Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
PlayStation (Games) Entertainment Games

Sony Announces New Ratchet, Jak, Sly Cooper 37

Posted by simoniker from the many-platformers-pimping-on-the-keys dept.
Thanks to Yahoo for reprinting a press release revealing third versions of the Jak & Daxter and Ratchet & Clank series for PlayStation 2 are due out Fall 2004. The press release notes the "upcoming sequels will continue to push the boundaries as both teams incorporate revolutionary gameplay elements", although with only 12 months between iterations, either fast work or simultaneous development teams seem needed to really push the envelope. Elsewhere, a sneak peek at the next Official PlayStation Magazine reveals a follow-up to another Sony-published title, in the form of Sly Cooper 2: Band of Thieves, the sequel to the underselling, but critically acclaimed late 2002 PS2 platformer.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Sony Announces New Ratchet, Jak, Sly Cooper More

Sony Announces New Ratchet, Jak, Sly Cooper

Comments Filter:

  • Another Sequel (Score:2, Insightful)

    by devilsadvoc8 ( 548238 )
    I am not singling Sony out for this but I am getting tired of sequels. Every game has several versions sequels now (don't even get me started on FF). Movies are the same and the remakes of older movies is similar to a sequel.

    Where is the original thought? Is the only way gamecoders can make money is to reuse a theme and add some bells and whistles, repackage and call it Dungeon Seige 2 or Unreal 5 or Warcraft 3. I understand that these franchises are popular and some of them are really quite good but

    • What do you mean, don't get me started on FF? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Inoshiro ( 71693 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @01:43PM (#8375146) Homepage
      With the except of X and X-2, no Final Fantasy game has ever had a sequal. Each game that SquareEnix (and previously Squaresoft) put out under the name was a completely different RPG sharing only some character elements (moogles and chocobos, a character named Cid, etc).

      To put it in perspective, Suikoden has more sequels than Final Fantasy as of Suikoden 3. Square just happened to label their projects worked on by their lead designers as "Final Fantasy" sort of like a label for a particular kind of RPG that Square's people felt were representitive of their best work.

      So how, how in a talk about sequels, can you bag on FF, which has only 1 sequel to its name? At least go, "and don't get me started on X" in a series that is nothing but direct sequels, like the Mario games, or Madden football.
      • Even the Mario games have had multiple series. You have 2d mario and 3d mario. Can you really compare the two? Anyway, you're exactly right on Final Fantasy. It's more like a development team than anything. They go out of their way to give each game a different feel. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But I'm not going to complain about X-2 myself. I'm not the biggest fan of the game system, but X's background story (The fall of the Yevon church) was more than interesting enough to deserve a follow
      • Square just happened to label their projects worked on by their lead designers as "Final Fantasy" sort of like a label for a particular kind of RPG that Square's people felt were representitive of their best work.

        Two great games (among others) by square never recieved the "Final Fantasy" title: Rad Racer and Chrono Trigger. Albeit, Rad Racer predates Final Fantasy and was not an RPG (but it was their first "3D" game if you had the glasses).

        Chrono Trigger, on the other hand was arguably the finest game

    • Re:Another Sequel (Score:5, Interesting)

      by CashCarSTAR ( 548853 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @01:48PM (#8375208)
      On the other hand, why reinvent the wheel?

      Game design is not about completly redoing everything each time out. It's about making small twists, little innovations that make a game more fun. At the same time, some point of reference is a good thing to make a game easier to get in to and learn how to play.

      In the case of Ratchet and Clank:Going Commando, they added a ton of new weapons, a few extra game modes (a cool race mode and an even cooler space sim like Wing Commander). The story is NOT just a rehash either. Some of the cutscenes are downright hilarious.

      The truth is that there's just not that many simple rehashes in the video game market, outside of expansion packs, of course. As technology has improved, the ability to innovate has gone up, and designers have chosen to make use of that ability, which is a very good thing.

      • In the case of Ratchet and Clank:Going Commando, they added a ton of new weapons, a few extra game modes (a cool race mode and an even cooler space sim like Wing Commander). The story is NOT just a rehash either. Some of the cutscenes are downright hilarious.
        They also added an in-joke about a possible sequal.
        [guy from the first game] well see you two in about a year.
        [clank]What do you suppose he means by that???
        [ratchet] shrugs in puzzlement.

        I used the bug to get into the museum, and the ammount of th

    • Re:Another Sequel (Score:3, Insightful)

      by StocDred ( 691816 )
      Ok, ok, fair point. Now, have YOU done anything about it? Have you played Fatal Frame? Beyond Good & Evil? Adventures of Cookies & Cream? Wario Ware? Ico? Conker's Bad Fur Day? Blast Corps? Pokemon Snap? Jet Grind Radio? No One Can Stop Mr. Domino? Mr. Mosquito? Animal Crossing? Disaster Report? Karaoke Revolution? Dungeon Keeper? Deception? All of those are "original" to some degree, either in gameplay or character or theme.

      The best way to prompt more original games is to buy more original games.

      • Have you played:

        Fatal Frame? No
        Beyond Good & Evil? Have it - unopened present
        Adventures of Cookies & Cream? No
        Wario Ware? On demo GBA - would buy if I had a GBA
        Ico? YES!!!
        Conker's Bad Fur Day? Yes
        Blast Corps? Yes
        Pokemon Snap? No
        Jet Grind Radio? No
        No One Can Stop Mr. Domino? No
        Mr. Mosquito? Yes
        Animal Crossing? On demo GC - would consider buying
        Disaster Report? Have it - unopened present
        Karaoke Revolution? Not yet - getting for Wife's b-day
        Dungeon Keeper? No
        Deception?

        • While we're talking underappreciated games, has anyone played Culdcept?

          It's a great game that fuses Monopoly and Magic: The Gathering into a game that's really good.

          Definitely not mainstream and it was only released in December, yet it's hard to find anywhere now.
    • You know, Ratchet and Clank 2 improved on the formula so much that I really appreciated the sequel. Considering how good the original was, that was an achievement. I don't really care if it is a sequel or a new game, as long as it is good. Similarly, I think some games (Sly Cooper) may only succeed when a sequel comes out. The original was a very well designed game (I finished it and both Ratchet and Clank games: rarely do I have the attention span to do so) that didn't sell as well as it deserved.

      I like i

    • Development Engine (Score:3, Interesting)

      by cgenman ( 325138 )
      A game needs a great engine to succeed. The re-use of an existing engine towards that purpose is more common than most people believe and, quite frankly, necessary with the increasing complexity of games these days. Writing a 3d library from scratch is about as difficult as writing a physics engine from scratch. Why not use existing resources and add to them the features you never got a chance to have the first time around?

      The same thing goes for theme. Warcraft 3 dumped the engine from Warcraft 2 in a

  • Overabundance? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by onebeaz ( 756060 )
    I know this lists only 3 titles, but doesn't anyone think there is an overabundance of platformers like these? True, those above are popular titles, but think of all the junk they are competing with. Are they actually all that good?
    • I enjoyed both Ratchet & Clank games, although Going Commando was more like an expansion pack than a new game. I also enjoyed Jack and Daxter. Jak II I felt was destroyed by the GTA style mission thing, the driving was irritating and the in city missions really sucked.

      That said none of the above are games I'd buy a system for. I bought the PS2 for GTA, hated it, and haven't really found anything I think is amazing for that system yet.

      In my ideal game world Microsoft buys Nintendo, and then I can jus

  • 2 part expect, 1 part X factor (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MMaestro ( 585010 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @01:10PM (#8374771)
    Jak and Daxter as well as Ratchet and Clank were both expect to recieve sequels. They already had one before and they were both expect, so why not try it again? Expected.

    But Sly Cooper? Never sold well, didn't have much marketing, and was certainly not noticed in the mainstream. Where did the idea for a sequel for this come from?

    • I'll tell you where the idea came from. Someone realized that it was a great game and maybe with some marketting a sequel could do well.

      That or maybe someone really pitched a great improvement and just needed a solid base to start with.

      I gotta rent that game again, never beat it.
    • The sequel was a result of the fact that it got a lot of good word-of-mouth, due to the excellent, yet simple (enough for kids, but challenging still) gameplay. I saw practically no reviews for the game, mainstream or otherwise, with less than stellar marks, the only complaint being the shortness of the game. It was on an NPR segment at one point for pre-holiday game sales or something, too. I think it was really the word of mouth that got the game to Greatest Hits status as well as the well-deserved seq

  • Well.. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by hookedup ( 630460 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @01:17PM (#8374850)
    One can only hope the commercials for this will be as creative and memorable as the ratchet and clank commercials.

  • Sly Rocks (Score:2, Insightful)

    by CosmicDreams ( 23020 )
    My wife loves this game. It's the first game she's played on a modern console. It's gone a long way to have her see my PS2 as more than a DVD player and huge timewaster. She has told me that if the sequel is good she intends to buy it.

    The cartoonish style of Sly Cooper really appeals to her. She thinks the game is funny and cute.

  • Jak II was a disappointment (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Xian97 ( 714198 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @01:58PM (#8375326)
    compared to the original. I for one didn't like the darker theme and the addition of GTA style carjackings. I hope they bring back the style of Jak and Daxter for the next sequel. I completed the original 2 times, but got bored about halfway through Jak II.

    On the other hand, Ratchet and Clank Going Commando was improved in almost every way - different puzzle types, the ability to import weapons from R&C, and more Giant Clank missions to name a few of the many improvements. I just completed it two weekends ago and I am ready and waiting for R&C3.
  • I get this feeling that Sony will have these exclusive franchises run into the ground before too long, just like they did with Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon in years gone by, when those franchises were exclusive to Sony's consoles.

    On the topic of Jak & Daxter 3, I lost a degree of respect for the series' developer when they were interviewed prior to the release of the first Jak & Daxter, and not-too-subtly hinted that there were going to be more installments in the series (it gave the impre

  • I enjoyed Ratchet & Clank (though parts were a bit difficult), and, then, bought one of the Spyro games. One possible reason they can be quick with the sequals is that they are really all the same game with new characters and story. Spyro and R&C had most of the same gameplay and basic plot (collect gems/bolts, visit several worlds, beat a few bosses, do some skateboarding).

  • Sly Cooper - The most unappreciated Great game eve (Score:3, Informative)

    by pudge_lightyear ( 313465 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @03:07PM (#8376244) Homepage
    Well... the subject line may be a bit much, but Sly Cooper definitely deserved more attention than it got. I love all three of these series, but Sly has got to be the most creative, the most polished, the most interesting, and the most original. Hopefully, Sony won't change much of the formula as a result of this games limited sucess.

    Again, both Jaks and both Ratchets are great games, but I'm not sure that I'd call either original. Sly actually adds a great deal of new ideas to the Super Mario genre.
    • I agree with you for the most part, all though there were some issues with Sly that I really hope they fix in the sequel. For one thing, it could stand to have far fewer mini-games. Hopefully this time they'll stay away from mini-games and keep polishing the game's core gameplay, maybe adding features like implementing shadows as part of gameplay. Oh yeah, and the sequel should have more Bentley. Much more Bentley.

  • Apparently, publishers listen to the critics (Score:5, Insightful)

    by WebGangsta ( 717475 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @03:07PM (#8376248)
    I was really glad that Sly Cooper made it to the "Greatest Hits" collection. I'm thrilled that a sequel is coming, as Sly was not only a reasonably well-done game (with a beautifully rendered graphic look), but it was different from the typical platformer in that you weren't trying to kill everything in sight. Plus, there was the speed mode. It really is a game deserving of all the critics praise, and I'm glad to see that game sales weren't a deciding factor in making a sequel. (Besides, we're all waiting for Kingdom Hearts 2 as well...)

    Jak1 was great. I thought Jak2 was the sell-out and unnecessary sequel. While J2 was a better game technology-wise and play-wise (read "longer"), it didn't really server any purpose in advancing the title.

    On the other hand, I'm looking forward to seeing what R&C3 would do, after seeing the huge improvements made in the Commando title. I don't see a need for a 4th title in either series on the PS2 platform... although I would guess that if #3 is wildly successful that they'll try and sell #4 with the rollout of the PS3.

    • Well, we can hope that what happened is that the publishers were listening to the critics and didn't choose to just bump Sly Cooper ahead so they could ruin it in the name of marketability.

      I'm extremely disappointed in the sheer number of sequels coming out for all platforms; it's like there's no originality anymore.

  • If Sony is handing out sequels... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by superultra ( 670002 ) on Tuesday February 24, 2004 @05:32PM (#8378060) Homepage
    ...why not toss one ICO's way?
  • It doesn't really seem like it. Why does the announcement of a few platformer sequels rate its own item?

Slashdot Top Deals

For God's sake, stop researching for a while and begin to think!

Close