Earlier this week, Naughty Dog, developers of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, brought a select few reporters out to their Santa Monica studios for a look at the game in its current state. We would have loved to have gotten some hands-on time with the game (as well as hang out with – and maybe get some “hands-on” with guest, Olivia Munn), but sadly, Gamervision was not on the short list.  Luckily, Sony was nice enough to give some details about what transpired, as well as a few choice screenshots. 

The journalists were set loose on a gameplay demo that introduced both a new character, Chloe, and a new locale for the series, Nepal.  They also received some info about some of the game's new features, including some that were previously unannounced.

From the PlayStation Blog:

The very full day for our guests started off with getting them up to speed on UNCHARTED 2, covering background info on story, gameplay and technology such as:

    * The historical mystery surrounding Marco Polo and his lost fleet, which serves as the foundation for our story.
    * What’s happened to Drake, since it’s pretty obvious he’s a bit scruffier, down on his luck and he’s definitely running with way shadier people than before.
    * Introducing everyone to Chloe Frazer, a sexy and impulsive Australian who is just this side of unpredictable and dangerous, not to mention Drake’s new partner and romantic interest – can you blame him?
    * Adding in what we’re calling “action-stealth” to give you the choice to go in guns blazing or take out a few adversaries unnoticed before engaging the rest of them.
    * Blending together our climbing and shooting into what we call “traversal gunplay” so you can now be in gun combat in the middle of climbing, swinging on a rope, hanging from a ledge or sign…you can shoot pretty much from anywhere, anytime you want.
    * All the cool things the Naughty Dog Engine 2.0 can do now, like pushing way more polygons than before, an overhaul of lighting and shadowing, complex enemy A.I., snow shaders and subsurface scattering, fur shading, new physics engine, audio obstruction occlusion…the list goes on and on and on.

And that’s just scratching the surface of it all.

Even without attending the event, these details have me more excited than ever before for the sequel to one of the PS3’s best games.  “Traversal Gunplay” sounds fantastic, and with all those shaders, subsurface scattering and audio obstruction occlusion (whatever the hell that means), the game seems to have plenty of potential in the audio and visual departments. 

With Sony’s presence at the New York Comic Con, it’s entirely possible that we’ll get more details over the weekend, and you can be sure that Gamervision will have the latest Uncharted 2 news.  Even if we weren’t invited.

No, I’m not jealous, just….well, jealous.

Check out the screenshots (click to enlarge)

[Source]

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