Against All Odds: Uncharted Quality vs. Modern Warfare Quantity.

Rewind the clocks back to November 2006 when Sony released the Playstation 3 upon the world. It was met with feverish anticipation and was considered the second, err, third coming of the great Playstation home console series. All was good with the world. That is, until it was decided by people who write important things on the Internet that the PS3 had "no good games" on it. Apparently this was because of a unique infrastructure that caused developers to either shy away from creating games for the console at all, or just making ports of XBOX 360 games that didn't show off what the PS3 was really made of.

One year later, the creators of the Crash Bandicoot series proved that if a development team learned to truly harness the power of the Cell processor, great results would follow. They dropped a bomb on the Playstation 3 that I wouldn't come to discover until many months later; Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. I had heard the buzz and I had played the demo, but I wasn't entirely convinced. It was a new intellectual property and even though I had taken the chance with games like Resistance: Fall of Man and Warhawk, I just wasn't sure what to make of this fast-talking, jungle parading, cross-breed of Indiana Jones and Lara Croft. Months later, after a particularly bad day, I decided to treat myself to a random game purchase and finally tried my luck with Naughty Dog's first foray into Playstation 3 development. Much to my pleasant surprise, the game was absolutely amazing! If you don't already know how it all goes down with Nathan Drake and company, do yourself a favor and go get your adventuring on ASAP. For those that do know, you probably understand my excitement. It was more cinematic than any game I had ever played outside of the Metal Gear Solid series, and had characters who felt, and looked like real people. It boasted insane graphics like I'd never seen before coupled with a great story and insanely fun gameplay. I was kicking myself for not having played this much sooner.

Unfortunately, while the game was indeed everything I thought it might be and a whole lot more, it didn't make that big of a wave in the sales department. Released in the same month as Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare which went on to sell a whole load more copies on both the PS3 and 360, Uncharted didn't stand a chance to make as big of an impact, despite its quality, being sold exclusively on Sony's not-doing-so-well console. Among Playstation loyalists, it was championed, but among everyone else, I don't even think anyone I know who has a PS3 has ever even played it. Tragic.

Fast forward to '09; the PS3 is doing much better in the public eye, yet both it and the 360 continue to be dominated in sales by the Wii, with its piled high to the sky mountain of shovelware. Uncharted 2 is expected to be released after having been announced just a month earlier at the end of 2008 and gamers are nearly foaming at the mouth in anticipation. Not for Naughty Dog's next installment in the saga of Nathan Drake, however, but for another sequel to a franchise started in 2007; Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 2. Yes I know that '07 wasn't the beginning of the Call of Duty franchise, but it was the first in the Modern Warfare one, which it seemed Infinity Ward would be spinning off the main course of action and creating something new alongside it. With both games eventually released to critical acclaim, it was time to consider sales. And, well, unsurprisingly Modern Warfare 2 managed better numbers than any other entertainment release in the history of mankind. You could even buy the game with night vision goggles. Impressive!

But what of Uncharted 2's sales compared to its Call of Duty counterpart? Well... it's a similar story to the last time these two franchises went head to head. But this time, credit goes where credit is due in the critical department, as Uncharted 2 has gone on to win Game of the Year from almost every single publication that announces their pick. Where does Modern Warfare 2 stack up? Not so highly, and rightfully so.

When I played the multiplayer beta for Uncharted 2, I caught myself posing the question on an Internet forum: "Modern What-fare 2?" I was so enthralled with what Naughty Dog had churned out that I felt I would be playing it for months to come, ignoring many of the heavy-hitters that were announced to come out in the months to follow. And so far that has stayed true; I look at my library of games and after considering Assassin's Creed 2, Dragon Age and even Modern Warfare 2 I go to pop in Uncharted 2, which I've already obtained the Platinum trophy in (first game doing so, too). The multiplayer is so addictive, so easy to enjoy, so fluid, I just can't pull myself away from it. Naughty Dog took every single aspect of the first game and greatly improved upon it. Everything that was awesome was even more awesome, and everything that kind of sucked was eliminated.

I showed up to my local Gamestop for the midnight release of Modern Warfare 2, and I encountered about 50 people waiting in line to pick up their pre-ordered copy. I played the game up until the weekend after it came out and since then, the disc hasn't seen the outside of its clamshell case. To sum it up nicely, the game is just another edition in the Call of Duty series and that's about as much as you can say about it. I also picked up Uncharted 2 at midnight at the same Gamestop location a few weeks prior. I walked right inside the unlocked door and there were about four dudes standing around shooting the breeze with each other until midnight hit so they could officially give out the game. One person hadn't even noticed I walked in until about a minute after I was standing there patiently waiting. The difference in experiences was pretty depressing. The general gaming public was so hopped up on the idea of this ground-breaking game to rock their worlds with intense realistic modern combat. My Facebook main feed is still littered with people exclaiming how they're playing Modern Warfare 2 and how much they're in love with it. Yet once again I know barely a handful of people who have decided to give Uncharted a chance. I recommended Uncharted 2 to one particular friend of mine — who is always posting about how awesome CoD is — and when he asked what type of game it was, I replied "action/adventure," he responded with a dull "eh, maybe". Maybe?! It seems that the average gamer considers themselves to be "hardcore" because they want to play FPS games exclusively and that makes them "cool", but really, they don't know what they're talking about. But I digress, the real winner this time around is your pal and mine, Nathan Drake, along with Sony and Naughty Dog. If Drake were a real person he would definitely have a smug grin on his face about how successful his latest PS3 adventure has been received in the face of the hulking hype-storm that was Modern Warfare 2. He might not have earned a record-breaking boatload of cash, but the quality is there and has been recognized in full effect.

willxcore needs no waffling indulgence; the dude loves his Playstation 3 and Hates People.

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