and here is the interview¡¡¡¡
"- Uncharted 2: Among Thieves can't get here soon enough. Sure, the PlayStation 3 has a pretty good year ahead of itself with Infamous, Fat Princess, and a whole lot more, but everyone wants to know what's happening with Nathan Drake. Sadly, there's still a lot of time between us and the fall release date.
It was with that in mind that IGN tracked down Richard Lemarchand, Naughty Dog co-lead designer on Uncharted 2, and put a few more burning questions into his ear. Sure, we've gone after the Dogs before, but this time we wanted the nitty gritty details on how all the new mechanics in Uncharted 2 are going to work.
Thankfully, Lemarchand didn't call security -- he even gave us some new screenshots. Want to see what he had to say?
IGN: Enough is enough: where are Elena Fisher and Sully?!
Richard Lemarchand: Someone said they saw them arguing over by the water cooler earlier today - but we're really not ready to give away the details about what's happened to the characters you got near and dear with in Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. You'll find out soon enough!
IGN: Drake climbed and stuff in the first game; how is this new traversal system any different?
Richard Lemarchand: In short, the climbing part of the traversal system in Uncharted 2 is much more realistic now. Reinforcing the sense of realism that the world of Uncharted has, by making sure that the characters and their actions behave just like you would expect in the real world, has been a key area of focus for us throughout development.
To that end, we've added animations and technology that allow Drake to climb and explore the environment in a much more free-form and organic manner. Drake's movement has expanded by leaps and bounds (Pun intended!) beyond just jumping from handhold to handhold. Drake now freely clambers hand over hand on all sorts of objects like walls, ladders, signposts, monkey bars, ledges, ropes and so on. We added the ability for him to swing on free-hanging ropes across chasms, too.
We've also made sure not to separate out the times when you use these new abilities from the combat sequences. We wanted to create a seamless experience of "traversal combat," flowing freely in and out of combat as you travel through the world. That means that you'll definitely find yourself in the middle of a firefight while running, jumping and climbing around the environment. Again, to keep things realistic, we've made sure that Drake can fire his gun during all of these actions. So if you're trying to get to higher ground and an enemy is already up there shooting down at you, you can fire at him and take him out as you're climbing your way up. This has opened up the design possibilities available to us in a massive way, since we can now throw combat into the game anywhere it looks like it will be interesting.
IGN: How do you make it feel fresh from the player's perspective? I mean, how do you keep it from being a stale mechanic of "Walk to this, press X?"
Richard Lemarchand: Our goal with both of the Uncharted games has been to create an experience that is seamless and completely engaging - something that holds your attention from beginning to end, just like a terrific action-adventure movie would. Basically, we don't want you to put down the controller until you're done playing through the game at least once! Based on anecdotes we've heard, that actually happened to some people with Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, and we were always happy to hear it.
One of the ways that we approach our game design to make it feel wholly engaging is to make sure that you always have a strong idea about what you have to do to proceed, without relying on methods which pull you out of the experience. So, if we've done our job right, at any given point you'll always know where you're headed next. . If we've done that, we can then set things in any way that we want in order to keep the game fresh and interesting - whether it's exploring, solving puzzles or surviving through combat as you progress in the story and move from one amazing place to another.
IGN: Drake will be climbing over more than just rock ledges this time around; how do you go about opening up his world and not having your team beat their heads in with keyboards?
Richard Lemarchand: It all starts with level layout, really! Good planning and solid design is usually the key to stopping yourself going crazy when you're setting out on an endeavor as complicated as developing a story-driven character-action game.
At the beginning of the development of Uncharted 2 we had a huge leg up in that we already had the engine that we used to create Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. This meant that, unlike with the first game, we could start building simple prototype levels from plain-looking geometry at the very start of the design process. We call these simple, rough levels "blockmesh", and they're the foundation of our level design process. We can very quickly rough out a space in 3D, build it in our tools, and then immediately run and climb around it to get a sense of the space: the feeling of scale that the environment has, how easy it is to perceive paths through the level, the lines of sight that you have from the various spots that you can climb or run to, and so on.
At the same time we can start to throw in enemies, and get a sense of how well the space works for combat, as well as chucking in interactive objects to prototype out the puzzles that we're considering. At this point, the Naughty Dog Game Engine 2.0 is like a giant sandbox, where we can incredibly quickly create an interactive demo of pretty much any idea we can think of. We can easily add in or take out hand-holds and ledges to climb up to and run along, and because the geometry is still so simple, it's incredibly easy to improve based on the discoveries we make as we traverse around it.
After that, it becomes an intense process of play-testing the level and iteratively improving its design, making small changes until the blockmesh plays really well, and we can pass it on the artists who will make it look amazing. It was really great to be able to hit the ground running as fast as we did with this game, and I think that when players see how freely they can clamber over and around the environment as they lock horns with the enemies, they'll get a sense of the fun we had laying out the game's levels.
IGN: What about the snow we've heard so little about since that first trailer? How have you folks tackled weather this time around?
Richard Lemarchand: One of the things that Uncharted: Drake's Fortune received a lot of praise for was the quality of our water effects. We'd set ourselves a goal to make the water in Uncharted look as good as anything that had ever been seen in a video game, and we collectively spent a lot of time working to make sure that our water looked as realistic as possible, and that it acted very realistically, too.
For Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, we've taken that dedication and attention to detail, and applied it to snow and ice - which is really just water with the temperature lowered by fifty degrees! Unfortunately, we hadn't implemented a "freeze all the water in this level" button in our engine, so we had to do it the good old fashioned way - with lots of hard work and the skilful creation of new shaders and visual effects.
We've spent a lot of time focused on the distinctive look that snow has as it falls and is blown by the wind, and of course on the way in which Drake leaves footprints as he trudges through the snowdrifts in the Himalayan mountains that he ventures to. When he's out in the snow he'll accumulate a layer of snowflakes on his clothes and in his hair, which will slowly thaw when he gets back inside under cover. Ice reflects light in a way that cleverly mimics the sub-surface scattering that goes on inside a chunk of frozen water, and gives it a look of incredible volume and density. We have a few more tricks up our sleeves, too - all in all, we're really happy with the way the weather's shaping up in Uncharted 2.
IGN: Will Drake have different animations depending on his surroundings --shivering in the cold, slipping on wet pavement, etc.?
Richard Lemarchand: We're big believers that great animation grounds a character in the reality of a world better than almost anything else, and so we're paying lots of attention to giving Drake a very wide range of context-dependent animation that helps sell what's happening around him in the world.
One new animation feature for Uncharted 2 is that, if he hasn't been spotted by the enemies in an area that he enters, Drake will hunker down and look as if he's trying to keep a low profile as he walks along, in order to get the drop on his foes. Drake still stumbles over uneven terrain or if he only just makes a jump, and he will look stressed while he's in combat, as we layer additional animations into both his posture and his facial features.
Another huge new feature for us in that we've added technology that lets any character in the game perform all of their traversal and combat behaviors on any kind of moving object. This has expanded what's possible for our game design in an incredible way, and has given us the ability to easily create those big summer blockbuster moments from the movies that the Uncharted universe is so inspired by. Whether it's fighting on a moving vehicle as it races through the countryside, or running around inside a tower block as it starts to collapse - all of those tense, over-the-top moments can now be experienced by players in gameplay, while they're actually playing.
IGN: How does the ice/snow function as a gameplay mechanic?
Richard Lemarchand: We don't want to give away all our secrets - you'll have to use your imagination to figure out all the ways in which we might use sub-zero temperatures in the service of gameplay! One thing I will say is that if you've ever tried to fight an intense cover-based gun battle against a vicious enemy in the middle of a Force Ten snowstorm, then you'll appreciate how complicated the reduced visibility can make things for combatants on both sides…
IGN: How long will this title be?
Richard Lemarchand: We're not quite ready to say how long the experience will be, since we still have plenty of development time in front of us before we ship.
However, we're making sure that the end result is not only a satisfying length to play through, but that it stays true to the needs of our story.
On top of that, we're planning on adding several features to the game that will increase replayability and extend the gameplay experience for everyone. We'll be revealing those features at a later date, so hold tight for more info!
IGN: What's your goal with Uncharted 2? Are you trying to make the most realistic traversal game featuring snow ever created?
Richard Lemarchand: You left out amazing cover-based shooting, intriguing problem-solving, our gripping story, our awesome character performances, and…
But seriously, if you distill all of the incredible variety of stuff that we're putting into this game into one simple concept: we really just want to create the most amazing and playable version of a summer blockbuster action movie that has ever been seen on the PLAYSTATION 3, or on any game console, for that matter. We want the quality of our performances and writing, and the careful way that the story interweaves with the very best action-gameplay we've ever created, to really transport the player into a world of adventure that they'll never forget.
We really think that we're outdoing ourselves with Uncharted 2, and we can't wait to see what people think of what we're making!
IGN: When can the fans expect to hear more about this game -- i.e. when will you stop torturing me and let me play it?
Richard Lemarchand: But it's so much fun to torture you! Of course, that means not quite yet - but you'll get your hands on it when we think you've suffered enough"
here is the link to the screenshots¡¡¡: http://media.ps3.ign.com/media/142/14225971/imgs_1.html
and here is the link to the interview: http://ps3.ign.com/articles/963/963744p1.html
OMG¡¡¡ this game looks incredible¡¡¡. what do you guys think?.
