Uncharted 2: Among ThievesI need to do an update this month. October is too good of a month to skip on updating.

I picked up both Uncharted 2 and Brutal Legend. I finished Uncharted 2 in four days, and it isn't a short game. I am about half way through Brutal Legend.

I took a break to watch some episodes of Chuck. Great show. Highly recommended.

I also watched Law Abiding Citezen which was alright. Wasn't great. Worth a rent if you take my recomendations.

Dead By Sunrise's album Out of Ashes was released. It's really good. It had to grow on me, but that's because the first couple of playthroughs the lyrics didn't hit me. The lyrics are awesome as is Chester's voice. Not what I was expecting, but it is defintely good.

Also, Relient K released their new album. It is also great.

I'm just quickly touching base on some of these things. The main point of this post is Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. I'll let you know what I think of Brutal Legend another time.

Uncharted 2 is getting praise everywhere. The lowest score it has received is an 8/10, and it has an average score of 9.6/10 and has a lot of 10/10 and 5/5 and A+'s. Fantastic. At least according to GameRankings. I knew people were making a fuss over this game for a reason. That's why about two months ago I picked up the first game for $35. Money well spent I must say. I loved the first one. The second one blew my mind!

Uncharted 2 follows the adventures of Nathan Drake. It's been two years after the first game. You don't necessarily need to play the first one to understand the second one, but I just highly suggest, at the very least, renting the first one for a playthrough so you get some good jokes a little more backstory.

Seems an old friend of Nathan's has been hired for a job and has asked Nathan for his help. Harry Flynn is Nathan's friend and he has brought his girlfriend Chloe Frazer. It turns out Marco Polo has a mystery to solve. He left with 600 ships and returned with only 1. They need to find out what happened to the other ships and crewmen.

Of course it's actiony. You are bleeding and the train car Nathan is in is falling off a cliff. That's the first level. It gets better from there.

Uncharted 2 has lots of cover based shooting, platforming, puzzel solving, and hand to hand combat, all rolled up in a summer blockbuster action adventure movie. It does a fantastic job of replicating that experience. The best part is that it seamlessly intgrates all those elements into a fun experience that is not shallow. I fought a long gun fight for about a half an hour, and then I spent another half an hour figuring out a puzzel without any shooting and I was not bored. Then I was welcomed with more shooting and it was all seamless. I was never bored and wishing to be doing something else.

It's hard for me to rate a games graphics. After playing Crysis, everything else doesn't look as good. However, Uncharted 2's graphics are noticably great. Some of the best I've seen. Walking through snow and seeing it move around you and leaving tracks is a nice touch. The environments are very varied. There are snow levels, tropical levels, cities, villages, caves, ice caves, ruins, trains, etc. All with a unique style so your eyes were never bored.

The sounds are also great. The guns felt like they had some power to them. The dialogue is some of the best I have heard. It brings Drake's personality and every character's to life. The music felt perfect in every scenario presented to you. The score was definetly thought out, and considering it was done by LucasFilms, I'm not surprised.

Naughty Dog set out to create an experience that didn't weigh heavily on cutscenes, but when they needed to use them they didn't want to feel like it was a pause in the action. They succeded. The story is told through gameplay, but when a cutscene is played, it doesn't feel like the action stopped. I never felt like I could save and quit after a cutscene. Sometimes I did save and quit, but it was forced for sure.

I watched the interviews with Naughty Dog that you can unlock in the game and they state what they went out to achieve. I have to say that they achieved every single goal that that they set out to do, and more.

If you own a PS3, buy the Uncharted games. I almost didn't.

"I'm sweating like a hooker in church!"
-- Victor Sullivan, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves