.

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Naughty Dog's Uncharted 3 multiplayer beta just received a significant, somewhat superb injection of bonus content. The final 1.04 release sees the addition of two new maps and the unlocking of every game mode. Yes, this means that Adventure Co-op is back.

This gameplay mode follows the pattern set by Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, where a slice of the single-player game is repurposed into a three-player co-op experience. Here, a brand new Syria stage is showcased, kicking off with Nate, Elena and Sully pursued by helicopters before gaining access to a tower by locating hidden idols and placing them on unlocking pedestals. What then follows is a treacherous tower ascent where players move in and out of cover while using precision pistols to take out enemy goons at the top of the structure.

It's fast-paced, dramatic, beautifully paced and exhibits some superb use of light and shadow - the revised ambient occlusion tech is far more noticeable here, and there's a lovely light shaft implementation in play early on in the underground portion of the stage. Moving out into the level's main gameplay arena and we see a significantly larger, more wide-open environment than the three multiplayer focused arenas, with specific areas set up for sniping and close-quarters combat, plus there's a sub-boss character to take on too.

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The entire level in the July 2011 multiplayer beta, with FPS analysis.

It's the ultimate teaser for what will surely be one of the best games of the year. The recently released Uncharted 3 multiplayer beta may well be low on content in terms of actual game assets (only two maps are available, with a third set to be unlocked imminently) but it still offers a wealth of different multiplayer modes and 25 levels' worth of progression, including a large range of weapons, character customisation elements and gameplay-shifting boosters.

Alas, what it doesn't offer is much in the way of hints on what we should expect from the single-player campaign mode, where Naughty Dog really pushes back boundaries with its superb set-pieces and innovative platforming gameplay. In this sense, Naughty Dog's brilliant Uncharted 2 multiplayer beta did at least give us some co-op action that was a fairly close match to the single-player campaign stage based on the same level. Update: The final phase of the beta unlocked this mode. Check out a complete gameplay runthrough in this blog post.

Excited as we are about the new beta, it's safe to say that from a basic technological level, the core rendering elements we see here aren't that far removed from what we saw in Uncharted 2. Then again, short of optimisation efforts and the introduction of new visual effects, it's difficult to see where Naughty Dog could have radically improved its existing tech in the way that it did between the first two games in the series.

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Limitless and The Illusionist director Neil Burger has reportedly signed on to write and direct the Uncharted movie following David O. Russell's exit.

A comparison of the 2D and 3D modes in the beta code.

Performance analysis of the 2D/3D modes of Uncharted 3.

Yesterday's addition of the Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception multiplayer beta still headlines what the PlayStation Store offers today.

It's this year's big PS3 exclusive. And it poses the mouth watering question of can Naughty Dog now bring multiplayer to the same sky-high standard as single-player?

Among the games available to buy today are Sega Rally Online Arcade for £6.30, and Red Faction: Armageddon for £58. Wait, what?!

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The Uncharted 3 beta goes public today, Naughty Dog has announced.

It is open to everyone with access to the PlayStation Store, where it will be listed as a regular download.

Naughty Dog today adds the Team Objective and Co-op Hunters game types to the existing list. From 4th July to 9th July, the game types are Team Deathmatch, Free For All, Team Objective, Hardcore and Co-op Hunter, on maps Airstrip and Chateau.

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There's a twinge of disappointment when you first start up Uncharted 3's multiplayer mode. It's the feeling of over-familiarity: the layout of the menus, the experience bar marking the progression of your ascent through the ranks of your online career and the emblem editor. It's the perk (sorry, booster) slots in which you assign upgrade bonuses that decrease your character's sprint recovery time or allow him to run silently in order to avoid detection and so on.

It is, in short, the Modern Warfare-ness of it all, and the feeling that Naughty Dog, one of blockbuster gaming's more creative voices, has borrowed a template instead of building one.

Of course, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's structural innovations to the multiplayer shooter have come to define the way a generation plays gun games online, and few would debate that template's enduring brilliance. But familiarity breeds contempt, and Uncharted 3's construction is oh-so-familiar, right down to the ladder of ‘finding player' messages that appears on the upper right hand side of the screen while the game hurries to match eight players up.

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Developer Naughty Dog has detailed exactly what you can expect from Uncharted 3's multiplayer beta, which kicks off on PlayStation 3 today.

First up, you'll need to either own a copy of inFamous 2 or be a PlayStation Plus member to gain access. If that doesn't include you, the doors will be opened to all-comers from 5th July until close on 14th July.

Naughty Dog intends to cycle through a variety of competitive and co-op modes over three different maps: Airstrip, Chateau and Yemen.

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Sony has confirmed to Eurogamer plans to launch three collections of PlayStation 3 exclusives on 22nd July in Europe.

The first two Uncharted games are being taped together and put on store shelves from 22nd July, Sony has announced.

As well as the first two games in Naughty Dog's revered PlayStation 3 franchise, you'll also get a theme and avatar for Uncharted 3.

According to CVG, the same treatment is also being afforded to the first two Resistance games and Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction and A Crack in Time.

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Fewer than half of the 11 million 3DTV-ready homes in the UK in 2016 will be active and regular users of 3D TV content, a new report predicts.

It began, as ever, with a leak. With just hours to go until Microsoft's absurdly lavish... Wait a second, this is last year's intro. Oh well, it turns out it still works: where last year we heard about Kinect before we'd even donned our space ponchos, this year we knew about Halo 4 and several new Kinect sequels before Don Mattrick even had a chance to start educating us about "growth and innovation".

In which, as you'll know if you read yesterday's roundup, Eurogamer's UK team picks their favourite E3 trailers of the last 24 hours. So who are today's winners and losers?

(NB: Anyone sitting at home watching Starhawk videos instead of standing in an L.A. bar having cocktails three feet away from Reggie Fils-Aime already knows the answer to this question.)

Top of the Pops

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It's only day two of E3 and already the internet is awash with trailers. In fact, you'd have a job to watch the whole lot of them before Gamescom kicks off.

So to save you a bit of time, Eurogamer's top analysts (i.e. anyone too pregnant or knowledgeable about how the website actually works to go to E3) have picked the best trailers released in the last 24 hours. And the worst, just for good measure. So what do you reckon to our choices?

Top of the Pops

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An Uncharted 3 multiplayer beta goes live on 28th June, Naughty Dog announced during Sony's E3 presentation.

No word yet on how you can sign up, but we'll update as soon as we know more.

Naughty Dog's Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra took to the stage to show off a predictably spectacular new sequence that sees Nathan Drake trying to escape a sinking cruise liner.

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Drake a break.

Drake on me.

Sony has offered a glimpse of what to expect from Uncharted 3's lavish special edition.

As detailed on the PlayStation Blog, it's going to take the form of Nathan Drake's journal, with fully illustrated pages showing concept art, screenshots, sketches.

On top of that, you'll get a PSN voucher that gives you access to the following extras:

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Behind the scenes with Naughty Dog.

The planned Uncharted movie has lost its director this week, with David O Russell reportedly moving on to pastures new.

More mo-cap footage from the game.

The Next Generation Portable Uncharted game takes place between Uncharted 1 and Uncharted 2, Naughty Dog has revealed.

There can't be many lead actors and writers in the games industry who know each other so well they practically finish each other's sentences. But then, how many can say they've been working together on their latest project almost every week since last June, let alone for large, intensive chunks of the past five years?

On set with Nathan Drake.

It's widely viewed as one of the greatest games of this, or any, console generation – and now even its creator believes Uncharted 2 was a one-off.

Drake in the third dimension.

Naughty Dog talks new features.

Sony has confirmed a multiplayer beta for Uncharted 3, with early access on 28th June if you buy InFamous 2 or subscribe to PSN Plus, becoming freely available on 5th July.

The date was revealed alongside a first look at the game's multiplayer component last week in Los Angeles. Speaking to Eurogamer, Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells talked up how the "really strong" and "still thriving" community for Uncharted 2 had shaped the studio's approach this time.

"We really wanted to embrace the community, and listened to what they asked for," he said. "One of the unique features of Uncharted 2 multiplayer versus all the other online shooters out there is that we have a very rich and deep traversal move set. It's a very vertical experience, so we really wanted to leverage that and build environments that took advantage."

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A cargo plane accelerates down a runway with Drake and his compatriots stowed away inside. As the rear door yawns wide-open, a convoy of terrorist-carrying trucks is in hot pursuit.

Drake me out.

Beta coming in June.

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception may have split-screen co-op.

It's Helen Mirren. But it's not.

Helen Mirren lookalike spotted, Statham too.

Update: She's official: her name is Katherine Marlowe and she's the leader of a secret organisation whose roots date back to Elizabeth I, wrote Naughty Dog community man Arne Meyer on the European PlayStation blog. And Marlowe's got history with Nathan Drake over Sir Francis Drake's ring.

Hollywood director David O. Russell has promised to show as much skin as he can in the upcoming Uncharted movie.

Uncharted movie director David O. Russell has moved to reassure fans of the videogame concerned by the direction of his unfinished script, asking them to trust that he'll make an "amazing" film.

Uncharted fans worried about the upcoming movie of the game were given further cause for concern after the director and scriptwriter revealed plans to depict a Sopranos-like family with a sense of justice.

If it really is capable of running PS3-quality titles, why aren't more of Sony's leading studios making games for NGP?

Naughty Dog makes its 5 minute pitch.

Having mastered ice, water and snow in previous Uncharted games, Naughty Dog has set its sights on groundbreaking fire effects in the forthcoming PlayStation 3 threequel.

Firefly's Nathan Fillion is philosophical about losing out to Mark Wahlberg in the race to play Nathan Drake in the Uncharted movie – he's just praised the Three Kings actor on Twitter.

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Uncharted 3 was unveiled with a teaser trailer that showed series star Nathan Drake venturing out into an expansive desert following an airplane crash – a setting some took to indicate that the game will feature open-world elements.

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Drake over the coals.

Just a day after unveiling the first trailer for Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception at the Spike Video Game Awards, Naughty Dog gave the gaming press their first look at gameplay. The press event hosted by a handful of the game's developers in balmy Los Angeles granted a tantalising first glimpse of the PlayStation 3 exclusive, due out next November.

Will PlayStation 3 exclusive Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception include two-player campaign co-op? Ginormous US shop GameStop suggests so.

Chat show host Jimmy Fallon demos.

How did they make that trailer?

Releasing 1st November 2011.

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception will be playable in 3D, developer Naughty Dog has confirmed.

Full reveal coming at VGAs.

How about some screens for desert?

Naughty Dog's third Uncharted game has been revealed. It's called Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception and takes place in the desert.