Be Excellent To Each Other

Is now availble on PSN to anyone who has PS+ which, I'd imagine, is everyone who has the 30 free days following the last fiasco.

Download it now for your plus thing runs out. I've no idea if you'll be stopped from playing the beta when it doe expire.

First impressions are; CoD Loadouts, CoD perks, CoD emblems and more of the same Uncharted multiplayer from last time but spruced up a smidge.

Oh and there's the Uncharted TV thingy which allows you to sign into Facebook and presumably post videos or recruit friends or some shit but I've yet to have a fiddle.

Oh and MAG owners can get some map packs free if you've still.got PS+. There's still loads of MAG players out there so it's worthwhile picking up cheap if you fancy a glimpse into large scale battles!

I quite enjoyed the Uncharted 2 multiplayer beta, but I didn't even bother playing it for more than half an hour when I finally got the full game. I was happy enough with the singleplayer campaign, which like the first one, was excellent.

I agree. The MP was great, and UC3 is set to be even better, but for some reason you don't fancy playing it after clocking the campaign. No idea why it just doesn't hook you in because it's easy to play but has its intricacies yet you never have the need to fire it up for one last go.

Anyone with a PS3 on here should give it a go though.

Why are they called 'betas' when they are clearly demos?

Marketing.

Actually, I think they really are betas, in so far as the devs are fiddling with backend infrastructure scalability and game balance and the like.

Edit -- plus they typically stop working at some point.

This is also true - in this case at least. The Halo betas are usually legit as well. The CoD betas are bobbins - they're often released weeks before the game, and typically the game would've gone gold by then anyway.

They're probably covering their arse in case some feature in the beta turns out to be game-breaking and needs to be yanked from the final release.

Aye, because CoD's never been released with a day 1 patch to fix the things that were knackered in the beta

Not to my knowledge, no! Maybe glitches and bugs, and stuff yeah, but rarely balancing/mapping issues, which is what a multiplayer beta is supposed to be about. Bungie use the beta period - usually a good six months before the game's retail release rather than a few weeks - to generate heatmaps, then they modify the layout of their maps appropriately. There's no evidence of the CoD guys doing this. But hey, I'm not allowed to say anything negative about CoD lest I'm accused of having a vendetta against it or something.

It's absolutely no secret that most of these "betas" these days are very little more than a marketing event. See also: The upcoming Battlefield 3 "beta". Sure, why not use the gathered information to tweak the game? But at the same time, I don't believe they're genuinely putting these things out there to "beta test" in the way they perhaps used to with PC games. Not all developers anyway.

Interesting tale of something significant that did change in a CoD beta:



http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011- ... re-article

I've cancelled my Uncharted 3 pre-order.

Nothing against the game in general, I'm still really looking forward to it. But I've got tons of Batman still to do, and some little pieces of things to finish off (like LA Noire DLC and the last quarter of Crysis 2 that I'd like to tackle). The pre-order bonuses weren't compelling (are they ever?) so it didn't make much sense to pay top dollar for it now then watch the price fall as it sits on my shelf unplayed. I'll pick it up when I'm ready for a new game and hopefully save a few bob.

I'm going to cancel my Skyrim pre-order for the same reasons, I think.

I think I'll probably get it when it comes out on Platinum or just drops to £15 anyway. Doesn't seen to take all that long these days, Killzone 3 is already on there.

You'll be wanting to get Saints Row 3 at that point, anyway.

Not if he has any sense at all, no.

I hate you and you suck.

Fool me once (Saints Row), shame on you. Fool me twice (Saints Row 2), shame on me. Fool me three times? Not going to happen.

"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — [pauses] — shame on you. Fool me — [pauses] — You can't get fooled again."

Yeah, yeah.. it's that 8/10 that's bothering you.

I've just managed to finish the first Uncharted in time to (hopefully) get the third for Christmas.

Might I briefly say I'm amazed that Uncharted 2 even got off the ground cause Uncharted is boring stuff. It shouldn't be underestimated how much of an improvement the sequel was. A massive improvement of production, character and story. And probably some other stuff too. Tedious gunplay threatened to ruin it for me completely as you slog your way through the jungle ruined by feckless jet ski shit, where the momentum is entirely nonexistent thanks to stopping you every couple of yards to shoot a barrel or fifty. Anyway I'm glad that's over and look forward to crashing a plane tomorrow or summats.

So, Uncharted 3 then?

Freaking brilliant Christmas game that's what. I also got Skyward Sword but after an hour I was bored with the same old Nintenslog opening. Lord knows why they insist on characters that tell you the controls. "hey Zelda, you can run if you press A" I know I've been doing it since you finally let me have the reins after ten minutes of tedious exposition "ha ha, holding A is great for running" look, no offence mate, but I'm going to bump into about fifty of you and it'll take several hours of hand holding before I get start playing so move it along will you "ho ho, I used to run everywhere as a boy..."

So I turned that off.

Uncharted knows how to get going though. A decent brawl in a bar and a flashback to Drakes youth. The brawl is riotous fun for the brief time that you are given to mash the square button fighting irish booze hounds before you're jumping across rooftops as baby Nate. The pacing could not be better. The graphics are slightly more polished than 2 (Scully's T-Shirt looks as if they've poured hours over each bump), and the animation is lovely. Baby Nate puts his hands on tables and walls as you slightly brush past them. It's lovely. It ain't perfect but it is very pleasing to watch.

You can probably tell if you're playing something special in the first ten minutes and judging from what I've seen this is going to be great fun.

Should I start playing with number 2 or start from the beginning?

Skip the first and jump straight into the second.

Okydoke. Cheers.

It does start well there's no doubt, but in my experience it ran out it's welcome well before the end. The (very) few interesting and unique aspects the third game brings to the table are exhausted within the first couple of levels and after that there's little to sustain it. The interest level rises briefly during some admittedly jaw-dropping visual set pieces but you quickly reliase that it's just the same stuff as before with added shiny and it instantly becomes a bit of a slog again. The 'arena' aspects, wherein the game locks you in a single large room and just throw lots of guys at you in order to ramp up the difficulty and extend each level, are even more obvious than the previous games and are what finally killed the experience for me. Bizarrely, I'm still glad I played it due to the graphics and voice acting and visual design and, yes, the characterisation and script; but I'd really struggle to defend is as a good game so take from that what you will.

Don't get me wrong, I utterly adored the second game and was gagging for the sequel and thus tried my damndest to look past the flaws but, in the end, I just couldn't pretend it was a patch on Uncharted 2.



The second game is defininitely an improvement over the first in practically every way but I still enjoyed the first one and, given how cheap it must be rigtht now, I'd still advise giving it a go. If you hate it then by all means drop it and move into the second one but at least try it.

The first one was brilliant when I played it. Although that was pretty much a month or so after release, I haven't played any after but back then it seemed like the best comparison to a film like Back to the Future or similar to Spielberg's stuff without his input. Might of changed now with a couple of sequels and the best videogame with Portal 2.

I said it, is Portal 2 the best videogame ever?

No, that's Dark Souls.

Awesome third level hits all the key notes on U3: Climb building, explore building, solve puzzles, shoot out and demolish entire building in a blaze of glory. Gorgeous. This ain't going to win any awards but this sure is fun.

Nathan Drake, the only man who can do a forward roll up a flight of stairs.

Let me just clear something up.

The cruise ship/boat graveyard level: Absolutely. Muthafucking. Epic. Not Internet epic. Actual real life love of video games epic.

Worth the price of it alone. Outstanding.

It does make for some jaw dropping set pieces, I totally agree with that.

It has set pieces but the entire level is just astonishing.

The sea, the tide movement, the level of detail everywhere, the camera panning out to reveal the entire level, the ship turning etc. There's some freaky techno-mo-jo going on there.

pretty sure its won a few ps3 game of the year awards!
http://uk.ign.com/wikis/best-of-2011/PS3_Game_of_the_Year

theres one for starters!

I do enjoy Uncharted games for the spectacle I really do, however I can't help feeling as though I'm just playing one very long QTE after another interspersed with not all that good shootouts. I never feel the need to go back and complete them on a higher difficulty. I hired Uncharted 3 out and completed it in two afternoons, I think I'd be a bit gutted if I'd paid £40 for it.

I got it as a chrissy prezzie so I'm not factoring in the price to the enjoyment I'm having with it. I think if I'd slogged through it in two sittings i'd be fed up with it as well (hell, it'd have to be Dark Souls 2 to get me to spend any significant time with a game in long bursts) but I've been doing one level each night and that just seems perfect to me. The shooting doesn't get too repetitive that way although it is a bit dull generally. Well so was U2, and U1 was far far worse with it being a constant running battle throughout.

But seriously, "that" boat level? A big dollop of awesome sauce over your eye balls, right?

Also, don't you think that this type of big stupid blockbuster is missing from the 360? It seems the one true jewel in Sony's crown (I've given up hope of a proper PS3 Locoroco, the cunts).

Same here.
I fancied it as a Christmas game so waited as late as possible and got it for 25 quid.
I reckon it will be about 8 hours to do the single player campaign , then there's the "spec ops" and multiplayer to try out.

Not too bad VFM but not stunning, unlike some of the levels which do seem a big step up from pretty much any other console game of this time.

It wasn't a slog and I didn't get fed up with it. I just find the game part of the whole experience to be a bit lacking, there's a lot of shooting to be done and it just isn't all that great. Also the climbing isn't all that exciting when you really have to act like a total nugget to even fall off.

From the makers of THAT boat level comes THAT plane level.

Holy mother of god this game is jam packed with awesome.

Ok, so you might not want to do the whole game twice, but this has the sort of spectacle that you just GOT to play once.

Uncharted 3: done.

It puts the 'action' and 'adventure' in action adventure. No silly monsters for a change just drippings of awesome: Some of the best graphics of this generation and set pieces that put MW3 to shame. Levels on a scale with Dark Souls (one in particular just looks like Anor Londo with lashings of detail). A single player campaign that's just the right length. A character that is firmly set in the place, more so than that Russian guy from GTAIV.

...and average gunplay.

But you can't have everything! Hell, it's just bloody good fun all the way through. Eight of ten? Most definitely, but what a ride. The closest that gaming has got to the spirit of Indiana Jones, The Goonies and Big Trouble in Little China.



...but then again Uncharted 2 was an eight out of ten for me anyway.

Nearly done with this now. Nowhere near as good as 2. Repeats the same tricks over and over again. What's with the 'squeezing through tight crevices' gimmick?

It's still great in an Uncharted way, but the good bits are frequently interspersed with almost game-ruining combat. It's really fucking awful. I can't believe they haven't attempted to improve the enemy AI over the three games when it was by far the worst thing about the other two and pretty much every review pointed out the fact.

The enemy AI - if you startle one enemy - they all immediately know exactly where you are and fire at you continuously from all angles. Literally all angles. Behind and in front and to the sides. Then some enemies will flank you. Then there are the perfectly aimed grenades that land directly at your feet every 10 seconds or so for the duration of the fighting. And don't get me started on the heavily armoured cunts who take literally magazines of ammunition to bring down. Urgh. And they happen so frequently throughout the game. Battle after battle. Knee high wall filled area after knee high wall filled area.

I wish they'd dial the combat down to Tomb Raider 1 levels and up the puzzling/exploration. That's what we want. Not a game padded out with fucking dire samey combat. Gah!

But yeah, better than 1, worse than 2, very pretty, truly breathtaking in parts.

I, um, actually broke my hand due to the pure fucking frustration everything you've described engendered in me when I was playing it. So, yeah, I totally agree; especially about the armoured cunts.

Haha! I'd actually go so far as to call a chapter I just played (21) fucking awful. Really really bad. Still good overall but my word.

*sigh* Yeah, I know; it's even better when you hear the details.

There's a fight during a sandstorm relatively late in the game where, if you go the way the game initially appears to be herding you, you just get ambushed to fuck by a load of guys (including one of the afore-mentioned shotgun wielding armoured cunts) and reamed almost instantly with no real chance of finding cover. After about the fourth go at this bit in as many minutes I brought my right hand down violently on the couch cushion beside me in frustration. The thing is, I was half-holding the control pad in that hand at the time such that a couple of my fingers were essentially sticking straight down towards the couch cushion when I raised my hand...so those two fingers bore the brunt of my rage and one of the fingers spiral fractured up above the second knuckle. I pretty much knew something bad had happened when I heard the crunch and the pain was far too bad to be even a severe stave. Cue three weeks in plaster and soul-shredding embarrassment every time someone at work asked me what had happened.

Of course, as soon as I was out of plaster and facing my nemesis once again I realised that I'd been going the wrong way the entire time and that simply turning left 90 degrees initially in the sandstorm brought you a slightly different way through the level; one that had shitloads of cover and plenty of ways to fuck all the bad guys up as normal. I did the entire level first time and pretty much sailed through the rest of the game.

Brilliant! POTW!

Finished! I was actively hating it throughout the last chapter. Beautiful, wonderful adventure game absolutely ruined by the combat and enemy AI. I hope to fuck they don't pull the same shit with that new game they're working on.

According to Eurogamer, all the DLC for the Uncharted games is going to be free soon to celebrate the launch of the Uncharted games digitally.

Kind of them, but isn't it just multiplayer stuff? I'm tempted to flog this on now with an intact online code...

What was chapter 21?

I didn't want to spoilzorz anyone!



It really has run its course in its current form I think. If they ever make another one, it needs to change.

It's just the Uncharted 2 DLC apparently.

BTW: If anyone wants a copy of Uncharted 3, I'm now officially selling it. £20 if anyone is interested - haven't used the online pass.

Er, ignore everything I said about it being rubbish in parts.