Sony Press Conference E3 2011 – Breakdown – Part 14 – the PlayStation Vita, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Ruin
Chris Reese and John Garvin of Sony Bend Studios were wowing the crowd with their live demo of Uncharted: Golden Abyss on the PlayStation Vita. The graphics, shadow and water rendering had eyes boggling because they looked so good and the developers were
showing off how players could execute hand-to-hand combat moves using the five inch multi-touch screen.
There was more to come as the pair showed off exactly how they had implemented PSVita’s features as core control elements of the game.
Platforming had always been a major part of the Uncharted series and the developers showed how players could use their fingers to swipe in a particular direction to make Drake jump. Alternatively, players could also tilt the PSVita in the direction they
wished to jump and then swipe, both of which looked rather novel.
A simpler alternative was also to simply touch the ledge the player wanted Drake to jump to, but why would anyone do that when the other options were so much cooler?
To save players from the repetition that would lead to monotony, the developers showed off another impressive feature that can only be dubbed as ‘painting paths’, which allowed players to mark out a path using their fingers that Drake, would traverse across.
So Sony Bend Studios basically showed off four ways the players could traverse across ledges in the space of three minutes, even the most sceptical of sceptics would have found it hard not to be impressed.
The touch screen seemed to have been utilised to allow players to use it for almost anything, as the next thing the developers shared was how Drake could perform stealth kills by, sneaking up on an enemy and, simply tapping the screen.
John Garvin explained that with the dual analogue sticks on the PSVita, the portable gaming device could now do everything the PlayStation 3 could. This meant that Uncharted: Golden Abyss would handle just like the multi-award winning, Uncharted 2: Among
Thieves.
Players could pick up weapons that the enemy AI had dropped simply by touching the weapon icon or the weapon itself. A nice additional reload command was added where players are simply required to touch the weapon icon on the top left of the screen.
That concluded a very neat Uncharted: Golden Abyss presentation and the applause that followed echoed for some time as the audience was clearly impressed. Before leaving, the pair from Sony Bend Studios invited everyone to check out the two demos in the
arcade areas for themselves.
From a well known franchise, Sony went on a new title for the PSVita, at least that is what everyone thought before Ruin took to the game show floor and pleasantly surprised everyone.
More can be found on Ruin in the next article Sony Press Conference E3 2011 – Breakdown – Part 15 – Ruin, ModNation Racers
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