Uncharted 3’s Director Reveals the Origin Of the Famous Cargo Plane Sequence On Its 10th Anniversary
Uncharted 3's most memorable sequence is undoubtedly Nathan Drake's running battle through a cargo plane in midflight. It's peak Naughty Dog action design, steadily escalating until Drake finds himself hanging desperately from a cargo net over the desert.
Hard as it is to believe, Uncharted 3 is now 10 years old, having first released on PS3 on November 1, 2011. To mark the occasion, several of its original developers came together to share their memories of Uncharted 3's development. They include building the cargo plane sequence, which director Kurt Margenau says was the first time in his career he had a chance to build such a setpiece.
"It was truly a collaborative effort with animators, programmers, sound designers, and anyone else who cared to contribute. It started with an off-the-cuff idea of, 'What if you could chase down a plane on the tarmac and board it,' which turned into, 'Ok, what if the plane crashed while you were in it?' and then figuring out how that could even work and be playable," Margenau remembers.
The scene was born of Naughty Dog's desire to keep escalating after Uncharted 2, which left the studio confident that it could "achieve whatever wild-ass blockbuster ideas we could think up to one-up ourselves."
"I was making little models of trucks on my desk to figure out how the player could climb on these things as they're hanging out of the back of the plane. Jeremy [Yates] was doing wire-work on the mocap stage to capture climbing on a cargo net blowing in the wind. We had to implement some old-school perfectly seamed-up infinitely scrolling backgrounds to make the desert able to move infinitely below the plane (while the plane actually stood still. shhh). We even had a fully playable zero-g sequence inside the plane that we cut at the last second!" Margenau says.
The sequence wound up being one of the best moments in Uncharted 3, and one of the best in the series overall. It wound up inspiring a similar sequence in Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, and a live-action version will be showcased in the upcoming Uncharted movie. Margenau called seeing the scene in the recent trailer "surreal" and expressed excitement at seeing the final version.
In the meantime, the Uncharted series remains largely dormant, as former director Amy Hennig has long since departed and Naughty Dog has moved on to other projects. However, Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection is currently under development for PS5, with a release date set for 2022.
Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN
Uncharted 3’s Director Reveals the Origin Of the Famous Cargo Plane Sequence On Its 10th Anniversary
Uncharted 3's most memorable sequence is undoubtedly Nathan Drake's running battle through a cargo plane in midflight. It's peak Naughty Dog action design, steadily escalating until Drake finds himself hanging desperately from a cargo net over the desert.
Hard as it is to believe, Uncharted 3 is now 10 years old, having first released on PS3 on November 1, 2011. To mark the occasion, several of its original developers came together to share their memories of Uncharted 3's development. They include building the cargo plane sequence, which director Kurt Margenau says was the first time in his career he had a chance to build such a setpiece.
"It was truly a collaborative effort with animators, programmers, sound designers, and anyone else who cared to contribute. It started with an off-the-cuff idea of, 'What if you could chase down a plane on the tarmac and board it,' which turned into, 'Ok, what if the plane crashed while you were in it?' and then figuring out how that could even work and be playable," Margenau remembers.
The scene was born of Naughty Dog's desire to keep escalating after Uncharted 2, which left the studio confident that it could "achieve whatever wild-ass blockbuster ideas we could think up to one-up ourselves."
"I was making little models of trucks on my desk to figure out how the player could climb on these things as they're hanging out of the back of the plane. Jeremy [Yates] was doing wire-work on the mocap stage to capture climbing on a cargo net blowing in the wind. We had to implement some old-school perfectly seamed-up infinitely scrolling backgrounds to make the desert able to move infinitely below the plane (while the plane actually stood still. shhh). We even had a fully playable zero-g sequence inside the plane that we cut at the last second!" Margenau says.
The sequence wound up being one of the best moments in Uncharted 3, and one of the best in the series overall. It wound up inspiring a similar sequence in Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, and a live-action version will be showcased in the upcoming Uncharted movie. Margenau called seeing the scene in the recent trailer "surreal" and expressed excitement at seeing the final version.
In the meantime, the Uncharted series remains largely dormant, as former director Amy Hennig has long since departed and Naughty Dog has moved on to other projects. However, Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection is currently under development for PS5, with a release date set for 2022.
Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN
Returnal’s Suspend Feature Can Be Turned Into a Full Save
Returnal's recent 2.0 update finally gave players a method to suspend their game, turn off their PS5, and return to the suspend point to continue their run. The catch? That suspend point erases when you return, meaning you can still absolutely bungle a run in the next area and have to run through the lengthy, punishing roguelike world all over again. Now players have discovered an exploit that turns that suspend point into a full-blown save point can be reloaded again and again like the save scumming monsters we are.
As described by Inverse writer Joseph Yaden (and reported by Kotaku), the exploit requires you to suspend your save in-game, upload your save to PlayStation's cloud servers, and then when you die, download the save from the cloud. This will allow you to return to your suspend point as many times as you want as long as it's in the cloud, since it can't be erased.
A tedious chore? Sure, but not nearly as tedious as restarting a run in Returnal. One of the most common complaints leveled against Returnal was that its roguelike runs were so long that they could easily last over an hour or more. This made it even more difficult for players who had a limited amount of time to commit or had a distraction take their focus away. The only solution at the time was leaving your game running and putting your PS5 in standby mode, the lower-power state that lets you quickly pick up a game from where you left off.
It's worth noting that Returnal's suspend system won't let you save during boss battles, cinematics, first-person sequences, or "intense combat scenarios," so keep that in mind when planning your next run.
Hopefully this will let players get more snapshots from the other alien biomes, since the 2.0 update also added a photo mode to Returnal.
Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/scum for IGN. He says "hi, fellow Joseph" on Twitter.
Returnal’s Suspend Feature Can Be Turned Into a Full Save
Returnal's recent 2.0 update finally gave players a method to suspend their game, turn off their PS5, and return to the suspend point to continue their run. The catch? That suspend point erases when you return, meaning you can still absolutely bungle a run in the next area and have to run through the lengthy, punishing roguelike world all over again. Now players have discovered an exploit that turns that suspend point into a full-blown save point can be reloaded again and again like the save scumming monsters we are.
As described by Inverse writer Joseph Yaden (and reported by Kotaku), the exploit requires you to suspend your save in-game, upload your save to PlayStation's cloud servers, and then when you die, download the save from the cloud. This will allow you to return to your suspend point as many times as you want as long as it's in the cloud, since it can't be erased.
A tedious chore? Sure, but not nearly as tedious as restarting a run in Returnal. One of the most common complaints leveled against Returnal was that its roguelike runs were so long that they could easily last over an hour or more. This made it even more difficult for players who had a limited amount of time to commit or had a distraction take their focus away. The only solution at the time was leaving your game running and putting your PS5 in standby mode, the lower-power state that lets you quickly pick up a game from where you left off.
It's worth noting that Returnal's suspend system won't let you save during boss battles, cinematics, first-person sequences, or "intense combat scenarios," so keep that in mind when planning your next run.
Hopefully this will let players get more snapshots from the other alien biomes, since the 2.0 update also added a photo mode to Returnal.
Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/scum for IGN. He says "hi, fellow Joseph" on Twitter.
Call of Duty: Vanguard Official PC Specs Revealed
Call of Duty: Vanguard's PC specs have officially been revealed, giving players an idea of just how beefy their rig will need to be to venture into its alternate vision of WWII. Pre-loading time has also been announced, which will help you play as soon as the game releases on November 5.
The big takeaways are that you can still miraculously get away with a CPU as low as an Intel Core i3-4340 or AMD FX-6300. If you want WWII to look its finest in 4K, however, you'll need a much more recent Intel Core i9-9900K/AMD Ryzen 9 3900X.
As previously reported, Vanguard will take up considerably less storage space than earlier Call of Duty games. You'll need a minimum of 36GB if you just want to play multiplayer and zombies mode, but getting 4K assets will cost you "up to 64 GB" or up to 32 GB with Vanguard's Hi-Rez Assets Cache feature, which streams high-resolution assets.
Read below for the full list of PC spec requirements for Call of Duty: Vanguard.
Call of Duty: Vanguard PC Spec Requirements
Operating System
Minimum: Windows 10 64-bit (latest update)
Recommended/Competitive/Ultra 4K: Windows 10 64-bit (latest update) or Windows 11 64-bit (latest update)
CPU
Minimum: Intel Core i3-4340 or AMD FX-6300
Recommended: Intel Core i5-2500K or AMD Ryzen 5 1600X
Competitive: Intel Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 7 1800X
Ultra 4K: Intel Core i9-9900K or AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
RAM
Minimum: 8 GB
Recommended: 12 GB
Competitive/Ultra 4K: 16 GB
Storage Space**
Minimum: 36 GB at launch (Multiplayer and Zombies only)
Recommended/Competitive/Ultra 4K: 61 GB at launch
Hi-Rez Assets Cache
Minimum/Recommended/Competitive: Up to 32 GB
Ultra 4K: Up to 64 GB
Hi-Rez Assets Cache is optional disk space that can be used to stream high-resolution assets. That option can be turned off in the game's settings.
Video Card
Minimum: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 or AMD Radeon RX 470
Recommended: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 580
Competitive: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070/RTX 3060 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 5700XT
Ultra 4K: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 or AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
Video Memory
Minimum: 2 GB
Recommended: 4 GB
Competitive: 8 GB
Ultra 4K: 10 GB
Recommended Drivers of NVIDIA/AMD
NVIDIA: 472.12
AMD: 21.9.1
Call of Duty: Vanguard Pre-Loading Time
If you've pre-ordered Call of Duty: Vanguard on Battle.net, you can pre-load it before its November 5 release date.
Pre-loading starts on November 2 at 10 AM PT. Activision notes in its blog post that some players might find that their digital copy doesn't automatically pre-load, so you'll need to find Call of Duty: Vanguard under the Battle.net Launcher "partner games" section and follow the prompts to get your download started.
Don't forget to check out IGN's preview coverage of Call of Duty: Vanguard and Call of Duty: Warzone's new Pacific map. You can also check out our multiplayer beta impressions.
Call of Duty: Vanguard Official PC Specs Revealed
Call of Duty: Vanguard's PC specs have officially been revealed, giving players an idea of just how beefy their rig will need to be to venture into its alternate vision of WWII. Pre-loading time has also been announced, which will help you play as soon as the game releases on November 5.
The big takeaways are that you can still miraculously get away with a CPU as low as an Intel Core i3-4340 or AMD FX-6300. If you want WWII to look its finest in 4K, however, you'll need a much more recent Intel Core i9-9900K/AMD Ryzen 9 3900X.
As previously reported, Vanguard will take up considerably less storage space than earlier Call of Duty games. You'll need a minimum of 36GB if you just want to play multiplayer and zombies mode, but getting 4K assets will cost you "up to 64 GB" or up to 32 GB with Vanguard's Hi-Rez Assets Cache feature, which streams high-resolution assets.
Read below for the full list of PC spec requirements for Call of Duty: Vanguard.
Call of Duty: Vanguard PC Spec Requirements
Operating System
Minimum: Windows 10 64-bit (latest update)
Recommended/Competitive/Ultra 4K: Windows 10 64-bit (latest update) or Windows 11 64-bit (latest update)
CPU
Minimum: Intel Core i3-4340 or AMD FX-6300
Recommended: Intel Core i5-2500K or AMD Ryzen 5 1600X
Competitive: Intel Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 7 1800X
Ultra 4K: Intel Core i9-9900K or AMD Ryzen 9 3900X
RAM
Minimum: 8 GB
Recommended: 12 GB
Competitive/Ultra 4K: 16 GB
Storage Space**
Minimum: 36 GB at launch (Multiplayer and Zombies only)
Recommended/Competitive/Ultra 4K: 61 GB at launch
Hi-Rez Assets Cache
Minimum/Recommended/Competitive: Up to 32 GB
Ultra 4K: Up to 64 GB
Hi-Rez Assets Cache is optional disk space that can be used to stream high-resolution assets. That option can be turned off in the game's settings.
Video Card
Minimum: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 or AMD Radeon RX 470
Recommended: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 580
Competitive: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070/RTX 3060 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 5700XT
Ultra 4K: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 or AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
Video Memory
Minimum: 2 GB
Recommended: 4 GB
Competitive: 8 GB
Ultra 4K: 10 GB
Recommended Drivers of NVIDIA/AMD
NVIDIA: 472.12
AMD: 21.9.1
Call of Duty: Vanguard Pre-Loading Time
If you've pre-ordered Call of Duty: Vanguard on Battle.net, you can pre-load it before its November 5 release date.
Pre-loading starts on November 2 at 10 AM PT. Activision notes in its blog post that some players might find that their digital copy doesn't automatically pre-load, so you'll need to find Call of Duty: Vanguard under the Battle.net Launcher "partner games" section and follow the prompts to get your download started.
Don't forget to check out IGN's preview coverage of Call of Duty: Vanguard and Call of Duty: Warzone's new Pacific map. You can also check out our multiplayer beta impressions.
Masters of the Universe: Revelation Gets an Art Book From Dark Horse Comics
Even as He-Man fans await the second half of Netflix's Masters of the Universe: Revelation, Dark Horse Comics continues to expand on this fantastical saga. IGN can exclusively reveal the first details on Dark Horse's newest MotU project, The Art of Masters of the Universe: Revelation.
Like Dark Horse's numerous other art books, The Art of Masters of the Universe: Revelation is a lavish hardcover featuring numerous behind-the-scenes interviews, sketches, concept art and other glimpses at the development of the animated series. Check out the cover art below:
The Art of Masters of the Universe: Revelation is priced at $49.99 and is scheduled for release on April 6, 2022.
Dark Horse previously launched a Revelation comic book series that acts as a prequel to the show. The publisher also announced the collected edition of that prequel series will hit stores on February 22, 2022.
IGN's Matt Fowler gave Masters of the Universe: Revelation Part 1 an 8, writing "Kevin Smith's Masters of the Universe: Revelation is a big take-having, big swing-taking He-Man sequel that superbly flips the script on the mythos and characters. It makes the bold choice that Prince Adam and He-Man should be integral to the story, but not central, allowing them to push forward others' arcs in interesting new ways."
The animated series will return to Netflix for its second half on November 23, as part of a jam-packed month that also includes the debut of the long-awaited Cowboy bebop live-action series.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
John Woo Returning to Hollywood With Action Movie Silent Night, Starring Joel Kinnaman
A new action movie from celebrated director John Woo is on its way, starring Joel Kinnaman.
According to Deadline, Kinnaman, who recently starred in The Suicide Squad, has been cast in the leading role of Silent Night, a new no-dialogue action movie which sees Hong Kong director John Woo return to Hollywood.
The movie, which is said to be “without a word of dialogue”, will be John Woo’s first US action movie in decades, since the 2003 Ben Affleck flick, Paycheck.
According to Deadline’s sources, the plot will revolve around a father who heads into the criminal underworld to avenge his young son’s death. Although little else is known about the movie, industry buyers are apparently “buzzing” about John Woo’s return to Hollywood.
The film is currently in negotiations to be financed by Captone, with John Wick producers Basil Iwanyk, Erica Lee, Christian Mercuri, and Lori Tilkin on board to produce alongside Joe Gatta and Ruzanna Kegeyan from Capstone.
Although Joel Kinnaman will presumably take the title role, no other casting news has been announced. However, additional casting is currently underway.
John Woo is perhaps best known for his late 90s action flicks, including Broken Arrow, Face/Off and Mission Impossible II. Face/Off, which starred Nic Cage and John Travolta in an identity-swapping action caper, is reportedly getting a sequel from Godzilla v. Kong director, Adam Wingard. Originally thought to be a remake, the upcoming Face/Off movie will instead continue the story of John Woo’s 1997 cult classic.
“I would never make a remake of Face Off,” said Wingard in an interview with IGN. “I would never make a reboot. I've seen a lot of people, even after I said that this is a direct sequel, they keep calling it a reboot hybrid sequel or remake hybrid sequel. It's none of that.”
“This is Face Off Two,” he stressed. “And I can't say what that means exactly, but this is either going to be the definitive follow-up to that movie and everything that entails, or I'm not going to make it, because everything's got to line up perfectly.”
Although Wingard confirmed back in February that the script for Face/Off II was almost complete, little has been heard about the project since.
Sega and Microsoft Announce Gaming ‘Strategic Alliance’
Sega and Microsoft have announced that they have agreed to a “strategic alliance” that will see Sega produce games built on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform.
Announced in a press release, Sega explained that the agreement is part of the company’s “Super Game” initiative, which aims to create “new and innovative” games with a focus on global online communities.
“This proposed alliance represents SEGA looking ahead, and by working with Microsoft to anticipate such trends as they accelerate further in future, the goal is to optimise development processes and continue to bring high-quality experiences to players using Azure cloud technologies,” said Sega’s statement.
A similar agreement was made between Microsoft and Sony back in 2019, which also focused on the use of the Azure cloud system.
Azure is Microsoft’s cloud computing service. It should be noted that Azure offers a variety of software, platform, and infrastructure services, and so Sega’s use of Azure does not necessarily point to Sega working on games played in the cloud, or a cloud gaming service. The cloud is being used for many aspects of game development, including AI, and so Sega and Microsoft’s partnership has many potential outcomes.
In other news from Sega, Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi recently confirmed his departure from the company, and historic Sega games have arrived on Nintendo Switch as part of the Online Expansion Pack.
Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.
Ava DuVernay Has Hinted That Zack Snyder’s Justice League Is Why New Gods Was Cancelled
Ava DuVernay, who was set to direct DC's New Gods and write the script alongside Rebirth-era Batman comics writer Tom King, has strongly hinted that Zack Snyder's Justice League was to blame for the film not making it to theaters.
DuVernay, who also directed Selma and A Wrinkle In Time, was speaking to Andy Cohen on his SiriusXM show when she shared a bit about New Gods cancellation, her experience with DC, and getting the freedom to pick the story she wanted to tell.
Are we ever gonna see @ava direct a @DCComics film? Listen to her full interview on @RadioAndySXM. https://t.co/kyJbc7WR0q pic.twitter.com/dG8487V28E
— SiriusXM (@SIRIUSXM) October 29, 2021
"You know, my overall deal was at Warner Brothers and DC is at Warner Brothers," DuVernay said. "So, once I got to Warner Brothers, I was like, 'I'm going in that vault and I'm looking at what y'all got.' And I loved New Gods, which is the project that got axed. The studio decided that they did not want to pursue a certain part of that comic world, based on some things that were going on with another film in that world.
"So, before I even was able to kind of complete my script with Tom King, they axed it. But I had already two projects going: Naomi, which will be on The CW next year, and DMZ, which will be on HBO Max next year."
While she didn't name it specifically, the film she was referring to was most likely Zack Snyder's Justice League, as it was being worked on during the time New Gods would have been and both films have one very big connection - Darkseid.
Darkseid himself is a New God and was the ruler of Apokolips who became obsessed with the Anti-Life Equation. Darkseid was teased in both Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and 2017's Justice League, but he made his big-screen debut in Zack Snyder's Justice League. It appears DC did not want both Snyder's story and DuVernay's crossing over, so New Gods was shelved.
This outcome was hinted at when it was reported that New Gods was cancelled, as "DC Films reportedly felt there wouldn’t be enough space between Justice League and New Gods, which also planned to feature Darkseid as a central antagonist."
Despite New Gods being frozen for now, DC Films and WB are leaving the door open for its return. Furthermore, DC Films and WB have said, were it to go forward again, the project will "remain in their skillful hands if they were to move forward in the future."
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
