Drake's Fortune is gold

Earlier this month, Naughty Dog copresident Evan Wells posted to Sony's PlayStation Blog with news that Uncharted: Drake's Fortune had entered beta testing. Describing Uncharted's progress, the developer executive said, "most everything is in the game, and we are just chasing down the last bugs and making a few minor balancing tweaks here and there."

Today, Naughty Dog again sidestepped the traditional press-release route to reveal that it had taken one more step in meeting Uncharted's November 20 US release date for the PlayStation 3. After a lengthy post extolling the virtues of Uncharted's artificial intelligence, Naughty Dog animation and AI programmer Christian Gyrling revealed that the game had wrapped up development.

"We went 'gold' last week," said Gyrling in the blog's comment section. "Right now the game is in other words 100 percent done and is currently going through the approval process."

Having established its reputation with the Jak and Daxter as well as Crash Bandicoot platformers, Naughty Dog is barking up a (slightly) more realistic tree with Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Taking cues from the classic Indiana Jones-style action adventures, the developer's next-generation debut sees an alleged heir to the famous Sir Francis Drake hunting for the legendary gold mine El Dorado. GameSpot's previous coverage has more on the PS3-exclusive title.