STACK NZ May #73

GAMES FEATURE

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UNEARTHED Finders keepers! If only that were true. The Cuerdale Hoard Back in 1840, a team of builders were busy repairing the embankment of the River Ribble near Preston, Lancashire, UK when they unearthed 40kg of Viking silver including coins, jewelry and ingots. Over 8,600 items had been buried in a lead chest and the coins dated the hoard to between 905 and 910AD. The Panagyurishte Treasure In 1949, three brothers working for a tile company in Bulgaria were sifting clay when they stumbled across a priceless hoard of Thracian treasure. The nine solid gold items, weighing 6.1 kg and dating back to the fourth century BC, were thought to be vessels for serving ceremonial wine during royal rituals.

Delayed more times than a Melbourne train, Uncharted 4: AThief’s End is almost here.We spoke with Naughty Dog community manager Arne Meyer, as Uncharted fans prepare to guide Nathan Drake on his last great adventure.

"W e’ve created a series that the strength of it comes from the fact that our characters are very down to earth and approachable – when you’re playing the games, you’re feeling what the characters on screen feel as well. There's a genuine connection between you and the game.” That’s how director of communications at Naughty Dog, Arne Meyer, describes the continued allure of Sony’s enduring flagship franchise. Uncharted first appeared on PS3 in 2007 to critical acclaim. Developer Naughty Dog fused Indiana Jones together with Lara Croft, and the result was Nathan Drake. His adventures continued on PS3 up until 2011’s Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception . Last year the studio brought the entire collection together, remastered for PS4, in preparation for the charismatic treasure hunter's final adventure and the first full game to feature on Sony’s eighth-gen console. Reflecting the challenges synonymous with negotiating the puzzles in the games, the development of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End has been a hard road for the developer. Hindered with the aforementioned delays and departing staff, including head writer Amy Hennig, who left to join Visceral Games, the studio had to dig deep. “There’s no doubt that there’s some challenges around [the development], but I think everyone stepped up,” says Meyer. “Everyone pitched in with it, especially with the writing.” “While the story was written by Neil really marries narrative and gameplay in a satisfying way;

Druckmann and Josh Scherr, internally, people would see the cutscenes come in and provide feedback on the story. We were always sharing what the story was and getting more feedback, and this extended to the actors as well; they know the characters almost better than anyone because they’ve had to live through it during the live performances, table reads and

taking them to the next level in a different way. We’re not trying to outdo ourselves by coming up with crazier scenarios, but rather stringing together a lot of these elements you may have seen before in creating longer, more epic sequences. “I think we really found our stride in terms of marrying narrative and gameplay and having them feel organic as you go between one and the other, and creating a game that you don’t want to stand up from playing. We believe we’ve really gotten to the point where we feel we’ve mastered it quite a bit.” You have to ask why the studio, after admitting that they’ve finally “mastered” the game, are turning their back on Uncharted. An anticipated fourth game ready for release, comics, a novel, and even a film adaptation in the works would suggest that there’s plenty of opportunity to extend the universe. But not under Naughty Dog’s guidance, or even with Nathan Drake in the lead role. So the question on everyone's lips is will Nathan Drake will be killed off at the end of Uncharted 4 ? “I can’t reveal anything about the story,” replies a pensive Meyer. “You’ll have to play the game and see, but I will say, for our subtitles, we’ve always made sure they’ve had double or triple meanings. “So, just because the title

GAMES

Just because the title is A Thief’s End, it doesn’t necessarily mean you know which thief meets an end.

• Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is out May 10

The Caesarea Sunken Treasure Members of a diving club exploring a Roman- era port in Israel thought they spotted a toy coin. What they had actually uncovered was a haul of 2,000 gold coins lost at sea 1,000 years ago. A winter storm is believed to have uncovered the sunken treasure.

performance capture.

“It’s definitely been a collaborative effort in every aspect of our game.” For close to ten years, the

Uncharted series has innovated the adventure genre, introducing nascent gameplay features and leading players through some of the best cinematic blockbuster moments seen in video games. And Meyer is excited about what the “change in console technology has afforded” the studio. “The PS4 enabled us to really layer a lot of the gameplay to create these over the top action set pieces,

is A Thief’s End, it doesn’t necessarily mean you know which thief meets an end.”

MAY 2016

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