Uncharted interview divulges game size, SPU usage
Evan Wells sat down with PALGN for an interview about Uncharted recently, talking the game up with words of praise and the promise of treats. Well, he talked about the game, anyway. It's a long interview, so we'll skip the story stuff in case you don't want to know. Wells believes our first playthrough will last from 10-12 hours, but with four levels of difficulty, the hardcore bunch will probably enjoy trying out the hardest mode of all. There are 60 little treasures hidden throughout the game as well, so finding them will probably take more than one run through the game unless you're very, very meticulous.
Also, "we've also put into the game a medal system, so as you're playing the game if you perform special feats you'll get medals, such as getting a certain number of headshots, getting a certain number of headshots in a row, killing people, doing a special brawl combo, just lots of things along the way that will unlock the medals. The medals then contribute to your overall medal score and your medal scores then feed into our bonus system which allows all of the unlockables to be unlocked." Sounds like there's plenty to do in the game other than just blaze through it! The medal system is also planned to turn into a trophy system once Home hits. Rumble is built right into the game, so for those of you who'll be importing Dual Shock 3's, you've got a surefire rumbling game on your hands.
The meat of the interview is why Uncharted could only be on the PS3. Wells explains a number of reasons. First, standard hard drive creates the seamless, load free world. Blu-ray helped squeeze the 24GB game on a single disc -- he says it wouldn't have been impossible on DVD, but the game would have been very, very different. Future games, Wells declares, will probably demand a dual-layered Blu-ray disc. The Cell processor served as a very handy tool for compiling all of Nathan's 3,500 animations as well, so you'll see the right reaction, or a random/new reaction, every time something happens. Wells admitted that "As far as the Cell processor and the SPU's are concerned we were only using about 1/3 to 1/2 of the SPU's at one time and so there is still quite a bit more we can do." We can't wait to see what the future holds, but for now, we can't wait to play Uncharted!
