Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception started taking cues from the free-to-play model late last year, when its 1.13 update added microtransactions and timed tournament tickets. Naughty Dog has now taken that next step, making multiplayer portion of the game fully F2P.
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception's multiplayer modes are still getting regular support from Naughty Dog, including a new holiday update out today. It includes some new outfits and a new map for free, so you can score those ho-ho-headshots to get in a festive mood.
Sony has officially confirmed the leaked Vita game, Uncharted: Fight for Fortune. The title is a turn-based card game from Sony Bend, and it's coming on December 4 for $4.99.
Even though Naughty Dog has put Nathan Drake aside for the time being, Sony isn't done putting the popular character through his paces yet. Two separate sets of ratings boards have listed "Uncharted: Fight for Fortune" as an upcoming Vita game. This won't be a traditional title like Uncharted: Golden Abyss though. Think less "abyss" and more "golden."
Following the footsteps of the first two Uncharted games, Sony is releasing a "Game of the Year" edition of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. As with other re-releases, the GOTY pack offers quite a bit of DLC. In addition to the main game, you'll get 12 new multiplayer maps, over 40 multiplayer skins, Fort Co-Op Adventure, and Shade Survival Mode. According to Sony, it's a $45 value.
The Uncharted movie adaptation is getting a shake-up, with new writers and a pending new director. Marianne and Cormac Wibberley, who co-wrote Disney's National Treasure, are giving the script a rewrite. The story outline has Nathan Drake searching for El Dorado.
It's been about nine months since Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception was released, and the multiplayer community is still going strong. That longevity is partly due to continued support from Naughty Dog, which has yet another patch planned for release today. According to the developer, it's the biggest one yet.
Naughty Dog may be turning its attention to The Last of Us, but it's still paying attention to Uncharted 3 as well. The company has announced a massive patch coming to the game in August, with various game fixes, new trophies, and balance adjustments.
One of the primary designers of the Uncharted series is leaving Naughty Dog to pursue a professorship at the University of Southern California. Richard Lemarchand was co-lead designer on Uncharted 3, but soon he'll be teaching at the Interactive Media Division, and working on experimental games for a research project.
Read more: Finishing Uncharted 3 is 'natural transition point' »
Inspired by Indiana Jones, the Uncharted series is one of the most cinematic productions in gaming right now. Instead of waiting for the live action Hollywood adaptation of the franchise, morphinapg on YouTube decided to take matters into his own hands: edit footage of all three games in the series into three feature-length films.
To do so, morphinapg not only grabbed every cinematic from the games, he also added the "minimum amount of gameplay" necessary to make sure the story would still make sense to someone that's never played the game.
Naughty Dog has pulled back the curtain on some concepts that didn't make the cut for Uncharted 3. At GDC 2012, the company outlined alternative environments, expanded levels, and gameplay mechanics that were chopped for one reason or another, and now it's making that information public.
You been through the London Underground and the Desert Village, and scoped out the Airstrip and the High Rise. Naughty Dog knows you've wanted some new locales for your Uncharted 3 multiplayer experience and they plan to comply.
Naughty Dog may be hard at work on The Last of Us (complete with its own mysterious online component), but the developer is still supporting Uncharted 3 and its multiplayer mode. The developer teased two new multiplayer maps recently.
Uncharted: Golden Abyss is the first game in the series to release without multiplayer since the original, but possibly not for long. A purported screenshot from a glitch shows that you might be able to battle against your friends, though not in the way you'd expect. The image seems to indicate a collectible card game (CCG) style mode.
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception is getting a new co-op survival mode. The new "Shade Survival Mode" will be available in March, and Naughty Dog has released a lone screenshot (above).
Naughty Dog has promised fourteen DLC drops for Uncharted 3's multiplayer mode. One month after the release of the first Flashback Map Pack comes the first new add-on for the game's co-op mode.
The "Fort Co-Op Adventure" will be available later today on the PlayStation Store for $5.99. It marks the first time in the series that you'll be able to play cooperatively with Uncharted villians. The expansion stars Zoran Lazarevic, Eddy Raja, and Harry Flynn exploring "the mystery behind the Janus head statue from the on-disc co-op adventure."
Are you still playing Uncharted 3's multiplayer mode? Naughty Dog teased the first map pack for the game over two months ago--and the release is finally happening today. The "Flashback Map Pack" contains four maps from Uncharted 2's multiplayer mode, re-rendered with new lighting effects, new particle effects, and "a slew of technical changes."
Cave, Fort, Lost City, and Sanctuary will be available as part of the Fortune Hunters Club DLC season pass, or as a standalone purchase for $9.99.
Oh, you thought that the industry had finally escaped the grasp of the Spike TV Video Game Awards? Not quite. Here are a few of the "acceptance speeches" that couldn't make it into the program--not because Spike TV decided to ignore most of the winners, but because these digitally rendered characters didn't win.
The Joker won the award for "Best Character," but here are the potential speeches you would've heard had Portal 2's Wheatley or Uncharted 3's Nathan Drake had won.
If you played Uncharted 3 over the Thanksgiving weekend, you may have noticed a new patch had gone live. So, what does version 1.02 do? Most importantly, it introduces a new "alternate aim setting" for gamers that found the controls of Uncharted 3's single player mode problematic.
Naughty Dog invited gamers to help tweak the controls after initial complaints that the changes made to Uncharted 3's aim were for the worse. The "alternate aim settings" added in 1.02 should make the game feel more like Uncharted 2.
There's going to be a lot of DLC for Uncharted 3's multiplayer mode. While the initial offerings have been limited to various skins, Naughty Dog has unveiled the first significant expansion for the mode.
The first map pack for the online mode is the "Flashback Map Pack #1." While Naughty Dog hasn't detailed the contents of the DLC quite yet, the first screenshots give us a pretty good idea on what to expect.
The Uncharted series tends to serve as a showpiece for Sony's hardware, and Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception does its part to tout Sony's 3D push. But what about Sony's other proprietary technology, the PlayStation Move? Apparently Naughty Dog considered including it, but just couldn't make it fit into the series as it currently stands.
Read more: 'No good way to properly take advantage of Move' »
It seems that plenty of treasure hunters are digging into Nathan Drake's latest adventure, as Sony has announced that Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception sold 3.8 million copies in its first day. That global sales record puts it well on its way to be the best-selling game of the series so far.
It's important to note, though, that "sold" from Sony's perspective tends to mean "sold to retailers," so this likely isn't a customer sell-through rate.
Read more: Series 'has redefined the third-person adventure' »
In an ongoing video series on the PlayStation Blog, Naughty Dog has lifted the curtain on development of its recently released adventure Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception.
The latest episode of the series focuses on how the developer utilizes "historical events as jumping off points" into Nathan Drake's escapades. What are the points featured in Naughty Dog's latest? "Sir Francis Drake’s circumnavigation of the globe" and "T.E. Lawrence’s research into the Crusades as a teenager." That Nathan sure knows how to party.
For some, the changes made to the way you aim in Uncharted 3 make the game significantly less fun to play. Shacker Sinisterinfant commented that the new controls are "garbage," making it difficult to enjoy the game. Others, like SketchyFletchy, have had no problems and consider the complaints "entitled whining."
To explore the mixed reaction towards Uncharted 3's controls, developer Naughty Dog invited gamers to its heaadquarters to discuss the problem, and potentially work on a new solution.
Uncharted 3 released two days ago, and many fans are crying foul. In spite of critical acclaim, many dislike the changes made to the controls of the single player campaign. Complaints include increased input lag and a general lack of responsiveness--something that's not present in the multiplayer component, and in Uncharted 2.
"Look, the aiming in Uncharted 3 single player campaign is definitely broken; it’s not in our heads. It doesn’t work and it’s ruining the experience. I never had an issue in Uncharted 1 and 2. Almost all my kills in UC2 were headshots, now in UC3 it’s all air. I hate getting into a gun fight in this game, especially with the brain dead A.I," one commenter said.
Read more: Naughty Dog says changes give you 'a better grasp' of gunplay »
Comment on this story