From the beginning, our goal was to create a great UNCHARTED game. We wanted to give players, including ourselves, more of what they love, but with the PS Vita’s unique spin. The cinematic experience, the gunplay and weapons, the compelling story and characters, the mystery and treasure hunting based on real history, the puzzles, the platforming, and of course, the colorful and detailed imagery… it’s all there. But it’s on a gorgeous five-inch screen that you can take with you.

If you’ve been following all the pre-release news, then you know that UNCHARTED: Golden Abyss also has a ton of collectibles — more than 300, in fact. We wanted to not only give the game some replayability with some additional exploration, but also to tell more backstory, which we do through the items you collect, locations you photograph, and other puzzles you solve. All of these are tied to Trophies that can be earned. We didn’t forget the gamer who prefers gunplay, either: one of the collectible types in UNCHARTED: Golden Abyss are the Bounties. These drop randomly from fallen enemies throughout the game and represent things that might have been found in the area you’re fighting in: old Spanish playing cards, gold and silver coins, and so forth. Many of these items are scarce, and some are really rare. You’re not going to collect all these on a single playthrough!

But we’re not cruel. To make it a little easier to collect all the Bounties, we created The Black Market. This is a near application that allows you select a Bounty type from your collection and send a request out to the Black Market. If any other PS Vita players out there (in the area where you made the request) have a Bounty that you’re missing, the Black Market will send you a copy of their Bounty, even the rarest collectibles. We even created a sixth Bounty type that you can obtain only through near: if you send a request to the Black Market and no one has what you need, the Black Market will send you a carved Fetish for you troubles. While the five bounties are tied to Trophies, the Fetishes are not… so you don’t have to use near to achieve Platinum. But for those of you who want to try a little Black Market trading, take your PS Vita with you!

PS Vita’s launch is right around the corner. We can’t wait!

I’m no stranger to writing, having written all the Syphon Filter games, but this title taught me some new tricks. By the time we started shooting in February 2011, I had gone through over 40 revisions, changing everything from setting, characters, names, dialogue and action. If we count all the in-game VO dialogue, we ended up with over 400 pages of script for Uncharted: Golden Abyss.

Of course, writing and performance capture was just beginning. What followed was an intense year of motion capture clean-up, animation, camera work, set building, lip-synching, prop building, editing, sound and music, by a team of over 50 artists working across five different studios.

Yes, Uncharted’s stunning visuals require next-gen hardware, but in the end, Uncharted’s charm comes from its characters, their friendships and chemistry. The great thing about story is that it’s hardware independent. Players can tell a good story from a bad one, great production values from not-so-great. We knew that the end result – all of that effort by all those people – would pay off in an Uncharted experience that would lose nothing simply because it was on a portable console. It’s the main reason I was so excited to learn the Uncharted approach to cinematic storytelling. On February 22nd, you’ll be able to see for yourself.

Hi everyone! I’m the the writer and director of UNCHARTED: Golden Abyss. We’ve just released a trailer that introduces a new and important character from our story. You met Jason Dante in our E3 demo and learned a little bit about him: that he and Drake have known each other a long time, that they each know Sully, that Drake taught Dante a lot about treasure hunting, that Dante can be a little, well, greedy.

This time we’re introducing Marisa Chase. But as she tells Drake at one point, call her “Chase,” only her grandfather calls her “Marisa.” I don’t want to give too much away at this point, but I can say this: once again Nathan Drake finds himself on a quest to solve a historical mystery which he hopes will lead to a fantastic treasure. The trick is staying alive long enough to get there. No easy task. And when Drake gets between Dante and Chase, events quickly spiral out of control.

We were lucky to get some really great talent to play our key characters. Nolan North, of course, reprises his role of Nathan Drake. Nolan brings more than just acting to the story, he helps make the dialogue his own, creates funny ad libs on the spot, and helps rework scenes that might be having problems. Chase is played by the talented Christine Lakin, who you might remember as Al from the television show “Step by Step.” Dante is played by the amazing Jason Spisak, who’s played almost as many characters as Mr. North. Working with these guys and watching them bring our UNCHARTED world to life was amazing. I think Amy Hennig, the writer over at Naughty Dog, once told me that good actors can make even my bad dialogue sound good. Not that I have any… :)

Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys the trailer. There’s more information on UNCHARTED: Golden Abyss coming soon.

Originally released on the PSP in 2007, we were very pleased that game critics and press recognized all the hard work the team put into the game, honoring it with some of the game industry’s most prestigious awards, including PSP Game of the Year from IGN: It was also #6 on IGN’s top 25 PSP games of all time.

Coming just a couple of years after our first PSP game, award winning Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, our goal was to create another great chapter in the saga of Gabe Logan, blowing out both the game play and production values to create a state-of-the-art Syphon Filter experience. We got Azam Ali to write an amazing soundtrack, Syphon’s first theme song with lyrics and vocals. Azam’s haunting score is a large part of why this game is one of my personal favorites.

We got Greg Rucka to write the story: Greg’s written many novels and graphic novels, including two series of novels he wrote called Queen and Country and Atticus Kodiak. Greg liked the idea of playing with the notion of who Gabe’s “shadow” might be and he came up with the idea that Lian Xing, Gabe’s long-time partner, might have a past that’s catching up with her. Suddenly she disappears. Evidence piles up that she’s a double agent. I can’t say too much more without giving the plot away, but Greg brought a lot to the Syphon experience. You can read more about our collaboration here.

While the story, music and game play all translated perfectly to the PS2, we’ve made some important tweaks to the controller to please PS2 players. Taking advantage of the extra buttons on the DualShock 2, we’ve added a snap button to make getting in and out of cover easier; we’ve added “swing out and aim” to L1 to make fighting from combat more intuitive and of course, we’ve completely re-tuned the game for the extra analog stick. We’ve also up-rezed textures and effects to take advantage of the unique features of the PS2 hardware. So fans of the PSP game might want to re-experience Gabe’s adventure on the big screen with new controls, and those who have never played it have a treat in store for them.

Also, keep an eye out this summer for the first-ever Syphon Filter digital graphic novel.

Over 120 pages long, Syphon Filter: The Opposition Effect is a story that bridges Dark Mirror and Logan’s Shadow, explaining what happens between the two games: Gabe’s hatred of Ghassan al Bitar, his troubled background with Robert Cordell, and more of his history with the irrepressible Dane Bishop. You even find out what happened to Cobra, the neglected rookie agent who worked for Gabe in The Omega Strain. Be sure to look for it on the PlayStation Store this summer!

In other video news. For the past week, IGN has been running a series of Behind the Scenes videos for Resistance: Retribution with topics that focus on the storyline, the motion capture sessions, the music, and voices behind the characters. Head over there and see how much work we’ve been putting into this game.

Don’t forget, Resistance: Retribution is coming exclusively to PSP on March 17th!

Connect R:R to R2 using a USB cable. Go into the R2 options screen, and select “Infect your PSP!” That’s all it takes.

Infected mode lasts until you power down your PSP. So, what is “Infected mode”?

Infected mode provides an alternate story within our alternate history. While in prison for desertion, Grayson is recruited by Specter Lieutenant David LaSalle (from the R2 storyline) and is infected with a mutated version of the Chimeran virus … a different version of the virus that infects Nathan Hale.

While playing in “infected” mode, Grayson wears a Specter uniform and has glowing Chimeran eyes. He gets to use one of the new weapons from R2: the HE .44 Magnum, which fires explosive rounds that can be triggered remotely. He has regenerative health and no longer needs to look for health packs. He can breathe underwater, allowing him to reach hidden areas that he could not reach before. And we’ve added another whole class of Intel that are hidden throughout the levels. Collecting all of the “infected” intel will unlock another R2 weapon, the Plasma Grenades.

Another cool feature we’re including is something we call PSP Plus!

Activated from the R2 options screen, PSP Plus! allows you to play Resistance: Retribution using your Dualshock 3 wireless controller. We remove aim assist and increase the challenge level of the game. We even support the vibration function of the controller. If you’re playing at home and want to experience Resistance: Retribution in an all new way, this is it.

That’s it for this update. In the near future we’ll have some news on our multiplayer game. Stay tuned.

Here are a few we’ve seen:

IGN.com – Review Score 9.5 out of 10
“Logan’s Shadow is easily one of the best titles to come out on the system this year.”

Game Informer – Handheld Game of the Month, November
Review Scores 8.75 and 9 out of 10
“Exhilarating, adroit, and unstoppably fun, Logan’s Shadow fires direct hits with nearly everything it attempts, and gifts the PSP with one of most accomplished espionage thrillers in recent memory.”

GameSpy.com – Review Score 4 out of 5
“It’s truly remarkable how many command options Sony Bend managed to pack into Logan’s Shadow.”

Game Daily – Review Score 9 out of 10
“One of the best PSP games to date.”

EGM – “This is the handheld stealth-action series to beat.”

And more.

We’re especially proud of the Editor’s Choice award from IGN: Logan’s Shadow is now the highest ranked PSP game on their site, and our 9.5 score ties Halo 3, one of the highest scores of 2007.

While we love hearing praise from the press, it’s you guys that we were thinking of when making the game. We’re hoping that as you play the game that you’ll enjoy the same things the press is responding to: the amazing sound track by Azam Ali which will soon be released on iTunes, the story by Greg Rucka, the advanced graphics and physics made possible by uncapping the 333hz processor, the new gameplay modes, and the full featured online game.

Our goal all along was to take everything we achieved in Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, and kick it up a notch; a daunting task considering that Dark Mirror was one of the highest rated games on the PSP in 2006.

Speaking of Dark Mirror, last month we launched the PS2 version of the game. We debated the pros and cons of doing a PS2 version of the game for a long time. We really liked the idea of Dark Mirror being an exclusive title for the PSP because we’re all huge fans of the handheld system. But in the end, when we were presented with the opportunity to share the game with all of our fans on the PS2, we couldn’t resist. We were able to uprez the textures and some models for display on bigger monitors, and we made adjustments to the game to take advantage of the Dualshock Analog controller. So if you never got a chance to check out Dark Mirror on the PSP, check it out on the PS2. It’s the same great game, but now you can play it on a bigger screen with Dual Analog controls.

Finally, don’t forget to check out the Syphon Filter: Combat Ops sneak preview that we included on the Logan’s Shadow UMD. I won’t say anything more about it for now, but keep checking back — we’ll have an announcement about Combat Ops in the near future.

Thanks!

*Note – in the video above, the narrator mistakenly refers to a salvage expert who helps Gabe as “Dane Cook.” He meant to say “Dane Bishop.” Comedian Dane Cook does not make an appearance in the game.

This guy is awesome. I’ve been writing Syphon for 10 years now, and I’m not saying I’m getting burned out or anything like that, but 10 years is a long time to write for a franchise. I was looking for a way to bring some fresh perspectives to the series. Connie Booth, our director of product development, has been a fan of the espionage genre for years and had read Greg’s stuff, including two series of novels he wrote called Queen and Country and Atticus Kodiak. She had worked with Greg once before on another project, so she hooked us up. Greg writes in a realistic, gritty style and his stuff is authentic and well researched – he was perfect for Syphon. I had come up with the title a couple of years before when we were working on a PSP prototype. Greg liked the title and we started kicking ideas around for what the “shadow” might be. And boom, there it was (mild SPOILER!): Lian Xing, Gabe’s long-time partner, has a past that’s catching up with her and suddenly she disappears. Evidence piles up that she’s a double agent. I can’t say too much more without giving the plot away, but Greg’s brought a lot to the Syphon experience. You can read more about our collaboration here.

Anyway, Greg will be at the Playstation booth on both Saturday & Sunday, from 11:00am-12:30pm and again from 2:00pm-3:30pm, so stop by and say hello.