Ratchet & Clank Series Thread

[Jane]

I was able to get the two books Scholastic is making for the movie early. It's a long story.

Basically from what I've read, the movie seems alright, entertaining even. There are some changes I disagree with and a scene in particular that really pisses me off but it's pretty faithful. I do think the movie needed a much larger budget, a lot more faith and some more time though.

Now the books themselves are kind of lazily put together. The covers look awful and there are various typos throughout. They even reuse some old stock renders from ToD, when they could've just used some from the PS4 game or even made their own.

This kind of shows what I mean about the movie having not much faith put into it.

 

Edited February 12, 2016 by Teamwork

[Steel Sponge]

All I can say is, as someone who hasn't even played the games yet, I'm going to be looking forward to this movie.

[Jane]

50 minutes ago, Steel Sponge said:

All I can say is, as someone who hasn't even played the games yet, I'm going to be looking forward to this movie.

I hope it's received well by people who aren't fans of the games. I don't know how well the movie can perform just off of the fanbase alone.

[Jane]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/03/10/ratchet-clank-ps4-hands-on-living-the-pixar-dream

http://www.ign.com/videos/2016/03/10/ratchet-and-clank-ps4-opening-cinematic

http://www.gamespot.com/videos/ratchet-and-clank-demo-livestream/2300-6429963/

This looks absolutely fantastic and I can't wait to play the game. The opening cutscene is pretty funny too.

I'm watching some of the livestream now and it has a lot of the best planets from the original game.  Really glad Aridia is in there and that they brought back the hoverboard races.

EDIT: It's on Youtube now.

 

Edited March 10, 2016 by Teamwork

[Jane]

Reminds me of some of the concept art IG did for the original game.

Edited March 13, 2016 by Teamwork

[Jane]

 

[Jane]

The game/movie come out very soon. Who plans on getting both besides Termi and I?

I'm interested to see how many people here are into R&C.

[Jane]

I'm halfway through the game. It is absolutely incredible so far. Wanna see me stream it?

[Steel Sponge]

Knowing that I own the first Ratchet & Clank, I got around to playing it for a couple days, as well as this month. While I'm not too far into that game, I'm liking it.

[Jane]

4 hours ago, Steel Sponge said:

Knowing that I own the first Ratchet & Clank, I got around to playing it for a couple days, as well as this month. While I'm not too far into that game, I'm liking it.

You should get the PS4 re-imagining. It's a great launching point for newcomers.

[Jane]

4 hours ago, Steel Sponge said:

Knowing that I own the first Ratchet & Clank, I got around to playing it for a couple days, as well as this month. While I'm not too far into that game, I'm liking it.

You should get the PS4 re-imagining. It's a great launching point for newcomers.

[terminoob]

I'm actually really into the new game. I thought I was gonna be really ticked off at all the changes, but I'm mostly fine with them because of how the whole game is being framed as a Captain Qwark story. A lot of the levels are kept pretty much in tack, and they sort of combined bits and pieces of other ones to fit the new narrative (like, Qwark is there from the get-go so you don't find him on Rilgar and he doesn't send you to his training base to fight the Blargian Snagglebeast and instead he sends you on an undercover mission to that science base and you fight the Snagglebeast there instead of that weird giant crustacean alien). I'm pretty much fine with how they've rearranged the story. I really enjoy the little references they make to either the first game or the other games. The Protopet gets mentioned once off-handedly by like a news reporter or something and I thought that was so great. If they make new games (hopefully they will because this game proves how much fun the series still is) I'm interested to see what happens to the new characters and how the narrative gets changed from here on out. Like how the second game might be different with Ratchet as a Ranger instead of as someone who's seeking heroism because he loves the spotlight.

Unfortunately, I think the voice acting, which was a high-point in the other games, is really subpar in this. The characterization is pretty weird and it doesn't feel like any of the actors are putting any emotion behind the lines so none of the characters feel like they have any kind of discernible personality traits. Skid went from a hang-loose type of skater bro that loves life in the first game to this like... weird understated character that doesn't have any real enthusiasm about anything. Drek's new voice isn't anywhere near as menacing as his first voice actor and it just sounds like he's a whiny raspy little Napoleonic-type character that has no real presence or gravitas. Clank and Qwark are so far the only two characters I have no real complaints about - it'd be pretty hard to make Clank sound more monotone, and Qwark is just always a blast. The Plumber wasn't even that good and it really bummed me out.

Another weird thing is you don't buy anything from anyone in this game. In the first game you'd have to buy Infobots off of other characters for X amount of bolts, but here they just give them to you. I don't mind it because the progression of the game isn't dependent on how much money you have, but it just feels sort of wrong and always kind of catches me off guard.

Pretty neutral on the collectible cards as the new "thing" you have to find throughout the game. They give good bonuses and seeing the throwbacks to old characters (Angela's one of the cards which I thought was cool) is nice but it doesn't seem like there's too many of them and they aren't really that hard to find.

[Jane]

7 hours ago, terminoob said:

I'm actually really into the new game. I thought I was gonna be really ticked off at all the changes, but I'm mostly fine with them because of how the whole game is being framed as a Captain Qwark story. A lot of the levels are kept pretty much in tack, and they sort of combined bits and pieces of other ones to fit the new narrative (like, Qwark is there from the get-go so you don't find him on Rilgar and he doesn't send you to his training base to fight the Blargian Snagglebeast and instead he sends you on an undercover mission to that science base and you fight the Snagglebeast there instead of that weird giant crustacean alien). I'm pretty much fine with how they've rearranged the story. I really enjoy the little references they make to either the first game or the other games. The Protopet gets mentioned once off-handedly by like a news reporter or something and I thought that was so great. If they make new games (hopefully they will because this game proves how much fun the series still is) I'm interested to see what happens to the new characters and how the narrative gets changed from here on out. Like how the second game might be different with Ratchet as a Ranger instead of as someone who's seeking heroism because he loves the spotlight.

Unfortunately, I think the voice acting, which was a high-point in the other games, is really subpar in this. The characterization is pretty weird and it doesn't feel like any of the actors are putting any emotion behind the lines so none of the characters feel like they have any kind of discernible personality traits. Skid went from a hang-loose type of skater bro that loves life in the first game to this like... weird understated character that doesn't have any real enthusiasm about anything. Drek's new voice isn't anywhere near as menacing as his first voice actor and it just sounds like he's a whiny raspy little Napoleonic-type character that has no real presence or gravitas. Clank and Qwark are so far the only two characters I have no real complaints about - it'd be pretty hard to make Clank sound more monotone, and Qwark is just always a blast. The Plumber wasn't even that good and it really bummed me out.

Another weird thing is you don't buy anything from anyone in this game. In the first game you'd have to buy Infobots off of other characters for X amount of bolts, but here they just give them to you. I don't mind it because the progression of the game isn't dependent on how much money you have, but it just feels sort of wrong and always kind of catches me off guard.

Pretty neutral on the collectible cards as the new "thing" you have to find throughout the game. They give good bonuses and seeing the throwbacks to old characters (Angela's one of the cards which I thought was cool) is nice but it doesn't seem like there's too many of them and they aren't really that hard to find.

I pretty much agree with this but I am for one bothered by the lack of focus on Ratchet and Clank's relationship. There's no conflict at all whatsoever. I also feel it was a bit disingenuous to market this as a new game when it was just a heavily altered version of the first game to make it more in line with the film. I beat it within a day and a half because a lot of the level design is the same.

The final boss fight with Dr. Nefarious also has some really neat level design, although the game never explains what happens to him after the deplanetizer explodes (I guess that's up for interpretation, my bet's on him becoming a cyborg like he was in the other games)

[terminoob]

4 hours ago, Teamwork said:

I pretty much agree with this but I am for one bothered by the lack of focus on Ratchet and Clank's relationship. There's no conflict at all whatsoever. I also feel it was a bit disingenuous to market this as a new game when it was just a heavily altered version of the first game to make it more in line with the film. I beat it within a day and a half because a lot of the level design is the same.

The final boss fight with Dr. Nefarious also has some really neat level design, although the game never explains what happens to him after the deplanetizer explodes (I guess that's up for interpretation, my bet's on him becoming a cyborg like he was in the other games)

The no-conflict thing was another worry I had when it became apparent they were changing Ratchet's personality. There's nothing for them to argue over. They just go "great idea, pal!" and that's it. So far the only thing they could've argued over is when Ratchet wants to halo drop and Clank wants to gather intel, and they just brushed that off like it was no big deal.

It doesn't really feel like they marketed this as a new game at all. It says on the back of the box "based on the movie based on the game", and Qwark starts the game out by saying this is a story of his life based on the holo-film based on the vid-comic or whatever. They marketed it as a new Ratchet and Clank game for the PS4, which it is, but it never struck me as a totally-brand-new-one-of-a-kind-completely-new-story-game. I was expecting as much as this and I'm totally fine with it because it's just the old game but with the newer mechanics. I think the story is less interesting than the old game (again, Ratchet's new personality being a big contributor, but also with the decision to include the Galactic Rangers it makes the universe feel mostly protected and like Ratchet isn't necessary), but whatever. I can over look that because the gameplay is so fun.

[Jane]

1 minute ago, terminoob said:

The no-conflict thing was another worry I had when it became apparent they were changing Ratchet's personality. There's nothing for them to argue over. They just go "great idea, pal!" and that's it. So far the only thing they could've argued over is when Ratchet wants to halo drop and Clank wants to gather intel, and they just brushed that off like it was no big deal.

It doesn't really feel like they marketed this as a new game at all. It says on the back of the box "based on the movie based on the game", and Qwark starts the game out by saying this is a story of his life based on the holo-film based on the vid-comic or whatever. They marketed it as a new Ratchet and Clank game for the PS4, which it is, but it never struck me as a totally-brand-new-one-of-a-kind-completely-new-story-game. I was expecting as much as this and I'm totally fine with it because it's just the old game but with the newer mechanics. I think the story is less interesting than the old game (again, Ratchet's new personality being a big contributor, but also with the decision to include the Galactic Rangers it makes the universe feel mostly protected and like Ratchet isn't necessary), but whatever. I can over look that because the gameplay is so fun.

Insomniac on social media was saying that it was a brand new game that took elements of the original and it had three new planets, which was only vaguely true. But yeah, very pleased with the game aside from the lack of arenas.

[Jane]

http://digitalcinema.bydeluxe.com/site/dlxportal/docs/trailmix_usa_20160415_130231.pdf

New trailer tomorrow. I don't really know why they need it though. We've seen so much of it from the game and the marketing already.

And PS the Insomniac Museum in the game is really neat. Definitely worth getting all the gold bolts for.

[terminoob]

I'm really disappointed they made Nefarious the final villain. That seemed like a really poor choice. He was never in the forefront until he usurped Drek and his motivations were a lot less interesting. It felt really forced and I'm sort of tired of Insomniac forcing Nefarious to be the ultimate big bad of the series. He's a really great villain when he has a plan, and he had a plan throughout the Future series so it made sense for him to be the overarching villain for that, but this was just... I don't know. Bad and bland.

I'm also really disappointed in how strong the RYNO is in this game and how fast it levels up. I don't think I used anything else against Qwark or Nefarious. I loved in the first game when it was incredibly difficult to get the RYNO on your first play-through, or how in the other games where you could get them earlier but they were relatively balanced. This was just really easy to get and really overpowered.

Loved most everything else, though. Still an extremely fun game.

[Jane]

20 minutes ago, terminoob said:

I'm really disappointed they made Nefarious the final villain. That seemed like a really poor choice. He was never in the forefront until he usurped Drek and his motivations were a lot less interesting. It felt really forced and I'm sort of tired of Insomniac forcing Nefarious to be the ultimate big bad of the series. He's a really great villain when he has a plan, and he had a plan throughout the Future series so it made sense for him to be the overarching villain for that, but this was just... I don't know. Bad and bland.

I'm also really disappointed in how strong the RYNO is in this game and how fast it levels up. I don't think I used anything else against Qwark or Nefarious. I loved in the first game when it was incredibly difficult to get the RYNO on your first play-through, or how in the other games where you could get them earlier but they were relatively balanced. This was just really easy to get and really overpowered.

Loved most everything else, though. Still an extremely fun game.

Drek didn't seem too threatening in the game, He basically has his plan and then sends Victor out on Clank. He wasn't a very fleshed out villain and it was very forced when Nefarious turned him into a sheep. I feel like they only did that so Nefarious would have some set up for a sequel wherebhe's the main villain.

I also think the game was a little short. You defintely needed more ranger missions, so you care about them when Novalis is destroyed. It cojdl've been like UYA. It was also weird Nefarious wanted to destroy Umbris and thus the whole system, to frame the rangers, yet you never visit there.

I think there also needed to be a planet like Oltanis that shows you how big of a threat Drek is.

[terminoob]

Just now, Teamwork said:

Drek didn't seem too threatening in the game, He basically has his plan and then sends Victor out on Clank. He wasn't a very fleshed out villain and it was very forced when Nefarious turned him into a sheep. I feel like they only did that so Nefarious would have some set up for a sequel wherebhe's the main villain.

I also think the game was a little short. You defintely needed more ranger missions, so you care about them when Novalis is destroyed. It cojdl've been like UYA. It was also weird Nefarious wanted to destroy Umbris and thus the whole system, to frame the rangers, yet you never visit there.

I think there also needed to be a planet like Oltanis that shows you how big of a threat Drek is.

I think a huge problem with that was just Drek's voice. Like I said before, his original voice commanded so much respect. It was a great juxtaposition with his design. You have this super tiny alien guy that looks basically like a worm with limbs, but he has this booming voice and he knows exactly what he wants and how to get it and he's able to sway Qwark over to his side and that betrayal to me, as a kid, was so powerful and pretty much the turning point for the game/franchise because the original trilogy becomes so much about Qwark's story and his redemption. Here we just get Drek with this whiny voice who doesn't sound intelligent enough to know what he's doing and it becomes really unbelievable that Qwark would join him because he lacks so much of what he had in the original. Top it off with Nefarious just being there and having an even worse plan than Drek and it became totally disappointing. They turned him into such a bumbling idiot - like how in The Simpsons Mr. Burns becomes less and less menacing in the later seasons of the show and more and more of a joke.

We don't even need Nefarious as the villain in the sequels. We don't see him have a contempt for squishies because he's a squishy himself - what's going to make him decide "okay I hate this species now"? Just the fact that Ratchet defeated him? It made more sense for Qwark to be the one to beat him (like in the vid-comics) because he's an action hero-type and the only real parallel to a human we have in the series. Ratchet as a Lombax is just kind of... whatever. It'd feel sort of forced for Nefarious to hate all squishy life just because of Ratchet when he could just hate Ratchet (unless they decide to make Lawrence the ultimate mastermind and have him implant the idea in Nefarious' head, which would just hinder Nefarious).

I sort of agree with your other points. I don't think we needed more Ranger missions, but we definitely needed to get to know them more. Like they needed to be more by your side the whole time. Novalis being destroyed was like when Alderaan gets destroyed in Star Wars. It had enough emotional impact for me because it legitimized Drek as a villain (as much as he could be, anyway) but in Star Wars we cared that much more because we were following Leia and got to know her character and here it was like... oh okay that sucks. We also very much needed more planets or something to show Drek as a bigger threat, but I guess they didn't want to go that route because his downfall would've been that much more forced. At least with this it's still forced but not as bad because we never saw him as that big of a threat to begin with.

[Jane]

http://www.insomniacgames.com/community/showthread.php?74343-Ratchet-amp-Clank-(PS4)-feedback-thread-suggestions-for-future-titles

 

I made a thread here analyzing the game. The people there brought up some great points