We've all played Uncharted 2, it was fucking amazing and I remember looking at my TV for Uncharted 2 more than I ever looked at a TV to watch anything in my life. It's set in stone, UC2 was a masterpiece. 
 
Then we were anticipating Uncharted 3. We saw a lot of amazing sandy teasers and I personally was really looking forward to it. Then the game came out, people started criticizing the laggy shooting and the bad AI enemy placement. And then.. radio silence. 
I haven't heard a single word about the game since the last "video proof of the aiming lag" thread.. No hate threads, no love threads, not even threads discussing the game's levels. I feel like the game hasn't even been out yet. Uncharted 3 is no where to be seen in GOTY discussions.
 
So I've been contemplating selling my PS3 since there aren't really any games I've been waiting to buy, but then I remember I wanted to pick up Uncharted 3 and maybe inFamous 2. Now I need to know, what's the verdict? 
 
Did this turn out to be a bad game? Should I buy it or sell the console?

It was nominated for GOTY at the VGAs this year. You should buy this game.

Also, Infamous 2 is a good game. Don't sell your PS3.

Uncharted 3 is fucking amazing. I think that Uncharted 2 may be slightly better in the long run, but the set-pieces in Uncharted 3 were second-to-none. The airplane sequence, the sinking pirate ship, the caravan, desert wandering, all incredible- not to mention that when they finally do get to the Atlantis of the Sands, it's really an overwhelmingly awesome place- I only wish they'd let you run around and explore it more.

@TooWalrus said:

Uncharted 3 is fucking amazing. I think that Uncharted 2 may be slightly better in the long run, but the set-pieces in Uncharted 3 were second-to-none. The airplane sequence, the sinking pirate ship, the caravan, desert wandering, all incredible- not to mention that when they finally do get to the Atlantis of the Sands, it's really an overwhelmingly awesome place- I only wish they'd let you run around and explore it more.

Oh man, that was sooooooooooooooooooooo good.

*goes back to replay Uncharted 3*

It's not bad, it's just nowhere near as good as Uncharted 2. IMO, Uncharted 3 just rings a little hollow as it's more or less ''another Uncharted game'' but with a weaker story and (well this at least been remedied) poor shooting, without any notable innovations to show off like Uncharted 2 done. So there's not as much hype nor discussion to pull forth from it.

inFAMOUS 2, on the other hand, is fantastic and personally one of my top 5 games for this year. Ironically that too is a lot more of the same, but unlike Uncharted 3, close to everything within it has been improved upon. The only disappointing part was there weren't as many motion-comic cutscenes.

It's a great game. Most people agree that it's a fantastic game, it's just the level of excitement for it that's different. Uncharted 2 is still my favorite because it blew me away...Uncharted 3 not so much. Some of the setpieces were kinda too similar to the second game.

Uncharted 3 just rings a little hollow as it's more or less ''another Uncharted game'' but with a weaker story and (well this at least been remedied) poor shooting

there is no aiming lag anymore, they patched that awhile ago.....

As a game, it's a great game, well made, fairly polished, great voice acting, people who say it isn't better than uncharted 2 may have a valid point, but that game set high bars it was kind of insane to think of ways to outdo that game in terms of setpiece moments, but uncharted 3 matches those highs in quite a few places. I didn't find the enemy AI a problem at all, in fact i enjoyed the flanking enemies, it kept me moving around and active of my surroundings.

@AhmadMetallic: I wouldn't say that the story is bad, but it is weaker than 2. Some of the transitions feel disjointed and out of nowhere like the pirate ship area and it felt like they name dropped Lawrence of Arabia just as a hook for their desert segment. The shooting is better now thanks to the update but I think the real problem is that they kinda added too many combat sequences that just feel like a drag. If there was less combat areas I would like it a lot more...just play it on easy.

@AhmadMetallic said:

Weaker story? Poor shooting? You're not selling me on this.. I really don't wanna spend money that I'm gonna regret, so how bad is the story and how poor is the shooting? I also heard that the shootouts, how they progress and where the enemy AI is located (or something) is totally not fun. I don't wanna buy a shooter with un-fun shootouts!

The story's fine- it focus' more on the origin of the Drake/Sully relationship rather than the double-cross city love triangle that was Chloe/Elana/Drake (which I actually like better in Uncharted 3, Sully's an awesome character). I also preferred the way they work in some 'supernatural elements', which I won't spoil here, but it makes a lot more sense (and again, I liked that aspect more than Uncharted 2, as well). The shooting WAS a little different at first (though I barely noticed the difference), but they patched in an option to toggle "alternate aiming", which basically makes it control like Uncharted 2 (which most people prefer). There are a few moments where you'll feel like you were unfairly killed by a shotgun or sniper shot- but you'll just load up and try it again (and know what to expect). It's totally worth playing.

I'd say it's still a good game, but it's not the revelatory experience Uncharted 2 was. If anything, it's more Uncharted 2. Though in my opinion the combat scenarios in this game were a lot more frustrating and cheaper than in 2, which hampers it.

There isn`t much to be said that hasn`t already been said about Uncharted 2. It`s mostly another one, which means that it`s great.

I thought UC3 was an excellent game, but there was a frustrating issue with enemy spawning in some of the stealth areas on the higher difficulty settings. For example, if you are in a stealth focused sequence with all but one of your enemies eliminated, alerting that one guard to your presence will bring in an absolute flood of baddies including those crazy armored guys from UC2. Also, AI allies will alert enemies sometimes for no reason in the middle of a sneaking mission. I rented the game though so there is something to be said there as well. I own 1 and 2, but I don't have an overwhelming desire to play through 3 again just yet. I haven't touched the multiplayer.

I wish I'd played Uncharted 3 after the patch came out since alot of my memories of that game involve frustration in getting used to the input lag and cinematic moments being ruined by repeated deaths. But even with those troubles I'd say it was well worth playing with the Uncharted series scratching that "Naughty Dog itch".

@AhmadMetallic: The shooting is now pretty great because of a patch that's now made it resemble exactly like how it functioned in Uncharted 3, but during the first few weeks the shooting was pretty awful and clunky. I still have slight problems with the overall movement during combat being slower, but it's not a complete chore like it was during the time with it's original shooting mechanics.

But, even with better shooting, the ''arenas'' during certain parts of the game where you'll just be bombarded with everything at once still reeks of lazy combat design. Some parts are quite literally like something out of a horde mode there's so many waves. Stealth is much less prevalent and disregarded as an option, too; even during parts where you think you could stealth your way through, only to get caught and remember ''oh, right, super-scripted sequence here I come!''. Some of the set-pieces are fun as well, but some are derivative of Uncharted 2's own, and nothing the game featured was able to top the fantastically fun Train segment from Uncharted 2, either. It's also a little oddly paced, with a lot more puzzles packed into the first half and then not a single riddle from then onwards. Plus there are a lot of moments where it feels like ND are just outright torturing Nate for their own amusement. How many floors need to crumble beneath his feet? There's one part where he's hanging from a window frame only to have it snap on his fingers... why?! I mean during Uncharted 1/2, it was meant to portray tension and to keep you moving, but here after we've seen all of the lighter stuff so many times now, it just felt like they were doing solely to pick on him.

The story isn't as good because it doesn't have the same pull. Katherine Marlowe makes for a really weak antagonist for starters, even if Talbot helped to balance it out a little by being an appreciatively sinister villain, and someone you really want to put a shotgun round through. It doesn't deliver on the implications the game is throwing your way, either, with Drake purposely thrusting all of his friends into harms way for his own selfish desires. Prominent characters just disappear from the story altogether, other characters are introduced literally as a plot contrivance or for no reason whatsoever - I'm talking about you, Ramses. I did at least like how this is more so rooted within the relationship between Nate and Sully's, though.

And while a mythical entity is hinted at, it's never touched upon to any degree and didn't carry the intrigue like the crazy El' Dorado statue or Shambala. That's not to say it isn't entertaining; voice acting, the graphics ect. are all outstanding, naturally. But it doesn't have as much substance tucked away underneath all the glitter, in my eyes.

the ''arenas'' during certain parts of the game where you'll just be bombarded with everything at once still reeks of lazy combat design. Some parts are quite literally like something out of a horde mode there's so many waves. Stealth is much less prevalent and disregarded as an option, too; even during parts where you think you could stealth your way through, only to get caught and remember ''oh, right, super-scripted sequence here I come!''. It's also a little oddly paced, with a lot more puzzles packed into the second half and then not a single riddle from then onwards. 

@Abyssfull said:

It's not bad, it's just nowhere near as good as Uncharted 2. IMO, Uncharted 3 just rings a little hollow as it's more or less ''another Uncharted game'' but with a weaker story and (well this at least been remedied) poor shooting, without any notable innovations to show off like Uncharted 2 done. So there's not as much hype nor discussion to pull forth from it.

This.

@Abyssfull said:

And while a mythical entity is hinted at, it's never touched upon to any degree and didn't carry the intrigue like the crazy El' Dorado statue or Shambala. That's not to say it isn't entertaining; voice acting, the graphics ect. are all outstanding, naturally. But it doesn't have as much substance tucked away underneath all the glitter, in my eyes.

This too.

Be warned, if you are going to play this game on a Hard or Crushing, the game is nowhere nearly as easy as Uncharted 2 was. U2 was a cakewalk by comparison, mainly because of the extremely aggressive and suicidal AI that will punish virtually every mistake you make. Oh, and the melee combat, that screws you extremely badly on higher difficulties. All too often, an enemy forces you out of cover by engaging you in a fistfight, then you get quickly shot and eliminated by the other people around you.

The game is by no means a "bad" game, nor is it a "mediocre" one. IMO, it just did so much wrong as compared with the previous two games, that it did not offer nearly the same level of satisfaction given. For me, it's been so frustrating that I have yet to finish the game, and I'm halfway through the penultimate chapter.

I posted a review of UC3 on the site as it was by far my most anticipated game of the year and I was really disappointed in it by the end. However, it is definitely a must-play as the set-pieces are probably the most spectacular gaming experiences of this year and possibly any year. The cargo-plane sequence is worth price of admission alone. How they managed to keep that whole section in-game with no cut-scenes whatsoever I will never know.

I personally would recommend playing on easy as the combat arenas are spectacularly frustrating, purely because there quite often feels like a strong element of luck is involved regarding whether you die or not. I played the first time through with the old aiming and am now playing with the aiming patch (which you have to manually find and enable under 'camera' controls bizarrely) and it has definitely improved but doesn't eradicate the frustration of too many enemies coming in too many waves flanking you with weapons that can stun you or sometimes one-shot kill you.

I also personally feel the plot makes no sense but, hey, when did that ever matter in a videogame. :)

Also if you enjoyed the multiplayer in UC2 you will love it here. It is the one element that I think everyone can agree has definitely improved.

Just play it on easy because ARMOREDDUDEGRENADELAUNCHERSHOTGUNSNIPERMAN!

It's a fan fucking tastic game. Right up there beside Uncharted 2.

It's a fan fucking tastic game. Right up there beside Uncharted 2.

the ''arenas'' during certain parts of the game where you'll just be bombarded with everything at once still reeks of lazy combat design. Some parts are quite literally like something out of a horde mode there's so many waves. Stealth is much less prevalent and disregarded as an option, too; even during parts where you think you could stealth your way through, only to get caught and remember ''oh, right, super-scripted sequence here I come!''.  It's also a little oddly paced, with a lot more puzzles packed into the first half and then not a single riddle from then onwards. 

@AhmadMetallic: I'd have to say that he has his rose tinted glasses on and is mis-remembering Uncharted 2. Uncharted 3 only has arena's in so far as if you consider the scene from Uncharted 2 where you have snipers shooting at you an arena, or the sequence in Nepal where you're with Tenzin being attacked by a tank an arena. If you considered those levels "arena"s then yeah sure. But it was essentially the same structure as Uncharted 2. Also, I beat the game quicker on Crushing then I did on normal, because in normal I was being a dick and just running around. As soon as I started playing crushing and put in the slightest thought at how I was approaching the levels, then I was breezing through the "arena" esque areas in like half the time. It's very much based on strategy and stealth until you're caught, and then quick reflexes to take out key enemies quickly. No one area outstays its welcome, or do you ever get stuck going "ahh I can't beat this 'wave'."

@LiquidPrince said:

@AhmadMetallic: I'd have to say that he has his rose tinted glasses on and is mis-remembering Uncharted 2. Uncharted 3 only has arena's in so far as if you consider the scene from Uncharted 2 where you have snipers shooting at you an arena, or the sequence in Nepal where you're with Tenzin being attacked by a tank an arena. If you considered those levels "arena"s then yeah sure. But it was essentially the same structure as Uncharted 2. Also, I beat the game quicker on Crushing then I did on normal, because in normal I was being a dick and just running around. As soon as I started playing crushing and put in the slightest thought at how I was approaching the levels, then I was breezing through the "arena" esque areas in like half the time. It's very much based on strategy and stealth until you're caught, and then quick reflexes to take out key enemies quickly. No one area outstays its welcome, or do you ever get stuck going "ahh I can't beat this 'wave'."

lol, really? The ole ''rose-tinted glasses'' nostalgia cop-out? I've played so goddamn much of Uncharted 2 (as of you, I know) that the entirety of the game is more or less wired into my memory; nostalgia has nothing to do with me believing Uncharted 3 to be inferior. That entire pirate section was an exercise in tedium and frustration, and the perfect example of when the game just opts to throw everything at you at once as you're flanked from every side with snipers, guys with GL's, a swarm of regular guys (who retain that same godly degree of accuracy), and of course the looming shotgun fucker who gets you from the back before you even realise you're little safezone has been comprised. That speaks to why they should of finally given the enemies some damn footsteps when they move; one thing I don't think many have picked up on, is that their movement is always completely silent. It didn't matter so much during Uncharted 2 because you weren't ever getting flanked so often. But if they were going to have guys manoeuvring behind you while wearing like 3 layers of armour, the least they could of done was added in some sound cues to let you know you've got Sir Shotgunalot creeping up. Drakes Fortune suffered that same problem, too, and as I've already stated in the past, the gameplay for Uncharted 3 plays as if ND actually forgotten about all of the complaints they addressed with Uncharted 2.

The gunfights just seem to stretch on for so long as well, like when you're fighting across the docks trying to reach the boat, the boat ships off as you're shot with a scripted RPG, then forced to fend against yet another large wave of guys on your way back to the other boat. And there's no quirk, no set-piece to define the combat (minus the part where you're in the ship whilst it's starting to tip over, but that's all scripted according to how many guys you kill), just you, there, fending off enemies for what no doubt felt like forever for a lot of people, dying over and over because of situations you simply can't respond to accordingly without having to of pre-empted a lot of it.

A lot of situations like that crop up from the pirates section onwards, like that god-awful sandstorm fire-fight where the small army you have to contend with are completely un-fazed by the raging storm, that'll still inconveniently blinds your own line of vision to a pretty strong degree. The part where you're on-board the cargo-plane as it's crashing down was a nightmare once you actually climbed back inside, too. Which also speaks to how overly ''focussed'' Uncharted 3 can be at times, since it's insanely difficult to actually contend with the guys waiting inside, and, from what I can tell, you were instead meant to hang back and just stay in cover (while keeping the ensuing flankers at bay, as always) until the plane finally begins to tear open. Another example is during the area with the fountain, in The City of Atlantis, where you're given complete exposure from every side, giving you little time to react for the many few times it takes to pick up on who's flanking from where ect.

Uncharted 2 only delved into those exorbitant kind of fire-fights nearing the end once you hit Shambala (the huge, open area where all of Zoran's men just just pouring down from the path from how you yourself reached it in particular), otherwise having the fire-fights more evenly spread across a chapter, with a significantly less amount of guys dawning on you at once. During Uncharted 3, it was like that for around half of the game.

That tank part doesn't compare because the bad guys wouldn't actively flank you as much and there weren't nearly as many doods around, since the design naturally expects your focus to be intended for the tank.

And sure, you play through again on any difficulty and it's going to be easier, because the huge flaw with Uncharted 3 is you learn to counter a lot of the combat scenarios through dying a lot, and picking up the patterns. Crushing wasn't all too difficult for me, either (though I still didn't enjoy it so much, because at the time the shooting still sucked), but the first playthrough (on hard mode, I should add, which I chose for Uncharted 2 during my first run and had very few frustrations) was a mess that forced me to go through a constant basis of trial-and-error basis. I'm hardly alone in this; plenty of people have complained on here about the strenuous combat portions--especially during the pirate section most of all--and many have admitted to finding Uncharted 2 relatively easy in comparison.

Again, it has nothing to do with nostalgia. Even though there do exist the minority that find Uncharted 3 to be their favourite, the most common overall consensus is Uncharted 3 is just a weaker Uncharted 2 (in due to many aspects, which naturally does include the poorly designed fire-fights), near enough in all regards minus the multiplayer.

@LiquidPrince said:

@AhmadMetallic: I'd have to say that he has his rose tinted glasses on and is mis-remembering Uncharted 2. Uncharted 3 only has arena's in so far as if you consider the scene from Uncharted 2 where you have snipers shooting at you an arena, or the sequence in Nepal where you're with Tenzin being attacked by a tank an arena. If you considered those levels "arena"s then yeah sure. But it was essentially the same structure as Uncharted 2. Also, I beat the game quicker on Crushing then I did on normal, because in normal I was being a dick and just running around. As soon as I started playing crushing and put in the slightest thought at how I was approaching the levels, then I was breezing through the "arena" esque areas in like half the time. It's very much based on strategy and stealth until you're caught, and then quick reflexes to take out key enemies quickly. No one area outstays its welcome, or do you ever get stuck going "ahh I can't beat this 'wave'."

lol, really? The ole ''rose-tinted glasses'' nostalgia cop-out? I've played so goddamn much of Uncharted 2 (as of you, I know) that the entirety of the game is more or less wired into my memory; nostalgia has nothing to do with me believing Uncharted 3 to be inferior. That entire pirate section was an exercise in tedium and frustration, and the perfect example of when the game just opts to throw everything at you at once as you're flanked from every side with snipers, guys with GL's, a swarm of regular guys (who retain that same godly degree of accuracy), and of course the looming shotgun fucker who gets you from the back before you even realise you're little safezone has been comprised. That speaks to why they should of finally given the enemies some damn footsteps when they move; one thing I don't think many have picked up on, is that their movement is always completely silent. It didn't matter so much during Uncharted 2 because you weren't ever getting flanked so often. But if they were going to have guys manoeuvring behind you while wearing like 3 layers of armour, the least they could of done was added in some sound cues to let you know you've got Sir Shotgunalot creeping up. Drakes Fortune suffered that same problem, too, and as I've already stated in the past, the gameplay for Uncharted 3 plays as if ND actually forgotten about all of the complaints they addressed with Uncharted 2.

The gunfights just seem to stretch on for so long as well, like when you're fighting across the docks trying to reach the boat, the boat ships off as you're shot with a scripted RPG, then forced to fend against yet another large wave of guys on your way back to the other boat. And there's no quirk, no set-piece to define the combat (minus the part where you're in the ship whilst it's starting to tip over, but that's all scripted according to how many guys you kill), just you, there, fending off enemies for what no doubt felt like forever for a lot of people, dying over and over because of situations you simply can't respond to accordingly without having to of pre-empted a lot of it.

A lot of situations like that crop up from the pirates section onwards, like that god-awful sandstorm fire-fight where the small army you have to contend with are completely un-fazed by the raging storm, that'll still inconveniently blinds your own line of vision to a pretty strong degree. The part where you're on-board the cargo-plane as it's crashing down was a nightmare once you actually climbed back inside, too. Which also speaks to how overly ''focussed'' Uncharted 3 can be at times, since it's insanely difficult to actually contend with the guys waiting inside, and, from what I can tell, you were instead meant to hang back and just stay in cover (while keeping the ensuing flankers at bay, as always) until the plane finally begins to tear open. Another example is during the area with the fountain, in The City of Atlantis, where you're given complete exposure from every side, giving you little time to react for the many few times it takes to pick up on who's flanking from where ect.

Uncharted 2 only delved into those exorbitant kind of fire-fights nearing the end once you hit Shambala (the huge, open area where all of Zoran's men just just pouring down from the path from how you yourself reached it in particular), otherwise having the fire-fights more evenly spread across a chapter, with a significantly less amount of guys dawning on you at once. During Uncharted 3, it was like that for around half of the game.

That tank part doesn't compare because the bad guys wouldn't actively flank you as much and there weren't nearly as many doods around, since the design naturally expects your focus to be intended for the tank.

And sure, you play through again on any difficulty and it's going to be easier, because the huge flaw with Uncharted 3 is you learn to counter a lot of the combat scenarios through dying a lot, and picking up the patterns. Crushing wasn't all too difficult for me, either (though I still didn't enjoy it so much, because at the time the shooting still sucked), but the first playthrough (on hard mode, I should add, which I chose for Uncharted 2 during my first run and had very few frustrations) was a mess that forced me to go through a constant basis of trial-and-error basis. I'm hardly alone in this; plenty of people have complained on here about the strenuous combat portions--especially during the pirate section most of all--and many have admitted to finding Uncharted 2 relatively easy in comparison.

Again, it has nothing to do with nostalgia. Even though there do exist the minority that find Uncharted 3 to be their favourite, the most common overall consensus is Uncharted 3 is just a weaker Uncharted 2 (in due to many aspects, which naturally does include the poorly designed fire-fights), near enough in all regards minus the multiplayer.

Honestly, you'd be fucking stupid to sell your PS3 before playing this game.

SO you can't use your own judgement to justify playing the sequel to a game that "was fucking amazing and I remember looking at my TV for Uncharted 2 more than I ever looked at a TV to watch anything in my life. It's set in stone, UC2 was a masterpiece"

@AhmadMetallic: Just keep in mind that this is all extremely nit-picky stuff (most of which was just parroted from the Bombcast anyway)- the game itself is outstanding. In reality- once you get shot in the back by a shotgun wielding armored dude once, you'll know exactly where he's coming from next time (and the check-pointing is fantastic), and you'll be able to spin around and take him out with a few headshots- it's seriously not as big of a deal as others have made it out to be (it's definitely not worth writing a fucking seven paragraph essay about).

It's a great game. Just not as good as Uncharted 2. The story is.... pretty hollow. The developers admitted that they came up with the set-pieces and environments first and then created the story to fit around the art work. While the story isn't bad, it's got some pretty big holes in it, and there's an entire section of the game that adds absolutely nothing to the story and feels really out-of-place. The shooting was also worse than Uncharted 2's, but they fixed that with a patch so as long as you update your game you should be good. The multiplayer is pretty neat.

Overall, a good game. Not as good as Uncharted 2, in so many ways, but it's still good.

@AhmadMetallic: Not so good. In fact, as a devout worshiper of UC2, it left me cold.

I'm not sure about the whole 'selling your console' angle, but it certainly isn't worth going out of your way to keep if UC3 was the only thing weighing in on your decision.

Well, I think the online is pretty fun...so there's that. 

It doesn't have skins and/or cheats. This is what you need to know.

I think it is by far the best Uncharted. I think it is thematically the strongest. I think it has the best set pieces. It easily has the best AI. A point that makes it very hard for the people who like to hunker down in one spot. The final confrontation was fantastic and was not at odds with the rest of the game. My top 5 uncharted moments are from this game. It easily has the best puzzles as well.

That being said it did have wonky aiming which is unfortunate. It had far less impact than Uncharted 2. As well as some logical leaps in the story that are the definition of lazy storytelling. All in all I think it a far less consistent game than 2. Valleys are lower but the peaks are higher giving you the overall best parts of uncharted along with some parts that are unfortunately fulfilling. But in the end it is my favorite of the three.

@Abyssfull said:

@LiquidPrince said:

@AhmadMetallic: I'd have to say that he has his rose tinted glasses on and is mis-remembering Uncharted 2. Uncharted 3 only has arena's in so far as if you consider the scene from Uncharted 2 where you have snipers shooting at you an arena, or the sequence in Nepal where you're with Tenzin being attacked by a tank an arena. If you considered those levels "arena"s then yeah sure. But it was essentially the same structure as Uncharted 2. Also, I beat the game quicker on Crushing then I did on normal, because in normal I was being a dick and just running around. As soon as I started playing crushing and put in the slightest thought at how I was approaching the levels, then I was breezing through the "arena" esque areas in like half the time. It's very much based on strategy and stealth until you're caught, and then quick reflexes to take out key enemies quickly. No one area outstays its welcome, or do you ever get stuck going "ahh I can't beat this 'wave'."

lol, really? The ole ''rose-tinted glasses'' nostalgia cop-out? I've played so goddamn much of Uncharted 2 (as of you, I know) that the entirety of the game is more or less wired into my memory; nostalgia has nothing to do with me believing Uncharted 3 to be inferior. That entire pirate section was an exercise in tedium and frustration, and the perfect example of when the game just opts to throw everything at you at once as you're flanked from every side with snipers, guys with GL's, a swarm of regular guys (who retain that same godly degree of accuracy), and of course the looming shotgun fucker who gets you from the back before you even realise you're little safezone has been comprised. That speaks to why they should of finally given the enemies some damn footsteps when they move; one thing I don't think many have picked up on, is that their movement is always completely silent. It didn't matter so much during Uncharted 2 because you weren't ever getting flanked so often. But if they were going to have guys manoeuvring behind you while wearing like 3 layers of armour, the least they could of done was added in some sound cues to let you know you've got Sir Shotgunalot creeping up. Drakes Fortune suffered that same problem, too, and as I've already stated in the past, the gameplay for Uncharted 3 plays as if ND actually forgotten about all of the complaints they addressed with Uncharted 2.

The gunfights just seem to stretch on for so long as well, like when you're fighting across the docks trying to reach the boat, the boat ships off as you're shot with a scripted RPG, then forced to fend against yet another large wave of guys on your way back to the other boat. And there's no quirk, no set-piece to define the combat (minus the part where you're in the ship whilst it's starting to tip over, but that's all scripted according to how many guys you kill), just you, there, fending off enemies for what no doubt felt like forever for a lot of people, dying over and over because of situations you simply can't respond to accordingly without having to of pre-empted a lot of it.

A lot of situations like that crop up from the pirates section onwards, like that god-awful sandstorm fire-fight where the small army you have to contend with are completely un-fazed by the raging storm, that'll still inconveniently blinds your own line of vision to a pretty strong degree. The part where you're on-board the cargo-plane as it's crashing down was a nightmare once you actually climbed back inside, too. Which also speaks to how overly ''focussed'' Uncharted 3 can be at times, since it's insanely difficult to actually contend with the guys waiting inside, and, from what I can tell, you were instead meant to hang back and just stay in cover (while keeping the ensuing flankers at bay, as always) until the plane finally begins to tear open. Another example is during the area with the fountain, in The City of Atlantis, where you're given complete exposure from every side, giving you little time to react for the many few times it takes to pick up on who's flanking from where ect.

Uncharted 2 only delved into those exorbitant kind of fire-fights nearing the end once you hit Shambala (the huge, open area where all of Zoran's men just just pouring down from the path from how you yourself reached it in particular), otherwise having the fire-fights more evenly spread across a chapter, with a significantly less amount of guys dawning on you at once. During Uncharted 3, it was like that for around half of the game.

That tank part doesn't compare because the bad guys wouldn't actively flank you as much and there weren't nearly as many doods around, since the design naturally expects your focus to be intended for the tank.

And sure, you play through again on any difficulty and it's going to be easier, because the huge flaw with Uncharted 3 is you learn to counter a lot of the combat scenarios through dying a lot, and picking up the patterns. Crushing wasn't all too difficult for me, either (though I still didn't enjoy it so much, because at the time the shooting still sucked), but the first playthrough (on hard mode, I should add, which I chose for Uncharted 2 during my first run and had very few frustrations) was a mess that forced me to go through a constant basis of trial-and-error basis. I'm hardly alone in this; plenty of people have complained on here about the strenuous combat portions--especially during the pirate section most of all--and many have admitted to finding Uncharted 2 relatively easy in comparison.

Again, it has nothing to do with nostalgia. Even though there do exist the minority that find Uncharted 3 to be their favourite, the most common overall consensus is Uncharted 3 is just a weaker Uncharted 2 (in due to many aspects, which naturally does include the poorly designed fire-fights), near enough in all regards minus the multiplayer.

I so completely disagree, it's not even funny. Firstly, there are moments in Uncharted 2 that were JUST as long and arena-esque. For example the scene in the early chapters where you're trying to find the temple with Chloe and there is an area where enemies just pore in for an excessive amount of time. Or the scene right after the part where you're leaping from car to car and you have the opportunity to either fight or stealth. Or like you said, the part at the end in Shamballa with the blue people fighting with Lazervich's men. That part with the boat graveyard is one of my favorite parts because I stealth killed everyone on crushing... which made the whole mission last about half as long as it did on normal... It's just a matter of patience. If you're going to run in headlong, you're going to have a longer shootout. As for the flanking part, I'll say that I never ONCE got flanked on crushing because I was always on my toes. The enemies always ALWAYS telegraph that they are about to flank you. They don't have footsteps, but they fire their guns off randomly to let you know they're coming well before they have reached behind you.

It wasn't a matter of beating it again on crushing and knowing enemy patterns, it was a matter of being on your toes and knowing when to move. Uncharted 3 for me was almost as tightly polished and well done as Uncharted 2. Honestly most things you complained about where straight up in Uncharted 2 as well. It's just that people (you and myself included) were expecting so much of this game that it ended up being a scene by scene analysis and comparison to Uncharted 2. I wouldn't deny that because it's the honest truth. No matter how much you or I didn't want to, we were comparing every scene to Uncharted 2 to see if it stacked up, and that inherently makes the game play seemingly more frustrating because we're looking for issues.

@TooWalrus said:

@AhmadMetallic: Just keep in mind that this is all extremely nit-picky stuff (most of which was just parroted from the Bombcast anyway)- the game itself is outstanding. In reality- once you get shot in the back by a shotgun wielding armored dude once, you'll know exactly where he's coming from next time (and the check-pointing is fantastic), and you'll be able to spin around and take him out with a few headshots- it's seriously not as big of a deal as others have made it out to be (it's definitely not worth writing a fucking seven paragraph essay about).

Nice, apparently I'm now just ''parroting'' the stuff said from the bombcast? I've been complaining about the inferiorities Uncharted 3 has for a while now, and it's got nothing do with me having my judgement clouded after hearing Patrick and, I think, Vinny describe similar situations - as I'm sure that's what you're insinuating. As for the ''fucking seven paragraph essay'', I'm pretty passionate about how damn disappointing Uncharted 3 was for me, so I wanted to go in some specific-ass depth as to what I particularly disliked about it (and that's just the firefights; the derivative set-pieces, less-so-engaging storyline, melee that could get you killed more than it could save you, and the weird pacing between puzzles/combat {such as how there weren't any puzzles during the second half} weren't touched upon). The game has problems, and, again, whilst you yourself may be apart of the minority who clearly loves Uncharted 3, there's a great deal more who'll agree with me that Uncharted 3 dropped the ball in a lot of areas.

Note that I've never said Uncharted 3 is a bad game, either. In fact, it's still pretty good during some sections, but putting it side to side with Uncharted 2 only strengthens the inferiorities it has. Uncharted 2 is more-or-less a masterpiece; Uncharted 3 is something that tried too hard in some areas and tried too little in others to match that caliber, and failed.

@LiquidPrince said:

@Abyssfull said:

@LiquidPrince said:

@AhmadMetallic: I'd have to say that he has his rose tinted glasses on and is mis-remembering Uncharted 2. Uncharted 3 only has arena's in so far as if you consider the scene from Uncharted 2 where you have snipers shooting at you an arena, or the sequence in Nepal where you're with Tenzin being attacked by a tank an arena. If you considered those levels "arena"s then yeah sure. But it was essentially the same structure as Uncharted 2. Also, I beat the game quicker on Crushing then I did on normal, because in normal I was being a dick and just running around. As soon as I started playing crushing and put in the slightest thought at how I was approaching the levels, then I was breezing through the "arena" esque areas in like half the time. It's very much based on strategy and stealth until you're caught, and then quick reflexes to take out key enemies quickly. No one area outstays its welcome, or do you ever get stuck going "ahh I can't beat this 'wave'."

lol, really? The ole ''rose-tinted glasses'' nostalgia cop-out? I've played so goddamn much of Uncharted 2 (as of you, I know) that the entirety of the game is more or less wired into my memory; nostalgia has nothing to do with me believing Uncharted 3 to be inferior. That entire pirate section was an exercise in tedium and frustration, and the perfect example of when the game just opts to throw everything at you at once as you're flanked from every side with snipers, guys with GL's, a swarm of regular guys (who retain that same godly degree of accuracy), and of course the looming shotgun fucker who gets you from the back before you even realise you're little safezone has been comprised. That speaks to why they should of finally given the enemies some damn footsteps when they move; one thing I don't think many have picked up on, is that their movement is always completely silent. It didn't matter so much during Uncharted 2 because you weren't ever getting flanked so often. But if they were going to have guys manoeuvring behind you while wearing like 3 layers of armour, the least they could of done was added in some sound cues to let you know you've got Sir Shotgunalot creeping up. Drakes Fortune suffered that same problem, too, and as I've already stated in the past, the gameplay for Uncharted 3 plays as if ND actually forgotten about all of the complaints they addressed with Uncharted 2.

The gunfights just seem to stretch on for so long as well, like when you're fighting across the docks trying to reach the boat, the boat ships off as you're shot with a scripted RPG, then forced to fend against yet another large wave of guys on your way back to the other boat. And there's no quirk, no set-piece to define the combat (minus the part where you're in the ship whilst it's starting to tip over, but that's all scripted according to how many guys you kill), just you, there, fending off enemies for what no doubt felt like forever for a lot of people, dying over and over because of situations you simply can't respond to accordingly without having to of pre-empted a lot of it.

A lot of situations like that crop up from the pirates section onwards, like that god-awful sandstorm fire-fight where the small army you have to contend with are completely un-fazed by the raging storm, that'll still inconveniently blinds your own line of vision to a pretty strong degree. The part where you're on-board the cargo-plane as it's crashing down was a nightmare once you actually climbed back inside, too. Which also speaks to how overly ''focussed'' Uncharted 3 can be at times, since it's insanely difficult to actually contend with the guys waiting inside, and, from what I can tell, you were instead meant to hang back and just stay in cover (while keeping the ensuing flankers at bay, as always) until the plane finally begins to tear open. Another example is during the area with the fountain, in The City of Atlantis, where you're given complete exposure from every side, giving you little time to react for the many few times it takes to pick up on who's flanking from where ect.

Uncharted 2 only delved into those exorbitant kind of fire-fights nearing the end once you hit Shambala (the huge, open area where all of Zoran's men just just pouring down from the path from how you yourself reached it in particular), otherwise having the fire-fights more evenly spread across a chapter, with a significantly less amount of guys dawning on you at once. During Uncharted 3, it was like that for around half of the game.

That tank part doesn't compare because the bad guys wouldn't actively flank you as much and there weren't nearly as many doods around, since the design naturally expects your focus to be intended for the tank.

And sure, you play through again on any difficulty and it's going to be easier, because the huge flaw with Uncharted 3 is you learn to counter a lot of the combat scenarios through dying a lot, and picking up the patterns. Crushing wasn't all too difficult for me, either (though I still didn't enjoy it so much, because at the time the shooting still sucked), but the first playthrough (on hard mode, I should add, which I chose for Uncharted 2 during my first run and had very few frustrations) was a mess that forced me to go through a constant basis of trial-and-error basis. I'm hardly alone in this; plenty of people have complained on here about the strenuous combat portions--especially during the pirate section most of all--and many have admitted to finding Uncharted 2 relatively easy in comparison.

Again, it has nothing to do with nostalgia. Even though there do exist the minority that find Uncharted 3 to be their favourite, the most common overall consensus is Uncharted 3 is just a weaker Uncharted 2 (in due to many aspects, which naturally does include the poorly designed fire-fights), near enough in all regards minus the multiplayer.

I so completely disagree, it's not even funny. Firstly, there are moments in Uncharted 2 that were JUST as long and arena-esque. For example the scene in the early chapters where you're trying to find the temple with Chloe and there is an area where enemies just pore in for an excessive amount of time. Or the scene right after the part where you're leaping from car to car and you have the opportunity to either fight or stealth. Or like you said, the part at the end in Shamballa with the blue people fighting with Lazervich's men. That part with the boat graveyard is one of my favorite parts because I stealth killed everyone on crushing... which made the whole mission last about half as long as it did on normal... It's just a matter of patience. If you're going to run in headlong, you're going to have a longer shootout. As for the flanking part, I'll say that I never ONCE got flanked on crushing because I was always on my toes. The enemies always ALWAYS telegraph that they are about to flank you. They don't have footsteps, but they fire their guns off randomly to let you know they're coming well before they have reached behind you.

It wasn't a matter of beating it again on crushing and knowing enemy patterns, it was a matter of being on your toes and knowing when to move. Uncharted 3 for me was almost as tightly polished and well done as Uncharted 2. Honestly most things you complained about where straight up in Uncharted 2 as well. It's just that people (you and myself included) were expecting so much of this game that it ended up being a scene by scene analysis and comparison to Uncharted 2. I wouldn't deny that because it's the honest truth. No matter how much you or I didn't want to, we were comparing every scene to Uncharted 2 to see if it stacked up, and that inherently makes the game play seemingly more frustrating because we're looking for issues.

Do you usually find it funny when you disagree with somebody? GUFFAAAAAAAW

Anywhoo at this point I imagine it's just going to around in circles. I mean I also completely disagree with a lot of what you've put up here. For example they don't fire their guns off when they're close by behind you unless they're firing them at you, which of course would give you cause to get outta there, but as soon as you leave the cover there's a whole squadron on the outside ready to gun you down if you're not able to react knowing exactly where you should go for safety. Like I said, following playthroughs would become much easier because of all the times I died during my first playthrough and were forced to adapt to a very thin line of opportunity. I'm also not one to just bunker down for an entire fire-fight, either. In fact, moving around the environment could also get me killed easily enough, because I wouldn't know where the spawns were, or were, whilst in this new position, the looming flankers would arrive. I'm addressing all of this speaking with my original playthrough, you have to remember and how it speaks to endure all of it with a fresh mind for everything. And the infuriating fire-fights left me downright hating my time with Uncharted 3's single-player campaign at first--though that sandstorm part is still complete and utter BS everytime I played through it. In comparison to Uncharted 2 (which I also played on Hard mode from the get-go) I goddamn ravished my time with Uncharted 2 and headed straight back in once I completed it; for Uncharted 3, I actually got fed up during that very example on the docks, when you're attempting to board the boat, and played some multiplayer instead.

The similarities towards Uncharted 2 just don't resonate with me, either. There were times where you would have to contend against a lot of enemies, sure, but they were significantly more manageable because they never threw so much variety at you until the ending parts, where the game does just dump everything on your lap at once.

But again, you're going to disagree with all that, and I'll disagree with whatever you rebuttal with because we're both clearly aligned with our own mindset for Uncharted 3. Since this was, originally, a thread to recommend for Ahmad, I will say he should at the very least rent it if that's possible (and be grateful that you'll at least get the superior shooting to play with) and decide for yourself. Or take a gamble and buy it full price, or lend it off of someone, or anything.

Because Uncharted 3 has evidently become so polarising and can spawn such wildly differing opinions, it's vital that everyone play it for themselves to see which side they reside on. I'm personally that much of an Uncharted fan that I would of gladly bought Uncharted 3 for full price even had I known just what was packed in the campaign, and because the multiplayer and cooperative modes are also pretty fantastic, too, and some of the best on the PS3. Plus, there's always easy mode.

The bottom line: don't sell your PS3. At the very least there's ND's new Last of Us game hopefully coming out next year, after all. Also like I've already said earlier, inFAMOUS 2 is brilliant and personally one of my top 5 for this year. Only downside to that is that there's not as many motion-comic cutscenes.

Its great, the Giant Bomb guys seem kind of down on it a lot, but its a fantastic game.

Also don't be crazy, don't sell your PS3.

• Little Big Planet.
• Heavenly Sword.
• MGS4.
• inFamous 2.
• Ratchet and Clank games.
• Resistance Fall of Man/3

Also Blu Rays..

@Abyssfull: Fair enough. I respectfully disagree with your opinion. Ultimately though, even if you had slight issues with it, it is still unlike another game on the market, and Ahmad would be missing out on what I feel is one of the best games ever created, if he didn't play it. Uncharted 2 was my favorite game of all time, and while I can't say that 3 supplanted it, I can say that it is right up there standing next to it.

I can't be the only one who hated the kid drake parts, after that I just couldn't seem to get in a good groove with the game. Once I got to the plane I ended up glitched inside a box in the cargo hold. Something felt off about it and like the crew said on the Bombcast it might have been because some of the key people who made UC2 are off making The Last of Us.

Personally I think it's better than U2 in almost every single aspect, but the "freshness" of the franchise just isn't there anymore. 

Personally I think it's better than U2 in almost every single aspect, but the "freshness" of the franchise just isn't there anymore. 

• Best story, more cohesive and better realized: Uncharted 1.
• Best overall gameplay: Uncharted 2.
• Best overall locations and set pieces: Uncharted 3.

Uncharted 3 is an amazing experience. Just because it doesn't reach the heights of U2 does not mean it's a bad game on any level.

I haven't yet played Uncharted 3 unfortunately, but I think it'll be better than two, 'cause I didn't really enjoy playing that game too much. I was disappointed in it, I loved the original. I've said it, and I'll say it again, I know, I'm in the minority on that one. Others will say I probably won't like three, but I still want it.

uncharted 3 is a really good game. sometimes its hard to put in perspective how good it really is because it has a lot to live up to. 
 
case in point, i think I had fun with it

The game would have benefited from another year in development. The pacing is the biggest culprit
 
Characters show up for the first half of the game only to never be mentioned or seen/heard from again in the latter half and vice versa 
 
Complete characters, chapters and set pieces serve no purpose in advancing the plot. Only to show off the tech. This is evident due to the fact that before the games' release, one of the developers in a gametrailers interview said that they often thought of amazing set pieces and then wrote the story around them.
 
First half of the game is front loaded with puzzles and second half is loaded with tons of shooting. 
 
Probably the most interesting and mysterious character, who is present for the entirety of the game, is never developed. Not even in the slightest. He's kind of just....there 
 
Any personal revelations/epiphanies that Drake comes to at the end of the story feel rushed and disingenuous

@hbkdx12: I agree with this mostly, the game was super uneven with it's plot and with the distribution of the gameplay.

Also the stakes didn't really seem as high as UC2. Lazarevic was a lot more threatening and his evil ploy would have changed history forever.

Uncharted 3 was good enough. I adjusted to the shooting before it was patched, it really wasn't bad anyways. Just had to plan.

Infamous 2 I am bitter about not because it wasn't a great game..it was despite some weak story stuff. Just remember to save like a PC game. I got screwed at the end, and did not finish it. But I DID enjoy it, immensely. Guess I am saving the dlc for next holloween…

I was a little disappointed but I didn't have a great reason to be. In most ways it was essentially Uncharted 2 part 2. I think the story was worse and there were a lot of plot problems. But the gameplay was essentially Uncharted 2 again. But with Uncharted 2 the experience was unexpected. Part of what made the game so great was how unexpected the quality, scale, and action was. Uncharted 3 did the same basic thing but it didn't have the same sense of surprise with it. There are actual objective reasons why 3 wasn't as good as 2. But the subjective reasons really hold the game back. All this said it was a really cool game and I don't regret buying it.