If the recent trailer convinced you that Nathan Drake’s next outing was going to be a distinctly chilly affair these new shots show that the action’s as hot as ever.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves follows our hero’s quest to locate some of legendary explorer Marco Polo’s ships - a journey that apparently takes in the tropics as well as the icy wastelands you may have seen Drake trudging across. This sequel also introduces a new female sidekick for Drake to banter with - Chloe Frazer as voiced by Farscape’s Claudia Black.

More promising than any of that, developers Naught Dog reckon that Uncharted 2 makes use of almost 100% of the Playstation 3’s formidable processing power - its predecessor utilised just 30% in comparison. Hopefully that indicates quality in prospect rather than sloppy programming…

Sony has yet to confirm a release date for this PS3 exclusive, although online retailers have it down for the back end of October 09, which seems likely. While we wait for official confirmation these latest shots show that the sneaky/shooty gameplay remains fully intact. And that’s definitely a good thing.