Uncharted 3 AI Has Been Rebuilt, It's Entirely Unscripted

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

The more we hear about Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, the more excited we get. The first of November seems a long way off, even though it isn't.
We turn your attention to an in-depth interview with Naughty Dog co-lead designer Richard Lemarchand at The Guardian, which consists of the subject of setting (why they went with a desert theme), hero vulnerability, and a certain "unguided" feel.
But what interested us most was the part about the new AI system. This time around, enemy activity will be unscripted, which means they'll prove even more challenging. Check it out:
"Yes, the enemy AIs have a set of rules that they wish to operate by. They have a hierarchical sets of goals – they'll analyse the terrain and make different choices each time about how to approach the player character. It took a lot of work, we had to disassemble the whole AI system – before, it was much more scripted, we'd tell the enemies explicitly, go over here, flank the player… now they have a choice."
When asked if this is a risk, in that dynamic systems can cause "emergent behaviors" with a lot of unexpected results, the answer was:
"Right, and that creates a lot of work and a lot of headaches! But then we're lucky, we have some of the best video game engineers in the world. It's sort of miraculous they've pulled it together."
You should definitely read the whole interview, as it's packed with plenty of behind-the-scenes and creative information. No matter how you look at it, the third Uncharted is going to be one hell of a ride, and I can tell you what I'll be playing in early November. Well, outside of the tons of other games that require review.