Ratchet and Clank Future Review

So, since I rejoined Gamefly, I've been presented with something that I haven't had too much of in the past, but that I'm enjoying pretty well. I have more games to play than I have time to play them. This is a relatively new thing with the PS3 and I think it's an indication of things to come. Here is what I'm currently trying to play: Guitar Hero 3 (from Gamefly), Warhawk ( I just bought it a couple weeks ago), Lego Star Wars - the Complete Saga (I pre-ordered this a couple months ago), the new Uncharted demo (just came out yesterday and it's going to be awesome), I just finished Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, and I've got Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare being shipped to me right now. Again, great problem to have, but I really wished I had a few more hours in the day/

So, since I'm flying through these games pretty much, I thought I'd write a review for a few of them. I just finished and returned Ratchet & Clank Future so I think I'll start there. I've played two previous Ratchet and Clank games before this one. The original for PS2 (played on my PS3 - I love backward compatibility), and R&C: Size Matters on the PSP. Each game was a ton of fun for a lot of reasons and as such, I had high expectations for the "next-gen" R&C. Developed by Insomniac, this is their second game on the PS3 platform, and the polish was very evident in the graphics (even on my ghetto 20 year old 25 inch screen), the gameplay, and the game as a whole. R&C Future is a platformer, action, adventure, space, minigame game. There really is a ton of fun in here to be had and unlike some other reviewers, I found this to be a great way to enjoy it. The story, while not very deep, was good, and the voice acting was very good.

But, how was it to play? Well, I had a great time playing. Never did I get bored with destroying boxes, or solving puzzles, or really with anything the game had to offer. The controls were very intuitive, and the level of difficulty wasn't too hard. I really enjoyed this game, and may rent it again to go back and do things I didn't do before. The game has a great amount of replay that I didn't get to check out, because once I finished it, I sent it back. I would like to check out challenge mode, and some of the other areas I didn't explore before. Maybe once we get into another rut with games coming out, I'll have that chance. (Although as of this writing, I have 23 games in my Gamefly Queue).

So, all in all, I loved this game and would definitely recommend it. The only issues I saw were that sometimes, ammo would sort of morph into the surroundings and you couldn't pick it up. Other than that, just a fantasically fun game. 4.5 out of 5

A Little Embarassing...

So, This is probably a little embarassing, but I need to admit something, and where else to admit this than the world wide web (do people ever really call it that anymore??) So here goes... I'm a much better Guitar Hero player than I am an actual guitarist. There it is. I said it. I've been playing guitar for 15 years, and although I've never had any formal instruction, I think I do pretty well as a rhythm guitarist. Ask me to play lead, and I'll tell you what a good guitarist I am. :>

Anyway, I picked up Guitar Hero II for the PS2 a couple months ago after making fun of the game for months. Not only did I like it, but I became a little addicted to it. (Even though I'm not good enough to play it on Hard or even attempt Expert) It was much cooler to actually be able to play some of the songs that I had liked to listen to. The game turned out to be much more fun that I had thought it would be and recently, I picked up Guitar Hero III. It's a lot of fun, but I don't think I'll be going the additional route by getting Rock Band ($170 is too much for me to play a game).

So, all in all, Guitar Hero II rocks. I enjoyed the track selection for the most part, although there were a lot of songs I just didn't like. No one is ever going to be 100% pleased by a track selection. Highlights include Message In a Bottle, Them Bones, Crazy on You, Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight, and of course Free Bird. I loved that Trogdor got included as a bonus song, but I didn't recognize any of the other bonus songs. I wish I had the opportunity to play with someone else as the game does let you have one person play the guitar while one plays bass. I think that would be fun (but I don't want to buy another controller). All in all I give GH2 a 4 out of 5 stars.

I'm looking forward to finishing GH3 and then getting the original and GH Rocks the 80's. Who knows, maybe I'll go get Rock Band after all.

Playstation 3 is Awesome... and getting better

So, earlier this year, I sold some stuff on eBay, and combined that with some birthday money in March (which tells you how long it's been since I've posted something here - which leaves me wondering if anyone will ever read this...) to get a Playstation 3. I also got Resistance: Fall of Man, and a couple PS2 games that I never got to play. Over the last seven months, I've occasionally wondered if I should have got the 360 instead (especially with Halo 3 coming out), but as you can guess from the title, I'm happy with my choice. There are many out there who have already proclaimed the PS3 is dead and will finish last, and I can understand a lot of their points, but I disagree... quite strongly.

First, the multimedia capabilities of the PS3 are amazing. Consider I can do the following with one machine: Look at every picture I have shared on my PC, insert a memory card from my camera and look at the pictures, browse all music shared on my PC, play a music CD, rip a music CD, play an MP3 CD/DVD, Browse all videos shared on my PC, watch videos downloaded from the PSN store, watch DVD's (Upscaled if I had an HDTV), watch Blu-Ray movies, and before I sold my PSP (more on that later), do all of those things except the DVD and Blu Ray remotely anywhere in the world with a WiFi connection.

But, First and foremost, this is a game console, which brings me to my next point. The games I've played so far are great. I'm just ready for there to be more of them. The lack of games (and certainly over the time I've had the console this has been very evident) has been very concerning and has led me many times to wonder if I made the wrong choice. I currently own Resistance: Fall of Man, and Warhawk (I hope to put reviews up of these soon) and just traded in Rainbow Six: Vegas. I've also just restarted my Gamefly membership, so I hope to finish Ninja Gaiden Sigma soon, and play some more PS3 games. As the games really start to flow (and I mean quality games), I think I'll become more and more comfortable with my choice. There are a number of games that are coming out within the next few months, that I'm dying to play. (I've already preordered Lego Star Wars the complete Saga. that will be the fourth Lego Star Wars game I've owned at one time or another) But I like having games that I can't play anywhere else, and I'll be getting those too. Some exclusives I'm ready to play: Ratchet & Clank Future, Haze, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, KillZone 2, and of course, LittleBigPlanet, which I think is unlike anything else I've ever seen.

Finally are the extras with the PS3 that we haven't seen yet. The Playstation Store is supposed to be getting an overhaul soon. The firmware keeps getting updated which adds more and more functionality. Music handling is supposed to be improved soon, although that hasn't been explained yet. My plan is to get a new PSP again so I can enjoy the Remote Play functionality again (I never got to really use that.) The Playstation Eye, and possible IPTV or DVR functionality can make this a true multimedia hub that will play games that are simply amazing. It really is the whole package...





And Sony... I'll take my payment now....

Talking some Sports

So, on the day of Super Bowl XLI, my good friend Chris is starting a Sports-only blog called 110 Percent. The catch is he is going to have other authors eventually post on the blog as well. Sort of like a really delayed Sports Talk Radio thing. I think this sounds like a ton of fun and I can't wait to get started. That will leave this blog to be about stuff other than sports.

PJ

Super Bowl XLI

So, tomorrow is Super Bowl XLI and the Colts are playing the Bears. (You probably already knew that). Everyone has made their picks so I guess I should do the same. Just for fun, I'm going to have my wife and kids pick also. I just think it would be interesting to see who is right. (It will probably be them). Before I ask them, I am going to pick the Colts by 4. If I were to guess an exact score it would be something like 31-24 (With all of the Bears points coming off of turnovers...

Annabelle has told me that the Bears will beat the Colts "in the jungle climbing on a tree like a Koala Bear by 1 and 2 points". So, I'm guessing that means the Bears by 3.

Carter said the Colts, but wouldn't give me a number. (He actually didn't say Colts, he just picked the hand I said was the Colts).

Karen said Bears by 10. She apparently has no faith in Peyton Manning. Actually, I don't think she knows he plays on the Colts. Come to think of it, I don't think she knows anyone on either team. Let's move on.

So those are our picks. Guys vs. Girls with absolutely nothing (except my pride) on the line.

Later,
PJ

PSP Backgrounds - New Site

So, I'm really into my PSP. It is an awesome little multimedia device and I pretty much try never to go too far without it. Since I like to customize stuff, and the PSP will let you have your own backgrounds, I've created some that I think are cool. Here is a site: http://mysite.verizon.net/pjandkaren that has all the ones I've created (or altered). I used to post them on the Official Playstation forums, but some posts got a little too revealing so I don't post there now.

Here's one example of the backgrounds I've done:


I hope you will check them out.

Back to the Old Home

So, we're about to get rid of our site pjandkaren.com. Truth is, we never have time to update it and the prices of hosting are about to go up, so it makes sense to call it a day and move on. My plan is to still update stuff in my blog and maybe post some pictures as well so I can still feel like I'm out there. I'm not sure how that will turn out as I often have trouble remembering to blog, but we'll see.

As part of that, I'm moving the blog back to blogspot. It's a nice site and works well, and really, I was always using it, just publishing to our site. Now it'll go to here instead. Well, That's it for now.

PJ