Gamasutra reports that Hirokazu Yasuhara has joined Nintendo, working at the Nintendo Of America headquarters in Redmond, WA. He joins as a designer with NST, who are credited with creating the Mario VS Donkey Kong series.

Why is this news? Yasuhara is credited as a co-creator of Sonic The Hedgehog, working with Yuji Naka at Sonic Team and at Sega through 1997. During that time, Sega produced games that challenged and overtook Nintendo in many regards. He also worked with Namco-Bandai on Pac-Man Party on Wii and 3DS. With his new position at NST he will inevitably work with Mario. Hirokazu Yasuhara will become the first game designer to be credited on games featuring the three biggest names in video games: Sonic, Pac-Man, and Mario.

If this is not an impressive enough feat, he also has level design credits with Naughty Dog working on the Jak & Daxter series on PS2 and all three Uncharted games on PS3.

Game Developer magazine published a great interview with Yasuhara in 2008 you can read here.

Note: This review only covers the single player ‘story’ mode of Uncharted 3. Minor story spoilers follow.

“Admit it, you love all this as much as I do.”

Nathan Drake is back. The third installment in Naughty Dog and Sony’s Uncharted series is titled “Drake’s Deception” but its as much about finding the truth for the characters as anything else.

The opening scene isn’t quite the bizarre event that the train wreck in Uncharted 2 was, but it will get you back in the action quickly. Nate and his partner Victor Sullivan are in London, trading Sir Francis Drake’s ring for a briefcase full of cash when the whole deal goes bad. You’ll end up in a bar fight, which will allow you to control the series’ new overhauled fighting system. Now an elaborate mix of punches, counters, and throws with detailed animations to enjoy with each hit, this is a satisfying way to start up since I don’t think the gun play is Uncharted’s strong suit. [Read the rest of this entry…]

Note: the embedded video has lots of footage of Uncharted 3, but youtube’s frustrating thumbnail system only allowed my mug peering over a steering wheel to be the still image before you hit play.

Sony and Naughty Dog have stepped up their promotion of Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception to a new level. In events held at movie theaters in 5 cities, they held multiplayer tournaments, showed new single player events, and had developers on hand to answer fan questions.

I attended the Oct 19 event at Tysons Corner (just outside of Washington DC) and got hands on time with the game and captured several minutes of the open theater game play. As you’ll be able to tell from the video above, 20 Playstation 3 systems were set up at the base of the screen, with one console showing on the big screen above. The audience was established into 5 man teams who would compete in a multiplayer tournament on several of the new areas in Uncharted 3.

Between rounds they would raffle off prizes includingautographed posters, Uncharted 3 Collectors edition, and a limited edition Uncharted Dual Shock controller. Two artists from Naughty Dog were on hand to answer questions about the development and inspiration for the game as well. Gameplay went late into the night and ended with the premier of a new trailer for the game, which is included at the end of the above video!

I’ve only just started digging through the trailers and footage from Gamescom in Germany, but I’m already sick of hearing that mildly british voice say “pegi 16” or “pegi 18” at the top of each video.
Once you get past that irrelevant rating system (to our North American readership at least), this video will show you some Uncharted 3 action. Here we see a bit more of Drake boarding that plane that ends up in flames in the initial announcement of Uncharted 3.

After the cut, find off camera footage of the gameplay demo.
[Read the rest of this entry…]