Uncharted 4: I WANNA Start The “Wet Hair” Campaign — Who’s With Me?

As I have played through Uncharted, Uncharted 2 and Uncharted 3  multiple times and patiently wait for the announcing and arrival of Uncharted 4 (next gen) — Spike VGA’s maybe? I noticed how Naughty Dog, Creators of the Uncharted series overlooked, (or ignored) possibly purposely one obvious detail —  I officially want to start the “Wet Hair Campaign”. Who’s with me?

What is the “Wet Hair” Campaign? Glad you asked.

It’s a campaign to get Naughty Dog to take the lead character of the series Nathan Drake and implement a hair reacting to water system (as seen in the pic above).  But Not just Drake’s hair, in Uncharted’s world period.

You see, one of things I applaud ND for is their outstanding attention to detail, a stickler if you will. From the very first Uncharted ND was the first that I’ve seen to allow a character to when contacted with water clothes behave properly and get wet. It even gets wet where it suppose to get wet; (very specific) that was my first taste of next-gen back then. Characters in Uncharted’s world don’t just get wet in places it doesn’t make sense, thus not predetermined. Step into a shallow creek his shirt doesn’t get wet, NO only the bottom part of his pants and not just the bottom part of his pants  the bottom part of his pants that’s actually submerged, everything else is dry.  (I’m almost sure to ).

In fact every developer should implement and stick with this system and add to that a “wet hair” system. So actually this is bigger than Uncharted it’s a game-wide  issue :). Can you imagine  if next-gen games still are not having their worlds’ behave properly to water? That would be a travesty! (shrieks).

But how does ND — a team so rooted in the very last detail have such a simple oversight? Hmmmm. Such as making a character’s hair get wet when fully immersed under water or when it’s raining (as examples). It almost takes away from the effort shown in the clothes department because the world is not consistent. It’s like playing in a world where you can break a wooden table but you can’t break a window, huh? Complete the “look”!

And just when I thought “Man! They probably just missed that or the engine won’t allow it” I got some interesting feedback from someone on the ND team. On my trip to a Sony Event back when ‘Uncharted 3’ was the “baby” they were pushing — so a few years back, I had the privilege to speak to the team member responsible for showing off the glorious “boat scene”  in Uncharted 3 ( I think it became a demo later). Ironically, he’s showing off a boat scene so that means water and not only that this demonstration was meant to highlight the dynamics of said water and how it rocks the boat in real-time, the effects and the like. But what about Drake? Doesn’t he deserve to be affected too?  And sure he stumbles and wobbles after each wave, and sure all his clothes gets wet, but then what about the hair? It’s doing all of this and we can’t get wet hair? Complete the “look” ND, complete the look.

So I suggested to him (my campaign unofficially started back then :))  (Paraphrasing) Me: ‘Hey, you know how you guys allow Drake’s clothes to get wet? Y’all should allow Drake’s hair to get wet too, that would be phenomenal’, to which he replied (paraphrasing) Developer: ‘We can’t mess up Drake’s trademark hair now can we? ( While doing a Patting motion above his head  as to simulate fixing his hair).

So I guess there you have it, even if the engine allows, even if it’s brought to their attention it may still not be realized because they want to protect their beloved poster child Drake; to have him always looking like the iconic figure he has become. To some degree I understand, protect your franchise but at the same time realistic is realistic for the sake of art get it done.

Also I don’t think it’ll degrade the franchise to see him in that light, JUST like his clothes, it will eventually dry and can take back shape . Heck! They even let snow stick to his hair or even sand, so maybe they are indeed doing this on purpose. But ND if you are willing to part with the iconic “half tuck” (shirt) then you should be fine with getting Drake’s hair wet.

HipHopgamer reported that the new Uncharted is suppose to rival the look of ‘Perfect Storm’ — the movie, from a graphical standpoint. Whether that’s true or not remains to be seen but…well, well, well would you look at that, the scene in the movie that I saw perfectly (no pun) shows how Naughty —  and Next gen developers period should attack their games from a weather and specifically rain/contact with water standpoint — again, how hair reacts to it.

Here’s the video of Perfect Storm: Concentrate on how George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg hair looks –affected by the rain of the storm (Now That’s what I’m talking about).

All in fun but let’s hit up Naughty Dog on Twitter (hashtag) #wethaircampaign #nextgen, Facebook, Forums and whatever other avenues to get them to dare change the look of their beloved character/s. Let’s get this campaign started, NEXT-GEN BABY!

Oh yeah,  I’ll leave you with a pic of Drake just to remind you what he looks like when his hair is not wet.

Who’s with me? CCU wants to hear from you [and your support too] . Tweet @Naughty_Dog #wethaircampaign