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Uncharted 3

Started by biggytitbo, October 24, 2011, 05:58:17 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

mobias

Quote from: HappyTree on October 31, 2011, 09:11:54 PM
A PS3 would be quite cool, yes. As I said, I'm not ideologically against them but the controller is too spindly. But don't pity me on these long winter nights. The 360 is warm enough!

As long time PS2 then PS3 owner I always hated the Xbox controller, far too big and cumbersome. However after getting a 360 it took about a week of use for me to not give a toss about which controller I use. I learnt that both have their good points and bad but I'm now equally at home on both. Its easier than you think to adapt.     

Quote from: Subtle Mocking on October 31, 2011, 09:39:07 PM
And the ones that are backwards compatible are being sold for higher amounts.

Ah, didn't know that, guess it makes sense though.

Quote from: Subtle Mocking on October 31, 2011, 09:28:25 PM
Although the first-gen can be slightly more susceptible to yellow light of death, and they're generally louder

Yeah I've had yellow light of death once from my PS3 bought in the consoles launch week. Cost about 50 quid to fix. I think the older ones also use more power (consoles cost a surprising amount to actually just use) and they have very slow Blu-ray drives. I think the first ones were on only X2 readers.

HappyTree

I hear you man. However I've already tried. I spent 3 months living with a friend and playing his PS2. It was ok, I didn't fall weeping into bed every night due to the trauma of holding a games controller that felt uncomfortable and alien in my hands. If someone were to give me a PS3 I'd play it sometimes I guess. But no I didn't get used to the controller. There's just not enough of it to fit into the hand.

Anyway this isn't about controllers! This is about a game that makes me finally jealous of PS3 owners.

Famous Mortimer

Reading the comments about the odd bad reviews this game got reminds me what a horrible, horrible world games journalism is, whre fans of a franchise brag about the games company blacklisting review sites who dare to give their games a less-than-stellar review.

Also, a comment that made me laugh was for a game to get only 7 out of 10, it must have refused to work and blown up your console, or something. Big budget games do not get less than 7, basically ever.

jutl

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on November 01, 2011, 08:17:46 AMBig budget games do not get less than 7, basically ever.

I'm not sure that's true; Haze and Brink spring to mind as big budget third party titles that got a lot of bad press, and even expensively produced first party titles like Wii Music sometimes get shat on. 

chand

Quote from: Famous Mortimer on November 01, 2011, 08:17:46 AM
Reading the comments about the odd bad reviews this game got reminds me what a horrible, horrible world games journalism is, whre fans of a franchise brag about the games company blacklisting review sites who dare to give their games a less-than-stellar review.

Also, a comment that made me laugh was for a game to get only 7 out of 10, it must have refused to work and blown up your console, or something. Big budget games do not get less than 7, basically ever.

I find it quite entertaining, I like when they get angry about 9s they think should be 10s and accuse the writer of being a Microsoft/Sony shill, or post comments about how the review is not to be trusted because the mag previously gave a different game a 10 which they didn't agree with. Also the YOU GAVE THE PREVIOUS GAME A 9, THIS ONE IS CLEARLY A LITTLE BIT BETTER SO HOW CAN IT ALSO BE A 9, IT SHOULD LOGICALLY BE A 10 YOU MORONS shit. They operate in this world where an 8 is considered a slap in the face to a franchise.

Little Hoover

Games journalists pretty much do just give rating out of 5 now, with 5/10 being 0. It's so rare that you'll ever see anything get a rating lower than 5/10 or 50%. A game would have to literally be completely broken for it to get a 1/10. To be fair this is partly a quality control thing, and none of the major companies would allow something to go out if it wasn't at least relatively functional.

HappyTree

IGN loved Deadly Premonition so much they bought...erm, no they gave it 2/10!

biggytitbo

Couple of levels through this. So far the controls are feeling a bit frustrating, especially on the rooftop level. ANd all men in London look like Jason Stratham for some reason.


Londons skyline looks bladdy lavverly though.

biggytitbo

Haha, if you can play the chateaux level without an enormous grin on your face you're a better man than me. Absurdly over the top, great.

mobias

May get this tomorrow, may not. Over on a few other gaming forums the people who have either completed it already or near completed it seem to be in agreement that its amazing but probably not as satisfying an experience as Uncharted 2. It sounds like its again made up of some very clever show piece levels though wrapped around a less good story.

What do you think Biggy? A must buy or not?

biggytitbo

I think I'm about a third of the way through it so far. One notable thing is its massively balanced in favour of exploration and puzzle solving so far. Hardly any of the protracted firefights which annoyed in 2. Control wise I'm finding it a bit glitchier than the previous ones, story wise it's definetly the best of the 3 so far.


As I said, the chateaux level gleefully piles on epic cinematic contrivance to the point were you're laughing out loud at its brilliance. I thought my PS3 was going to blow up at one point.


Graphically it's mostly consistent at the level of the best parts of 2, which is to say jaw dropping. Lighting in particular is better thn I've ever seen which goes a long way to giving it its cinematic feel.


Overall, it's slightly lacking though. Can't quite put my finger on it but it seems like there's something technically not quite right, almost like its pushing the ps3 too far, definete frame rate issues at times which seem to affect the controls  more than anything. It just doesn't feel as smooth and responsive as the first two games for some reason despite it actually looking better.




mobias

Your review seems to be fairly consistent to what I'm reading elsewhere. I may yet buy it. It was the tedious firefights which really annoyed me in U2, which I thought was at its best when you were problem solving like in the huge Buddhist ice temple you had to explore your way round.
Pretty much everyone is saying they've totally duffed up the gun aiming in U3 and the firefights feel generally really clunky. 

biggytitbo

It really gets going mid game. The Casino Roayle style chase level is great and the ship levels, complete with raging waves and fire are amazing. Almost too ambitious though, I'm definetly getting slow down at times, which never happened in the first 2 games.

biggytitbo

It's definetly won me over now. There's a straight run of consistently great levels from the rooftop chas sequence, the variety is amazing and it's all well balanced between exploration, puzzling and shooting. Some new half life 2 esque mechanics for defeating baddies in there too, which is welcome. I didn't think it'd be able to top the ocean liner sequence graphically but the desert levels certainly do, absolutely gorgeous.

mobias

Ok consider me sold. I'll get this tomorrow.

biggytitbo

It gets a bit trippy towards the end...

chand

Played for quite a while yesterday, though haven't even shot anyone yet. Gonna have a proper crack at it tomorrow afternoon. It's gorgeous though, and
Spoiler alert
running across rooftops as young Nate
[close]
was fun.

jutl

Quote from: chand on November 03, 2011, 10:33:18 PMIt's gorgeous though, and
Spoiler alert
running across rooftops as young Nate
[close]
was fun.

Spoiler alert
I played through another section using that mechanic last night, and was getting annoyed with how much like a long and tedious series of QTEs it is (particularly given that it was to essentially no purpose plot-wise).
[close]

mobias

I just bought this from Game. Why does buying anything from Game seem like a total ordeal of questions and sales pitches? They seem to be way worse than any other shop chain in this respect.
Wankers!

Anyway off we go...

presta didwicks

*bump* Buying this very soon and wanted an update.
Loved UC2.

mobias

I'm about three quarters of the way through it and its amazing, to put it mildly. I'm not actually a huge fan of really linear based games like this but I have to admit that the whole thing is just such a stunningly crafted experience. Its better than U2 by quite a margin I think. There's much more emphasis on problem solving than endless gunfights, the latter of which U2 suffered badly from. Also it really spreads its charms evenly. U2 took ages to get going and then got somewhat tiring by the end. U3 is a much more evenly paced experience, its epic right from the start but also has moments of real gaming subtlety throughout. If you thought the level design was spectacular in U2 then U3 takes things up another notch. Some of the thought that's gone into those puzzles is just incredible.

mobias

Finished this just tonight. Its a better ending than U2 but only marginally, Naughty Dog can't do endings very well I think. Having had some great moments of subtlety and invention earlier on in the game they yet again boil things down to lowest common denominator in gaming - shoot lots of goons with guns! I seem to feel strangely unsatisfied after so much promise in the first half. 

jutl

The near irrelevance of the
Spoiler alert
supposed demon in the kettle in the bath
[close]
seemed odd and anti-climactic. I think that this is the first Uncharted game where the whole plot construably lacks
Spoiler alert
any supernatural elements
[close]
.

mobias

Just out of interest what do people here generally do with games like Uncharted once they've finished them? I know some people play through them again at a harder level to to try and take in things they missed but for me that would be like watching a really long movie all over again pretty much immediately after sitting through it all the first time round. You know the frustrating bits are going to be even more frustrating second time and you now know exactly how to solve all the puzzles. 

So the question is do I trade it in for Skyrim or do I wait a year or so until I've forgotten it all enough to make me want to replay it again? 

wheatgod

Play through on hard first time round, then flog on eBay. Winners!

momatt

Quote from: mobias on November 20, 2011, 09:18:05 PM
Just out of interest what do people here generally do with games like Uncharted once they've finished them?

I enjoyed Uncharted 2 so much I played it through 3 times on the various difficulties, collected and killed everything, then got the Platinum trophy.  Something I am rarely enthused enough to bother with.

As you say, it's like rewatching a very long movie, but one that you really really enjoy.
Don't forget all the fun of the multiplayer too.

Gonna crack open Uncharted 3 this week I think.  :D

mobias

Quote from: momatt on November 21, 2011, 12:46:11 PM

Don't forget all the fun of the multiplayer too.


Dabbled in that last night. Not that impressed. Its just 'bang bang you're dead, respawn, repeat infinitely. If there's a decent co-op mode I may have another go. I do like online gaming but not when its tagged on to a game which at its heart is an offline single player experience. It just seems like its done for the sake of it.

momatt

There are some great co-op levels.  I'm not usually fussed about online gaming, but love the Uncharted one.

chand

I tried a bit of UC2 co-op and liked the basics of it, but I found it often got really unbalanced; somehow I ended up on my own against four or five other players often.

Nik Drou

Finished the story mode today. Largely enjoyable, but lordy does it fall apart plot-wise, particularly in its final stages.

Spoiler alert
Firstly, the game does an admirable job of doing something a bit more sophisticated with its story in comparison to its predecessors. There's an attempt to resolve a few outstanding plot points, such as Drake's ring (steady) and his relationship with Sullivan (which, incidentally, should provide much kindling to slash-fictioneers). As well as that, there's some slight meta-analysis going on, where other characters start to question Drake's flimsy motives. The moment where it finally crumbles, revealing itself as a hollow mess, is where Sullivan is reintroduced in a wholly flippant manner, revealing that his death and all subsequent japes were a moot hallucination. This effectively vindicates the character and ruins any of the ambiguity that the game had developed.

Shortly afterwards, the entire city begins to crumble, because Drake fired a flare gun. He's spent the past hour or so ducking, dodging and supplying explosions and firepower, but nope. It's the end of the game, so everything has to collapse like the last time. An earlier bit has an entire cruise liner sink because of a single grenade. It might be a bit of a petty issue, but if they want to play with the big boys and get some of the credibility they now appear to be gagging for, they need to cut out that sort of malarky. The main villains disappear in the second half of the game and remain underdeveloped. Who was that Helen Mirren lady anyway, and how did she know Sullivan? What happened with the other characters? Last thing we saw, Charlie had been mind-raped by one of the villains. Is he alright now? Was it just so that we fight for a bit in that bit? Jolly good.

Gameplay-wise, besides an improved melee combat system and a nifty mechanic for throwing enemy grenades, there isn't much different. The first act of the game is pretty glitchy, but it's presumably nothing a good sofware update couldn't cure. The first rooftop chase sequence, for example, is infuriating. The camera can't keep up and there's frequently no clear indicator of where you're supposed to go. There is a sense that the game is pushing the hardware to its limits, particularly in the moments where the camera pans out to reveal a big thing whilst still being able to control the character (always fun). I did enjoy the desert sequence, even if it did culminate in just another gun battle (which the character should be in no fit state to embark in).
[close]

I'll try out the co-op and give the main story another go through at some point, but it's still rather a disappointment considering how much I liked Uncharted 2.