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Uncharted: Fight for Fortune card game announced for Vita, hits PSN Dec. 4
Sony Bend officially announced Uncharted: Fight for Fortune today, a turn-based card game coming to Vita via PSN on December 4, priced at $4.99. Fight for Fortune features card-based combat using heroes, villains, artifacts, and mercenaries taken from the action-adventure series. As the above video shows, players can take on others in asynchronous multiplayer, meaning turns don't have to be played while the other player's online. Fight for Fortune will also interact with fellow Vita series entry Golden Abyss, letting players use treasures earned in that game to aid them in Fight for Fortune's battles.Fight for Fortune was outed earlier this month on Australian and Brazilian ratings boards, with One Loop Games noted as the developer. Sony Bend confirmed today One Loop is involved with the game.
Uncharted Vita postmortem details Sony Bend's struggles with writing a female lead
Writer and Director John Garvin of Sony Bend recently discussed the development of Uncharted: Golden Abyss in a postmortem on Gamasutra. One of the topics covered by Garvin was the distaste focus testers had for the game's lead female character, Marisa Chase."The problem, we discovered, was the writing. In the script, Chase's character was a bit of a smart ass and a little sarcastic," Garvin wrote. The focus group determined that Chase was a "wimp," and that her character upheld a number of gender stereotypes."For gameplay reasons, we constantly put Chase into situations where Drake needed to take action. Call it lazy if you want, but we ended up with a few 'Princess Peach' scenarios," Garvin said. "It seemed that poor Chase was constantly being choked, shot at, knocked out, dragged around and kidnapped. We fixed that, as well as we could, by changing the scenarios to make Chase less of a victim."In the second round of focus testing, Garvin was prompted to consider another change to the character. "What's that old adage? If a man acts forceful he's 'take-charge and aggressive, a real leader' but if a woman acts that way, she's being 'pushy and a bitch' -- an unfair gender stereotype, but one we had to deal with," he wrote. "How? By making her less aggressive and critical."The rest of the postmortem on Uncharted: Golden Abyss is an interesting read, and includes notes about the game's environments and how further focus testing impacted its story and ending.
Uncharted is a 'pillar franchise,' nothing to say about its future just yet
"This show is about Naughty Dog and The Last of Us. So we're not talking about Uncharted for the future," Sony VP of product development and worldwide studios Scott Rohde told Joystiq in an interview this week. That doesn't mean there aren't things happening with the Uncharted franchise elsewhere at Sony, of course. "It's a Sony IP, but it's just not something we're talking about. Of course it's one of our pillar franchises," Rohde said.The latest entry in the Uncharted franchise was the Vita's Uncharted: Golden Abyss – the series' first title not developed by Naughty Dog. Its production was instead handled by Sony's internal Bend studio, with Naughty Dog overseeing development. Rohde added that "it'd be ridiculous to say that we're not always thinking about [Uncharted], but we're just not talking about it right now."
Resistance: Burning Skies has a disease for your Vita
When Resistance: Burning Skies arrives later this year on the PlayStation Vita, it brings with it a virulent infection. Moreover, said infection passes easily via the Vita's Near functionality, as explained in a recent interview featured on the US PlayStation Blog.
Resistance: Burning Skies multiplayer page revealed, removed
What's that, PlayStation Vita owner? You want to know more about multiplayer in Resistance: Burning Skies? Unfortunately, it seems that Sony isn't ready to share that info quite yet. After updating its game page with scant details on the game mode – Wi-fi-based "8-player online multiplayer across six unique maps and three modes" – Sony later removed said info.Presumably the details were meant for a coordinated marketing push ahead of the game's May 29 launch date, but, uh, well, here they are! We've reached out to Sony for more info, but don't expect to hear much until the stars align (and Sony is good and ready to say its piece).[Thanks, Knives Chau!]
Uncharted: Golden Abyss TV spot runs for its life
We don't think Uncharted: Golden Abyss is quite this immersive, but you get the idea.
Uncharted Golden Abyss review: Grave rubber
Presenting Uncharted: Golden Abyss as one of Nathan Drake's earlier adventures is a masterstroke. For one thing, it explains why people are still hiring him to hunt down relics. At this point, they just haven't heard of the handsome, half-tucked grave robber who breaks everything he climbs across, shoots everyone he sees, and goes through an awful lot of trouble for treasure that's invariably cursed, deadly or not really treasure at all.But we're not interested in the chest full of MacGuffins at the end. We're in it for the hero's hazardous journey over crumbling handholds and vertiginous chasms. We like to see an ancient civilization lurch back into life with the aid of an unbelievably convoluted, one-use mechanism. And we want to spot that spark between the characters who get themselves into one mess after another, and yet another. If that's what Uncharted is to you, then you'll find very little has been lost in the transition to PlayStation Vita.
Uncharted: Golden Abyss trailer introduces the dangling participants
Sony Bend's portable Uncharted adventure exhibits all the elements fans have come to expect from the franchise: vibrant graphics, treacherous environments, and cocky fortune hunters. Nice Meryl haircut, lady.
There's an Uncharted: Golden Abyss video at the end of this short post
The Uncharted series wowed us on two fronts this evening. After the break, courtesy of a kind stream-capturing YouTuber, check out the tinier of the two prongs, Uncharted: Golden Abyss for PlayStation Vita.
NGP backwards compatible with all PSP games (on PSN); smoothing and dual analog support included
The PlayStation Portable's lack of a second analog stick has always been a problem for shooters. Sony Bend's Resistance: Retribution had a clever – albeit complicated – solution for this shortcoming: let players tether a DualShock 3 controller to the handheld. So when Sony showed off the game running in emulation on an NGP last month, with full use of that right thumb stick, we assumed there was some benefit specific to Retribution. As it turns out, all PSP titles1 will be able to take advantage of that second analog stick, as well as other NGP enhancements. "All PSP titles that are currently available on the PSN can be played on the NGP," VP of product development at SCEA Scott Rohde told a crowd of game journalists. "And they'll take full advantage of the graphics smoothing capabilities of the system and the controls will be remapped to take advantage of the dual analog sticks." While I can't say much about the graphics smoothing – it definitely looked like it was being zoomed up 400% – I can say that the second analog stick worked wonderfully in Retribution. The game originally mapped the right stick to the four face buttons. It's unclear how the tech will work with other games, and the representative we spoke could only say that the technology we were using was early. In fact, the sole NGP prototype that had the emulation software belonged to SCE's Shuhei Yoshida, who was taking it with him back to Japan that night. We're hoping to learn more about how PSP games take advantage of NGP hardware at E3. Any specific questions or concerns, let us know in the comments. 1: Of course, the list of PSP games that never appeared on PlayStation Network includes several high-profile titles, like Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, and Lumines.
Uncharted: Golden Abyss preview: Drake me out to the small game
There's no better showcase of what the NGP is all about than Uncharted: Golden Abyss. With the NGP, Sony has created something of an uber-machine, so tricked out with bells and whistles, it would be an immense feat of creativity to simply use them all in one game; now, using them with purpose, that's a whole other thing. Before kicking off a demonstration of Golden Abyss in Los Angeles last month, Sony Bend creative director John Garvin wanted to make one thing clear. "Golden Abyss is a brand new Uncharted game," he said. "It's not a port." In case the lack of Naughty Dog involvement makes you nervous, Garvin says, "We've been collaborating and working closely with Amy Hennig, the creative director at Naughty Dog, to make sure that our characters and story are authentic." As far as characters go, we've got series' star Nathan Drake making a return, the role being reprised by omnipresent voiceover artist Nolan North. To capture that performance, Sony Bend is using the same mo-cap and sound studios that Naughty Dog uses for its Uncharted titles and, in the short cinematic I saw, it showed. If there was one area that made it clear that the main Uncharted series still belongs to Naughty Dog, it may be the lack of a number on that title. "It's a standalone story that takes place before Drake's Fortune," Garvin explained. "It's not a prequel, but a standalone story." In other words, it's self-contained.%Gallery-125163%
Uncharted NGP takes place before Drake's Fortune, more details coming June 2
Though Sony Bend is tasked with developing Uncharted for Sony's next handheld system, the franchise creators at Naughty Dog aren't above answering a few questions about Nathan Drake's NGP outing. In an interview with French site GameBlog.fr, Naughty Dog co-president Christophe Balestra placed the new game's setting between the first and second Uncharted games, but was later corrected by Sony. "It is an all-new story set before Uncharted: Drake's Fortune," Sony told us. The correction is notable as Sony won't actually confirm any of the other details revealed by Balestra, telling us, "New information on Uncharted NGP (working title) will be released on June 2." The other details, however, are similarly intriguing: potential interaction between the NGP title and Uncharted 3 on PlayStation 3, and a focus on exploration over gunfights. Let's hope we learn much more on June 2. [Thanks, Elena]
Portable Uncharted developed by Sony Bend, has 'camera mode'
You know how it is when new tech is announced. You let the magic of the moment get to you, the whimsy, and suddenly you're thinking all kinds of crazy things like, "Maybe Naughty Dog is developing the Uncharted NGP game they just showed off!" Sure, we realize in the light of day -- as we sweep up the glitter and take down the disco ball -- that we were just a little too hopeful last night. But luckily, the reality isn't too bad at all: Game Informer reports PortaDrake (working title [ours]) is being developed by Sony Bend (Logan's Shadow, Resistance: Retribution) with oversight from Naughty Dog. Across the web, hands-on impressions of the game seem to be positive, with the "gimmicky" features (swipe the device's back to climb a rope?) either working better than expected or being ignored without incident. Also interesting: PortaDrake features a "camera mode" that lets you use NGP's motion-sensing tech to look around your environment and take photos. No word on connectivity with Uncharted 3 yet, but no one's ruling it out.
Resistance Retribution online tournament starts today
There's $25,000 worth of Sony merchandise up for grabs in the new Global Gaming Resistance Retribution tournament, which begins today. With the game only just appearing on shelves, it's a level playing playing field for all involved. Simply head on over to the GGL website and register for either the 2v2 or 4v4 ladders. The top players as of May 10 will face off again in the bracket playoffs between May 13 and May 31.The top players overall will win various Sony goodies, including "SonyStyle gear from PlayStation, PSP system prize packs, and Resistance: Retribution inspired leather bomber jackets." So get practicing and don't forget to register. Good luck! [Via the PlayStation Blog]
Joystiq Review: Resistance: Retribution (single-player)
If only Resistance: Retribution hadn't been on the Playstation Portable. A game with such high production values that's a direct iteration of one of the PS3's flagship franchises could have been a downloadable episode for Resistance 2 -- and about five hours shorter. That's not even getting into the pacing issues, which are exacerbated by a number of dramatic difficulty spikes throughout. %Gallery-27792%
Joystiq hands-on: Resistance: Retribution multiplayer
click to enlarge (c'mon -- you can't resist) Just before news broke of PSP's impressive new wave of first- and third-party support, we took Resistance: Retribution's multiplayer modes for a test drive. Our expectations were high, given that -- as far as we knew -- it was the only marquee game on the horizon for PSP. Still, even knowing that's no longer the case, we're nevertheless quite impressed by Sony Bend's shrink-raying of the console multiplayer experience.%Gallery-45854%
Resistance Retribution video chronicles franchise story
If you own a PSP, chances are you're excited about Resistance Retribution. But what if you've never played one of Insomniac's PS3 games? Will you be in the dark?Most likely not. The story of the Resistance games are pretty easy to follow: evil alien things attack earth, you fight back. A new series of videos on IGN will chronicle some of the behind-the-scenes elements of the game. Today's video, which you can check out after the break, details the franchise's story and how it ties into the upcoming Retribution.(Also, does anyone else notice the "Rise of the Chimera" title that's in the background? Most likely it's an early name for Retribution, but it would be hilarious if we accidentally discovered a new Resistance game.)
Rumor: Sony working on new Syphon Filter for PS3
A particularly watchful, Columbo-esque reader at Kotaku recently put a few widespread pieces of information together to draw an intriguing conclusion -- Sony Bend, the studio behind every Syphon Filter title to date, recently put up a help wanted ad calling for a full-time game tools programmer with PS3 or Xbox 360 experience. It's doubtful that they'll need to use the latter of those two, but it's enough to give rise to rumors that Sony's cooking up a current-gen installment in their decade-old action franchise.But wait, there's more -- adding further fuel to the Filter flames is an entry on the Credits page of digital content creation company PCB Productions. About a quarter of the way down the page, the company acknowledges their mo-cap work for Syphon Filter 5, a PS3 title coming out of, you guessed it, Sony Bend. This one ranks pretty high on the likelihoodometer -- we'll be waiting with bated breath to see if Sony will confirm Gabe's triumphant return to home consoles.
Resistance Ret. pre-order demo also at GameStop, BB
Previously, we've reported that those who pre-order Resistance Retribution from Amazon would be getting an early access demo ahead of the game's scheduled March 17 release. However, now we've come to learn that other retailers like Game Crazy, Best Buy and GameStop will also be receiving the goods.PS.Blog notes that GameStop patrons can pre-order via the online store, same with Best Buy (when their pre-order page goes up), but sadly Game Crazy is in-store only. For now, have a gander at that slick box art and make a decision -- pre-order and get demo? Or, uh, not.
Telling stories: The next hurdle for story telling
As games have evolved, so too has the role of storytelling in the titles we play. As we turn the corner on 2008, we asked multiple industry personalities across all walks of game development on titles such as Dragon Age: Origins, Bionic Commando and Guild Wars for their thoughts.What's next for in-game story telling? In this, our final segment looking at video game narratives, our collective of industry professionals offer insight into what they believe is the next big challenge facing the evolution of story telling in the games we play.
