Ratchet Gets Multiplayer, Jak Trilogy Wrapped Up

Thanks to GameSpot for its preview of Insomniac's PS2 title Ratchet And Clank: Up Your Arsenal and a similar hands-on look at Naughty Dog's PS2 game Jak 3, as Sony's big platform-action titles for Xmas 2004 get shown in detail for the first time. Notable changes for Ratchet And Clank 3 include "a fully loaded multiplayer game as well, for online or offline play. The broadband-only mode will support up to eight players, with voice support via the PlayStation 2's USB headset" - the preview calls it "a nice bit of addictive madness that had some surprising echoes of Battlefield 1942." Contrastingly, Jak 3 apparently "does a lot of what Jak II did in terms of gameplay, in that it takes the bulk of its predecessor's mechanics and builds out" although we're assured the title "is being tweaked to address player concerns with Jak II's gameplay."

Comments

Hummm. A thrid Jak.

[WarlockD]

Whats going to be the theme this time? How can you go from "Happy"(Jak) to "Angst"(Jak II) to what?

Not to say I didn't like Jak II, but what kind of sequel does this make?

Jak 3, being like Jak 2

[WasterDave]

For those who haven't been following, this is bad news. Jak 1 was spectacular, from start to finished. Jak 2 had some good bits, but they were surrounded by interminable crap - driving around the city and crappy f*cking "shoot the crap out of the baddies" stage. I can't see 3 being any better, and I can't see me buying it either.

FFS. Stick to one genre. GTA is GTA. Platform games are platfom games. Shoot em ups are shoot em ups. By mixing genres all you end up with is something to piss off everybody.

BTW. Prince of Persia - sands of time suffers from the enormously. Quite why someone would take such a wonderful platformer and interlace it with a shitty zombie game, I do not know.

Dave

Re:Jak 3, being like Jak 2

[brienv]

FFS. Stick to one genre. GTA is GTA. Platform games are platfom games. Shoot em ups are shoot em ups. By mixing genres all you end up with is something to piss off everybody.

I tried Jak2 and really didn't like it but I actually thought the shooter/platformer combination worked beautifully in Ratchet 2. In fact, I'd have to say it stands as one of my favorite platformers.

Brien

Re:Jak 3, being like Jak 2

[Anonymous Coward]

You're right, Prince of Persia was such a horrible flop and failure as a platformer... It wasn't any fun to play at all...

Oh what? It was incredibly fun and successful at bringing back oldschool platforming in 3D?

What? It sold bazillions of copies and won tons of awards?

This is especially considering that Prince of Persia is such a no-name franchise today, couple with the fact that the last 3D one bombed horribly, and that probably means it had some legitimate worth.
I don't know what your gripe is with that game, but it was neither bogged down by endless cutscenes nor plagued with bugs and untested gameplay like so many of todays 3D titles. We should really enjoy it when games like these come along.

Re:Jak 3, being like Jak 2

[cgranade]

What? Mixing genres leads to pissing people off, and never to anything good? Huh? So, I guess you didn't like Metroid Prime (to take a recent example), probably not FF:CC, nor Mario Sunshine... hell, even GTA is a genre-crosser, and you seem to like it! Noted, there are some horrible examples of genre-mixing done wrong, but without those brave enough to try, we'd still be stuck with Mario and Duck Hunt. Please, at least try to recognize that we need that sort of creativity in our games.

Re:Jak 3, being like Jak 2

[WasterDave]

Please, at least try to recognize that we need that sort of creativity in our games.

Creativity? That's different. Blindly dropping "driving round the city because it's cool" as a way of getting between the interesting bits of Jak 2 was not, even remotely, creative. They just copied.

Never played Metroid, nor Mario Sunshine - both, I suspect, to my detriment. Very tempted by a game cube, it has to be said ... but we are then looking at a "second" console.

Cheers,
Dave

Re:Jak 3, being like Jak 2

[Anonymous Coward]

It sold bazillions of copies

No.

Re:Jak 3, being like Jak 2

[antin]

Well it sold at least 2 million (which is better than many games):

http://pc.ign.com/articles/489/489838p1.html

And Ubi liked the sales figures enough that they are currently working on a sequel...

Re:Jak 3, being like Jak 2

[Anonymous Coward]

Then why is everybody complaining about how poorly PoP sold? Ubi setting expectations too high?

Re:Jak 3, being like Jak 2

[Anonymous Coward]

Pretty much it didn't hit the streets like a blockbuster. It slowly built up steam as word spread that it was really good.

Re:Jak 3, being like Jak 2

[Anonymous Coward]

I did not like Jak 2 as well. Rented from Blockbuster after getting rave reviews from IGN (9.6 i think) so I decided to give it a try.

What a waste of time and money.

Re:Jak 3, being like Jak 2

[Anonymous Coward]

I think Ubisoft does have sky-high expectations. They've really complained about a lot of their games not selling enough; games that did more than reasonably well... I think they're completely cracked.

Re:Video games are for little boys.

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do you think it's called Slashdot Games, then?

Lame subtitle

[antin]

Is it just me, or have they given the new Ratchet a lame, immature and extremely childish subtitle? I really hope it isn't an indication of the type of humor you can find in the game.

Re:Lame subtitle

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, "Going commando" was rather lame, immature and extremely childish, so this new title follows in suit.

too much

[Sv-Manowar]

naughty dog are lost in the realms of 5-10 age group aimed games nowdays, admittedly Crash Bandicoot and Jack 1 were brilliant for every as a novelty value, but i think they should take their games to a higher age group audience