An update was deployed to Uncharted 3 last night that opened the doors on the next lab. Fire up multiplayer and head over to the Lab playlist to engage in 5 v 5 Team Death Match that features riot shields, arm micros, and grenades only. Grab a shield for some cover then lob some grenades or spray uzi gunfire in all directions as you try to take down your opponents. Your kickback and boosters are disabled so don't forget the effectiveness of a well planned melee attack from behind! We also issued an minor fix that will correct any trouble with DLC maps not appearing when you had the DLC toggle turned on and you had already downloaded certain map packs. Right now we set Flashback map pack 2 as the priority for DLC maps so here's a breakdown of what you should be seeing when you play: I have "___" Installed Toggle On  Toggle Off No DLC Default Default FBMP 1 Only Default Default FBMP 2 Only DLC Default UC3DDMP Only Default Default FBMP1 & Read more...

We just pushed out an update to The Lab playlist in Uncharted 3 multiplayer just in time for the Independence Day holiday here in the United States. Jumping into The Lab will see you pitting in tense 3 vs 3 Sniper and Pistole only matches of Plunder! As part of the update today, we also changed the filter for DLC - based on your feedback - to favor Flashback Map Pack 2. Anyone who has Flashback Map Pack 2 downloaded and installed (and your DLC filter on) should be seeing those maps come up way more frequently in matches. One more thing - cinema files recording during the previous episode of The Lab will playback a little weird. The gameplay will play back fine, but the scoreboard won't be accurate and will try score the game based on Plunder. Don't freak out. With the July 4 Independence Day holiday tomorrow in the US - we hope to see a bunch of you on trying out The Lab. Happy Holidays!   Read more...

Patch 1.11 has been deployed and will be available for download across all regions over the next 24 hours. Just in time for memorial day weekend in the U.S., Patch 1.11 heralds the return of The Lab, Elimination mode, and many other updates we've outlined in our previous blog post. If you don't want to click the link and read that post here's a video that outlines all of the changes:  Here's rundown of the patch 1.11 notes in written form as well:  The Lab returns and we begin the playlist with a T-bolt/Pistole only map. We will be rolling out other game types as the year progresses. The Lab will contain treasure drops from whatever the base game type is (the T-bolt/Pistole map is considered Team Deathmatch) Elimination Mode has been added. Elimination mode will contain treasure drops from Team Deathmatch Message of the Day returns – a daily message will pop up with news, tips, and other Read more...

It’s back! We are very excited to unveil the details for patch 1.11 for Uncharted 3 as, first of all, we can hail the long anticipated return of The Lab. However if your memory is fuzzy about what the Lab is, we first introduced it in Uncharted 2 multiplayer. The Lab is a playlist featuring a unique series of multiplayer game types that our designers have concocted that focus on, above all, being fun. We’re kicking things off with a T-bolt and Pistole only map. So once the patch drops later this month, log onto Uncharted 3 multiplayer and give it a whirl. Let the experiments begin! It's back! We can hail the long anticipated return of The Lab  As for other changes happening in patch 1.11 Uncharted 3’s Lead Multiplayer Designer, Robert Cogburn, and Game Director, Justin Richmond, have something to say: Or if you’d rather read everything in list form here is the full rundown of changes for 1.11: The Lab returns and we begin the playlist Read more...

Due to the continuing PlayStation Network outage, we will be postponing this weekend’s combined “The Lab” and Triple Cash event in UNCHARTED 2 Multiplayer until next weekend – Friday, April 29, through Monday, May 2. We’ll provide another regularly scheduled update on NaughtyDog.com on the Thursday prior to “The Lab” start. We will run both “The Lab” and Triple Cash as we had scheduled for this weekend. As always, be sure to check the PlayStation.Blog US, PlayStation.Blog EU and the @PlayStation Twitter accounts for up to date information on the PSN Outage.   Read more...

Welcome back to final “The Lab” weekend in April! I’m sure everyone has been carefully reviewing all the UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception multiplayer details we revealed earlier this week and – I hope – you are all looking forward to getting some hands on when the beta hits on June 28, 2011. However, that’s still a couple of months away – and our episode of “The Lab” this weekend can take care of that online multiplayer itch. “The Lab” is a special, limited-time playlist for UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves multiplayer that is active every other weekend. “The Lab” playlist features one or more custom-tuned gametype variations chosen by our game designers to test potential new settings, try out alternate gametypes in a real-world setting or just mix things up for the sake of variety. “The Lab” is open from Friday, April 22, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?) through Monday, Read more...

We're looking forward to "The Lab" in April - we've got a new gametype that hasn't been seen outside of Custom Games and we're capping off the month with a one of our favorite past episodes of "The Lab." We hope you'll join us! If you’re new to “The Lab,” welcome! “The Lab” is a special playlist we will be running for a limited time on designated weekends, roughly every other weekend. You can access “The Lab” playlist within the set of playlists found in Matchmaking in UNCHARTED 2 multiplayer. During each weekend “The Lab” is active, we’ll be running a specialized playlist featuring one or more custom-tuned gametype variations from the tons of variables we can tweak in our multiplayer gameplay settings. Your April 2011 schedule for “The Lab” is: April 8 - 11 Deathmatch – CrushingThis gametype variation hasn't actually been seen in "The Lab" yet - t's only been available as an Read more...

Welcome back to “The Lab.” Our final episode of “The Lab” in March features the return of Snipers & Pistole, a popular gametype variation we removed from the All Competitive Types playlist a month ago. “The Lab” is a special, limited-time playlist for UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves multiplayer that is active every other weekend. “The Lab” playlist features one or more custom-tuned gametype variations chosen by our game designers to test potential new settings, try out alternate gametypes in a real-world setting or just mix things up for the sake of variety. “The Lab” is open from Friday, March 25, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?) through Monday, March 28, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?). The removal of Snipers & Pistole from the All Competitive Modes playlist was our way to try to mix things up a little bit outside of running our “The Lab” weekends. We removed a Read more...

Okay, okay, so we missed posting the March 2011 schedule for “The Lab” earlier this month like we should have. We blame the dangerous proximity of GDC and PAX East for our delay. We hope you didn’t miss our tweet notifying you of our first “The Lab” weekend in March last week – if you missed the update, you may want to also follow our Twitter stream. Along with the “The Lab” you have to look forward to next weekend, we’ve recapped the description and information for the first “The Lab” weekend in March in the schedule below. If you’re new to “The Lab,” welcome! “The Lab” is a special playlist we will be running for a limited time on designated weekends, roughly every other weekend. You can access “The Lab” playlist within the set of playlists found in Matchmaking in UNCHARTED 2 multiplayer. During each weekend “The Lab” is active, we’ll be running a Read more...

If you've spent any time in the "All Competitive Modes" playlist, or selected this variation in Custom Games, there's a chance you may recognize this weekend's episode of "The Lab" - RPG - 7s Only - from the "All Competitive Modes" playlist as RPG's. Why would we put RPG - 7s Only, which you can already find in an existing playlist, into "The Lab" you ask? Because we have updated some of the gametype modes within the "All Competitive Modes" playlist. The update to "All Competitive Modes" removed the RPG - 7s Only and Snipers & Pistole gametypes entirely from rotation. In their place, we've added two gametype modes from "The Lab" - No Power Weapons and Desert 5 - Shootout. The current "All Competitive Modes" playlist now includes: Chain Reaction Plunder Turf War King of the Hill Pistol & Grenades No Power Weapons Desert - 5 Shootout We'll be keeping an eye on how the playlist changes shake out - we're thinking of making a couple more updates to the playlists Read more...

Welcome back to “The Lab.” For our first episode of “The Lab” in February, we’re bringing back the most popular gametype variation from the original three episodes of “The Lab” from way back in June 2010 – Shotguns Only. Here’s some trivia, Shotguns Only was the favorite gametype of nearly 45% of the over 2,400 players who voted in our front page poll, handily beating out Sniper Extermination and 2 vs 2 Team Deathmatch, both tied at about 27% of the total votes. “The Lab” is a special, limited-time playlist for UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves multiplayer that is active every other weekend. “The Lab” playlist features one or more custom-tuned gametype variations chosen by our game designers to test potential new settings, try out alternate gametypes in a real-world setting or just mix things up for the sake of variety. “The Lab” is open from Thursday, February 10, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time Read more...

We’ve into the second month of 2011, and we’re only EIGHT months away from the release of UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception. I know everyone is also looking forward to seeing what we’ve got in store for UNCHARTED 3 multiplayer and we’ll be scratching the surface of what I think is an incredibly deep multiplayer offering in due time – I mean it can’t be too long now right, since we’re running out of months before release. In the meantime, our focus is still with UNCHARTED 2 multiplayer and our “The Lab” series. For February we’re mixing things up a little – one of the very first “The Lab” gametype variations, Shotguns Only, returns for a standalone weekend. For the second “The Lab” weekend, we’ve pulled out an existing All Competitive Modes gametype variation. If you’re new to “The Lab,” welcome! “The Lab” is a special playlist we will be running Read more...

Welcome to our second episode of "The Lab" in 2011! As the studio continues to work hard on UNCHARTED 3: Drake's Deception, "The Lab" will spend the next months revisiting some of the best and most popular episodes from 2010.  "The Lab" is open from Friday, January 28, at 10:00 AM PST (what time is that in my city?) through Monday, January 31, at 10:00 AM PST (what time is that in my city?).  For this episode of "The Lab" we're bringing back a community favorite gametype variation from a very long time ago - June 2010 to be exact - with Sniper Extermination. All players will be equipped with only Dragon Sniper rifles - NO sidearms - as you play through this variation of the Elimination gametype. You've 99 bullets but only one life each round, and the first team to completely exterminate all players on the other team wins the round. Best of five rounds wins the match. Stick behind cover as much as possible, and take your shots carefully, as the range and power of Read more...

Welcome back to "The Lab" - we've got a full schedule ahead of us in 2011, not to mention that game we're working on that you may have heard of, UNCHARTED 3. The Lab is open from Friday, January 14, at 10:00 AM PST (what time is that in my city?) through Tuesday, January 18, at 10:00 AM PST (what time is that in my city?). This episode of "The Lab" is No Power Weapons - that is, the standard Team Deathmatch rules, but without power weapons available on the map. In the maps listed below, we've removed all trace of the Desert - 5, Dragon Sniper, Moss - 12, SAS - 12, Pistole, RPG - 7, GAU - 19, and the M32 - Hammer. As a result, the only tools left in your arsenal are the AK47, M4, FAL, 92FS - 9MM, Micro - 9MM and the Mk-NDI grenades. The active maps for this weekend of The Lab are: The Lost City The Plaza The Sanctuary The Temple We'll be opening a brand new No Power Weapons discussion thread on the Naughty Dog community forums at about the same time The Lab Read more...

Welcome everyone to 2011 and a brand new of year of “The Lab” in UNCHARTED 2 Multiplayer! If you’ve been playing UNCHARTED 2 multiplayer for the past six or so months, you may recognize episodes of “The Lab” we’ve listed below for January. As the studio continues to work feverishly on our next game, UNCHARTED 3, we’ll be easing up on the workload of our game designers so they can kick ass at making UNCHARTED 3 multiplayer awesome. We will help them out by focusing “The Lab” more on gametype variations we have already tested and deployed successfully. While this means we won’t be able to explore some of the hundreds of gametype and playlist suggestions you’ve given us, we’ve been able to map out our schedule for “The Lab,” Double (or greater) Cash Weekends and even some updates to the Playlists for the forseeable future. We’re still dedicated to making an effort to keep things Read more...

The year is winding down and many of us are headed off to spend time with our families, friends and loved ones for the holidays. We’ve had an incredible year and we’re looking forward to working super hard in 2011 to release UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception. Before we take off, we have one final episode of “The Lab” for 2010. We’re running “The Lab” for an entire twelve days over the holiday, starting tomorrow, December 22, and ending just after the 2011 starts on January 3. “The Lab” will be running a rotating list of playlists culled from past favorites, similar to the “Best of…” playlist from our anniversary event – but with a built-in holiday treat: 4x Cash for the entire twelve days. “The Lab” is a special, limited-time playlist for UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves multiplayer that is active every other weekend. “The Lab” playlist features one or more custom-tuned gametype variations chosen by our game designers to test potential new Read more...

I hope everyone has recovered from the progressive cash multiplier from our Hanukkah event and from the UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception announcement. I sure haven’t quite recovered yet! No matter… since before we close out 2010, we have one more episode of “The Lab” to host to go along with the holidays at the end of December – Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year’s celebrations, and maybe others we’re not aware of. Since this is a Holiday Event and we set the bar pretty high for ourselves with a progressive cash multiplier recently, we’re announcing 4x Cash during the entire TWELVE days “The Lab” will run! That should make for some very Happy Holidays indeed. If you’re new to “The Lab,” welcome! “The Lab” is a special playlist we will be running for a limited time on designated weekends, roughly every other weekend. You can access “The Lab” playlist within the set of playlists found in Matchmaking in UNCHARTED 2 multiplayer. During Read more...

The great thing about December is that is has a ton of holidays and if there’s anything we love at Naughty Dog, it’s holidays – because they give us reason to do cool things for our UNCHARTED 2 multiplayer community. Hanukkah just started yesterday and will run through sundown on Thursday, December 9, this year. We were talking about running Double Cash during the full eight days, but one of our game designers did us one better. He suggested we run a progressive multiplier for each day of Hanukkah. We’ve started observing the Hanukkah holiday on Wednesday, December 1, with 1x cash. At around 10:30 AM PST (what time is that in my city?) on Thursday, December 2, we will kick up the bonus to 2x. Each subsequent day the multiplier will go up by one at roughly the same time. Day one is only 1x cash, but day two (Thursday, December 2) is 2x cash, day three (Friday, December 3) is 3x cash and so on, ending with a never before seen 8x cash on the last day of Read more...

In just one day our Thanksgiving Event will kick off and hopefully provide our community with five days of awesome within all our UNCHARTED 2 mutiplayer modes. We’ve made sure our Thanksgiving Event is packed with goodies—read on below to get all the details. If this is your first time playing “The Lab”—“The Lab” is a special, limited-time playlist for UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves multiplayer that is active every other weekend. “The Lab” playlist features one or more custom-tuned gametype variations chosen by our game designers to test potential new settings, try out alternate gametypes in a real-world setting or just mix things up for the sake of variety. “The Lab” is open from Wednesday , November 24, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?) through Monday, November 29, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?). This episode of “The Lab” features is Plunder – Snipers Only. All players are only equipped with the Read more...

Don’t like the cash cap?  I know there’s a good segment of our community who doesn’t like it and doesn’t think it’s necessary. After carefully going through game data from our one-day Anniversary Event with a fine tooth comb, we agree – the cash cap appears that it’s not necessary! Starting with our Thanksgiving Event next week, we’ll be removing the per game cash cap on all matches PERMANENTLY. As in forever. We’re going to be keeping a close eye to make sure this isn’t going to bring a new round of exploits and abuses. We want this to be a reward to our loyal community who have requested and demanded for the removal of the cash cap and not open season for those players who exploit our game, making matches fun for everyone. Speaking of our Thanksgiving Event – we updated the start date on our November schedule to be one day earlier. The Thanksgiving Event will start on Wednesday, November 24.  Stay tuned to the NaughtyDog.com blog Read more...

Just a quick note – don’t forget that today is Remembrance Day in many countries around the world. If you’re in one of the countries that observes this holiday today, don’t forget to take a moment to commemorate the fallen members of the armed forces of your nation. And now, on to info on “The Lab"… We kick off November with a blast – literally – as our first episode of “The Lab” this month is M – 32 Hammers Only. “The Lab” is a special, limited-time playlist for UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves multiplayer that is active every other weekend. “The Lab” playlist features one or more custom-tuned gametype variations chosen by our game designers to test potential new settings, try out alternate gametypes in a real-world setting or just mix things up for the sake of variety. “The Lab” is open from Friday, November 12, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?) through Monday, November 15, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in Read more...

“The Lab” starts up again later this week with a weekend of M32 - Hammers Only—we’ll post full details, including variation parameters and maps on Thursday, November 11—and then we’ll be closing out the month with a Thanksgiving themed event. If you’re new to “The Lab,” welcome! “The Lab” is a special playlist we will be running for a limited time on designated weekends, roughly every other weekend. You can access “The Lab” playlist within the set of playlists found in Matchmaking in UNCHARTED 2 multiplayer. During each weekend “The Lab” is active, we’ll be running a specialized playlist featuring one or more custom-tuned gametype variations from the tons of variables we can tweak in our multiplayer gameplay settings. We’ll also be hosting a new thread for every event on the Naughty Dog community forums to get your feedback and thoughts on each one of our “The Lab” events. “The Lab” episodes for November Read more...

We love holidays like Halloween! I’m sure you do too – because it almost always means we’ve got something more special than the same-old, same-old planned in UNCHARTED 2 multiplayer for such weekends. Don’t forget that there tend to be plenty of holidays towards the end of the calendar – and we’re heading into the last couple of months of 2010. As always, to recap: “The Lab” is a special, limited-time playlist for UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves multiplayer that is active every other weekend. “The Lab” playlist features one or more custom-tuned gametype variations chosen by our game designers to test potential new settings, try out alternate gametypes in a real-world setting or just mix things up for the sake of variety. “The Lab” is open from Friday, October 29, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?) through Monday, November 1, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?). The Halloween weekend episode of “The Lab” features 2 vs 2 Read more...

In partnership with our good friends at the PlayStation.Blog, we’ve combined forces (and blog posts) to reveal some stats from our recent Anniversary event and Last weekend, we held our first Anniversary Event to celebrate one year since the release of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves, and I think we’d be understating things to say it was anything but a rousing success! All of us at Naughty Dog wanted to thank everyone (again) who went online to participate in our Anniversary Event – getting the Anniversary Drake skin, along with mega-cash, in return – and made it such a special day for the Dogs to spend with our fan community. We pulled a few amazing stats from the Anniversary Event we thought you’d like to know: We recorded over 2.5 man years of game time in a period of just 24 hours (1 game that lasts 20 minutes = 20 minutes, regardless of how many players in the game) Those 2.5 years came from 1,079,850 player games (10 players in a game = 10 player Read more...

As we mentioned last week, everyone in our community who played during our UNCHARTED 2 Anniversary Event on Saturday, October 16, will be receiving exclusive access to the special Anniversary Drake multiplayer skin. We’ve JUST completed making the necessary updates and the next time you log into UNCHARTED 2 multiplayer—it should show version 1.09.033 or higher in the upper right—everyone who participated will be able to select the Anniversary Drake skin in the Hero Character selection within their online profile in multiplayer. If you have ANY issues whatsoever—did you play but you don’t have the skin? Are you missing skins you should have in your multiplayer profile?—please head to this thread in our community forums and let us know! We’ll be keeping a close eye in the thread and will work with all of your to correct any valid issues we hear about. Thanks to all of our wonderful fan community for an awesome year and, from all Read more...

The UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves One Year Anniversary Event will run a FULL 24 HOURS from Saturday, October 16, 2010, at 12:01 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?) through Saturday, October 16, 2010, at 11:59 PM PDT (what time is that in my city?). We will be running a special, one-day only episode of “The Lab” on October 16, featuring a compilation of the most popular previous episodes of “The Lab” based on your votes. The “Best of… The Lab” playlist will rotate through the following gametype variations: Shotguns Only Plunder Pistols Only No Power Weapons Desert-5 Shootout Deathmatch – No Boosters All of the gametypes will be played on the following maps: The Plaza The Sanctuary The Temple The Train Wreck Looking to hit level 60? Or level 80? This is absolutely your day to get a massive leg up on your run to the highest levels of the game. We’ve lifted the cash cap in ALL playlists – that’s right, NO CASH CAP. Period. But Read more...

We’re just over one week away from our special one-day only anniversary event to celebrate 1 year since the release of UNCHARTED 2. (Can you believe it’s nearly been a year ALREADY?) We’ve got a bunch of things planned to make our one-year anniversary not only an awesome special event, but to also show how much we do appreciate our fans and our community – from those of you who have been around since last year’s beta to everyone joining us with the release of the Game of the Year Edition. We’ll post more details on NaughtyDog.com next week, but for now, we wanted to reveal the special playlist available for one day only, on October 16—“The Best of… The Lab.” The “Best of… The Lab” playlist compiles the most popular episodes of “The Lab” as voted on by YOU on our NaughtyDog.com home page polls. We’re also including a more standard gametype into the mix to make sure there’s plenty of variety when you’re at the Read more...

October is shaping up to be a great month – we’ve got the UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Game of the Year Edition coming out on October 12 (in North America), we were able to schedule three episodes of “The Lab” and we figured out what we wanted to do for the one-year anniversary of the release of UNCHARTED 2. We’re looking forward to every single one of those things! In case you’re new to “The Lab” weekends, “The Lab” is a special, limited-time playlist for UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves multiplayer that is active every other weekend. “The Lab” playlist features one or more custom-tuned gametype variations chosen by our game designers to test potential new settings, try out alternate gametypes in a real-world setting or just mix things up for the sake of variety. “The Lab” is open from Friday, October 1, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?) through Monday, October 4, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?). The first of three Read more...

October has a lot of meaning for us – it is the first month in a while to have three “The Lab” weekends AND the one year anniversary of the release of UNCHARTED 2. We’re looking forward to taking full advantage of what the month has to offer… If you’re new to “The Lab,” welcome! “The Lab” is a special playlist we will be running for a limited time on designated weekends, roughly every other weekend. You can access “The Lab” playlist within the set of playlists found in Matchmaking in UNCHARTED 2 multiplayer. During each weekend “The Lab” is active, we’ll be running a specialized playlist featuring one or more custom-tuned gametype variations from the tons of variables we can tweak in our multiplayer gameplay settings. We’ll also be hosting a new thread for every event on the Naughty Dog community forums to get your feedback and thoughts on each one of our “The Lab” events. “The Lab” episodes for October are: October 1 - 4 3 Read more...

Welcome back to another episode of “The Lab” in September. “The Lab” is a special, limited-time playlist for UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves multiplayer that is active every other weekend. “The Lab” playlist features one or more custom-tuned gametype variations chosen by our game designers to test potential new settings, try out alternate gametypes in a real-world setting or just mix things up for the sake of variety. “The Lab” is open from Friday, September 17, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?) through Monday, September 20, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?). This episode of “The Lab” features a Desert – 5 Shootout. All players spawn with only the powerful Desert – 5 pistol and one Mk-NDI grenade. You’ll find some Desert – 5 weapon pickups littered among the maps to replenish your ammo supply. On the other hand, use your sole Mk-NDI grenade wisely – you’ve only got one of these and there aren’t any more Read more...

Celebrate our first episode of “The Lab” in September with 3 vs 3 Deathmatch and Double Cash throughout the long weekend! “The Lab” is open from Friday, September 3, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?) through Tuesday, September 7, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?). This episode of “The Lab” features 3 vs 3 Deathmatch games. Team sizes are limited to only three players, allowing each team ample room to execute new strategies in the selected medium size maps which were not possible with larger team sizes. You’ll have a significant advantage over a less organized opponent if your team manages to stick together as much as possible in this episode of “The Lab.” The conditions to win a match have also been adjusted for the smaller team size – there is a 20 minute time limit and 25 kills by one team will end the match. We have also disabled boosters for all matches in this playlist. The Sanctuary The Train Wreck The Read more...

“The Lab” starts up again in the first weekend of September – that’s next week, along with Labor Day and PAX Prime – and we hope you’ll join us. If you’re new to “The Lab,” welcome! “The Lab” is a special playlist we will be running for a limited time on designated weekends, roughly every other weekend. You can access “The Lab” playlist within the set of playlists found in Matchmaking in UNCHARTED 2 multiplayer. During each weekend “The Lab” is active, we’ll be running a specialized playlist featuring one or more custom-tuned gametype variations from the tons of variables we can tweak in our multiplayer gameplay settings. We’ll also be hosting a new thread for every event on the Naughty Dog community forums to get your feedback and thoughts on each one of our “The Lab” events. “The Lab” episodes for September are: September 3 - 7 3 vs 3 Deathmatch We’ve dropped two of everything for all matches in this Deathmatch Read more...

Welcome back to our second of “The Lab” in August! “The Lab” is open from Friday, August 20, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?) through Monday, August 23, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?). This episode of “The Lab” features Team Deathmatch games, but with all power weapons removed from the selected maps. That means there is no more rushing for the M-32 Hammer at the beginning of the match, no waiting for the tank to come rumbling through The Village to grab the RPG. In the three maps listed below, we’ve removed all trace of the Desert – 5, M4, Dragon Sniper, Moss – 12, SAS – 12, Pistole, RPG – 7, GAU – 19, and the M32 – Hammer. Yeah, that means the only tools left in your arsenal are the AK47, FAL, 92FS – 9MM, Micro – 9MM and the Mk-NDI grenades. The active maps for this weekend of “The Lab” are: The Plaza The Train Wreck The Village We’ll be opening the No Power Weapons discussion thread on the Read more...

Welcome to a very special episode of “The Lab” as we present Co-Op Crushing! “The Lab” is open from Friday, August 6, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?) through Monday, August 9, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?). Co-op Crushing takes the Co-op Arena matches you’ve gotten used to and makes them much harder by giving you and your teammates Crushing level health. That means at about 80% your normal health, you’re a much softer target for the wave after wave of enemies trying to dispatch you in Survival or stop you from capturing the treasure in Gold Rush. We suggest that you find one or two more-than-capable teammates to get the most out of this “The Lab” variation of Co-op Arena! The active maps for this weekend of “The Lab” are: The Plaza – Gold Rush The Village – Gold Rush The Lost City – Survival Please note, our original schedule stated that this episode of “The Lab” would have both Co-op Objective and Read more...

We hope the last two months of “The Lab” have been fun for all of you – from 2 vs. 2 Team Deathmatch to Plunder with pistols only to the explosive chaos of Grenades Only. We’ve been having a blast ourselves – no pun intended. If you’re new to “The Lab,” welcome! “The Lab” is a special playlist we will be running for a limited time on designated weekends, roughly every other weekend. You can access “The Lab” playlist within the set of playlists found in Matchmaking in UNCHARTED 2 multiplayer. During each weekend “The Lab” is active, we’ll be running a specialized playlist featuring one or more custom-tuned gametype variations from the tons of variables we can tweak in our multiplayer gameplay settings. We’ll also be hosting a new thread for every event on the Naughty Dog community forums to get your feedback and thoughts on each one of our “The Lab” events. August has only two weekends of “The Lab” in store for all of us. They Read more...

Welcome back to the second episode of “The Lab” in July! I have no doubt a bunch of you will be heading down to San Diego this weekend to attend Comic-Con, but in case you’re not able to attend Comic-Con, consider joining us in “The Lab.” “The Lab” is open from Friday, July 23, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?) through Monday, July 26, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?). This episode of “The Lab” promises to be quite explosive with the Grenades Only variation of our standard Deathmatch mode. When we say Grenades Only, we mean grenades ONLY. Every player spawns with 99 grenades – that’s virtually an unlimited supply – to blow up everything in sight. Well, actually make an attempt and try not to kill your teammates. We’ve also disabled boosters for “The Lab” this weekend – it wouldn’t be much fun if just about everybody used Sure Foot, right? End result? It’s pretty much what I said in our blog post Read more...

Welcome back to another episode of “The Lab”—kicking off the first of two “The Lab” weekends in July! “The Lab” is open from TODAY, Friday, July 9, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?) through Monday, July 12, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?). This episode of “The Lab” is Plunder Pistols Only. This the the Plunder you know and love, or hate (or get farm killed on) but with one, significant, difference—everyone spawns with ONLY a 92FS - 9mm pistol. Oh, and a grenade. All the maps in this Plunder variant for “The Lab” only have 92FS pistols and grenades as available weapon pickups. This puts the treasure bearer and his assailants on equal ground as far as firepower, which is just the recipe needed for some intense, competitive Plunder matches. The active maps for this weekend of “The Lab” are: The Plaza The Sanctuary Train Wreck Lost City We’ll be opening the Plunder Pistols Only Read more...

First of all, thank you to everyone who have logged into UNCHARTED 2 multiplayer and played “The Lab” for the past three sessions so far. Because we’re on a bi-weekly schedule, July loses out and only gets two sessions of “The Lab” which will continue until October, when we have three weekends that fall within our scheduling plan. Here’s a quick refresher on what “The Lab” series is if you’re new (or have forgotten)… We’ll also be hosting a new thread for every event on the Naughty Dog community forums to get your feedback and thoughts on each one of our “The Lab” events. And now the schedule for July: July 9 – 12 Plunder Pistols Only Plunder. But with Pistols only, no rifles, no power weapons. This should even the odds between the treasure bearer and his assailants as all will be equipped with the relative high-rate of fire and excellent accuracy of the 92FS pistol. This will be a good playlist to hit up if you are still looking Read more...

The next time you log in to UNCHARTED 2 multiplayer you’ll notice that your character selection choices in your multiplayer profile have changed significantly – but only for a limited time… more on that later.  You have a smaller pool of characters skins to choose from, but you’ll have 16 different versions of Drake and Flynn to choose from in the Heroes and Villians selections. Those 16 versions represent the countries whose soccer teams have made it to the second round in South Africa as of today. Since we’ve been seeing so many displays of team support across the Internet and on forums, we thought it would be cool to extend that show of fan support within UNCHARTED 2 multiplayer. So for a limited time – for two weeks or until about Monday, July 12, 2010 – you’ll be able to choose Heroes and Villians skins with the following country uniforms: Uruguay Mexico Argentina South Korea United Read more...

Welcome back to another episode of “The Lab” and the episode which concludes our first month of this very special playlist. If you’re looking forward to what’s coming up after this weekend in “The Lab” – and we don’t blame you one bit – we’ll be posting the July schedule early next week. “The Lab” is open from TODAY, Friday, June 25, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?) through Monday, June 28, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?). This episode of “The Lab” is Sniper Extermination, which features a snipers-only race to see which team can exterminate all the other players first. Get exterminated by an opponent and you’re out for the remainder of that round. Exterminate out all your opponents and your team wins the round. Best of five rounds wins the match. Find some key sniping spots, make sure to watch your six and be very, very careful peeking out from behind cover, lest you be exterminated with one well-placed Read more...

Welcome back to “The Lab.” “The Lab” is open Friday, June 11, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?) through Monday, June 14, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?). This pre-E3 installment of the “The Lab” weekend is a short range fest with only the Shotgun and Pistole available on a select set of maps. There are no grenades and no power weapons available for pickup on the map - in fact, there are no other weapons available on the map at all. On the other hand, riot shields and propane tanks are available on the maps. The maps available during this weekend of “The Lab” are: Temple Village Train Wreck Ice Cave As with last time, we would love to get your comments and criticism on the Shotgun and Pistole matches throughout “The Lab” weekend. Be sure to visit the Shotgun and Pistole comments thread on the Naughty Dog community forums after you’ve played a few matches to tell us what Read more...

We just wanted to remind everyone that our inaugural weekend of “The Lab” starts TOMORROW, Friday, May 28 at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city) and will turn until Tuesday, June 1 at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?). Of course, over the same time, all matchmaking playlists will be under Double Cash Weekend during the same start and end times above, with an increased maximum cash per match limit of $150,000. This weekend’s installment of “The Lab” Playlist series is 2 vs. 2 Team Deathmatch. Parties are limited to two people only, obviously. We’ve set the match conditions to a 15 minute time limit and 25 kills. We also made sure to limit the active maps in “The Lab” Playlist this weekend to maps that are best suited for the small team size. The maps active within “The Lab” Playlist are: Temple Ice Cave Plaza Village We would love to get your thoughts about 2 vs. 2 Team Deathmatch after you’ve had a chance to play it Read more...

Next weekend – May 28 to June 1 – we’re introducing a new playlist that will mix things up and maybe, possibly lead to updates or additions to the existing playlists in competitive Matchmaking. We’re calling this playlist “The Lab.” We’ll be running “The Lab” Playlist roughly every other weekend for the foreseeable future. During each weekend “The Lab” is active, we’ll be running a playlist featuring one or more custom-tuned gametype variations from the tons of variables we can tweak in our multiplayer gameplay settings. We’ll also be hosting a new thread for every event on our Naughty Dog community forums to get your feedback and thoughts on each one of our “The Lab” events. Here’s the current schedule and descriptions for the first three events in our “The Lab” Playlist series: May 28 – June 1 2 vs. 2 Team Deathmatch Grab a partner for this small- to medium-size map mow-down. You’ve got 15 minutes to rack up 25 kills, Read more...