Some of the first details on the Uncharted series' third installment, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, have begun to trickle out. Entertainment Weekly spent some time at the developer Naughty Dog's offices recently and came away with some updates on how the third part is taking shape.

The next iteration of the series will see its hero, Nathan Drake, exploring the Arabian Peninsula and the Rub'al Khali Desert in search of a legendary lost city called Iram of the Pillars. The plot will draw upon the experiences of real-life historical figure, British Navy officer, and part-time pirate Sir Francis Drake, who is Nathan Drake's ancestor in the Uncharted canon. The story is also inspired by the pre-military days of T.E. Lawrence, who was an archaeologist before he was Lawrence of Arabia.

The developers note that they expect developing the largely organic setting that is absent of buildings and other easily rendered objects as an interesting challenge. Being that the setting of the game will consist of ancient structures, it will also be in a continual state of collapse.

Naughty Dog said they intend for the game to be character driven—they will make even more use of motion-capture techniques and now have their own dedicated studio for it. Likewise, the mechanics of the game will be getting a few tweaks, such as enhanced backward climbing and the ability to fight multiple targets at one time. Multiplayer and online co-op will be getting more attention as well.

Naughty Dog intends for Uncharted 3 to be an "interactive cinematic experience"—appropriate, since a feature film based on the series is due to start shooting within the year. This is only the first step in the developer's push to turn Uncharted into a full-fledged media brand, not unlike Star Wars.

The first trailer for the game will air during the Spike Videogame Awards on December 11, and may carry an announcement of the game's release date with it. Barring that, EW speculates that it will drop sometime next fall. Be sure to read the entire article; there are some great details on what's already a highly anticipated game.