The original Project Big pitch video
This is an early animation test for Uncharted‘s Nathan Drake wherein he looks much more like a YouTube celebrity, a version of Sunset Overdrive‘s lead who missed the punk-by-way-of-Blink-182 phase, than the classically rugged look he ended up with. There’s also some footage where he looks more like early Max Payne.
It comes from a Verge article on “Project Big,” the early years of Uncharted. It says the early look is, “partially on Johnny Knoxville, with a comically emotive face like something in a Dreamworks film.”
You can see a lot of what makes Uncharted in the original pitch video, but also what changed. The game was lauded for its excellent water physics, but it was even better in the pitch. Also, apparently plenty people at Naughty Dog were upset — and quit — over the move away from cartoon action games to a game with humans and life-like violence.
Inside the original pitch for Uncharted [The Verge — Thanks, Wind]