SolidSnakex
Member
Kinan said:I made a compilation of arne's responses in U3 Multiplayer thread:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=27249209&postcount=794
Full version (with questions and pictures) is also here:
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B5hisZHAAsomNzI4YThiMjgtNzM1YS00MzE0LWE0YTYtYWQ2NjAzYTVmODI2&hl=en
We revealed two of our new competitive modes, along with the perennial favorite Team Deathmatch. One is Three Team Deathmatch, which is a small-team 2 vs. 2 vs. 2 variation on Team Deathmatch. The other is the oft-requested Free For All with every player out for themselves. Over the months left until release thats about six-and-a-half months if youre counting well detail all of our competitive modes.
As youre looking to get into matches, weve made some updates to make it easier to get into games quicker, and with your friends. The first is Late Join, which is a staple of many online games and for good reason. It ensures that matches stay full, that you can get into matches faster and you can get into your friends matches faster if theres a slot for you, instead of waiting for your friend to finish their current round. Weve heard that many of you want to play with a friend on the same couch and were really proud to say that we were able to not only implement same-console split screen but you can log into two independent PSN IDs for most gametypes the ones you cant are to prevent unfair collusion between players.
Playing with friends and creating a team environment is extremely important for us and were trying to encourage this with the Buddy system. Each player will be partnered with a Buddy and youll be able to collectively share your successes throughout the match with each other. You can even pick up Treasures more on that later for your Buddy. The Buddy system also allows you to choose to spawn on your Buddy if they are safely out of combat so you can jump into the action together quicker. This is key since most of our game modes are all about team play and teams that stick together will do far better than teams who dont.
New to Uncharted 3 multiplayer is character customization. Both heroes and villains skins will have a hundreds of customizable parts, from accessories to shirts and pants to a deep weapon customization feature. Even named characters, like Drake or Sully, will get plenty of options to make your character your own. Hand in hand with customization is our emblem editor. If youve worked with emblem editors in other games, youll be pretty familiar with the one weve implemented in Uncharted 3. Our emblem editor extends the level of customization of your online profile with hundreds of decals, three layers, rotate and scale functions youll see your final emblem on your character and even possibly in the environment during matches.
Speaking of weapon customizations it goes beyond the cosmetic. We have weapon mods that not only change the look of your weapon of choice, but they are functional too, adding precise scopes, bigger clips and more!
Boosters are back in Uncharted 3, but we didnt just carry over the Booster selection from Uncharted 2. There are a few old favorites in there, but weve created what we feel is a more satisfying mix of old and new based on your feedback and selection patterns. Weve extended the Booster system with a special subset of Paid Boosters, give you a one-time Booster that you spend some cash to have the option of using during a match. Theres still other ways to get minor advantages during a match. You have to option to select a specific Medal Kickback, which activate when youve racked up the required number of Medals for that specific Kickback. You can see this in the Multiplayer Trailer when the RPG Kickback is activated at 00:50 into the video. Youre taking a little chance when you select these, as some really choice Kickbacks require you to get a significant number of Medals before you can activate them.
All of these customization and modifier options allowed us to extend our in-game reward system. No longer is everything tied to level gain or cash. During matches, youll have the opportunity to get items from treasure chests on the maps. Youll also be able unlock a wide variety of items and modifiers through Missions. There are two types of Missions some are instant missions and others, accessible from the Multiplayer menu, are more long term. Instant missions can appear in the middle of a match and provide a target that you can complete within a few matches tops. The Missions you select from the Multiplayer menu will take significantly more time, days of playtime possibly, and the rewards will be accordingly more significant.
A couple of things weve learned over the past year and a half of reviewing thousands upon thousands of Uncharted 2 matches is that it really sucks to be blown out on the way to losing a match and that winning or losing a tightly contested match by some kill made way off-screen is a bit of a letdown. Weve thought of some ways to make these inevitable multiplayer moments a bit more exciting and satisfying. Power Plays activate when one team is way behind in the score count. They provide the team on top with an opportunity to maximize their cash for the match, while evening the odds a little for the team on the losing end of the equation and giving them the opportunity to close the gap a little.
If matches are too close to call as they get close to the end, Overtime will activate, giving either time an opportunity to win the match by more than one point within a limited time. If the game is still too close to call, the match enters Sudden Death. Sudden Death is similar to Elimination there are no respawns and the last player standing wins the match for their team.
Weve also made it easier to share your passion for Uncharted 3 multiplayer with your real life friends and family through social media hooks weve added to the game. Weve integrated Facebook into the game in a way unseen on a console game so far way more than just sharing videos and photos, or updates to your Wall. USA Today has an exclusive look at our plans to bring social networks into Uncharted 3. Cinema mode has gotten a revamp allowing you to create clips from full matches and upload them directly to your own YouTube OR Facebook account (or both). Were streaming a tightly curated list of awesome Uncharted videos created by you our community back into your multiplayer menu via Uncharted TV. Well have more details on all of the above over the next few days.
Oh yeah, and we have a brand new Sprint button. Dont hate on it until youve had a chance to go hands on! We feel it works extremely well and, of course, weve built Uncharted 3 multiplayer to take into account that you can sprint.
Weve spent a lot of time talking about competitive multiplayer, but what about co-op? Fear not, co-op is most definitely IN Uncharted 3 multiplayer and it too has been vastly expanded upon. We didnt cover anything co-op related at our multiplayer event last week everything and anything co-op will be revealed further down the line.
When can you get a crack at Uncharted 3 multiplayer? In just a couple of months the Multiplayer Beta for Uncharted 3 begins WORLDWIDE on June 28, 2011, with early access for PlayStation Plus members or by purchasing specially marked copies of Infamous 2.
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/04/18/uncharted-3-multiplayer-modes-detailed/
http://www.viddler.com/explore/sceablog/videos/1791/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyZJqx1lL4Q
Previews:
A cargo plane accelerates down a runway with Drake and his compatriots stowed away inside. As the rear door yawns wide-open, a convoy of terrorist-carrying trucks is in hot pursuit.
The vehicles draw up to the craft, weaving in and out at high speed, as machine-gun wielding passengers leap recklessly between them to gain a better vantage point. Drake's group engages the enemy in a fierce battle as bullets and grenades burst into fireworks of carnage.
Suddenly, a second plane swoops into view, weapons flaring. There's a massive explosion as the rear-most truck bursts into flames and carousels spectacularly upwards, almost colliding with the airborne craft. The cargo door draws up. Drake is away. Or is he?
It's a sequence of typical cinematic flair from Naughty Dog. And if you didn't know any better, you'd swear it was a set-piece from Uncharted 3's campaign. But the first dead giveaway is the four Drakes on the plane. What I've just described is in fact the opening of a multiplayer map - one you'll be able to play in two months' time as part of the upcoming beta.
"We're showing we can take our epic, action-adventure feel from single-player into multiplayer," says game director Justin Richmond. "We got a little bit of that feeling last time, but this time we're really pushing that and making it feel like it's something new and different that people haven't seen in the multiplayer arena before."
Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells chips in: "We've improved our multiplayer technology now to allow networkable moving objects and really open up the opportunities for the designers to come up with some great experiences."
Let's get into the game itself. Two maps are available at the event: Airstrip and Chateau. The former is the one already described; after that set-piece it cuts to a more familiar multiplayer setting. The latter is set in and around the fire-damaged chateau seen in the single-player footage previously released.
Two main modes of play are available today: 5 vs. 5 Team Deathmatch (there's a 10-player limit in MP) and the all-new Three Team Deathmatch, which pits three teams of two against each other. It's a brilliant addition, encouraging a surprising degree of tactical play from the off, even amongst rival journalists thrust together by fate.
This is aided by a respawn system that gives the option to respawn as normal or near a team-mate if they're not currently engaged in a battle. Alongside promoting co-operation, Naughty Dog also wants to bring balance to team-based games, mainly to stop it being quite as humiliatingly pointless for the losing side in an obvious mismatch.
The 'Player Balancing' system introduces Power Plays, which kick in when one side builds a clear lead. Examples include Elimination, which temporarily stops one side from respawning, and Exposed, which reveals the locations of the opposing team.
He adds: "We want to make it much more personal, so: I uploaded a screenshot that I think is cool; I put a clip online that I think is awesome." A new set of editing tools will facilitate this, enabling the creation of highlights reels and so on, which can be uploaded directly to Facebook or YouTube.
Additionally, Uncharted TV will live in the online interface, serving up Naughty Dog-produced content and the best of the community's efforts.
"We wanted to add split-screen to our multiplayer - it was a very important feature, the very first thing we started tackling when we started Uncharted 3 multiplayer," he explains. "We knew that we were going to have two points of view anyway, so that's basically all 3D is: rendering in the left eye and the right eye".
A nice touch here is that both participants in a split-screen game can sign in separately with their PSN IDs, ensuring no-one loses out on progression bonuses.
With Naughty Dog saying nothing about co-op missions for now (other than they're coming), that, for now, is everything we know about multiplayer. It's all looking as comprehensive, confident and compelling as one would hope. And that's before we've even had a play of the main adventure.
"We've got some pretty big plans for E3," Wells concludes with a grin. Excited yet?
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-04-18-uncharted-3-multiplayer-hands-on
