Uncharted 3 launches, as Sony faces Uncharted Territory

Uncharted 3 launches, as Sony faces Uncharted Territory



In the remaining hours before Activision’s ‘Modern Warfare 3′ detonates like an EMP blast, functionally obliterating any meaningful analysis of games sales until things calm down a little, there has been a brief interlude to focus on the two big releases out just ahead of it. Electronic Arts’ ‘Battlefield 3′ is a stake in the ground - EA’s stand-up competitor to the Modern Warfare juggernaut. It won’t outsell it by a long shot, but it has already performed more than respectably.

Meanwhile, ‘Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception’, like its hapless Indiana-ish hero, Nathan Drake, is just caught in the crossfire. ‘Uncharted 3′ is an interesting animal. Its lead designer, Richard Lemarchand, is a British transplant to America (coincidentally like Sony’s CEO, Sir Howard Stringer) who speaks admiringly of art games from tiny studios and their ability to draw sincere emotion out of players with limited resources. It’s absurd to speak of underdogs in the word of multimillion-dollar AAA releases, but Uncharted 3 is certainly a different beast.