Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - Playstation 3

I usually don't tell people that one game is worth buying a PS3 for.......and that's still the case so don't get too excited. However if I were to tell you the top 3 games to pick up, this would be one of them.Honestly, Uncharted 2 is the closest to all-around perfect for a third person shooter.........ever. Even MGS4 wasn't perfect in that it is an acquired taste with its heavy handed story telling (greatest series in videogame history) and stealth. The campaign is just incredible. Everyone knows by now that Uncharted 2 is the best looking game on the PS3. I have amazon verified purchases of Killzone 2, God of War 3, and MGS4. I'm not going to say those don't come close (GoW 3 actually is on par with it), but this is the most colorful, beautiful, and consistently detailed game available on consoles. Its really amazing and on my Samsung HDTV I pop this one in when I know guests are in our apartment. I leave my door open on purpose. I never had a game look so good that I flaunt it on my HDTV.No one seems to notice the physics on display in the gameplay. If I BARELY make a jump over a gap it'll show in the animation. If I fall from a height and then try to dart off in another direction, Drake's legs will buckle, then he'll move. This isn't God of War 3 where Kratos' jumps are flawless. Drake seems more human because he will stumble, grunt (Kratos grunts too), and land imperfectly at times. All this platforming also helps to remind me that I'm alone. Drake has no army and (most of the time) no friends to back him up. As Drake, I'm an explorer on my own and will do what I can to achieve my goal if it means climbing up a mountain, on the side of a moving train, or jumping on loose ice on the edge of a cliff.Another thing some people won't see are the times where you can use stealth. Some enemy soldiers have patrol routes and if you sit back and be patient, you can learn them. Sneaking up on an enemy will reward you with a stealth kill. There should have been more stealth kill animations...MUCH MORE. But the few there are very rewarding. The sneaking was so well suited to the game that I hope with U3 there are entire levels that require complete stealth. And please give us more silenced weaponry to get the job done.People can really make the story seem like its groundbreaking, but its not. That's not to say that its bad, but coming from a hardcore MGS fan, its great, not superb. You, know the National Treasure type. What's groundbreaking is the voice acting. Nothing else even comes close. Uncharted is far and away the best voiced game in existence, period. The story is great. Its very focused and doesn't offer a whole lot of twists and turns, but its really like an action movie. The action and set pieces are also the best I've ever seen. Some parts can even rival God of War's awesome quicktime events. While the story is nowhere near MGS caliber, its a great action adventure with tons of set pieces and FLAWLESS FLAWLESS voice acting. Its an very entertaining story, unlike Killzone 2 where the story is kill everyone and come home.MP is a blast. This and LBP are the only games that I play MP ALL THE TIME on. Its balanced, fun and the amount of modes is just staggering. While SP is worth the price tag alone, MP just takes this game to 11/10.I have 3 problems with U2. First of all, the shooting in Uncharted 2 is entirely different from Uncharted 1. In U1, you could not see your bullet travel through the air and stream into the enemy. Wherever you aimed at on the enemy is where the bullet entered. In this game you can actually see the bullet flying through the air, which took a lot of getting used to for me, and to this day it still bothers me.My second gripe, albeit minor, is that at times, you feel like there are too many locations in the game. This problem can be entirely ignored however, because the first Uncharted is focused on a single location-the jungle. In this wonderful game you will travel to the mountains, a (better) jungle, an arctic environment (and leave tracks and kick up the snow!), temples, and even a residential town in Nepal! If you were fresh off of beating U1, then this may seem a bit overwhelming:)My third problem that I have with all shooting games besides MW2 is that in the campaign it takes too many shots to kill your enemy. Its not half as severe as Killzone 2 though. KZ2 requires almost half a clip!Overall this is a buy. Don't rent it cause you won't want to give it back. KILLER APP! If you still aren't convinced, are there any games this gen on Amazon that have over 690 reviews with a 5 star average?FEEL FREE TO ASK ANYTHING ABOUT UNCHARTED 2! THANKS FOR READING! PSN: I-Am-theIRONMAN

If you love Hollywood tomb raiding adventures with Jones, Croft, Gates, Pitt, and the guy from all the Mummy movies who's character name escapes me, you're bound to love the charismatic Drake just as much. I know, I know, I hate to sound like I'm pimping the game too. But, wow! I just finished playing it and am still a little overwhelmed. In fact I've already started playing through again in hard difficulty, which so-far is just as fun as normal, only slightly easier to get killed. I generally don't like the perspective of 3rd person shooters (more of a FPS player), but this is without-a-doubt, THE best game I've ever played. The 3rd person shooting is more refined, sophisticated, and flexible than any I've tried. In fact a few guns switch to first person when aimed. For the game, I don't think it could have been done much better. In fact the the gameplay almost feels like a FPS in the sense of freedom to investigate and look around. It is extremely well done.Aside from gunfights, treasure hunting, and some pretty simple problem solving that is just enough of a challenge to still be fun (or rather more fun than challenging), there's a lot of climbing involved. You're going to fall; and to the game designs credit, when you do, you generally restart from the same place you fell; not 10 minutes earlier when you still have to fight through 20 mercenaries to get back to where you left off. But, you rarely have to do anything more than once or twice (in normal difficulty anyway). The game seems to have safeguards that usually keep you from falling due to controller sensitivity mistakes, even when your controller is semi-worn out like mine. Top off the great gameplay with a well-written, wonderfully scripted storyline that's as intriguing and fun as any Hollywood blockbuster and IMHO this game fully merits all the high praise it's been handed.The terrific, exotic, often mysteriously esoteric locales, likable characters, and cute, witty banter (without being excessively crass or vulgar), made for an experience that provoked me to shelve the growing stack of movies I wanted to see for the week, in favor of playing instead. If I could play through the storyline in the short time it takes to watch a movie, I know the game would get a lot of repeat viewings. But, fortunately, I couldn't, even if I wanted. The storyline (or gameplay) is nowhere near that short. In fact, when you think you're nearing the games end, you quickly discover you haven't even reached the best parts. What I thought was the end, was closer to the middle with still loads of fun to be had and I hadn't even sampled the online content yet.Aside from a few moments of over, or just plain sloppy compression in some of the movie sequences, the graphics are about as good as I've seen in videogaming (observation made based on a 100 inch screen size with 1080p projection), despite the game itself being optimized for 720p (come on Sony, it's not 2006 anymore). That said, unlike movies, so far I haven't seen a tremendous difference between 720p vs 1080p gaming. There seems to still be some room for improvement in terms of gaming graphics, which tend to be a little blocky, as games aren't up to animated movie standards yet. I know that many games are designed for multiple console compatibility, but I would think a game built specifically for the PS3/Blu-ray platform should be capable of doing more. That said, the graphics look quit stunning most of the time. Some of the textures (like brick) almost look real. So take my criticism of the graphics with a grain of salt. You won't be disappointed, even if you're playing on a large screen.After playing through its storymode, I did find one bug, as it were, where I backtracked, looking for the escape route, and got trapped behind some fallen debris that was intended to keep me from going back I guess. In fact I did the same thing again the second time through in hard difficulty - got to remember to break the glass! Fortunately, it was right at an automatic checkpoint, so restarting from the last checkpoint, put me right where I needed/wanted to be.I don't know how Uncharted 2 compares to the first adventure. But I ordered a copy of the first as soon as I finished playing thru normal difficulty. By the 3rd chapter I was checking online prices of the first installment, as I already knew I would want to play it, I was having so much fun. I can't wait for future installments. If 3rd person gaming can be this well done, I just may lose interest in first person shooters. The ambitious storyline has already made some of my favorite games seem overly simple, even a little boring. A new, higher bar has been set.