Hair of the Dog - Week of Nov 29, 2009

We’ve got just the thing to cure your weekly gaming hangover… every Saturday morning, Hair of the Dog compiles a round-up of interesting Naughty Dog and UNCHARTED 2 links from around the web.

Behind the Scenes with the SCEA Music Department - PlayStation.blog
PlayStation.blog goes behind the scenes with the SCEA Music Department to shed some light on how music in games gets picked and made. This look has the SCEA Music team discuss several parts of working with us and making music for UNCHARTED 2, including working at Skywalker Sound to record the orchestral pieces. Our composer, Greg Edmonson also makes an appearance in the video which we’ve embedded below as well.

Reynolds, Lemarchand To Speak At DICE Summit - Gamasutra
Additional speakers were revealed for the DICE Summit 2010 in Las Vegas. Among them is our own Richard Lemarchand, one of two Lead Designers on UNCHARTED 2. The DICE Summit is scheduled to take place from February 17 to February 19, 2010.

Game Review Roundup Fall 09: Action-Adventure Games - Newsarama.com
Newsarama reviews UNCHARTED 2, calling it “This is the best, most complete, most well-rounded video game I’ve played on the current generation of consoles.”

Interview: Naughty Dog’s Arne Meyer Talks Uncharted 2 - Gamervision
Gamervision interviews me about UNCHARTED 2, asking some interesting questions about the development of the game and also about the evolution of the co-op mode.

Review: ‘Uncharted 2’ Finds Gaming Treasure - ABC News
ABC News reviews UNCHARTED 2, saying that “Despite Extremely Linear Nature, ‘Uncharted 2’ Shines From Combat to Engaging Story.”

Contrarian Corner: Uncharted 2 - IGN
As part of the regular Contrarian Corner column, Mike Thomsen takes a specifically critical view during his analysis of UNCHARTED 2. Contrarian Corner is a column that “doesn’t seek to discredit the original review, but to expand the spectrum of discussion on some of the most important games of each year. If you’re interested in joining that discussion, keep reading.”

Uncharted 2 for the PlayStation 3 is one of the best games ever - The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News weighs in (positively, if you couldn’t tell) with their review of UNCHARTED 2.

Games of the decade: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - Insult Swordfighting
Insult Swordfighting is one of my favorite blogs to read, if I’m looking for a slightly more academic view about video games and video gaming culture. You may know Insult Swordfighting for it’s “A New Taxonomy of Gamers” post that once made the internet rounds. This week, Mitch posted about UNCHARTED 2 as part of his “Games of the decade” series, which provides “subjective looks at my favorite games of the decade.”

System Mover Game of the Day:Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - VG Chartz
VG Chartz takes a look at UNCHARTED 2 to see if it ended up being a driver of PS3 system sales through their data, and also asked conducted a poll to see if their community felt our game was a PS3 system seller as well.

Stay Inside With These 10 Games - The New York Times
UNCHARTED 2 makes it into the New York Times list recommending their 10 games from this year to stay indoors and play.

Uncharted 2 “Family Night” 12/5/09 7PM EST - The Gamesmen
Five sites (TQcast, BMI, The Gamesmen, Evolved Gaming, and the Couch Mercenaries) combine forces to invite the community to play UNCHARTED 2 multiplayer with them this weekend as part of their “Family Night.” Their event will begin at 7PM EST and you can find PSN IDs from representatives from the various sites if you want to add them or look for them online.

Grab these best video game picks of ‘09 - USA Today
USA Today make their recommendations for the best games of 2009, breaking them down by genre. UNCHARTED 2 is listed as their “Best action/adventure” selection.

Saling The World: New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Modern Warfare 2 Top U.S. Charts - Gamasutra
Gamasutra’s weekly Saling the World column reveals that UNCHARTED 2 has risen back to the #2 top for their list of PS3 games in the US.

Experimental weekend & Plunder Only - NaughtyDog.com
This week we were bearers of some good news—the oft-requested “Plunder Only” playlist became a permanent addition to our Matchmaking playlist on Friday, December 4. In addition, we took this weekend to run a little test of lowering player health down to 65% across the board to see what our multiplayer community thought about it. Leave us feedback on this blog post and our home page poll. Don’t fret—player health will return back to normal when our Experimental Weekend ends on Monday.