Uncharted 2: Cinemagic

First off I would just like to say that upon receiving my Uncharted 2 beta key, I promptly released my bowels and didn’t bother to change due to excitement. So I sat in soiled trousers for the next hour and forty-five minutes waiting for the download and when that magical box appeared in the top left-hand corner advising me that the download was complete, I promptly soiled myself again!

The music kicked in and the loading screen…loaded, and I found myself staring at the birds in the background thinking: Dynamic Theme? Even the spiny thing in the corner impressed me. I had to calm down. At this rate I was making Zuler look tame. I joined my fellow TSAers: ColinBarr, GazzaGB, and Mynameisblair for some Uncharted 2 multiplayer. Whilst this experience was awesome, I’m not actually here to tell you about that. What I am here to tell you about (as you can probably guess by the title) is the Cinema option.

I am aware that you have all probably seen this, but I wanted to give you an opinion.

After the aforementioned online game, I swiftly entered Cinema mode to replay the magic. This feature has absolutely astounded me. It’s a concept that is new to me. I have not used the Halo version and not being a PC gamer I never experienced it there either. I was honestly blown away in a completely ‘noob’ kind of way. But I overcame my excitement and started really investigating. Obviously it has the usual controls and it was easier to use than a Early Learning Rattle, although I was baffled by the lack of a rewind button, but this is the Beta.

I went through and picked out my favourite moments, like when Blair came bursting through a wall in a tank!! WTF? Where’d he get that from? Needless to say, I died, but it was a beautiful, dramatic death worthy of a Spielberg film. I watched Sully leap from rooftops in slow motion and stared down the barrel of an AK-47 whilst it was firing. I feel this feature is going to distract me. A lot.

The camera options were more than satisfactory with ‘Follow’ and ‘Free’ cameras being of most interest. The Free camera did take me a while to get the hang of in order to be in the right place when all the best action takes place, but once you get it, you become a voyeur of violence and brutality. Other features include Saturation Levels, Tint, Fog and more. Turn all of these up to full and you get an eerie black & white image, which was reminiscent of those haunting images of people covered in dust after 9/11. I’m not normally one for fan-made videos but done properly, this tool is going to produce some amazing footage. So far I’ve played with the cinema more than I’ve played the game!

I know some of you may not be interested but I was amazed. These are just some of the shots that I took using the screenshot function. I think you’ll agree they are awesome!