https://youtu.be/19osozYgrxM
Video gaming has trends that wax and wane and ebb and flow like anything else. A decade or so back, it was the first person shooters (the Dooms, the Quakes, the Duke Nukems). Currently, we’re in the middle of the Sandbox trend, where every other game has to have the sandboxy mechanic where you run around an open world map and do the same 4 or 5 missions against progressively tougher otherwise identical foes (the Grand Theft Autos, the Assassin’s Creeds, the Infamouses). (Of course, now, we’ve discovered the joys of mixing these two great tastes that taste great together and making games like the Skyrims, the Fallouts, and the FarCrys.)
Well, back when the big PC trend was First Person Shooters, the consoles were doing their thing with Action Platformers. Mario 64 was, of course, the perfect one but it had no shortage of “me too”s. The Jak and Daxters, the Crash Bandicoots, the Spyros, the Banjo Kazooies. Well, the greatest of all of these was Ratchet and Clank.
Ratchet and Clank took the basic template found in 3D platforming (jumping from this place to that one, combat in the middle of a swarm of monsters, boss fights that required strafing, some light RPG elements) and mixed in some of the more well-done variants: rail grinding, magnaboots that allowed you to run on the sides of buildings, levels on the backs of moving trains, or on painfully small planets (that still managed earthlike gravity), or swimming through pipes, or swinging Tarzan-like across bottomless chasms.
The real kicker was the addition of so very many different weapons to choose from as you were running around. Better than that, the different weapons felt different from each other. You had the old standbys of the straightforward blaster, the rocket launcher, and the sniper rifle but, on top of those old friends, you had stuff like the Bouncer (which would spit out big mines that would bounce toward your enemies) or the Rift Inducer (which would create a mini black hole that would suck up your enemies) or the Visibomb Launcher which would shoot a rocket and the game would switch perspective so that you were able to drive the rocket and get it to turn and rise and fall and it would then become a guided missile and you were the guide) and the suction gun that would suck up your enemies and then said enemies would become the missiles that you could shoot at other enemies and…
Well, there were a lot of weapons and they all felt different from each other. It was a masterpiece of a game.
Well, as happens, games ebbed and flowed and waxed and waned and 3D platformers went into different directions. The Prince of Persias went one way, Dark Souls went another. The happy fun cartoony platformer more or less disappeared entirely.
Which is why it’s nice that Playstation 4 is re-releasing a remastered Ratchet and Clank. This game, being the first one, suffers from the creators not exactly knowing what they were capable of quite yet. The game was delightful and fun and you couldn’t wait for the sequel and each of which was better than the last for a good long while there. The problem with each being better than the last was that attempts to go back and replay the earlier ones ran into problems of the graphics looking dated (“I don’t remember the graphics being this bad the first time…”) and the missions that were so very difficult the first time you played are now missions that you know like the back of your hand.
Well, I’m pretty sure that I’ll still know the missions like the back of my hand, but it will be good to revisit an old friend who looks as good today as I remember it looking through the rose colored glasses of memory.
So… what are you playing?
(Picture is “Untitled” by our very own Will Truman. Used with permission.)
Pillars of eternity. Last weekend I played sword coast legends. It was a bit of a disappointment. No dual classing, and I couldn’t just reload my last save to see what happens if I had chosen differently. Very little replayability. Maybe that was because I played it on normal. Now I’,m playing pillars on hard and its interesting. I actually have to be smart in how I approach enemies and avoid some until I’m more powerful. No mowing them down easilyReport
@murali
I couldn’t get into Pillars of Eternity – something about it seemed flat to me, and I’m not a fan of the Infinity Engine combat in general.Report
Factorio. It has trains. It has belts. It has factories. It has robots. I have a tank with a cannon that I use to blow up bug spawners. I’m in hog heaven.Report
I kinda liked Redneck Rampage (go figure), where you could pick up the crowbar and beat the guy at the liquor store in the head with it.
Also, Earthworm Jim.Report
The only Ratchet and Clank I’ve played is All-4-One, which I guess some purists hate, but my kids and I think is a lot of fun. They are also excited about an upcoming movie I guess?Report
I think it’s more that the purists don’t really have 3 other people with whom to play.Report
You can play 1-4 players!
Actually, speaking of that, a minor irritation that maybe someone here can help with.
They have the Lego Movie Game (despite how much fun both the movie and the game are, typing that phrase makes me wince), and we played a good chunk of the game 2-player (around 20% completed or so). BUT, at one point we dropped one player out, and my son saved the game – and now it appears we cannot re-add the second player at that point, which means to play two-player it appears we need to return to a MUCH earlier save point (around 2%) and do a bunch of levels all over again.
Is this for sure the case, or is there some other way to re-add a second player at (or slightly beyond) the 20% point?Report
Is there an account synced with the second controller?Report
I think so? We never had an issue at any prior point in the game just adding a second player at any time, and when I go back the the (much earlier) save point, I can add a second player/controller no problem. Just not at this point. It’s really frustrating and AFAICT it has to do with the fact that at the last save, there was only one player/controller playing.Report
I’m still playing through Dragon Age: Inquisiton. I’m glad I left Fighter to my 3rd playthrough – I find it less fun that the rogue and mage.
I’m also eagerly devouring everything Paradox are putting out about Stellaris – just a month to go now.Report
also coming out tuesday – dark souls 3. oh hell and damn yes.Report
Not a new game, but I got LittleBigPlanet for the kids, and they seem to be enjoying it. I am too, truth be told; it’s like being in a adorable, non-menacing Brothers Quay movie or something.Report
The movie is coming out on the 29th.Report
I’m replaying Mass Effect. For all the genuine improvements in the shooter elements in later games, I still wish they had retained the first game’s heat mechanics at least in part.Report
“Reloading is fun”.
Direct quote from one of the designers.
I have to say that other than that, ME2 was a practically flawless game. ME3 had problems, but it’s multiplayer was ridiculously fun. It took ages for me to try it, because I was convinced it was going to be a BS, poorly thought-out, bolted on attachment because “everyone has to have multiplayer”.
Nope. Serious fun.Report
SMDH at that quote. The mechanics aren’t bad in the sequels, but they’re so generic.
ME2 definitely has the best singleplayer overall, though.Report
XCOM 2. I’m playing in Ironman mode for pretty much the first time, and it’s been a harsh lesson on just how much I depend on save-scumming. I apparently suck at this game! 🙂Report