Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception Message Board older than one year ago

By now you’ve become a badass at being a dependable teammate while taking out enemies trying to kill you in UNCHARTED 3 multiplayer, right? Not really? Okay, then practice up because a new game type is coming in fiery hot to UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception multiplayer. Co-op Shade Survival Mode will be available Tuesday, March 13 on PlayStation Store. You’ll be able to tackle some of the toughest enemies in the UNCHARTED franchise with the help of your friends. Want to see what you’ll be up against? Check this out:

The Djinn haunt this mode as you and your friends will be assaulted by wave after wave of progressively more demanding opponents. There are eight rounds in total. The Djinn’s ability to catch fire and teleport poses a formidable challenge to team strategy and coordination, and later rounds include highly skilled Djinn sporting extra armor and firepower, so get ready for a hearty battle.

Players will earn a very sizable amount of cash by playing this mode through to completion and therefore can level up more quickly when surviving the onslaught. There are new medals to earn and different round objectives may come into effect during a match. The Marked Man round objective makes its first appearance in an Arena setting as a certain Djinn will be marked and then heavily protected by other Djinn bodyguards during the match.

Standalone, this mode will cost you $5.99 (US). If you’re already a member of the Fortune Hunters’ Club, this new mode has cost you only the initial price of admission – you can download the Co-Op Shade Survival Mode for free on Tuesday. If you’re still not a member of the Fortune Hunters’ Club but want to get in on all the DLC that’s available for UNCHARTED 3, the FHC is the most cost effective way to do so. For $24.99 you can become a member today and all 14 packs of DLC content will be marked free for you to download. Just click on the FHC icon to buy it via the PS Store, or grab it via the in-game UNCHARTED 3 store today.

As a FHC member, you save over 60% on the 14 packs of UNCHARTED 3 DLC. Current members and any new membership purchased will receive all currently available and any upcoming DLC packs for UNCHARTED 3, as well as the exclusive Fortune Hunters’ Club theme for your PS3. When new UNCHARTED 3 DLC hits, you’ll be notified right from the XMB of your PS3 with a message that will take you right to it.

Incidentally the fiery, devilish Djinn bring our Fortune Hunters’ Club DLC total to lucky number 13. The next, and final, DLC in the Fortune Hunters’ Club will be coming at you next month so be sure to look for our next blog post for full details about what we have in store. For now, see you in the Co-Op Shade Survival mode online!

Uncharted 3 is getting a new "Co-Op Shade Survival" mode in March. Naughty Dog shared almost no information beyond the name, and expects us to extrapolate more from the screenshot above. If we had to guess, given the name, it's about making sure Drake and Elena stay out of the sun and wear proper sunblock while they're on holiday.

The tease for the new mode comes as the company preps the $10 "Multiplayer Flashback Map Pack #2" for tomorrow, February 21. Remember, you can get all the Uncharted DLC at a deep discount as part of the Fortune Hunters' Club -- it's like AAA membership for couch adventurers.

Put on your fedora and break out the good whip, folks: Uncharted 3's 'Fort Co-op' DLC is available for download today. It focuses on evil doers Zoran Lazarević, Eddy Raja, and Harry Flynn, expanding on the events of the Janus head statue in the on-disc co-op adventure.

The DLC is included in the price of admission for Fortune Hunters -- downloading Fort Co-op separately will set you back $5.99. Joining the co-op DLC today are several skins packs for multiplayer, detailed over on the PlayStation blog. Uncharted 3's next major update, Flashback Map Pack 2 for $9.99, arrives on February 21.

By now you’re hopefully well versed in the long gun nuances, co-op narrative and all the hanging-by-your-fingers-on-edge-of-a-cliff action found in Uncharted 3 multiplayer. Today we’re firing a heavy salvo of Uncharted 3 DLC information your way featuring new content to download individually, or as part of the Fortune Hunter’s Club program. Downloading this fresh content will blow out the co-op storyline and expand the UNCHARTED series in ways that have never been done before.

Coming in today’s PlayStation Store update to Uncharted 3 is the Fort Co-Op adventure DLC. Did some of you guess that from our screenshot hint? Fort Co-Op Adventure will mark the first time in the series you’ll be able to play co-op as the UNCHARTED villains with Zoran Lazarević, Eddy Raja, Harry Flynn joining forces in a tale that further explores the mystery behind the Janus head statue from the on-disc co-op adventure. Check out a preview of that adventure here:

Worried you’re becoming an easy target because you’re always playing as Elena, Desert Drake, or Chloe? We have some new skins for you to try. Also available today, February 7th, are the Rogues Skin Pack 1 and Rogues Skin Pack 2 as well as everybody’s favorite the skins, the Doughnut Skin Pack.

If you’re itching for some competitive action on February 21st you can download the Plaza, Temple, Train Wreck, and Village maps in the Flashback Map Pack 2 DLC. Your favorite maps return with all-new dynamic lighting effects, cutting-edge particle effects and a bevy of other fresh technical polish. The lighting on every map has been completely redone. This map pack provides a good look at what kind of technical and gameplay shine we can put on Uncharted 3 multiplayer maps.

If you want to buy all this content standalone here’s a handy pricing breakdown:

• February 7, 2012 -Fort Co-Op Adventure: $5.99
• February 7, 2012 –Doughnut Skin Pack: $1.99
• February 7, 2012 –Rogues Skin Pack 1: $2.99
• February 7, 2012 – Rogues Skin Pack 2: $2.99
• February 21, 2012 – Flashback Map Pack 2: $9.99

If you’re game for becoming a member or already a member all this content will be available free to you as part of the Fortune Hunters’ Club. If not, you can become a member today by purchasing the FHC from the PS Store. It’s a fantastic deal at $24.99.

As a FHC member you’ll save over 60% on the 14 packs of Uncharted 3 DLC. Current members and any new membership purchased will receive all currently available and any upcoming DLC packs for Uncharted 3. The exclusive Fortune Hunters’ Club theme will let you know when new Uncharted 3 DLC hits right from the XMB of your PS3.

The full lowdown on what big DLC is coming after this batch of February awesomeness will follow in a future blog update. We have some very cool surprises for you. Here’s a hint:

Uncharted 3 heavy metal mode? A tie-in with The Misfits Fiend Club? Nope, but we’ll have details on exactly what this symbol means in just a little over a month. Remember to be sure to be on the lookout for some brand new, Uncharted 3 renditions of your favorite maps in the middle of the month! For now, see you in your new skins and in the Fort!

This edition of Pulse concludes a busy, busy January with a look at the new Soulcalibur V that returns to the 17th century with lots of new characters including Ezio from Assassin’s Creed. Christina Lee also previews the upcoming PSN shooter Gotham City Imposters that pits vigilantes dressed up as Batman against criminals dressed up like the Joker. Predictably, mayhem ensues!

In other dress-up news for you digital fashionistas, PlayStation Home‘s got a new game coming called Wardrobe Wars where you can dress to impress and let the community vote for who’s got ‘it’ and who does not. And, don’t miss a look at the UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception Flashback Map Pack #1 that’s part of the Fortune Hunter’s Club.

Download PULSE, presented by the PlayStation Network in full HD when the PlayStation Store updates later today and also look for the full edition in the “What’s New” section on the XMB.

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception is a verified masterpiece. At Naughty Dog, Justin Richmond, the game's director, works with creative director Amy Hennig to focus on game design and actual game play for the Uncharted games. In this exclusive interview, Richmond takes a look back at Nathan Drake's late...

A new DLC pack for Uncharted 3 is available today for members of the "Fortune Hunters' Club," the season pass solution for Nathan Drake's latest adventure. Today's pack includes the Cave, Fort, Lost City, and Sanctuary maps, all reworked from past versions with new lighting, textures, and terrain and weather effects. If you haven't yet bought in to the FHC, the pass is available on PSN now for $24.99.

And if that's not enough, Sony is looking to sweeten the pot a bit further. Originally, the pass was going to allow access to seven different packs (four map releases and three new packs of character skins), but now that number has doubled to 14 packs of content over the next year, all included in that same $24.99 price. All we've got about the new DLC so far is that teaser image above, which shows series baddie Lazarević, along with Flynn and Eddy. Fans are guessing it's villians-based co-op content.

Next up for DLC is three character skin packs, with two focusing on Uncharted's rogues gallery, and one featuring alternate skins for the heroes. A release date for those, as well as more DLC info, will be available from Sony soon.

Today, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception gets a dose of life with a new map pack featuring four classic Uncharted levels. The Cave, Fort, Lost City and Sanctuary are all represented in four separate maps. Better yet, these maps have been reworked by Naughty Dog...

Happy 2012! We’re starting the year off with a fresh batch of UNCHARTED 3 DLC content and more in the pipeline that prophecies forbid us from fully portending quite yet. Hope you’ve all gotten 2012 off to a rocking start even with all the 2012 phenomenon chatter. If not, we’re about to make your end of days talk and your UNCHARTED gaming life much more awesome.

First off, today we’ll be releasing four maps we teased a couple of weeks after the UNCHARTED 3 launch.

You’ll be getting the Cave, Fort, Lost City, and Sanctuary maps in this download pack. Dynamic lighting effects, new particle effects and a slew of technical changes have been made to these maps. The lighting was reworked from scratch. New textures and weather effects are apparent and freshly decorate all maps. We poured hours of development time into these maps to make them be really fun in the UNCHARTED 3 multiplayer ecosystem. This map pack is a taste of how far we can go to remix some of your favorite maps into a completely new UNCHARTED 3 gameplay experience.

If you’re a member of the Fortune Hunters’ Club these maps will be available free to you. If not, you can gain access today by purchasing the FHC from the PS Store. It’s a fantastic deal at $24.99.

Initially, the Fortune Hunters’ Club offered a total savings of 45% off the seven multiplayer packs (three character skin packs, four map packs) that will be released for UNCHARTED 3. We’ve kicked this deal up a few notches and are now offering 14 total packs, 7 new packs that we will be revealing as the year progresses! As a FHC member the savings for these 14 packs will be over 60%! Current membership and any new membership purchased will include all currently available and any upcoming DLC packs for UNCHARTED 3 as well as an exclusive Fortune Hunters’ Club theme that will let you know when new UNCHARTED 3 DLC hits right from the XMB of your PS3.

Besides the fun new maps you’ll be playing on today, we wanted to tell you about some future hits of DLC. We have three new character skins packs coming at you next. The Rogues Pack 1 and Rogues Pack 2 will let you play as some of the major thugs and minor characters from UNCHARTED 3. Donut Pack 1 will giant-size some of your favorite UNCHARTED 3 heroes and villains.

Details on how and when the three new skin packs will be available, and what DLC is coming after that, will follow in our next blog update. We have a lot more DLC coming at you. To whet your appetite, here’s a hint to as what it may be:

Any guesses to why Lazarević is holding half a Janus head?

As you see we are currently hard at work on completely new DLC for your UNCHARTED 3 online adventure. As soon as all the content is fully baked, tested through QA and we have locked release dates you’ll be the first to know. For now, let’s explore some new maps together. See you online!

When Simon Parkin published his review of Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception at Eurogamer, a mild firestorm erupted, launching a contentious debate about the role of criticism during the review process.

Parkin’s review took issue with the Uncharted design philosophy as a whole, but still awarded the game an 8/10 at the bottom of the page--a respectable score from an outlet as tough as Eurogamer!

Fans, developers, and even some writers wondered aloud whether Parkin had picked the appropriate venue for his examination of Naughty Dog’s choices. I wrote my own piece about the ensuing response, which prompted a more intimate conversation about the subject with game developer Manveer Heir, who is currently a senior designer on Mass Effect 3 at BioWare Montreal.

Heir has been kicking around the industry for a while now, having landed at BioWare Montreal and the Mass Effect series after five years with Raven Software in Wisconsin, the home state of my dearest football rivals. Heir is known for his outspoken nature, and isn’t one to walk away from a controversial subject. In fact, it was Heir that proposed we start a back-and-forth letter series about game reviews and publish it.

I suggested we throw it up on Giant Bomb in its entirety, and he agreed.

If you’re not familiar with Heir, you can read his dusty blog Design Rampage (which he promises to update), follow him on Twitter, scope this Kill Screen interview about his early years, or load up a Gamasutra interview about race.

Take it away, Manveer.

Note: This exchange took place over email, and I've done minimal editing to reflect the casual style.

--

Patrick,

Heir is working on Mass Effect 3, a sequel to one of this generation's most beloved games.

Thanks for agreeing to discuss the role of game criticism and reviews with me. It's something that has been bothering me for some time now, and I wanted to discuss it with someone who works in the field, instead of just talking to other people like myself who often bitch on Twitter. So you know where I'm coming from, I'll give you a brief background about myself before I became a game developer. I used to cover the news, write previews, reviews, and do interviews for the enthusiast press (what is now known as bloggers) for a couple sites when I was in high school and early college (late 90s, early 2000s). It was a means to an end to get connected to the game development community, instead of wanting to be a journalist, but hey, it worked. More specifically, I don't think I was particularly good at my job. I judged games on 100-point scales that broke scores down into component parts like graphics, sound, etc. (something I find abhorrent now in my life). I say this so you understand that I've actually done the job (to a novice extent) for over five years, and so I understand some of the pressures reviewers are under in today's climate, as well as how the job goes.

My issues currently stem from games criticism and games reviewing, and should they even be the same thing. I am of the mind that they should not, and here's why. I should explicitly note that all my opinions are my own and not my employer's. Games criticism is new, it's in its infancy, and it's growing with every day. Game reviews, on the other hand, have been consumed for a very long time. As a developer, I love game criticism. I love reading my issues of Kill Screen, I love reading how someone finds a game sexist or offensive due to certain elements that are engrained in our culture, when we never stop to sit and think WHY they are engrained. I love all of that, I want more criticism. As a developer, I thrive and grow off criticism. I need it from my peers and those outside to better my own sensibilities, lest my colleagues and I rest on our collective laurels in the future.

But when we give those criticisms a score, we do something else. We make the criticism the focus of the entire product. To use specific examples, let's look at Simon Parkin's Eurogamer review of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. Parkin is an author I greatly respect and someone whose work as a critic I find to be on point often times, and his review is recent, which is why I cite it. In his review he states "Uncharted 3 is the most exciting game in the world, but only until you deviate from the script." He goes on to expand on how the game makes you feel like nothing more than an "interactive butler" at times.

Now, this is a criticism of how linear the game is. Like Uncharted 2, Uncharted 3 is very linear. In fact, like Modern Warfare 2, it is very linear. Like Gears of War 3, it is very linear. Like countless other 90+ rated titles, it is very linear. Many blockbuster games that are coming out are very linear. This is the choice they have made. All of them have this problem. The issue I have isn't with this criticism, but rather the calling out of this criticism on Uncharted 3 as a reason for a rating. Because, if that's the case, then shouldn't Modern Warfare 2 have similar criticisms embedded in it and review score docked accordingly? Yet a review of that game by Parkin doesn't mention, in-depth, the linearity issues like it does with Uncharted 3.

If a sequel is just following the path established by the other games, is that a knock against it?

The issue does not lie with the criticism. The issue lies with what the game is. I do not judge a pie poorly because it is not cake. Both are delicious desserts, and there is a time and a place for both (the place, specifically, is in my belly). So when talking about player agency regarding linear vs. open-world games, I find these to be drastically different styles that are like comparing pies to cakes. I have a strong preference to see more player agency, and I, too, get frustrated when it is stripped away from me in games. But how do we reconcile this when all of our games that are linear have the same base problem? Do they all just get judged down a point because they are linear? Do we make sure all reviewers from a publication know that when they have different reviewers judge a game?

It seems difficult to handle things this way. I think making pointed criticisms about Uncharted 3's linearity, and then potentially tying it in into the entire industry's reliance on scripted narrative, Parkin could have made a wonderful piece that wasn't overshadowed by the 8/10 score he gave that sent fans into an uproar. The existence of the score took the piece away from criticism of the work and into a review of the work, and sadly, to me, it took away Parkin's ability to actually make a wonderful point because people got too up in arms about a number. To me, a review serves a different purpose. Criticism exists absolutely. Reviews exist relatively. What I mean is, I don't rate Iron Man the movie the same way I may rate Crash. However, if you asked me what I thought of both pieces I would say, in a word, "must see." But clearly their goals are different; one is a well-done piece of Hollywood blockbuster and the other is a poignant piece about race relations in contemporary society. Sometimes I'm in the mood for Iron Man. Sometimes I'm in the mood for Crash. Sometimes I'm in the mood for pie. Ok, I'm almost always in the mood for pie. But I think you get the point.

Shouldn't we then review our games in the same light? Shouldn't a game that is trying to be a linear piece of Hollywood blockbuster be rated against how those types of games typically play and the expectation of the audience? Shouldn't a review tell me if this piece of work is worth my time or not? Is that not a different question than "does this piece of work have flaws"? Trying to relate Uncharted 2 to something like Dark Souls is very hard to do, and I think we go down a bad path when we try to do it.

Let's keep criticizing games. Let's do it louder than ever. The development community needs it! But let's not mix our critique with our reviews. To me one is about recommendations to an audience, and the other is about the state of the art. The latter is far more useful than the former in my world. I'm all for the abolishment of reviews, but I think sites like yours may take a readership hit if that happens. So, without that happening, I think we should separate the two. Am I crazy? Do I have the wrong expectations for what the function of the two are? Or are my opinions just colored too darkly from my life as a developer who has to live with the score of reviews? Let me know your thoughts.

Sincerely,

Manveer

--

Manveer,

Skyward Sword is a terrific Zelda game, but it's also a very familiar game for many reasons.

One of the things I love about the video games industry is our collective commitment to self-reflection, a willingness to open ourselves up in the pursuit of becoming better players, creators or writers. In my case, I'm a journalist first and a critic second, a path I started walking down in high school, when an English teacher suggested the best way to ensure I could make a buck putting words on a page was journalism. I'd been writing about video games earlier than that, however, having attended my first E3 back in 1998. If memory serves me right, I was 14 back then, and I've been writing about games in some form since then, attending college for print journalism and rotating between news posts at various outlets.

And while reporting is my daily bread and butter, I'm also a reviewer, having recently endured the trial-by-fire that was reviewing a new Zelda game--The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. My experience giving the latest Zelda a less-than-perfect score fits right in to this conversation, as it was the first review I'd written after reading Simon's review of Uncharted 3 and writing a follow-up editorial that criticized the hyperbolic response from fans.

Before I launch into my own process, perhaps we should back up and examine the purpose of a review. Until only recently, reviews have had more in common with what you'd read in Consumer Reports than a serious critical analysis, an attempt to explain what a game is, isn't and whether it's worth spending any money on. That alone is useful to a great many people, and part of the reason reviews are so important to video games in particular is because, individually, they cost more money than other mediums. You don't feel as burned about wasting $10 on the latest bucket of CGI from Michael Bay compared to shelling out $60 at GameStop, realizing the marketing mislead you, and having nothing but a set of achievements to show for it. There is a very real, important role for reviews that intends to accomplish no more than answering the question of yes or no.

But is that all we should expect from our reviews? Often times, we already know if we're going to buy a game or not, and a review is just a way to read about the game in some opinionated specificity before the game unlocks on Steam. For that audience, of which I'd argue there's a very large one visiting most enthusiast publications, a typical review doesn't provide any real service. As publications evolve, game companies have only themselves to blame for the predicament we're now in. Metacritic has its own issues, but the importance publishers have placed upon Metacritic is the bigger problem, and it's clear publications are beginning to understand the power of Metacritic to varying degrees. For some, it's a recognition that reviews may not impact video game sales in any meaningful way, but the reviews (and the scores attached) are, in fact, meaningful, as publishers have made them important, and the words that appear in those reviews suddenly take on a different weight.

Few took issue with the script-driven design in Uncharted and Uncharted 2, but Uncharted 3 took heat.

I don't want this to become yet another conversation about Metacritic, as it's only part of the issue, and the evolution of the review seems more encouraged by the homogeneous nature of so many of them. Unless I'm seeking out the opinions of a specific author, I'm not interested in reading a dozen glowing reviews of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. I want to read the review from the one guy that *crag*ing hated it, the guy who wants to make the argument about why it's actually terrible. Maybe I don't end up agreeing with this hypothetical guy, but I don't need my opinions validated, I need my opinions challenged.

You do point to one real problem with game reviews that publications deal with in different ways. Edge does not specify who actually reviewed a game. Edge is known for being tough, so when Edge proclaims your game is worthy of a 10 (which, for the record, does not mean perfect!), that actually means something. Most publications, however, have a byline in the review, and when it comes to games that don't receive 10/10 or 5/5, the comparative analysis begins. "Well," so the argument goes, "they gave Skyward Sword and Fruit Ninja Kinect a 4/5, so they're both of equal quality." This isn't fair to either game or the reviewer. I'm not of the mind a publication should find itself beholden to making sure its reviews are wholly consistent against everything that has come before it, as games are good, bad and weird for entirely individual reasons that aren't comparable.

What a 4/5 means for Fruit Ninja is a bit different than what 4/5 means for Skyward Sword.

And here's how I'll circle back to my Skyward Sword review. The Zelda series has existed for more than 20 years, essentially becoming a genre unto itself. This happens to many longtime franchises, and it's happening before our eyes with Call of Duty. The reviews for Modern Warfare 3 almost universally ding the game for being more of the game, but the game's sales suggest that doesn't mean very much to the fans--they want more of the same. The struggle for the reviewer, then, is the audience he's writing to. Haven't most Call of Duty fans made up their mind about whether they are buying the new Call of Duty? Is there anyone who is really "on the fence" about buying Modern Warfare 3? Knowing that, a review that's targeted directly at Call of Duty fans isn't much use to anybody at all, and launching into a larger criticism of this subgenre could be useful to someone like myself, who isn't really interested in yet another on-rails shooter. Parkin didn't review Modern Warfare 3, so we can't predict what he would have said about that one, but the Uncharted series falls into the same boat, and writing 1,000 words about how "Did you like Uncharted 2? Let me tell you why you would like Uncharted 3!" isn't much use, and a grand critique of the foundational philosophy of the series' game design is only possible with the perspective of three games.

With Skyward Sword, I found myself as someone who was no longer satisfied with many of the tropes that had come to define the Zelda series, even if Skyward Sword is a game that works within them very well. The review I wrote, if successful, will read like a five to someone who doesn't have the same hangups, but I'm not that person and I can't write a review for that person. I can only hope to string together a series of words and sentences that allow them to see why I came to my conclusion, and how they might draw another one. But writing a review of Skyward Sword that ignored everything around it would be purposeful ignorance, and a disservice to the same amount of lavish, immaculate detail Nintendo spent crafting the game.

The easy way out would be to drop scores, but let's not kid ourselves, as that won't happen. What's the middle ground?

Good luck finishing Mass Effect,

Patrick

Look for the next installment of our three-part conversation on Monday. Want more pieces like this? Let me know.

We've already told you what our favorite games of 2011 are, but the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences apparently needed a bit more time to ruminate on the matter. The final awards will be given at the annual DICE summit in Las Vegas on February 9, giving us all tons of time to pressure the AIAS into giving Rayman Origins the awards for Outstanding Animation and Outstanding Art Direction.

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception is the belle of the ball this year, with a total of 12 nominations across several categories. Other notable titles include Portal 2 (10 nominations) L.A. Noire (9 nominations), Bastion (3 nominations), and Battlefield 3 (6 nominations). 2010's top game from the AIAS was Mass Effect 2, which walked away with awards in the RPG and storytelling categories.

Jay Mohr will be hosting again -- here's his monologue from last year -- and the entire show will be streamed online through GameSpot, starting at 7:30pm PT/10:30pm ET. Or you could buy a plane ticket and fly to Vegas, hoping to somehow sneak in. We wouldn't suggest that, though, as your time and money can be better spent petitioning for Rayman Origins.

Hit the jump for the full list of this year's nominees.

LittleBigPlanet 2
How fitting that for my last contribution to Joystiq's Game of the Year list, I should learn the bitter sting of having my number one choice not breach the Top 10. LittleBigPlanet 2 improved upon the original -- already one of my favorite games of all time -- in every conceivable way, offering one of the most user-friendly, charming UGC systems in gaming history. There is nothing I've thought of that LBP2 wasn't able to create, and that includes a level about interstellar poultry abduction.

Who has time for words anymore? You're too busy for those, so why not relive 2011's biggest games in the time it takes you to drink a cup of coffee?

Another year, another 12 days of holiday giveaways! Between now and Christmas Day (give or take a day), we're doing the one thing that makes us feel truly alive: giving. Specifically, we're giving you fine folks some of the swag we've managed to collect in our cluttered home offices. And the good will and merriment doesn't stop here! Don't forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for even more chances to win!

This is it: Our final holiday giveaway. Christmas is over, and our mountain of home office swag has become a mound ... but there is one box left over that's taking up an impressive amount of real estate. It's Sony's PlayStation 3D Display, a 24" LCD whose ability to simultaneously display gameplay for two separate players sporting 3D glasses is kind of awesome. Just so you get the full 3D experience, we'll be bundling some first-party Sony titles like Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception and Resistance 3, along with the madcap insanity of Saint's Row: The Third.

And lest you think we're only concerned with your eyeballs, we want to tell you about the Astro A40 Wireless headphones we're including. But these aren't any Astro headphones, oh no! These headphones include custom Joystiq inserts, as pictured after the break. And to satisfy one more sense, we're throwing in Power A's PS3 Air Flow controller, which will bathe your sweaty mitts in a cool breeze. We're missing taste and smell, we know, but we trust your diet of pizza-blasted Doritos will take care of both of those.

As 2011 draws to a close, join Christina Lee for a look back at some of the year’s most memorable games. From Sackboy’s return in LittleBigPlanet 2 to Nathan Drake’s epic adventure in UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception, this year was one of the biggest in recent memory. From the big shooters like Killzone 3 and Battlefield 3 to surprises such as PSN exclusives Eufloria and inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood, the year also included a dramatic redesign of PlayStation Home and a beautiful compilation of the beloved Ico & Shadow of the Colossus collection. We know this only scratches the surface and there’s plenty of titles PULSE didn’t have time to mention, but we hope you enjoy a walk through another amazing year for our industry.

And, remember you can watch the full edition of PULSE from the ‘What’s New’ section on your XMB later today when the PlayStation Store updates.

Have a safe and happy holiday and look for PULSE to return in mid-January.

The Last of Us, The Last of Us, The Last of Us. Ever since Naughty Dog was revealed as the developer of the new PlayStation 3 fungus/zombie game, that's all anyone has wanted to talk about in PlayStation land. But with Naughty Dog split into two teams -- one that made Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception ...

Looking to get all your holiday shopping done in a time frame that won't elicit judgment from your even earlier-shopping peers? You can knock it all out today, provided you're only buying PS3 games for your loved ones. Amazon's got a bunch of great deals on titles for that platform.

Sounds like the $5 footlongs should be Nathan Drake's treat the next time we pull into our participating Subway restaurant. Sony's Asad Quizilbash tells Industry Gamers that over 13 million Uncharted games have been shipped to stores worldwide. What's more, the series is on a big upward trajectory, with week-one sales for Uncharted 3 doubling those of Uncharted 2.

Just think: For all the time Drake has spent shooting dudes and climbing around in pursuit of riches, the answer was there all along: Make a video game about yourself.

Of course, then he would just be making a game about a guy making a video game about a guy making a video game about a guy making a video game ... and so on into infinity. The snake would eat itself and the universe would collapse from the weight the endless feedback loop of cause and effect.

So ... maybe he should just stick to the shooting dudes and climbing. Yeah. That's best.

Sony has confirmed the lifetime sales of the Uncharted series to date. According to Uncharted 3 product marketing manager Asad Quizilbash, the Uncharted franchise has "sold over thirteen million units globally." Quizilbash also discussed the game's marketing budget, and while he wouldn't give a p...

Extended Play is back. If you're new to the series, it's our way of exploring some of the biggest, most interesting games around. Another way of thinking of it is as a community for people who care passionately about games, and want to talk about them long after the review score has been publish...

Naughty Dog has released Patch 1.02 for Uncharted 3. The patch adds Alternate Aim Settings to the Camera Options menu in single-player, as well as a cutscene viewer in the Bonuses menu...

If you think Drake's marksmanship went awry between Uncharted 2 and Uncharted 3, you'll be pleased to hear Patch 1.02 is now available, bringing alternate aiming options to the single-player game. Naughty Dog concocted these changes with the aid of its community, which has been vocal about several reticule-ous issues since Uncharted 3 launched.

Patch 1.02 also makes several granular changes to the multiplayer gameplay and interface, and implements the cutscene viewer -- a perfect companion if the story was all a blur to you. Of course, if you prefer things all a-blur, you'll welcome the return of the game's previously "missing" motion blur effects.

DRAAAAAAGONS.

Having games like Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception and Rayman: Origins around has made the process of putting The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on hold the last few weeks considerably easier.

When Bethesda Game Studios announced a patch was in the works to fix the annoying texture bug when the Xbox 360 version of the game is installed to the hard drive, I paused my addiction.

That patch is finally coming to all platforms this week, starting with the PlayStation 3 version, and fixes the texture issue, amongst many other things. The patch should be live for European PS3 users now, with Bethseda hoping the patch arrives on Xbox 360 and PC on Wednesday.

The full change list, dubbed version 1.2, courtesy of Bethesda:

• Improved occasional performance issues resulting from long term play (PlayStation 3)
• Fixed issue where textures would not properly upgrade when installed to drive (Xbox 360)
• Fixed crash on startup when audio is set to sample rate other than 44100Hz (PC)
• Fixed issue where projectiles did not properly fade away
• Fixed occasional issue where a guest would arrive to the player’s wedding dead
• Dragon corpses now clean up properly
• Fixed rare issue where dragons would not attack
• Fixed rare NPC sleeping animation bug
• Fixed rare issue with dead corpses being cleared up prematurely
• Skeleton Key will now work properly if player has no lockpicks in their inventory
• Fixed rare issue with renaming enchanted weapons and armor
• Fixed rare issue with dragons not properly giving souls after death
• ESC button can now be used to exit menus (PC)
• Fixed occasional mouse sensitivity issues (PC)
• General functionality fixes related to remapping buttons and controls (PC)

This will likely be the first of several patches for Skyrim. Now I just need to make sure I’m done with Uncharted 3 before the patch drops on Wednesday, and the addiction begins all over again...

#gameclub Welcome, Kotaku Game Club, to the multiplayer edition of our Uncharted 3 talks! Thank you everyone for showing up a day early. I hope that you're as excited as I am to get a healthy gaming discussion in before the holiday. More »

What better way to celebrate the arrival of PlayStation’s most anticipated game of the year than with a blowout review? PTOM’s holiday issue cover feature breaks down the highs (many) and the lows (not many) of UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception. Yes, it’s bigger and better than its predecessor in nearly every expected way, but even we were surprised by what emerged as the game’s defining trait.

The holiday season always means a deluge of games to review, but the quality of titles available this year is unprecedented. Check out our verdicts on Batman: Arkham City, Saints Row: The Third, and Rayman Origins and you may come to same conclusion we have: Our friends and family had better be generous this year ’cause we can’t afford all this gaming goodness.

But if your thoughts run more toward giving than getting (sucker), PTOM’s annual Holiday Gift Guide offers up the best gamer loot..er, presents of the season. The PTOM staff even makes personal appearances in the feature and share their most precious memories of Christmas’ past for your mocking pleasure.

Previews? You want previews? How about our first play impressions of Rockstar’s Max Payne 3? We also go hands-on with Final Fantasy XIII-2, Mass Effect 3, and Syndicate, along with extended play sessions on a bevy of PS Vita titles including Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Resistance: Burning Skies, and up-and-comer Gravity Rush. The Vita preview barrage continues with 10 reasons why RPG fans should love the new portable system.

But we’ve saved the best for last…the last page of the magazine, that is. PTOM has been smitten with the holiday spirit and we’ve teamed with Mad Catz to give away three spectacular prize bundles. Flip to page 96 of PTOM’s Holiday issue, available on newsstands November 22, for entry details. Oh, and Happy Holidays everyone!

An upcoming patch for Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception will help assuage concerns with the game's aiming. Fans have complained that shooting in Uncharted 3 feels "off" compared to the previous game, and dev studio Naughty Dog isn't shrugging off criticisms.

"I posted on the Neogaf forum where people were going through it [shooting criticisms] in a very eloquent fashion, really explaining their gripes very clearly, and I said 'Well, is anyone local that can come in and explain it to us?'" community manager Arne Meyer told Giant Bomb. Apparently two fans took up the challenge (as well as two of their friends), and assisted both game director Justin Richmond and multiplayer programmer Travis McIntosh in tweaking the game's shooting "feel" via on-the-fly playtesting at Naughty Dog's Santa Monica-based HQ.

The result is an optional tweak for the shooting that will arrive, alongside other fixes, in a game update at an undetermined point in the future. Thanks, articulate fans!

Hey Game Clubbers, remember that our meeting on Uncharted 3 multiplayer is tomorrow instead of Thursday at 4pm Eastern. It's the last one of the month so come with ideas for our next game! More »

#uncharted The following post contains plot spoilers for Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. More »

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception's almost been on the market for a month, and if you've played it, chances are you have some burning questions. IGN's PlayStation podcast Podcast Beyond has those questions, too, and we finally got into a room to hash them out. In this very special one-shot podcast, we'll spend an hour talking about what we loved, what we hated and what didn't make sense to us in Uncharted 3 -- we'll even answer the questions you sent in...

Uncharted 2 introduced the series to multiplayer, and like Assassin's Creed, it worked surprisingly well.

The video game industry sits still for no man, and developers are constantly asked to shift, evolve, and innovate to remain on top. Fans do not accept every change with open arms, and the increased connectivity of communities, fostered by the sharp increase of community managers who try to keep their fingers on the pulse, means developers are listening more than ever.

Arne Meyer is the liaison at Naughty Dog between the community who adores the games coming from the Sony-owned studio and the developers who spend years creating these lavish, spectacle-laden video games.

One of the strange disconnects was the gunplay feeling different between singel and multiplayer.

It’s up to Meyer to figure out when the community is making a serious point and pass it on. He started to suspect they were in the last few weeks, immediately following the launch of Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. The community started to raise concerns about changes made to the gunplay since the release of 2009’s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

The debate started on their own forums at naughtydog.com, and quickly spread to the popular gaming message board NeoGAF.

“They felt that Uncharted 2 really had the aiming down, had the gunplay down correctly, so they were trying to dissect what was happening there,” he said.

The key word here is “dissect.” It’s one thing to complain, it’s another to structurally break down what makes the game tick, ripping apart the design logic, and attempting to understand what was causing the feeling of disconnect between Uncharted 2 and Uncharted 3. Players were looking at dead zone, velocity and stick aiming changes without any first-hand knowledge.

“A lot of what we were seeing was people driving themselves nuts trying to figure out what it was, and a lot of theories were coming out, so we wanted to make sure that we clarified that,” said Meyer.

Players were uploading videos with commentary, drawing up graphs explaining their theories--clearly, a scale had been tipped.

Meyer said down with game director Justin Richmond and multiplayer programmer Travis McIntosh to sketch out the changes made for Uncharted 3. He pulled people from both sides because the community was saying the issue was specifically related to singleplayer. The result was a blog post on Naughty Dog's site that Meyer hoped would help fans settle to Uncharted 3.

It didn’t work, so it was back to the drawing board.

“We took some time to investigate that internally because, again, we knew we’d made changes, but in all of our focus testing--probably about three months of straight focus testing--we never got any feedback the aiming was unsatisfactory to those people,” he said. “And for us, it’s very hard. I mean, obviously because we’ve played around with this, so whatever we had internally we’d get used to very quickly.”

Both Naughty Dog and Naughty Dog’s fans were banging their heads against the wall at this point. Meyer threw out the idea of bringing some fans into the actual studio to better articulate the issue, but the idea came and went.

“Justin came by later and said ‘Well, can you do that?’ And I’m like ‘sure.’” he said. “So, I posted on the NeoGAF forum where people were going through it in a very eloquent fashion, really explaining their gripes very clearly, and I said ‘Well, is anyone local that can come in and explain it to us?’”

Two users showed up, each bringing with them another person also versed in Uncharted, and all four were members of NeoGAF. Everyone sat down with Richmond and McIntosh, and plead their case regarding the issues within Uncharted 3 with the very same people responsible for making them.

In order to make sure Naughty Dog was getting the right feedback, the team employed a variation of the Pepsi Challenge.

“We showed them a before and after without telling them which one was changed to see how they liked these alternate settings that our programmer had come up with,” said Meyer. “As part of that process, we iterated on what the feedback was and we were making changes on the fly, and changing different things from what we originally changed to get the right feel for the aiming.”

When the patch launches in the coming weeks, a tweak will reflect the community's response.

It's not hard to imagine how a fan might become easily starstruck. Here you are, chatting with the creators of one of your favorite games, telling them what you think about that game, and having one of the developers implement your changes in real-time. That’s really something else.

The traditional problem with incorporating fans is the inability to get properly articulated feedback, or to have players who are so wrapped up in the idea of coming behind the curtain that everyone's sidetracked.

“They definitely weren’t here ‘blinded by the light.’” said Meyer. “These are our fans, so I don’t want to say they came in with a massively critical chip on their shoulder over it, but the two guys that we brought in, I think they were really sharp in terms of being analytical and being able upfront with what the changes were, and they were very clear and direct about what it was, and it was actually super helpful for us.”

Naughty Dog is currently working on a patch for Uncharted 3 that will address, among other things, the gunplay concerns. There’s no date for the patch, but when it goes live, there will be an aiming toggle that brings the settings closer to Uncharted 2. This is merely an option, though, and anyone who’s just happy with how Uncharted 3 plays won’t have to make the switch.

Meyer said Naughty Dog didn’t have a policy for bringing fans to the studio, but that may change.

“Justin and I always talk about, when we’re on our press tours, that one of the awesomest things when we’re doing press is when we have the opportunity to meet with our fans,” he said. “For Justin, it was great to actually have somebody come in and have actionable changes happen in front of them.”