Uncharted 3 features programmed oxygen

Uncharted wowed with its water effects and jungle environments, Uncharted 2 offered some impressive snow and ice, and the third game promises fire so real it will burn a house down – or at least a virtual one.

“We’re always on the lookout for new technical challenges and we’re really happy with what we’re achieving with our fire effects,” Arne Meyer, community strategist at Naughty Dog, told the EU PlayStation Blog. “It’s not just a static asset – the fire deteriorates the wood realistically and there are blowback effects, like you would expect. The smoke is looking much better this time around.”

So realistic is the fire in Uncharted 3 that players could actually stand and watch the château featured in the demo below burn to the ground, explained Meyer.

Meyer added: “Even in this demo, you can see beams deteriorating as they burn, and you can even take cover behind them when they give way and fall to the floor, only for that cover to disappear when the beam has burned away completely.

“Procedural fire is a pretty difficult technical challenge, especially on top of everything else you’re trying to get in the game, but it produces some brilliant effects, like the corners of the wallpaper starting to roll and then igniting, and then the embers flickering in the air. Essentially, we’re programming oxygen and then having the fire follow it around the environment.”

It’s not just the fires which will impress, but the new animation and melee system too.

“I think that the key ones are the new melee options and an expanded repertoire of stealth movement, one of which sees Drake jump from above for a silent kill,” Meyer explained. “I’m personally excited about the new brawling moves, which let you take on many enemies at once and use the environment, whether that’s grabbing a chair, slamming an enemy into a wall or removing their gun and dispatching them that way.

“We’ve also taken a look at the traversal gameplay and made some improvements there, many of which are physics based, so objects react more realistically when Drake climbs on top of them. A lot of the work we’re doing is on animation, so that there’s more realism when you start running from standing, for example. Essentially, we’re adding more steps to each character animation so that it blends better when you switch from one routine to another.”

Meyer concluded: “Everything we do is aimed at blurring the line between the game and reality, and making the player believe in this world.”

Uncharted 3 is scheduled for release in November.

The third game in the blockbuster adventure series is looking great and it’ll need to if it’s to stand-up against what’s sure to be a hugely competitive November release slate. Not only do we expect to see a new Call of Duty, but there’s a new Elder Scrolls set for November 11 and the promise of Mass Effect 3 for the holiday. A small game by the name of Gears of War 3 should also be showing up around that time too.

With Uncharted 2 having shifted around four million copies worldwide there’s certainly a strong fan base waiting for the third game, but most gamers have limited funds when it comes to buying new games. There will be casualties in the 2011 holiday season.