Uncharted 3 artwork released, first gameplay footage out next week

Uncharted 3 is definitely real, folks. As you may know by now, the game will be set in the Rub’ al Khali Desert, also known as the Empty Quarter, where Nathan Drake attempts to discover the “Atlantis of the Sands“. To give us an idea of how a desert-based Uncharted will look, Naughty Dog has released three pieces of rendered artwork, via the US PS Blog.

Here’s one of Drake next to a plane wreck (the other two can be found below).

According to Arne Meyer, Naughty Dog’s community strategist, the game won’t solely take place in the desert.

“Throughout Uncharted 3, you’ll be taken to spectacular new locations around the globe that will showcase all of the work we’ve taken on to take acclaimed physics, particle and visual effects to a new level,” he wrote.

Why, then, did the studio decide to feature the desert so prominently in Drake’s next adventure?According to creative director Amy Hennig, it was all about the “challenge”.

“When we first came up with the idea of sand, you see everyone’s eyes light up here and go, ‘Yeah, that’s going to be really hard — let’s do it!’” Hennig told Entertainment Weekly.

Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells added: “We’re a bunch of nerds. We just look for something that will be a technical, artistic challenge, and allowed us to push into an area of the world and history we’ve never tapped into before.”

While the first full trailer of Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception will be aired at the Spike VGAs on December 11, we’ll be able to get a glimpse of  the game in action during its first live demo on the  Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show on Monday, December 13.

Needless to say, we can’t wait to see the game running.