Ben-DutkaWhen you're atop the development world and everybody expects nothing but perfection, the pressure just might start to weigh heavily on every talented shoulder.
Speaking in a fresh behind-the-scenes video , Naughty Dog cinematics animation lead, Josh Scherr, spoke about the team's struggle to top themselves after what many called an unparalleled production in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves . In a word, he has described that struggle as "terrifying." Said Scherr:
"There's a lot more pressure now on us than I think there ever has been. We want to meet and beat peoples' expectations but frankly we're just putting a lot of our own pressure on ourselves to do a better game than we did last time."
Creative director Amy Hennig added that expectations are both external and internal. In fact, it seems she prefers a time when Naughty Dog was making a little-known title called Uncharted: Drake's Fortune ; a time when few expected a masterpiece and the world hadn't yet greeted Nathan Drake and Co.
"Making Uncharted 3 there's a ton of pressure – it's a crushing amount of pressure to be honest. Some of it's self-imposed and some of it's naturally imposed by the circumstances when you know you've got a big fanbase out there that's waiting for any scrap of information and can't wait for the next game.
I'll tell you, there's something to be said for being under the radar and being the dark horse that nobody's heard of yet."
But of course, perfectionists will always be hardest on themselves. As co-president Christophe Balestra said- "Pressure from the outside compared to what we have inside…piece of cake. It's nothing." Oh, we're certainly guilty of heaping on the pressure but we're just so excited. Maybe Naughty Dog will forgive us.
Related Game(s): Uncharted 3
It's not healthy to hype a game into the stratosphere ( read: GT5). I'm going to keep my excitement for U3 at reasonable levels. That way, I can guarantee that I will enjoy it as much as possible 🙂
Agreed. The one thing that will seperate U3 from GT5 is the fact that GT5 was 6 years after GT4, while U3 will only be 2 years.
Sales say other wise.
Though it's better not to hype it in the U.S., hating is only second to drinking lol.
I'm happy with how GT5 turned out. I don't have any complaints except the block-ish shadows that sometimes is on the car and under the car, it doesn't happen a lot but once in awhile it'll pop up.
I don't pay attention to it though because I'm always in the cockpit view anyway.
Last edited by Clamedeus on 12/13/2010 3:18:21 PM
Clamedues –
You and I both. What FEW things are missing surely don't detract from the experience GT5 gives you.
@maxpontiac
Indeed, it's an awesome game still.
Last edited by Clamedeus on 12/13/2010 4:16:31 PM
inshallah! this will be the game of the year 2011, can't wait. Watched the trailer 200+ times
um, well pass on my best wishes to naughty dog. give em a hug from me or something. just so they know its all worth something 🙂
Inshallah means 'God Willing', in case anyone's wondering heh.
Bismillah…
No, we will not let you go.
LET ME GO!
Freddy Mercury?! Is that really you?!
NazzyQ, know one really knows who's "willing" it is… there is no proof, and that is a fact either way.
Q!
"play.experience.enjoy"
It's a saying, Q, a figure of speech. And the meaning changes upon context of use.
It literally translates to "If God pleases" like the English saying of "God willing", as NazzyQ used, or "Godspeed".
It's actual meaning ranges from "Hopefully, but you never know", or it's also used as response, to wish a person well in their endeavorers.
I.E: "Tomorrow, we will meet, inshallah".
or "I wish to meet you soon, brother", and other person responds, "Inshallah."
"Bismillah", as World used, literally translates to "With/In the name of God". One says it before doing anything good or well worth it.
I'm glad they're feeling the pressure from U2. It shows they care and that they desire to top it.
Now if the rest of the industry would feel that pressure, we'd be even better off.
Hype is the bearer of all bad things in the industry. Its terrible how hype literrally brought GT5 down. Good news for GT5 is its the BEST racer available and the people that have spent more than 5 hours with the game can testify to that.
Point is let the developers do their work. I also honestly believe as much as we wanna see te new trailer or new screen shots, games should be kept under wraps as much as possible. It is awesome thay developers wanna give us a taste now and then but it does have its negatives too. So from tgis point forward as ive done with moat games including GT5 and uncharted 2, im just gonna let it all play out!
The case woth ND and uncharted 3, i have all the faith in them and the franchise! All ND has to do is stay true to what they are and stay true to the thoughts that brought us the franchise to begin with. Just do what you do ND, and things will be great!
Edit: sorry bout spelling, I blame it on my iPhone.
Last edited by bigrailer19 on 12/13/2010 1:06:47 PM
Totally agree with you, man! (And I miss a lot of my iphone's autospell assumptions too.)
There are a ton of titles that hype are killing. Another one is FFvXIII. It doesn't help that SE and the franchise are already under a microscope right now.
But I mean, we're learning about games sometimes 3 years in advance! If you ask me, 1 year in advance is too much sometimes. I wish there was a healthier balance between promotion/hype and time. 2 or 3 months of hype won't really hurt anyone. Obviously, with your great example of GT5, years of hype sets people up for having totally unrealistic expectations of perfection to the point that people don't recognize absolute epicness.
But watch. Forza 4 is less than a year away and freshly announced. It will get better reviews, but will likely be inferior to GT5.
Yes exactly. And in ragards to Forza, it will be in no way better than Forza 3. The reason GT5 takes so long is because everything was payed close attention to. Im not sayon tye devs of Forza are slacking but in no way shape or form does it bring the experience GT does. And to exceed on what they did and get to the next level it would take a dedication and the time it took PD.
And yea as you stated their does need to be a healthy balance of hype, promotion and time. I feel like developers try n hit the big show too far in advance just to get the product out their. Thats great and all, but how much more epic would it have been to assume ND was working on U3 with no clarification, and them drop a bomb at say E3 2011. The better part of that would have been that we dont have to wait a year after finally getting an announcement. Only a few months!
Idk promotion is great but that balance you mentioned is definitely missing!
Something else gentlemen..
GT5 delivers when it comes to the actual driving.
And DRIVING is what the genre is all about!!
"Forza in no way, shape, or form delivers the experience GT5 does."
I can only say 'wow' to that statement. Forza does a good number of things better than GT5 and we're talking about a dev that has less money, less time, less disc space, and working on an inferior machine. Hence, the shalacking that GT5 is receiving. GT5 has some numbers, but that doesn't mean EVERYTHING. I mean, when a game from 2007(PGR4) embarrasses your weather effects, come on. To me, GT5 is the epitome of the saying 'Jack of all trades, master of none.'
On the subject of the article, I believe wholeheartedly Naughty Dog can deliver an even more enjoyable experience than Uncharted 2. I just hope the old ticker can take it.
Oh come now PorkChop. I will be the first to admit that the visual effects for the weather are iffy at best, but the way that it changes the handling is what really matters, and I can tell you that when you go from a dry road to a wet road in that game, the difference is more than noticeable.
Also, the customisation options in FM3 were unreal, but again, that doesn't really matter. All that REALLY matters in a simulation game is the authenticity of the simulation, and Forza Motorsport 3 is no match to GT5 there.
Peace.
Indeed Lawless, some people don't get it i guess.
But anyway.
I and others don't care what a biased site says about GT5, everyone is happy and likes the game just fine. It's the people who like to nitpick and complain about it that's downing GT5 when the expectations people had are unrealistic to what they are expecting from a game.
I never put my expectations high on a game, and when the game comes out I'm always satisfied by the game and not disappointed like others that have an extremely high expectations that probably is not realistic to begin with.
Last edited by Clamedeus on 12/14/2010 1:46:13 AM
Uncharted 3 will be the best game on any console!! Can't wait till November.
Also PGR4 had very mediocre rain effects. Besides the thunderstorms which I thought were nice the game was bad. Very arcadey.
How can you say that GT5 is brought down? It sits firmly on top of the Play sales chart, is rated 85% on gamerankings, tops the Norwegian saleschart (my country), on my psn friends list I'd guess every second friend is playing it right now, where's the downer? I'd say it has every sign of being a *winner*!
@Beamboom
You are reading too into my comment, I'm talking about the 'Big' sites that are telling people it's garbage. I'm well aware that the game is not a downer, I'm saying the people at the sites reviewing it are setting it as a downer and not what the game truly is about, and not about the sales charts as i know it's doing very very well for itself.
I'm a full supporter of GT5. In no way shape or form am i hating on it, i love the game a lot i think it's perfect the way it is.
And the sales prove the sites wrong.
Last edited by Clamedeus on 12/14/2010 4:37:50 AM
@ Clamedeus
So sales equal quality NOW? COD must be one of the greatest games ever created then…
I spent alot of time with GT5 this weekend,. I bought it because everyone was raving and even though I hadn't been impressed when my friend showed me, I figured maybe there is something I wasn't seeing. I admit my hype level for this game was high, as were alot of others. But that is the fault of Yamauchi and Sony. Look back at comments up to release, how they were only ging to do things if they were 'PERFECT'. How GT5 would be the ultimate racing experience, the culmination of every racer before it. So I was expecting damage up to the level of The Grid, Dirt 2, and F1 2010. I was expecting the dynamic changing weather effects(rains streaks UP the faster you go) of PGR4. And yes, those effects change your handling. I was expecting customization and personalization on a level of Forza 3. When you blaze around a track in an Oddworld themed car complete with Abe why would I want to go back to simple primary colors?
Is it fair to compare GT5 to multiple games? Yes. With a budget and time of three or four games and the statements leading up to the release, it is absolutely fair. Is GT5 a BAD game? Absolutley not. The 9.9 it got here was completely deserving. But from a fan's standpoint, yeah, I am letdown.
@PorkChopGamer
I never said sales = Quality, what i mean by that is that it proves them wrong that it's not a crappy game, and it wouldn't sell. Obviously it proved them wrong about it not going to be able to sell well, when they don't actually know the power behind the GT series.
And no the Hype isn't PD's or Sony's fault. It's you, the expectation you had was probably way too high and that's what caused you to be disappointed. The weather effects in the game is fine, it might not be perfect but it does the job. The weather effects may not look real but the effects it has is real when you are racing.
I understand where you are coming from but never get over hyped by a game, because that will be the end result, i still think (In my Opinion) GT5 is fine the way it is and it plays very well.
Damage increases as you level, and even if it's not that good that's not what was apart of the GT Series to begin with, that's why it doesn't look as good as Dirt or any other game that has crazy damage modeling. The true experience is the 'DRIVING' of the game not the damage or how the weather effects look.
They'll meet expectations
Or surpass it.
'The force is strong with this one…' sorry! but I had too
So long as they focus on the story and dialog and at least match the spectacle of UC2, they will be winners. If they can somehow exceed all of that, they will be heroes.
You always put more pressure on yourself when creating something. Especially when you're trying to follow up one hell of your own masterpieces.
I don't expect anything but a game that at the minimum, will be just as good as Uncharted 2. I think they'll blow the doors off with Uncharted 3 but that's just how I keep my personal hype machine controlled….that..and I already pre-ordered it….
I have faith in Naughty Dog.
I SERIOUSLY doubt U2 will be beaten for a LONG time…they really out-did themselves on among thieves.
Any game I play now, I just think â€UC2 did that better..â€. Its ruined video games for me lol.
All Naughty Dog has to do is give us Uncharted 3 on the PS3 and it's gold. Oh…that's right, that's right…they are giving us Uncharted 3 on the PS3.
Sweetness
What naughty dog is doing is the right way to approach a game. Naughty is dog changing the industry just like the heavy rain makers are.
Anybody know if you can pre orders this now?
F3E9-33NJ-JGCQ
universal code for free uncharted 3 avatar
Nice! Thanks for sharing!
is there a way to tell them, no worries take your time?
Anything less than absolute perfection is going to be a disappointment when compared to UC2. I fully believe ND can pull it off, but i understand their apprehension.
Doesn't need to be better, it just needs to be as good.
What will make it better is the extra features like new weapons, vehicles, mini-games, characters, specially characters. If the new characters can surpass those in UC2 then that alone will make the game better.
Naughty Dog's too awesome.
I highly doubt ND will be taking a step backwards with UC3. The characters, the environments, the action… it was all just so fantastic. They give us more of that and I'd say we'll be pretty happy.
I for one am saving my money for November 2011. Two of my favorite series are releasing new games that month.
I wonder who thumbed you down, when you said nothing offensive at all. I may not agree with you at all times, but hey that's why we call it an opinion. LOL Someone is obviously having a blast thumbing people down. It must be his version of playing a video game.
Anyway, I have complete faith with Naughty Dog. They're a definitely one (if not THE) best developers right now and they would not let us down with their next game. That's why they are pressured about Uncharted 3. I am betting everything that I at least would love that game when I get to play it.
I guess Naughty Dog feels a bit like how Christopher Nolan must be feeling now that he is working on The Dark Knight Rises, trying to succeed the best comic book movie till date.
They've set a ridiculously high benchmark that no one else has been able to beat thus far. Now its their turn to take a shot at it, and the whole world is holding its breath. Fans are certain in their heart that the previous effort will undoubtedly be exceeded, while distractors look for the smallest of holes to try and sink the ship.
Which is why it is important for them to curb the hype train at this stage. Infact, ND can take a leaf from how Nolan is keeping everything under wraps for TDKR. No more scripting details, footages or screenshots for atleast 6 months before release.
I just gotta say Heath Ledger as The Joker was one of the main reasons for that movie being so awesome.
I, myself, have no worries what so ever and have complete and utter faith in ND. They are the trailblazers of the gaming industry. No doubt about that.
Not many companies have been around long enough to start on the PS1 and create an icon known the world over (Crash) then create a completely new franchise on the PS2 and blow the doors off their technical hinges with Jak and Daxter, and then completely reinvent the wheel with Uncharted 1.
3 generations on Sony's machine and they without a doubt have completely blown past industry standards! More props to you Naughty Dog, and dont worry about our pressure, I think you set the bar high enough yourself and will accomplish that yet again and show everyone that a videogame is more than a child's play toy and can sit right next to those blockbuster movies quality-wise.
Last edited by Snorge on 12/13/2010 2:52:19 PM
its such a pretty wheel they invented
If anyone can do it naughty dog can, I didn't think the first uncharted could be improved, but they proved me wrong, soI know Uncharted 3 will raise the bar once again.
As someone stated before. The engine is full blown. UC2 proved that. UC3 will probably have some tweaks here and there as far a graphics are concerned. The more polish the better. So all ND just needs to do is bring that blockbuster story and I am good. That to me would be the only way they could or would screw it up. But the way they behave indicates that they are humble. Not cocky like some developers who talk tihs and produce a crap game.