Holy crap... Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is one gorgeous game! (Photos inside)

spoonman · May 15, 2016

I have to admit this is one of the most gorgeous games I've played in all my years of gaming. Naughty Dog set the bar very high with this one!
The art style is incredible and the details are amazing. I've only played about 3 hours worth and I can't stop taking in game photos.

If anyone is playing and snapped some pictures I've love to see them.
Just please try to keep them spoiler free as not to ruin the experience for others who haven't played it yet.

Here are a few that I've done:

1920x1080 PNG file

Kolchak357 · May 15, 2016

Those are actual gameplay pics? Not just cutaways or promo screens?
Wow!

p6800 · May 15, 2016

Kolchak357 said:
Those are actual gameplay pics? Not just cutaways or promo screens?
Wow!

The "cutaways" are in real time, using the game engine.

Everyone who likes gaming should see this tech analysis:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts2am8WRBXQ

dtown8532 · May 15, 2016

I've played all the Uncharted games to completion and have been looking forward to 4. Just waiting for a price drop below $50 bucks because I beat them and sell them immediately. No replay value. Still looking forward nonetheless.

spoonman · May 15, 2016

dtown8532 said:
I've played all the Uncharted games to completion and have been looking forward to 4. Just waiting for a price drop below $50 bucks because I beat them and sell them immediately. No replay value. Still looking forward nonetheless.

I can understand. I do that with most games these days. That being said, if any game is worth the full MSRP it's this.
If you have Amazon Prime you can get 20% off on pre-orders and new games. I ended up getting Uncharted 4 New for only $47. Actually I ended up getting it for $12 because I had promotional credit and store credit saved up.

Kolchak357 said:
Those are actual gameplay pics? Not just cutaways or promo screens?
Wow!

Those pics above are all during game play. Most of the cut scenes are real time generated graphics, however there is occasionally a few pre-rendered CGI cut scenes here and there to help hide load times (which there is none of if you play the campaign without reloading chapters). They are rendered using mostly the same realtime graphics assets so it blends perfectly. You can only really tell it's pre-rendered because in photo mode you can't change anything with filters, camera angles, etc..

Skin and facial expressions are equally impressive. Characters will squint when light hits their eyes. The light will not only light their faces, but it is absorbed and lit from within the skin layer. Ears and noses will have an inner glow and translucent look to them when the light is bright enough. Details like this go a long way to make it more believable.

It's a technical marvel to be sure.

Biff · May 15, 2016

yes, exclusive games often let the hardware shine and show you what the console is capable of doing. Love it when software makes full use of hardware.

mpad · May 15, 2016

Nice! Faces are great.
Although environment and clothing have been better in the witcher 3 IMHO. (On PC)

Kolchak357 · May 15, 2016

That skin texture and facial hair is pretty amazing. I've been out of PC gaming for a pretty long time. I hadn't realized how far things have moved forward. Pretty amazing.

spoonman · May 15, 2016

mpad said:
Nice! Faces are great.
Although environment and clothing have been better in the witcher 3 IMHO. (On PC)

I think they look quite nice (in Uncharted 4).
Interior environments are believable and cloth/rug looks "Downy soft"

(Right click and open or save image to see it in 1920x1080 uncompressed PNG format)

mpad · May 15, 2016

The getting dirty of clothes is great

Kolchak357 · May 15, 2016

I wish my kitchen was that nice.

shutyertrap · May 16, 2016

I love that there is actual cinematography being put to use. That's some damn perty lighting!

Uncharted 2 is probably my favorite video game experience to date. Love the whole series, replaying through UC3 in 3D currently. Thought I'd have to cry from the sidelines about not getting to play this one as I was gonna wait a good long while before getting a PS4, but then during spring break the wife pushed for me to get one for our boy so he could play Garden Warfare 2. It's killing me to not rush out and buy the game, but come Father's Day, I can guarantee what I'll be doing!

In terms of replayability, I love going back through the Uncharted games and these last 2 Tomb Raiders. It's like watching an extra long movie, and I get excited for my favorite parts. Did anyone bother with getting the Uncharted collection for PS4? If I see it dip to $20 I probably will just so the skin textures look better on the first game instead of like plastic.

spoonman · May 16, 2016

shutyertrap said:
I love that there is actual cinematography being put to use. That's some damn perty lighting!

Uncharted 2 is probably my favorite video game experience to date. Love the whole series, replaying through UC3 in 3D currently. Thought I'd have to cry from the sidelines about not getting to play this one as I was gonna wait a good long while before getting a PS4, but then during spring break the wife pushed for me to get one for our boy so he could play Garden Warfare 2. It's killing me to not rush out and buy the game, but come Father's Day, I can guarantee what I'll be doing!

In terms of replayability, I love going back through the Uncharted games and these last 2 Tomb Raiders. It's like watching an extra long movie, and I get excited for my favorite parts. Did anyone bother with getting the Uncharted collection for PS4? If I see it dip to $20 I probably will just so the skin textures look better on the first game instead of like plastic.

Same here. Uncharted 2 was a masterpiece. I enjoyed it thoughtful from beginning to end and I can't say that about many other games.
So far I am getting the same feeling from Uncharted 4. I am only a few chapters in and I am already planning on playing through it again to find all of the treasures.
Naughty Dog is sending this serious out on a seriously high note!

I got the PS4 Uncharted Collection bundle so I have the game. I haven't played through it yet, but from what I've seen and heard they are using much better texture and model assets, better lighting, along with it being 1080p/60fps. Uncharted 1 received the most work since it looked more out of place with the upgrades to U2 and U3.

A couple more SPOILER FREE in-game Uncharted 4 photos I snapped...

(Right click and open or save image to see it in 1920x1080 uncompressed PNG format)

Jeff Strong · May 16, 2016

Looks incredible. I generally gravitate towards RPGs that give you more choices and aren't so linear, but this looks like it's worth it even just for the eye candy.

Tann · May 16, 2016

U1 was great in its time, and I think it still has the best ambiance (the island "huis-clos", top-notch humor). A vibrant tribute to 80's adventure movies.

U2 was great too, with a better rythm than U1. Characters were a little more burlesque than in U1 (Lazarevic) but also more funny. The humor is still great (especially with Tenzin "Umbalayeh!"). The scenario is almost a copy/paste from U1 (but with more environments), so the 80's feeling trick doesn't work as well as in U1.

U3 was technically amazing... but the scenario & characters are very lame, to not say bad. In the BR Video Bonus, we can see that ND developped first the environments and designed the characters, then wrote a story to make a link between all this stuff. Wrong move. The flashbacks are really boring, the old lady has zero charism (she didn't look for the ring during 20 years?), the secret society is ridiculous, and so on...

But the worst thing in U3, is that ND tried to include more mature "psychology", but it ended with a philosophical interpretation of a 10-year old child about "To be or not be, that is the question. What am I, What I do, Where I go?". It's just very bad and totally off-topic in an Uncharted game.

The romantic intrigue between Elena and Nathan is very childish too, it was more subtile in U1 and U2 (and fun).

To resume, U3 wants to be more serious, and it's a total fail.

spoonman · May 16, 2016

Tann said:
U1 was great in its time, and I think it still has the best ambiance (the island "huis-clos", top-notch humor). A vibrant tribute to 80's adventure movies.

U2 was great too, with a better rythm than U1. Characters were a little more burlesque than in U1 (Lazarevic) but also more funny. The humor is still great (especially with Tenzin "Umbalayeh!"). The scenario is almost a copy/paste from U1 (but with more environments), so the 80's feeling trick doesn't work as well as in U1.

U3 was technically amazing... but the scenario & characters are very lame, to not say bad. In the BR Video Bonus, we can see that ND developped first the environments and designed the characters, then wrote a story to make a link between all this stuff. Wrong move. The flashbacks are really boring, the old lady has zero charism (she didn't look for the ring during 20 years?), the secret society is ridiculous, and so on...

But the worst thing in U3, is that ND tried to include more mature "psychology", but it ended with a philosophical interpretation of a 10-year old child about "To be or not be, that is the question. What am I, What I do, Where I go?". It's just very bad and totally off-topic in an Uncharted game.

The romantic intrigue between Elena and Nathan is very childish too, it was more subtile in U1 and U2 (and fun).

To resume, U3 wants to be more serious, and it's a total fail.

I always preferred Uncharted 2, but U3 has some great moments as well.
I liked seeing the flashbacks and having it explain Nate's background and how he and Sully met was pretty cool as well.
The new melee system was fun to play around with and helped break up all if the forced shooting segments.

Some of my favorite sections... (spoilers of course...)
Spiders & Burning Chateau
http://youtu.be/J0wpnB_Ucqk

Being inside the ship as it's filling with water was amazing
http://youtu.be/Xppy_TmLItU

The desert area shootouts with huge destructible structures was fun and looked incredible in stereoscopic 3D from what I remember.
http://youtu.be/syt81y9RVYI

So far Uncharted 4 is my favorite. I'm about 10 chapters in an love the brother dynamic. It works so well. Troy Baker and Nolan North are naturals together. They borrowed the idea of the "buddy system" from The Last of Us, where the characters will talk during missions and reveal back story and other chatter. It all comes together very well.

I'm also enjoying the larger open world areas which are new to U4. This works particularly well with the driving sections. Which are incredibly beautiful by the way!

shutyertrap · May 16, 2016

spoonman said:
I got the PS4 Uncharted Collection bundle so I have the game. I haven't played through it yet, but from what I've seen and heard they are using much better texture and model assets, better lighting, along with it being 1080p/60fps. Uncharted 1 received the most work since it looked more out of place with the upgrades to U2 and U3.

The other thing I was curious about with the collection was whether they made the controls in UC1 the same as the other 2. Can't remember specifically what was different other than grenade throwing, which I didn't like at all in UC1.

shutyertrap · May 16, 2016

Tann said:
U1 was great in its time, and I think it still has the best ambiance (the island "huis-clos", top-notch humor). A vibrant tribute to 80's adventure movies.

U2 was great too, with a better rythm than U1. Characters were a little more burlesque than in U1 (Lazarevic) but also more funny. The humor is still great (especially with Tenzin "Umbalayeh!"). The scenario is almost a copy/paste from U1 (but with more environments), so the 80's feeling trick doesn't work as well as in U1.

U3 was technically amazing... but the scenario & characters are very lame, to not say bad. In the BR Video Bonus, we can see that ND developped first the environments and designed the characters, then wrote a story to make a link between all this stuff. Wrong move. The flashbacks are really boring, the old lady has zero charism (she didn't look for the ring during 20 years?), the secret society is ridiculous, and so on...

But the worst thing in U3, is that ND tried to include more mature "psychology", but it ended with a philosophical interpretation of a 10-year old child about "To be or not be, that is the question. What am I, What I do, Where I go?". It's just very bad and totally off-topic in an Uncharted game.

The romantic intrigue between Elena and Nathan is very childish too, it was more subtile in U1 and U2 (and fun).

To resume, U3 wants to be more serious, and it's a total fail.

Wow. So what you're really saying is, you didn't enjoy the game? Am I getting that right?

I don't recall thinking much of the story either, but then I didn't think much of UC1's either. This is what happens when UC2 is your first introduction to the series and then you follow it up with the other two. I do know I really liked the environments of the UC3. The only one that stands out for me with UC1 is the submarine in the jungle level, which is great. My only gripe with UC2 is the end boss battle (run in circles, A LOT) and the fact I couldn't figure out for the life of me the nearly last puzzle that gets you to that boss fight.

I did play a lot of multiplayer with UC3 too, something I had never done with a shooter style game before. Very curious to see what my thoughts on UC4 will be like having just played Rise of the Tomb Raider 2 months back and loving the ever living crap out of it.

spoonman · May 17, 2016

shutyertrap said:
The other thing I was curious about with the collection was whether they made the controls in UC1 the same as the other 2. Can't remember specifically what was different other than grenade throwing, which I didn't like at all in UC1.

They did in fact change them for the better and make them unified based on later improvements.

According to the Associate Producer, when discussing the improvements made to the PS4 remastered collection:

Controller layout: We remapped buttons to ensure players did not have to switch between different control schemes with each game. We also tweaked some of the controller layout decisions based on player’s familiarity with The Last of Us Remastered.

Uncharted Drake’s Fortune grenade gameplay: We’ve brought the grenade gameplay in Drake’s Fortune in line with the other two games. Players no longer need to equip a grenade to throw one and can also throw grenades in various ways while hanging or while in cover.

I am looking forward to playing all 3 over again on the PS4 with the enhancements.
I'm becoming a big fan of the Photo Mode and I didn't realize until just now that they added this to the Nathan Drake Collection as well. The only downside is that it takes me twice as long to finish the games because I'm farting around and snapping pics.

Man, the explosions in Uncharted 4 are lovely!

spoonman · May 18, 2016

On this chapter now.
Somehow each new environment ends up impressing me more than the last!

*Open picture in a new window to view them in 1920x1080*

Holy crap... Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is one gorgeous game! (Photos inside)

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