Uncharted NGP Screens & Impressions

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Uncharted Golden Abyss is the best reason, but certainly not the only one, to buy Sony's still-codenamed Next Generation Portable.

It is a game that delivers what you'd expect from a console, it cuts no corners, offers no excuses. This is gaming on the go without the need to make do. This is the reason you'd want to carry around something that is made for gaming, rather than something that is merely able to play games.

My first moments with Sony's NGP at a press event last month wasn't spent playing Uncharted Golden Abyss, but it was Golden Abyss that made me a true believer in the importance of dual-thumbstick portable gaming.

Back when Uncharted was shown to Brian Ashcraft in Japan, following the unveiling of the NGP, the already impressive game was just a tech demo, Sony Worldwide Studios VP Scott Rohde told a gathering of press last week. Much has been added and changed since that early look.

Golden Abyss is a brand new Uncharted game, he said, that takes place before Drake's Fortune. It is not a prequel, he said, it is a stand alone story, one that takes more than two hours to tell.

The game was created using the same motion capture techniques used on Uncharted 2 and Uncharted 3, Rohde said. The NGP even allows for real-time lighting and advanced shaders. While the graphics are impressive, stunning even, developers Bend Studio were sure to put in as much work on the story and gameplay as they did the graphics.

That's because the NGP has some interesting ways to play games. It has those two glorious thumbsticks, a touch screen on the front and a touchpad on the back and can detect motion.

We watch as Drake approaches a guard standing by a cliff in a lush jungle near the remains of the Temple of Serpents. An icon bar pops up on the screen close to the thumbsticks showing buttons and swipe symbols. Touching one knocks the guard from his roost. It also allows Drake to quickly change weapons and pick items up.

Later we see Drake climbing across a cliff face, when he gets to a crevice. Tilting the NGP causes Drake to lean and reach out toward the opposing cliff. Tapping that cliff causes Drake to jump. When Drake arrives at a set of wooden posts jutting from the side of the cliff, sliding your finger across the posts causes Drake to monkey-bar his way along cliff.

The good news? You don't have to use the touchscreen to play, it's an option. The better news? You'll still probably want to because it works.

As Rohde explains this we watch Drake climb under a guard, a tap of the screen has him pull the enemy from the cliff. A few minutes later Drake sneaks up behind another guard, tapping the guard causes Drake to kill him silently.

Later I get a chance to play the game. The NGP feels slightly big in my hands, thicker then I expected. But I seen forget that as I stare into the crisp 5-inch OLED screen. Rohde told us that the game has four times the resolution of the Playstation Portable, that the game displays 260,000 polygons per a frame. None of that registers though as I sink into the familiar experience of guiding Drake through another jungle, on an adventure for some unknown prize.

In the distance I see man walking across the remains of a temple. I crouch Drake behind a low wall and then use the thumbsticks to position him and pop off some headshots. The controls are solid, not just reminiscent of a Playstation 3 controller, but seemingly matching one.

Moving and firing, too, is effortless. I shift between cover, run to new hiding spots, all while firing off shots at enemies who are now returning fire. None of it is a struggle. None of it frustrates my aim, or intent. And then there are the improvements. Using the touchscreen to toss the grenade is a joy. I just switch to a grenade, and then touch and drag to the exact spot I want Drake to toss the explosive.

Sniping is a bit of a challenge, requiring players to use the motion sensing of the NGP when zoomed in to aim, but the balance between effort and reward seems just right.

Uncharted Golden Abyss certainly isn't the sort of first-person shooter experience that will completely stress test the abilities of the NGP's dual thumbsticks, that will have to wait for a Battlefield or Call of Duty, but it requires enough shooting and moving to prove what gamers have been saying for years: Shooters just don't work with a single thumbstick.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

There's video footage on the PS Blog - http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/06/02/ngp-previews-let?s-talk-games-starting-with-uncharted/

[DukeEsquire]

I hope the touchscreen is optional. Personally, I don't have three hands, so if I'm using two hands on the controller, its a pain to lift one hand off the controller to tap the screen and then move back.

[citan]

wow.. that looks pretty darn good ;)

[shakey]

That video really does some good light shining... But I hope the touch screen game play is optional as well.

[TheLegendOfMart]

Day one purchase assuming they can get an SKU that is ?249 or less.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

I'm sure the video on the blog clearly says front/back touchscreens are optional.

[_neutrino Veteran]

it looks good however, i am sure once again it will have a rather steep early purchase price tag.

[TheLegendOfMart]

it looks good however, i am sure once again it will have a rather steep early purchase price tag.

They dropped the system ram from 512 to 256mb and cut the internal storage to try and bring an SKU to near Nintendo 3DS price, it will be expensive but not as expensive as you are expecting.

[Corris Veteran]

That looks really nice, I wasn't too interested in the PSP when it came out as there were no full games till a good part into its lifecycle that I wanted to get, but if they can get this and the other rumoured release games out, it would be hard to say no.

I hope the touchscreen is optional. Personally, I don't have three hands, so if I'm using two hands on the controller, its a pain to lift one hand off the controller to tap the screen and then move back.

From what they have said, mostly everything looks like it is optional, besides maybe the grenade throwing, but I could be wrong, lol.

They dropped the system ram from 512 to 256mb and cut the internal storage to try and bring an SKU to near Nintendo 3DS price, it will be expensive but not as expensive as you are expecting.

I didn't think that had been confirmed at this point had it?

It doesn't look like it has taken a hit though from when they first showed it off.

[Noveed]

I hope it looks as good as that once it ships, there are stories floating about that the specs of the NGP are going to be gimped to save on costs :(

[Elessar]

They dropped the system ram from 512 to 256mb and cut the internal storage to try and bring an SKU to near Nintendo 3DS price, it will be expensive but not as expensive as you are expecting.

Um, those were rumors, nothing at all was confirmed about those rumors either.

Ugh, people these days...

EDIT: common sense should tell us all that changing the specs that drastically this late in the game (launch is roughly 6 months away) would cripple just about every launch title and those in the pipeline to come out shortly after the launch. Now, if they delay the launch until sometime mid-2012...then they could potentially get away with the spec reduction, but still, you have Uncharted that looks amazing...imagine cutting the RAM in half!

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Guys the video I've linked to on the blog shows quite a bit of footage of the devs/journalists playing, what they're playing is what we will be whatever the specs. Talk about the specs was a rumour, and even if true, it's most likely something that will have changed quite a while back, so what you see just now in previews is what we get game wise.

[KoL Veteran]

Well I guess I'm going to get an NGP now.

[Corris Veteran]

Well I guess I'm going to get an NGP now.

Let it never be forgotten.

:p

[KoL Veteran]

Let it never be forgotten.

:p

Ha! Not going to happen. :laugh: :laugh: