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[xXJonoXx]

Any unboxing videos of the CE? I've seen the Nolan North one, was just wondering if they improved the likeness on the statue at all.

 

[daxter01]

they really really should patch aiming problem it drives me mad on crushing difficulty
edit: it seems there bullets have no stopping power in single player too just like MP

 

[brandonh83]

Man I'm conflicted, I have no idea when the Subway winners will get the game, I keep seeing online everywhere that they just say 8-10 weeks to cover themselves and that the winners should get their copies this week-- in which I could wait, sure.

But... I have no idea when to actually expect it and this is my most anticipated game this year behind Zelda. If I knew it were coming at least sometime this week I'd just wait. I mean it could literally arrive today, or sometime in December.

This is fucking maddening. Especially considering that every single recent Subway PS3 promotion has had people getting those games early. But with those they actually advertised the fact that winners would get them early. With this it's just "allow 8-10 weeks." Yeah thanks for the specificity.

 

[Ricky_R]

that's just youtube's horrendous compression.

Seriously? Well that's new to me.

Anyway, I think the game looks great as it is. Will have to judge tomorrow or whenever I get to play the game.

 

[BruiserBear]

Any unboxing videos of the CE? I've seen the Nolan North one, was just wondering if they improved the likeness on the statue at all.

From comments many pages back, no, it's the same statue you saw in that video.

 

[Lord Error]

Also, didn't DF praise the new SSAO implementation saying that it looks much better than what was in UC2? Now there's someone saying that it looks more artifacted or something.

I actually remember someone posted a picture a few pages back and someone saying SSAO looks low quality on it. I dunno if he was joking, because It looked really great to me.

Anyways, I see that Sam Bishop commented that SSAO looks great actually as a reply to that screenshot coment, and he actually played the game.

 

[ProfessorMoran]

I think its LOL worthy how some users complain that this game is a step down from Uncharted 2. Uncharted 3 is a graphical beast. That same design philosophy of absolutely amazing textures, beautiful lighting, and pathos beyond comprehension is still there.

....but it isn't without its sacrifices.

Motion blur is gone? Yes.
Aliasing is more obvious? Yes.

However, what you get with the trade off is a FAR more detailed experience. Uncharted 2 was a boxed game with most levels being small, closed, confined areas, however, Uncharted 3 approaches a more open world game design approach where you'll see some HUGE levels with massive undertakings.

It is without a doubt a techincal sight to behold, however, there will be sacrifices.

Don't care about motion blur too much, and people have been bitching for "oh mlaa, next game should have mlaa" since GOW3 came out, I liked 2xMSAA, it worked well, people bitched about it, they changed it, now gaf doesn't like it.

The lighting model has improved significantly though.

The hit detection model definitely needs getting used to, all the weapons just feel so different than Uncharted 2, the pistols really need to have a smaller reticle and less recoil, and more reliable hit detection, right now fighting distance in MP is really tiered, anything outside of the GMAL and the sniper rifle, for anything further than 10 feet away you're simply out of luck.

 

[BruiserBear]

Man I'm conflicted, I have no idea when the Subway winners will get the game, I keep seeing online everywhere that they just say 8-10 weeks to cover themselves and that the winners should get their copies this week-- in which I could wait, sure.

But... I have no idea when to actually expect it and this is my most anticipated game this year behind Zelda. If I knew it were coming at least sometime this week I'd just wait. I mean it could literally arrive today, or sometime in December.

This is fucking maddening. Especially considering that every single recent Subway PS3 promotion has had people getting those games early. But with those they actually advertised the fact that winners would get them early. With this it's just "allow 8-10 weeks." Yeah thanks for the specificity.

I'm in the same boat. Won a copy on their site.

But, I'm still taking delivery of my Amazon copy tomorrow. I'm playing this game tomorrow. Waiting IS NOT an option for me.

I figured I'll sell my free copy to a friend or Ebay whenever it finally arrives. Unless it somehow shows up today. Heh, I'm not going to kid myself into believing that will happen though.

 

[brandonh83]

I figured I'll sell my free copy to a friend or Ebay whenever it finally arrives. Unless it somehow shows up today. Heh, I'm not going to kid myself into believing that will happen.

If I knew that it wouldn't be anytime soon I would just go to Gamestop today and set up the preorder again, but if it were coming this week... or even next week I guess I could just wait. Buuuut I don't know that.

 

[lowrider007]

So why are you guys complaining about a lack of blur? Motion blur just kills fps and generally looks like ass, it makes sense why they took it out in order to get a better frame rate.

Motion blur also looks like ass when I move my head quickly in real life, but it's an obscurity that I like as it imitates real life and makes games a lot more immersive for me.

Effects like motion object blur, ambient occlusion etc are subtle but very important imo as they really help give extra depth to a games environment even though it may not be that apparent.

Saying that I'm sure the game will still look stunning, I just hope next gen that object blurring and SSAO is incorporated into every 3d polygonal game, also I hope to see SSGI (screen space global illumination) take off.

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

Anyone get all the treasures yet? I have 99 treasures and I only need 1 left, spent a couple hours trying to find it. Somewhere in Ch 12

You Platinum'ed and you don't even have all the treasures?

 

[Lord Error]

Motion blur also looks like ass when in I move my head quickly in real life, but it's an obscurity that I like as it imitates real life and makes games a lot more immersive for me.

Effects like motion object blur, ambient occlusion etc are subtle but very important imo as they really help give extra depth to a games environment even though it may not be that apparent.

Saying that I'm sure the game will still look stunning, I just hope next gen that object blurring and SSAO is incorporated into every 3d polygonal game, also I hope to see SSGI (screen space global illumination) take off.

Pretty sure UC3 has ssgi. MB was realy subtle in UC2. You coul literally only see it on faster moving objects, or when you swing camera around very quickly. IMO they nailed it there better than any game before or after, because it was unobtrusive but great looking. I suppose it was too unobtrusive in the end so they just removed it :\

 

[-GOUKI-]

Meanwhile in real life, scientist might just found the body of Francis Drake off the coast of Panama.


HOLY SHIT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ataLz_lohnw&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

 

[marc^o^]

Got my copy this afternoon and I'm one hour in. As good as ever

 

[JumpingTheGun]

Feels good to be back after a month long banning =D

I found it strange that no GS's in my area were doing a midnight release for this. Looks like Ill be taking off of work tomorrow for some Uncharted time and devotion.

 

[Ricky_R]

Meanwhile in real life, scientist might just found the body of Francis Drake off the coast of Panama.


HOLY SHIT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ataLz_lohnw&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Would be pretty interesting if they find Eddie Raja.

 

[backflip10019]

Meanwhile in real life, scientist might just found the body of Francis Drake off the coast of Panama.


HOLY SHIT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ataLz_lohnw&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Viral marketing.

 

[Grisby]

Meanwhile in real life, scientist might just found the body of Francis Drake off the coast of Panama.


HOLY SHIT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ataLz_lohnw&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Maybe they can bring him back and ask where the motion blur went.

.........

Nah, I'm kidding. I'm probably going to spend way too much time on wikipedia reading about the guy now.

 

[SuicidalSteve]

Just received Preorder codes of 'Callout Mod for AK-47' and 'Clip Size Mod For Para-9' I cant believe that its actually coming out this week! :O

 

[VariantX04]

I've had the game for the past week completely forgetting I had it preordered at amazon. Now I have an extra copy. :/

Going for the platinum. Any easy places to get the Reload Master and Sidearm trophies?

 

[RealMeat]

Just got a email from Gamefly saying this shipped! I suppose I won't even be able to try the multiplayer without a pass? It's too bad, I might have bought the game if I liked it.

 

[Lord Error]

Don't care about motion blur too much, and people have been bitching for "oh mlaa, next game should have mlaa" since GOW3 came out, I liked 2xMSAA, it worked well, people bitched about it, they changed it, now gaf doesn't like it.

If it's like in summer beta, I wouldn't say AA is any worse actually than in first two games. I think people tend to forget that AA coverage was quite uneven in them as well, maybe even less coverage tbh.

 

[-GOUKI-]

Viral marketing.

itn is a legit news source though

 

[Ricky_R]

Just got a email from Gamefly saying this shipped! I suppose I won't even be able to try the multiplayer without a pass? It's too bad, I might have bought the game if I liked it.

Didn't you get into any of the betas? I didn't even try getting into them with much effort and I played both betas.

Not trying to justify the online pass, but there were ways to try the online.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

Uncharted 3 |OT| Platinumed Before Release

 

[Schlomo]

The lighting model has improved significantly though.

Now that you mention it, the lighting in some levels is also among the few things I didn't like about U3's graphics. Especially in an area with stark light/shadow contrast early in the game, every time the camera changes from a bright scene to a dark one and vice versa, the dynamic contrast or whatever it's called takes forever to adjust. In the first second everything is completely over-/underexposed. Now I like this effect if you e.g. emerge from a tunnel or building, but seeing it everytime you turn the camera is kind of annoying.

Also, in some very bright scenes, part of the characters are pure white with a completely overdone red bloom effect - looks like shit IMO.

Keep in mind that I'm not critisising the graphics as a whole, I'm just nitpicking some details that occur in one or two places in the game.

 

[Thrakier]

Yeah no they haven't really expanded on stealth at all, sadly.

The image quality is worse than previous games because it's so uneven. Sometimes it looks clean, sometimes it looks very jaggy. I'd personally would take back the 2XMSAA of UC1 and UC2.

I think the subway beta looked very clean (and was better than the june beta quite a lot).

 

[BruiserBear]

Just got a email from Gamefly saying this shipped! I suppose I won't even be able to try the multiplayer without a pass? It's too bad, I might have bought the game if I liked it.

I'm sure Sony regrets their decision to include an online pass, because you might have bought their game.

 

[JumpingTheGun]

Plat'ing this doesnt seem like too much of a feat, except for a couple of the combat trophs. Are Easy & Normal the only difficulties available at the outset and do the combat trophies stack through your multiple playthroughs like in the previous games?

 

[Rengoku]

Some Behind the Scenes footage from the Drake's Journal book:

 

[CyReN]

Copy has just shipped by Gamefly, can't wait.

 

[jett]

Also, didn't DF praise the new SSAO implementation saying that it looks much better than what was in UC2? Now there's someone saying that it looks more artifacted or something.

I actually remember someone posted a picture a few pages back and someone saying SSAO looks low quality on it. I dunno if he was joking, because It looked really great to me.

Anyways, I see that Sam Bishop commented that SSAO looks great actually as a reply to that screenshot coment, and he actually played the game.

He probably confused shadows with SSAO. The self-shadowing is pretty low-res in the game, unlike UC1 and UC2 the lighting and shadowing seems to be almost entirely real-time. You can see higher shadow quality fading in when you approach them, like in the AssCreed games. Bit weird to see that kind of thing in an Uncharted game. You can even see vegetation fade-in...that was even weirder to see.

Plat'ing this doesnt seem like too much of a feat, except for a couple of the combat trophs. Are Easy & Normal the only difficulties available at the outset and do the combat trophies stack through your multiple playthroughs like in the previous games?

You can choose between hard, normal and easy. And yeah it stacks.

 

[Lord Error]

Shadow and vegetation fade in was definitely in UC2 as well. Actually shadow fade in was very noticeable (too noticeable IMO) in the Borneo chapter. Vegetation fade in in UC1 was there for sure as well and quite visible in places if you look for it. It's just good that they fade it in, and not just pop it in.

 

[metareferential]

Anyone else had problems redeeming the online pass code?

I've finished the - awesome - campaign and I'm trying to join a friend to play some coop, but both codes are "invalid or expired".

 

[Ricky_R]

Anyone else had problems redeeming the online pass code?

I've finished the - awesome - campaign and I'm trying to join a friend to play some coop, but both codes are "invalid or expired".

I'm sure it has to do with the fact that the game hasn't been officially released. You shouldn't have any issues tomorrow. I hope.

 

[jett]

Shadow and vegetation fade in was definitely in UC2 as well. Actually shadow fade in was very noticeable (too noticeable IMO) in the Borneo chapter. Vegetation fade in in UC1 was there for sure as well and quite visible in places if you look for it. It's just good that they fade it in, and not just pop it in.

Oh I guess I had rose-tinted glasses on.

I loaded up Uncharted 2 just to check stuff out and you're right, shadows fade in there too. It still looks fantastic btw, UC3 takes nothing away from that game.

 

[metareferential]

I'm sure it has to do with the fact that the game hasn't been officially released. You shouldn't have any issues tomorrow. I hope.

Hmm, could be.

That's just dumb though. If that's the case, then nobody should be playing online.

 

[RealMeat]

I'm sure Sony regrets their decision to include an online pass, because you might have bought their game.

It'd be nice if they'd at least let you try it out for a few hours without a pass. Mortal Kombat worked that way.

 

[Schlomo]

He probably confused shadows with SSAO.

In case you're referring to me, I did mean SSAO. But I should mention that I generally think the effect looks bad in motion in most games (even in something like Witcher 2). It's only really nice for screenshots. The only good SSAO is the one you don't notice when playing, and the one in U3 is really conspicuous.

 

[Ricky_R]

Hmm, could be.

That's just dumb though. If that's the case, then nobody should be playing online.

Yeah, that makes no sense. It is what it is.

 

[Massa]

He probably confused shadows with SSAO. The self-shadowing is pretty low-res in the game, unlike UC1 and UC2 the lighting and shadowing seems to be almost entirely real-time. You can see higher shadow quality fading in when you approach them, like in the AssCreed games. Bit weird to see that kind of thing in an Uncharted game. You can even see vegetation fade-in...that was even weirder to see.



You can choose between hard, normal and easy. And yeah it stacks.

Wat?!? No "Very Easy" this time? Damn ND, pre-order cancelled.

 

[Lord Error]

Oh I guess I had rose-tinted glasses on.

I loaded up Uncharted 2 just to check stuff out and you're right, shadows fade in there too. It still looks fantastic btw, UC3 takes nothing away from that game.

Yeah, they do fade, but ND honestly probably has the best pop-in fading algorithm I've ever seen. They had it since first J&D, and it's for some reason not very intrusive looking. If I relax and don't pay attention to nipicky details, it just comes in naturally and doesn't bother me at all.

Other than the nitpicks, I'm guessing you have still found UC3 visually impressive compared to other stuff that's currently on the market?

In case you're referring to me, I did mean SSAO. But I should mention that I generally think the effect looks bad in motion in most games (even in something like Witcher 2).

UC2 had SSAO in quite some amounts as well, but it was a simpler, cross arrangement kind. But again this didn't bother me unless I stared directly at it.

 

[BruiserBear]

It'd be nice if they'd at least let you try it out for a few hours without a pass. Mortal Kombat worked that way.

I believe their position is that if you rented their game in the first place, you're likely not the type to buy games period. Even if you enjoyed the multiplayer a fair amount, you could just keep the rental a week or two, and then move on.

We're talking about one of the more well crafted franchises this gen, and you're renting it. I just don't think it's likely you'd end up buying this game regardless of whether or not you got to sample the multiplayer.

 

[Twix]

Whoever thinks UC3 is vastly improved over UC2 is deluded.

Yes UC3 has plenty of breathtaking scenery and character models are still top notch, but from a technical standpoint I believe it's inferior to UC2 (the absence of motion blur, worse IQ, very jagged shadows, lighting does not look as good as UC2's, downgraded water shader and now frame rate drops on extremely rare occasions like in 1 or 2 places can be noticed, contrary to UC2 which had none).

You have to credit ND for leading most people to think that it looks better than its predecessor, nevertheless it still manages to be the best looking console game, right after UC2 and GOW3.

3D implementation is most likely the culprit. I don't know how but it happened before with Killzone 3.

 

[metareferential]

Yeah, that makes no sense. It is what it is.

Well, it's just a day, I can live with it.

A clear statement though would have been appreciated: "online play will be available starting november 1st", thank you".

 

[alr1ght]

I believe their position is that if you rented their game in the first place, you're likely not the type to buy games period. Even if you enjoyed the multiplayer a fair amount, you could just keep the rental a week or two, and then move on.

We're talking about one of the more well crafted franchises this gen, and you're renting it. I just don't think it's likely you'd end up buying this game regardless of whether or not you got to sample the multiplayer.

What a horrible position that is (probably just PR bullshit). U3 is not known for MP and they should get all they can to try it out.

 

[jett]

Yeah, they do fade, but ND honestly probably has the best pop-in fading algorithm I've ever seen. They had it since first J&D, and it's for some reason not very intrusive looking. If I relax and don't pay attention to nipicky details, it just comes in naturally and doesn't bother me at all.

Other than the nitpicks, I'm guessing you have still find UC3 visually impressive compared to other stuff that's currently on the market?

Oh for sure, all of the big set pieces are absolutely insane looking. There are moments where it's really impressive and rivals GOW3, which I still hold as the console graphics king.

In case you're referring to me, I did mean SSAO. But I should mention that I generally think the effect looks bad in motion in most games (even in something like Witcher 2). It's only really nice for screenshots. The only good SSAO is the one you don't notice when playing, and the one in U3 is really conspicuous.

Huh I dunno, for me it's the opposite. I notice SSAO more in motion than in pictures, and I definitely would rather have it turned on than off. I thought it looked great in UC3. You want to talk about SSAO that's in your face go play the PS3 version of LA Noire.

 

[AiTM]

Any word on single player game length?

 

[Phoenician_Viking]

I Platinum'd Uncharted 2 before most of you guys got it too, hehe

Damn you. Tomorrow i should receive the game.

 

[Massa]

Any word on single player game length?

Same as U2 seems to be the consensus.