So, here it is--this is the thread to come to regarding the "Crushing" difficulty in Uncharted 3.
 
I'm currently playing through and haven't found it that much more difficult until the ballroom fight in Chapter 14.  This fight takes place after going through the revolving door on the cruise ship.  Nate says something like, "let's do this quietly," even though you can't stealth your way through this fight.  Anyway, I'm stuck here.  There's a whole lot of dudes, and not a ton of cover.
 
What sections are you finding most difficult on crushing?  Did you get through it or are you still stuck?

I want to do the crushing difficulty only to get the platinum trophy as I did with Uncharted 2. But I think I'm holding off until Naughty Dog patches the game for the aiming issues.

I want to do the crushing difficulty only to get the platinum trophy as I did with Uncharted 2. But I think I'm holding off until Naughty Dog patches the game for the aiming issues.

I've not played on crushing, but in my experience I found the control scheme, movement setup and cover system to be unreliable enough to not want to "play" that game. Nearly every death I've suffered on my playthrough on normal (which I ended up lowering to very easy thanks to a couple late-game encounters (don't know how to post spoilers so am avoiding mention of direct encounters)) was thanks to the gameplay systems being unreliable, which became frustrating. Still, props to you if you can forgive the game for its flaws enough to play on higher difficulty.

@Spoonman671: There are several specific sections in that game that are brutally hard like on the cruise ship and the settlement. Also, that part where you're in the ballroom on the cruise ship, I don't think it's actually possible to do stealth there.

I plan on starting a run soon now that the new patch is in effect with the updated shooting mechanics <3

I plan on starting a run soon now that the new patch is in effect with the updated shooting mechanics <3

Want to know how hard crushing is in Uncharted 3?  It just killed my PS3.  That is seriously hardcore.
 
Doesn't Naughty Dog know that Skyrim is coming out in two days!

I took out the first guy guy using stealth, then the guy walking to the right of the piano with stealth as well. Nobody should see you at this point, then climb back up to the door you came in and start shooting. If you stay under the balcony that section is a breeze. as only one or two guys will rush you at any given time. Then when you feel safe enough you can take out the snipers on the balcony.

If I remember right, stealth killing the guy right at the piano gives you an M32 Hammer as a stealth kill drop (although to avoid getting shot immediately, you need to kill the guy to his left, and the guy sitting down right in front of where you initially spawn / checkpoint). This can make it a lot easier.

Also had a similar tactic to Sezzilla for this part, I stayed behind the boxes in the middle of the stage floor. Hip fire away with the micro on close, weak enemies and keep an eye out for the armoured guys and use your M32 Hammer on them before they get too close.

@Spoonman671 said:

So, here it is--this is the thread to come to regarding the "Crushing" difficulty in Uncharted 3. I'm currently playing through and haven't found it that much more difficult until the ballroom fight in Chapter 14. This fight takes place after going through the revolving door on the cruise ship. Nate says something like, "let's do this quietly," even though you can't stealth your way through this fight. Anyway, I'm stuck here. There's a whole lot of dudes, and not a ton of cover. What sections are you finding most difficult on crushing? Did you get through it or are you still stuck?

There is cover there guy. If it is the area I am thinking of, large tiered room...look around and think, I am tired of being shot....

Just beat Crushing. If you have beaten Crushing in past Uncharted games before, you should get through this game with no real problem. The hardest areas were the Ship Graveyard and the Fountain Area where you fight the demonized enemies. Probably the best tip I can give when playing through Crushing is to NOT USE THE COVER MECHANIC. Hide behind cover the old fashion way - just literally stand behind it; just make sure you are behind something that will cover your entire standing body. Then just creep around the corner and pick off guys one by one.

Finally completed Crushing... I say finally because it was honestly a bit of chore to rope myself back into playing through the Uncharted 3 SP again. Non-the-less, I was fairly surprised by how... well, not easy exactly, but manageable it was playing through on Crushing. I still died a lot to be sure, but besides the FUCKING MIND MELTING, TEETH SEETHING, INSANITY INDUCING difficulty of the sandstorm firefight, I didn't have all that many issues overall. I'm now more than ever certain that I don't ever want to play through an entire playthrough of Uncharted 3 again, though...

At the fountain part and have decided to leave it until I'm done with all the other new games out. Had a ton of trouble at this part during Hard so I can only imagine Crushing is gonna be a nightmare.

@Zella said:

At the fountain part and have decided to leave it until I'm done with all the other new games out. Had a ton of trouble at this part during Hard so I can only imagine Crushing is gonna be a nightmare.

Ah, yes. I was thinking at first the ballroom was the hardest area on Crushing, but nope. It was definitely the fountain with the "fire... smokeless fire" bullshit. Man, I was so mad at Naughty Dog during this section on Crushing. Must've died 25 times, at least.

ND: "Hey, these guys are super strong and they also throw grenades that can't be thrown back, nor can you run away because they explode on impact!"

Me: "Hey, fuck you!"

@Duffyside If you know whee the power weapons are it becomes much easier. In fact, all the encounters with those guys are littered with hammers and RPGs.

Completed Crushing about 2 weeks ago and I'd say the most difficult parts were mainly in Ship Stages, the part where there's all those cargo crates and turrets, meeting the first Super Heavy and the entire encounter inside the ships ballroom. The last 2 were difficult mainly because they gave you no breathing room as all the real tough bullet spongey enemies rushed you.

There's totally a way to stealth the whole boat... I did it. It's just hard.

 I played through on hard and wasn't really compelled to do another run on crushing.
 
Anyone want help on doing co op on crushing, check this thread out.
 
The Giant Bomb Uncharted 3 Hub

I know this is an old ass thread but I wanted to chime in, and I know this is gonna sound crazy but Crushing was easier than normal (not in that way) but I like the way the difficulty makes you play , when I first played the game on normal I did a lot of things wrong (not using the blind fire, rusing at guys to do quick melee kills, not moving throug cover correctly) I mean I died a lot more in the Shipyard level on normal than I did on crushing sure I knew enemy placement and what were the best points to attack them but I think I use the enviroment in a much more effective way since Drake was more vulnerable and it made every firefight feel very real wich helped a lot into getting a better experience , other than that BS fight with Talbot (not having the buttons on the screen really screw me up) I'll say I had more fun on my second playtrough on crusing.

It's not possible to stealth your way through certain combat "rooms". I remember when I was playing through it on Hard the second time I got to the part where the Syria map in multiplayer comes from and they explicitly say, "Let's do this quietly," or some such shit. So I did. I went through that entire section full stealth without a single twitch of an alert and all enemies were dead, but I couldn't proceed at all. I had to fire my gun and fight the scripted waves of enemies to proceed. That single part hurt the games image in my mind, in that it was so scripted that I couldn't avoid certain areas like that without purposefully initiating the combat waves. So you can't do it stealthily. I found my preferred way was to run to the stage area and put as much distance between the balcony area and you as possible.

But you've probably done it already so whatever. I just realized when writing this that the thread was 6 months old with a bump, but damned if I was going to type that all out for no reason.