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.