Probably thinking it would be a shame to let those lovely rock textures go to waste, not to mention that half-tuck, it appears that Naughty Dog is hard at work on an Uncharted sequel. According to a quote from the latest PSM3, there's more fortune in Nathan Drake's future with still more things to chart and pirates to shoot in the face.

The news allegedly comes straight from the mouth of Naughty Dog co-prez Christophe Balestra. We're not calling Mr. Balestra a liar or anything, but we're going to check in with the developer to make sure this is all on the up and up, considering PSM3 cites a "French news channel" interview.

Hirokazu Yasuhara has been lucky enough to work in both the Japanese game industry and the Western game industry. In Japan, he was the third member of the first Team Sonic and fleshed out the level design for the early Sonic titles. In the West, he clocked time at Naughty Dog, working on the Jak series. Now, he's currently senior design director at Namco Bandai Games America. In an interview with game site Gamasutra, Yasuhara talks his level design philosophy (fascinating stuff) and offers insights like:

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Sony's all-about-me blog ThreeSpeech has an interview up with Richard Lemarchand, one of the lead designers at Naughty Dog. Naturally the topic of Uncharted and its trophies came up, but towards the end there's an intriguing bit on just how much of the PS3's processing power is utilised by developers at present. Here are the specifics:

"That's why we think we're probably only using 30 or 40 per cent of the power of the PS3 right now, and there's this great, untapped potential. All third-party developers can get the Edge libraries for free and are going to be able to use them in their own ways, to get more and more and more out of the PS3 over the years."

Naughty Dog's Richard Lemarchand, Co-Lead Game Designer of Uncharted, talks trophies, Edge, cells and studios... [ThreeSpeech]

The promised 1.01 patch for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune has hit the decidedly charted PAL regions of the world, unlocking PlayStation 3 trophy support for one of the console's greatest titles. The patch, which weighs in at a modest 13 megs, unlocks 47 trophies that coincide with the achievements already built into the game, along with a 48th platinum trophy for unlocking all of the other trophies. Already unlocked all of the game's achievements? Well start a new game and unlock them again, as they won't be applied retroactively due to cheating concerns.

Right now the patch is only showing up in PAL territories, though we're certain a North American release can't be too far behind. AHA! Err, UPDATE: Now available in the States!

Uncharted trophies patch released for PAL territories [PSU]

PSN vs. Xbox Live, FIGHT! While Microsoft clearly had the jumpstart with online, Sony is slowly but surely coming into its own. While it's still early, developer Richard Lemarchand from Sony-owned Naughty Dog believes PSN will have an edge that XBL won't:

I think there's going to be other things coming down the pipe that's going to give PSN as a whole a competitive edge... What I will say is as a games designer I'm very excited about net connectivity. I really like how Sony is thinking a little bit outside the box in terms of gamers as modern media consumers. With things like LittleBigPlanet looking towards consumer-generated content and with games like flOw and flOwer — which are art games — Sony is really looking to expand games as culture in the same way that pop music, literature and fine art are culture.

Well, what did you expect him to say?

Naughty Dog Q&A [IGN via Shacknews]

Want the skinny on all of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune's PlayStation Trophies? All 48 of them? I do. Mostly because I'll be quite comfortable restarting the game in order to secure them, having not yet beat Naughty Dog's PlayStation 3 adventure. Arne Meyer at Naughty Dog spills the beans on all the virtual prizes one can secure in the game, just as soon as that patch arrives. Oh, there aren't details details, more like a high level briefing.

Fortunately, it sounds like some of them are related to shooting people in the face, something I excel at in Uncharted. However, we've been hearing rumours that if you can get Nathan Drake's shirt fully tucked in, it unlocks, like, twenty nude codes. We're confirming.

Uncharted Trophies Q&A [IGN]

Yeah, that Uncharted airgun? Totally not official. And not being official (and trying to make money off the official product) tends to piss folks off. A Sony mouthpiece says this about the King of Swords gun:

The Drake's Gun is not licensed or in any way sanctioned by SCE and one we certainly do not condone... We are investigating the source of this product and will proceed with the most appropriate action.

Like telling King of Swords to put the newer blond lady sidekick in its ad?
Sony To Take Action [Games Industry]

Own an airgun that looks like Nathan Drake's! From phony sword makers King of Swords come this full metal M92 airsoft gun. It features blowback, can hold 25 rounds and comes with a free aluminium case. Complete with old female side-kick, not newer blond girl! And yes kids, this will put your eye out.
Drake's Airsoft Gun [King of Swords via Ayauki]

In an interview with SCEE blog Three Speech, Naughty Dog's Evan Wells has been answering a bunch of questions sent in by Three Speech "readers". Most are fairly run-of-the-mill, but one's pretty interesting, if only from a cultural standpoint. The question was, basically, why can't I shoot the fish in the game? The answer:

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A "source" speaking with Joystiq seems to think so. According to this source - who is "close to the deal" - developers Naughty Dog have already agreed to option the rights to a movie based on their 2007 hit (and our 2007 NQGOTY), with Atlas Entertainment reported to be behind the project. Who are Atlas? They're a production company who helped put Twelve Monkeys and Three Kings together, so relax, will you?
Source: Uncharted optioned for movie adaptation [Joystiq]

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