Uncharted 2: Among Thieves -Cinema Event

By Varian David

*Disclaimer – I wasn’t sure if pictures were allowed to taken at the event at the time, so I decided not to try my luck. All pictures used were taken with the use of my iPhone after the “green light” was given.

October 6^th, 2009 – I got a chance to participate in a special Cinema Event for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, put together by Naughty Dog and SCEA (Sony Computer Entertainment America), giving the general public an exclusive “sneak peek” of the game on the big screen. YEP!! You heard me. The game Uncharted 2 projected on a cinema big screen.  All made possible by Sony’s new 4K Digital Cinema Projector.

I was really excited to see how this would play out. I was also expecting the event to be a typical 2 hour affair. You know, “get in…here’s the game…brief rundown on game and preview levels….hands on experience…thank you and goodnight.” I was very pleasantly surprised.

Naughty Dog and SCEA had the entire theater especially for this event. Everyone in there had tickets to it and all were automatic participants of the Multiplayer tournament that was being held. People needed to arrive at 5pm. After all the paperwork was out of the way and everyone was assigned their teams, the event was on the way. Teams were randomly put together so if you were there with your friends, it did not guarantee that you’d be on the same team together with them.

There were 4 rounds in the tournament your team would have to advance through all the rounds to be declared the winners. The Winners of the tournament would win the “Fortune Hunter’s Edition” of the game. That’s right, the all-exclusive special edition of the game, that’s not for retail. You cannot get this in the stores AT ALL! You can only win it. In fact I had the chance to talk to SCEA’s Associate Product Marketing Manager, TJ Consunji, about the special edition and why they decided not to put it out for retail. To paraphrase what TJ said, “We did not want to charge something like $100 for the set. We felt like raffling it off at an event like this would be a better way to say thank you to the fans and thanks for all the support given. Plus it makes a truly rare special edition, unlike something anyone could just go out and buy.”

What’s inside the “Fortune Hunter’s Edition” you ask? Well comes with the game, strategy guide, soundtrack, exclusive downloads, a collector case signed by the Naughty Dog team, an art book and an “exact” replica of the Phurba Dagger Artifact, complete with display stand.

Alright! Enough about me drooling over the damn special edition. Time for multiplayer action baby!!

The host of the event greeted us and he introduced the game’s Creative Designer/Director Amy Hennig and a Programmer from the Naughty Dog team, giving us a preview of the single player gameplay.

After going through the rules and regulations, teams were asked to form up and get to their designated stations. The front of the theater was split into two with stations set up on each side. Those who were confident with their skills were encouraged to hop on the front two set ups, marked Hero1 and Villian1. These two stations were going to be projected onto the big screen.

Like I mentioned earlier, there were 4 rounds to this competition.

Round 1 – Deathmatch (first team to 30 kills or most kills in 5mins)

Round 2 – Elimination (Teams will kill enemies in a best out of 5 format. Killed players do not respawn till end of each round)

Round 3 – Plunder (similar concept to capture the flag in other games. Team with most captures of the “idol” in 5mins)

Round 4 – Deathmatch

When my team got called up, I was nervous as all hell. Simply because I wanted that top prize, but at the same time, I have not logged in any time on the multiplayer beta even though I had it downloaded on my PS3 (BIG mistake on my part). Even though I went into the tournament cold, the controls were easy to get use to and the gamplay was smooth and really fast paced. My team was keeping it close (no thanks to me I don’t think. I might have gotten 4 kills only) but a last we lost by three kills.

For those that have been knocked out, we were allowed to “buy in” for a second chance with a raffle ticket we were given.  So I threw in my ticket for the buy in. Hey any chance I can get to win that special edition, I’m all for it!

True enough the host called out my number after two other teams had played. This time I was pumped and a little bit more relaxed than before. We got ready and the match began. This time the competition was crazier. Each team, matching kill for kill. My team either led by one or the other team did. By the end of the five minutes, I realized that my team had lost, by one kill! Knocked out…..AGAIN! Right then and there I knew my chances to win the Fortune Hunter’s Edition was over. So I kicked back and enjoyed watching the other teams go at it. The game looked so amazing and already looked like an action adventure movie. Watching it on a big movie screen made it even better.  Even though it was a projection, the game looked crisp and clean. Plus I didn’t notice any slow down or lag at all, even though there was so much going on all at once in game.

After Round 1 was completed, Amy Hennig came back and announced that everyone in the theater was getting a copy of the game. We all lost it! I didn’t get a chance to go to the media event the night before and I knew everyone that was there got a copy. I did not expect the same to happen at the General Admission event. Even though I was bummed that I wasn’t in the running for the big prize, this made everything all better.

As each round of competition finished, the Naughty Dog team gave more glimpses of the single player experience. Before the championship round got on the way, the Naughty Dog team dropped a surprise. They said they were going to raffle off THREE MORE Fortune Hunter’s Editions giving three lucky people (I wasn’t one of them unfortunately) a chance to get join that exclusive club. I ended up winning a copy of the Uncharted 2 soundtrack. One person was also lucky enough to win a brand new 120gb Playstation 3.

When the event was over, I looked at the time and it was past 10:30pm. Where did  the time go? It wasn’t over yet. Everyone got a goodie bag in the lobby.

What was part of the goodie bag:

1 Uncharted 2 tote bag, 1 Uncharted 2 tee shirt, 1 poster of Nathan Drake that says, “ I Play Dirty”.

Throw in the fact that I got a copy of the game and a copy of the soundtrack, I was a really happy camper. Even though I didn’t win the tournament, I walked home a winner nonetheless.

I REALLY love to thank Naughty Dog and SCEA for putting on such an amazing event and that they should do an event like this more often! It was an awesome success and it showed off the game in a really spectacular light.