'Uncharted 4' release date; characters designed with more bones for better facial expressions

Uncharted 4: A Thief's EndNaughty Dog

Players who are waiting for the release of "Uncharted 4: A Thief's End" have more to look forward to, especially in terms of the shooter game's highly detailed graphics. 

Game writer Josh Scherr talked to GamesTM, and shared that developer Naughty Dog was able to give more depth to the story by incorporating more bones into the characters' faces, which means that they can show better emotions while doing all the actions in the game.

"Now, the faces have anywhere between 300 and 500 bones," Scherr shared. "This lets us get much, much more detail and fidelity in there, so you can really empathise with what [the characters] are saying, and it allows us to hit certain poses that we couldn't quite hit before ... it all allows us to tell our stories better, to animate our characters better – we hope it's going to be something you all notice, rather than just be a technical marvel; something that really ties into the characters and emotion in the game."

Scherr and game's lead designer Ricky Cambier also explained how the graphics of "Uncharted 4" is different from what they did with their other best-selling game, "The Last of Us." According to the game writer, one of the differences between the two titles is how the cameras feature the actions within the game. 

Cambier said that in "Uncharted 4," the cameras were pushed far back from lead protagonist Nathan Drake. This allows players to see how he will move, and if danger is drawing closer to him. The cameras in "The Last of Us" were closer to the game's character, where the danger around cannot be seen easily.

"Uncharted 4: A Thief's End" was supposed to be released this year, but Naughty Dog decided to delay the game's release to 2016 to be able to meet players' expectations.