Uncharted NGP

With the dust settling on all the latest NGP/PSP2 news, it's time for gamers to turn their attention to what Sony's new handheld  can actually do. Naughty Dog were thankfully on hand at Sony's press conference, and brought along an unexpected guest to the party: a new entry for the Uncharted series.

[Update: Check out Sony's Official Announcement Video to see the game and controls in action!]

Showcased at the console's unveiling, Uncharted:NGP stole the show with a stunning graphical showcase that came proudly boasting the new console's gesture controls.  Not only was this a part of the video trailer for upcoming games on the platform, attendees were granted a full section of the game to play on their own terms.

Graphically, the game is stunning and packs in a large amount of detail. Environments look lush and are beautifully lit, while the animation of characters appeared to be par with the series' console offerings. Hands on reports from around the internet are suggesting that the frame rate remained smooth throughout, and given that this is a very early tech demo, one can only imagine what the developers of this game can achieve with a year's more polishing.

The technical showcase offered a breathtaking glimpse into the console's potential and even delved into the ways that the console will differentiate its control schemes. One part of the demo saw Drake climbing vines. Rather than using the console's analogue sticks, the demonstration instead took to using the multi-gesture touchpad on the back of the console.

By simply mimicking the action of climbing up or down, the gamer was able to climb the vines, though apparently players can choose to ignore such gimmicks if they wish to do so. Another interesting feature is the console's gyroscope, which allows gamers to precision aim weapons and also to mimic the motion of swinging backwards and forwards on ropes to gain momentum. Again, this can be abandoned in favor of more conventional control systems.

The only slightly negative aspect to this whole thing is that Naughty Dog themselves won't be developing the game. While they had a large hand in putting together the demo seen above, they will only be acting as overseers to the game's development.

According to Game Informer, this honor instead falls to Sony's in-house developer Sony Bend, most famous for Resistance: Retribution and Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow. This is understandable, given that Naughty Dog themselves are hard at work developing the highly anticipated Uncharted 3 for the PlayStation 3. No news was provided on a potential link up between the two games, though the possibilities are certainly intriguing.

Are you excited for Uncharted's first portable outing? Would this game convince you to buy a NGP/PSP2?

Check out Game Rant's comprehensive run-down of the console and everything that was, is, and shall be the NGP/PSP2.

Source: Joystiq, Game Informer, Kotaku