Things have been pretty quiet for Nathan Drake since his next adventure, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, was teased at E3 2014 with a short cinematic teaser showing an older, wearier and literally washed up version of the adventurer embarking on what could be his final quest. With no gameplay footage yet available and a strong likelihood that the E3 teaser was pre-rendered, however, we've been curious to see something a bit more meaty from the next chapter in Naughty Dog's popular franchise.

The studio already has one PS4 title under its belt with The Last of Us: Remastered, but since Naughty Dog's graphics have always been at the high end of what the PS3 can achieve, expectations are high for the first Uncharted game designed from the ground up for the PS4. Luckily for Nathan Drake fans, a special occasion has now offered a new look at the older edition of the character.

Last week Naughty Dog celebrated its 30th anniversary (the company was founded in 1984 under the name Jam Software) with a gallery showing off artwork from some of the studios greatest hits, with an emphasis on recent titles like The Last of Us but also showcasing classic games like the Crash Bandicoot series. Among the memories, however, Uncharted 4's lead game designer Kurt Margenau posted a tease of what fans can expect to see from Naughty Dog in the future. Namely, a Nathan Drake who looks "next-gen as f*ck."

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Putting aside the fact that the term "next-gen" isn't really applicable to the PS4 now that the console's been out for almost a year, Drake certainly does seem to have a lot of extra detail in this image, though perhaps that's just the ravages of time giving him extra wrinkles. He also looks a lot sadder and wearier than previous iterations of the character; box art and promotional screenshots for the previous Uncharted games have generally shown Drake looking angry or determined, but here he simply looks tired.

This could be the influence of The Last of Us, since creative director Neil Druckmann and game director Bruce Straley entered the project off the back of Joel and Ellie's story and as a result may have developed a taste for more mature and angst-ridden storytelling. It might be argued that The Last of Us' tone is ill-suited to the high-octane adventure of the Uncharted series and its wisecracking protagonist, but we'll have to see it in practice before we can really judge how well it works.

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End does not currently have an official release date but will launch exclusively on the PS4 in 2015.

Source: Kurt Margenau