Man, "The Monastery" is one spectacular piece, especially toward the middle with the gorgeous woodwind solo.  What sounds like an accompanying glockenspiel is pretty sweet, too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NFMchVBokU

Yep, although a select few do require taking paths far less traveled -- and by that, I mean jumping over a ledge or two apart, and shimmying waaaay past the starting point.  Currently up to Chapter 5, though, and I've managed to nail every treasure so far.  With twenty under my belt, I've just acquired the the Novice Fortune Hunter trophy. 

Also, I got the "Relic Finder" trophy for finding a very specific treasure called the Strange Relic.  Wonder what the significance of that is.....

Chapter 3 was intense, and a seriously awesome way at introducing you to grenades.  I got slaughtered quite a number of times until I realized the grenades were limitless, and that they were key to success.

Hah, it was a great narrative twist when..... Chloe seemingly betrays you after finding the golden dagger key, only to turn against Lazarevic's men.  That certainly kept you guessing, in light of..... Flynn's betrayal -- but I wouldn't be surprised if a triple-cross is in the works for later.

I've gotta say I'm really enjoying the stealth portions of the game, as slight as they've been since Chapter 2.  That may be the Metal Gear fanatic in me talking, but there's no denying they're handled far better than in the first game.  I just wish there were more opportunities to use 'em, aside from the opening moments of a skirmish. 

I don't know why, but I got a big laugh when Nate asks Sully to help him push a boulder, and Nate grumbles, "Ugh, more pushing."  And then once the boulder is pushed out of the way, Sully makes the off-remark, "I think I hurt myself."  For some reason, that remark had me in total stitches.

I'll agree with you on this one.  That was the one line where I was actually laughing out loud. 

I believe I'm at chapter 7 right now and it's a helluva ride so far.  Can't say that I've been the avid treasure hunter like the rest of you all.  That'll be saved for the next-playthrough. 

Something about Chloe's eyes seems... off.  Is it just me?

Probably nothing.
The first game had the same trophy, and it was nothing more than a reference to the Jak and Daxter series.

I haven't found the one in this game yet, could you tell me which chapter it was, so I can look a bit harder?

I'll admit, that made me chuckle as well

Not just Chloe. Everyone.
The graphics are gorgeous, but they kind of went too far with the eyes if you ask me.

The Strange Relic can be found in Chapter 5.  Somewhere on (or more specifically, ..... under) the streets of the Nepal Warzone.

Beat it on Hard! Wasn't a cakewalk either. I must have died like 20 times on the final boss (but mostly because she/he/it is cheap). Took just under 13 hours and according to the statistics, I died 199 times.

Nice.

Grats!  And a question: Of course, once you beat it on Hard, you automatically earn the "Charted!" trophies for Easy and Normal as well.  But do you also earn the respective medals?  (And accompanying cash rewards?)

The more I play, the more duly impressed I am with the way they've mixed the soundtrack.  The game really does play up like a big blockbuster movie score, where the high and low cues are punctuated precisely with the action.  Even normal in-game events, like an enemy tossing a grenade your way, is met with an appropriately designated crescendo. 

And, like any good movie score, there's plenty of cues from in-game I'm now sorely wishing made it on the official soundtrack.  More specifically, I'm hearing plenty of excellent arrangements of the Among Thieves main theme; there was one really nice one that plays up during one of the Nepal Warzone battle scenes.

Speaking of, Wanderer, I'm surprised I've never heard a single word of mention on the series soundtracks from you.  What do you think of the Uncharted scores overall?

Hey Angela, to answer that question, yes, you get the trophies and monetary rewards for earning the medals.

Yeah, concur about the final battle. I am afraid to try it (the game) on Crushing, but I will eventually! My total deaths were 177, which of course, was a combination of a) enemies killing me b) Drake falling from a height that WOULDN'T kill him, but does, and c) Drake falling from a height that WOULD kill him. Overall, it was quite a ride.

The last couple chapters...ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL. and that's all I'll say about that for now.

EDIT: So I've gone back and collected the missing treasures I had. However, on chapter 25, after obtaining 100%, I found another treasure and when I tried to pick it up, my system froze. Can someone confirm whether the Strange Relic is accidentally included in the total treasure list. It doesn't appear in the list, but there was clearly a treasure I hadn't picked up, yet it still says 100 of 100 treasures obtained. I just want to see if the total treasures someone else has (who has the strange relic) is +1 than what they have collected up until that point. I think Angela would be a prime candidate for this.

EDIT: Ok, so I loaded up the game again, and the treasure was not there anymore and I had it at 101. Just warning those folks whose game may freeze upon collection of the 101st treasure.

The music in both games is pretty non-intrusive. I don't really notice it at all unless it's really slow and sad. The action cues are often drowned out by the gunfire (but they do a great job of raising the blood pressure).

Two words: sound control.  I love it when games allow you to manually adjust Music, Sound Effects, and Voice channels; shave a few bars off of the sound effects meter, and you should be good to go.

If I were the ambitious type, I would do another run of the game in the future, sans the sound effects and voices, and record the music straight up.

Huh. I actually never thought of that. When I feel ambitious enough to attempt the game on Crushing, I'll definitely adjust the sound.

Speaking of Crushing, I've started my Crushing run. A few things of note:

I've made it through Chapter 4 with 30 deaths. It's tough. I'm not going to lie.

Stealth is SO important. Being able to take out as many enemies as possible before large firefights begin is very advantageous.

EDIT: Through Chapter 6 with 44 deaths. The helicopter fight was much easier than I did it on hard, however, I may have learned a few things from past mistakes..

Overall, it's a lot of fun on Crushing, but you have to be patient and you have to expect to die a lot. You also have to learn from your mistakes...

Has anyone watched the new trailer up on PSN? It's interesting, completely different in tone from the one they released months ago.

I've made some more progress in my Crushing run and boy is it getting tough!

I started Chapter 7 with 44 deaths. At the end of Chapter 11, I had 48 deaths. Consider it luck combined with the fact that two chapters involve no enemies whatsoever.

But then, from Chapter 12 to Chapter 14, where I ended for the evening, I totaled a whopping 93 deaths! Most of which came from Chapters 13 and 14. God, those chapters are a bitch on Crushing, at least, I thought so.

So yeah, forward progress is being made, although Chapter 15 worries me...I'm very much not looking forward to the giant firefight in the train wreck arena, as I like to call it..

Wish me luck!

As someone who just got the game and has not gotten a chance to play it yet, let me just say that I really appreciate everyone's use of spoiler tags in this discussion.  Thanks!

By the way, are any of you engaging in any multiplayer?
I think I've been putting more time into that than the main adventure so far, which is extremely rare for me, but it's a lot of fun actually.

I don't seem to ever catch any of you people online though...
Probably the time difference, but still.

Are you talking about the Cologne GamesCom '09 trailer?  That one's a few months old already, but I know you were on a total media blackout for the whole thing.  (Good for you!)

It is a nice trailer, though.  Especially with the way they use the track "Reunion."

GAH! I was WONDERING why they would release a trailer after the game had been released.

How goes your progress?

Just passed Chapters..... 13, 14, and 15, which has convinced me that there can't possibly be a more epic sequence of events in any other video game this year.  I mean, from the pre-media, I knew well ahead of time that this was to be a fairly significant part in the game, but I was still completely caught off-guard by its scope and execution.  IN-FREAKEN-CREDIBLE.

Of course, I died here more times than I care to admit, so yes, I firmly believe that these chapters will be a major, major bitch to get through on Crushing.

I died a LOT in both 13 and 14. The good news is that it keeps getting better.

So you guys claim to be TRUE Uncharted fans?! I don't think so...
feast your eyes upon this... so who's bidding

http://cgi.ebay.com/Uncharted-2-Amoung- … 0409986255

cheers,

-avatar!

Yeah, I'm definitely not a bidder. The copy of the game almost seems superfluous.

Well, I guess that answers my inquiry.  Hefty indeed.

Angela, up for some co-op tonight?

Great games tonight, Don!  Amazingu, ditto earlier yesterday.

Have you guys taken a look at the "Statistics" portion in the Bonuses menu yet?  It's SCARILY detailed.  How scary?

Total time spent playing (the Single-Player mode) = 8:04:31

And of that total, a small fraction of the stat categories:

-Time spent standing still = 1:17:29
-Time spent running = 1:49:59
-Time spent climbing = 56:52
-Time spent in the air = 19:18
-Number of times you took cover = 507
-Time spent in cover = 1:22:33

I LOVE the stats! I note that you didn't put up the amount of checkpoints that you failed (AKA amount of times you've died).

No, but I do plan to post it (along with the rest of the overall stats) once my first playthrough is complete.  The "checkpoints failed" number will likely be shamefully high.

But I really just posted the above to illustrate how absurdly meticulous some of these statistics are.  It's crazy.

I see.

Amusingly, I ended up with 3:30:48 total time running. I mean, really? 2:13:01 spent in cover. A very sad 48.66% hit ratio.

And 233 checkpoints failed or restarted. Ouch.

Here's a question for those on your second playthrough: are the stats cumulative, or are they recorded on a single run basis?

On the one hand, it'd be cool to eventually see a peremptory tally of all the games you've ever played..... yet on the other hand, it'd be more useful to see your stats based on individual playthroughs.  Definitely for the purpose of trying to improve and top your own records.

At least on the main menu, they appear to be cumulative. Not sure about stats during the game.

Yeah, that stats are cumulative, but when I started Crushing, the checkpoint failures/restarts was reset to 0. Everything else seems to be cumulative though.

Well, I buckled down this weekend and finally polished off the single-player mode.  As promised, here's my complete statistical breakdown:

http://a-liu2009.livejournal.com/5106.html

At eighteen and a half hours, I realize it's probably taken me longer than most, but as mentioned, I was determined to be as thorough as possible for my first playthrough.  So, while I still have a shit-ton more medals and trophies to collect, I've at least managed to snag all one hundred (and one) treasures.  And this was without consulting any sort of guide or waiting to use any one of the in-game Bonus tweaks.  Heaven knows I was tempted to do so numerous times throughout.

I'm saving my final words for the upcoming Best of Video Games 2009 thread, but rest assured there's going to be plenty of praise in the pipeline.  All in all, Naughty Dog has created one hell of a masterpiece, a single-player action adventure title of the finest caliber.   Among Thieves makes for stellar company alongside Metal Gear Solid 3, Resident Evil 4 and Gears of War 2.

224 deaths, huh? How many of those were on the final boss?

Surprisingly few, actually.  It only took me three tries, with the first two just getting to know what I needed to do.  By the third try, I had it locked.

Now, if you want to talk about where the death count rose the highest, it would be during Chapter 18, "Heart of Ice".  Which is surprising, since it's practically.... devoid of enemies.  But damn, all those.... gears and multi-tiered beams made for some confusing platforming and horribly mistimed jumps.  I hated this chapter so very much.

Chapters 22 and 23 were real bears too, since they were so lengthy.  In my case, I've had to play certain chapters numerous times to do treasure sweeps -- and it's easy to get careless, thinking you know a level layout, only to constantly miss your platforming mark or get recklessly mowed down by the enemy.  These aforementioned chapters brought out the worst in me.

*looks at profile picture*

See, now I just KNOW you have to be some middle aged obese dude typing from some dark cellar somewhere