The Ratchet & Clank Topic - Rift Apart - RELEASE DATE: June 11th 2021

[Enesephus]

I've got some disappointing news, people. It has finally been confirmed that there will be no arena in Ratchet and Clank (PS4).

http://imgur.com/VGGDiJc

There'll also no armor vendors, but that doesn't bother me at all. It's cool to have hoverboard races back at long last, and, between the arena and the races, I think I'd go with the races, but I'm still a tad bummed there's no arena. I suppose it makes sense, since the original lacked arena battles, but Insomniac has stated that this game is pretty much how they would make Ratchet and Clank if they had the experience and technology they do now in 2002, so one would think that would include adding an arena since every major R&C game since then has had one, but, alas, not the case. It's not gonna ruin the game for me by any means (in fact, it probably won't even bother me at all once I actually play it, because, you know, I'm playing R&C PS4, yo!), but it is still a bit sad to hear.

Anyway, I thought I'd give y'all a heads up so you don't go in hoping for an arena and have to find out there isn't one while playing the game.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

On 4/2/2016 at 1:21 PM, BenderBR said:

Right, so I've now played and beaten both Tools of Destruction and A Crack in Time on normal and challenge playthroughs. I played the original trilogy last year via the PS3 Collection and Into The Nexus via PS Now. So I'm up to speed.

ToD is pretty much what you expect from a standard R&C game. Loads of planets to explore. Some well hidden gold bolts and holo-plans. Didn't blow my mind, certainly not fussed about the story. The Clank mini-stages (especially the first one) suck because it's easy to die and if you do die you have to go all the way back to the beginning. There are also some occasions in the normal gameplay which felt unfair due to lack of checkpoints which is fixed in ACiT. The final boss is okay, nothing amazing. Those enemies near the end which appear, disappear and then move to a different area are a pain the ass. I needed youtube to find some of the holo-plans. The space shooting scenes felt kind of generic-been done before, but some of the locations in space look great, like when you fly into the black hole or when you fly really close to that sun. To it's credit it's got plenty of weapons to chose from.

ACiT IMO is a fantastic game. I love everything about it. The graphics are superb, as is the presentation. ACiT has the best story. It's very interesting in that Ratchet is separated from Clank for most of the game and yet it doesn't hurt the gameplay. I like how creative they became to compensate. Ratchet gets the hover boots and the speed ramps etc. Ratchet having a little bit of combat and those clever time-shift puzzles.

The games structure is very good. I love how it starts; Ratchet and Qwark running around a planet whilst listening to Qwark's self commentary is hilarious. It also introduces the theme that the planet (I forget it's name) has been affect by time. Qwark's nurse outfit is also really funny. The game or course first starts in the Great Clock. Having to fly through space from planet to planet - without the need for a cutscene and those generic space shooting stages (like in Tools of Destruction) - makes the game feel  more immersive, more connected to the story. I also like the design of the mini-planets (which I believe first feature in Going Commando - sort of), where you collect Zoni and Gold bolts, and how you can zoom out and look round the planet to see where you need to go. They feature good platforming challenges. No too complicated or too long that they overstay their welcome. The other space missions okay. The change up in gameplay more than makes up for the less big planets to explore.

I like how the story progresses. The return of Dr. Nefarious from Up the Arsenal, Flint Vorselon (including the optional confrontation with him at the end) and of course General Alister Azimuth who makes for an interesting character, who much like Ratchet just wants to see his race again and I think he was a good choice to make him the final boss fight instead of Nefarious. It brings the story to a satisfying conclusion.

The weapons are good, although I think ToD has more variety? I found the Ryno V to be slightly better-more accurate than the IV. ACIT does a better job in explaining how to use weapons and gadgets than ToD.

I didn't bother getting all gold bolts in ToD, and I needed youtube to find some of the holo-plans, whereas I had no trouble in getting the holo-plans in ACiT and managed to get all the gold bolts without resulting to youtube and or cheating by bypassing the puzzles for the gold bolts in Clank's time shift puzzles which are fucking hard. Took me a while to beat them, but it's fun re-recording the different coloured Clank's as you work out how to beat the puzzle, and boy how tight on time the gold bolt puzzle ones are! Best Clank gameplay in the series. The Great Clock is an interesting design. I like how they don't over-use the theme of time travel. There are only two planets where Ratchet has to travel back in time to change history ,and it was very touching near the end in how Clank travels back in time by six minutes in order to save Ratchet.

I've got every PSN trophy for ACiT with the exception of the Trophy for beating the game on hard (I beat it on medium, then on challenge mode). If I set the difficulty to hard (or hardcore) and then replay the game again on challenge mode and beat it, will this unlock the hard mode trophy or will I have start a brand new game and beat it on hard? I hope it's the former because you can blast through Challenge mode in like 3 to 4 hours.

The other PSN trophies are pretty straightforward. Athough, the "Samaritan (all space missions completed)" trophy didn't unlock until I randomly killed an enemy on one of the small planets (I had already done all missions). The "My Blaster Runs Really, Really Hot" trophy was stupidly hard. Whilst the arcade shooter is a nice mini-game, the 10,000 point tally to unlock is extremely unfair. In the end I had to change the difficulty setting to hard in order to get the required points unlock the trophy

A Crack in Time is a lot of fun and a game I will definitely come back to. Perhaps that's why I also prefer Going Commando over the R&C 1&3 because it changes up the gameplay better.

I've just bought a second-hand copy of Nexus. Gonna replay it as I've forgotten a lot about Nexus. If I recall correctly it's a slightly shorter game, more similar to ToD in terms of gameplay. I remember the platforming sequences in space (especially near the start) which are really cool.

Edit: Nexus came with the option to download Quest for Booty for free. Nice! I've never played that game.

Quote

To be honest, I did not find any sections in the game overly frustrating. Just play this difficulty level on your first runthrough and you'll unlock the Casual and Medium difficulty trophies as well. Be sure to purchase the 3 armors (which will reduce the damage you receive by 50%) and strafe with L2 as you fire so you are more mobile. If you come to an area with many enemies and keep getting killed, just try different gadgets. The most helpful in those situations are the grenades, groovitron ball and the grenades which freeze your enemies.

***NEVER change the difficulty during your Hard playthrough otherwise you will not get the trophy***

NOTE: This trophy cannot be obtained in the Challenge Mode playthrough

You have to do a clean playthrough.

[TheOcelot]

16 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

You have to do a clean playthrough.

Thanks, yeah I started a hard mode playthrough a few days ago. About 75% done.

In the meantime I've unlocked the platinum trophy in Nexus.

]

Once I've platted A Crack in Time I'm gonna go back to the original game (which I've got on the PS3 collection). Hopefully I've still got my original save file. I never did get all gold bolts or all the good weapons. Might even go for the plat-got enough time until R&C PS4 is released on 20 April (in Europe).

11 hours ago, Hyper Enesephus said:

I've got some disappointing news, people. It has finally been confirmed that there will be no arena in Ratchet and Clank (PS4).

There'll also no armor vendors,

Wow, I forgot there was no armor vendors in the original game! Not having the arena isn't a big deal for me, but I do like their inclusion in the other games. I think the arenas first appeared in Going Commando?

The hoverboard races were fun. You had to do pretty much perfect runs to win them.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Just now, BenderBR said:

Thanks, yeah I started a hard mode playthrough a few days ago. About 75% done.

In the meantime I've unlocked the platinum trophy in Nexus.

]

Once I've platted A Crack in Time I'm gonna go back to the original game (which I've got on the PS3 collection). Hopefully I've still got my original save file. I never did get all gold bolts or all the good weapons. Might even go for the plat-got enough time until R&C PS4 is released on 20 April (in Europe).

Wow, I forgot there was no armor vendors in the original game! Not having the arena isn't a big deal for me, but I do like their inclusion in the other games. I think the arenas first appeared in Going Commando?

The hoverboard races were fun. You had to do pretty much perfect runs to win them.

I'm really disappointed. I wasn't the biggest fan of the races, and practically loved doing the arenas due to their survival aspects, and the huge payouts you get for doing them.

[TheOcelot]

Finished A Crack in Time on Hard and unlocked the Platinum trophy. Did it without the RynoV for a challenge!

Now to replay R&C1.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

FUCK IDOL MINDS AND THEY'RE ABSOLUTE MESS THEY CALL A FUNCTIONING PORT.

I fucking hated what these cunts did to Ratchet Gladiator HD, it being a completely fucked and rushed port of one of my favourite Ratchet games. The only good thing being I got it free due to having gotten QForce day of release, and therefore being apart of Sony's offer for them taking too long to release the PS Vita version, so Sony sent me a code to download the game free. I played through it's awful glitches, it's idiotic framerate, and overall laziness, and left it for a while.

Cut forward to today, I have all the platinums in Ratchet games, except Deadlocked HD and All 4 One, so I decided to start getting all Skill Points. I was about 10 skill points away from all of them, except what happens? Upon one of my loading the saves, the game believes I'm on another planet, and on another challenge than the one I'm currently doing. I end up dying, and the game freezes on me (I couldn't bring up the XMB or anything). I turn the PS3 off, and what does it do? It corrupts the save.

You know what's worse? Idol Minds were perfectly aware of the glitch. You know how I know? Generally if a save corrupts on PS3, the game won't load the save at all, and it won't have a title (It'll usually say something along the lines of "Corrupted Data 1"). But this? It had a name of a random challenge rather than the one I was playing on, and it had the title of "DIDNT WERK" (Yes, it was spelled like that), and when I loaded the data, it had the infamous Ratchet infinite load glitch. So obviously, they knew about the fucking glitch, and decided not to bother fixing it because they're completely lazy bastards.

[Toa Axis]

I will be the bearer of good news: http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/ratchet-clank

 

[TheOcelot]

All positive reviews so far. Good to see.

I've pre-ordered my copy. Now just got to wait another nine days....

[shdowhunt60]

Game runs at a locked 30fps.

[CrashRatchetFan]

2 hours ago, shdowhunt60 said:

Game runs at a locked 30fps.

Honestly, the framerate doesn't bother me in the slightest. I think it looks pretty good at 30fps, makes it more like an animated feature. 

[shdowhunt60]

7 minutes ago, CrashRatchetFan said:

Honestly, the framerate doesn't bother me in the slightest. I think it looks pretty good at 30fps, makes it more like an animated feature. 

*cringe*

Yeah, sorry. No. 60fps or bust for me.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Just now, shdowhunt60 said:

*cringe*

Yeah, sorry. No. 60fps or bust for me.

I don't particularly care about 60fps. I want what's best for the game, and that's a steady framerate. I would much prefer having a locked 30fps rather than the game trying to force itself to 60fps, and then jumping all other the place.

And was the cringe really necessary? 

[shdowhunt60]

Just now, Ryannumber1gamer said:

I don't particularly care about 60fps. I want what's best for the game, and that's a steady framerate. I would much prefer having a locked 30fps rather than the game trying to force itself to 60fps, and then jumping all other the place.

And was the cringe really necessary? 

Because the cinematic thing was literally one of the excuses Ubisoft was using years ago to justify poor performance with Assassin's Creed Unity

http://www.technobuffalo.com/2014/10/09/assassins-creed-unity-framerate-30fps-more-cinematic/

(nevermind that the real reason ended up being that the game was coded like complete ass)

And Cinema was limited to 24fps not by choice, but by sheer technological limitations imposed on the film industry 1930's.

And frankly, I will prefer higher framerates over visual fidelity any day. I think it frankly gives the game far more vibrancy and life, while the 30fps makes it look flat and lifeless. This goes especially for games that are fast pace and fluid.

[CrashRatchetFan]

21 minutes ago, shdowhunt60 said:

*cringe*

Yeah, sorry. No. 60fps or bust for me.

Christ, it was just an opinion. No need to get defensive over it. 

[Jango]

Maybe on the PS4.5 it runs at 60 FPS? Think you should wait untill then, pal. You've played games that ran at 30 FPS your whole life, and you're gonna complain just because a dozen of games on the market (if so!) run at 60 FPS and this one doesn't? Don't be such a baby.

[CrashRatchetFan]

Exactly. You don't hear anyone complaining about the framerate in the PS1 games. You're just not gonna buy it because it won't run as smooth? That's kinda pathetic.

[MegasonicZX]

Yeah, 60 would be great but a locked 30 is still really nice.

[Dejimon11]

So to anybody who has gotten the game how is it?

[Nix]

1 hour ago, Dejimon11 said:

So to anybody who has gotten the game how is it?

So far it's fantastic.  30fps be damned, this game plays extremely well and looks absolutely breathtaking.  The only problem I have is that it uses clips from the movie for some of the cutscenes... which isn't really a bad thing, it's just a little jarring.

[Conando]

Yeah, that's the bit that's off to me just because the art style is just a tad different for the game. 

[SenEDDtor Missile]

Watched all of the cutscenes for Ratchet and clank PS4. My impressions?

Eh, I dunno. On the one hand, I can appreciate how much better it looks, that Ratchet isn't fixated on being a dick, and how they incorporated elements from newer Ratchet and Clank games into it. On the other hand, it also feels lacking. The characters with a few exceptions here and there aren't as well acted and the in-game cutscenes are really stilted animation wise. Additionally, while Ratchet being less of a dick is a good thing, it also feels like a lot of the characters have less...character to them. They feel much less lively and there are some elements (like Clank's "mom" not being in the game) that were changed in ways I'm not really sure work very well.

[Tornado]

The art style in general seems much less appealing.

[TheOcelot]

Been replaying Ratchet & Clank (PS2). Fortunately my old save file is intact. It's a good game despite the slower pace. Whist I'm not bothered about going for the Platinum, I've now got the RYNO and all gold weapons, apart from the Tesla core. I need to get another 35,000 bolts to get it. I know most of the remaining trophies are skills points, so perhaps I'll go for them at some point.

I also purchased All 4 one. Gonna give it a go.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

Honestly, I think the movie's best chance movie wise is that it's a solid movie, and gets good word of mouth. Because the advertising was not well done. I have high hope for the script since it's the game writers at least

[Toa Axis]

30 minutes ago, Mando-Whirl-Wind said:

Honestly, I think the movie's best chance movie wise is that it's a solid movie, and gets good word of mouth. Because the advertising was not well done. I have high hope for the script since it's the game writers at least

We have to hope. I'm really surprised that they didn't market it harder. The cost of a full length CG movie and a big budget game of the same name can't be cheap.

It could just be that they're hoping both the film and the game have legs. IDK, I'm not a marketing expert.