"What's Tibetan for RPG?"

In lieu of being stuck between pondering the meaning of life and soaking up literary knowledge for school, I choose a third possible activity for today: hugging my favourite console in this house. I know I just did a piece on BioShock yesterday, but the moral of that story was the whole hyperlink think, so I'm completely justified talking about another one of my prized possessions: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves!

This game has won numerous awards last year and has also captured a place in my heart as one of the most exhilirating games of the past few years. Earlier, in 2007, Naughty Dog put forth Uncharted: Drake's Fortune as their flagship in the line-up for the PS3 release list. Although this first game certainly is a gem, its sequel is comparatively the Hope Diamond. In my opinion, the first game felt too action oriented and limited in its degree of exploration. There just wasn't enough diversity in the different environmens, seeing as how ninety percent of the game took place on an island -which is quite limited in its climate conditions and offers little changes of scenery. So I'll be focussing my attention to Naughty Dog's pride and joy: Among Thieves.

From the very first moment you press the 'start' button and watch that intro movie, you feel like you're watching an actual movie. The wrecked train alone features a buttload of details and then I'm not even talking about the polygon count that has gone into Nathan's body and face! The whole scene is oozing with eye candy -not to mention a lot of Nate's blood- and you can't help but become completely submerged in the world according to Nathan Drake, explorer and daredevil.

Feel the love...

By having a protagonist like Nathan Drake,  there is no point in trying to resist his charm offensive, you'll fail. Trust me on this one. He makes jumping out of a tumbling building and crashing through the window of the adjacent one look like kid's stuff and still has the time for a whole array of slick one-liners and sarcastic remarks. This is the stuff that Hollywood dreams of! It should come as no surprise then, that a film adaptation is already in the works. And since no main character comes without a romantic interest (or two), Nathan is accompanied by new girl Chloe Frazer and last year's girl Elena Fisher, both are quite the eye catchers. Although at times, Chloe's bright blue eyes come off as bit frightening, but once you divert your goggles to her more appealing assets, all is well again.

My favourite level has to be the one set in the besieged Nepal. There is just so much going on in that scene! Civil war has never looked so goddamn beautiful! At some point, while making my way across the ravaged city, I fell through the floor of a roof (you can actually see each tile fall apart one by one) and landed in a small, but unbelievably detailed room. While looking frantically for a way out, I turned my attention to the window and saw little specs of dust floating in the ray of sunlight. If that doesn't scream next-gen, then I don't know what does!



Uncharted 2 is paramount when it comes to the action-adventure genre. Games such as Assassin's Creed or Devil May Cry also offer an enjoyable gaming experience, but they come nowhere near as close to a cinematic experience like Uncharted does. Feel free to disagree with me on this one, but mind you, don't knock it, until you've tried it!

Nuaghty Dog has delivered us the Holy Grail of its genre and I can't wait to see what the third installment will bring and how they'll incorporate the Game Engine 2.0 to revitalize the Jak & Daxter series!