Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is one of the year's biggest games, and Sony is throwing in some added marketing muscle by teaming with Pepsi to provide PlayStation fans a chance to "Win the Ultimate UNCHARTED Adventure."

That is, provided you live in select Western and Midwestern states.

Indeed, for whatever reason, this contest is only open to residents of Alaska, Hawaii, California, Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky.

No explanation is given (that we can see) for the peculiar stipulation, but if you don't live in, say, North Carolina, Texas, or Florida, then there are some neat prizes to be won by visiting participating retailers and buying a specially-marked 12-pack of Pepsi product.

Prizes include:

• 1 of 20 Grand prize packages: a 120GB PlayStation 3 system, a copy of UNCHARTED: Drake's Fortune, and a copy of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves
• 1 of 200 Second prize packages: a copy of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves
• 1 of 100,000 downloads of the UNCHARTED: Eye of Indra motion comic number 1 and 2.

The contest has already begun, and reaches its conclusion on December 15th. And if you win one of the comics, then you can redeem the code for that here.

Living in Toronto, I'm used to being excluded from contests being run on the other side of the lake, but I'm not sure I've ever seen one that is so... selective in what U.S. states are able to participate. Sure, there are the "continental United States" contests, but ironically, this one allows Alaskans and Hawaiians to participate. And then there are locally-run contests, but this one is simply bizarre.