My favorite PlayStation story was how I end up getting Uncharted 2.
As an early PS3 owner in 2007, I used to play every single release during the initial draught of games. That year, from all the games I played, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune was the one I dug the most. A mix of all my favorite genres (cover shooting, exploration, platforming) with top notch production values and an amazingly written story was something that was such a pleasure to experience, and I was eager to hear anything about the release of its sequel, and became my most anticipated PS3 release after Metal Gear Solid 4.
On December of 2008, while watching the VGA's, I saw the initial trailer with the battered up Drake in the now famous cliffhanging train section, and the level of detail in that glimpse blew my mind. No less than a month later, Game Informer had Uncharted 2 on there cover story, and all the details they uncovwred as well as screenshots from the Nepal warzone just confirmed to me that this game was going to be indeed something special, a feeling that was confirmed when I watched the now legendary E3 2009 demo.
The level of awesomeness in that E3 demo blew away even the wildest of my expectations. Every part of that demo (the production values, writing, setpieces) was unlike anything I had seen in that genre, and made the wait for release date (at that time still unknown but narrowed to 2009) to unbearable.
Then the release date was revealed on Gamescom (October 13th, 2009) which made my excitement skyrocket. Only 2 more months before release! And to my luckiest of lucks, the reviews started coming in a month early like they did with Killzone 2. And to my not so surprise, the reviews confirmed what all those E3 Game of the Show awards said: this game was a monumental triumph. A 10 from Game Informer and Eurogamer, a 9.5 from IGN and Gamespot, a 9.3 from Game Trailers. The list goes on and on. Needless to say, I was preparing myself for such a wild ride
The release date finally came, and I just couldn't wait to get my hands on the game. And that's where things started to get "interesting". At that time, I was still a kid that was depending on my father to buy me the games I wanted. Yet at that moment, my father just didn't want to buy the game because "it doesn't look that exciting to him." Another reason: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was coming a few weeks later, and he was more excited to invest on that than in Uncharted 2. My heart was almost broken. Just because of a "more of the same" sequel to game I actually really enjoyed back in 2007 I was going to miss out on a tremendous sequel that had everything stacked in its way to become Game of the Year. So I took
Action and did something which was the first time I had ever done that: I went to my old classic games vault (PS2, Gamecube, etc.) and grabbed as much of them as possible, games that I loved, and went to my local games retailer to sell each and anyone of them for way less of a value than what they were worth when I had bought them originally. It made me sad to see them go, as I had some amazing memories from those games, but at the same time, I wasn't playing them anymore and I really wanted to have Uncharted 2. So I sold them, and used all store credit to get Uncharted 2. Then I went to my house, popped the game, and after a week of playing it, I came to the conclusion that it was the greatest thing I had ever had the chance to play at that moment, and I hailed Naughty Dog for creating such a masterpiece of blockbuster entertainment. The way Uncharted 2 blew my mind is something that hasn't been repeated this generation, not even with the release of the incredible Uncharted 3, where I went in knowing how great it was going to be and got what I expected.
But what still sticks with me with Uncharted 2 is the lengths i went to get the game. I knew it was going to be something special, and I had to let go of some great memories of games in order to get it. It was the first time I had done that, but I knew my gut was right in doing it. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is one of the pinnacle moments in gaming this generation, and still remains the reference point to me when I point out what game defines the PlayStation 3. And even on my 80+ library of PS3 games, it remains the crown jewel of the pack. The investment paid off.
). So long as the story pertains to PlayStation, you're free to write what you wish!
