Uncharted: Drake's Fortune Interview

We talk to Naughty Dog design lead Richard Lemarchand to find out more about one of the most promising games on the PlayStation 3. Incredible new screenshots inside!

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Kikizo: Is Nathan the only playable character? Will we be able to control Elena at any time?

Lemarchand: Nathan is the only playable character in the game, but there's a lot of allied gameplay involving his companions Elena and Sullivan who will help Drake out of sticky situations - or be helped out by him - in a whole load of different action and puzzle situations.

Kikizo: Will there be any online components?

Lemarchand: Uncharted is a single-player game only, but we will have some special online components. We're currently evaluating the awesome tools that Sony have given us to see what new tricks we can pull out of the bag to delight players with a networked PS3.

Kikizo: Will you have Trophies or any other Home content?

Lemarchand: You bet - although of course I'm not going to tell you what; that would spoil the surprise! People who enjoyed some of the crazy Easter eggs we put in the Jak games will be in for a treat.

Kikizo: How will Sixaxis controls be implemented? Do you feel compelled to try to use them because they're there?

Lemarchand: The Sixaxis feature of the PS3 controller is a great piece of technology, and we're using it in a number of different ways, including during the balance-beam sections of our traversal gameplay, in our grenade-throwing mechanics, and in the steering of vehicles.

We feel like we've only just begun to explore its full potential, though, and I think that we'll be seeing future games that take gestural control as a core mechanic and run with it to some really interesting and innovative places.

Kikizo: Do you feel developers are tapping into the true power of the PS3 yet? How are you going to take it further?

Lemarchand: The PlayStation 3 is absolutely unprecedented as a piece of video game hardware - its unique Cell processor architecture is making things possible that previous generations of game developers have only dreamt of, and I think this next generation of titles is going to blow a lot of minds.

We've been incredibly lucky to have some of Naughty Dog's key programmers involved in the development of Sony's proprietary game-creation tools, and that's given us a huge leg-up in terms of how far ahead of the curve we are with the machine.

I think that we're already quite a way ahead of where we were last generation, in terms of what kind of performance we're pulling out of the hardware; but what gets us really excited is thinking about the vast untapped potential that the machine still has.

Kikizo: There's been a debate recently about the usefulness of previews. What is your take?

Lemarchand: Sometimes developers get forced to show their games before they're ready, and that's usually a mistake. Speaking for Naughty Dog, we're lucky in that we figure out our deadlines very carefully so that we always have something new and exciting to show, and that helps us drive the whole course of the development of our games.

Kikizo: Is there anything else you would like our readers to know?

Lemarchand: That we're working round the clock to make Uncharted the title that gamers absolutely have to own this holiday season!

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Uncharted: Drake's Fortune will be out only for PlayStation 3 towards the end of the year.

Click here for Kikizo's interview archive.