July 9 – 12
Plunder Pistols Only
Plunder. But with Pistols only, no rifles, no power weapons. This should even the odds between the treasure bearer and his assailants as all will be equipped with the relative high-rate of fire and excellent accuracy of the 92FS pistol. This will be a good playlist to hit up if you are still looking to get your Protectorate medal.

July 23 – 26
Grenades Only
Boom.

Don’t forget to leave your feedback over at the Naughty Dog Forums

Source: Naughty Dog

The “Siege Expansion” will include six character skins, a new co-op game mode, two new maps and 11 more trophies.

New Co-op Mode
An arena co-op game type where two to three players defend a marked territory within a map against waves of NPC opponents. At the end of every round, the territory will change locations within the map and the NPC opponents will increase in difficulty. The only way you can score co-op points is to have all your players within the captured territory, all while being assaulted by NPC opponents.

Character Skins

• Wetsuit Drake (Phwoar!)
• Baseball Shirt Drake
• Prakoso
• Platzor
• Glowzor
• Dead Explorer

Maps
Museum

Highrise

Trophies

Bronze

• You Can’t Break Me – Complete All 3 Co-op Objective Maps on Crushing
• Under Siege – Finish Wave 10 in 1 Siege Game
• Speedy – Get 10 First! Medals
• I’ll Cover You – Get 50 Defender Medals
• Fallen Angel – Get 50 Afterlife Medals
• Not So Fast – Get 20 Shut’em Down Medals
• Jack Of All Trades – Get 15 Triple Threat Medals
• You Run, I’ll Shoot – Get 10 Protectorate Medals
• Back At Ya – Get 50 Retaliation Medals
• Kneel Before Z.. – Get 5 Put’em Down Medals

Silver

• Rock a Rhyme – Get 100 Tricky Medals

The Siege Expansion DLC will be available from April 22 on the Playstation Store for £4.79 / €5.99.

Naughty Dog

Ballistic Publishing is partnering with Sony (more books on other games to come) to release The Art of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. The 272 page book collects the artwork that was done while creating the game in a stylish hardback or paperback cover. This includes concept art, character studies, environment art, character modeling, game art, cinematics, motion-capture, animation, effects, and insight from the guys at Naughty Dog on developing the game and gaming art in general.

The book is landing in a paperback edition for $65, a leather-bound Special Edition for $129, and a collector’s Limited Folio Edition with hand-crafted, leather-bound presentation case, and hand-signed and numbered Certificate of Authenticity from Naughty Dog’s key creators for $300. You can pre-order it now, and if you’re one of the first 300 people to get the softcover edition or any of the special editions then you will receive a 15 minute walkthrough video of three of the concept pieces for the game.”

Source: Destructoid

10TH ANNUAL GAME DEVELOPERS CHOICE AWARDS:

Lifetime Achievement Award
John Carmack, id Software

Pioneer Award
Gabe Newell, Valve Software

Game of the Year
Assassin’s Creed II (Ubisoft Montreal)
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady Studios)
Demon’s Souls (From Software)
Dragon Age: Origins (BioWare)
WINNER: Uncharted 2 (Naughty Dog)

Best Game Design
Assassin’s Creed 2 (Ubisoft Montreal)
WINNER: Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady)
Flower (Thatgamecompany)
Plants vs. Zombies (PopCap)
Uncharted 2 (Naughty Dog)

Best Handheld Game
Flight Control (Firemint)
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (Rockstar Leeds/Rockstar North)
Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (Nintendo EAD)
WINNER: Scribblenauts (5th Cell)
Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor (Tiger Style)

Best Visual Art
Assassin’s Creed II (Ubisoft Montreal)
Borderlands (Gearbox Software)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Infinity Ward)
Flower (Thatgamecompany)
WINNER: Uncharted 2 (Naughty Dog)

Best Technology
Assassin’s Creed II (Ubisoft Montreal)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Infinity Ward)
Killzone 2 (Guerrilla Games)
Red Faction: Guerrilla (Volition)
WINNER: Uncharted 2 (Naughty Dog)

Best Writing
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady Studios)
Brutal Legend (Double Fine)
Dragon Age: Origins (BioWare)
Halo 3: ODST (Bungie)
WINNER: Uncharted 2 (Naughty Dog)

Best Audio
Brutal Legend (Double Fine Productions)
Dragon Age: Origins (BioWare)
Flower (Thatgamecompany)
Rock Band: The Beatles (Harmonix)
WINNER: Uncharted 2 (Naughty Dog)

Innovation
Demon’s Souls (From Software)
Flower (Thatgamecompany)
Plants vs. Zombies (PopCap)
WINNER: Scribblenauts (5th Cell)
Uncharted 2 (Naughty Dog)

Best Debut
League of Legends (Riot Games)
The Maw (Twisted Pixel)
Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor (Tiger Style)
WINNER: Torchlight (Runic Games)
Zeno Clash (ACE Team)

Best Downloadable Game
WINNER: Flower (Thatgamecompany)
PixelJunk Shooter (Q Games)
Plants vs. Zombies (PopCap)
Shadow Complex (Chair Entertainment)
Trials HD (RedLynx)

Best New Social/Online Game
Bejeweled Blitz (PopCap)
Dungeon Fighter Online (Neople/Nexon)
WINNER: Farmville (Zynga)
Free Realms (Sony Online Entertainment San Diego)
Restaurant City (Playfish)

Source: Gamespot

Early Goals
Setting broad development goals early is paramount to making a successful game and Naughty Dog took this to heart. Ultimately the decision was made to make Uncharted 2 a story-driven game, with a character-driven story. They established early on that the experience would not be glued together by a loose narrative with visceral plot points.

Casting Characters
If characters and emotional authenticity are key, casting lead roles is no easy endeavor. Naughty Dog approached the story first by blocking it out as a rough outline, then fleshing out the majority of the scenes organically throughout the development process. The team stressed the importance of this because it allows them to react organically and gives them enough flexibility to integrate new ideas.

Casting became the most important part of pre-production once the narrative was blocked out enough to establish characters. Naughty Dog went about casting for Uncharted 2 in a very non-traditional manner – something more akin to the process of film or television production to ensure they ended up with multifaceted candidates who would be able to perform both motion capture and voice work for the game. The return of Nolan North as Nathan Drake was a given, so the team also had the actors read together to test for chemistry. Anything to make the relationships seem more believable.

Skipping The Storyboards
Surprisingly, Naughty Dog revealed that they don’t use storyboarding when planning out their cinematic sequences. Evidently they see the practice as too restrictive and time consuming for the minuscule payoff. Sticking too close to a preconceived idea doesn’t allow for spontaneity during recording and the team argues that some of the most memorable moments in Among Thieves were unscripted.

Setting The Stage
With the cast chosen it was time for the motion capturing process to begin. To start the team created blueprint-like designs of key items that would be found in each environment, then recreated a basic skeleton on the stage to give the characters touch points. Evidently the team put too much of a focus on recreating environments on a one-to-one scale in the first game, and realized that simple platforms, boxes and rails could get the job done this time around. You don’t need much to capture a scene – just focal points for the actors to touch and places for them to direct their gaze.

Rehearsal
An uncommon practice for game developers, the actors had mandatory rehearsals together to work out kinks before actual recording began. Usually done the night before, rehearsal and filming included the guidance of a cinema director brought on specifically to attend to the needs of the talent. This coaxes out better results from the actors and allows the development team to focus on more important issues pertaining to actual game design.

Show Time
The actual process of motion capturing is where Naughty Dog’s approach differs most from other major studios. One key element is that the team works with the actors on an ongoing basis, shooting a couple of scenes every few weeks. This method is more akin to filming a television series than a game, and allows the animation pipeline to remain full. Additionally, the characters become more invested and committed to the project, and in turn, the writers are able to adapt real mannerisms of the actors into the script as the project evolves over time.

As renting these spaces is expensive, Naughty Dog looks to multitask whenever possible. In order to get believable and organic performances, the motion capture work is filmed on a sound stage. The current standard for voice acting has talent holed up in booths for hours at a time, divorced from the other talent they are supposedly interacting with. According to Naughty Dog, performing as a group and tracking both motion and audio simultaneously results in a better product. This means the cast must memorize their lines, making the aforementioned rehearsal process that much more critical.

To insure they get the content needed, every scene is recorded with five cameras – some close-ups and others with wider angles. Usually Naughty Dog shoots somewhere between 3-9 takes of a particular scene, with additional voice work done if worried about noise contamination during a cut. If there is extra time in the space Naughty Dog will then pad the day by filming in-game moves and various other animations.

Animation
Animation is without a doubt the most time-consuming end of the pipeline. To avoid needless tweaks the actors try to keep several things in mind while performing. Motion capture’s strength is nuance, so avoiding grand or exaggerated gestures is key. The team also doesn’t bother capturing fingers, props or elaborate stunts – all are better left to the animation team. Surprisingly, Naughty Dog didn’t capture facial animations for Uncharted 2 because they consider the process inefficient.

While the motion capture and audio approach that Naughty Dog implemented afforded them more freedom, they explained that it also resulted in them becoming a bit too ambitious and ultimately caused a painful crunch near the end of production. Ultimately the animation team needed to rely on outsourcing the last months of production in order to reach their quota. They also admitted that they had to cut a few corners in less obvious places, such as avoiding too many close facial cuts, minimizing scenes with multiple characters, simplifying prop performances and reusing some small animations from other scenes. In the end they completed over 90 minutes of animation – on par with a feature film – in less than 11 months.

While the process wasn’t without a few speed bumps, the approach Naughty Dog implemented was well worth the risk. They ended by qualifying their initial goal – all feedback indicates that they created cutscenes no one wanted to skip.

Souce: GameInformer

Title Update 1.06 includes a couple under-the-hood fixes we needed to make that don’t affect gameplay. Beyond that, we’ve also made the following updates:

• Removed automatic shoulder selection when players click the L1 shoulder button to aim
• Delayed the appearance of the scoreboard to allow time for players to view any medals received simultaneously with player death

At the same time the Title Update is released, we’ll also be pushing live updates to other aspects of our multiplayer. These updates include:

• Adjusted hitbox attributes so that players will take less damage to the character’s legs
• Decreased kill radius of grenades by 1 meter
• Decreased accuracy of Down the Irons by 15%
• Reduced rate of fire of the FAL by 10%
• Reduced rate of fire for the Dragon Sniper by 10%
• Collision and geometry changes to “The Fort” to prevent intentional glitching by players

We’ll be keeping an eye on how these changes work out in-game and, as usual, through your comments, forum posts and Twitter. See you online!”

Source: Naughty Dog

The panel in question is called “Micro or Massive: It’s Frickin’ Tough to Achieve a Vision,” and features Q-Games’ Baiyon Tomohisa Kuramitsu (the artist/musician behind the PixelJunk series) and Naughty Dog designer Richard Lemarchand. It’s centered around the speakers’ shared experiences in game development and the similarities between even two projects as diverse in scale and origin as PixelJunk Eden and Uncharted 2.

So what kind of questions are they looking for? Pretty much anything you can whip up, no matter how potentially insightful or stupid the answer may be. Curious what unique stressors come with game development teams both large and small? Ask away. Wanna know Baiyon’s favorite Wu Tang Clan track? That’s fair game too. All you gotta do is leave a comment on 1up.com’s article and they’ll randomly field some of your questions when the panel takes place next Thursday, March 11.”

Source: 1up.com

“We’re right on the doorstep of releasing the “Drake’s Fortune Multiplayer Pack” – our latest set of downloadable content which includes six character skins and two new maps available separately or as a bundle for use with UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves. A common question we’ve seen from our players is how we will add these maps to our matchmaking system.

Purchasing either the maps or the bundle unlocks an option in your online profile, which is accessible by pushing the square button on your controller.

The new option is called “Matchmaking.” The option has two available options: “Default” and “DLC.”

Leaving the option at “Default” essentially tells our matchmaking system that you want to get into matches as quickly as possible. The matchmaking system will then prioritize your matchmaking based on the installed content.

The matchmaking system will first attempt to place you in matches where all players have the new maps installed – up to 10 players in competitive modes and 3 players in cooperative modes. If it cannot find an open slot for you, your party or create a new full match within a reasonable amount of time, the matchmaking system then expands its search and attempts to place you in any match using the original on-disk maps with open spots.

This does mean that you risk the chance of not playing the new maps very often until enough players with the new maps installed have entered the matchmaking pool.

Choosing the “DLC” option tells our matchmaking system that you want to be matched with players who also have the new maps above all else. This means you are essentially forcing yourself to ONLY play with players who also have the new maps installed. This can potentially mean long waits if there are no open slots in existing matches or if the system cannot create a new match where all players have the new maps installed.

If you have a party of friends who all have the new maps, have the “Matchmaking” option selected to “DLC” and THEN a new friend joins your party without the new maps, the system will recognize this and only place your party in matches playing the original on-disk maps to ensure that your party does not have to break up.”

Personally, I’m really excited about this! How about you?

Source: Naughty Dog

“AIAS awards are voted by peers in the relevant professional fields, much like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Oscars. There were a couple of nods to industry veterans, too: Activision co-founder and Pitfall! author David Crane received the Pioneer Award, Entertainment Software Association founder Douglas Lowenstein was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award, and Crash Bandicoot creator Mark Cerny was inducted into the Hall of Fame. ”

Here’s a list of the wins:

• Game of the Year
• Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction
• Adventure Game of the Year
• Outstanding Achievement in Animation
• Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering
• Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction
• Outstanding Achievement in Story – Original
• Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition
• Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering
• Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design

Awesome!

Source: eurogamer.net

The winners will be announced on March 12th in San Francisco.

The nominees that Uncharted is up against are:

AUDIO OF THE YEAR
Assassin’s Creed II
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Need For Speed: Shift
Resident Evil 5
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

MUSIC OF THE YEAR
Assassin’s Creed II
AVATAR: The Game
Dragon Age: Origins
Flower
Halo 3: ODST
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

BEST SOUND DESIGN
Assassin’s Creed II
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Need For Speed: Shift
Resident Evil 5
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

BEST SOUNDTRACK ALBUM
Assassin’s Creed II
Brutal Legend
Dragon Age: Origins
inFAMOUS
Tom Clancy’s: H.A.W.X.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

BEST INTERACTIVE SCORE
Assassin’s Creed II
Flower
Halo 3: ODST
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

BEST CINEMATIC/CUT-SCENE AUDIO
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Left 4 Dead 2
Need For Speed: Shift
Resident Evil 5
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

BEST DIALOGUE
Assassin’s Creed II
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Brutal Legend
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Resident Evil 5
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

BEST ORIGINAL INSTRUMENTAL
“Ezio’s Family” – Assassin’s Creed II
“Flight Over Venice” – Assassin’s Creed II
“Spirit of Bladehenge” – Brutal Legend
“Sonny Tang” – Eat Lead
“Reunion” – Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

BEST USE OF MULTI-CHANNEL SURROUND IN A GAME
Bayonetta
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Forza Motorsport 3
Left 4 Dead 2
Resident Evil 5
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Source and image: joystiq.com