Just when you thought the Naughty Dog engine couldn't get any better, they continue to improve it with newly added Destruction physics.
They're using a rare destruction program that has been used mostly for Hollywood movies and TV shows like X-Men, Hancock, and Heroes. This particular program is not even available to the public yet and has rarely (if ever) been used in any video games before.
Nerd talk - It's actually quite interesting, because Naughty Dog uses HAVOK physics, which also has 'Havok Destruction'. However Naughty Dog opted to go with a totally different Destruction program for Uncharted 3 and seems to be making Destruction an integral part of the game. If you watch the "Burning Chateau" gameplay reveal, you see the ceiling collapsing and destructable cover. I really wonder why they decided not to use Havok and instead are using a new, and unproven program which is still in it's beta stage. Either way though, it looks really good and I can't wait to see more.
Uncharted keeps getting better and better. When I think back to Drakes Fortune, even the explosions looked really cartoony and almost ps2-ish. Now they've come full circle and probably have the best all around engine in the entire business, as evident from U2 and the short previews of U3.
Expect to see a lot of destruction in the new Uncharted