Uncharted 2 "impossible" on Xbox 360

Naughty Dog co-president Christophe Balestra believes the technical demands of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves make the game "impossible" to recreate, like-for-like, on Xbox 360.

"I guarantee that this game couldn't be working on Xbox 360. It would be impossible. I'm 100 per cent sure of this," Balestra told ars technica.

"It's the combination of Blu-ray and hard drive," he explained, revealing that "every single bit" of the 25GB disc had been filled.

"You can play the entire game without loading. We don't require an install. We're doing all the post-processing effects on the SPUs [Synergistic Processing Units]. The quality of the depth of field we have, you can't do that on the Xbox.

"We've invested a lot of time maximising the power of the machine," added Balestra. "That's our job, to make the PS3 shine."

It's not the first time Naughty Dog has talked-up technical prowess of Uncharted 2 or the power of the PS3 itself. The Sony-owned studio has said the sequel uses all of the machine's power, whereas the first game - a poster-child for PS3 - used only "30 to 40 per cent" of its capabilities.

Naughty Dog also houses Sony Worldwide Studio's ICE Team, which concentrates on making PS3 tools and engines to power first-party games.

It's no surprise that Balestra said Naughty Dog is "very open" to sharing advancements with third-party PS3 developers as well as closer siblings - like God of War III developer Sony Santa Monica - then. "That's part of our job," he offered.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune remains one of the best-looking games on PlayStation 3, and the sequel looks even better.

Our resident graphics-geek, Digital Foundry, explores in-depth the "generational leap" made in the sequel. And there are plenty of videos on our Uncharted: Drake's Fortune gamepage to consider as evidence.