Naughty Dog's Evan Wells talks writing, pacing of Uncharted 2

Yeah, I'm actually happy FF XIII is more linear. Change can be a good thing.

From everything I know about FF13, there's pleeeeenty to complain about. No need for people to pick something as stupid as linearity. Besides...it's an FF game, of course it's going to be linear.

Hey, Tmac, you're going to want to complain about this.

http://www.finalfantasyunion.com/news/ps3xbox-360-final-fantasy-xiii-differences-confirmed--758.html

It's on a bunch of other websites, and it came from Famitsu, so it's fairly legitimate.

"From everything I know about FF13"

See, there is your's and the rest of the hate-mongering internet's problem:

You don't know very much. : (

Come back after you've given it some play time, okay? (Though I'm sure it won't matter since the title won't change to Mass Effect 2 between now and then.)

T-Mac was going to complain about Final Fantasy because 1. it's a JRPG and 2. It's not Mass Effect 2. It's like if you have someone that says they hate sports games ... but then you argue with them over the new version of Madden. Doesn't do anyone any good. He doesn't like JRPGs or Japanese developers in general so his mind is fairly made up in that regard. If someone hates 3rd person shooters / action games you aren't going to tell them how great Uncharted 2 & Mass Effect 2 are and why they should like them ... it'd be silly.

come on now tmac, what happened to you ? how can you live with yourself? You used to be cool...now you're getting into gangs, man-whores and cocaine. Not to mention the bag of hashish I found, that you left behind..whats up man? Why are you always down, and become such an asshat since they banned you ? trying to act tough? Cuz its not working..... only makes you look more like douche.. I love you man, but time to go to the show Intervention and get yourself fixed up.



Ps: that grey color font really makes things sad and worse =((

I know all about the game because I went and looked it up, all of the flaws and supposed "strengths". There's a laundry list of issues I can make. Question is can I do it without going into spoiler detail, cause even though I have beyond 0 interest in FF anymore I'm not going to be a dick and spoil it.

You won't hurt me with it, tmac. I've already done beat the game. :B

55 hours of gameplay and counting. Does Mass Effect last that long?

I'm playing AC2 right now, having played U2 earlier in the year. And I've come to the same conclusion.

I like both games. I like the exploratory aspect of AC2. But the non-linearity means that 75% of the things you do have no real impact on the plot and thus don't really do anything for the story. It makes the story feel like it's stretched thin. This is in contrast to Uncharted 2 where everything you do drives the story forward a notch, it means the story feels much stronger and driven.

So I like sandbox games, but I also like story-driven games and right now sandbox games don't feel as much like a tight movie-like story like a more linear, scripted game.

I'm glad there are both kinds out there and that there are so many good single player games to play this year that I have to choose between them.

By the way ... I'm not saying there is anything wrong with not liking Final Fantasy or JRPGs. Just saying who cares if he doesn't like them?

@ why not the LS2LS7?

I'll upvote to that! Cheers.

Fifty-five hours, huh? Finally, another game where it's equal (or at least very close) to a dollar per hour of entertainment!

You know what I'm playing this year? Mass Effect 2 -AND- Final Fantasy XIII. One on 360 and one on PS3. Crazy, I know. Two consoles, two region's RPGs, hope I don't end up loving them both.

Grow up and blow away tmac.

Not that I need to defend myself, but I have been playing Mass Effect on PC to get ready for ME2.

I mean, only fanboys would bash on a game before they try it, right?

You know, Big Fat, multiple endings was happening in 1995 Square RPG's...it's not solely ME2 territory.

"55 hours of gameplay and counting. Does Mass Effect last that long?"

God I couldn't imagine stomaching a modern jrpg for 55 hours. ME2's supposed to be 40ish, but I'll gladly take 40 high quality hours of that over FF.

As much as I like BioWare, they've got a bad habit of seriously overrating the time it takes to complete their games. KotOR was what, 60 hours? I speedran through it in under 16. ME1 was supposed to be pretty long, yet wasn't. I'll be happy if ME2 has 20 hours at most.

Also just about everyone who's beat the game on the neogaf thread said it took them roughly 40 hours, which is still an unbearable amount of time for a jrpg nowadays but it still proves they're about equal length.

Not that I even know what you're point was, saying 1 is longer than the other like that makes it a good thing.

"Mass Effect has multiple playthoughs where each time you can new dialog and a overall new experience.

FF linearity dosnt allow that."


Personally I'd rather play through a linear game once than play through a game simply for new dialog. Sure you can change the ending, but I'd rather have one great ending that feels well scripted in than 4-5 endings that are interchangeable.

Not saying Mass Effect has poorly thrown in endings, but just that I'd rather have one great linear story throughout with one ending.

Is it so wrong to like and want both types of experiences?

A good linear story isn't exclusive to books or movies. Uncharted 2 itself is a great example. It has a set story, but is fun to play through.

I just never was a big fan of choose your own adventure type games that encourage replaying them to see all the endings.

Thats not true at all, Big Fat. In fact, what you are describing is also a book and its called "choose your own adventure." Not every game has to follow a specific formula to be relevant to the modern definition of a game. A game is supposed to be whatever the creators of that game intended it to be. A pre-requisite isn't that the world conforms to the players decisions or morphs based on their decisions. Thats a specific type of game but your very own avatar (Mario) is without a doubt the biggest franchise in the history of video games and it's as linear as it gets.

I agree that I'd rather have a well defined canned experience than a game I replay again just for different dialogue. I think it's just a matter of preference but its not strictly bound by any kind of rigid paramaters. When you have a linear experience it's typically a better experience because its scripted.

BigFat: Are you talking to me?

I said I like both.

And neither type of game can fulfill both of my needs. If there were only linear games I'd get no fill of exploration. If there were only sandbox games I wouldn't get what I want in terms of storytelling.

Maybe someday in the future someone will find a way to put both of these aspects in one type of game. But it hasn't been done yet, so at least as far as I am concerned neither type of game can eliminate the need for the existence of the other.

And it isn't like in sandbox games you really affect the outcome anyway. There's only one ending. I chased Tenpenny off a cliff at the end of GTA: San Andreas, did you? We all did. So my choice isn't between a strong story that only goes one place and the ability to choose my own direction. It's between a strong story that only goes one place and a stretched-out, watered-down story that only goes one place but has a lot of stops in the middle which don't advance that story in any noticeable way.

There's a good story and there's a good experience.

A book, movie or lineral game can have a great story. Action packed, edge on your seat ride and experience. An exceptional one can make you get off the ride wanting to get back in line again.

A game has the potential to transend that to be not only a great game and a great experience. One that allows a user to not only experience an awesome story and adventure but to become more apart of the ficiton.

I think both are valid types of games serving a different purpose. I wouldn't say one is better than the other, but one definetly lends itself to more play throughs. The Uncharted series sets out to be a blockbuster type experience and it does exactly that. No complaints.

It wasn't my GOTY but it was a great game.

tmac, you're like yahtzee except i don't if you talk in a really fast voice and you both hate a lot of games and only like a few.

that's why i heart you.

Uncharted 2 was bad-ass.


There, it's settled.




Sorry about your Inbox, Wiizer. :-p

Most if not all games are linear. Some people complain about things being being to scripted and the finny thing is games that are open world or free roaming are the most scripted because you have to make a bunch of paths to get the illusion of of choice.

If there's a goal then its linear because there's a path.

So the 360 version of FF13 will have compressed video cutscenes... this is a big deal why? I'm getting it for PS3 but its not like this will affect the 360 version at all. Unlike Bayonetta on PS3 where the problems actually do affect the gameplay.

IF they're compressed, they won't be 1080p. Lame.

@deaftly

Do you not buy games for the 360 anymore? I only ask because I always see you on PSN playing all the new multiplatforms like dj hero, mw2 etc ... what happened? I'm honestly just curious what changed.

Bayonetta was a lazy port ... I think Sony is helping with the visuals before the games release. Supposedly the entire port was made by peeps who didn't work on the game at all. That's sad.

@Darth

So what if they're not 1080p. The PS3 version runs at native 720p so what's the point in it. That's lame. Of course you can force the PS3 to upscale to 1080p but we all know how crap that makes the games look. Plus lossless audio?? Really? I'm sure the 100 or so people who own a setup able to appreciate that will be happy. If that's the only difference then I don't think any 360 owner should or will give a shit.

I do buy games for both but the reason I buy some multiplats for PS3 is the fact that I know it'll have DLC I want and with a 20 gig hdd on my 360 and maybe 2 gigs left I dont want to lose that space (not in the mood to blow the money for a new hdd). I put a 160 gig in the PS3 when I got it so space isn't an issue there. Anyway when you don't see me playing MW2 on PS3, I'll be on 360 playing L4D2. Both get their love equally.

I'll take the heat and agree with tmac on this one. I've played every Square RPG this generation, even titles like Crisis Core and TWEWY, which both rated quite highly, in addition to the PS3 import version of FFXIII and SO4: TLH.

Square has really failed to evolve their ways of making a JRPG. They've also failed at manking any JRPG that can stand the test of time this and most of last generation. The characters are all horribly cliched and voiced quite poorly, especially many in FFXIII and SO4 (oh god, the headache). I actually like Lightning, though. I think she is a good character and well voiced. Sadly, however, they still plague the cast with a bunch of generic anime/JRPG cliches that you can never feel anything for.

I have no problem whatsoever with the layout of the game, be it linear or more open, but I do have a problem with the way they go about creating characters and voicing them. An RPG is supposed to heavily focus on story, thus the characters are such an integral part of that. When something happens to one of those characters, you're supposed to feel for them. But Square's creations on a large scale are so horribly cliche and annoying to listen to, that it's hard to care in the end.

Take a game that Heavy Rain for example. All the characters in that game are very normal. Nothing about them is "special". They all look like the average joe with average jobs, which allows their performances to be more human, and due to the fact that they take the time to build up these human characters in such a detailed manner, you actually care when something happens.

I just think many JRPG devs need to try to create more characters that you can relate to. We don't need more anime convention cliches. Let's see more unique characters that are voiced well and have some heart.

Also, before people start saying, "I thought Naughty Dog said they maxed out the Ps3?"

Well, that's true: http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/11/naughty-dog-maxed-out-the-ps3-with-uncharted-2/


But, it was Amy Hennig which has no affiliation with the tech side of Naughty Dog... At least not as much as Evan Wells does...

Well, it maxed it out at the current moment. But as Wells basically said, the game isn't tightly optimized to really push the CBE under the hood. I think we've got a while before that beast is tapped out.

I think they said they got to use more power than the fisrt title but not to 100%. I think I remember them saying 98%, which isn't a lot. BUT its not short of anything great! I mean the graphics and detail that went into this game is just mind blowingly awesome.

"I remember them saying 98%, which isn't a lot."

oops typo, meant that it, "IS A LOT" not "isnt"..

They say that 5 or 6 years thing now, but as soon as Sony unveils the new hardware, they'll be chomping at the bit to make the jump just like everyone else.

*slowly gaze at MW2*

I would have guessed he was talking ODST, but that works as well.

Heh, in no way was ODST a bigger disappointment than MW2, IMO.

It's hard to be disappointed in ODST, because it's a Halo game therefore I came with 0 expectations.

I'm not getting into it. But, let's just say I didn't play ODST because I don't have a 360 anymore.

Oh, you so did not just call Killzone 2 a disappointment. You shall pay for that remark!

Oh yeah brutal legend, what a steaming pile of shit that game was. I forgot about it because I forgot that it actually had high expectations.

Easily the worst game I've played all year.