As you’ve seen in the reviews of Uncharted 2 a few weeks ago, critics applauded both the single player and multi player portions of the game. But what about the little things that make Uncharted 2 a little special above the rest? Here’s a few tidbits off the top of my head, while trying to make it as spoiler-free as possible.

- In the first stealth mission, if you wait a few seconds, one of the guards whistle the Uncharted theme. Cute.

- In that same mission, the British guy you’re with, Flynn, gave Nate a tranquilizer gun since Nate doesn’t actually kill the guards. A few minutes after that, you’re prompted to do a melee attack on a guy when you’re on a ledge, resulting in him falling to his death. So much for that code of pacifism, eh? Or did he? Thanks to a few of the forum peep’s heads-up, it turns out he just fell into a river. And yes, I do need a bigger TV screen. How about that raise, Kichigai?

- Before a cutscene plays, the game presents you with the option of whether you wish to turn on subtitles or just skip the thing altogether. If only some games had that feature.

- It’s nice that Borneo’s set as a stage in the game, but why not include local mercenaries speaking in Melanau or in Iban? Was Naughty Dog feeling a little guilty when they presented gamers with a chance to gun down multi-ethnic mercenaries in the first game; so much to the point that the majority of the enemies you fight are white?

- “Homing” grenades. Well, sort of: when you target an enemy with your reticule, tapping the L2 lets you throw a grenade at where that enemy is at. Naturally, it only goes a certain distance, but it certainly beats fumbling with the SixAxis and aiming at a trajectory while people are gunning you down.

- Even in the event of danger, Nathan Drake still has time to take a dip in a hotel pool and make Marco Polo references.

- When you’re out of ammo for certain enclosed scenarios, the game is friendly enough to respawn the ammunition you need to get through those parts.

- You know those people who claim that Killzone 2 train stage actually affects your movement and aiming when in  reality it doesn’t? That design element is handled much better in Uncharted 2’s train stage. You would believe that a train swiveling will mess up your aiming.

- – Can anyone tell me how a guy who wears a military tanktop, combat pants, and a beret can take so many bullet shots and still wouldn’t die? Yet a consecutive few combo blows are all that takes to knock him down for good? To make up for it, the climatic battle you’ll eventually face makes sense from both a gameplay and narrative point of view.

- When you set your sights on something with the L1 button, you focus on the target and at the same time blur out the background, much like how a camera does when it’s aiming at a subject. I also wonder why other games don’t do this: it helps make your target stand out amidst the colorful graphic effects they’re showing off.

- Speaking of which, the game looks so damn beautiful, it’ll be a Turkish prison’s number one bitch. Just take a breather in one of the chapters and explore your surroundings; I know it took me a few minutes to look around before I resumed playing.

- The way the supernatural element of Uncharted 2 make its first non-interactive appearance. That was subtle and cool at the same time.

In a nutshell, Uncharted 2 is great, which makes it ripe to point out its small things, good or bad or just a bit bizarre. Got any of your own 2 cents you want to share on Uncharted 2?