The combat featured in the trailer - especially hand-to-hand stuff - looks incredible. How are you managing to give the player satisfying control in these moments, but with enough precision for effective, tactical combat choices?

Hennig: The hand-to-hand combat, like all of Drake’s moves, is contextually driven.  So the player can make tactical choices based on terrain, enemy position and facing, etc.  In other words, Drake will perform different attacks if the enemy is facing forward or away, if he’s standing near an edge, if he’s near a high or low wall, etc.  This not only provides a huge variety of combat outcomes, but enables the player to make predictive choices.

Uncharted has made few appearances since it was revealed this time last year - how far into development is the game, and have you a predicted release date?

Hennig: We’ve been working on Uncharted for a couple of years now, starting with a small concept team after we shipped Jak 3.  It’s hard to put a “percent complete” on the game at this point, but we’re targeting a holiday release.

Is Uncharted the start of a new Naughty Dog series - are you creating it with sequels in mind or already in the pipeline?
Absolutely - we created Uncharted with the old cliffhanger serials in mind, so this game is just the first in an ongoing series of adventures.

Will Uncharted feature unlockable "trophies" that players will be able to view and show off within Sony's Home service?

Hennig: Yes, since our game is about treasure hunting and heroic exploits, it’s a perfect fit for the personalization, content-sharing and “trophies” features of the PS3 Home community.

As a developer you're firmly associated with PlayStation, but are there any elements of Wii and Xbox 360 that has really excited you?

Hennig: I think the Wii is a really cool evolution in gaming - it’s so accessible, and it’s great how it’s awakened the “inner gamer” in so many people who may never have had an interest in games before.  And as a gamer, it’s exciting to see how the Xbox 360 has opened up the online aspect of console gaming.  But as a developer, I wouldn’t trade the PlayStation 3 for either of them.

In case you missed the truly stunning video released at Sony's US Gamer's Day earlier in the week click here to see it now and find out for yourself why it got us all excited about the PS3 again.