In case you haven’t seen my video interviews with Insomniac Games and thatgamecompany, I was at the PlayStation Experience press event in London last week, talking about the most anticipated PlayStation games of 2011.

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception will be right at the top of that list for many fans and I got the chance to sit with Arne Meyer, Community Strategist at Naughty Dog. After half an hour of idle chatter about ice hockey and London’s historic markets, we got on to the game and discussed what Naughty Dog is doing to ensure Drake’s third adventure is the most immersive yet.

To kick things off, which Uncharted 3 level are you showing here today?

We’re showing an extended version of a stage called The Chateau – you may have seen footage of it in the Internet, but what we have here today shows off some of the technical things we’ve been working on, new character interactions and a few gameplay mechanics that people haven’t seen before.

We’ve also brought the 3D trailer that was only previously seen at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January.

Care to elaborate on those new gameplay mechanics?

I think that the key ones are the new melee options and an expanded repertoire of stealth movement, one of which sees Drake jump from above for a stealth kill. I’m personally excited about the new brawling moves, which let you take on many enemies at once and use the environment, whether that’s grabbing a chair, slamming an enemy into a wall or even removing their gun and dispatching them that way.

We’ve also taken a look at the traversal gameplay and made some improvements there, many of which are physics based, so objects react more realistically when Drake climbs on top of them. A lot of the work we’re doing is on animation, so that there’s more realism when you start running from standing, for example. Essentially, we’re adding more steps to each character animation so that it blends better when you switch from one routine to another.

Everything we do is aimed at blurring the line between the game and reality, and making the player believe in this world.

Do you do all of your motion capture in the studio?

We have two motion capture captures – a smaller one in the studio that let’s us pick up smaller pieces, like idols, and then we have a dedicated stage at Sony Studios, and that’s where we get both the motion capture and the audio – because we do all of the dialogue at the same time – for both gameplay and cinematics.

It’s big enough for us to set up and perform everything from rehearsals to the final performances, and that approach, which is basically the same as producing a major motion picture, is what makes the performances so fluid and realistic in our games. When we’re in full swing, we’re doing new motion capture every week.

The actors you work with always seem so generous with their time, whether that’s rehearsing or appearing at ComicCon, more so than other game actors?

We truly feel that they are part of the studio and they come down a lot on their own. Between working with them solidly for such a long period of time, and giving them input into what their characters are and should be, it’s a lot more collaborative and totally in the spirit of how Naughty Dog operates.

They feel invested in Uncharted, and it’s really appreciated when they take the time out to come along with us to events. They’re popular around the studio and we generally just like having them around.

Uncharted had water and jungle, Uncharted 2 had snow and ice. Which element are you working to perfect with Uncharted 3?

We’re always on the lookout for new technical challenges and we’re really happy with what we’re achieving with our fire effects. It’s not just a static asset – the fire deteriorates the wood realistically and there are blowback effects, like you would expect. The smoke is looking much better this time around.

If the fire is eating away at the wood in the chateau, will it burn to the ground if you take too long?

You could sit down and watch the chateau burn around you, if you sit there long enough; however, we want the player to proceed through the game at a decent pace so that’s not going to happen. Even in this demo, you can see beams deteriorating as they burn, and you can even take cover behind them when they give way and fall to the floor, only for that cover to disappear when the beam has burned away completely.

Procedural fire is a pretty difficult technical challenge, especially on top of everything else you’re trying to get in the game, but it produces some brilliant effects, like the corners of the wallpaper starting to roll and then igniting, and then the embers flickering in the air. Essentially, we’re programming oxygen and then having the fire follow it around the environment.

I caught a glimpse of a wad of £20s in the teaser trailer we released at the end of last year. Does this mean Drake is coming our way?

Drake is going to be exploring many locations across the world. We’ve only shown two of them, the desert and the chateau, but he’s going to be exploring many different places. We like to drop hints everywhere so you should probably keep your eyes peeled.

By now, you’ve no doubt seen the first UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception trailer (along with the 11-1-11 release date) at the Spike Video Game Awards. You might’ve even seen a bit of the game in action on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Today, even more came out about UNCHARTED 3, as Naughty Dog and SCEA hosted media in Hollywood for a more in-depth look at the game.

Worry not, those of you who feared the entirety of Drake’s Deception would take place in the swirling sands of the Rub’ al-Khali Desert. The scene we witnessed (demoed in real time) took place in a dilapidated French chateau. Nathan Drake and Sully are following the trail of T.E. Lawrence (you’ve likely heard of “Lawrence of Arabia”) to find a clue that’ll take them to the lost Arabian referred to as “The Atlantis of the Sands.”

Before reading on, take a look at this excerpt, which shows about a quarter of what was demoed.

Early on, we see some of the details that Game Director Justin Richmond tells us to keep an eye out for: Drake jumping onto, and then off of a swaying chandelier, climbing not only up, but backwards if he reaches a ledge, and new contextual animations that show Drake interacting more with his surroundings (e.g. placing your hand along a wall for balance as you approach it).

And here in a secluded corner of France, it quickly becomes clear that you’re not the only one on Lawrence’s trail. At this point it’s not clear exactly who’s standing in the way of our protagonists, but they’ve got guns… and really, that’s all that matters right now. Even worse, they’re pouring gasoline throughout the villa and lighting the place on fire.

“It is important to mention that the fire is happening in-game (it’s not a cutscene) and it looks absolutely incredible. Panic sets in, so the goal of the rest of the demo is to get Drake and Sully out of the quickly burning chateau alive! You can only imagine how cool all of this is.“ – Chad Concelmo, Destructoid

Now that you’re not only escaping the fire, but fighting your way through enemies at the same time, more new features are demonstrated. When Drake happens upon an enemy below him, he can now take him down stealthily from above. Ezio Auditore would be proud. In one of the new “Brawl style” combat situations, one enemy held back Drake while another took a couple of jabs – then pulled a gun to try and cap him. He dodged, and the captor was more than a little worse for the wear.

“Even this early on in the game’s development, it feels that the combat will offer a robust, but logical set of surprises and “Oh, sh*t!” moments as the adventure progresses…” – Christopher Monfette, G4

The environment shown is incredibly dynamic; Drake isn’t climbing on a static, beautiful jungle gym, but rather a crumbling façade that seems as if it’s trying to kill him even more than the well-armed enemies in the mansion. At times it seems like Nathan Drake has the worst luck in the world, but always musters just enough to survive.

“The changing structure of the world was akin to the twisting suspended train car of Uncharted 2, which fell apart as Drake scaled it, only this level transformed more dramatically, more organically.” – Michael McWhertor, Kotaku

At one point, Drake gets his foot caught in a rotted staircase (not unlike Phil’s broken step from “Modern Family”). When an enemy tries to take advantage of the stumble, Drake shoots from the hip while Sully works to free him.

“Moments where you actually feel like a team are really cool, and I’m interested to see how Naughty Dog expands on them through the game.” – Greg Miller, IGN

Ascending through a crumbling building demonstrates not only the stellar, bleeding-edge visuals, but upgraded sound effects – the firing of the assault rifle just sounds more… real, and the punches thrown seem to carry even more weight this time out. Of course, the series’ trademark witty banter between Drake and Sully remains intact, lending a bit of levity to the serious situation.

“The action delivered on the cinematic thrill moments as huge chunks of the chateau caved in or shifted as Nate made his way to different potential escape routes. We were especially impressed by how smoothly the heart-stopping cinematics of a collapsing roof or floor would cut into the action just long enough to get you to jump without interrupting the flow of gameplay.” – Ricardo Torres, GameSpot

The scene ended not with a close shave and some relieved tension, but with things going from bad to worse as our heroes are engulfed in the conflagration. We’re not going to see how this one plays out until next November.

After the demo, we had a chance to speak on camera with Creative Director Amy Hennig and Game Director Justin Richmond. You’ll see that later this month.

What to do until then? How about go behind the scenes of the making of that VGA’s trailer. Naughty Dog’s Arne Meyer sat down with the 2 Player Productions crew to get a more in-depth look at their influences, process and philosophy that drives their high-quality documentary work.