PS3 First Impressions and R&C Love
So, after a year of contemplation, price changes and shoddy content I finally obtained a Playstation 3. A deal crossed my plate that I just couldn't pass up -- Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and Folklore for free, with Warhawk and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune still on the way. So, that's well over $200 worth of games that I also want to play. The Best Buy rebate also threw in 6 Blu Ray movies, a few of which are actually worth watching (Spiderman 3, Swordfish). I bought the 40 gig, $400 console.
There are a few things I really liked immediately. The wireless controller charges when I'm not playing and I found that I actually enjoyed how light it was. The WiFi inside the console is much appreciated, especially the fact that I didn't need to spend $100 like I did for the 360. The dashboard browser is slick. I don't prefer it or the 360 one for that matter -- both are good implementations.
I didn't care for the fact that I had to spend $20 Saturday morning on HD cables. The 360 ships with them, so should the "HD Era" Playstation 3. I also don't like that a lot of the flagship titles don't go to a full 1080p. Ratchet and Clank tops off at 720p. It looks incredible, but it should go all the way. All of my 360 games do (or at least claim to) and it's an expectation I have now.
I plowed through Ratchet and Clank this weekend. It's always been a favorite series of mine and the new one is more great stuff. It's funny, fully of personality and the graphics are just rich. They look fantastic. No popping, no rough edges -- the entire game looks smooth and pretty. They added a lot more slick FX and cool background noise, like buildings collapsing and huge space ships. The game runs at a silky smooth 60 fps. With the art direction and awesome tech, I have to say it's probably one of the best looking games I've seen. To sweeten the deal, Insomniac focuses the camera more, especially in segments like rail grinding. You look where they want you to look and some really epic segments emerge.
I don't think they changed the gameplay up at all, save a few pretty slick motion control segments. That's fine, because this was a really tight, refined R&C game. Halo jumps were cool and I loved flying around with the wings. I hated the Marble Madness style decrypting mini-game, but you don't win them all. The weapon upgrades are really well done and now that I'm finished with my first playthrough of the game, I can focus on using the weapons I've already finished upgrading. Gold Bolts are also calling to me.
I didn't care for the starship segments, mostly because I had to control flying and aiming independently. Like Starfox, they should have both been controlled with the left analog.
I'd love to see co-op built for the next Ratchet and Clank. It's about time Ratchet finds another Lombax. It's also time for Sony to take a jab at Microsoft's online throne with an online co-op game. I think the variety of weapons and gameplay situations in the franchise are great for co-op, so I'm looking forward to it. I'm also curious to see if they release any content over the Playstation Network.
Hopefully I'll get Warhawk and Uncharted tomorrow to play over the week.
(posted by grant at 11/19/2007)
