Goomba's don't exist.

Uh..you meant to say "Move on and continue to not have fun *watching other people* play very good games", right?

;)

I played a couple of levels from this game round a friends house and I can't help wondering what sort of reviews it would have got if it had been released a year earlier.
Gears of War has got a 94* rating on Metacritic and was a massive hit, while Uncharted has an 88 and has experienced fairly slow sales.
They are often compared as they have a similar shooting/cover mechanic and both games have very impressive graphics (Uncharted is a lot more ambitious, but Gears was more groundbreaking on its release).
I have played the Gears campaign all the way through, and although I have only played a bit of Uncharted, I feel confident in saying that the cover system is a massive improvement. Despite the praise it received, the cover system in Gears was clunky and lacked finesse (quite befitting Marcus Fenix). I often found myself pressing the run button only to be sucked into the nearest wall. I didn't experience that problem at all with Uncharted; the animation system was so fluid that Drake would react instantly from any position. I never once found that I was wrestling with a flawed control system (happened a lot towards the end of Gears).
On top of that, Gears only had one (short) level that didn't involve running around shooting, while Uncharted at least adds a little variety to the gameplay.
The AI also seemed to be better in Uncharted, although I would probably need to play it more to say for definite.
In conclusion, the key to a successful game is like the key to good comedy: timing.

* Gears of War PC, released around the same time as Uncharted, only scored 87, despite having extra levels and higher resolution textures.

I have trouble believing potential purchasers of Uncharted read Metacritic and said, "Awww, crap!  It only got an 88... forget this game", but when GOW came out 360 owners said, "Holy crap!  It got a 94!  I have to have this game."  

When GOW was released (Nov/Dec 2006) there were approx. 5m 360s, and it sold about 2m copies in the first 30 days.

When Uncharted was released (Nov/Dec 2007) there were approx. 5m PS3s, and it sold almost 300k copies in the first 30 days.

Could a 6-point ratings spread out of 100 points made that big of a difference?

I can tell you why I'm not interested in paying $60 for Uncharted -- it just sounds too derivitive. Gears wasn't very original, but playing the game (esp co-op) had a feel different from any game I can really remember because of the cover system.

I don't really want to spend full cash on an upgraded, 1P Gears engine crossed with Tomb Raider, despite the fact that it sounds like a well-made game.

I think it's not selling terribly well to the masses because other releases (CoD4, Assassin's Creed) seem more accessible (i.e. SHOOT LOTS OF SHIT) and were hyped much more.

@ Played_out, ur right, last year the TPS cover thing was new and exciting. However, it is also true that it hard to market Uncharted, because it is a lot of things, and although mainly appeals to the shooting market, is also has a lot of platforming, which might mean that they stick to the simpler CoD 4

Well guys i just came back from playing SMG and MP3 on the wii for about 5-10mins each and they suck, MP3 looks like Halo2, in some parts it even looks worse, aiming and shooting with the wii-mote offers the same level of accuracy that a Dual analog set-up offers. Very uninteresting story aswell, my chick got infected and it was game over.

SMG on the other land has more jaggies then a DS game, it looks about 18% as good as R&C on the PS3. I also found the gravity to be very odd and was never the same, while some planets and objects have gravity not all do and you can never tell until you kill yourself trying.

Since i saw the same thing way back on the xbox that i saw on MP3, i give it a 3/10. Mario galaxy was interesting and i look forward to playing the whole game, since i'm a mario fan, but so far i'm not impressed with the game 5/10.

All my scores are subject to change at any moment based on an additional 5-10mins of play. Plus i played wii tennis, and it has less jaggies then Mario, and the grass looks better.

I'm also playing Zelda phantom hourglass on my DS and the game is great, the graphics are about the best i have seen so far on the system.  I'm about 50% complete and the game gets a 9.5/10 so far.  The story and level design are fantastic.

 Great save.

True, but what I ment with the healing was that you can take cover and your health is back up, so you don't have to go look for Health packs or anything like that...(althought Halo 1 had like a hybrid of this 2)

 xD @ steroid healing 

Well, I liked Uncharted overall and would highly recommend it.

Good:

Very polished look and consistent 'feel' based on old 30's cliffhangers - very Raiders and Romancing the Stone in tone

Strong characters - really, I found Nathan, Sully and Elena much more interesting that your average protagonists in a game

Good shooting/cover mechanic with platforming and vehicles to mix it up

Very good graphics and local


Weak Points:

Too many enemies in each wave - by the end I figured I'd taken out an entire army, which I think I had

Some platforming sections difficult to judge due to the old 'can I climb this wall or not' fumbling to find the spot the game will allow you to climb

Mechanic for jetski rather frustring - too much pausing to fire rather an emphasis on speed: they should just have flat out copied HL2 approach

Slightly jumbled plot at times although it does all come together at the end


As for autohealing - well, the problem is all healing approaches are unrealistic in games. Whether its COD or Halo or whatever in real life a single protagonist would never get through so many enemies: so you have to just accept it as health packs, etc. are nonsese too, as are medics. You think when a grenade badly wounds someone they're up 2 minutes later no mater what medic is there?

So I say autohealing works best as a comprimise between unrealistic healing or never getting past the first level.